Bible Encyclopedias
Beecham, John, D.D.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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Beecher, Elijah Parkes

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an eminent English Methodist minister, was born in Lincolnshire, 1787. Converted at an early age, he united with the Methodists, and thereby lost the patronage of some friends who designed to educate him for the ministry in the Established Church. In 1815 he entered the Wesleyan ministry, and for sixteen years he labored in circuits with growing usefulness and esteem. His studious habits enabled him early to lay deep foundations in theological knowledge, and his fidelity in his work was equal to the breadth of his acquirements. In 1831 he was appointed one of the general secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and in this highly responsible office he continued to labor, with the entire confidence of the Church, up to the time of his death. In administering foreign missions he combined largeness of views with careful attention to detail; and it is not too much to say that the wonderful success of the Methodist missions during the last quarter of a century is due largely to his skill and diligence. In 1855 he visited the eastern provinces of British North America, and died April 22, 1856. He wrote many of the missionary reports, and also An Essay on the Constitution of Wesleyan Methodism (Lond. 1850, 8vo). — Wesleyan Minutes (Lond. 1856), p. CO; Wesleyan Magazine, July, 1856.