H.A. Ironside

Henry (Harry) Allen Ironside, Bible Teacher and Preacher
Born: October 14, 1876 in Toronto, Canada
Died: January 15, 1951 in Cambridge, New Zealand

H.A. Ironside's parents were both tremendous soul-winners, identified with the Plymouth Brethren. Harry was thought to be dead at birth, and lay cast aside for some forty minutes while his critically ill mother was attended to. However, a nurse detected a heartbeat, and he was placed into a hot bath, which saved his little life. Raised to read the Bible, he was memorizing Scripture from the age of three, and by the age of fourteen, he had read the Bible through fourteen times.

At the age of eleven he singlehandedly started at Sunday School in his neighborhood, organizing girls together to sew burlap bags into a giant tent big enough to hold 100 people. With no preacher available, this young boy took on the responsability, preaching and teaching a crowd of sixty adults and children. One day, visiting evangelist Donald Munro said to him "Well, well, Harry lad, how you have grown! And are you born again yet, my boy?" His Uncle Allan piped up in defense, "Oh, Harry preaches himself, now." Munro replied, "You are preaching, and yet you don't know that you're born again! Go and get your Bible, lad."

For six month Harry wrestled with this problem, giving up his teaching until it would be resolved. One night Proverbs 1:24-32 came to his mind, and after midnight, he fell on his knees and said, "Lord, save me."In his own words:"I rested on the Word of God and confessed Christ as my Saviour."

H.A. Ironside was a man of varied ministries: author of dozens of books and Bible studies, street preacher, Salvation Army Captian, itinerant preacher with the Plymouth Brethren, worldwdide Bible Conference teacher, and he even pastored the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago for over eighteen years; all of this and more, accomplished with no more than an eighth grade education, secularly speaking.

Quotes from H.A. Ironside:
"If lips and life do not agree, the testimony will not amount to much."

"If what they are saying about you is true, mend your ways. If it isn't true, forget it, and go on and serve the Lord."

"It is well to remember that reading books about the Bible is a very different thing to searching the Word for oneself."

“One who gives himself preeminently to the Word, neglecting prayer, will become heady and doctrinal—likely to quarrel about ‘points,’ and be occupied with theoretical Christianity to the hurt of his soul and the irritation of the brethren. On the other hand, one who gives himself to much prayer while neglecting the Word is likely to become exceedingly introspective, mystical, and sometime fanatical. But he who reads the Word of God reverently and humbly, seeking to know the will of God, and then gives himself to prayer, confessing and judging what the Scriptures have condemned in his ways, words and thoughts, will have his soul drawn out in worship also, and thus grow both in grace and knowledge, becoming a well-rounded follower of Christ.”

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