Field, Benjamin

Field, Benjamin an English Wesleyan minister of marked ability, was born at Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1823. He was converted when twelve years of age, under the: ministry of Thomas Collins, became a local preacher at the age of sixteen, was accepted as a candidate for the ministry in 1843, spent three years at the Richmond Theological Institution, and July 2, 1846, was ordained; a few days after, with Glanville and Morris, sailed as a missionary to India. For this work he had every qualification except that of physical adaptability to the climate, and he was soon stricken with fever. Returning to England, he travelled the Chatteris (1850), Luton, Bradford, Hackney, City Road, London, and Penzance (1864) circuits until he was compelled to desist through disease. In December 1865; he embarked for Melbourne, Australia, where he spent the rest of his brief life. He edited the Wesleyan Chrionicle for a year (1868). Mr. Field died in the city of Melbourne, September 1, 1869. His piety and earnestness were successful in winning souls, and his love for God, superior abilities, and accumulated sorrows, won for him the love of all. Field wrote, Life of Mrs. C.E. Martin [his sister] (1862, 24mo): — The Penitent's Inquiry, an admirable tractate, which has had a large circulation in England and Australia: — The Student's Hand-book of Christian Theology, an excellent treatise (Melbourne, 1868; enlarged ed., with a biographical sketch by Reverend John C. Symons, Lond. 1870, 12mo). Among the shorter presentations of a systematic Wesleyan theology this latter work is probably unsurpassed. See Symons, Memoir, s.v.; — Minutes of the British Conference, 1870, page 12; Wesl. Meth. Magazine, 1870, page 1026.