1836-1895
Adoniram Judson Gordon
Baptist Minister/Educator NH/MA
Historian Richard V. Pierard reminds us that Adoniram Judson Gordon was a true New Englander all his life. He was born in New Hampshire on April 19, 1836, to a Baptist deacon named John Calvin Gordon. Young A. J, went to college in Rhode Island (Brown University), attended seminary in Massachusetts (Newton Theological Institute) and pastored Baptist churches in Boston before he died on February 2, 1895, at age 58. Pierard tells the story well in a 2015 article for American Baptist Quarterly.[1]
Gordon was no rigid fundamentalist as so many evangelical preachers of a later generation would be labeled by their critics. He was a moderate Calvinist in his doctrinal beliefs but was open to Holiness insights and a firm believer in the power of the Holy Spirit. He even had some interest in faith healing. He was not a “high church” type of person even though he ministered in an upper class church. He reached out to people of lower status by dispensing with pew rents and encouraging congregational singing. He compiled four hymnbooks and wrote a number of songs himself. He acknowledged the important role of women in the church. He believed they should be allowed to preach (but not become ordained), and female students were enrolled from the very beginning in his Boston Missionary Training School. His wife Maria played a very influential part in his life and ministry. Although Gordon anteceded the “social gospel” movement in American Protestantism, he grasped the social aspects of the faith. In a variety of ways, he ministered to the physical as well as the spiritual needs of those who came to Christ. He was also an advocate for temperance causes, regarding alcoholic drink as a burning social issue.[2]
Adoniram Judson Sage described the preaching of Adoniram Judson Gordon as
…the flow of a clear stream spiritual and practical in thought, and replete with suggestions from a wide range of reading…. A manly presence, a deep and rich voice, an utterly simple and unaffected manner, energetic, yet with no obstructive action, gave great power to his discourse…. His ministry was largely fruitful; the church became actively evangelistic, it reached the poor, the fallen, the outcast, it reclaimed the intemperate.[3]
Because of his commitment to missions, A. J. Gordon founded the Boston Missionary Training Institute in 1889 which became Gordon College. Gordon Divinity School then grew out of this undergraduate program. In 1970 Conwell School of Theology from Philadelphia merged with the seminary to become Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
A church music minister as we know them in the twenty-first century did not exist as such 200 years ago and preaching ministers frequently wrote hymns to be sung during worship to reinforce the message of the sermon. Adoniram Judson Gordon wrote his own hymns including my favorite “My Jesus, I Love Thee.” He edited two books of music for churches and for a time served as editor of the monthly publication Watchword. He was a close friend of Dwight L. Moody and greatly assisted Moody’s evangelistic efforts in Boston.[4]
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[1] Richard V. Pierard, Editorial Introduction, American Baptist Quarterly, Summer 2015 XXXIV:2, American Baptist Historical Society, p. 137.
[2] Ibid., p. 138.
[3] Adoniram Judson Sage, “Baptist Pulpit of the Nineteenth Century: Northern,” in A Century of Baptist Achievement, A. H. Newman, editor (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publican Society, 1901), p. 383.
[4] William J. Reynolds, “Authors, Composers, and Sources,” Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal, (Nashville, TN: Convention Press, 1992), p. 351.