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G. Campbell Morgan

George Campbell Morgan (1863 - 1945). British Congregationalist preacher, author, and Bible scholar born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England. Converted at 10 under D.L. Moody’s preaching, he began teaching at 13, despite no formal theological training. Rejected by the Wesleyan Methodists for weak sermons, he pastored independently before leading Birmingham’s Westminster Road Church in 1886, growing it to 1,000 members. From 1904 to 1919, he pastored Westminster Chapel in London, and after a U.S. stint, returned from 1933 to 1943, mentoring Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Morgan authored over 60 books, including The Crises of the Christ (1903), and his 10-volume Westminster Pulpit series sold widely. A global lecturer, he taught at Moody Bible Institute and Gordon College, influencing millions. Married to Annie Morgan in 1888, they had seven children, four becoming pastors. His expository preaching, emphasizing biblical clarity, shaped 20th-century evangelicalism.
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G. Campbell Morgan emphasizes that martyrs are not defined by their suffering but by their unwavering commitment to the truth of Christ, which is revealed through their lives and sacrifices. He explains that true martyrs are those who are convinced of their faith and demonstrate it through their transformed lives, serving as living witnesses to the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus. The church must present these changed lives as evidence of the truth it proclaims; without such witnesses, its message becomes ineffective. Morgan challenges believers to reflect on their own transformations as proof of their faith, asserting that their lives should testify to the reality of Christ's work in the world.
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Martyrs Are Witnesses
We have come to use the word of such as seal their testimony with their blood. It is a beautiful word for such. When we speak of the "noble army of martyrs," who through flame and fire, through blood and suffering, proved their loyalty to Christ, let us remember that the fires did not make them martyrs. The fires did but reveal them to be martyrs. They were martyrs ere the fires were lit, or they would never have submitted to them. Every day of fiery persecution has been a day when martyrs have been revealed. What, then, is a martyr? He is a confessor. A martyr is one who is first convinced of truth, and then yields his life to the claims of the truth of which he is convinced, and who, therefore, is changed by the truth which he believes, and to which he has yielded himself. . . A martyr is a specimen, an evidence, a sample, a credential, a proof, a witness. We are the credentials of these things. We are the proof of these things. We say Jesus is risen from the dead. We say the risen Christ is the selfsame Christ Who was crucified. We say this Christ is exalted by God. We say this Christ is at work giving repentance and remission of sins. How are we going to prove these things? We are evidences. We prove the accuracy of our doctrine by the transformation of our lives. . . . The Church confronts the age with living witnesses. If she has none, she is useless. If she has none, she has no argument. If she is not able to present to the age in all its rationalism and unbelief, men and women changed, remade, she has no argument to which the age will listen. . . Am I a witness? . . . Unless my own life is changed and transformed and transfigured, a revelation of the fact of the risen, crucified, exalted, working Christ, my preaching is as tinkling brass and a clanging cymbal. So with all of us. . . "We are witnesses of these things." (The Westminster Pulpit, Vol. 2, pp. 274-275). This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear (Acts 2:32-33).
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George Campbell Morgan (1863 - 1945). British Congregationalist preacher, author, and Bible scholar born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England. Converted at 10 under D.L. Moody’s preaching, he began teaching at 13, despite no formal theological training. Rejected by the Wesleyan Methodists for weak sermons, he pastored independently before leading Birmingham’s Westminster Road Church in 1886, growing it to 1,000 members. From 1904 to 1919, he pastored Westminster Chapel in London, and after a U.S. stint, returned from 1933 to 1943, mentoring Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Morgan authored over 60 books, including The Crises of the Christ (1903), and his 10-volume Westminster Pulpit series sold widely. A global lecturer, he taught at Moody Bible Institute and Gordon College, influencing millions. Married to Annie Morgan in 1888, they had seven children, four becoming pastors. His expository preaching, emphasizing biblical clarity, shaped 20th-century evangelicalism.