Matthew Simpson - Ministry

Ministry

Shortly thereafter, feeling it his duty to enter the ministry, Matthew was Licensed to Preach in the M.E. Church, and was received on-trial in the Pittsburgh Annual Conference in 1833. He was ordained by Bishop Robert Richford Roberts. Matthew was appointed Pastor of the Liberty Street Methodist Church in Pittsburgh in 1835, and of a church at Monongahela, Pennsylvania in 1836. He was ordained Elder in 1837.

The Rev. Simpson was appointed Professor of Natural Science and elected Vice-President of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1838 he was elected Professor, and in 1839 President of the newly established Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, Indiana, remaining until 1848. The Rev. Simpson was then elected Editor of the Western Christian Advocate, which he made a strong temperance and anti-slavery organ, from 1848 to 1852.

The Rev. Dr. Matthew Simpson was elected to the Episcopacy of his denomination by the M.E. General Conference, May 1852. In discharging his duties, Bishop Simpson visited and presided over Conferences in all of the States encompassing the M.E. Church as well as most of the related U.S. Territories. He was sent by the General Conference as a delegate to the Irish and British Wesleyan (i.e., Methodist) Conferences in 1857, as well as to the Evangelical Alliance in Berlin the same year. He traveled with John McClintock. From Berlin, Bishop Simpson extended his travels through Turkey, the Holy Land, Egypt, and Greece, returning to the United States in 1858.

In 1859, Bishop Simpson changed his residence from Pittsburgh to Evanston, Illinois, where he accepted the position of President of the Garrett Biblical Institute (now, Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary). Nevertheless, much to his personal dissatisfaction Bishop Simpson was able to devote but little active service to Garrett.