Philip Paul Bliss
(1838-1876
Born in a log cabin in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, he joined a Baptist Church at the age of twelve. He studied music at the Normal Academy of Music in New York. In 1864 Bliss sold his first song and by 1865 he had moved to Chicago to publish with Root and Cady. Through Ira Sankey he met D.L. Moody and Major D.W. Whittle, the latter whom he joined for revival meetings as song leader and soloist. His most popular songs include:
“Let the Lower Lights Be Burning”
“Hallelujah! What a Saviour”
“Almost Persuaded”
“Wonderful Words of Life”

At the age of thirty-eight, Bliss was killed with his wife in a fiery train wreck in Ohio while on his way to Moody’s Tabernacle.

William Carey
(1761 – 1834)

William Carey, English pioneer missionary to India, was called the “father of modern missions” even though Protestant missionary activity had been in existence for one hundred years. Converted at eighteen, Carey used his intellect to master five languages. After being ordained in 1787 by the particular Baptists, Carey urged that worldwide missions be undertaken. Later the Baptist Missionary Society was formed and supported by membership dues. Carey was sent to India as part of the society’s first overseas contingent. In 1799, Carey was joined by William Ward and Joshua Marshman. The three became known as the Serampore Trio, founding 26 churches, 126 schools, translating Scripture into 44 languages, organizing India’s first medical mission, girls’ school, seminary, etc. Carey also conducted extensive agricultural experiments and was instrumental in founding the Agriculture & Horticulture Society of India. Carey’s efforts inspired the founding of other mission boards and sparked the entire Christian world to carry out the Great Commission. His tombstone reads: “A wretched, poor, and helpless worm On Thy kind arms I fall.”

John Eliot
(1604-1690)

John Eliot, of English descent, in 1631 emigrated to Massachusetts when a group of Puritan friends asked him to join them as their pastor. There he began his lifelong ministry to the Roxbury congregation.

In 1637 an Indian captured in the Pequot War was assigned to Eliot as a bond slave. It was through this Indian, with Eliot’s prior linguistic training at Cambridge University, that he learned and mastered the language and intricate grammar of the Indians. Within ten years he was preaching to them and working on a Bible translation, which resulted in the first Bible printed in North America.

Eliot believed that the best carrier of the gospel to the Indians were the Indians themselves, thus training twenty-four to be Indian preachers. Because of his dedication and tireless effort among them, he was called “Apostle to the Indians.”

Charles Grandison Finney
(1792 – 1875)

Charles Finney, American father of modern revivalism, was a schoolteacher and then a lawyer before his conversion as age twenty-nine. His salvation experience was put to work immediately; witnessing to family and friends, more than twenty people were saved through his testimony that same day.

Finney left law and sought entry into the Presbyterian ministry, studying theology under George Gale, his Princeton trained pastor. After his ordination in 1824, Finney was hired by the Female Missionary Society and began working as a missionary to the settlers of upstate New York.

Under Finney’s preaching, revival began to break out in several villages, and as a result, Finney became nationally known and began to travel and preach in extended revival services. He believed that revival was a natural result of following the instructions that God had laid out in His Word.

After fifty years of preaching, Finney was forced by tuberculosis to curtail his travels and take a pastorate in New York City, but had already witnessed more than 500,000 conversions. In 1835, he became the professor of theology at Oberelin College in Ohio and later the president.

Aside from his preaching, Finney also authored several books, the most enduring of which are “The Autobiography of Charles Finney” and Lectures on Revival of Religion.

Adoniram Judson

(1788-1850)

Adoniram Judson, pioneer American missionary to Burma, studied for his ministry at Andover Seminary. It was there that he became a member of the foreign mission interest group. He aided in establishing the American Board Of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1810, and in 1812, he and his wife were appointed to India. Two years later Judson and his wife moved on to Rangoon, Burma. After mastering the language and understanding Theravada Buddhism, Adoniram made great headway among the tribes. However, not being drawn to the tribal people, Judson opted to spend his whole life in the difficult task of witnessing to the politically and culturally dominant Burmans. He produced a dictionary, translated the Bible, and composed much literature. He engaged in public preaching and answered questions from inquirers, especially Buddhist monks.