Birth: 1876
Home Calling: 1951
Homeland : United States of America
Place of Vision: United States of America
Harry Ironside was an American preacher, theologian, and author. He read Bible 14 times by the time he was 14 and knew many verses by heart. His mother moved to Los Angeles when he was 10, where he didn’t find any Sunday School near his home. So Ironside himself gathered the children of the locality and taught them spiritual stories. With time, the Sunday School had 60 children and sometimes adults too attended it.
Although Ironside was doing ministry he had only religion but no Christ. One day he had no answer to an itinerant evangelist’s straightforward question “Are you born again?” Then he realized that he had no right to open his mouth for God if he was unsaved. One night, as he was reading Proverbs 1:24-32, he fell on his knees and said “Lord, Save Me!” Now, with a clean consciousness young Ironside began his ministry with Salvation Army. By the age of 18, he was preaching more than 500 sermons a year.
After his marriage to Helen Schofield, Ironside moved to Oakland which became their center of ministry for several years. There the doors for the ministry were wide open and simultaneously God led them through some grueling circumstances and trials of faith. Several times his small family was without funds. Once while they were returning from ministry in Minnesota, they didn’t have funds to reach Oakland and had to halt at Utah. The time came when he did not even have 40 cents to feed his children and pay the rent. That night he preached outdoors to a big crowd and as he was returning discouraged, two men came running to him, handed him few coins, and went away. He counted the coins – 40 cents! God is faithful!
Ironside served as a pastor of Moody Church in Chicago from 1930 to 1948 while continuing to preach throughout America and the world. Amidst several physical ailments, he continued to serve God. He died while on a preaching tour in New Zealand.
