Reuben Archer Torrey: Congregationalist, evangelist; born at Hoboken, New Jersey [United States], January 28, 1856. He was graduated from Yale University
(B.A., 1875) and from the theological department there (B.D., 1878), and
studied at the universities of Leipsic and Erlangen. He was pastor of the
Congregational Church, Garrettsville, Ohio (1878-82), Open Door Church, Minneapolis
(1883-86); superintendent of the Minneapolis City Missionary Society (1886-89);
pastor of People's Church, Minneapolis (1887-89); superintendent of Chicago
Evangelization Society and Moody Bible Institute (1889-1908), having meanwhile
been pastor of the Chicago Avenue Church, Chicago (1894-1905); and since
December, 1901, has been engaged in evangelistic work, part of the time in
a tour of the world, preaching in China, Japan, Australia, Tasmania, New
Zealand, India, Germany, in the United Kingdom, and at home.
He holds to the divine origin and absolute inerrancy of the Scriptures, to the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, to the doctrine that men are saved only through the atoning death of Christ and on condition of faith in him, to the resurrection of the body at the second coming of Christ, to the endless blessed consciousness of those who accept Christ in this life and the endless conscious misery of those who in this life reject Christ.
He has written among other works How I Bring Men to Christ (New York, 1893); Baptism with the Holy Spirit (1895); How to Study the Bible with Greatest Profit (1896); What the Bible Teaches (1898), Divine Origin of the Bible (1899); How to Promote and Conduct a Successful Revival (1901); How to Work for Christ (1901); Revival Addresses (1903); Talks to Men (1904); Anecdotes and Illustrations (1907); Studies in the Life and Teachings of our Lord (1909); The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit as Revealed in the Scriptures and Personal Experience (1910); and commentaries and helps on the International Lessons Series.
Bibliography: G. T. B. Davis, Torrey and Alexander; the Story of a World-wide Revival, New York, 1905; J. K. Maclean. Triumphant Evangelism, London, 1905.
From The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge... New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1911.
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