Leifchild, John, Dd

Leifchild, John, D.D., an eminent Etnglish Independent minister, was born in 1780 of Methodist parentage, and was brought up, and began to preach among the Methodists; but afterwards embracing Calvinistic opinions, it was impossible for him to continue preaching among them, and he was advised bv Mr. Bunting, then the junior preacher in the circuit, to seek other associations. Accordingly, in 1804, he entered Hoxton Academy, but he retained through life a friendly feeling for the friends of his youth, and profited largely by what he learned among them. He died in June, 1862. Without possessing any very extraordinary natural endowments, he attained by faithful, earnest, and diligent labor a most successful and honorable career, and his life is a noble example of what may be effected by the right cultivation of the powers a man possesses within himself. Irreproachable in character, faithful in pastoral attentions, powerful in the pulpit, he filled every chapel he occupied, built up every Church he was the pastor of, and, when enfeebled by age, retired from his work laden with honors, and not without very substantial tokens of the love and gratitude of those whom he had served in the Gospel. One of the deacons of Craven Chapel states that, during the twenty-three years of his ministry there, more than fifteen hundred persons had been brought to decision and added to the Church through his faithful ministry. The catholic spirit of Dr. Leifchild was almost as prominent a feature in his character as his intense and pervadingm earnestness. He was well known and well liked by Christians of various denominations, with whom he mingled freely, and whom he loved for the truth's sake. See J. R. Leifchild, John Leifchild, his public Labors, private Usefulness, and personal Characteristics (Lond. 1860); Grant, Metropolitan Pulpit (1839), 2:152; Penn Pictures of Popular English Preachers (1852), p. 130: Allibone, Dict. of British and Amer. Authors, vol. 2, s.v. (J. H. W.)