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A.T. Pierson
Arthur Tappan Pierson (March 6, 1837 – June 3, 1911) was an American preacher, missionary advocate, and author whose transatlantic ministry and prolific writings elevated him to prominence in evangelical circles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in New York City, the ninth of ten children to Stephen and Sallie Pierson, a family with abolitionist roots, he was named after Arthur Tappan, a noted abolitionist. Raised in a Presbyterian home, he joined the church at 15, graduated from Hamilton College in 1857, and completed Union Theological Seminary in 1860. Ordained that year, he began pastoring in Binghamton, New York, before serving churches in Detroit (1869–1882) and Philadelphia’s Bethany Presbyterian (1883–1889), where he launched a missionary training school. Pierson’s preaching career soared as he championed foreign missions, authoring The Crisis of Missions (1886) and inspiring the Student Volunteer Movement with the motto “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” He preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over 50 books—including In Christ Jesus (1898)—and edited the Missionary Review of the World (1888–1911). Succeeding Charles Spurgeon at London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle (1891–1893), he later embraced believer’s baptism in 1896, baptized by Spurgeon’s brother. Married to Sarah Frances Benedict in 1860, with whom he had seven children, he traveled globally, influencing figures like Robert Speer and John Mott. After retiring, he visited Korea in 1910, aiding the founding of Pierson Memorial Union Bible Institute, and died in Brooklyn in 1911, buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.
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A.T. Pierson emphasizes the importance of spending quality time in the presence of God, allowing the soul to be still and calm in order to reflect His glory. True communion with God transforms prayer from a mere duty to a delightful privilege, where love seeks His company for the joy of being in His presence. By abiding in God's presence, one develops a deep, enamoring love that becomes the sole passion of their life.
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Lessons in the School of Prayer
He who rushes into the Presence of God, to hasten through a few formal petitions, and then hastens back to outside cares and pursuits, does not tarry long enough to lose the impression of what is without, and get the impress of what is within the secret chamber. He does not take time to fix his mind's gaze on the unseen and eternal. Many a so-called "praying man" has never once really met and seen God in the closet. The soul, disturbed and perturbed, tossed up and down and driven to and fro by worldly thoughts and care, can no more become a mirror to reflect God, than a ruffled lake can become the mirror of the starry heights that arch above it. He who would look downward into his own heart-depths, and see God reflected there, must stay long enough for the stormy soul to get becalmed. Only when He first gives peace is the nature placid enough to become the mirror of heavenly things. But when such communion becomes real, prayer ceases to be mere duty and becomes delight. All sense of obligation is lost in privilege. Love seeks the company of its object, simply for the sake of being in the presence of the beloved one; as one little fellow explained his, quietly coming into his father's study by the hunger for his presence- "just to be with you, papa." Have any of us not known what it is to cultivate companionship for its own sake, mutely sitting in the presence of another whom we devotedly love? And do we not love God enough to make it an object to shut ourselves in with Him at times just to enjoy Him? Is there no taint of selfishness in prayer which knows no there motive than to ask for some favor? Jude counsels us to "pray in the Holy Ghost" as a means whereby we keep ourselves in the love of God, He who know the very ecstasies of the secret chamber, there learns to keep himself in the love of God, finding therein the Sunbeam whose light illumines, whose love warms, whose life quickens. God's Presence becomes the atmosphere he breathes and without which his spiritual life cannot survive. Such a habit of abiding in the Presence of God, and dwelling upon His glorious perfection develops a holy and enamoring love, which can only say with Zinzendorf and Tholuck, "I have but one passion: and it is He and He alone!
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Arthur Tappan Pierson (March 6, 1837 – June 3, 1911) was an American preacher, missionary advocate, and author whose transatlantic ministry and prolific writings elevated him to prominence in evangelical circles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in New York City, the ninth of ten children to Stephen and Sallie Pierson, a family with abolitionist roots, he was named after Arthur Tappan, a noted abolitionist. Raised in a Presbyterian home, he joined the church at 15, graduated from Hamilton College in 1857, and completed Union Theological Seminary in 1860. Ordained that year, he began pastoring in Binghamton, New York, before serving churches in Detroit (1869–1882) and Philadelphia’s Bethany Presbyterian (1883–1889), where he launched a missionary training school. Pierson’s preaching career soared as he championed foreign missions, authoring The Crisis of Missions (1886) and inspiring the Student Volunteer Movement with the motto “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” He preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over 50 books—including In Christ Jesus (1898)—and edited the Missionary Review of the World (1888–1911). Succeeding Charles Spurgeon at London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle (1891–1893), he later embraced believer’s baptism in 1896, baptized by Spurgeon’s brother. Married to Sarah Frances Benedict in 1860, with whom he had seven children, he traveled globally, influencing figures like Robert Speer and John Mott. After retiring, he visited Korea in 1910, aiding the founding of Pierson Memorial Union Bible Institute, and died in Brooklyn in 1911, buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.