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William Graham Scroggie
William Graham Scroggie (1877 – December 21, 1958) was a Scottish preacher, Baptist pastor, and Bible expositor whose extensive ministry across three continents and leadership at Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle in London solidified his reputation as a leading evangelical voice of the 20th century. Born in Great Malvern, Worcestershire, England, to James Johnston Scroggie and Jane Mitchell, he was one of nine children in a modest home with limited educational opportunities. His mother, converted under Plymouth Brethren revivalists in Scotland, instilled a deep faith, though Scroggie’s early years saw him working in business before entering Spurgeon’s College in London at age 19 in 1896 to train for the Baptist ministry. Scroggie’s preaching career began tumultuously; his first two pastorates in Leytonstone, Essex (1900–1902), and Halifax, Yorkshire (1902–1907), ended abruptly due to his staunch opposition to modernism and worldly church practices, leaving him spiritually broken but resolute. During two lean years of self-directed Bible study, he laid the foundation for his later work. His ministry flourished at Bethesda Free Church in Sunderland (1907–1916), followed by a transformative 17-year pastorate at Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh (1916–1933), where his expository preaching drew over 1,000 weekly attendees and earned him an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Edinburgh University in 1927. After resigning due to ill health, he embarked on a global itinerant ministry, preaching in New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, Canada, and the U.S., before taking the helm at Spurgeon’s Tabernacle (1938–1944). There, amidst World War II, his home was bombed thrice, and the church destroyed in a 1941 air raid, yet he persisted.
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William Graham Scroggie emphasizes the significance of Christ as our Passover sacrifice, urging believers to observe the Feast with sincerity and truth, separating from malice and wickedness. The Feast is not for salvation but for fellowship, highlighting the importance of living a holy life and maintaining communion with God. Scroggie warns against laxity in doctrine and practice, stressing the need for believers to be vessels of the Lord, dealing with known evil in their hearts, homes, churches, and businesses to experience God's blessings and revival.
Observing the Feast
"For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7). How then is the Feast to be observed? "Not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." That is, by living a holy life, and by separation from all evil. For not keeping the Feast as ordained, we shall be held answerable to God. The observance of the Feast is not in order to obtain our salvation, but because we are saved, and if we do not keep the Feast our security is not affected but our fellowship is. Salvation is by our being under the Blood; communion is by our being unleavened. Here, then, is a message of the most urgent importance to the people of God. On every hand we see laxity, alike of doctrine and of practice, which is most alarming, an indifference to the claims of Christ and a widespread ignorance of the implicates of our Christian profession, and it is this that sufficiently explains our ineffectiveness in the service of Christ. We must be clean, for we are the vessels of the Lord. We must faithfully and fearlessly deal with all known evil, alike in our hearts, and homes, and churches, and businesses, and all our prayer f or revival will be worse than useless unless we come to grips with that which hinders God's pouring out His blessing upon us. But this once done, there is no good which He will withhold.
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William Graham Scroggie (1877 – December 21, 1958) was a Scottish preacher, Baptist pastor, and Bible expositor whose extensive ministry across three continents and leadership at Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle in London solidified his reputation as a leading evangelical voice of the 20th century. Born in Great Malvern, Worcestershire, England, to James Johnston Scroggie and Jane Mitchell, he was one of nine children in a modest home with limited educational opportunities. His mother, converted under Plymouth Brethren revivalists in Scotland, instilled a deep faith, though Scroggie’s early years saw him working in business before entering Spurgeon’s College in London at age 19 in 1896 to train for the Baptist ministry. Scroggie’s preaching career began tumultuously; his first two pastorates in Leytonstone, Essex (1900–1902), and Halifax, Yorkshire (1902–1907), ended abruptly due to his staunch opposition to modernism and worldly church practices, leaving him spiritually broken but resolute. During two lean years of self-directed Bible study, he laid the foundation for his later work. His ministry flourished at Bethesda Free Church in Sunderland (1907–1916), followed by a transformative 17-year pastorate at Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh (1916–1933), where his expository preaching drew over 1,000 weekly attendees and earned him an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Edinburgh University in 1927. After resigning due to ill health, he embarked on a global itinerant ministry, preaching in New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, Canada, and the U.S., before taking the helm at Spurgeon’s Tabernacle (1938–1944). There, amidst World War II, his home was bombed thrice, and the church destroyed in a 1941 air raid, yet he persisted.