Introduction

Biography

After a false start in me­di­cine, Pearse (whose fa­ther had the same name) was edu­cat­ed for the Wes­ley­an min­is­try, which he entered in 1863.

After leav­ing Dids­bury Col­lege, his first post was in Leeds. Ov­er the next two de­cades, the Me­tho­dist Con­fer­ence ap­point­ed him to min­ist­ries in Brix­ton Hill, Ips­wich, Bed­ford, High­bu­ry, West­min­ster, Launces­ton, and Bris­tol.

In 1886, he de­cid­ed not to re­tire to Corn­wall, but in­stead ac­cept­ed the in­vi­ta­tion of Hugh Price Hughes to join him in the Lon­don West Cen­tral Wes­ley­an Mis­sion. This re­sult­ed in ex­ten­sive fund rais­ing tours abroad to pub­li­cize the Mis­sion’s aims and achieve­ments. These tours brought him into con­tact with Corn­ish com­mu­ni­ties in North Am­er­ica, Aus­tra­la­sia and South Af­ri­ca.

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, he was made a bard of Gor­seth Ke­now (the Corn­ish Gor­sedd), at Carn Brea, tak­ing the name Pyscajor a Dus (Fish­er of Men)

Pearse’s hymns were most­ly writ­ten in Lon­don in 1875. In his lit­tle book The Child Je­sus, each hymn was sug­gest­ed by one of a ser­ies of car­toons il­lus­trat­ing the life of Christ, pub­lished by the Wes­ley­an-Me­tho­dist Sun­day School Un­ion.

Works

• Mr. Horn and His Friends, or Giv­ers and Giv­ing, 1872
• Daniel Quorm, and His Re­li­gious No­tions, 1875
• The Child Je­sus, 1875
• Sermons for Child­ren, 1876
• John Tre­gen­oweth, His Mark, 1877
• Good Will: A Col­lect­ion of Christ­mas Sto­ries, 1877
• Short Sto­ries, and Oth­er Pa­pers, 1877
• Homely Talks, 1880
• Where Is the Bi­ble, 1880
• Advice to Be­gin­ners, 1880
• A Good Old Man. A Re­li­gious Tract, 1880
• My Old Friend John. A Re­li­gious Tract, 1880
• What the Lark Sang to Robert Mor­ley. A Re­li­gious Tract, 1880
• A Good Old Pre­scrip­tion. A Cure for Care, 1880
• Old Ro­sie: A Sto­ry for the Child­ren, 1880
• The Ter­ri­ble Red Dwarf. A Re­li­gious Sto­ry, 1880
• The Old Clock, 1880
• Harry’s Pint; or, Three­pence A-Day. A Tem­per­ance Tract, 1880
• The Ear­nest Ev­an­gel­ist and Suc­cess­ful Class Lead­er: Me­moir of Will­iam Thomp­son, 1881
• Inside the Break­wa­ter, 1881
• Simon Jas­per, 1883
• The Story of Bil­ly Bray, 1884
• Thoughts on Ho­li­ness, 1884
• Can I Be Saved, 1880
• Getting Saved. A Re­li­gious Tract, 1880
• The Chris­tian’s Sec­ret of Ho­li­ness, 1886
• Some As­pects of the Bless­ed Life, 1887
• Naaman, the Syr­i­an: And Oth­er Ser­mons, 1887
• Cornish Sto­ries, 1889
• Short Talks for the Times, 1889
• The Big Wheel of the Church, and Some Hints on Work­ing It, 1889
• A Gift for You. A Re­li­gious Tract, 1890
• The God That An­swer­eth by Fire, 1890
• Elijah, the Man of God, 1891
• The Man Who Spoiled the Mu­sic, and Oth­er Sto­ries, 1892
• Moses: His Life and Its Less­ons, 1894
• Gold and In­cense. A West Coun­try Sto­ry, 1895
• Into the Ban­quet­ing House. A Ser­ies of Sac­ra­ment­al Me­di­ta­tions, 1896
• Come, Break Your Fast. A Dai­ly Me­di­ta­tion, 1897
• Parables and Pic­tures, 1897
• Is Not This the Blood of Men, 1897
• The Gen­tle­ness of Je­sus, and Oth­er Ser­mons, 1898
• The God of Our Plea­sures, 1898
• His Mo­ther’s Por­trait, and Oth­er Sto­ries, 1899
• How Mr. Rhod­da Broke the Spell, 1899
• The Sto­ry of a Ro­man Sol­dier, 1899
• What the Flow­ers Did, 1899
• Go For­ward! A Tract, 1900
• I Have Re­deemed Thee, 1900
• How Bill Smith Got Right, 1900
• One Sid­ed Re­li­gion, 1900
• The Bramb­le King, and Oth­er Old Tes­ta­ment Par­a­bles, 1900
• The Old Mill­er and His Mill, 1900
• Bob: A True Sto­ry, 1900
• A Ser­vice for the Sick in Home and Hos­pi­tal, 1901
• The Chris­ti­a­ni­ty of Je­sus Christ—Is It Ours, 1901
• Jesus Christ and the Peo­ple, 1901
• Rob Rat: A Story of Barge Life, 1901
• Christ’s Cure for Care, 1902
• A Bit of Sham­rock: A Tale, 1902
• Praise: Me­di­ta­tions in the One Hun­dred and Third Psalm, 1902
• West Coun­try Songs, 1902
• Dick Crog­gan’s Re­demp­tion, 1905
• The Pret­ty Ways o’ Pro­vi­dence, and Oth­er Sto­ries, 1906
• Bridgetstow, Some Chro­ni­cles of a Corn­ish Par­ish, 1907
• The Pro­phet’s Ra­ven, 1908
• Wounds of the World, with W. Scott King, 1912
• The Or­tho­dox De­vil, 1922
• A Vil­lage Down West, 1924
• The Ship Where Christ Was Cap­tain. Sto­ries of Corn­ish Me­thod­ism, 1926
• He Must Reign, and Oth­er Bi­ble Stu­dies, 1928
• Conaltradh Cridheil
• The Gos­pel for the Day
• Hast Thou Here Any Be­sides? or Sal­va­tion in Eve­ry House, a New Year’s Ad­dress