W. B. Riley
1861 - 1947

"The continuity of the Christ-life, which made the grave seem but a shadow through which He walked, gives a sweet meaning to the Christian's conception of the present Christ--He is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."



Dr. W. B. Riley was for 45 years pastor of First Baptist Church, Minneapolis, and pastor emeritus three years. His ministry there built this church to the largest membership in the Northern Baptist Convention.

All over America Dr. Riley moved and swayed audiences. Thousands were won to Christ in great campaigns.

Riley's ministry was one of preaching the Gospel as well as fighting foes of the Gospel. He sometimes prefaced what he wrote with: "As one who has given his life to the defense and propagation of fundamentalism."

William Jennings Bryan once called him, "the greatest Christian statesman in the American pulpit."

The teaching of evolution was a hot issue in his day, so his debates became another phase of his ministry. Bryan had died in 1925, so the mantle for fighting evolution passed to Riley.

One can well compare Dr. Riley with Charles Spurgeon in the largeness of his work:

1. Like that prince of preachers in London, the Minneapolis pastor-evangelist-crusader carried on for several decades an effective ministry; his church grew about as large as Spurgeon's.

2. Like Spurgeon, he turned out many books, including a 40-volume sermon commentary.

3. Even as Spurgeon, he was a prophet to a whole nation of moral decline and infidelity in the church.

4. As Spurgeon withdrew from the Baptist Union, so Riley withdrew from the Northern Baptist Convention.

5. Like Spurgeon, he founded a growing training college and seminary.

6. Like Spurgeon, he was an editor, editing The Christian Fundamentalist and The Northwestern Pilot.

Truly, in the days of his strength, Dr. Riley was one of America's greatest Preachers.