Tag Archives: moody bible institute

Arthur Walkington Pink Calvinist Writer

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Arthur Walkington Pink was born to Christian parents on April 1, 1886, in Nottingham, England.  Early in his life he became involved with the Theosophical Society, even becoming one of their chief speakers for this occult gnostic group.

But conversion at the age of 22 (1908) through his father’s patient admonitions from Scripture – based on Proverbs 14:12 – broke the bondage of this cult and set his feet in a new direction. Influenced by Moody and Sankey’s 1880 British tour, Arthur Pink enrolled in the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago.  Six weeks later he “dropped out”, telling a lecturer that he felt he was “wasting his time”.

There followed various pastorates in California, Kentucky, South Carolina and Australia, starting with Silverton, Colorado – he moved some 16 times between 1910 and 1940 – preaching and studying the Word of God.

He bade farewell to the dispensational theology of Moody Bible Institute and became adamant in his Calvinistic viewpoint.  He also harshly criticised the Scofield Bible.

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He married Vera E Russell in 1916. His first major published work was Divine Inspiration Of The Bible (1917). The following year he published The Sovereignty Of God, selling less than 2000 copies.

During a three year stay in Australia he ministered with the Baptist Union of New South Wales, until they asked that he state his views at a special Ministers’ Fraternal meeting on 8 September, 1925.  This resulted in a “unanimous resolve” that Pink was out of Baptist circles!  (Reformation Today, August, 1972).

Pink returned to England for a year then spent eight years engaged in itinerant ministry back in the USA.

Eventually he moved to the Isle of Lewis, at the northern tip of Scotland, where he lived an isolated life and died of anaemia in Stornoway, Scotland on 15 July, 1952.

For 30 years he had written, and published, Studies in the Scriptures – a monthly magazine with less than 1000 regular readers.

His volumes on Genesis, Exodus, Elijah and Elisha, and the Sovereignty of God, are still widely read.  Iain Murray has penned Pink’s biography (Banner of Truth Publications), and many of his books are still in print. Murray noted that “the widespread circulation of his writings after his death made him one of the most influential evangelical authors in the second half of the twentieth century”. Pink’s books prompted renewed interest in expository preaching and biblical living.

Warren Wiersbe writes: “He was not a great theologian, and some of his exegesis was weak, but it is impossible to miss the author’s love for Christ…” (Good News Broadcaster, December, 1983).


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This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

Dwight Lyman Moody the Greatest Evangelist

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Dwight Lyman Moody was born February 5, 1837, in Northfield, Massachusetts, USA, to solid New England Puritan Stock. He was the sixth of nine children. For 200 years seven generations of his ancestors had lived in the Connecticut Valley, and it was to his hometown of Northfield that Moody loved to return and there he hosted much of his teaching, including the successful Northfield Conferences.

His father died when he was but 4 years of age, leaving the mother destitute. Creditors even took the firewood, so the children stayed in bed until school time, in order to stay warm. From age 13 there was to be no more schooling. Moody’s mother demanded that her children attend church, keen to see them find salvation. Moody had the fear of God and wanted to please Him, although he did not know how to find salvation in Christ.

In the back room of his uncle’s shoe store in Boston 16 year-old Moody was led to Christ by Edward Kimball, his Sunday-School teacher. When Kimball presented Moody with the love of Christ the young man was keen to respond and the transformation was immediate. Moody recounts of the transformation, “Before my conversion I worked towards the Cross, but since then I have worked from the Cross; then I worked to be saved; now I work because I am saved.”

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Moody was illiterate, unable to read or write at the age of 17. But he became a dedicated student and gained much from his attention to life and to lessons. His zeal for the Lord made little impression on his church, which saw theological knowledge and correct doctrine as important for salvation. A year after his conversion Moody was denied church membership, since he was “not sufficiently instructed in Christian doctrine”.

The following year found him in Chicago, working with the Plymouth Congregational Church where he became a fervent soul-winner. He rented a pew and filled it each Sunday. Then he rented more, until each week he filled four pews.

When Charles Finney’s great awakening reached Chicago Moody was more than ready for action. At the same time his employment was also blessed, as he became such a successful shoe salesman that he was promoted to commercial traveller.

His next venture was to join a Sunday School which had more teachers than students. He set out to find his own pupils and quickly grew a huge gathering. He followed that with a second Sunday School project which outgrew its hall, so it kept expanding. Then, by reaching out to the parents of the students, he was able to build up a huge audience which thrilled to his excellent and powerful preaching. From the base of 1,500 students Moody was able to build his first church.

However, despite the popularity of his preaching, Moody had his critics among the pedantic folk who were offended by his poor grammar and illiterate modes of speech.

To one man who told him he had bad grammar, Moody replied, “I know I make mistakes and I lack many things, but I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got.” He then gave the man a searching gaze and asked, “Look, here, friend, you’ve got grammar enough — what are you doing with it for the Master?”

Moody gave up his successful employment to work for the Lord full time. He became very active and successful with the YMCA work – when the “C” meant “Christian” in those days – the building up his remarkable Sunday-School … ministering in the Civil War to soldiers of both sides … and with his association with Ira D. Sankey.

In 1867 Moody went to Britain to hear Spurgeon preach, meet George Mueller and well known evangelist, Henry Varley. At a public park in Dublin Varley told Moody, “The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully consecrated to Him.” Moody was struck by the fact that the “man” Varley described did not have to be great, learned or smart, but just ‘a man’. Moody decided to be that man.

Moody met Sankey through the YMCA in 1870 and invited Sankey to sing for some open air meetings. Sankey soon gave up his own work and together Moody and Sankey became the world’s best-known evangelistic team on both sides of the Atlantic.

This semi-literate preacher founded the Chicago Bible Institute (today known as the Moody Bible Institute) – a mighty publishing house that is still to the forefront in issuing evangelical literature – and Bible conferences in his hometown. World famous speakers were invited to speak (like Campbell Morgan) and, alas, some not so evangelical (like Henry Drummond).

Moody’s life and his famous Northfield Conferences associate him with many great names of Christian ministry. One that bears special mention is the famous English boy preacher, Henry Moorehouse, who preached on the love of God so constantly and with such compelling words, that Moody’s own preaching and ministry were greatly deepened by the impact.

It is interesting to note that the salvation message of Moody’s Sunday School teacher, Edward Kimball, was also centred on the love of God. This one message seems to be very significant in impacting Moody’s life and ministry.

In 1871 Moody met two ladies in his congregation who prayed earnestly that he would be filled with the Spirit. This created a great hunger in him which he carried during the great Chicago Fire tragedy. While in New York raising funds for those in need he experienced a touch from God which greatly increased his effectiveness. The same messages now brought much greater results. Of that experience Moody said, “I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand.”

Moody and Sankey drew the largest crowds ever during their first British tour. From then on, both in England and the USA, they spoke to and led to Christ multiplied thousands. On at least one occasion 30,000 people stood outside a meeting hall, because there was no room for them inside.

Moody died on 22 December, 1899. “If this is death, there is no valley …” his friends heard him say. “This is glorious, I have been within the gates, and I saw the children. Earth is receding; Heaven approaching. God is calling me! Hallelujah!”

It has been estimated that before he died – aged 62 – “one million people were converted to Jesus Christ” as the result of his ministry (Hall of Fame, by E. Towns, page 133).

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Isobel Selina Miller Kuhn Tells Her Story about Missions in Asia

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Isobel Selina Miller Kuhn was born on December 17, 1901, in Toronto, Canada, to a Presbyterian

home, where her father was a lay-preacher and her grandfather a Presbyterian minister.

Yet when her English professor at University of British Columbia sneered at her faith she quickly became agnostic, to avoid the shame of Christ. However, she was distressed to find that the man she planned to marry was not only cheating on her but intended to do so once they were wed. This led her to thoughts of suicide, but also to reaching out to God. She found peace through prayer and thus began a slow journey into a dynamic faith.

In the summer of 1924 she met a missionary conference speaker who became her mentor and friend, James O Fraser. Thus Isobel ended up at Moody Bible Institute, where she met her future husband, John Kuhn, and from there she went to China.

For 27 years she worked in Asia with the China Inland Mission. Her experiences are told in a series of eight best-selling autobiographical volumes.

By Searching tells of her early life in Canada, the clash with the English professor during her university days, her studies at Moody Bible Institute, and subsequent application to C.I.M. And their rejection of her application: “You are proud, disobedient and likely to be a trouble-maker” (page 98).

But the book concludes with her sailing for China, on 11 October, 1928.

China Inland Mission is a mission organisation set up by English missionary Hudson Taylor on 25 June 1865 in Brighton, while he was on leave from his own exploits in China. Isobel worked among the Lisu people of Yunnan Province, China.

Her second volume, Vistas, takes up the story of her missionary adventures, her marriage on 4 November, 1929, to John Kuhn (an “irresistible force collides with an immovable object” is how she described it!) More than once she “put on her hat and coat” and walked out on him! But she always came back.

“Without God’s help,” wrote her biographer, “most marriages would not have endured the shattering experiences she and John shared” (One Vision Only, by C. Canfield. Vistas, by I. Kuhn is included in this volume).

Isobel made a significant impact in China, especially through her innovative “Rainy Season Bible School”, which taught the locals who were inactive during the wet season. From these classes evangelists were raised up who took the gospel across China. Of the 18,000 Lisu who lived in Fugong in 1950 – 3,400 professed faith in Christ. As of 2007, there are estimated to be 80-90 percent of the 70,000 making the same profession.

Forced to leave China around 1950 due to “violent guerrilla warfare”, the Kuhns continued their missionary work in Thailand. The story is told in Ascent to the Tribes.

But in 1955 Isobel was flown home to the United States, where she died of cancer in March, 1957.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Blind Helen Howarth Lemmel Turns Our Eyes

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Helen Howarth Lemmel was born in Wardle, England to a Wesleyan Methodist pastor and his wife on November 14, 1863.

Twelve years later the family migrated to America. Helen lived briefly in Mississippi before settling in Wisconsin. Helen’s singing ability soon became evident, gaining her a reputation as a brilliant singer, even studying private voice in Germany for four years. She traveled widely throughout the midwest during the early 1900′s, giving concerts in many churches.

In time, she married a wealthy European and taught voice at the Moody Bible Institute and then at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. When she became blind her husband abandoned her, which was just one of the many heartaches Helen struggled with during midlife.

A brilliant singer and musician, Mrs. Lemmel’s remarkable literary abilities were also widely recognized. She composed more than 500 hymns and poems and also authored a very successful book for children, ‘Story of the Bible’, and composed many musical pieces for children. She continued her musical and literary pursuits until her death just 13 days before her ninety-eighth birthday.

One day, in 1918, when Helen was aged 55, a missionary friend gave her a tract entitled “Focused.” It contained a statement that had a profound impact on her. “So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.”

“I stood still, ” Helen recalled, “and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but nonetheless dictated by the Holy Spirit.”

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace.

Helen’s new hymn was published in London, England in 1918, in the form of a pamphlet. Four years later, it was included in a collection of sixty-seven of Helen’s songs, titled Glad Songs. This year at the Keswick Bible Conference in northern England the hymn was introduced and became immediately a popular favourite. It has since been included in most evangelical hymnals and been translated into many languages.

Those who knew Mary in her later years tell of her joy and enthusiasm. Though living on government welfare in a sparse bedroom, whenever asked how she was doing, she would reply, ‘I’m doing well in the things that count.’ Mary was always composing hymns but she had no way of writing them down so she would call friends at all hours and get them to record her lyrics before she forgot them.

Helen had a small plastic keyboard by her bed. There she would play, sing and cry. “One day God is going to bless me with a great heavenly keyboard,” she’d say. “I can hardly wait!”

Helen died on November 1, 1961, in Seattle, Washington, almost 98 years of age.

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History, which I previously considered to be a little stuffy and of little practical value. I find in the process of updating Don’s Christian Diary that I am being constantly refreshed, illuminated or challenged by the lives of those who have gone before.

John and Betty Stam Martyred in China

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This is the day that John and Betty Stam married, in 1933.

John Stam was born in 1907 in Paterson, NJ, and Betty (Scott) Stam was born in 1906 in Albion, MI. They met during their years at Moody Bible Institute where both felt a call to China. Both decided to go under the auspices of the China Inland Mission.

Betty had graduated a year earlier than John and sailed for that distant land in the autumn of 1931. The following year John completed his studies and sailed for China, but was stationed in a different region to Betty.

They met again … and were united in marriage just over a year later.

Baby Helen Priscilla was born in a Methodist hospital in Wuhu in September 1934 at a time when the civil war between government forces and the communist Red Army had already begun.

In November the Stams returned to the remote brick-walled village of Tsingteh, in South Anhwei, where they had set up a small shopfront house as their preaching chapel. Tsingteh was accessible to the outside world only by stone paths cut through the mountains.

John proved to be an able linguist, not only learning the language but being able to reproach conference messages he had heard, in Chinese.

In early December rumours ran rife that communist rebels were in the area. The village leaders hastily fled, fearing for their lives. The Stams were unsure what to do or even if the rumours were true.

The bandits entered the village through the unguarded East Gate and then beat down the door to the Stam’s home. John urged the invaders to sit at the table while he served them tea.

The couple were ordered to leave and then paraded down the street in their underwear, with Betty holding baby Helen. They journeyed for 12 miles and were then locked in a mud hut overnight. A ransom of $20,000 was demanded – to no avail.

Overnight John wrote a letter to the CIM leaders. “My wife, baby and myself are today in the hands of communist bandits. Whether we will be released or not noone knows. May God be magnified in our bodies, whether by life or by death. Philippians 1:20″

Betty fed and wrapped her baby, putting money and food into her blanket, then hid the child in a pile of heavy winter bedding. On 6 (or 8?) December, 1934, they were beheaded.

A courageous Christian, Mr Lo, followed the trail, once he thought it was safe to do so, and found the Stam’s bodies. He did not know what had become of the baby but found her quite by accident. The baby had slept without a cry for 27 hours, saving it from death.

All that remained of this heroic couple was laid to rest by faithful Chinese believers, who also cared for baby Helen Priscilla until she could be returned to the United States.

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History, which I previously considered to be a little stuffy and of little practical value. I find in the process of updating Don’s Christian Diary that I am being constantly refreshed, illuminated or challenged by the lives of those who have gone before.

Charles McCallon Alexander Music and Bibles

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This is the day that Charles McCallon Alexander was born in a log house near Cloyd’s Creek, East Tennessee, USA, in 1867.

His father, John Darius Alexander, played the ‘fiddle’ and led the singing at the local Presbyterian Church. He also taught Charles to read music at a young age and to beat time with his hands. His mother was also a great influence, reading Moody’s sermons and talking much with him and his siblings. By the age of 9, he had read the entire Bible.

At the age of 13 young Charles “rose and walked timidly to the front (of the church) and made his first public confession of Christ” (C.M. Alexander, by his wife, Helen, page 21).

He studied music at Maryville University and eventually became a Professor of Music. His father’s death was pivotal in clinching his life of ministry. Doubting his father’s salvation, Charles asked God to confirm it to him, promising to serve the Lord if He did. When that assurance came to his heart as he peered up to the stars, Charles kept his word and engaged in Christian ministry.

After studying at Moody Bible Institute, he did evangelistic work with Mr. M. B. Williams, Georgia State Secretary for the YMCA for 8 years. He was also Billy Sunday’s song leader in Chicago.

In 1902 he found himself on a worldwide tour with Dr R.A. Torrey, starting in Australia before heading to England the following year. It was Alexander who led the massed choirs (“The Glory Song” became a firm favourite!) – and compiled the hymnbook that bears his name.

In Birmingham he married Helen Cadbury (her family having revolutionised the chocolate industry), and later travelled the world again, leading choirs for J. Wilbur Chapman.

Charles wanted to promote Bible reading, confident that it would lead people to faith. In 1906 he heard news of the “Testament Circles” in Philadelphia and that prompted Helen to tell her husband about her school initiative with “The Pocket Testament League”.

Alexander decided to revive his wife’s earlier initiative and in 1908 it was launched in Philadelphia and actively begun in Melbourne, Australia in 1909. During The Great War thousands of British and American soldiers were impacted by the league, and many testimonies of salvations poured in.

C.M. Alexander died in Birmingham, England, on 13 October, 1920, at the age of 53.

Helen continued the work of The Pocket Testament League and by 1936, there were 5 million members in TPTL. She died in 1969 at the age of 92, having seen millions of New Testaments carried in many pockets.

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History, which I previously considered to be a little stuffy and of little practical value. I find in the process of updating Don’s Christian Diary that I am being constantly refreshed, illuminated or challenged by the lives of those who have gone before.

Louis Thompson Talbot Leaves Booze for the Pulpit

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This is the day that Louis Thompson Talbot was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1889.

His father, an assistant manager for Tooth’s Brewery, had married Bessie on the very day she had arrived from England. In the early 1900s Louis’ older brother, Jim, was converted at a gospel meeting in Redfern, New South Wales. The preacher was Loyal L. Wirt, who had served as a missionary in Alaska, and was the father of Sherwood E. Wirt, who later became editor of Billy Graham’s Decision magazine.

Jim felt the call to Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, and the clash with his liquor-selling father was awful.

With the help of his mother’s prayers, Louis, now in his manhood and still unsaved, became restless, dissatisfied, disillusioned with the liquor business. He dreamed of America and a new life. His brother Jim was to be a preacher: “Why couldn’t there be two preachers in the family?” So “Louie” followed his brother Jim to Moody Bible Institute, ready for a fresh adventure.

Louis had some form of a conversion experience when Wilbur Chapman preached in Sydney Town Hall in 1909. The following year he travelled to the USA. He was far along in his studies at Moody when, under the preaching of John Harper of London, he was genuinely converted.

In the years that followed, Louis Talbot became a well-known name in the evangelical world. He went from pastorate to pastorate in the United States and Canada until he received a call to the great Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, the very church the mighty R.A. Torrey had founded. Dr. Talbot was also president of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA). He had met and married Audrey Hogue while pastoring a Congregational church in Paris, Texas.

The story of Dr. Louis Talbot’s activities in Los Angeles is impressive. He came to a church of 1,200 discouraged members and left it with 3,500 and the future bright. He came to a debt of over a million dollars and left the church free from debt and with thousands of dollars raised on new promotional enterprises. He extended the missionary program to where literally hundreds of American missionaries and native workers circle the globe, supported by this great church. There were 300 students in the Bible Institute when he arrived but there were more than a thousand when he finished. His ministry over the air was phenomenal.

Billy Graham wrote in the Foreword to Talbot’s biography, “Dr Louis Talbot was one of the spiritual giants of this generation. As pastor, Bible teacher, author and educator he influenced not only me but thousands of theological students and pastors. His faithfulness to the infallibility of the Scriptures and the gospel has been an inspiration to me for many years” (For This I Was Born, by C. Talbot).

A Talbot quote which sums up his evangelical conviction says, “Whether or not one believes in its reality, the resurrection of Christ is of vital consequence to every person on earth. It is the “touchstone of destiny” for all mankind.”

After many years as president of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Louis Talbot died on 22 January, 1976.

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History, which I previously considered to be a little stuffy and of little practical value. I find in the process of updating Don’s Christian Diary that I am being constantly refreshed, illuminated or challenged by the lives of those who have gone before.

Wendell Loveless at the Moody Bible Institute

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This is the day that … Wendell P Loveless died in Honolulu, in 1987.

“I was born in Wheaton,” he had told an interviewer the year before he died, “which is the Protestant Vatican!”

After his father’s death, when Wendell was still an infant, the rest of the family lived with the godly grandparents.  They attended Wheaton College Church, and “before I was saved,” Wendell tells, “I was leading the choir.”

He studied singing, piano and drama – God was preparing him for future service. In 1914, he was chosen as a member of an entertainment group that toured the United States for six seasons, giving him experience and training in voice, piano, dramatics, and master-of-ceremonies duties, which he used later in Christian ministry.

During World War I he was an officer in the US Marines.  He was married in 1920 (“neither of us knew the Lord,” he said) – and was chaplain of a Masonic Lodge.

But, watching his eldest child playing, he says:  “The thought came to me with terrific force – I’ve got to set a better example to my son!”

Wendell Loveless began to read the Bible – and “when I came to Romans, I was saved!”

Seeing the incompatibility between Masonic teaching and Christianity, he resigned from the Lodge.

James Gray, the president of Moody Bible Institute, invited him to join the staff in a management role.

Then WMBI, Moody’s radio station, commenced – and Wendell Loveless was the first manager … “along with a secretary – that was the radio department!”  Today WMBI has over 160 full-time workers.

In 1928 he wrote his first chorus …
          Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before….

Others flowed from his pen – Altogether lovely …, You’ll never know real peace ‘til you know Jesus …, All because of Calvary….

After 20 years with WMBI, Wendell Loveless pastored three churches, Wheaton, Illinois; Boca Raton, Florida; and Honolulu, Hawaii, and lectured at the Moody Bible Institute.

At the age of 90 he suffered a stroke that slowed him down a little – some days, he told a reporter, he could only type 25 letters because he could no longer use his right hand.

Living in Honolulu, where his son Bob was “chaplain of Mid-Pacific Institute”, Wendell P. Loveless went home to glory at the age of 95.

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History, which I previously considered to be a little stuffy and of little practical value. I find in the process of updating Don’s Christian Diary that I am being constantly refreshed, illuminated or challenged by the lives of those who have gone before.

Vance Houston Havner 75 Years a Preacher

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This is the day that …Vance Houston Havner died, in 1986.

He was born in a small community nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina (USA), October 17, 1901.

He made his “peace with God” in the woods after hearing his father preach an old-fashioned gospel message. Vance was 10 years-old at the time.

By the age of 12 he was licensed to preach by a local Baptist church – and ordained at the age of 15. Newspaper records of the “boy preacher” speaking to a 1,800 strong congregation – when he was only 12 – are incredible to read.

He found himself drifting into the ‘new’ popular liberal theology. “It did not become malignant in my case,” he later wrote, “but I did have enough of the virus in my system to preach popular sermons that converted nobody.” Then he read Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism and returned to the evangelical faith.

He married Sara Allred in 1940 – and preached on the day she died 33 years later (Just a Preacher, page 19).

His biography, Journey from Jugtown, by D. White, and his own autobiography, Three Score and Ten, tell the whole remarkable story.

After a series of Baptist pastorates, Vance Havner devoted himself to an itinerant ministry across America. He was also a regular speaker at Moody Bible Institute Founder’s Week.

His solid prophet-like preaching was combined with a homespun folksy style that earned him the nickname “The Will Rogers of the Pulpit”.

He wrote 38 books – and every one a gem!

Of this unique man of God Billy Graham writes: “I do not know of any man in my generation who has stirred revival fires in the hearts of so many people throughout the nation as Vance Havner. Great crowds of people have packed churches and auditoriums to hear him preach. Whenever I see a book by Vance Havner I immediately purchase it …”

Dr. Havner once said, “I’ve never known a time when I didn’t want to preach. The desire was always there.” In 1973, he was named “Preacher of the Year,” by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Protestant leaders called him, “The Dean of America’s Revival Preachers.” During a hospital stay in the late 1970′s, Vance was told by Billy Graham, “You can’t go home just yet. We preachers need more sermon material!”

On 12 August, 1986, this pulpit giant went home to be with the Lord for whom he had preached for 75 years.

Some Vance Havner quotes :

“We are the salt of the earth, mind you, not the sugar. Our ministry is to truly cleanse and not just to change the taste.”

“Too many churches start at eleven o’clock sharp, and end at twelve o’clock dull.”

“Plenty of church members are shaky about what they believe, while not many are shaken by what they believe.”

“Some preachers ought to put more fire into their sermons, or more sermons into the fire.”

“The church is a hospital for sinners and not a museum for saints.”

“The preacher is to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.”

Christian should attend to, “the outliving of the inliving Christ.”

“To some, Christianity is an argument. To many, it is a performance. To a few, it is an experience.”

“George Palmer said before he died: ‘I’m homesick for Heaven.’ It’s the hope of dying that has kept me alive this long.”

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com.

A.T. Pierson, Spurgeon’s Choice

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This is the day that … Dr A.T. Pierson was almost drowned. It was on Vineyard Lake, 1877.

Arthur Tappan Pierson was born on 6 March, 1837, reared in a godly home, and converted during “special revival meetings in the Methodist church”.

At the age of 23 he was ordained in the Presbyterian ministry, and married Sarah Benedict the same year.

It was during his second pastorate that the boating accident occurred. As the boat in which they’d been fishing sank, Pierson and his three small children found themselves in a desperate situation. He could swim … the children could not, at least, not the distance to the shore. For half an hour they clung to the upturned boat, crying to any who might hear them – and committing themselves to God’s keeping. “Finally a woman heard their calls for help and came to the rescue. She had never handled oars and Mr Pierson, with his head just above water, had to direct her how to use them” (Speakers’Bible, “Judges”, page 392).

Safe home Dr Pierson wrote a “Promise to God”, thanking Him for the deliverance and promising to serve Him henceforth. The three children signed it.

In the years that followed Dr A.T. Pierson became a well-known Bible teacher on both sides of the Atlantic.

When Spurgeon took ill in 1891, it was Dr Pierson he requested to fill the Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpit. This he did … and continued to do so for a time after Spurgeon’s death.

This ministry came to a rather bitter conclusion as the congregation was divided as to whether Pierson should continue as pastor (he had submitted to believer’s baptism in the meantime), or whether Spurgeon’s son, Thomas, should come and minister. “The rift in the ranks of the membership went deep,” writes W.Y. Fullerton, “even to the severing of family relationships and sundering lifelong ties” (Thomas Spurgeon, page 155). Dr Pierson was outvoted, three to one.

Back in USA, Dr Pierson lectured at Moody Bible Institute, was a contributor to the notes in the Scofield Reference Bible, editor of the Missionary Review, author of numerous books (including the famous biography of George Mueller), and in demand as a convention speaker.

He was one of the few Americans invited to speak at the Keswick Convention in England.

The story is told of Dr Pierson collecting funds for a special object … and a wealthy man said to him, “If I had to preach your funeral sermon I would take as my text: “And the beggar died,” to which Dr Pierson replied, “I would not object to that … as long as you finish the verse, ‘And he was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom’” (Luke 16:22).

On 3 June, 1911, the angels did just that!

For more detailed information about Dr Pierson go to: http://www.reformedreader.org/rbb/pierson/mrphiladelphia.htm

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com.