Jabez

JABEZ BURNS
Jabez Burns for many years an eminent minister of the English General Baptists, was born in Oldham, Lancashire, Dec 18, 1805. In his youth he connected himself with the Methodists, but some years later he was baptized, and became associated with the General Baptists. He was engaged for some years in lecturing and preaching in Scotland, mainly in connection with the temperance movement, of which throughout life he was an able and conspicuous leader. In June 1835, he was called to the pastorate of the church in London. Here for upwards of forty years he labored with distinguished success. He also wrote and published largely, his best-known works being "Helps to Students and Lay Preachers" and "Manuals for Devotionals Use and Family Worship." He visited this country in 1847 as a delegate from the General Baptist Association to the Free-Will Baptist Triennial Conference, and also in 1872. His "Retrospect of a Forty Years' Ministry," published in 1875, gives an interesting description of the modern progress of religion, temperance and philanthropic enterprises. In recognition of his merits as a religious writer, and particularly of the character of his "Pulpit Cyclopaedia," the Wesleyan University of Connecticut conferred upon him the degree of D.D. in 1846, and in 1872 Bates College, Me., added the degree of LL.D. He was very efficient to the end of his life, and as a preacher and public speaker he was highly esteemed. He died Jan. 31, 1876, aged seventy.