George Campbell Morgan
George Campbell Morgan
1863-1945
G. Campbell Morgan was born in Tetbury, England, the son of a Baptist minister. His home was one of such genuine piety that in later years he wrote: “While my father could not compel me to be a Christian, I had no choice because of what he did for me and what I saw in him.”
When Campbell was 10 years old, D.L. Moody came to England for the first time, and the effect of his ministry, combined with the dedication of his parents, made such an impression on the life of young Morgan, that at the age of 13, he preached his first sermon. Two years later, he was preaching regularly in country chapels during his Sundays and holidays.
In 1886, at the age of 23, he left the teaching profession, for which he had been trained, and began devoting his full time to the ministry of the Word of God. He was ordained to the Congregational ministry in 1890, having been rejected by the Wesleyan Methodists two years before. His reputation as preacher and Bible expositor soon encompassed England and spread to the United States.
In 1896, D.L. Moody invited him to lecture to the students at the Moody Bible Institute. This was the first of his 54 crossings of the Atlantic to minister the Word. After the death of Moody in 1899, Morgan assumed the position of director of the Northfield Bible Conference. The many thousands of converts from the ministry of Moody needed a teacher of the Bible to strengthen and deepen their faith. G. Campbell Morgan became that teacher.
After five very successful years there, he returned to England in 1904 and became pastor of Westminster Chapel of London. His preaching and his weekly Friday night Bible classes were attended by thousands. During two years of this ministry, he was president of Cheshunt College in Cambridge.
Leaving Westminster Chapel in 1919, he once again returned to the United States, where he conducted an itinerant ministry for 14 years. Many thousands of people heard him preach in nearly every state and also in Canada. Finally, in 1933, he returned to England, where he became pastor of Westminster Chapel again and remained there until his retirement in 1943.
He went to be with the Lord on May 16, 1945, at the age of 81. His paramount contribution to the Christian faith lay in teaching the Bible and showing people how to study it for themselves.
Ruckman ’67