Guard, Thomas, Dd

Guard, Thomas, D.D.

an eloquent Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in County Galway, Ireland, June 3, 1831. He was accepted by the Irish Conference of 1851 as a candidate for the ministry, and called to labor the same year. He was received into full connection in 1855. In 1862 he went to South Africa under the direction of the London Missionary Society, and spent nine years, chiefly at Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. In 1871 he came to America on a visit, and at once became popular as a preacher and lecturer. On receiving an invitation to become the pastor of Mount Vernon Place Church, Baltimore, Maryland, he decided to make this country his home. He entered upon his pastorate in Baltimore in 1872. At the end of his term (in 1875) he became pastor of the Howard Street Church, San Francisco, California. In 1878 and 1879 he was pastor of First Church, Oakland, and in 1880 resumed his former relationship with the Mount Vernon Place Church, Baltimore. It was there that he closed his earthly career, October 15, 1882. He was thoroughly acquainted with standard English divinity, and particularly with Methodist theology. As a lecturer and platform speaker he was almost without an equal. As a pulpit orator he was unsurpassed in his own or any age, and he could attract and hold the largest audiences of the most cultivated people. As a pastor he was not successful, and was incapable of managing business of any kind. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1883, page 83.