author
John Martindale Farrar
A 19th-century Anglican clergyman, he is remembered for a sermon that captures a heated public debate of Victorian England: whether the Sabbath should remain protected from ordinary business and leisure. His writing offers a direct window into the religious convictions and social concerns of 1853.
1 Audiobook
About the author
John Martindale Farrar was an English clergyman and writer active in the mid-19th century. The clearest surviving record found here identifies him as the son of John Farrar of Sheffield, and notes that he was entered at St Mary Hall, Oxford, in 1865 at age 37, after being admitted comitatis causa in November of the previous year.
His best-known surviving work is The Sabbath: a sermon preached in Holy Trinity Church, Hurdsfield, on Sunday evening, January 30, 1853, in reference to the proposed opening of the Crystal Palace on the Lord's Day. The title page describes him as M.A. and curate of Hurdsfield, placing him in the middle of an important Victorian argument about religion, public life, and the observance of Sunday.
Very little biographical detail about Farrar appears to be widely preserved online, so much of his life remains obscure. Even so, this sermon gives modern listeners a vivid sense of his voice: earnest, pastoral, and deeply engaged with the moral questions of his time.