BIO:Clarence Larkin 1850-1924

   American Baptist pastor, Bible teacher, and writer. Clarence Larkin
was born October 28, 1850, in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
He was converted to Christ at the age of 19 and then felt called to the
Gospel ministry, but the doors of opportunity for study and ministry
did not open im- mediately. He then got a job in a bank.

   When he was 21 years old, he left the bank and went to college,
graduating as a mechanical engineer. He continued as a professional
draftsman for a while, then he became a teacher of the blind. This last
endeavor cultivated his de- scriptive faculties--something God would
later use in him to produce a monumental work on dispensational
theology. Later, failing health compelled him to give up his teaching
career. After a prolonged rest, he became a manufacturer.

   But he was not happy. He felt that God wanted him in the Gospel
ministry. When he was converted he had become a member of the Episcopal
Church, but in 1882, at the age of 32, he became a Baptist and was
ordained as a Baptist minis- ter two years later. He went directly from
business into the ministry.

   His first charge was at Kennett Square, Pennsylvania; his second
pastorate was at Fox Chase, Pennsylvania, where he remained for 20
years. He was not a premillennialist at the time of his ordination, but
his study of the Scriptures, with the help of some books that fell into
his hands, led him to adopt the premillennialist position. He began to
make large wall charts, which he titled, "Prophetic Truth," for use in
the pulpit. These led to his being invited to teach, in con- nection
with his pastoral work, in two Bible institutes. Dur- ing this time he
published a number of prophetical charts, which were widely circulated.

   When World War I broke out in 1914, he was called on for addresses
on The War and Prophecy. Then God laid it on his heart to prepare a
work on Dispensational Truth (or God's Plan and Purpose in the Ages),
containing a number of charts with descriptive matter. He spent three
years of his life de- signing and drawing the charts and preparing the
text. The favorable reception it has had since it was first published
in 1918 seems to indicate that the world was waiting for such a book.

   Because it had a large and wide circulation in this and other lands,
the first edition was soon exhausted. It was followed by a second
edition, and then, realizing that the book was of permanent value,
Larkin revised it and expanded it, printing it in its present form.
Larkin followed this masterpiece with other books: Rightly Dividing the
Word, The Book of Daniel, Spirit World, Second Coming of Christ, and A
Medicine Chest for Christian Practitioners, a handbook on evangelism.

   Larkin, a kind and gentle man, deplored the tendency of writers to
say uncharitable things about each other, so he earnestly sought to
avoid criticisms and to satisfy himself with simply presenting his
understanding of the Scriptures. Though he did not intend to publish
his own works, the Lord led in that direction. During the last five
years of his life, the demand for Larkin's books made it necessary for
him to give up the pastorate and devote his full time to writing. He
went to be with the Lord on January 24, 1924.
