Introduction

Biography

David was the son of preach­er Will­iam Thomas.

After a short bu­si­ness ca­reer, he at­tend­ed New­port Pag­nell Col­lege to pre­pare for the min­is­try, and af­ter­wards be­came pas­tor at Chesh­am.

In 1844, he moved to Lon­don, to be­come pas­tor of the Stock­well Green Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church.

The church grew to 900 peo­ple dur­ing his tenure, and in­clud­ed con­gre­gants such as Ca­the­rine Mum­ford (of­fi­ci­at­ing at her 1855 wed­ding to Sal­va­tion Ar­my found­er Will­iam Booth) and ev­an­gel­ist Wil­son Car­lile.

Thomas found­ed the Work­ing Men’s Club and In­sti­tute, of which Lord Brough­am was first pre­si­dent, and an in­sur­ance plan for the be­ne­fit of min­is­ters’ wi­dows.

He ed­ited the Ho­mi­list, and in 1874, pre­pared for his church The Bib­li­cal Li­tur­gy, con­trib­ut­ing 26 orig­in­al hymns, two or thee or which passed in­to oth­er Col­lect­ions.

Thomas retired in 1877.

Works

• Crisis of Be­ing—Six Lec­tures to Young Men on Re­li­gious De­ci­sion
• The Pro­gress of Be­ing
• The Ge­ni­us of the Gos­pels
• A Com­ment­a­ry on the Gos­pel of St. Mat­thew
• The Prac­ti­cal Phi­lo­so­pher
• Problemata Mu­ndi