The Wesleyan Methodist Pulpit in Malvern Sermons Preached at the Opening Services of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, in 1866   By: Knowles King

Transcribed from the 1866 John Snow and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

THE WESLEYAN METHODIST PULPIT IN MALVERN.

SERMONS PREACHED AT THE OPENING SERVICES OF THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CHAPEL, IN 1866, AT MALVERN, BY REV. W. M. PUNSHON, REV. W. ARTHUR, REV. J. H. JAMES, REV. C. PREST, REV. J. PRIESTLEY, REV. G. SMITH, REV. G. WOOD. With a Preface by Knowles King.

LONDON: JOHN SNOW & CO., IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW; WARREN HALL & CO., CAMDEN ROAD. 1866.

TO RALPH BARNES GRINDROD, OF MALVERN, M.D., LL.D., F.L.S., F.R.G.S., F.G.S., &c., &c., This Volume of Sermons IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, IN THANKFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE LEARNED DOCTOR'S GREAT GIFT OF HEALING; BUT MORE ESPECIALLY OF HIS LARGE CHARITY, AND HIGH CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.

PREFACE.

The Sermons which make up this volume were preached at Malvern, in 1866, at, and immediately after, the opening services of the Wesleyan Chapel there.

This beautiful and commodious building owes its erection to the piety and energy of the Rev. W. M. PUNSHON, who, in the year 1862, proposed by Lectures, and otherwise, to raise a fund for building Wesleyan Chapels in places of summer resort.

This proposition was well responded to by Mr. PUNSHON'S friends, and the Wesleyan public, and forty thousand pounds have already been expended in the erection of new Chapels at Ilfracombe, Dawlish, the Lizard, Brighton, Weymouth, Eastbourne, Walmer, Folkestone, Bournemouth, Blackpool, Lancing, Llandudus, Rhyl, Saltburn, Bray, Matlock, Malvern , Keswick, Bowness, and the Isle of Wight. Others are in progress.

These Sermons are published with the consent of the several preachers, but it must be stated that they were preached without any view to publication, and now appear in print, nearly word for word, as they were delivered, extempore, from the pulpit. Some of them, indeed, have never been committed to writing by the authors; for instance, of the beautiful sermon of Mr. ARTHUR, "not a word" was written by him either before or since its delivery.

This will account for the fact that the subjects are not treated with any degree of scientific exactness, as essays might require; but in a manner intended to suggest useful thoughts to serious audiences.

Although myself of the Church of England, I have had many opportunities, during the past thirty five years, of hearing discourses from Wesleyan ministers, and making personal acquaintance with them; and I believe the following Sermons are a fair specimen of the Wesleyan teaching in this country.