| Life of Rev. Dr. George Campbell Morgan
He had a time of crisis and despair, which he called an “eclipse” of his faith, from age nineteen to twenty-one when he worked as a school teacher at the Jewish Collegiate School for Boys. This is the time that he pursued philosophical quests about truth. After this time of struggle, he read and took the Bible more seriously. Morgan said about this time, “the Bible found me.” The Bible gave him satisfaction and relief for his troubled soul.
Campbell Morgan visited the United States for the first time in 1896 at the invitation of D. L. Moody, who asked him to lecture to the students at the Moody Bible Institute. This was the first of his 54 crossings of the Atlantic to preach and teach. In 1897 Morgan assumed his fourth pastorate at New Court Tollington Park, London. At London, he often traveled as a preacher and was involved in the London Missionary Society. After the death of Moody in 1899, Morgan assumed the position of director of the Northfield Bible Conference in Massachusetts. After five successful years in this capacity in 1904, he returned to England and became pastor of Westminster Chapel, London where he served the next thirteen years. Thousands of people attended his services and weekly Friday night Bible classes. Westminster Chapel flourished with his teaching, fundraising, and social programs.
Morgan married his cousin, Nancy. They had four sons (Percy, John, Frank, and Howard) and three daughters (Gwendoline, Kathleen, and Ruth). Howard Morgan succeeded his father as pastor of Tabernacle Presbyterian Church when Moagan returned to Westminster Chapel for his second term in 1932.
He preached more than 23,390 sermons on both sides of the Atlantic. Morgan was a prolific writer of books, booklets, tracts, and articles. Among his best-known writings are The Crises of the Christ, The Westminster Pulpit, Parables of the Kingdom, The Triumphs of Faith, and The Analyzed Bible. |
G. Campbell Morgan (1863-1945) was born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England, the son of a Baptist minister on December 9, 1863. The ten year old boy was inspired by D. L. Moody who had reached out to England for the first time. Moody and Morgan’s parents made a great impact on his early faith. After his first preaching experience at Monmouth Methodist Church at age thirteen on Sunday, August 27, 1876, he regularly preached as a “boy preacher” in country chapels on Sundays and holidays. 
He left the teaching profession at the age of twenty-three and sought ordination from the Wesleyan Methodist Church to be a professional preacher. However, the examiner rejected his application after his trial sermon on May 22, 1888, hurting the young Morgan deeply. But with the failure of his plan, he was open to another of God’s providential plans. He was ordained to the Congregational ministry in 1890 and served as a pastor in Stone and Rugeley, Staffordshire and in Birmingham. Although he had no formal training for the ministry, his devotion and commitment to the Bible made him popular as one of the leading Bible teachers in England. His reputation as a preacher and Bible expositor spread to the United States. 
Leaving Westminster Chapel in 1919, he came to the United States, where he conducted an itinerant preaching/teaching ministry for fourteen years. His preaching tour was extensive and appealed to several states and even to Canada. When he preached, many people gathered so that even police involvement was necessary. He served as a teacher in the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (1927-1928; now Biola University) and in Gordon College of Theology and Mission in Boston (1930-1931) and as a pastor of the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1929-1932). Finally, in 1932, he returned to England, where he once again became pastor of Westminster Chapel and remained there until his retirement in 1943. His Westminster pastorship was succeeded by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Morgan died on May 16, 1945, at the age of 81. 
