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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 importance of individuals cooperating with God in fulfilling His purposes throughout history. He highlights that God seeks out trustworthy individuals who exercise faith to carry forward His plans. Scroggie explains that faith gives substance to hoped-for things and evidence to unseen realities, ultimately shaping new eras in human history. He underscores that significant turning points in history are often attributed to the rise of great personalities, particularly Christian men, who serve as powerful civilizing forces.
He Reveals to Individuals
"And I sought for a man among them..." (Ezek. 22:30). But even God can't work without man. We are called to co-operate. History is the story of the race, of the nation, of the individual; and so, while God has been making His revelation, He has been making it to men and He has been looking for men who will apprehend the revelation and carry forward His purpose here in time. My brethren, I point out to you that God has never wrought anything tremendous by means of masses and crowds in human history. He has wrought His wonders through the ages by individuals--people whom He could trust, people who exercise faith. What is faith? We are told in this first verse of the chapter, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The objects, therefore, of faith, are the future and the unseen; and the office of faith is to give present existence to future things and vital reality to unseen things. And wherever such faith has been exercised, wherever men have laid hold of the divine revelation, God has built a new era in the human story. It is the advent of personality which alters the current of history. The sharp turning points of history are due to the rise of great personalities. It is not so much by ideas as by personalities that God sets the world forward. The mightiest civilizing powers are personalities, and the mightiest civilizing personalities are Christian men.
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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.