www.WholesomeWords.org edition 2012 Arthur T. Pierson: A Spiritual Warrior... by Delavan Leonard Pierson Contents Preface Chapter 1 Looking Backward—A Race of Warriors Chapter 2 Boarding School Days—Enlisting for Life Chapter 3 At Hamilton College—In Training for Service Chapter 4 In the Theological Seminary—Studying Technique Chapter 5 First Charge at Binghamton—Testing His Weapons Chapter 6 The Waterford Pastorate—A Broader Vision Chapter 7 At Fort Street Church, Detroit—A Strategic Center Chapter 8 From Church to Opera House—A Change of Tactics Chapter 9 A Year in Indianapolis—Victory or Defeat? Chapter 10 The Philadelphia Pastorate—The Field and the Force Chapter 11 Conference and Missionary Work—A World-wide Campaign Chapter 12 Scotland and the Continent—Missionary Crusades Chapter 13 At Spurgeon's Tabernacle—Two Years as a Substitute Chapter 14 Immersion and Its Consequences—A Battle of Conscience Chapter 15 Later British Ministries—Spiritual Reinforcement Chapter 16 Later American Ministries—Recruiting in Various Camps Chapter 17 The Jubilee Year—A Visit to the Frontier Preface—A Portrait Since none can truly know a man but his Maker, none can paint a perfect portrait. Each artist will be influenced by his own mood and by sympathy with or antipathy to his subject. The peculiarities, the beauties, or the defects that loom large in the eyes of one painter will sink into insignificance in the view of another. Even a series of portraits drawn at different periods and under varying circumstances must fail to present a complete likeness. Probably no two of those who study this portrait of Arthur T. Pierson will agree in their interpretation of the man. One will see in his face the beloved pastor, another, the eloquent preacher and learned teacher, and still another the ardent advocate of world-wide missions. Some who look will be moved by the memory of a loving, faithful friend, others by thoughts of the man who led them to the Saviour, and still others by the recollections of the Ambassador of Christ who brought them into closer fellowship with the Master and who inspired them to render more devoted service to their King. A few may recall most vividly a rebuke or may be unable to overlook some real or fancied defect in character or conduct. None can see the whole man, but all can see one who fought well and nobly the battles within and without— battles for purity, truth and the supremacy of the will of God. At one time my father planned to write his own biography—to paint his own portrait—for he longed to make known, as he alone could, God's gracious dealings with him and the marvellous way in which he had been led. But before he had even sketched the rough outlines he was called home to the land where he knows as he is known. It has been a difficult and delicate task for a son to portray the character and life of his honoured and beloved father. And yet a son's picture may be the truest; certainly it is sketched from sympathetic knowledge, as every interpretive likeness should be. In this life portrait I have sought to give a true picture of the man and of his ideals and to sketch some of the most important scenes from his world ministry. The glimpses of my father's inner soul may perhaps seem too intimate, for they are taken from his private prayer diary that was intended for God's eye alone, but these glimpses are necessary to unveil the man as he was when in the presence of his Maker. It was in these hours of devotion that he developed likeness to his Lord. Although it was my privilege for the last twenty years to be my father's intimate companion and co-worker, this study of his life, his conflicts and ministries in private and in public, has brought a fuller revelation of the man and his mission. Such an uplift has resulted that I hope and pray that even the partial view here given may bring a like blessing to others. The joy of the work has been doubled and the difficulties vastly decreased by the constant and efficient help of my beloved wife. She has been at once my severest critic and my most appreciative and sympathetic co-worker. The mutual love that existed between her and my father also made her cooperation doubly appropriate and effective. To my friend, Rev. William J. Hutchins, for his most helpful literary criticism of the manuscript, and to others who have contributed bits of local color to make this portrait and its background more perfect, I acknowledge my debt with heartfelt gratitude. Delavan L. Pierson, Brooklyn, New York, July, 1912. Chapter 1—Looking Backward: A Race of Warriors Arthur T. Pierson was a warrior, and came of a race of warriors. A few of his ancestors won renown upon fields of battle where the weapons were of steel, where the strength and skill required were those of nerve and muscle, where the foes were of flesh and blood and the rewards were temporal power and authority. But the majority of his forebears, and he, himself, were engaged in a different contest. They were trained, not in the military schools of the state, but of the Church. Their book of tactics was the Bible, their officers were men chosen and appointed by the almighty Commander-in-chief, their battles were for truth and true living, and their campaign was for the conquest of the world. Moral courage was counted of greater worth than physical bravery; the weapons of mind and spirit were more highly esteemed than those forged in earthly arsenals; the foes against which they contended were principalities and powers in spirit realms, their victories were over the enemies of character, of humanity and of God. These were battles worth waging. There have been tactical mistakes and temporary defeats; at times the forces have been divided; the great Commander's orders have been mistaken or disobeyed, but there have also been notable victories, the progress of the campaign has been steady and the final success is assured. Arthur Tappan Pierson never prided himself on being a self-made man. He rather rejoiced in the conviction that every man's life is a plan of God. As he looked back in later years he saw in his ancestry and birth, in his early home and training, in his temptations and trials, in his opportunities and successes, the working out of the plans and purposes of his Creator. After his conversion, when he deliberately chose to follow Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour, the boy and then the man sought to discover and to obey the directions of his Sovereign. It was not by accident that the man who was to enter upon a world- wide ministry traced his ancestry to a Church of England clergyman, that his conversion was in a Methodist revival and class-meeting, his theological training in a Presbyterian seminary, his first pastorate in a Congregational Church, and his largest field in a Baptist tabernacle; that he learned some of his deepest lessons among the Brethren in Bristol, England, and that he closed his career connected with no human organization—a subject only of the universal Church and Kingdom of God. In semi-humorous vein Dr. Pierson wrote a few years before his death: "It is amazing that Anglicans welcome me—a renegade Presbyterio- Baptist-Brethren compound, belonging to nobody but the Lord." Abraham Pierson, the First The Pierson ancestry was a godly one and gave promise of a goodly fruitage. The first of the American line was Abraham Pierson of sturdy Yorkshire stock who, although in the way of special preferment from the Crown, left his parish in Newark-on-the-Trent at the call of God. Like Father Abraham the first, he went forth not knowing whither he went, irresistibly driven by a desire to find a home where he could worship God according to his newly-acquired Puritan ideals. Although two centuries intervened between the life of this pioneer and that of his descendant, Arthur T. Pierson, the latter was in some ways a most striking replica of his forefather—the brilliant orator of Trinity College, Cambridge, the intrepid pioneer, the independent non- conformist preacher, the autocratic ruler of the infant settlement, and the zealous missionary to the savage Indians. Abraham Pierson and his two brothers, Henry and Thomas, landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1639, and for forty years he was the spiritual as well as the civil leader of a consecrated band of colonists, who founded successively the towns of Southampton, Long Island; Branford, Connecticut; and Newark, New Jersey. Everywhere he went this Abraham followed the example of the Hebrew patriarch in first erecting an altar for the worship of God. He was a strong character, a leader with authority in Church and state, and united in himself the offices of pioneer and patriarch. He conscientiously held that no one who was not a church-member in good standing should vote or hold office in the body politic. This position was not popular with all, and twice for the sake of conscience and for the sake of peace, "Abraham Pierson, with such of his following as were like minded, removed to new fields and reestablished their homes and altars and church. All this meant much hardship and privation, but the beloved shepherd suffered with his flock, and while they recognized in him a man of unyielding principles and a strict disciplinarian, they loved and revered him for his sympathy, his uprightness and his genuine piety.