Henry (Harry) Allen
Ironside (1876-10-14 - 1951-01-15) was a Bible teacher,
preacher, pastor, and author in the late 19th century and
early 20th century. H A Ironside was born on 1876-10-14 in
Toronto to John and Sophia (Stafford) Ironside, who were
both active in the Plymouth Brethren. At birth, Harry was
thought to be dead, so the attending nurses focused their
attention on Sophia, who was dangerously ill. Only when a
pulse was detected in Harry, 40 minutes later, was an
attempt made to resuscitate the infant. From a very early
age, Ironside showed a strong interest in evangelical
Christianity and was active in the Salvation Army as a
teenager before later joining the Grant section of the
Plymouth Brethren. In 1888 well-known evangelist Dwight L.
Moody preached at a campaign in Los Angeles.This inspired
Ironside, who hoped to also be able to preach to such crowds
one day. In 1889, after a visit from evangelist Donald
Munro, Ironside became convinced that he was not "born
again", and so gave up preaching at his Sunday School,
spending the next six months wrestling with this spiritual
problem. After an evening of prayer in February, 1890,
Ironside, at age 13, accepted Christ. As he is quoted as
saying years later, "I rested on the Word of God and
confessed Christ as my Savior." Ironside then returned to
preaching, winning his first convert. Though he was taunted
at school, he was undeterred from his mission to win souls.
In 1896, at 20, he moved to San Francisco, becoming
associated with the Plymouth Brethren. While there, he began
helping at British evangelist Henry Varley's meetings, and
there met pianist Helen Shofield, daughter of a Presbyterian
pastor in Oakland. The two soon married. In 1898, Ironside's
mother died, and less than a year later, Harry and Helen's
first son, Edmond Henry was born. The family moved across
the bay to Oakland, where Harry resumed a nightly preaching
schedule. They resided there until 1929. In 1903, Ironside
accepted his first east-coast preaching invitation, but on
returning, the family only had enough funds to make it as
far as Salt Lake City, Utah, where he spent the next ten
days doing street preaching. During this time, H A Ironside
also began his career as a writer, publishing several bible
commentary pamphlets. From 1916 to 1929, Ironside preached
almost 7,000 sermons to over 1.25 million listeners. In
1918, he was associated with evangelist George McPherson,
and in 1924 began preaching under the direction of the Moody
Bible Institute. After a series of sermons presented at the
The Moody Church in Chicago, he was invited to a one-year
trial as head pastor there in 1929. Almost every Sunday that
he preached there, the 4,000 seat church was filled to
capacity. While there, he continued traveling to other US
cities during the week for preaching engagements. In 1932,
he expanded his travels internationally. Ironside preached
the 1935 funeral of Billy Sunday at Moody Church. In 1938,
he toured England, Scotland and Ireland, preaching 142 times
to crowds of upwards of 2,000.
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