Introduction

Biography

Converted at age 13, Coles be­gan preach­ing at 22, and emi­grat­ed to Am­eri­ca in 1818.

He ed­it­ed the Christ­ian Ad­vo­cate and Jour­nal for 12 years, and the Sun­day School Ad­vo­cate for sev­er­al years. He was a mu­si­cian of some abi­li­ty, and a good sing­er.

Zion’s Her­ald said of him:

His fond­ness for the so­cie­ty of child­ren, and his fa­cul­ty of in­ter­est­ing and in­struct­ing them was ex­tra­or­din­ary.

Wherever he went, af­ter a short ac­quaint­ance, they clus­tered about him as a fa­ther, and, not by an­ec­dote, of which he had no great fund, but by orig­in­al con­cep­tions and by quest­ions and by quaint re­marks fit­ted to their ca­pa­ci­ty, he al­ways suc­ceed­ed in con­trol­ling their at­ten­tion.

Works

• The An­ti­dote, a Trea­tise Against In­fi­del­ity
• Lectures to Child­ren
• A Con­cord­ance of the Ho­ly Scrip­tures
• My Youth­ful Days
• My First Years in Am­eri­ca
• Heroines of Me­thod­ism