Excerpt from Christian Fellowship, or the Church Member's Guide
Be it remembered, That on the third day of April, A.D. 1829, in the fifty-third year of the Independence of the United States of America, Lincoln Edmawds, of said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim 8 proprietors, in the words following, to wit:
"Christian Fellowship, or The Church Members Guide. By J.A. James, A.M., Birmingham, England. 'And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.' Eph. ii. 20. Edited by J. O. Choules, A. M., Pastor of the Second Baptist Church, Newport, R.I."
In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled, An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints."
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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