THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 343
JOHN PYER. 17901859.
THIS earnest minister began his labours as a tent missionary, and will always be remembered for his usefulness in that capacity. In the year 1814, the desire for increased Christian effort and for religious revival found one expression in the erection of a tent for religious services at Whitchurch, near Bristol. The tent was taken from place to place, and numerous services were held in it at times when the masses could be gathered together. John Pyer saw in the tent-work just the opening for religious usefulness he had long been desiring. Having lost his father while in childhood, he had been, to the grief of his mother, a way ward youth ; but at length had been brought to religious decision by the labours of the Wesleyans, who had made him a local preacher. Having preached often in the tent, he at length gave up his business, to devote himself entirely to tent-preaching and the connected evangelistic work.
After six years successful itinerancy the tent ceased to be the property of the Methodist body, and the work was carried on separately. In 1820, the tent was being used amongst the masses of London; and, in 1821, it was removed to Manchester. In Manchester, Mr. Pyer remained nine years, built a chapel, and had his doctrinal views so far modified, as to lead him to join the Congregational denomination. After this, Mr. Pyer was for four years an agent of the London Christian Instruction Society, and the tent was often put in requisition.
His surviving daughter, Mrs. Kate Russell, has written an interesting memoir of her father, 1865. Mr. Pyer was the subject of a life-long trial in the mental affliction of his wife. He married at the age of twenty-three, and his wife s affliction came on a few years after. Trial and exhausting labour rendered it at length necessary for Mr. Pyer to seek a less laborious position. In 1834, he became the Congregational pastor at South Molton ; in 1838,
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