2018 marks 175th anniversary of Christian and Missionary Alliance founder’s birth
By Joanne Sloan
Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843–1919), also known as A.B. Simpson, was a Canadian preacher, theologian, author and founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), an evangelical denomination that emphasized global evangelism.
This year marks the 175th anniversary of his birth.
He was born on Dec. 15, 1843, to James Simpson and Janet Clark in Bayview, near Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Called to preach
He was raised in a strict Calvinistic Scottish tradition, and his father was an elder in the Presbyterian Church.
Simpson was saved under the preaching of a visiting evangelist from Ireland during a revival in 1859. Afterwards, God called him to preach.
He graduated from Knox College in Toronto in 1865, and was ordained in the Canada Presbyterian Church.
His first pastorate was at the large Knox Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, Ontario. He stayed there for eight years.
In 1873, Simpson left Canada for Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church, the largest Presbyterian church in Louisville, Kentucky. It was at Louisville that he first had a burden to preach the gospel to the common man.
His chance came in 1880 when he was called to the Thirteenth Street Presbyterian Church in New York City. He immediately started reaching out to the world with the hope and the joy of the gospel. He had a burden for worldwide evangelism.
In 1881 he had a spiritual experience that changed him. Having suffered from poor health for most of his life, he was healed from a serious heart ailment. He then was baptized in a Baptist church, resigned his pastorate and the Presbyterian ministry and started evangelizing to the poor and neglected masses in New York City. He founded an independent congregation later known as the Gospel Tabernacle.
In 1882, Simpson established the Missionary Training Institute (later called Nyack College). It was the first Bible institute of its kind in America.
He began gathering people with a passion for evangelism. These meetings were the beginnings of the C&MA. He served as pastor of the Alliance until a year before his death.
Simpson was a prolific writer and wrote 101 books, 80 hymns, periodicals, articles, booklets and curriculums, which had a great influence on countless people.
Last words
On Oct. 28, 1919, he went into a coma and died the next day. Family members said his last words were to God, a prayer for all the missionaries he had helped to send throughout the world.
He and his wife are buried on the Rockland County Campus of Nyack College in New York.
Simpson’s legacy lives on today. In 2017 the C&MA had 500,000 members in America with 2,000 churches.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Joanne Sloan, a member of First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, has been a published writer of articles and books for 30 years. She has a bachelor’s degree double majoring in history and English from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University–Commerce) and a master’s degree specializing in English from the University of Arkansas (1978).
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