Introduction

Biography

Christopher was the son of John Vine Hall and Mary Te­ver­ill.

He was edu­cat­ed at Tot­ter­idge School; High­bury Col­lege, Lon­don; and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don (BA 1841, LL.B. 1856).

From 1842–54, he was min­is­ter of Al­bi­on Church, Hull. Start­ing in 1854, he di­rect­ed Sur­rey Cha­pel and its suc­cess­or, Christ Church, West­min­ster. He was al­so chair­man of the Con­gre­ga­tion­al Union of England and Wales in 1876.

Works

He pub­lished se­ver­al prose works and nu­mer­ous tracts, in­clud­ing Come to Jesus:

He went out one ev­en­ing from a din­ner par­ty to preach to a throng who had ga­thered in the street.

A pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist was sing­ing to the crowd that fa­mil­iar dit­ty, Come to Jesus just now.

Mr. Hall caught up the words and ex­tem­por­ized a pow­er­ful ex­hor­ta­tion on the spot. He re­peat­ed it to his own con­gre­gation.

Soon af­ter­wards, be­ing con­fined to his room by a long ill­ness, he re­called the dis­course and de­ter­mined to turn it in­to a short prac­ti­cal trea­tise for in­quir­ers af­ter sal­va­tion.

He wrote it out in the few­est and simp­lest words pos­si­ble, and his bro­ther, Mr. War­ren Hall, print­ed two thou­sand copies for dis­tri­bu­tion.

Such was the origin of that won­der­ful tract, Come to Je­sus, which has al­rea­dy been cir­cu­lat­ed in thir­ty dif­fer­ent lang­uag­es to the num­ber of three mill­ion five hun­dred thou­sand co­pies.

Nutter, p. 72

His oth­er works in­clude:

• Hymns Com­posed at Bol­ton Abbey, and Oth­er Rhymes (Lon­don: Nis­bet, 1858)
• Cloud and Sun­shine (Lon­don: Ham­il­ton, Ad­ams, 1870)
• Christ Church Hym­nal, for the Use of the Con­gre­ga­tion of Christ Church, West­min­ster Road (Lon­don: Nis­bet, 1876)
• Pilgrim Songs in Sun­shine and Shade (Lon­don: 1870)
• Supplemental Pil­grim Songs
• Songs of Earth and Hea­ven (Lon­don: Holder & Stough­ton, 1886)