seven o'clock
The seed that was twelve years in planting had taken root and Pilgrim 's Progress became known and John Bunyan stood without the prison gates to preach and pray at will , to keep on extending that influence that lives to-day . And for once the King did not go to sleep when , through caprice or curiosity , he went to hear him preach . `` When Bunyan went to preach in London , if there was but one day 's notice , the meeting house was crowded to overflowing . Twelve hundred people would be found collected before seven o'clock on a dark winter 's morning to hear a lecture from him . In Zoar St. Southwark , his church was sometimes so crowded that he had to be lifted to the pulpit stairs over the congregation 's heads . '' He strove not for popularity , as could be seen in the one little circumstance when `` a friend complimented him , after service , on ` the sweet sermon ' which he had delivered . ` You need not remind me of that , ' he said .