R. A. Torrey: Born: January
28, 1856 Hoboken, New Jersey Died: October 26, 1928 Asheville, North
Carolina LIFE SPAN: 72 years, 8 months, 28 days
EXCELLENCE IN TWO AREAS of ministry has been achieved by a few; it has
been a rare genius who has been so gifted in three areas, but to excel
in four capacities would seem near impossible...but it has been done
two or three times in history. Reuben Archer Torrey is a classic
example, for he was renown as an educator, a pastor, a world evangelist
and an author.
Besides his obvious gifts in all these areas, he was also a man of
prayer, a student of the Bible, and an outstanding personal
soul-winner. It is said that he daily read the Bible in four languages,
having a good working knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. Some students of
church history feel he did more to promote personal evangelism than any
other one man since the days of the apostles. His prayer life has
seldom been equaled in the annals of Christendom.
One wonders if there has ever lived a man who did so many things well
for Christ. One of his favorite phrases was, "I love to preach the
Gospel of Jesus Christ."
Torrey was the son of a New York City corporation lawyer and banker.
His parents, Reuben and Elizabeth, were refined and cultured
Christians, with mother spending much time in prayer for her son. The
family moved to Brooklyn when he was three and, when he was ten, they
moved again to a country home on 200 acres amid the uplands of New York
State. The fortune of the father was lost, so that Torrey's eventual
inheritance was only a matchbox and a pair of sleeve buttons. The
Lord's Day was respected, but somewhat lax restrictions the rest of the
week produced a worldly teenager. Once, in the attic, he read a book
that explained about being a Christian, but he felt God might make him
a preacher rather than a lawyer, so he determined not to follow through.
At age fifteen he was at Yale University and passed through a period of
scholastic skepticism. His quick mind learned easily. He was an expert
dancer and his conscience was not oversensitive about campus good
times. "What more could I want?" he thought. "I've got all I need to
make me happy." Social and worldly delights like race tracks, cards,
the theater all crowded out any pursuit of Christian objectives.
One night at Yale, he dreamed his mother came to him as an angel asking
him to preach. His melancholy increased. He had a sudden impulse to
commit suicide. He hurried to the washstand and fumbled for his razor
or any other sharp instrument that would serve this purpose, but could
not find a suitable weapon. His mother, miles away, was pulled from her
bed by an invisible power to pray for her son whose faith had been
shaken. Young Reuben, about to commit suicide one way or another, was
gripped by a desire to pray. Snapping back to reality, he knelt at his
bedside and asked the Lord to come into his heart. He said, "Oh, God,
deliver me from this burden--I'll even preach!" He returned to his bed
with a soothing peace settling over his mind and his future plans were
settled. This was in the spring of 1875, when Torrey was 18 years old.
In Yale chapel he made a public profession of faith and, following
graduation in 1875, he entered the Yale Divinity School.
Winning people to Christ became an obsession with him, and soon he was
renown as a great personal soul-winner. After his conversion, the first
time he saw the young lady he had been taking to dances, he witnessed
to her. He says of the incident: "I commenced to reason with her out of
the Scriptures. It took two hours, but she accepted Christ."
Both of his parents died in the summer of 1877.
While in Seminary, Torrey first heard a man whom the students called a
strange, uneducated evangelist. It was D.L. Moody at New Haven,
Connecticut, in 1878. After Moody spoke, Torrey and others said, "Tell
us how to win people to Jesus Christ." Moody said, "Go at it! That's
the best way to learn!" So Torrey plunged into personal work starting
right there at the meetings. His method was to put the Bible in the
hands of the inquirer and have him read a selected passage. Torrey
would then ask questions about the words and phrases of the passage
until the seeker understood it. His approach to individuals was
sometimes brusque and always direct and pointed. There was no attempt
to try to win people to himself first as a means of winning them to
Christ. It was always directly to Jesus Christ in his witnessing.
Torrey also heard Moody say in another sermon, "Faith can do anything!"
and faith became the keynote of his life. Reading the works of Finney
those days also helped mold his life.
Torrey got his B.D. in 1878, with his D.D. coming later in 1889. He was
ordained a Congregational minister in 1878 and pastored the
Congregational Church in Garretsville, Ohio, a community of 1,000, from
1878 to 1882. It was during this time he married Clara Smith on October
22, 1879. His wife was a constant inspiration to him. They had five
children, beginning with Edith (Nov. 8, 1880), Blanche, Reuben,
Elizabeth, and ending with Margaret (Feb. 16, 1893).
Not satisfied with the training he received in the States, he studied
at the German universities of Leipzig and Erlangen in 1882-83. As a
brilliant student, he made great progress in school. Early in his
studies he was a pronounced higher critic, but before he had completed
them, he was convinced of the falsity of his views and swung gradually
back to old conservative doctrines, reversing the usual trend because
of Europe's emphasis on higher criticism. In fact, Torrey became a most
bitter foe of liberalism the rest of his days. He was hopelessly
orthodox.
Upon returning to the states, he received two calls. One was to pastor
a wealthy church in Brooklyn and the other to pastor a weak and poor
church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He chose the latter. He organized the
church with about a dozen members and it became known as the Open Door
Church. He stayed from 1883 to 1886, then moved on to the People's
Church from 1887-89. Along with these pastoral responsibilities, he
accepted the superintendency of the Congregational City Mission
Society, 1886- 89. It was in Minneapolis that his motto became "pray
through" as a result of reading Mueller's Life of Trust. He received no
stated salary and was supported by freewill offerings. He said later:
"A number of years ago (1888), I came to the place where it seemed my
duty to give up my salary and work for God among the poor...From that
day on, every mouthful came directly from my Heavenly Father, not a
meal on our tables...not a coat that went on my back...not a dress on
my wife's back, nor the clothing on the backs of the four children,
that was not an answer to prayer. We got everything from God. I was
never more serene in my life."
Mr. Torrey also made it a habit to hold special prayer meetings asking
God to pour out His Spirit in mighty revival power around the world.
Little did he suspect how instrumental his own life would be in
bringing this to pass.
One day D.L. Moody was talking with a friend, E.M. Williams, and
lamented that he wished he knew of a man to head his new school.
Williams gave a glowing account of Torrey's ministries. Moody called
for him, and at the age of 33, Torrey became the first Superintendent
of the Chicago Evangelization Society (later Moody Bible Institute),
guiding it from its inception September 26, 1889, until 1908. He was
the chief executive officer and the success of the Institute can
probably be attributed to Torrey's contribution more than any other
individual. He laid the groundwork for the curriculum and the practical
Christian work program. Torrey's leadership at the school, plus his
part in the 1893 World's Fair evangelism outreach, brought him to the
attention of the Christian world. Torrey was automatically considered
the "Elisha" to carry on Moody's work upon his death in 1899. When
Moody collapsed in Kansas City in November, 1899, just prior to his
death, it was Torrey who carried on the crusade.
At school, the students were constantly amazed at his ability. His
teaching and prevailing prayer became renown. As he lectured in the
classroom, he poured out the brilliance of his Yale and German
training, which had been endued with faith and emboldened by the Holy
Spirit. He was sound in doctrine and an exceptional Bible teacher. His
successor, James Gray, said of him, "Few men were better equipped than
he to expound the Holy Scriptures before a popular audience or in a
classroom." And how he could pray! One student reported how he went to
Torrey's office with a particular need, and after the session kneeling
in prayer together was over, a pool of tears remained when Torrey
arose. His booklet How to Pray is a classic.
Torrey also took upon himself the pastorship of the Chicago Avenue
Church (now Moody Memorial Church) from 1894 to 1905, where again he
wielded a tremendous amount of influence in the Christian world. The
2,200-seat auditorium soon began to be filled. Torrey later said he
didn't believe a day went by without someone being saved as a result of
the church. The success was the prayer meetings, for all over the city
there were little groups who would stay up late on Saturday night, or
get up early on Sunday morning to pray for their pastor. This, plus the
fact that his membership was always trained in soul-winning, produced a
church that lived in a constant revival atmosphere. Every year he spent
several months in Northfield, Massachusetts, teaching and preaching in
the various conferences there.
In 1898, a weekly prayer meeting began at the Bible Institute each
Saturday night from 9 to 10 p.m. The attendance grew until it numbered
an average of 300 people. Its purpose was to pray for worldwide
revival. For the next three years the prayer meetings continued,
followed by Torrey and three or four associates having a second prayer
meeting until about 2 a.m. One night Torrey had a strange burden to
pray that God would send him around the world with the Gospel. Within a
week two strangers from the United Churches of Melbourne, Australia
approached him following a Sunday service saying they felt Torrey was
the man God wanted to come to their country for evangelistic services.
Torrey was stunned and challenged by the proposal. It seemed the years
of praying were about to bear fruit.
Getting a leave of absence from his Chicagoresponsibilities, he quickly
began to ponder that God might use him as the human instrument to bring
worldwide revival--his burden for many years. He was to see some
102,000 come to Christ in the next few years in the most globe-girdling
enterprise ever undertaken by an evangelist.
He wired a former student, Charles M. Alexander, to meet him in
Australia. Torrey went to Japan and China on the way, where he preached
with great power and saw hundreds of converts made during his brief
visit there.
It was April, 1902, that Torrey and Alexander met in Melbourne,
Australia, and began their work there. This movement was known as the
Simultaneous Mission and it lasted a month. For the first two weeks,
meetings were held in fifty different centers by fifty different
ministers and evangelists. The "Glory Song" (O That Will Be Glory)
seemed to set the nation on fire. During the last two weeks the
meetings were held in the Exhibition Building seating 8,000 people. Up
to 15,000 were trying to get in nightly. W.E. Geil, another American
evangelist, assisted in the meetings. Some 8,600 converts were recorded
and the news of the awakening stirred all Christendom. Calls came from
other key cities of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, where they
ministered for the next six months. In Sydney, Torrey spoke to
thousands in the massive city hall with hundreds converted. In Bendigo,
Alexander met and led Robert Harkness, a brilliant young musical
genius, to Christ, and he became his pianist, soon joining the team for
the rest of their tour. In one Australian city, a largely build man
thundered at Torrey, "I am not a Christian, but I am moral, upright,
honorable and blameless--and I'd like to know what you have against
me!" Torrey looked him straight in the eyes and replied, "I charge you,
sir, with high treason against Heaven's King!"
Up to 2,000 prayer bands were conducted in various sections of the
country praying continually for revival!
Two campaigns were held in Tasmania in Launceston and Hobart. The
heavyweight boxing champ of Tasmania confessed Christ as Saviour the
same night a member of Parliament did. Thirty days in New Zealand
climaxed their tour. Revival fires broke out with a total of 20,000
decisions for Christ in the land "down under."
Calls now came from England and they headed that way, stopping in India
for six weeks en route. Campaigns were held in Madura, Madras,
Calcutta, Bombay, and Benares. Hundreds were saved. A convention of 400
missionaries listened to Torrey for four days receiving much blessing
to bring back to their people.
They were welcomed in London in a great meeting in Exeter Hall by the
leading clerics of England. They spent three weeks in Mildmay
Conference Hall in North London stirring up church members to fresh
zeal in soul-winning and witnessing, resulting in large numbers of
conversions. They went on to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a four-week
campaign held in Synod Hall. In the weeks to follow, they also
ministered in France and Germany.
The team made a brief trip to America during July and August, 1903,
where a welcome home crowd of some 10,000 endeavored to gain admission
to the Auditorium of the Bible Institute.
In September, 1903, they were back in England, and beginning the
Liverpool crusade. In four weeks they saw about 5,000 converts. The
crowds became so large that two meetings per night had to be held, one
for women, and the second for men. At Dublin, Ireland, at the
Metropolitan Hall, some 3,000 accepted Christ.
By 1904, some 30,000 persons around the world had committed themselves
to pray for the team and worldwide revival. In January, 1904, the
Birmingham campaign began. It was probably the most successful campaign
held anywhere on their tour. Meetings were held in Bingley Hall,
seating 8,000 with space for 2,000 standees. The thirty-day crusade had
some 7,000 conversions! Here Alexander met his future wife, Helen
Cadbury, whom he married in July.
In September, 1904, the team was in Bolton, Wales (3,600 saved), then
on to Cardiff to a 7,000-seat auditorium which filled nightly (3,750
saved). Evan Roberts led that nation to God the next year and surely
the sparks of revival were lit at those meetings.
From Cardiff, the evangelists went back to Liverpool to conduct a
nine-week campaign. The Tournament Hall, seating 12,500, was reserved.
At times it proved inadequate and it is estimated some 35,000 were
turned away on the last day of the meetings. Some 7,000 were saved and
an old resident said it surpassed the Moody-Sankey revival many years
previously. The choir numbered 3,658 alone, which was the largest
evangelistic chorus ever organized up to that time. Two banquets were
held, averaging 2,200 each for the poor people of Liverpool, averaging
about 225 decisions for Christ at each.
From February to June 1905, the famous London Crusade was held. Total
expenses amounted to $85,000 with nearly 15,000 professed conversions.
Meetings were held at the Royal Albert Hall for the first two months;
an iron and glass building seating 5,500 in South London for the next
two months; and another great iron building seating over 5,000 in the
heart of London on the Strand for the last month. A 1,000-voice choir
helped nightly. The crusade began at the 11,000-seat Royal Albert Hall
on February 4 with a welcome by many of the cities' dignitaries. The
first evangelistic service was held the following night with 10,000
unable to secure admission. Some 250 were saved. A well- known concert
hall singer and entertainer by the name of Quentin Ashlyn was saved
soon after. It seemed as though all of London was singing revival
hymns. The "Glory Song" captured the city. It was sung at every
service. Tell Mother I'll Be There was also greatly used. Some 6,500
were saved at the Royal Albert Hall with special meetings for men and
children also packing out the hall. Meetings held in South London
produced 5,000 converts and then in the final month another 2,500 were
saved. A closing service at the Royal Albert Hall announced the
totals--202 meetings, 1,114,650 attended (average 5,500 per service)
with over 17,000 converts!
Wherever they had gone--to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Dundee in
Scotland; to Dublin and Belfast in Ireland (4,000 saved); to Manchester
(4,000 saved) and the other above mentioned crusades in England and
Wales--the halls were unable to hold the crowds. Not since the days of
Moody and Sankey had Great Britain been so stirred. A total of 70,000
came to the Lord during these three years of ministry there.
Returning to the United States in December, 1905, with more revival
preaching on his mind, he made his leave of absence permanent at the
two hallowed institutions that had stood by awaiting his return. James
M. Gray became the chief executive officer at Moody Bible Institute and
A.C. Dixon became pastor of Moody Church. From 1906 to 1911, a heavy
series of crusades in America occupied his time. Oswald J. Smith was
converted in the 1906 Toronto, Ontario, crusade. Atlanta, Ottawa,
Ontario, San Francisco, Omaha, Cleveland, Nashville, Buffalo, Montreal,
Quebec, Detroit, Los Angeles and Chicago all had good revival sessions
with him. Perhaps his most successful revival stateside was in
Philadelphia in the spring of 1906. Newspaper headlines blared out,
"Hell is absolutely certain, Dr. Torrey warns his hearers!" These
meetings lasted 62 days in three different armories at a cost of
$38,365. John Wanamaker and John Converse, successful Christian
businessmen, were among the chief supporters. Some 7,000 converts were
claimed, although decision cards totaled only 3,615. Charles Alexander
left Torrey in 1907- 08 and joined up with J. Wilbur Chapman.
Torrey helped establish the Montrose (Pennsylvania) Bible Conference in
1908. Later he would be buried there on Conference Hill.
In 1911 he went back to England, Scotland and Ireland for more meetings.
Now a call came from the west coast of the United States to give Los
Angeles similar institutions to those he led in Chicago. From 1912 to
1924 he served as dean of the Los Angeles Bible Institute (now called
BIOLA). He also helped to organize and served as the first pastor of
the Church of the Open Door (1915- 1924). There he preached to great
throngs and God blessed both his pastoring and teaching. Thousands were
trained at the school including Charles E. Fuller, famed radio preacher
of the next generation.
In 1919 he visited Japan and China with the Gospel and in 1921 he
toured China and Korea in evangelistic endeavors.
From 1924 to 1928 he devoted his time to holding Bible conferences,
giving special lectures at the Moody Bible Institute among other
places. He made his home in Biltmore, North Carolina. He passed on
quietly at Asheville, North Carolina.
Will Houghton, preaching his funeral, said:
"...But those who knew Dr. Torrey more intimately knew him as a man of
regular and uninterrupted prayer. He knew what it meant to pray without
ceasing. With hours set systematically apart for prayer, he gave
himself diligently to this ministry."
Reuben A. Torrey wrote some forty books and his practical writings on
the Holy Spirit, prayer, salvation, soul-winning, and evangelism are
still favorites of many Christians. His Gist of the Lesson continued
for more than thirty years. This was a series of helps on the
International Sunday School lessons. Many of his works have been
translated into foreign languages.
His first book was How to Bring Men to Christ (1893). His last,
Lectures on the First Epistle of John, published in 1929 after his
death. His How to Promote and Conduct a Successful Revival (1901) is
considered one of the best books on personal and mass evangelism ever
written. * Source: CCN