Here Am I, Lord, Send Me: The Life of Missionary Leader Rev. William Binnington Boyce

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Desert Pea Press, 2003 - 266 pages
Rev. William Binnington Boyce is a wonderful example of the best sort of 19th century British missionary: intelligent, cultured, tolerant, untiring and deeply religious, although not afraid to be critical. Boyce's missionary journey took him in 1830 to South Africa where he discovered the key to the translation of native language. This remarkable achievement was the beginning of notable linguistic and literary career. With his wife and daughters, he was sent to Australia in 1846. He was befriended in Sydney by the influential lawyer George Allen, a leading Methodist into whose family he eventually married. His life, however, revolved around the fledgling Methodist church which grew and prospered under his stewardship. Arriving 'home' in London in 1856 Boyce entered the mainstream of the Methodism hierarchy - an astute financier, he saved the society from bankruptcy. A decade later, in retirement, he returned to Sydney, where he wrote an acclaimed discussion of world history Introduction to The Study of History: Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Literary, in his "Antipodal Angel Alley". In his article on Boyce in the Australian Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, William Emilsen wrote: "It is unfortunate that no biography exists of this 'scholarly missionary', who, next to Samuel Leigh, remains the most outstanding figure in nineteenth-century Australian Methodism". This gap has now been well filled. Emeritus Professor Bruce E. Mansfield, The University of Sydney

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