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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 the concept of consecration as a voluntary offering of oneself to God, motivated by love and faith. He illustrates that true surrender is not a loss but a safe embrace into the arms of a loving Father, leading to an infinite inheritance. Simpson likens this surrender to clay yielding to the potter, allowing God to shape us into vessels of honor. He encourages believers to trust in God's wisdom and love, which will transform them into what they aspire to be. Ultimately, he portrays surrender as a privilege that leads to a rich and fulfilling life in Christ.
The People Shall Be [A Freewill Offering]
This is what the term consecration properly means. It is the voluntary or self-offering of the heart, by the constraint of love, to be the Lord's. Its glad expression is, I am my beloved's (Song of Solomon 6:3). Surrender must spring, of course, from faith. There must be the full confidence that we are safe in this abandonment, that we are not falling over a precipice or surrendering ourselves to the hands of a judge but we are sinking into a Father's arms and stepping into an infinite inheritance! It is an infinite privilege to be permitted to relinquish ourselves to One who pledges Himself to make us all that we would love to be, yes, all that His infinite wisdom, power and love will delight to accomplish in us. It is the clay yielding itself to the potter's hands that it may be shaped into a vessel of honor meet for the Master's use. It is the poor street waif consenting to become the child of a prince in order that he may be educated, provided for and prepared to inherit all the wealth of his guardian.
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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.