Henry Varley

Memorial plaque for Henry Varley in Union Chapel Brighton

Henry Varley ( 1835 - March 30, 1912 in Brighton , England ) was an English evangelist . Although he was considered one of the most important traveling preachers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his influence was less lasting than that of his contemporaries and friends Spurgeon and Moody . In his work Lecture to Men , published in German under the title The Curse of Manhood , he devoted himself to the "destructive sin of self-defilement".

Life

A brief description of his life can be found carved in stone on a plaque in the Union Chapel in Brighton. After that he worked for over fifty years “in the Lord's vineyard” and was “the means to win thousands of precious souls for the glory of God”. At the age of sixteen he came to the “redeeming knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” and found time to preach the gospel despite his business activities . In 1860 he built the 1700-person West London Free Tabernacle . In 1868 he gave up his business and devoted all of his time to evangelism . His missionary work was soon no longer limited to the United Kingdom , but took him to South Africa , India , the United States , Australia and Canada . He spent the last three years of his life mainly in Brighton, where he often preached in a miners' mission meeting hall . The latter had been founded by the mining entrepreneur Richard Glynn Vivian after he had become deeply Christian at the age of seventy in the wake of sudden blindness under the influence of a pious servant and who from then on endeavored to convert as many of his workers as possible. The Richard Glynn Vivian Mission erected the above-mentioned plaque in gratitude for Henry Varley's healing work after his death.

Fonts

Selection of original English titles:

• Terse talk on timely topics, London 1884.
• The impeachment of gambling, Melbourne 1890.
• Henry Varley's life-story, London undated
• Lecture to men: on a vitally important subject, containing invaluable information for young men and those who are married, Melbourne 1894.
• The war between heaven & hell in Melbourne: being a graphic and interesting sketch of the recent crusade against sin and social wickedness in the city, Melbourne 1891.
• Address to working men, Melbourne o. J.
• The bookmaker, or, Turf secrets revealed: a searching examination into the bookmaker's calling and character, Melbourne 1890.
• Gambling, its nature and character, and the relation of the law. Melbourne o. J.
• Trust in 'The living father', Melbourne 1877.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Henry Varley ( Memento of the original from July 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , as of February 13, 2011.  
2. ↑ Darrell Paproth: Henry Varley and the Melbourne Evangelicals , article on www.refdoc.fr (English), as of February 13, 2011.
3. ↑ Henry Varley: The Curse of Manhood , excerpt; As of February 13, 2011
4. ↑ Union Chapel, Brighton , article in the Engl. Wikipedia (English) as of February 13, 2011.
5. ↑ History of the International Miners' Mission , historical overview at www.minersmission.com (English), as of February 13, 2011.
6. ^ Henry Varley in the catalog of the National Library of Australia (English), as of February 13, 2011.
7. ↑ Henry Varley: The war between heaven & hell in Melbourne: being a graphic and interesting sketch of the recent crusade against sin and social wickedness in the city  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective . Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ,   full text on www.nla.gov.au (English), as of February 13, 2011.