Albert Benjamin Simpson was born on December 15, 1843, in Bayview, Prince Edward Island, Canada. His father, James Simpson, was a good, hard-working man, but it was his mother who "gave him wings." Jane Clark Simpson was sensitive, poetic and beauty-loving. To Albert she passed on her ambitions, aspirations and soaring imagination.
Albert felt the yearning to become a minister at a young age and was a natural born preacher. He studied hard at Knox College in Toronto, graduating in 1865, and was eventually licensed into Presbyterian ministry.
Once, when physical illness and deep depression overcame him, he was lifted by a negro spiritual and experienced physical and spiritual healing. As A.W. Tozer describes Simpson's experience: "The wounded eagle had found his wings again and was soaring back into the sun."
This experience and Simpson's concern for the alliance of like-minded Christians hungry for a more satisfying life in Christ all led to his messages on healing, the Christ-life and the "deeper life." Through his sermons and the writings of his missionary journals "his mighty earth-covering wing-stretch became apparent." For A.B. Simpson, the world was his parish.
Simpson started Nyack College, a magazine and publishing house, preached at the Gospel Tabernacle for 30 years, and wrote over 100 books.
He died on October 29, 1919.
