Arthur Tappan Pierson
Public Domain Texts

Voices From the
Church of Philadelphia


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As a voice from the past, God's mighty man raises His Standard high,
that God's Truth should not be lost in these
Last Days of deception.
"He being dead yet speaketh"
(Hebrews 11:4 ).

Arthur Tappan Pierson (1837-1911) "SURELY it is high time for believers to awake out of sleep! What awful apathy and lethargy exist in the matter of spiritual life and power and victory! If such final glory and triumph are assured in Christ Jesus, may not the very promise and prospect of such victory, the assurance of such a destiny, inspire and insure present holy living! These Thessalonians turned from idols to serve the living God and to wait for His Son from heaven. They served the better because they waited. Hope reacted on faith and love and obedience. No believer can truly believe that such final perfection of character, conquest, and reward is before him without being a stronger, better, holier man for the outlook. And the close of the first epistle is the sublime expression of this argument. 'Abstain from [every form] of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and... your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, Who also will do it.'" -from "In Christ Jesus" ---New Window by A. T. Pierson

TO THE CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA:
"8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an Open Door, and NO man can shut it:
for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My WORD, and hast not denied My Name.
10 Because thou hast kept the WORD of My patience, I also will keep thee
from The Hour Of Temptation, which shall come upon all the world,
to try them that dwell upon the earth.
11 Behold, I come quickly: HOLD THAT FAST which thou hast,
that NO man take thy crown.
13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches"
(Revelation 3:8,10-11,13).




SECTION
SUB-INDEX




Writings by A. T. Pierson





Meet Mr. Philadelphia ---New Window

Or, The Life of A. T. Pierson



An Introduction to A. T. Pierson
by Tom Stewart

"I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an Open Door,
and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength,
and hast kept My Word, and hast not denied My Name"
(Revelation 3:8).

"Arthur T. Pierson best exemplifies the integrity of the Philadelphian Church Era... His preaching (over 13,000 sermons), extensive writings (over fifty books), and Bible lectures made him widely known in America. He was a consulting editor for his friend, C. I. Scofield (1843-1921), with the original Scofield Reference Bible (1909), and was the author of the classic biography, 'George Muller of Bristol'... A. T. Pierson's association with D. L. Moody and his Northfield Conferences were the breeding ground for Pierson's determination to see the world evangelized in his generation... Arthur Pierson was himself a speaker at the Keswick Convention. This deepening of the Christian life in Pierson saw him author one of his most spiritually significant books, 'In Christ Jesus' (1898), where Pierson's personal journey had led him to the conclusion that 'this brief phrase ['in Christ Jesus'] -- a preposition followed by a proper name -- is the key to the whole New Testament.'"









A. T. Pierson: In Christ Jesus ---New Window

The Sphere of the Believer's Life



Published in 1898

"THOSE three short words, in Christ Jesus, are, without doubt, the most important ever written, even by an inspired pen, to express the mutual relation of the believer and Christ. They occur, with their equivalents, over one hundred and thirty times. Sometimes we meet the expression, in Christ or in Christ Jesus, and again in Him, or in whom, etc. And sometimes this sacred name, or its equivalent pronoun, is found associated with other prepositions -- through, with, by; but the thought is essentially the same. Such repetition and variety must have some intense meaning. When, in the Word of God, a phrase like this occurs so often, and with such manifold applications, it can not be a matter of accident; there is a deep design. God's Spirit is bringing a truth of the highest importance before us, repeating for the sake of emphasis, compelling even the careless reader to give heed as to some vital teaching... We shall see a further evidence of the vital importance of the phrase, in Christ, in the fact that these two words unlock and interpret every separate book in the New Testament. Here is God's own key, whereby we may open all the various doors and enter all the glorious rooms in this Palace Beautiful, and explore all the apartments in the house of the heavenly Interpreter, from Matthew to the Apocalypse, where the door is opened into heaven. Each of the four gospel narratives, the book of the Acts, all of the epistles of Paul and Peter, James and John, and Jude, with the mysterious Revelation of Jesus Christ, show us some new relation sustained by Christ Jesus to the believer, some new aspect of Christ as his sphere of being, some new benefit or blessing enjoyed by him who is thus in Christ Jesus... To demonstrate and illustrate this is the aim of this study of the New Testament. And, for brevity's sake, it may be well to confine our examination to the epistles of Paul, from Romans to Thessalonians, which will be seen to bear to each other, and to the phrase we are studying, a unique and complete relation... The more we study the phrase and the various instances and peculiar varieties of such recurrence, the more shall we be convinced of its vital importance to all practical holy living." --A. T. Pierson

A. T. Pierson's classic study in the Pauline epistles of the phrase "in Christ Jesus" is both a guide to understanding the Scriptures as well as instruction for Practical Holy Living. "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption" (1Corinthians 1:30). Personally applying the Truths uncovered by Pierson's research is more important than reading "In Christ Jesus: The Sphere of the Believer's Life". "But whoso looketh into the Perfect Law of Liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed" (James 1:25). As with all Bible study aids, reading Paul's epistles themselves is requisite for the Believer to be benefitted as he ought. "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11). --WStS









A. T. Pierson: The Heart of the Gospel ---New Window



One of twelve sermons from the book bearing the same title.

"THERE is one text in the New Testament that has been preached from oftener than any other in the Bible. It has been the foundation of great revivals of religion, like that among the Tahitians; or that among the Telugus in India, where 2,222 people were baptized in one day, nearly 5,000 people in thirty days, and 10,000 people within ten months; and where, even during the year drawing to its close, nearly 10,000 more souls have been baptized. It is a wonderful text. Luther called it one of 'the little gospels.' It is this (John 3:16): 'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life.' You will naturally wonder what there is in that old text that is new. I have found something that was very new to me, and which also may be to you. I suppose that I had read that verse tens of thousands of times, and yet, a little while ago, as I was led to preach upon that text, I sought of the Lord a clearer view of it, that I might glorify Him, by bringing forth out of His treasure things new and old. After reading these familiar words over, perhaps a hundred times, prayerfully asking for new light and insight, there suddenly came to me this absolutely new discovery, as though one, looking up into the heavens, should see a cloud swept away from before the stars, and a new constellation revealed." --A. T. Pierson









A. T. Pierson: The Communicable Secrets of Mr. Finney's Power ---New Window



Speeches and sketches at the gathering of Mr. Finney's friends and pupils,
in Oberlin, July 28th, 1876.

"He preached the whole Gospel. The Law, with its stern demand and perfect standard, he used as a plough to sweep away refuges of lies and tear up false hopes by the roots; then he followed it with the love of God, as the sower gently drops into the furrow the seed steeped in his tears. The sword of the Spirit is two-edged. Warning, or invitation, alone, like a scimetar, may strike effective blows in one direction; but when the two keen edges meet in the point, they prepare us for the thrust that pierces to the joints and marrow. Thus Mr. Finney begat deep conviction of sin. As Socrates sought to lead men "from ignorance unconscious to ignorance conscious," he aimed to produce that consciousness of guilt and peril without which there can be no deep sense of need or of obligation.

How spiritual, too, was the tone of his preaching! With what ardor and fervor he besought men to be justified and sanctified by faith. With what burning, glowing zeal, did he assail the sectarianism which cares for sect more than for Christ; the conventionalism whose "awful respectability" hampers ministers and churches by a false fastidiousness, and dares not break through the bonds of custom, and adopt a new measure, even to save a soul! With what scathing rebuke he exposes the idle neglect that leaves generations to die without the Gospel, though for each disciple to win one soul each year to Christ, would be to convert the world within the lifetime of a single generation!

His preaching was spiritual in power as well as tone. He depended on the Spirit, whose blessed unction alone fits us to plead with men, or even to understand the Gospel. With the agony of Jacob at Jabbok, he sought the power to witness. "Honor the Holy Spirit and He will honor you," was his maxim; and he taught that without the habitual recognition of dependence on the Spirit, revivals neither begin nor continue.

If any one secret of Mr. Finney's power be emphatic, it is this: he gave his whole soul to God."

--A. T. Pierson



"When George Mueller
trusted the blood for salvation,
he took Abel's position;
when he undertook a consecrated walk
he took Enoch's;
when he came into fellowship with God for his life-work
he stood beside Noah;
when he rested only on God's word,
he was one with Abraham;
and when he died to self and the world,
he reached the self-surrender of Moses."

--from "George Mueller of Bristol" by A. T. Pierson, chapter 24: "Last Looks, Backward and Forward"



"What radical reforms would be made
in modern worship, teaching and practice,--
in the whole conduct
of disciples and the administration of the church of God
if the one final criterion of all judgment were:
'What do the Scriptures teach?'"

--from "George Mueller of Bristol" by A. T. Pierson, chapter 5: "The Pulpit and the Pastorate"





The following men each have their own sub-index:

Charles Grandison Finney ---New Window (1792-1875)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon ---New Window (1834-1892)

Jonathan Edwards ---New Window (1703-1758)

James Aitken Wylie ---New Window (1808-1890)

Andrew Murray ---New Window (1828-1917)

E. M. Bounds ---New Window (1835-1913)

A. T. Pierson (1837-1911) (this page)

D. L. Moody ---New Window (1837-1899)



Section Index for Voices of Philadelphia