Theodore Ledyard Cuyler (January 10, 1822–February 26, 1909) was an American Presbyterian preacher, pastor, and author, renowned for his eloquent preaching and influential leadership at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York, which became the largest Presbyterian congregation in the United States under his care. Born in Aurora, New York, to a lawyer father who died before Cuyler was five and a mother whose name is less documented, he graduated from Princeton University in 1841 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1846. His ministry began in Burlington, New Jersey, where he revitalized a struggling church, leading to a call in 1853 to pastor the Market Street Dutch Reformed Church in New York City. Cuyler’s preaching career soared when he took the helm of Park Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn in 1860, overseeing the construction of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, completed in 1862. Over 30 years, he welcomed 4,460 members, nearly half on confession of faith, drawing luminaries like Charles Spurgeon and D.L. Moody to his circle. A theological conservative, he supported temperance and abolitionism, notably inviting Quaker Sarah Smiley to preach in 1872—the first woman in a Presbyterian pulpit—stirring controversy among peers. Resigning in 1890 due to health, he continued a “ministry at large,” writing over 4,000 articles and numerous books, including God’s Light on Dark Clouds, born from personal loss after two infants and a 21-year-old daughter died.