A. J. Gordon

Adoniram Judson Gordon (1836–1895) was an American Baptist preacher, writer, composer, and founder of Gordon College and Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary.

Gordon was born in New Hampton, New Hampshire, on April 19, 1836. His father, Baptist deacon John Calvin Gordon, was a Calvinist named after John Calvin. His mother was Sally Robinson Gordon. A.J. was named after Adoniram Judson, a Baptist missionary to Burma who had recently completed a Burmese translation of the Bible.

Gordon experienced a Christian conversion at age 15 and thereafter sought to become a pastor. He graduated from Brown University (then a Baptist affiliated school) in 1860 and Newton Theological Institution in 1863. In 1863, he married Maria Hale and became pastor of Jamaica Plain Baptist Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1869, he became pastor of Clarendon Street Baptist Church in Boston, a fairly affluent church. Under Gordon's leadership, Clarendon Street Church was described as "one of the most spiritual and aggressive in America". The church is no longer in operation. Gordon became a favored speaker in evangelist Dwight L. Moody's Northfield conventions. Every summer Gordon returned to his hometown in New Hampshire and often preached at the Dana Meeting House.

Gordon became suddenly ill with influenza and bronchitis and died at age 59 on February 2, 1895. He is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery. A son, Ernest Barron Gordon, published a biography of his father in 1896, titled Adoniram Judson Gordon, a Biography with Letters and Illustrative Extracts Drawn from Unpublished or Uncollected Sermons and Addresses, which is still in print.

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