Mark Guy Pearse was a Cornish

Cornish people

The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...

 Methodist

Methodism

Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...

 preacher, lecturer and author who, during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first of the 20th, was a household name throughout Britain and beyond. Born at Camborne

Camborne

Camborne is a town and civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is at the western edge of a conurbation comprising Camborne, Pool and Redruth....

, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, from childhood he "drank in the traditions of Methodism", as his daughter put it.

Ministerial career

After a false start in medicine, he studied theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

, and in 1863 entered the Wesleyan

Methodism

Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...

 ministry. His first post on leaving Didsbury College was in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 and over the next twenty or so years, he was appointed by the Methodist Conference to ministries in Brixton Hill

Brixton Hill

Brixton Hill is the name given to a 1 km section of road between Brixton and Streatham Hill in south London, England. It slopes downhill towards central London.Brixton Hill and Streatham Hill form part of the traditional main London to Brighton road...

, Ipswich

Ipswich

Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

, Bedford

Bedford

Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...

, Highbury

Highbury

- Early Highbury :The area now known as Islington was part of the larger manor of Tolentone, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Tolentone was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Road. The manor house was situated by what is now...

, Westminster

Westminster

Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...

, Launceston, and Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

.

It was during a two-year ministry at Ipswich that he began to think of writing and from 1870 until his death, he published upwards of forty books and at least an equal number of booklets, tracts and articles, most of which had a world-wide circulation.

The best-selling Daniel Quorm and his Religious Notions was read by all levels of society. His decision in 1886 not to retire to his beloved Cornwall, but to accept the invitation of Hugh Price Hughes

Hugh Price Hughes

Hugh Price Hughes , was a Welsh Christian theologian in the Methodist tradition. He was the founder of the Methodist Times and the first superintendent of the West London Methodist Mission, a key Methodist organisation today...

 to join him in the West London Mission

West London Methodist Mission

The West London Methodist Mission was established in 1887 under the leadership of Hugh Price Hughes, a leading voice in Methodism and in Non-Conformity, and has a long track record as a Methodist ministry and as a spiritual home for "good works". Its early days are very much associated with its...

 resulted in extensive tours abroad to publicise its aims and achievements, and to raise money. These tours brought him into contact with Cornish communities in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, Australasia

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

 and South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

After retiring from the Mission in 1903, he continued to preach, lecture and write, spending more and more time in Cornwall towards the end of his days. Four months before his death on New Year's Day, 1930, he was made a bard of Gorseth Kernow

Gorseth Kernow

Gorseth Kernow is a non-political Cornish organisation, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.-History:...

 (the Cornish Gorsedd), at Carn Brea

Carn Brea

Carn Brea is a civil parish and hilltop site in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The hilltop site is situated approximately one mile southwest of Redruth.-Neolithic settlement:...

, taking the name Pyscajor a Dus (Fisher of Men).

Devotional writings and tales

His writings include devotional works and semi-religious tales, especially of Cornish

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 life. Some of the best known are:

• Mister Horn and his friends; or, Givers and Giving
• Daniel Quorm and his Religious Notions (1874–75), of which several hundred thousand copies were printed in many languages
• Some Aspects of the Blessed Life (1887)
• Elijah, the Man of God (1891)
• The Gentleness of Jesus (1898)
• The Story of a Roman Soldier (1899)
• Christ's Cure for Care (1902)
• West Country Songs (1902)
• Bridgetstow (1907)
• The Prophet's Raven (1908)
• A Village Down West (1924)
• The Ship where Christ was Captain (1926)

Influence

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence was a Britishwomen's rights activist.Her father was a businessman...

, the women's rights campaigner, was to describe him as "the strongest influence upon the first half of my life".