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A.T. Pierson


Arthur Tappan Pierson was an American Presbyterian pastor, early fundamentalist leader, and writer who preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over fifty books, and gave Bible lectures as part of a transatlantic preaching ministry that made him famous in Scotland and England.

He was a consulting editor for the original "Scofield Reference Bible" (1909) for his friend, C. I. Scofield and was also a friend of D. L. Moody, George Mueller (whose biography 'George Muller of Bristol' he wrote), Adoniram Judson Gordon, and C. H. Spurgeon, whom he succeeded in the pulpit of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, from 1891 to 1893. Throughout his career, Pierson filled several pulpit positions around the world as an urban pastor who cared passionately for the poor.

Pierson was also a pioneer advocate of faith missions who was determined to see the world evangelized in his generation. Prior to 1870, there had been only about 2000 missionaries from the United States in full-time service, roughly ten percent of whom had engaged in work among Native Americans.

A great movement of foreign missions began in the 1880s and accelerated into the twentieth century, in some measure due to the work of Pierson. He acted as the elder statesman of the student missionary movement and was the leading evangelical advocate of foreign missions in the late 1800s.

      Arthur T. Pierson preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over fifty books, and his Bible lectures made him widely known in America. He was a consulting editor for his friend, C. I. Scofield, with the original Scofield Reference Bible (1909), and was the author of the classic biography, 'George Muller of Bristol'... A. T. Pierson's association with D. L. Moody and his Northfield Conferences were the breeding ground for Pierson's determination to see the world evangelized in his generation.

      This deepening of the Christian life in Pierson saw him author one of his most spiritually significant books, 'In Christ Jesus' 1898.

      Pierson attended Hamilton College and Union Theological Seminary. In 1860, he married Sarah Frances Benedict; they had seven children, all of whom were converted before the age of 15 and grew up to serve as missionaries, pastors, or lay leaders. He pastored in Binghamton and Waterford, New York; Detroit, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

      After retiring, he continued to preach at churches and conferences at home and abroad. He was a contemporary and friend of many Christian leaders, including Dwight Moody, Adoniram Gordon, George Mueller, and Charles Spurgeon. During Spurgeon's last illness, Pierson filled the pulpit of Metropolitan Tabernacle for several months.

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A.T. Pierson

A. Scripture Texts That Moulded George Müller

CERTAIN marked Scripture precepts and promises had such a singular influence upon this man of God, and so often proved the guides to his course, that they illustrate Psalm cxix.105: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path." Those texts which, at the parting of the way, became to h... Read More
A.T. Pierson

B. Apprehension Of Truth

SOME points which God began to show Mr. Müller while at Teignmouth in 1829. 1. That the word of God alone is our standard of judgment in spiritual things; that it can be explained only by the Holy Spirit; and that in our day, as well as in former times, He is the teacher of His people. The office of... Read More
A.T. Pierson

C. Separation From The London Society, Etc.

IT became a point of solemn consideration with me, whether I could remain connected with the Society in the usual way. My chief objections were these: 1. If I were sent out by the Society, it was more than probable, yea almost needful, if I were to leave England, that I should labour on the Continen... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 1. From His Birth To His New Birth

A HUMAN life, filled with the presence and power of God, is one of God's choicest gifts to His church and to the world. Things which are unseen and eternal seem, to the carnal man, distant and indistinct, while what is seen and temporal is vivid and real. Practically, any object in nature that can b... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 10. The Word Of God And Prayer

HABIT both shows and makes the man, for it is at once historic and prophetic, the mirror of the man as he is and the mould of the man as he is to be. At this point, therefore, special attention may properly be given to the two marked habits which had principally to do with the man we are studying. E... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 11. Trials Of Faith And Helpers To Faith

God has His own mathematics: witness that miracle of the loaves and fishes. Our Lord said to His disciples: "Give ye them to eat," and as they divided, He multiplied, the scanty provision; as they subtracted from it He added to it; as they decreased it by distributing, He increased it for distributi... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 12. New Lessons In God's School Of Prayer

A teacher must also be a learner, and therefore only he who continues to learn is competent to continue to teach. Nothing but new lessons, daily mastered, can keep testimony fresh and vitalizing and enable us to give advance lessons. Instead of being always engaged in a sort of review, our teaching ... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 13. Following The Pillar Of Cloud And Fire

"THE steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord." (Psalm xxxvii.23.) Some one quaintly adds, "Yes, and the stops, too!" The pillar of cloud and fire is a symbol of that divine leadership which guides both as to forward steps and intervals of rest. Mr. Müller found it blessed to follow, one step at ... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 14. God's Building: The New Orphan Houses

How complex are the movements of God's providence? Some events are themselves eventful. Like the wheels in Ezekiel's vision-- a wheel in the middle of a wheel,-- they involve other issues within their mysterious mechanism, and constitute epochs of history. Such an epochal event was the building of t... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 15. The Manifold Grace Of God

SOME one has quaintly said, in commenting upon the Twenty-third Psalm, that "the coach in which the Lord's saints ride has not only a driver, but two footmen"-- "goodness and mercy shall follow me." Surely these two footmen of the Lord, in their celestial livery of grace, followed George Müller all ... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 16. The Shadow Of A Great Sorrow

"WITH clouds He covereth the light." No human life is without some experience of clouded skies and stormy days, and sometimes "the clouds return after the rain." It is a blessed experience to recognize the silver lining on the darkest storm-cloud, and, better still, to be sure of the shining of God'... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 17. The Period Of World-Wide Witness

GOD'S real answers to prayer are often seeming denials. Beneath the outward request He hears the voice of the inward desire, and He responds to the mind of the Spirit rather than to the imperfect and perhaps mistaken words in which the yearning seeks expression. Moreover, His infinite wisdom sees th... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 18. Faith And Patience In Serving

QUANTITY of service is of far less importance than quality. To do well, rather than to do much, will be the motto of him whose main purpose is to please God. Our Lord bade His disciples tarry until endued with power from on high, because it is such enduement that gives to all witness and work the ce... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 19. At Evening-Time-- Light

THE closing scene of this beautiful and eventful life history has an interest not altogether pathetic. Müller seems like an elevated mountain, on whose summit the evening sun shines in lingering splendour, and whose golden peak rises far above the ordinary level and belongs to heaven more than earth... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 2. The New Birth And The New Life

THE lost days of sin, now forever past, the days of heaven upon earth began to dawn, to grow brighter till the perfect day. We enter the second period of this life we are reviewing. After a score of years of evil-doing George Müller was converted to God, and the radical nature of the change striking... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 20The Summary Of The Life-Work

DEATH shuts the door upon earthly service, whatever door it may open to other forms and spheres of activity. There are many intimations that service beyond the grave is both unceasing and untiring: the blessed dead "rest indeed from their labours"-- toilsome and painful tasks-- "but their work's" ac... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 21. The Church Life And Growth

THROUGHOUT Mr. Müller's journal we meet scattered and fragmentary suggestions as to the true conception of Christian teaching and practice, the nature and office of the Christian ministry, the principles which should prevail in church conduct, the mutual relations of believers, and the Spirit's rela... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 22. A Glance At The Gifts And The Givers

THERE is One who still sits over against the Treasury, watching the gifts cast into it, and impartially weighing their worth, estimating the rich man's millions and the widow's mites, not by the amount given, but by the motives which impel and the measure of self-sacrifice accepted for the Lord's sa... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 23. God's Witness To The Work

THE eleventh chapter of Hebrews-- that "Westminster Abbey" where Old Testament saints have a memorial before God-- gives a hint of a peculiar reward which faith enjoys, even in this life, as an earnest and foretaste of its final recompense. By faith "the elders obtained a good report," that is, they... Read More
A.T. Pierson

Chapter 24. Last Looks, Backward And Forward

THE mountain-climber, at the sunset hour, naturally takes a last lingering look backward at the prospect visible from the lofty height, before he begins his descent to the valley. And, before we close this volume, we as naturally cast one more glance backward over this singularly holy and useful lif... Read More

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