Who Was H. Clay Trumbull? Army Chaplain, Editor and Soul-Winner
Henry Clay Trumbull was an American Sunday-school leader, Civil War chaplain and editor who lived from 1830 to 1903. For almost thirty years he edited The Sunday School Times in Philadelphia, one of the most widely read Christian papers in the country. He wrote dozens of books, from scholarly studies of Bible customs to plain, practical books on prayer, child-training and helping people who doubt. But the thing he cared about most was simple: speaking to one person at a time about Jesus Christ.
Here's the story of his life, what he taught, and which of his books to start with.
Boyhood in Stonington
Trumbull was born on June 8, 1830, in Stonington, Connecticut, a seaport town on Long Island Sound. Poor health ended his formal schooling at about fourteen, so most of what he learned he taught himself. He grew up in a family that honored God, and in his book on prayer he looks back on boyhood lessons of trust he learned there. But he wasn't yet a Christian when he left home for work.
As a young man he took a clerk's job in the chief engineer's office of a railroad in Hartford. In the winter of 1851 and 1852, Charles Finney held special meetings in the city, but Trumbull stayed away. The young men at his boarding house laughed at the whole thing, and he had no interest in it.
Won by a reluctant letter
One of his closest friends in Stonington had confessed Christ during a revival. For a long time the friend said nothing to Trumbull about it. Then he finally wrote Trumbull a letter, a careful, hesitant one, urging him to seek the Saviour. Trumbull crumpled it into his pocket and joked that there must be a big revival in Stonington. But he couldn't brush it off. He climbed to a little map closet at the top of the railroad station's stone tower, shut the door, and read it through. Later he wrote that this one letter moved him more than all the sermons he had ever heard. He tells what happened next:
Before I had read the last of this letter, I was on my knees … asking forgiveness of God, and committing myself to a long slighted Saviour.
Individual Work for Individuals, chapter 2
He was about twenty-one. He noticed right away that he had been won by one person speaking to one person, and he decided that he would do the same for others. He made what he called a life-resolve: whenever he could, he would speak to at least one person about Christ.
Then it was that I made a purpose and resolve for life.
Individual Work for Individuals, chapter 3
He kept that resolve for the next fifty years. His book Individual Work for Individuals is the record of it.
Sunday-school missionary
Soon after his conversion Trumbull joined a Congregational church and began leading a mission Sunday school in Hartford. In 1854 he married Alice Cogswell Gallaudet, a daughter of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, the founder of the American School for the Deaf. In 1858 he became the Sunday-school missionary for the state of Connecticut, working for the American Sunday School Union. He traveled from town to town starting schools, training teachers and speaking at conventions.
Chaplain in the Civil War
In 1862 Trumbull was ordained a Congregational minister and became chaplain of the 10th Connecticut Infantry. He wasn't the kind of chaplain who stayed behind the lines. He went with the men. In July 1863 he was captured near Charleston, South Carolina, after the assault on Fort Wagner, and he spent several months in Confederate prisons before he was exchanged. He went back to his regiment and served until it was mustered out in 1865.
Army life only made him surer of what he had learned from his friend's letter. He wrote:
In army life, as in quiet home life, the way to reach the many is to reach the one.
Individual Work for Individuals, chapter 6
His books tell of soldiers he spoke with one by one, and of a soldier prisoner whose prayer was answered. He also wrote a full book about those years, War Memories of an Army Chaplain.
Editor in Philadelphia
After the war Trumbull went back to Sunday-school work, first over the American Sunday School Union's New England field and then in charge of its teacher training across the country. The constant travel wore him out. In 1875 John Wanamaker bought The Sunday School Times and was looking for an editor. Trumbull took the post, moved to Philadelphia, and edited the paper until his death. In Personal Prayer he tells how he was "led unmistakably to the editor's chair" after asking God to show him the way.
Under his care the paper grew into a weekly read by teachers and pastors all over America and beyond. He also traveled to Egypt and the Sinai, and he wrote a study arguing for the site of Kadesh-barnea, where Israel camped in the wilderness. In 1888 he gave the Lyman Beecher Lectures on preaching at Yale. His son, Charles Gallaudet Trumbull, later edited the same paper and wrote The Life Story of C. I. Scofield.
He died in Philadelphia on December 8, 1903, at seventy-three.
What he taught
Trumbull wrote on many subjects, but a few convictions run through all his books.
Every Christian can speak to one person. He didn't think personal work was only for pastors. It was for anyone whose heart was set on it.
Not every man can be a great preacher to a great congregation; but every man can speak a timely word to an individual, if, indeed, his heart be set on so doing.
Individual Work for Individuals, chapter 1
Trust God, not prayer itself. In his book on prayer he draws a sharp line between praying with faith in God and putting faith in our own praying.
There is a vast difference between prayer in faith and faith in prayer.
Personal Prayer, chapter 7
Look to Christ, not inside yourself. Much of his counsel to doubters comes back to this. He had spent time searching himself for some sign of hope, and he learned to look up instead.
Christ is above us; let us look to him.
How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters, chapter 2
Train a child's will; never break it. His book for parents is gentle and firm. He wanted parents to guide a child's will toward duty, not crush it, and never to punish in anger.
Will-training is an important element in child-training; but will-breaking has no part or place in the training of a child.
Hints on Child-Training, chapter 5
Why he's still read
Trumbull writes like a wise older friend. He tells real stories about real people, from a seat-mate on a train to a dying man in his sickroom, and he draws plain lessons from them. His books on prayer and doubt come from years of conversations, not theory. And his call to speak to one person about Christ still stirs readers today, just as his talks at Northfield once stirred college students.
Where to start
TheWay Library has five of his books, all free to read.
- Start with Individual Work for Individuals. It's his own story and his best-known message.
- For prayer, read Personal Prayer: thoughtful chapters on what prayer is, then stories of answers to prayer from his own life.
- If you're a parent, read Hints on Child-Training.
- If you're helping a friend who doubts, or doubting yourself, read How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters.
- For missionary history, read Old Time Student Volunteers, his memories of the pioneers he knew, from Adoniram Judson to Robert Moffat.
Our guide to H. Clay Trumbull's books describes each one, and our collection of H. Clay Trumbull quotes gathers his best lines. All his books are on the H. Clay Trumbull author page.