Thomas T. Shields, Jr. (1873-1955) is the 15th essay in our latest book - A Noble Company, Volume 12, The Canadians

There is perhaps no better descriptor for the life and ministry of T. T. Shields than by comparing him with his English Baptist forbearer, Charles Haddon Spurgeon . . .Shields admired the great English Baptist from afar and saw in him a pattern for ministry that could be emulated . . .Shields was marked by this title ["The Canadian Spurgeon"] across North America, as well as in the United Kingdom. . .there are a number of striking similarities between the famed British Baptist minister and the equally well-known Canadian pastor. Beyond their obvious doctrinal similarities, . . .both men affirmed the doctrines of grace without apology. Moreover, although they were Calvinists of the first order, both were passionately evangelistic, regularly inviting the unregenerate to embrace the claims of the gospel they so clearly pronounced. . .Both men were British by birth and sons of the manse who learned their pastoral trade from their deep godly heritage rather than from formal classroom education. . .Both. . . led the most prominent Baptist pulpits in their respective countries during their lifetimes, and both would carry out virtually unprecedented international ministries through travel and the printed word, . .Both. . . started schools for the preparing of ministers. . .Finally, both men led well-known and public oppositions to theological drift within their Baptist associations, with the result that both men and their churches were excluded from those conventions for their outspoken criticism. --Jeff Straub