This is a most serious thought, this thought of finishing our work. There is nothing in the Christian life quite so sad as unfinished work. As I look over the work of God, I see strewn all along the way this curse of incompleted work. The book of Judges tells us of five hundred years of declension because God's people did not complete their work when they were in possession of Canaan. They conquered Jericho; they conquered 31 kingdoms; they divided the land among 12 victorious tribes; but they left here and there little strongholds that were not subdued-little tribes that could not or would not be driven out-and it was not long until they brought Israel under subjection and neutralized all the work of Joshua's conquest. Consider the ministry of Elijah. Never has the world seen anything more sublime than his victory on Carmel. But who has not grieved at his reaction on the following day when, at the shaking of a woman's finger, he fled into the desert and left the field in possession of God's enemies. It is not enough to go on for a while. It is the last step that wins. May God put on our hearts this thought, that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have receive of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
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A.B. Simpson (1843 - 1919)
Simpson is the founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance Movement that began in Canada with a desire to promote missions and global evangelism. He was used powerfully of the Lord to unify many brothers and sisters in a common purpose of fulfilling the great commission.A.W. Tozer joined with the Missionary Alliance denomination because of the teachings of A.B. Simpson and specific his writings on holiness: "A Larger Christian Life." He wrote many hymns and added a great emphasis on the person of Jesus Christ in church-life.
FOUNDER OF THE Christian and Missionary Alliance, Albert Benjamin Simpson was born in Canada of Scottish parents. He became a Presbyterian minister and pastored several churches in Ontario. Later, he accepted the call to serve as pastor of the Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. It was there that his life and ministry were completely changed in that, during a revival meeting, he experienced the fullness of the Spirit.He continued in the Presbyterian Church until 1881, when he founded an independent Gospel Tabernacle in New York. There he published the Alliance Weekly and wrote 70 books on Christian living. He organized two missionary societies which later merged to become the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
Albert Benjamin Simpson was a Canadian preacher, theologian, author, and founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), an evangelical protestant denomination with an emphasis on global evangelism.
In December 1873, at age 30, Simpson left Canada and assumed the pulpit of the largest Presbyterian church in Louisville, Kentucky, the Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church. It was in Louisville that he first conceived of preaching the gospel to the common man by building a simple tabernacle structure for that purpose. Despite his success at the Chestnut Street Church, Simpson was frustrated by their reluctance to embrace this burden for wider evangelistic endeavor.
Simpson’s heart for evangelism was to become the driving force behind the creation of the C&MA. Initially, the Christian and Missionary Alliance was not founded as a denomination, but as an organized movement of world evangelism. Today, the C&MA denomination plays a leadership role in global evangelism.