Excerpt from Christian Charity Explained: Or the Influence of Religion Upon Temper Stated; In an Exposition of the Thirteenth Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians
The Author often expressed his surprise that no other book had been exclusively devoted to the praise and inculcation of Christian Love, and he derived much pleasure from his having in any degree supplied the deficiency. The subject has always had this disadvantage, that the practice of any one writing upon it must be consistent with his book, or it would, as far as he was known, have little other effect than that of a satire on himself. Those who really knew our Author have ever testified that his life exemplified and enforced his precepts. The Editor recollects the volume being once quoted against him, but it was by a man towards whom he had ever practised forbearance and forgiveness. The Author was much delighted that his work was approved by two readers more than ordinarily qualified to judge of it: one of them well acquainted with life as having sustained a high part in it, and the other as having keenly mused in solitude on the ways and feelings of men; they were the Chief Justice Bushe and the Poet Wordsworth. The latter introduced himself to the Author after a service at Carrs Lane, saying, that for a long time it had been one of his cherished wishes to see and speak to the Author of Christian Charity.
John Angell James was an English Nonconformist clergyman and writer, born at Blandford Forum. After seven years apprenticeship to a linen-draper in Poole, Dorset, he decided to become a preacher, and in 1802 he went to David Bogue's training institution at Gosport in Hampshire. A year and a half later, on a visit to Birmingham, his preaching was so highly esteemed by the congregation of Carrs Lane Independent chapel that they invited him to exercise his ministry amongst them; he settled there in 1805, and was ordained in May 1806. For several years his success as a preacher was comparatively small; but he became suddenly popular in about 1814, and began to attract large crowds. At the same time his religious writings, the best known of which are The Anxious Inquirer and An Earnest Ministry, acquired a wide circulation.
He was one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance and of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. Municipal interests appealed strongly to him, and he was also for many years chairman of Spring Hill (afterwards Mansfield) College. He was also an ardent slavery abolitionist.
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