Edward McKendree Bounds

1835-1913. American Methodist minister and devotional writer. Born in Missouri, he studied law and at twenty-one was admitted to the bar. After practicing three years, he was called to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church South. During the Civil War he served as captain in the Confederate army and was captured. The war over, he again served pastorates in Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri. For nine years he was editor of the St. Louis Christian Advocate, the official organ of the church. His “Spiritual Life Books” come from the last decades of his life, when he was free from the day-to-day responsibilities of the pastorate. They have had a wide ministry in many denominations.