Robert Elliott Speer (10 September 1867 – 23 November 1947) was an American Presbyterian religious leader and an authority on missions.

Biography

He was born at

Huntingdon, Pennsylvania Huntingdon is a borough in (and the county seat of) Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located along the Juniata River, approximately east of Altoona and west of Harrisburg. With a population of 7,093 at the 2010 census ...

on 10 September 1867. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1886 and from

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

in 1889, and studied at

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of t ...

in 1890–91. He became active as an itinerant recruiter for the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) from 1889 to 1890. In 1891, he was appointed secretary of the

American Presbyterian Mission Presbyterian Mission Agency is the ministry and mission agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Founded as the Western Foreign Missionary Society by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1837, it was involved in sending w ...

. He visited missions in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, India, China, Korea, and Japan in 1896–97, and in South America in 1909 and later made similar tours. In Princeton he was greatly influenced by

Arthur Tappan Pierson Arthur Tappan Pierson (March 6, 1837 – June 3, 1911) was an American Presbyterian pastor, Christian leader, missionary and writer who preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over fifty books, and gave Bible lectures as part of a transatlantic p ...

. Under his leadership, the foreign missions of the Presbyterian church became remarkably successful. Speer retired in 1937. He married Emma Doll Bailey in 1893 and, together, they had five children, one of whom, Elliot Speer (1898 – 1934), became headmaster of

Northfield Mount Hermon School Northfield Mount Hermon School, often called NMH, is a co-educational preparatory school in Gill, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is a member of the Eight Schools Association. Present day NMH offers nearly 200 courses, including AP a ...

, where he was murdered in his home on campus, on 14 September 1934. Their daughter

Margaret Bailey Speer Margaret Bailey Speer (November 20, 1900 – September 21, 1997) was an American educator and teaching missionary. She was dean of the Women's College of Yenching University in Beijing from 1934 to 1941, and headmistress of the Shipley School in ...

(1900–1997) was dean of Yenching Women's College in China in the 1930s, and headmistress of the

Shipley School , motto_translation = Courage for the deed; Grace for the doing , address = 814 Yarrow Street , location = , region = , city = Bryn Mawr , county = , st ...

from 1944 to 1965. He died on 3 November 1947, in

Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania Lower Merion Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Philadelphia Main Line. The township's name originates with the county of Merioneth in north Wales. Merioneth is an English-language transcription of the ...

Theology

Although he published two articles in ''

The Fundamentals ''The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth'' (generally referred to simply as ''The Fundamentals'') is a set of ninety essays published between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company of Chicago. It was initially published quarterly in ...

'', some have called him liberal because he sided with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and opposed

John Gresham Machen John Gresham Machen (; 1881–1937) was an American Presbyterian New Testament scholar and educator in the early 20th century. He was the Professor of New Testament at Princeton Seminary between 1906 and 1929, and led a revolt against modernist ...

during the anti-liberal/modernist controversies of the 1930s. Speer affirmed traditional Christian doctrines such as the historical accuracy of the Bible, the Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection of Christ, yet also embraced a social vision of Christianity placed him closer to theological liberals than some conservatives would tolerate. He is quoted to have said that Karl Barth offered "an essential recovery of aspects of truth which will not so easily be lost again."

Influence

Speer wrote numerous sermons, articles, pamphlets, and books among which are biographies, biblical commentaries and books on Christian living. Most deal with missionary principles and practices but some tackle controversial social problems. He coined the famous four principles of Jesus which became embedded in Moral Rearmament and in Alcoholics Anonymous as the "Four Absolutes" or the "Four Standards". Basing his views on his own biblical research, Speer regarded these four principles as one of Jesus' key teachings: Purity, Honesty, Unselfishness and Love. While the initiator of Moral Rearmament, Dr

Frank Buchman Franklin Nathaniel Daniel Buchman (June 4, 1878 – August 7, 1961), best known as Frank Buchman, was an American Lutheran who founded the First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921 (known after 1928 as the Oxford Group) that was transformed un ...

, held Robert E. Speer in high regard, he used a version of the four principles which had been reworked by Pr Henry Burt Wright from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

Publications

*
The Man Christ Jesus
' (1896) *
The Deity of Christ
' * ''A Memorial of a True Life: Biography of H. M. Beaver'' (1898) *
The Man Paul
' (1900) * ''Presbyterian Foreign Missions'' (1901) *
Missionary Principles and Practice
' (1902) *
The Principles of Jesus: applied to some questions of today
' (1902) * ''A Memorial of

Horace Tracy Pitkin Horace Tracy Pitkin (1869–1900) was a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions who was killed in China during the Boxer Uprising in 1900. Yale China Mission, (now the Yale-China Association), was founded in his memor ...

'' (1903) *
A Young Man's Questions
' (1903) * ''Missions and Modern History'' (two volumes, 1904
vol. 1
vol. 2 *
The Marks of a Man
' (1907) *
Christ and Life
' *
Christianity and the Nations
' (1910) *
The Light of the World
' (1911) *
South American Problems
' (1912) *
Studies of Missionary Leadership
' (1914) * ''John's Gospel'' (1915) * ''The Stuff of Manhood'' (1917) *
Young Men Who Overcame
' *
The Christian Man the Church and the War
' (1918) *
The Gospel and the New World
' (1919) *
Seeking the Mind of Christ
' * ''A Missionary Pioneer in the Far East'' (1922) *
Of One Blood
' (1924) *
Seeking the Mind of Christ
' (1926) * ''The Unity of the Americas'' (1926) * ''Some Living Issues'' (1930) * ''The Finality of Jesus Christ'' (1933) * ''Five Minutes a Day'' (1943) * ''George Bowen of Bombay'' (1938) *
Men Who Were Found Faithful
' (1912) *
The Master of the Heart
'

Notes

References