Rev. Dr. John Campbell was a Congregationalist divine, and minister at Whitefield's Tabernacle in London. He was only the second successor of its founder, the Methodist, George Whitefield

George Whitefield

George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...

. In the literary field, he was the founder of a number of religious magazines and journals, including the Christian Witness and the British Banner.

Upholder of Dissent

Dr Campbell was regarded as a champion of Dissenting orthodoxy, differentiating him from the more non-denominational nonconformists. At the time Dissenting society divided into those that liked his approach, and others (such as the majority of nonconformist theological students and Rev, Dr Thomas Binney

Thomas Binney

The Rev. Dr. Thomas Binney was an English Congregationalist divine of the 19th century, popularly known as the 'Archbishop of Nonconformity'...

, the 'archbishop of nonconformity') that did not.

Editorship of Magazines

Though holding minority orthodox views amongst nonconformists, Campbell's approach grew with the influence he gained by means of magazines and newspapers - the Christian Witness, Christian's Penny, British Ensign, British Standard and the British Banner. Such were the sentiments he aroused that some slanderously maintained that the second n in the latter publication should give place to a g. Dr Parker drew this sketch of his approach, in his office at Bolt Court,

Near the window sat the editor at his desk, and before him lay a scrap of paper, on which he jotted a few catch-words... A look at the scrap of paper and then a paragraph; the great voice sounding, and the grey plumage of the noble head nodding...paragraph after paragraph, now very epigrammatic, and anon bordering on the rhetorical; here very sensible, and there nearly bombastic; one sentence striking like a dart, and another stunning like the blow of a hammer.

Always a controversialist, it was at Dr Campbell's persistence that the monopoly of printing the Bible, claimed by the Queen's printer, ceased. The effect was to reduce the cost of the Bible to about one-third of its former price.

His work, Jericho gave great stimulus to Home Missionary operations, stirring up many churches.

Abolitionist

This capacity for fulminations and thunderbolts was sometimes of help to his more non-denominational colleagues, as for example when he agreed to join them for the London Reception Speech of the escaped American slave, Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...

 held at Dr Alexander Fletcher's Finsbury Chapel in May 1846. Called on to provide the 'Reply', on behalf of the assembled dissenting ministers he said,

Frederick Douglass, the 'beast of burden', 'the portion of goods and chattels', the representative of three millions of men, has been aised up! Shall I say the man? If there is a man on earth, he is a man. My blood boiled within me when I heard his address tonight, and thought that he had left behind him three millions of such men. We must see more of this man; we must have more of this man..

About twenty years earlier he had been closely associated with John Philip (missionary)

John Philip

John Philip may refer to:*John R. Philip, Australian physicist*John Woodward Philip, American admiral-See also:*John Phillip , artist*John Philips, poet*John Phillips...

 who had worked with great passion to bring the conduct of the Cape Colonists towards the indigenous people to public and parliamentary attention in Britain.

Death and Memorial

Dr Campbell died in 1867 and is buried at the Congregationalists's non-denominational Victorian garden cemetery, Abney Park Cemetery

Abney Park Cemetery

Abney Park in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney, is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney and Dr. Isaac Watts, and the neighbouring Hartopp family. In 1840 it became a non-denominational garden cemetery, semi-public park arboretum, and...

, Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

External links

• http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass55/douglass55.html#p419 Dr Campbell's Reply to Frederick Douglas's London Reception Speech