The Rev. Charles Prest, president of the Wesleyan Methodist Society, 1862. Engraving from a photograph by John Eastham, taken by the new tannin process...Before [Prest] had completed his seventeenth year he preached his first sermon...his earlier preaching was intensely controversial, dealing largely with the errors of the day. In later years, however, his preaching has been more experimental and practical, dwelling more largely upon the duties of the Christian life in relation to the family, the Church, and the outlying population. With a manly presence, good voice, great self-possession, a clear though somewhat parenthetical style, and deliberate utterance, his preaching is eminently for the thoughtful and the practical...The census of religious worship taken in 1851 disclosed a state of religious destitution and neglect among the populations of our large towns for which hardly any man in the kingdom was prepared. Over the fearful statistics Mr. Prest pored by night and by day. It was his constant theme of conversation. His pen soon brought the case under the notice of Methodism, and the success has been far beyond even his most sanguine hopes. In 1853 he originated the first Home Missionary meeting in City-road Chapel. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.