Richard Knill of St Petersburg

The Rev. Richard Knill [14 April 1787 – 2 January 1857] was a missionary with the London Missionary Society. He served first in India, but after a bout of cholera was assigned to Russia where his ministry was far more successful. With the assistance of members of the nobility he was instrumental in the establishment of a Protestant Bible society in that country. Following his return to England in 1842 he became a Congregationalist minister in Gloucestershire. [See Wikipedia article here]

My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing a copy of this book for digitisation. This title is in the public domain.

C.M. Birrell [1811-1880], The Life of the Rev. Richard Knill of St. Petersburg. London: The Religious Tract Society, [1859]. Hbk. pp.272. [Click here to visit the download page]

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Preface to First Edition

1. Early Days A.D. 1792-1812
2. Missionary Consecration A.D. 1812-1814
3. Putting on the Armour A.D. 1814, 1815
4. The First Campaign, A.D. 1816-1818
5. The Russian Capital, 1820-1823
6. Storms, 1824, 1825
7. Gleams, A.D. 1826
8. Blue Skies, A.D. 1828, 1829
9. Shadows of the Pestilence, A.D. 1830-1832
10. Widening Horizon, 1834-1847
11. Sunset, A.D. 1814-1857
12. Review of Mr Knills Life and Character by the Rev John Angell
    

• Postscript by the Editor

Preface

It was during a visit to St. Petersburg in the winter of 1831-32,-the last winter but one of his own residence in the country, that I became acquainted with Mr. Knill and the small circle of English Christians which there surrounded him. There was nothing in the city at that time more deserving of the admiration of a stranger than the union in these men of the habits of commercial life and the elevated tone of Christians-of the spirit of enterprise, nurtured by faith, with the submissive adjustment of conduct to the course rendered possible by jealous hierarchy and the absolute civil government under which they lived. At a time when the smallest measure of haste or imprudence would have imperilled their personal liberty or their leave to remain longer in the country, they were able first to translate, then to pass through the censorship, and eventually to disseminate far and wide, a large number of select religious publications; while the copies of the New Testament which had been arrested by Imperial decree and stored away in the cellars of the Holy Synod….