Who Was J. Wilbur Chapman? Evangelist, Pastor and Friend of Moody
J. Wilbur Chapman was an American Presbyterian pastor and evangelist who lived from 1859 to 1918. He led large churches in Albany, Philadelphia and New York, preached alongside D. L. Moody, gave Billy Sunday his start in evangelism, and with the singer Charles Alexander held gospel campaigns across America, Britain, Australia and Asia. He also wrote the words of two hymns still sung today, "One Day" and "Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners." In his last year he was elected moderator of his church's General Assembly, the highest office it had to give.
Here's a fuller look at his life, what he preached, and which of his books to start with.
A boy in Richmond, Indiana
John Wilbur Chapman was born on June 17, 1859, in Richmond, Indiana. His mother was a devout Methodist, and she died while he was a boy. His father had been raised a Presbyterian, and after her death he took the family back to that church. So young Wilbur went to two Sunday schools, Presbyterian in the morning and Methodist in the afternoon.
It was in the Methodist school that he first stood to confess Christ. A visiting speaker asked the boys to stand, and every boy in his class stood but him. His teacher, Mrs. C. C. Binckley, leaned over with tears in her eyes, put her hand under his elbow and lifted him a little, and he stood up. He never forgot it:
I do not know that that was the time of my conversion, but I do know that it was the day when one of the most profound impressions of my life was made upon me.
The Personal Touch, chapter 1
That small act became the theme of his book The Personal Touch, and of much of his life's work.
"Whom are you doubting?"
Chapman studied at Lake Forest College near Chicago. There he was troubled for a long time about whether he was really saved. He went into Chicago to hear D. L. Moody, and afterward sat down with him in the inquiry room. Moody had him read John 5:24 and asked whether he believed it, and whether he was a Christian. When Chapman kept saying he wasn't sure, Moody turned on him and asked, "Whom are you doubting?" Chapman saw that he was doubting God's own word. He wrote that from that day on he never questioned his acceptance with God.
Moody kept an eye on him after that, visited his church, told him where he thought he was wrong, and urged him toward evangelism. Chapman said he owed more to Moody than to any other man. In 1900, the year after Moody died, he wrote The Life and Work of Dwight Lyman Moody.
Pastor
Chapman trained for the ministry at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati and was ordained in 1881. After short pastorates in Ohio and Indiana he served Dutch Reformed churches in Schuylerville and Albany, New York. From 1890 he was pastor of Bethany Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, a very large congregation, and from 1899 to 1902 of Fourth Presbyterian Church in New York City.
His preaching changed after a meeting at Moody's Northfield conference, where the English pastor F. B. Meyer asked a question that stuck with him: if you're not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing? Chapman studied what the New Testament says about surrender and gave himself to Christ afresh. That experience runs through his books on the deeper life, like The Surrendered Life and Received Ye the Holy Ghost?.
God asks only for our will, and he is a happy man who reaches the place where he holds back nothing from God.
The Surrendered Life, chapter 1, The Double Portion
Evangelist
Between his Philadelphia pastorates, from 1893 to about 1895, Chapman worked as a traveling evangelist. His advance man in those years, the worker who went ahead to organize the churches, was a former baseball player named Billy Sunday. When Chapman went back to the pastorate, Sunday started holding meetings of his own and became the best-known evangelist of his day.
In 1903 the Presbyterian Church asked Chapman to lead its new work in evangelism, and that same year he published Present-Day Evangelism, a handbook for pastors. He insisted that revival begins with prayer and with Christians getting right with God:
Generally, if not uniformly, prayer is both starting-point and goal to every movement in which are the elements of permanent progress.
Present-day Evangelism, chapter 2
He also served as director of the Bible conference at Winona Lake, Indiana, and helped begin the conferences at Montreat, North Carolina.
Chapman and Alexander
In 1907 Chapman joined forces with Charles M. Alexander, a gospel singer who had led music for R. A. Torrey. Their method was the "simultaneous campaign": a city was divided into districts, each with its own preacher and singer, and then everyone gathered for great central meetings. They held campaigns in Philadelphia, Boston and many other American cities, and in 1909 set out on a world tour that took them to Australia, the Philippines, China, Korea and Japan. Later tours took them to Britain and back to Australia.
His Revival Sermons come from those campaigns. They're simple and direct: what a Christian is, how you may know you are one, repentance, the new birth, and the call to accept Christ now.
When the Governor pardons, he only pardons; but when God pardons, He justifies.
Revival Sermons, chapter 11, How Shall We Escape?
Chapman wrote the words of several hymns for these meetings. The two best known, both from 1910, are "One Day," often sung today as "Glorious Day," and "Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners," also called "Our Great Saviour."
What he preached
Chapman wasn't a scholar or a stylist. He was a pastor with an evangelist's heart. His sermons are full of stories from his campaigns and from Moody's, and they nearly always end with an appeal. A few themes come up again and again:
- Assurance rests on God's word, not on feelings. He learned this from Moody and passed it on. "My strongest reason for believing that I am saved," he wrote in The Ivory Palaces of the King, is "that He has said it."
- Surrender and the filling of the Spirit. Every believer has the Spirit, he taught, but many never know His fullness because something stands between them and God.
- Every Christian a soul winner. He believed the work of evangelism belongs to the whole church, not to preachers alone.
To be saved one's self, and to be satisfied with that, is unworthy the name of Christ and discredits the spirit of Christ.
Another Mile and Other Addresses, chapter 8, A Chosen Few
- Tenderness toward the failing. In his sermon on the angel's words "and Peter" he says you won't find a harsh word in the Bible for the backslider. His message to the wanderer was always "come home."
Family, last year and death
Chapman knew deep sorrow. His first wife, Irene, died in 1886, soon after the birth of their daughter. His second wife, Agnes, died in 1907. In 1910 he married Mabel Moulton.
In May 1918 he was elected moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. He died in New York City on December 25, 1918, after surgery, at the age of fifty-nine.
Why he's still read
Chapman's books are short and warm and easy to pick up. He wrote for ordinary church members, and he believed any of them could lead a friend to Christ with a little courage and a lot of prayer. Pastors still read him to learn how to give a plain gospel invitation. Christians still read him because he makes surrender and the Spirit-filled life sound both serious and possible.
Where to start
TheWay Library has thirteen of his books, all free to read. Start with The Personal Touch, his short book on winning others one by one, which opens with his own story. For his preaching, read Revival Sermons. For the deeper Christian life, read The Surrendered Life. And if you love Moody, his life of Moody is a firsthand portrait by a friend.
Our guide to J. Wilbur Chapman's books explains what each one covers, and our collection of J. Wilbur Chapman quotes gathers his best lines. You'll find all his books on the J. Wilbur Chapman author page.