Biographies

The Missionary Century 1800–1899

The lives behind the books — preachers, missionaries, and writers whose words still speak.

Portrait of George Müller

George Müller 1805–1898

4 books in the library

George Müller (1805–1898) was a Prussian-born evangelist who, after a dissolute youth that included theft and a spell in prison, was converted at a prayer meeting in Halle in 1825 and gave his life to living by faith. Settling in Bristol, he founded the Ashley Down orphanages, where he housed and fed more than ten thousand orphans over his lifetime without ever once asking a human being for money — relying on prayer alone and keeping meticulous records of the answers.

Portrait of Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Samuel Ajayi Crowther 1809–1891

1 book in the library

Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1809–1891) was a Yoruba boy from Osogun captured in a slave raid in 1821, rescued by the Royal Navy from a slave ship and landed at Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he was baptized in 1825. Educated by the Church Missionary Society, he became the first African ordained in the Anglican Church (priest, 1843) and, in 1864, its first African bishop.

Portrait of David Livingstone

David Livingstone 1813–1873

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David Livingstone (1813–1873) was a Scottish mill boy turned missionary-explorer of Africa who crossed the continent, exposed the East African slave trade as “the open sore of the world,” and died on his knees in what is now Zambia. Famous as an explorer, he counted almost no converts — and that honest tension is part of what makes his devotion so striking.

Portrait of Robert Murray M’Cheyne

Robert Murray M’Cheyne 1813–1843

7 sermons

Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813–1843) was the minister of St Peter’s, Dundee, remembered for his pursuit of personal holiness and tender pastoral care. He drew up a still-used Bible-reading calendar, joined the 1839 mission of inquiry to the Jews, and died of typhus at 29, mourned by a whole city.

Portrait of J. C. Ryle

J. C. Ryle 1816–1900

7 sermons

John Charles Ryle (1816–1900) was the first Bishop of Liverpool and a leading evangelical of the Victorian church — a wealthy young man ruined by his family's bank collapse, redirected into the ministry, and famed for plain-spoken gospel tracts distributed by the million.

Portrait of Alexander Maclaren

Alexander Maclaren 1826–1910

7 sermons

Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) was a Scottish Baptist preacher who served Union Chapel, Manchester, for forty-five years — “the prince of expository preachers,” whose lifelong daily reading of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures fed the sermons gathered in his Expositions of Holy Scripture.

Portrait of Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray 1828–1917

12 books in the library

Andrew Murray Jr., born in 1828 in South Africa, served as a minister and theologian, influencing many through his teachings on prayer. He established educational institutions, authored over 240 works, and profoundly impacted Christian thought until his death in 1917. His books on deeper spiritual life continue to guide believers worldwide.

Portrait of Catherine Booth

Catherine Booth 1829–1890

1 book in the library · 10 sermons

Catherine Booth, born in 1829 in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England, was co-founder of The Salvation Army alongside her husband William Booth. A powerful preacher and advocate for women's rights, she challenged Victorian conventions by preaching publicly and advocating for women's ministry. Catherine authored "Female Ministry: Women's Right to Preach" and was instrumental in shaping The Salvation Army's theology and social programs.

Portrait of William Booth

William Booth 1829–1912

1 book in the library · 7 sermons

William Booth, born in 1829 in Nottingham, England, was the founder of The Salvation Army. Originally a Methodist minister, he felt called to serve the urban poor and began his ministry in London's East End. In 1865, he established the Christian Mission, which later became The Salvation Army in 1878. Booth and his wife Catherine pioneered innovative approaches to evangelism and social welfare, establishing shelters, rehabilitation centers, and soup kitchens.

Portrait of Hannah Whitall Smith

Hannah Whitall Smith 1832–1911

3 books in the library

Hannah Whitall Smith, born in 1832 in Philadelphia, was a prominent Quaker speaker and writer during the Holiness movement. Her influential book "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life" became a classic of Christian devotional literature. Despite personal tragedies, she maintained a vibrant faith that influenced generations of believers until her death in 1911.

Portrait of Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor 1832–1905

5 books in the library · 9 sermons

James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) was an English missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission. Converted at seventeen while his mother prayed for him miles away, he gave his life to reaching China's unreached inland provinces, pioneering a faith-mission that took no debt and solicited no funds but told every need to God in prayer.

Portrait of Charles H. Spurgeon

Charles H. Spurgeon 1834–1892

11 books in the library · 18 sermons

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, born in 1834 in Kelvedon, Essex, England, became known as the "Prince of Preachers." Converted at age 15, he began preaching at 16 and by age 20 became pastor of London's New Park Street Chapel, later the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Spurgeon authored over 3,500 sermons, numerous books, and founded a pastors' college, orphanage, and various Christian ministries.

Portrait of E. M. Bounds

E. M. Bounds 1835–1913

7 books in the library

American Methodist pastor, Civil War chaplain and former attorney who gave the last years of his life to rising at four in the morning to pray. Only one of his eight books on prayer, Power Through Prayer, appeared in his lifetime; the other seven were published after his death.

Portrait of Amanda Berry Smith

Amanda Berry Smith 1837–1915

3 books in the library

Amanda Berry Smith (1837–1915) was an African-American holiness evangelist who was born into slavery in Maryland and freed when her father bought his family's liberty. A washerwoman by trade, she became one of the most widely traveled preachers of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, ministering across the United States, Britain, India, and for eight years in West Africa as an independent missionary.

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Arthur T. Pierson 1837–1911

1 book in the library

Arthur Tappan Pierson (1837–1911) was an American Presbyterian pastor and missions statesman whose 1886 address at Mount Hermon helped launch the Student Volunteer Movement, and who filled Spurgeon's pulpit in London from 1891 to 1893. A close friend of George Müller, he wrote George Müller of Bristol (1899), the authorized memoir of Müller's life of prayer and faith.

Portrait of Dwight L. Moody

Dwight L. Moody 1837–1899

3 books in the library · 11 sermons

Dwight Lyman Moody, born in 1837 in Northfield, Massachusetts, rose from a fatherless farm boyhood and a Boston shoe store to become the best-known evangelist of the nineteenth century, preaching to as many as a hundred million people across America and Britain. Never ordained and barely schooled, he founded the Northfield schools, the Moody Bible Institute, and a colportage work that put good Christian books within everyone's reach.

Portrait of Lottie Moon

Lottie Moon 1840–1912

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Lottie Moon (1840–1912) was a Southern Baptist missionary who gave nearly forty years to China. Her letters home pressing for prayer, for laborers, and for a Christmas offering for missions built the foundation of Baptist mission giving; she died worn out amid famine and war on Christmas Eve, 1912.

Portrait of A. B. Simpson

A. B. Simpson 1843–1919

3 books in the library · 6 sermons

Canadian-born preacher and founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, whose "Fourfold Gospel" — Christ as Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King — called readers past every blessing to Christ Himself.

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Jesse Lyman Hurlbut 1843–1930

1 book in the library

Jesse Lyman Hurlbut (1843–1930) was an American Methodist minister who spent over fifty years training Bible teachers through the Sunday school and the Chautauqua movement. His Story of the Bible (1904) and Life of Christ (1915) retold Scripture plainly and faithfully, adding nothing, so that young readers would be led straight to the Bible itself.

Portrait of F. B. Meyer

F. B. Meyer 1847–1929

3 books in the library

Frederick Brotherton Meyer was born on April 8, 1847, in Clapham, London, to Frederick Meyer, a business owner, and his wife, Ann. Raised in a deeply religious household that cherished the authority of Scripture, Meyer became a prominent Baptist pastor, teacher, and evangelist, based primarily in London. He was known for his expository preaching and devotional writings. Meyer pastored several prominent churches including Christ Church in London and Melbourne Hall in Leicester.

Portrait of Mary Slessor

Mary Slessor 1848–1915

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Mary Slessor (1848–1915) was a Dundee mill girl who became a missionary to Calabar in what is now Nigeria. Living among the people and speaking their language, she fought the killing of twins, rescued and raised many children, and became a magistrate in the interior — remembered as “everybody’s mother.”

Portrait of R. A. Torrey

R. A. Torrey 1856–1928

5 books in the library · 14 sermons

Reuben Archer Torrey (1856–1928) was an American evangelist, pastor and teacher who came to faith at Yale on a night he had resolved to take his own life. D. L. Moody made him the first superintendent of the Moody Bible Institute and he pastored the Chicago Avenue Church, later serving as first dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. He wrote more than forty books, chiefly on prayer and the Holy Spirit.

Portrait of Pandita Ramabai

Pandita Ramabai 1858–1922

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Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922) was a Sanskrit scholar of Brahmin birth, orphaned by famine, who became a Christian and gave her life to India’s abandoned women. Her faith-supported Mukti Mission sheltered and educated thousands of child-widows and orphans, and she translated the whole Bible into Marathi from the original languages.

Portrait of Smith Wigglesworth

Smith Wigglesworth 1859–1947

1 book in the library

Smith Wigglesworth (1859–1947) was a Yorkshire plumber who could not read as a boy, worked in a woollen mill from the age of seven, and became one of the best-known evangelists of early Pentecostalism. With his wife Polly he led the Bowland Street Mission in Bradford for many years; after receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit at Sunderland in 1907 he preached faith and divine healing across Europe, America, Australasia, India and Africa, and his sermons were gathered in Ever Increasing Faith and Faith That Prevails.

Portrait of C. T. Studd

C. T. Studd 1860–1931

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C. T. Studd (1860–1931) was an England cricketer who, after his conversion, gave away a fortune and joined the “Cambridge Seven” as a missionary — serving in China, India, and finally the Congo, where he founded what became WEC. A man of fierce, uncompromising, and at times difficult zeal, he lived by the conviction that no sacrifice could be too great for Christ.

Portrait of Billy Sunday

Billy Sunday 1862–1935

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Billy Sunday (1862–1935) was an American baseball player turned evangelist, a Chicago White Stockings outfielder converted outside the Pacific Garden Mission who became the most famous revivalist of the early twentieth century. Preaching in wooden tabernacles to vast crowds, he called hundreds of thousands to “hit the sawdust trail” for Christ and was a leading voice in the campaign for Prohibition.

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John Hyde 1865–1912

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John “Praying” Hyde (1865–1912) was an American Presbyterian missionary to the Punjab, remembered above all as a man of prayer — a leading figure of the Sialkot Convention from its first year and one of the moving spirits of the Punjab Prayer Union, remembered as a man who asked God for a soul a day. Much of his vivid reputation comes from Francis McGaw’s 1923 devotional book “Praying Hyde,” written after his death.

Portrait of John R. Mott

John R. Mott 1865–1955

1 book in the library

John R. Mott (1865–1955) was an American Methodist layman who gave his life to “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” Converted to lifelong service as a Cornell student, he led the Student Volunteer Movement, founded the World’s Student Christian Federation, chaired the 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference, and shared the 1946 Nobel Peace Prize. A tireless traveller and a man of the “morning watch,” he helped lay the foundations of the International Missionary Council and the World Council of Churches.

Portrait of Amy Carmichael

Amy Carmichael 1867–1951

1 book in the library

Amy Beatrice Carmichael, born in 1867 in Millisle, Ireland, was a Protestant missionary in India. She served for 55 years without furlough, founding the Dohnavur Fellowship to rescue children from temple prostitution. Known for her deep devotion and writings on prayer, she authored 35 books and remained in India until her death in 1951. Her work continues through the ongoing ministry she established. Carmichael's life demonstrated radical obedience to Christ's call and cultural adaptation.

Portrait of John G. Lake

John G. Lake 1870–1935

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John G. Lake (1870–1935) was a Canadian-born Pentecostal preacher and faith healer who, after his wife’s healing in the circle of John Alexander Dowie, helped found the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (1908–1913). Returning to America, he opened his “Divine Healing Rooms” in Spokane and later worked in Portland, leaving a lasting and much-debated legacy in the healing movement.

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Rees Howells 1879–1950

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Rees Howells (1879–1950) was a Welsh coal miner turned intercessor whose life of costly, sacrificial prayer became the pattern taught in his biography by Norman Grubb. He founded the Bible College of Wales at Swansea in 1924, running it without fees or fundraising appeals, and led its community in sustained wartime intercession for Britain.

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Charles S. Price 1887–1947

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Charles S. Price (1887–1947) was an English-born Pentecostal evangelist who, as a liberal Congregational pastor in Lodi, California, went to Aimee Semple McPherson’s 1921 San Jose meetings to expose them and was converted instead. His healing campaigns across North America drew huge crowds, notably in Victoria and Vancouver in 1923, and his book The Real Faith (1940) taught that true faith is not worked up but imparted by God.

Portrait of Corrie ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom 1892–1983

6 sermons

Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983) was a Dutch watchmaker who, with her family, hid Jews from the Nazis in a secret room in their Haarlem home. Arrested and imprisoned in Ravensbrück, where her sister Betsie died, she survived to travel the world for decades preaching God’s forgiveness — even to a former guard of the camp.

Portrait of A. W. Tozer

A. W. Tozer 1897–1963

11 sermons

A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) was a self-taught American pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance whose books, above all The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy, and whose life of prostrate, worshipful prayer made him a prophetic voice calling the church back to the pursuit of God Himself. He pastored for over forty years, most famously at Southside Alliance Church in Chicago, and edited his denomination's magazine until his death.

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Simeon Nsibambi 1897–1978

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Simeon Nsibambi (1897–1978) was an educated, prosperous Muganda health officer in Kampala whose spiritual hunger drove a pivotal September 1929 meeting with the missionary doctor Joe Church at Namirembe. Their weekend of Bible study and prayer over the fullness of the Spirit helped ignite the East African Revival (the Balokole, “saved ones”).

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Joe Church 1899–1989

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Dr Joe E. Church (1899–1989) was an English CMS missionary doctor at Gahini Hospital in Rwanda whose two days of Bible study and prayer with the Ugandan layman Simeoni Nsibambi on Namirembe Hill in September 1929 are remembered as the spark of the East African Revival. He served in Africa for over three decades and always insisted the Revival was God’s work, not his own.

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Martyn Lloyd-Jones 1899–1981

11 sermons

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981), known as “the Doctor,” was a brilliant young London physician — assistant to the King's doctor, Sir Thomas Horder — who left medicine for the ministry, convinced that humanity's deepest disease is spiritual. After eleven years pastoring working people at Sandfields in industrial South Wales, he preached expositionally at Westminster Chapel, London, for thirty years and became a central figure in the twentieth-century recovery of Reformed preaching.

Biographies