John Lyth

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John Lyth, D.D. (13 March 1821 – 13 March 1886) was an English Wesleyan Methodist preacher, author, historian and hymn writer. He was the earliest Wesleyan missionary in Germany.

Born in York, England, Lyth studied at St Peter's School in York and Heigham's Academy in Doncaster, and began preaching in 1843. In 1859 he became the first Wesleyan missionary in Germany and served as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Community from 1859 to 1865. He retired from ministry in 1883 and died in 1886.

Lyth wrote four major prose works. His History of Methodism in York (1843) is considered his main prose work. In 1885 he published Glimpses of Methodism in York, covering Methodism from its 1729 introduction to his time. After his mother’s death in 1860, he published The Blessedness of Religion In Earnest: A Memorial of Mrs. Mary Lyth, of York (1861), drawing mainly from Mary’s journals. The Homiletical Treasury; or, Scripture Analytically Arranged (1867–1869) aimed to cover the Bible but includes only Isaiah and the Epistles from Romans to Philippians; it was praised by the London Quarterly Review but criticized by Charles Spurgeon as incomplete.

Lyth also wrote hymns, including There Is a Better World, They Say (written for an infant school in Randwick, 1845) and We Won’t Give Up the Sabbath (1879). He edited Wild Flowers; or, a Selection of Original Poetry (1843), which included poems by himself, a family member, or Dr. Punshon. A verse rendering of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations attributed to him appeared in 1942 with a preface by Gilbert Murray.