- Home
- Speakers
- A.W. Tozer
- The Epistle To The Torontonians Part 2
The Epistle to the Torontonians - Part 2
A.W. Tozer

A.W. Tozer (1897 - 1963). American pastor, author, and spiritual mentor born in La Jose, Pennsylvania. Converted to Christianity at 17 after hearing a street preacher in Akron, Ohio, he began pastoring in 1919 with the Christian and Missionary Alliance without formal theological training. He served primarily at Southside Alliance Church in Chicago (1928-1959) and later in Toronto. Tozer wrote over 40 books, including classics like "The Pursuit of God" and "The Knowledge of the Holy," emphasizing a deeper relationship with God. Self-educated, he received two honorary doctorates. Editor of Alliance Weekly from 1950, his writings and sermons challenged superficial faith, advocating holiness and simplicity. Married to Ada, they had seven children and lived modestly, never owning a car. His work remains influential, though he prioritized ministry over family life. Tozer’s passion for God’s presence shaped modern evangelical thought. His books, translated widely, continue to inspire spiritual renewal. He died of a heart attack, leaving a legacy of uncompromising devotion.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our words and actions. He shares personal experiences of witnessing to Catholics and how the Holy Spirit helped him in those encounters. The preacher also talks about the victory we have in Jesus and how we are covered by His blood. He uses the analogy of a log jam in a river to illustrate how conflicts and disagreements can hinder the work of God in the church, but the Holy Spirit can help resolve these issues. The sermon concludes with the preacher sharing a personal testimony of how he was set free from an inward burden by boldly praying to God.
Sermon Transcription
At the proper time for witnessing, and then again when you just aren't disposed to say a word, you just don't say it. I think that's beautiful. The Holy Ghost controls us, so we aren't always talking, but we talk when we should. But now, O praise Jesus, the Holy Spirit in me does the talking, and the blessed opportunities I have had with Catholics and so on. Satan is now defeated in our life, praise to the Lord Jesus, glorious name. We have victory in Jesus and are covered with the blood. It seems I could go on forever. The words just keep tumbling out, and this has become a much longer letter than was intended. O, Dr. Towles, the Lord is so good, and we are so unworthy, and so on. I just want you to know what God is doing for people. I'm not up here talking way up here on cloud nine and talking about things that can happen in people's lives, mothers' and housewives' and students' and clerks' and truck drivers' and salesmen's and businessmen's. Right here now in Toronto, that's God's epistle to the Torontonians. God Almighty's word did tell us that he will deliver us and we can be a free people, and that he doesn't mean that we should live a discouraged life when we have our human brother joined to God by the mystery of the incarnation, the right hand of God, leading our cause victoriously and efficaciously, so that you never need to be afraid. You young Christians, don't you worry for a minute in the morning if you get up and feel a little bit blue. Perfectly normal, every Christian has gone through that. Don't worry about it, but don't let it become chronic in your life. Rise above it. Open your heart to the fulness of God and see whether he doesn't sweep in to set you free. How about it? That deep inward defeat that can be cured only by an equal inward release. When the Lord releases a man, he's free. Until he's released, you can't sing him free and you can't pound him free and you can't preach him free and you can't get him free any way known to mortal man. And yet the Church spends millions of dollars every year putting on religious stuff in order to try to get people free. One simple act of the Holy Ghost will free a man. Free him and free him forever and set him loose and turn him loose. You can get bold about it. You can go to God and get bold about it. I remember well, when I was a young fellow, I got in some kind of an inward jam, and the burden was on me and I was bound and I was miserable. I was walking around bound, and I remember one day I was walking along the street over in West Akron. I used to know the name of that street, but it slipped out of my mind for the moment. I was walking along that street, and I had had enough of it. I had had enough of that, but I knew God was mad at me, and I knew the devil was bothering me. So suddenly I stopped and stamped my foot in bold daylight and looked up through the trees to God and said, God, I won't stand this anymore! And I didn't. Right there I was a free man. That particular thing left me. God set me free because he knew faith took it, you see, faith took it. I wasn't mad at the Lord, I was mad at the devil. And it wasn't the Lord that had me bound, it was the old devil that had me bound. The old devil. And I got free. I believed that the Lord's people could be a happy people, and then if you become a happy people, souls will get converted. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, then shall sinners be converted unto thee. Always follows. A happy church that is happy from the inside out would be something to astonish Toronto. A happy church that didn't cost them a dime to be happy, not a penny, didn't have to import anything, it was there already. The Lord in his temple praised the Lord, let everybody rejoice. That would be a sample of a church. I don't know, I still am believing, and it looks as if it was coming. I want Toronto Avenue Road Church to be a sample church, and this is what I'm talking about tonight. Well, how about it now? I think that we ought to pray, and I think we ought to be free. I am glad Wednesday night meetings are turning into meetings of confession as well as declaration of what the Lord is doing. Over in Africa there is a group of Christians called the Rwanda, that is the area where they are, and they make a great deal of confession. They just confess to each other and to the Lord. If anything goes wrong, they just find out where the block is and go confess and get rid of it. Two deacons, one deacon gets a little jealous of the other deacon. Then he goes to the other deacon and tells him, I've been jealous of you, please forgive me. Now, God, you forgive me. They've had a revival that's talked about all over the world because they confessed. I think confession is a beautiful thing, and I think we ought to confess. I think, Sister, you've been trying so hard to get inward freedom, but you've been grouchy to your husband, mistreated him and snarled at him, and then you wonder why he doesn't come running to the front and say, I want to be saved, too. He can't get over you, you see. But if you'd go to him and tell him about that, break his heart. Just break his heart. You just go tell him about that. Control yourself best you can and say, Honey, I'm sorry, I'm a Christian for a long time and I've been trying to get you saved, but I haven't lived the life before you. See what it will do for that man. Oh, you know, he won't break down and cry, too. He'll probably cough and act embarrassed and walk away. But you've got an arrow in his heart he'll not get rid of until the Blessed Savior takes it out and puts it in the oil and ointment and heals him. Same with you, Mister. You may be a deacon in the Church or an elder or have a high position, but you've been throwing your weight around. Why don't you tell the little woman about that? Some of you parents, you can't hope to have the Holy Ghost sweep through you in victorious power. You've yelled at those poor kids of yours until they don't pay a bit of attention. You've yelled too much. They don't trust you. Oh, I don't mean to say they think you're a hypocrite, but they just don't seem to think Mama quite has what she never thinks she has. You know, that can be deadly. I'm not saying it's true of any particular individual, I have nobody in mind, but I'm just drawing a bow at adventure. Why don't we get rid of all this, get rid of it? You can know what this young lady writes about, and what's perfectly possible for any child of God to know, and sinners will be converted. I know there are unsaved people here tonight, and they're not just wanderers that come in to see a three-headed calf. They are people who came because they are in touch with Christians that are so hot and so joyous and so enthusiastic that they're concerned. I know they're here. And if we Christians get out of their way, they'll be coming one after the other, one after the other, gossiping and backbiting and grouching and blaming and censoriousness. These things prevent sinners from coming. If we just get it out of the way, it'll break the log jam. My dad used to drive logs, this boy, and he was a young fellow. I never saw it, but when he was a younger man, and I knew what the log driving was in those times, they'd cut them down and make logs out of them and put them in the river. They'd float down the river to the sawmill, down to the dam and then to the sawmill. And taking them down the river, suddenly the whole thing would jam. Some of those wise men knew what to do. They called that a log jam. Obviously enough, it was. And they would send a man out there, and not anybody could do it, but they'd send a man out there. They had great sharp spikes on their shoes, and they had what they called canthooks. Some of you wouldn't know what a canthook was if you met it on the sidewalk, but canthooks were common around where I lived. They had these canthooks, and that man would go out carefully, cautiously, but very fast, walking over this great, growling pile of logs, and he'd find the log that had blocked it. He'd catch that thing with his canthook, spin it a couple of times, turn it, shove it, and it would slip away like loosing traffic would be a better word for it in our day. That car that's got the traffic tied up, get it out of there, and the traffic just melts away. So he would get that log out of there and get it going, and then he'd hit for sure. By the time he got to shore, the whole thousands of logs would be once more on their way down to the dam. Now, you can have a log jam in a church. One or two logs get crossed. Some fellow gets his nose out of joint, or some woman. And there we are, a log jam. The work of God can't go on, but the Holy Ghost is wonderfully able to find what that is. A preacher doesn't know, he's innocent as an unborn baby in arms. But the Holy Ghost knows. And so he finds that person, and if he can get the cooperation of that fellow that's got the thing, way it goes, and the blessing of God comes. Well, I'm going to ask you to do something while we sing. We're going to sing a number here that we used to sing, they used to sing in the early days of the Alliance. The Comforter has come, a familiar and loved hymn, cheering our hearts with the knowledge the Holy Ghost has come. And if there should be those here this night who would say, I feel I'm in the way. Some young Christian, some young unsaved person, some sinner who wants to be converted unto God, you find your way into the prayer room. Some Christian who feels that you've got that inward defeat and you want release, find your way to the prayer room. We say, God together, Lord together, no human voice, no talents, no human ability can do what has to be done here, only thy Spirit. It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord. So Lord, thou didst send the Holy Spirit to the world, the Comforter, to convince the sinners of their sins and show the Christians the beauty of Jesus. So we turn over this to the Blessed Comforter, the Holy Spirit. We make these people accountable to the Holy Spirit, thy vicegerent in the earth. Not to us, they are not responsible to us, they are responsible to the Holy Spirit. So we pray that each one may see this and feel it and know it, and respond accordingly. We trust thee for this as we wait on thee just a little longer. Amen. Dear friends, we're not pushing this. This is one beautiful thing. Whoever gets converted around here does it because some happy Christian has led him to the Lord. Any Christian who finds his way to God in a new and wonderful experience, it's because he decides it's to be that way, no pressure, no unfair advantage, no psychological cruelty. We won't have that here. But if the Spirit is speaking to you without pressure, except the joyous pressure within, would you obey him and slip through this door or that one back there and meet us in the chapel?
The Epistle to the Torontonians - Part 2
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download

A.W. Tozer (1897 - 1963). American pastor, author, and spiritual mentor born in La Jose, Pennsylvania. Converted to Christianity at 17 after hearing a street preacher in Akron, Ohio, he began pastoring in 1919 with the Christian and Missionary Alliance without formal theological training. He served primarily at Southside Alliance Church in Chicago (1928-1959) and later in Toronto. Tozer wrote over 40 books, including classics like "The Pursuit of God" and "The Knowledge of the Holy," emphasizing a deeper relationship with God. Self-educated, he received two honorary doctorates. Editor of Alliance Weekly from 1950, his writings and sermons challenged superficial faith, advocating holiness and simplicity. Married to Ada, they had seven children and lived modestly, never owning a car. His work remains influential, though he prioritized ministry over family life. Tozer’s passion for God’s presence shaped modern evangelical thought. His books, translated widely, continue to inspire spiritual renewal. He died of a heart attack, leaving a legacy of uncompromising devotion.