Biography
Henry Clay Morrison was born on March 10, 1857, near Bedford, Kentucky, in a poor farming family. His father died when he was young, and his mother raised the family with great difficulty. He had little schooling. As a boy he worked on the farm and read what he could. At the age of fifteen, he was converted at a camp meeting. He was soon drawn to preaching and was licensed as a Methodist preacher in 1878. He began riding the circuits in Kentucky. In his early years, he rode on horseback, preached in homes and schools and lived on very little.
He was a strong and effective preacher, and he came to be known for his stress on holiness. He taught that the believer can be cleansed from sin and filled with the Spirit, and he called people to seek this experience. In 1882, he was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He served in several churches in Kentucky and in Louisville, where he drew crowds. He became a leading evangelist in the holiness movement. In 1888, he began to publish a paper, the Pentecostal Herald, which carried the message of holiness to thousands. It became one of the main voices of the movement.
He held revival meetings in towns and cities across the country. He preached at camp meetings and conferences. He had a rich voice and a gift for painting scenes with words. Many people were converted under his preaching. He also took a firm stand against theological liberalism in the church and warned against the teachings that denied the authority of the Bible. He worked with other leaders to defend the faith.
In 1910, he became the president of Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, a small school that had been founded by a holiness preacher. He held the post for fifteen years and then again from 1933 to 1940. Under his leadership, the college grew and became a center of holiness teaching. In 1923, he founded Asbury Theological Seminary, which has trained thousands of ministers. He traveled widely to raise funds for the school and preached in many places. He also took tours abroad, to the Holy Land, to Africa and to Europe, and he wrote about his experiences.
He was a man of strong will, and he made enemies. He was drawn into disputes over church policy and became a vocal critic of those who he thought had lost the faith. He sometimes spoke harshly of his opponents. His own temper was a trial to him, and he confessed it. In his later years, he suffered from heart trouble and poor health.
He was married to Emma Morrison and had a family. He lost a son, which was a deep sorrow. He wrote books on holiness and on the Christian life, including The Baptism with the Holy Ghost and Some Chapters of My Life Story. He wrote in a plain, fervent style and held to the doctrine of full salvation.
He died on March 24, 1942, in Louisville, at the age of eighty-five. He had been a preacher for more than sixty years. His life shows what a boy from a poor farm can do when God takes hold of him, and how an institution can grow from a man's burden for holiness.