Allen, James (2)

Allen, James (2), an English Methodist minister, was born in Yorkshire, June 14, 1734. It was the purpose of his father to educate him for the ministry in the Established Church. To fit his son for his profession, he placed him under the tuition of a clergyman, whose immoral character so displeased the young candidate for holy orders that he withdrew from a Church which harbored in its communion men so dissolute as his tutor. Having received spiritual benefit from the ministry of Mr. Ingham, a Methodist preacher, he joined his connection, and for nine years he was a popular minister in that denomination. Having the means to build a house of worship, he erected a meeting-house for himself, in which, with a good degree of success, he preached during the remainder of his life. Mr. Allen was the author of the hymn commencing "Sinners, will you scorn the message?" He died Oct. 31,1804, in the village in which he was born. See Belcher, Historical Sketches of Hymns, p. 75. (J. C. S.)