Chowles, John Overton, D.D., was born in Bristol, England

Jim Curran – Baptist Church History

AdminTop Contributor  ·   · Daily Baptist Encyclopedia Chowles, John Overton, D.D., was born in Bristol, England, Feb. 5, 1801, of parents who were Wesleyans. He was deprived of their tender care when he was but twelve years of age, and came under the guardianship of his uncle, Henry Over- ton Wells, Esq., a. wealthy merchant of Bristol. When a little more than eighteen years of age he became a subject of renewing grace, and was bap- tized by Rey. Dr. Ryland, and received into the Broadmead Baptist church. In order to carry on his education he was placed with Rev. William Anderson, under whose instructions he made rapid progress. In 1822, he entered Bristol College, under the charge of Dr. Ryland, to pursue his’ the- ological studies. He came to New York in 1824, and for a year or two was occupied in teaching an academy at Red Hook, N. Y., until called to the pastorate of the Second Baptist church in New- port, R. I.. He was ordained Sept. 27, 1827. Im- mediate success followed his labors. Fifty persons were baptized during the year which succeeded his ordination. For six years. he was the popular pastor of the Newport church. During this time he pre- pared for the press two or three books, among them his “ History of Missions,’ in two quarto volumes, a work commenced by Rey. Thomas Smith, of England, who died in 1830, Mr. Chowles resigned his pastorate in Newport to accept a call to the First Baptist church in New Bedford, where he remained for three years, and then went to Buffalo, N. Y. His. eonnection with this church aeinaed four years, Wien he was in- vited to take charge of the Sixth Street Baptist church in New York. It-was not an inviting field of labor, and the hope of success not very flatter- ing. Amid many discouragements he toiled on for a year or two, but no human power could save the enterprise, and it was ultimately abandoned. In 1843, he was called to the church of Jamaica Plain, near Boston, where he found a most congenial and happyhome. While acting as pastor of this church he found time to prepare for the press his edition of ‘‘Neal’s History_of the Puritans,’ which took a high place in the literature which treated of the character and the work of those heroic men, who in an age of great dissoluteness and irreligion, wrought such a moral and religious change in England. The connection of Dr. Chowles with the Jamaica church closed, in 1847, in consequence of an urgent eall to return to his former charge in Newport. During his second residence in that city his busy pen prepared for the press several volumes, and was constantly employed in writing for the period- icals of the day. He was also a popular lecturer, and addressed large audiences in different sections of the country on themes both interesting and in- structive. He lived a life of constant activity. Indeed, with his buoyancy of spirit and his strong vital energies, and social tendencies, he could not well have lived any other life. The last sermon he preached was from Eph, y. 14: “ Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”” He left his home in Newport for New York, intending to be absent but a few days. He was seized with a sudden illness after arriving in New York. When the assurance came to him that without doubt the time for his departure was near, he said to his weeping friends, ‘‘I had not looked for this; if it had been the Lord’s will I would have liked another month to have looked over the road more clearly ; but it does not matter after all: *twould have been the same thing, only simple faith in Christ. I have been hurried away through life by a tide of the most impulsive, im- petuous nature, perhaps, that ever man had to con- tend with.’’ Soon after he said, ‘I have loved . Christ; I have preached Christ and him alone; I have loved to preach Christ and him crucified.” These were among his last words. They indicate that he well knew himself, what in him there was that was frail and imperfect, and that he knew also what an almighty compassionate Redeemer he had. To that Redeemer, he committed himself with the simple trust of a little child, and we doubt not his faith was honored and he. entered into rest. Dr. Chowles died Jan. 5, 1856.From the Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart