new site. After some delay a site on Holborn Viaduct was secured for 25,000l., and the Poultry Chapel sold for 50,200l. Parker meanwhile carried on his ministry in Cannon Street hall (Sunday mornings), Exeter Hall (Sunday evenings), and Albion Chapel (Thursdays). His newly built chapel, called the City Temple, was opened on 19 May 1874, when the lord mayor attended in state; Dean Stanley spoke at the collation which followed.
To the end of his days Parker's popularity never waned, nor did his resources fail. At his Thursday services clergymen irrespective of denomination were constantly seen. William Henry Fremantle (dean of Ripon) and Hugh Reginald Haweis [q. v. Suppl. II] would have preached at these services but were inhibited; a notable address on preaching was given by Gladstone (22 March 1877) after Parker's discourse. In 1880 Parker came forward as parliamentary candidate for the City of London, with a programme which included disestablishment and the suppression of the liquor traffic; on the advice of nonconformist friends the candidature was withdrawn. In 1884, and again in 1901, he was chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. Visiting Edinburgh in February 1887, he delivered an address on preaching, and preached in various churches, including St. Giles'. His fifth voyage to America was made in the following August, and on 4 Oct. he delivered at Brooklyn the panegyric of Henry Ward Beecher (d. 8 March 1887), whom he was thought to resemble in gifts, and whose place in America some expected him to fill. In July and August 1888 he conducted a 'rural mission' in Scotland; in May 1894 he addressed the general assembly of the Free Church in Edinburgh, against some phases of the 'higher criticism.' In the following November he protested against the reporting of sermons as a form of literary piracy. 'The Times' of 18 May 1896 contains his letter in favour of 'education, free, compulsory and secular.' In March 1902 he was made president of the National Free Church council. After a long illness in that year he resumed preaching in September. His letter to 'The Times,' 'A Generation in a City Pulpit,' appeared on 22 Sept.; his last sermon was preached on 28 Sept.; he died at Hampstead on 28 Nov. 1902, and was buried in the Hampstead cemetery.
At the City Temple his portrait, painted in 1894 by Robert Gibb, R.S.A., is in the vestry, as well as a bust by C. B. Birch, A.R.A. (1883), in the entrance. Another bust was executed by John Adams-Acton [q. V. Suppl. II]. A cartoon portrait by ’Ape' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1884.
Parker married (1) on 15 Nov. 1851 Ann Nesbitt (d. 1863) of Horsley Hills; (2) on 22 Dec. 1864 Emma Jane (d. 26 Jan. 1899), daughter of Andrew Common, banker, of Sunderland. He had no issue.
Both by its strength and its freshness Parker's pulpit work impressed some of the best judges in his time. Holyoake, who commends his fairness in controversy, says he 'had a will of adamant and a soul of fire.' Further, he was a master in the arts of advertisement, and in the power of investing old themes with a novelty which startled and arrested. His writings, embodying much of his own experience, are racy in style and imbued with strong sense. He was a constant contributor to periodicals, beginning with the 'Homilist,' edited by David Thomas (1813–94) [q. v.]; he himself brought out various periodicals, the 'Congregational Economist' (1858), the 'Cavendish Church Pulpit,' 'Our Own,' the 'Pulpit Analyst' (1866–1870), the 'City Temple' (1869–73), the 'Fountain,' and the 'Christian Chronicle.'
His chief publication was 'The People's Bible,' 25 vols., 1885–1895. Other of his works were: 1. 'Six Chapters on Secularism,' 1854. 2. 'Helps to Truthseekers,' 1857; 3rd edit. 1858. 3. 'Questions of the Day,' 1860 (sermons). 4. 'John Stuart Mill on Liberty: a Critique,' 1865. 5. 'Wednesday Evenings at Cavendish Chapel,' 1865; 2 edits. 6. 'Ecce Deus . . . with Notes on "Ecce Homo,"' Edinburgh, 1867; 5th edit. 1875. 7. 'Springdale Abbey: Extracts from the Diaries and Letters of an Enghsh Preacher,' 1868 (fiction). 8. 'Ad Clerum: Advices to a Young Preacher,' 1870. 9. 'Tyne Chylde: My Life and Teaching,' 1880; 1886 (an autobiographical fiction). 10. 'The Inner Life of Christ,' 3 vols. 1881–2; 1884 (commentary). 11. 'Weaver Stephen,' 1886, (a novel). 12. 'Well Begun: Notes for those who have to Make their Way,' 1894. 13. 'Tyne Folk,' 1896. 14. 'Gambling in Various Aspects'; 5th edit. 1902. 16. 'Christian Profiles in a Pagan Mirror,' 1898. 16. 'Paterson's Parish: A Lifetime amongst the Dissenters,' 1898. 17. 'The City Temple Pulpit,' 1899. 18. 'A Preacher's Life,' 1899 (autobiography). 19. ’The Pulpit Bible,' 1901, 4to. 20. 'The Gospel of Jesus Christ,' 1903; new edit. 1908 (posthumous sermons).
