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A.B. Simpson

Albert Benjamin "A.B." Simpson (1843 - 1919). Canadian-American preacher, author, and founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), born in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Raised Presbyterian, he experienced conversion at 14 and studied at Knox College, Toronto, graduating in 1865. Ordained, he pastored in Ontario, then Louisville, Kentucky, where his church grew to 1,000 members. In 1881, after a healing experience, he moved to New York, founding the independent Gospel Tabernacle to reach the marginalized. In 1882, he launched The Word, Work, and World magazine, and in 1887, merged two ministries to form the C&MA, emphasizing the "Fourfold Gospel": Christ as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. Simpson authored 101 books, including The Fourfold Gospel, and composed hymns like "Jesus Only." In 1883, he started Nyack College, training 6,000 missionaries. Married to Margaret Henry in 1866, they had six children. His global vision sent 1,500 missionaries to 40 countries by 1919. Simpson’s teachings on holiness and divine healing shaped modern Pentecostalism.
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Sermon Summary
A.B. Simpson emphasizes that we are God's workmanship, created for good works that He has prepared for us. He encourages believers to serve not in their own strength but by relying on Christ's resources and might. Simpson highlights the importance of faith in our work, even when we feel weak and helpless, assuring that God will provide the power and fruits of our labor. He draws on the metaphor of working in the wilderness, where true fruitfulness often emerges from barrenness. Ultimately, he calls us to walk and work by faith, leading to the salvation of souls and eternal fruitfulness.
Scriptures
We Are His Workmanship
Christ sends us to serve Him, not in our own strength, but in His resources and might. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before [prepared] that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). We do not have to prepare them but to wear them as garments made to order for every occasion of our lives. We must receive them by faith and go forth in His work, believing that He is with us and in us as our all-sufficiency for wisdom, faith, love, prayer, power and every grace and gift that our work requires. In this work of faith we shall have to feel weak and helpless and even have little consciousness of power. But if we believe and go forward, He will be the power and He will send the fruits. The most useful services we render are those which, like the sweet fruits of the wilderness, spring from hours of barrenness. [I] will bring her into the wilderness, . . . And I will give her vineyards from thence (Hosea 2:14-15). Let us learn to work as well as walk by faith. Then we shall receive the end of our faith, the salvation of precious souls, and our lives will bear fruit which shall be manifest throughout all eternity.
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Albert Benjamin "A.B." Simpson (1843 - 1919). Canadian-American preacher, author, and founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), born in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Raised Presbyterian, he experienced conversion at 14 and studied at Knox College, Toronto, graduating in 1865. Ordained, he pastored in Ontario, then Louisville, Kentucky, where his church grew to 1,000 members. In 1881, after a healing experience, he moved to New York, founding the independent Gospel Tabernacle to reach the marginalized. In 1882, he launched The Word, Work, and World magazine, and in 1887, merged two ministries to form the C&MA, emphasizing the "Fourfold Gospel": Christ as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. Simpson authored 101 books, including The Fourfold Gospel, and composed hymns like "Jesus Only." In 1883, he started Nyack College, training 6,000 missionaries. Married to Margaret Henry in 1866, they had six children. His global vision sent 1,500 missionaries to 40 countries by 1919. Simpson’s teachings on holiness and divine healing shaped modern Pentecostalism.