The Field Preacher Who Found the Forgotten Flock

In 1739, the Anglican clergy of Bristol, England, had largely abandoned the coal miners of Kingswood. These workers — their faces blackened with soot, their families crowded into hovels — were considered too rough, too poor, too far beneath the respectable pews of parish churches. The shepherds of England's established church had turned inward, tending their comfortable livings while thousands went spiritually starving.…