Introduction

Biography

Punshon lost his par­ents while a boy.

Through con­nect­ions in his mo­ther’s fa­mi­ly, he was in­tro­duced to the bu­si­ness world in York­shire, Hull, and else­where.

He marked No­vem­ber 29, 1838, as the day of his spi­rit­ual birth. In 1842, he be­gan to be­come known as a preach­er, though still en­gaged in bu­si­ness.

In 1844, he en­tered the Me­tho­dist Theo­lo­gic­al In­sti­tute in Rich­mond, but stayed there on­ly a few months. He pre­ferred ev­an­gel­ism to preach­ing, and be­came quite po­pu­lar.

In 1854, he made his ad­vent as a lec­tur­er with his Pro­phet of Hor­eb. He was five times pre­si­dent of the Ca­na­di­an Me­tho­d­ist Con­fer­ence (1868–72), and once of the Eng­lish Con­fer­ence (1875).

He re­ceived his LLD de­gree from Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty, Co­bourg, On­ta­rio, Ca­na­da, in 1873.

Works

• Lays of Hope, 1853
• Sabbath Chimes, or, Me­di­ta­tions in Verse for the Sun­days of a Year, 1867