Who Was John Angell James? Birmingham Pastor of The Anxious Inquirer
John Angell James was an English Congregational minister who lived from 1785 to 1859. He was pastor of one church, Carr's Lane in Birmingham, for more than fifty years, and he became one of the best-loved Christian writers of his century. His best-known book, The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, was written for people seriously worried about their souls. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies in his lifetime and was translated into many languages. He also wrote practical books for families, church members, young men, widows and ministers, all in the same plain, warm voice of a pastor who wanted people saved and growing.
Here's a fuller look at his life, what he taught, and which of his books to start with.
Boyhood and an apprenticeship
James was born on June 6, 1785, in Blandford Forum, Dorset, in the south of England. His father was a linen draper, and John was the eldest son. After some years at boarding schools, he was apprenticed to a draper in Poole.
It was there, in the shared bedroom of the apprentices, that God first stirred him. A new apprentice named Charles came to live with them, and on his first night he knelt by his bed and prayed in silence. James never forgot it. Looking back late in life, in the autobiographical fragment that opens The Life and Letters of John Angell James, he wrote:
We should never be ashamed of our religion, nor of the performance of its duties.
The Life and Letters of John Angell James, Conversion to God
Charles took him to visit a poor, godly shoemaker and his wife, who read with the boys and taught them to pray. Through these humble friends James came to faith in Christ, and soon he felt called to preach.
Training at Gosport
In 1802 his father bought out the rest of his apprenticeship, and James went to study for the ministry under David Bogue at his academy in Gosport, Hampshire. Bogue trained many men for the pulpit and for the mission field. One of James's fellow students was Robert Morrison, who later went as the first Protestant missionary to China. That friendship gave James a lifelong love for missions, and for China in particular.
Fifty years at Carr's Lane
While still a student, James preached at Carr's Lane Chapel in Birmingham. He settled there in 1805 and was ordained in 1806. It was not a promising start. Many members had left with the previous minister, the congregation was small, and for some years little seemed to happen.
Then, from about 1814, the crowds began to come. A new chapel seating around two thousand people opened in 1820. James stayed at Carr's Lane for the rest of his life, through the death of his first wife in 1819, a second marriage, seasons of illness and a long struggle with nervous depression. In his last years the young R. W. Dale became his co-pastor, and Dale later succeeded him.
The Anxious Inquirer
Published in 1834, The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation grew out of James's work with young men and women in his own congregation who were seeking peace with God. It walks a seeker through why concern for the soul is reasonable, what repentance and faith are, and the mistakes and fears that keep people from coming to Christ.
Its tone is personal from the first page. James tells the reader to take the book somewhere private, because:
Prayer is the very soul of all religion, and privacy is the very life of prayer itself.
The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, Directions for the Profitable Reading of the Following Treatise
The book was reprinted again and again. Charles Spurgeon was among those helped by it. So was Dale, who described how, as a teenager, he read it alone at night:
Between seventeen and eighteen years have passed by since, on my knees and in keen distress about my personal salvation, I first read through the "Anxious Inquirer."
The Life and Letters of John Angell James, The Anxious Inquirer
A pastor who wrote for everyone
James wrote the way he preached, to real people in real situations. Many of his books began as sermons to his congregation. The Family Monitor sets out the duties of husbands, wives, parents and children. Christian Fellowship explains what church membership means. Christian Charity Explained works through 1 Corinthians 13. The Christian Professor Addressed speaks to believers in prosperity, adversity and backsliding. Christian Progress urges stalled Christians to grow.
In the late 1840s he wrote two books on earnestness. An Earnest Ministry the Want of the Times asked whether the pulpit had lost its power, and answered that the chief lack was in the heart. The Church in Earnest turned the same call to every church member.
Public life
James was more than a local pastor. He helped found the Congregational Union of England and Wales in 1831, and he was a leader in the Evangelical Alliance, formed in 1846 to bring believers of different denominations together. He opposed slavery, supported the London Missionary Society, chaired Spring Hill College in Birmingham, and led a large effort to raise money for printing the New Testament for China.
He died at his home in Birmingham on October 1, 1859, at seventy-four, and was buried beneath the pulpit where he had preached for half a century.
Why he's still read
James is still read because he's so practical. He doesn't write for scholars. He writes for the worried seeker, the busy father, the new church member and the grieving widow, and he always points them to Christ. He was also deeply concerned that churches not settle for a comfortable, half-hearted religion, a concern that hasn't gone out of date.
Where to start
TheWay Library has eighteen books by or about him, all free to read. If you're new to him, start with The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, the book that made his name. If you're a believer who feels stuck, read Christian Progress. Pastors should read An Earnest Ministry. For a newly married couple, The Marriage Ring is short and wise. For his life, go to The Life and Letters of John Angell James, edited by R. W. Dale around James's own unfinished account of his early years.
Our guide to John Angell James's books explains how all eighteen fit together, and our collection of John Angell James quotes gathers his best lines. You'll find all his books on the John Angell James author page.