H. W. J. Thiersch

He lived in various cities ministering to the scattered Irvingite congregation, including Marburg, Munich, Augsburg, and Basel.

He was a lecturer at Marburg from 1853 to 1858, but otherwise held no permanent positions in his later life due to his religious heterodoxy.

The 1911 New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge described his life following conversion as follows: Thiersch was a man of sincere and profound piety, of rare classical, theological, and general culture, an enthusiastic teacher, and might have become the successor of Neander in Berlin; but, in obedience to what he believed to be a divine call, he sacrificed a brilliant academic career to his religious convictions.

He was lame; but had a very striking, highly intellectual and spiritual countenance, and an impressive voice and manner.

He sincerely believed that the Lord had restored the apostolic office and the prophetic gifts of the Apostolic Church in the Irvingite community; and, notwithstanding the apparent failure of the movement, he adhered to it till his death.