© Day One Publications 2010

First printed 2010

ISBN 978-1-84625-209-9

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV)®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Commendations

James Montgomery is one of our great hymn-writers, deservedly standing alongside Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts. In his day, he was acclaimed a great poet and social reformer. A successful businessman, he was a publisher, newspaper proprietor and editor. Above all else, he was a man of steadfast Christian faith.

There has long been a need for a modern assessment of Montgomery’s life and achievements. Paul Taylor’s book fills the gap admirably. He presents a balanced and lively study of this remarkable man. The book is a valuable reference work, but it is more than this: it is an eminently readable story of the influences that made Montgomery and of the impact he had upon local and national events of the early 19th century.

Montgomery lives on in his hymns. Paul Taylor convinces us that, even without the hymns, there is a fascinating story to be told.

George Tolley, Canon Emeritus of Sheffield Cathedral and former Principal of Sheffield City Polytechnic, UK

I enjoyed reading Paul Taylor’s book James Montgomery: A Man for All People. The extensive bibliography indicates wide reading around the subject, and the author’s appreciation of the man and his works comes through clearly.

Although I had known of and read about James Montgomery since my days at Fulneck School, it was a pleasure to see this easy-to-read account of his life and work. We find that, like many in the Moravian Church, Montgomery was a traveller and worked hard on both missionary and Bible tours. His work as a social reformer—his involvement in campaigns against slavery and the use of chimney-sweep boys—is also recorded. The appendices are helpful in providing additional background information, and the chapter on Montgomery’s hymns is particularly interesting.

This volume will give a general introduction to the ‘man for all people’; as Montgomery himself says, ‘This is the way God’s gifts to use, first enjoy and then diffuse.’

Bishop John McOwat, the Moravian Church, UK

The memorial statue to James Montgomery has been dusted down and re-sited adjacent to Sheffield Cathedral. But who was he, and what ...