Thursday, August 27, 2026

It is the 27th of August 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I don’t expect you to have heard of George Campbell Morgan- a British preacher from the last century. You have likely heard of the man who inspired him and would become a friend: D.L. Moody. You may have heard of Morgan’s successor- Martin Lloyd Jones. But our man, stuck in the middle (as was often the case for him) who was sometimes called the “Prince of Expositors” has been obscured by time.

 

Born in 1863 in Tetbury, England, he was the son of a Baptist minister and envisioned himself following in his father's footsteps. His best friend as a child was his older sister, Lizzie. When she died at the age of 12, he was distraught, spending days and nights at her grave. He would also begin preaching to toys and dolls and inanimate objects. He became something of a local sensation when he preached his first sermon on this, the 27th of August in 1876 at the Monmouth Methodist Church in Wales. He would come to the attention of D.L. Moody and Ira Sankey, who were on a tour of the UK.

 

But the path to ministry took a diversion when Morgan believed that he should devote himself to a teaching job in order to help the family. He eventually went back to the Methodists and gave a trial sermon as part of his entrance exams for training as a minister. He was not admitted and told he didn’t show promise. He would telegraph his father one word that night in 1888, “rejected”. His father responded, “rejected on earth, accepted in heaven”.

 

He would pivot towards the Congregationalists and in 1896 was invited by Moody to the U.S. to teach. After Moody’s death in 1899, Morgan would take over as director of the Northfield Bible Conference. Morgan would make over 50 trips across the Atlantic. In 1904 he was named the pastor at the famous Westminster Chapel. His Thursday night Bible classes would regularly exceed 1500 people. His popularity opened up opportunities for travel and work; he was considering a move to Australia. World War I would block those plans, and so he traveled to the United States instead. Here he found himself in the midst of the famed “modernist/fundamentalist” controversy. Serving as pastor at First Presbyterian in Athens, Georgia, he was criticized for not taking a side in the debates. He wrote:

 

“I am resolutely going on with positive teaching and refusing to be involved in the fight. It is not easy, and I am not sure that the hour will not come when an open cleavage, cutting across all denominations, will compel everyone to move distinctly to the right or left . .. Wherever I go, I find a multitude of souls hungry for the Word of God.”

 

He was called to teach at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and contributed an essay on the Incarnation to the collection known as “the Fundamentals,” but he didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a “fundamentalist.” When the Dean of BIOLA, Dr. James Murdock MacInnis, was charged with being a modernist, Morgan came to his aid. When MacInnis was forced to resign, Morgan did too.

 

In 1933, at the age of 72, he took a call back to Westminster Chapel. The church would celebrate the 60th anniversary of his first sermon on this, the 27th of August in 1936. He would also be given an assistant- a former Welsh physician, Dr. David Martin Lloyd Jones. Despite Morgan being Arminian and Jones a staunch Calvinist, they worked together until Lloyd Jones took over with Morgan’s retirement. He would live to hear news of the Allied victory in Europe on the 8th of May in 1945 and would die 8 days later.

 

In 1999, Preaching Magazine named him the 6th greatest preacher of the 20th century, coming ahead of names such as John Stott and his own former assistant, Martin Lloyd Jones. He preached his first sermon on this day in 1876 at the age of 13, his last in 1943 at the age of 79. George Campbell Morgan would die 2 years later at the age of 81.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and lets use the 1650 Metrical Psalter for Psalm 105, the first 6 verses

¹ Give thanks to God, call on his name;

to men his deeds make known.

² Sing ye to him, sing psalms; proclaim

his wondrous works each one.

³ See that ye in his holy name

to glory do accord;

And let the heart of ev’ry one

rejoice that seeks the Lord.

⁴ The Lord Almighty, and his strength,

with steadfast hearts seek ye:

His blessed and his gracious face

seek ye continually.

⁵ Think on the works that he hath done,

which admiration breed;

His wonders, and the judgments all

which from his mouth proceed;

⁶ O ye that are of Abr’ham’s race,

his servant well approv’n;

And ye that Jacob’s children are,

whom he chose for his own.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 27th of August 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who also cut his teeth preaching to dolls and toys, well into his 20’s… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who has been to First Pres. Athens- a block away from Wuxtry Records where REM was formed. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.