The
Concise Bible Commentary has been one of the most
popular, best-selling and best-loved Bible
commentaries for nearly 100 years. Originally titled
"The Christian Workers Commentary on the Whole
Bible" this Bible commentary offers a clear and
understandable overview of the entire Bible in one
volume. Designed to supplement the reading of the
Scriptures, it furnishes explanations and
expositions, devotional insights, and spiritual
guidance for the layman and Bible scholar alike.
James
Martin Gray (May 11, 1851 - September 21, 1935) was
a pastor in the Reformed Episcopal Church, a Bible
scholar, editor, and hymn writer, and the president
of Moody Bible Institute, 1904-34.
Gray was born in New York City as one of the younger
of eight children. His father, Hugh Gray, died
shortly after his birth. James Gray was raised in
the Episcopal church, and probably after attending
college in New York, he began training for a career
as a priest. While preparing himself for the
ministry, Gray experienced an evangelical conversion
(mostly likely in 1873) after reading homilies on
the book of Proverbs by William Arnot. In 1870, Gray
married Amanda Thorne, who died in 1875 while giving
birth to their fifth child, who also died.
As Gray continued to prepare himself for the
ministry in New York, the Episcopal Church was
troubled by a conflict between evangelicals and
Tractarians, who wished to emphasize ritualism. In
1873, Bishop George D. Cummins resigned from the
Episcopal Church and helped found the Reformed
Episcopal denomination. Gray sided with the seceders.
Gray was ordained in 1877, and assumed the pastorate
of the Church of the Redemption in Brooklyn, New
York for one year. He spent another year at the
Church of the Cornerstone in Newburgh. In 1879, Gray
was called to assist an elderly pastor at the small
Reformed Episcopal Church in Boston, which prospered
after his arrival and grew from a handful of
worshipers to a congregation of more than 230. The
Boston church also managed to establish three
additional churches during Gray's pastorate, all of
which failed shortly after his departure.
While in Boston, he also became involved with
Adoniram Judson Gordon in the founding of the Boston
Bible and Missionary Training School, later Gordon
Divinity School, where he was a professor from 1889
to 1904. In Boston he married Susan G. Gray, who
also served on the faculty. During this period,
Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, conferred on Gray an
honorary doctor of divinity degree.
Throughout the 1890s, Gray worked alongside D. L.
Moody in the latter's evangelistic campaigns in New
York, Boston, and Chicago; and Gray became connected
Moody Bible Institute serving in a variety of
positions from summer guest lecturer (beginning in
1892) to dean, executive secretary, and finally,
president (the third, after D. L. Moody and R. A.
Torrey) from 1904 to 1934. Gray also edited Moody
Monthly and preached at Moody's Chicago Avenue
Church (later known as the Moody Church).
On November 1, 1934, he resigned as President of MBI
at the age of 83, but continued to serve as
President-Emeritus. He died of a heart attack on
September 21, 1935. The Torrey-Gray Auditorium at
the Moody Bible Institute is named in honor of Gray
and his predecessor, R. A. Torrey.
Theologically, Gray was an early fundamentalist who
upheld the inspiration of the Bible and opposed the
contemporary trend toward a social gospel. Gray was
also a dispensationalist who believed in the
premillennial, pre-tribulational return of Jesus
Christ at the Rapture. Personally, Gray was
conservative in dress and personal habit. A reporter
remarked that he "cultivated gentlemanliness as a
fine art." Male students at Moody were required to
wear coats and ties in the dining room, and during a
hot spell in July 1908, Gray admonished faculty
members for taking off their coats and vests in
their offices.
Gray was one of the seven editors of the first
Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. Gray wrote 25
books and pamphlets, some of which remain in print.
He also wrote a number of hymns, perhaps the best
known of which is Only a Sinner, Saved by Grace.
