William Garrett Lewis

William Garrett Lewis (born before 1834-died in 1885) was a British Baptist preacher and pastor of Westbourne Grove Church in Bayswater, London for 33 years.

Influence

He co-founded the London Baptist Association (within the Baptist Union of Great Britain) along with Charles Haddon Spurgeon and several other pastors. Lewis was also instrumental in urging James Hudson Taylor to publish China's Spiritual Need and Claims. His influence on both of these men is noteworthy. Spurgeon, who was younger, was encouraged by this fellow Baptist preacher - at a time when he was beginning his ministry at the age of 19. Taylor, who was a member of Lewis' congregation, had lectured about the need for missionary work to be done in China, and as a result of putting together his lecture material into a book form, hundreds of missionaries were inspired to follow him back to China in the 1800s. Lewis was Taylor's pastor during the formitive time of the China Inland Mission in 1865 and continued in support of the work, acting as a Referee for the agency in 1872. [Broomhall (1984), 449]

Lewis was undoubtedly closely associated with the Anti-Opium Campaign led by another member of his congregation, Benjamin Broomhall, who sought to end British trade in the drug in China. The Broomhall children, too, grew up under the influence of this man, including author and missionary Marshall Broomhall.

Lewis, speaking at the ceremony of laying the first stone of the new Metropolitan Tabernacle for the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon which took place on Tuesday, August 16th, 1859, said:cquote|I feel constrained to address my brethren in the ministry also to hear the appeal which God in his providence makes to them, to be faithful, uncompromising, simple, and bold in their declaration of gospel truths. [Spurgeon (1860), ]

In January 1881 Lewis was appointed to the pastorate of Dagnall Street Baptist Church. He died in 1885 before the building was finished, and the stained glass window at the rear of the church was dedicated to him. [Turner (1999) ]

Works authored

* "Westbourne Grove Sermons" 1872
* "The Trades and Industrial Occupations of the Bible" Religious Tract Society 1874

References

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Notes

External links

* [http://www.westbournegrovechurch.org/html/building_-_old_and_new.html] Westbourne Grove Church
* [http://www.dsbc.org.uk/who.htm] Dagnall St. Baptist Church