Matthew Simpson: Difference between revisions

Matthew Simpson

Matthew Simpson (1811 - 1884), was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1852.

Birth and Family

Matthew was born 20 June 1811 in Cadiz, Ohio. His grandfather, Thomas Simpson, was a British soldier who emigrated to Ireland. Matthew's father came to America in 1793. Matthew's grandfather Tingley was a Revolutionary soldier.

Matthew's uncle also was Matthew Simpson, who also emigrated from Ireland to America in 1793. This Matthew Simpson represented Harrison County, Ohio in the Ohio State Senate for ten years, and served as Judge of the County Court for seven years. In later life he lived with his nephew, reaching the advanced age of ninety-eight. Matthew, the nephew, married Ellen H. Verner of Pittsburgh.

Conversion

Matthew was consecrated at birth for the ministry by both of his parents . He was baptized as an infant by Bishop Asbury. Matthew then was religiously impressed in a Camp Meeting. He was converted to Christ in 1829.

Education and Early Work

Matthew received an academic education in his hometown. He then attended Madison College in Pennsylvania. Madison subsequently merged into Allegheny College in 1833. Matthew was elected to the office of Tutor in his eighteenth year, then engaging in teaching. Then, having also studied medicine in 1830-1833, he began to practice.

Ordained Ministry

Shortly thereafter, feeling it his duty to enter the ministry, Matthew was Licensed to Preach in the M.E. Church and was received on-trial in the Pittsburgh Annual Conerence. He was appointed Pastor of the Liberty Street Methodist Church in Pittsburgh in 1835, and of a church at Monongahela, Pennsylvania in 1836. He was ordained Elder in 1837.

Academic and Editorial Ministries

The Rev. Simpson was appointed Professor of Natural Science and elected Vice-President of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1838 he was elected Professor, and in 1839 President of the newly established Indiana Asbury University, (now De Pauw) University, Greencastle, Indiana, remaining until 1848. The Rev. Simpson was then elected Editor of the Western Christian Advocate, which he made a strong temperance and anti-slavery organ, from 1848 to 1852.

Episcopal Ministry

The Rev. Dr. Matthew Simpson was elected to the Episcopacy of his denomination by the M.E. General Conference, May 1852. In discharging his duties, Bishop Simpson visited and presided over Conferences in all of the States encompasing the M.E. Church as well as most of the related U.S. Territories. He was sent by the General Conference as a delegate to the Irish and British Wesleyan (i.e., Methodist) Conferences in 1857, as well as to the Evangelical Alliance in Berlin the same year. He traveled with John McClintock. From Berlin, Bishop Simpson extended his travels through Turkey, the Holy Land, Egypt, and Greece, returning to the U.S.A. in 1858.

In 1859, Bishop Simpson changed his residence from Pittsburgh to Evanston, Illinois, where he accepted the position of President of the Garrett Biblical Institute (now, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary). Nevertheless, much to his personal dissatisfaction Bishop Simpson was able to devote but little active service to Garrett.

American Civil War

Bishop Simpson was an intimate and trusted friend of President Lincoln, who considered his advice of great value, and at whose grave in Springfield he spoke the last words. During the American Civil War, Bishop Simpson delivered a number of speeches in behalf of the Union. He was urged by the Secretary of War to undertake the organization of the freedmen at the establishment of the bureau. After the war, Bishop Simpson was invited by President Grant to go as a commissioner to San Domingo. Both of these offers he respectfully declined.

More Foreign Travel

In 1870, at the death of Bishop Kingsley, Bishop Simpson again visited Europe to complete the work which had been assigned to him on the Continent. He also went as a delegate again to the English Wesleyan Conference. In 1874, Bishop Simpson visited Mexico. He returned to Europe in 1875, presiding over the Annual Conference of Germany and Switzerland. He also met with the M.E. missionaries in different parts of Europe. He then addressed the Garfield Memorial Meeting at Exeter Hall, London, on September 24, 1881.

Death and Burial

Bishop Matthew Simpson died 18 June 1884.

Selected Writings

• A Hundred Years of Methodism (1876)
• Cyclopedia of Methodism (1858 and subsequent editions)
• Lectures on Preaching (1879), delivered before the Theological Department of Yale College
• A volume of his Sermons (1885) was edited by George R. Crooks.

Biographies

• Crooks, George R., Life of Bishop Matthew Simpson, New York, 1890.

References

• Cyclopaedia of Methodism, Editor: Matthew Simpson, D.D., LL.D., Revised Edition. Philadelphia, Louis H. Everts, 1880.

See also

• List of Bishops of the United Methodist Church

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)