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