Austin Phelps

Austin Phelps (January 7, 1820 – October 13, 1890), was an American Congregational minister and educator. He was for 10 years President of the Andover Theological Seminary and his writings became standard textbooks for Christian theological education and remain in print today.

Biography

Austin Phelps was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. His father, Eliakim Phelps was a clergyman and the principal of a girls’ school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Eliakim Phelps was later pastor of a Presbyterian church in Geneva, New York, where he was installed as in 1830, and in 1835 he was elected Secretary of the American Educational Society of Philadelphia. They had three children, Mary Gray (b. 1844), Moses Stuart (b. 1849) and Amos Lawrence (b. 1852).

In the spring of 1848 he moved his family to Andover, Massachusetts, where he became professor of sacred rhetoric and homiletics at Andover Theological Seminary. their 8-year-old daughter Mary Gray asked to be renamed in honor of her mother. He married Elizabeth's sister, Mary Stuart (b. 1822), in 1854, but she died only eighteen months later. He married for a third time Mary Ann Johnson (1829–1918) of Boston, with whom he had two more children, Edward and Francis. Austin died on October 13, 1890, at Bar Harbor, Maine. (1859), a summary of a series of sermons on prayer, is a devotional classic and remains in publication.

His other works are:

The New Birth (1867), portraying conversion (in some instances) as a gradual change Sabbath Hours (1874) Studies of the Old Testament (1878) Men and Books (1882) My Portfolio (1882) My Study (1885) The Still Hour: or, Communion with God (1860) The Certainty of Success in Preaching (1889) My Note Book (1890)

Quotes

"Wear the old coat and buy the new book."

"We are never more like Christ than in prayers of intercession."

"Suffering is a wonderful fertilizer for the roots of character. The great objective of this life is character, for it is the only thing we can carry with us into eternity. And gaining as much of the highest character possible is the purpose of our trials."