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Peter Taylor Forsyth
Peter Taylor Forsyth (1848–1921) was a Scottish preacher and theologian whose profound ministry within the Congregational Church anticipated key 20th-century theological developments. Born on May 12, 1848, in Aberdeen, Scotland, he was the eldest of five children in a modest family; his father was a postman. Forsyth excelled academically, graduating with first-class honors from the University of Aberdeen in 1869. He briefly studied under Albrecht Ritschl in Göttingen, Germany, before returning to England, where he was ordained in 1876. He served pastorates in Shipley, Yorkshire; Hackney, London; Manchester; Leicester; and Cambridge, before becoming principal of Hackney Theological College in London in 1901, a role he held until his death. He married in the late 1880s, and they had one daughter. Forsyth’s preaching career evolved from early liberalism to a robust evangelical theology centered on the cross of Christ and God’s holiness. Initially influenced by German critical theology, he experienced a personal crisis in 1878 that redirected his focus to the atonement’s moral and spiritual significance, a shift evident in his landmark sermon “God the Holy Father.” His prolific writings, including The Person and Place of Jesus Christ (1909), Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind (1907), and The Justification of God (1916), emphasized the cross as God’s self-justification amid human suffering, influencing later theologians like Karl Barth. He died on November 11, 1921, in London, leaving a legacy as a “preacher’s theologian” whose work bridged scholarly depth and pastoral urgency.
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Peter Taylor Forsyth emphasizes the profound nature of prayer, highlighting how the Spirit intercedes for us with unutterable groanings, indicating that our prayers are a response to God's initial call and movement in our hearts. He delves into the concept that our prayers are actually a result of God's first prayer for us, demonstrated through the sacrifice of His Son for our redemption. Forsyth underscores that prayer is intricately linked to the Atonement, with Christ's self-offering to God being the essence of prayer. He explains that God's love ignites our desire to pray, drawing us closer to Him as His creations destined for communion with Him.
The Prayer of God
"...the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Rom. 8:26). If our prayer reach or move Him it is because He first reached and moved us to pray. The prayer that reached heaven began there, when Christ went forth. It began when God turned to beseech us in Christ--in the appealing Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The Spirit went out with the power and function in it to return with our soul. Our prayer is the answer to God's. Herein is prayer, not that we prayed Him, but that He first prayed us, in giving His Son to be a propitiation for us. The heart of the Atonement is prayer--Christ's great self-offering to God in the Eternal Spirit. The whole rhythm of Christ's soul, so to say, was Godhead going out and returning on itself. And so God stirs and inspires all prayer which finds and moves Him. His love provokes our sacred forwardness. He does not compel us, but we cannot help it after that look, that tone, that turn of His. All say, 'I am yours if you will'; and when we will it is prayer. Any final glory of human success or destiny rises from man being God's continual creation, and destined by Him for Him. So we pray because we were made for prayer, and God draws us out by breathing Himself in.
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Peter Taylor Forsyth (1848–1921) was a Scottish preacher and theologian whose profound ministry within the Congregational Church anticipated key 20th-century theological developments. Born on May 12, 1848, in Aberdeen, Scotland, he was the eldest of five children in a modest family; his father was a postman. Forsyth excelled academically, graduating with first-class honors from the University of Aberdeen in 1869. He briefly studied under Albrecht Ritschl in Göttingen, Germany, before returning to England, where he was ordained in 1876. He served pastorates in Shipley, Yorkshire; Hackney, London; Manchester; Leicester; and Cambridge, before becoming principal of Hackney Theological College in London in 1901, a role he held until his death. He married in the late 1880s, and they had one daughter. Forsyth’s preaching career evolved from early liberalism to a robust evangelical theology centered on the cross of Christ and God’s holiness. Initially influenced by German critical theology, he experienced a personal crisis in 1878 that redirected his focus to the atonement’s moral and spiritual significance, a shift evident in his landmark sermon “God the Holy Father.” His prolific writings, including The Person and Place of Jesus Christ (1909), Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind (1907), and The Justification of God (1916), emphasized the cross as God’s self-justification amid human suffering, influencing later theologians like Karl Barth. He died on November 11, 1921, in London, leaving a legacy as a “preacher’s theologian” whose work bridged scholarly depth and pastoral urgency.