Quote by 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.