Introduction

Biography

Samuel was the son of Will­iam and Mar­ga­ret Say­ford.

He served in the Am­er­ican ci­vil war in a un­it from Mas­sa­chu­setts. In the late 19th Cen­tu­ry, he was known for his For Men On­ly and Con­fi­den­tial Talk speech­es to col­lege stu­dents in the Young Men’s Chris­tian As­so­cia­tion (YMCA).

In the pass­ing away of Mr. S. M. Say­ford, Sep­tem­ber 12, at New­ton, Mass., the church has lost a splen­did and de­vot­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

Converted in 1873, Mr. Say­ford gave him­self to the Y.M.C.A. work at Lock­port, N.Y., fol­low­ing this with si­mi­lar work in Sy­ra­cuse, N.Y., from which he re­signed to ac­cept a po­si­tion as State Su­per­in­ten­dent of the Y.M.C.A. in Mas­sa­chu­setts and Rhode Is­land, which po­si­tion he held un­til 1884 when he gave him­self to ge­ne­ral ev­an­gel­is­tic work among the un­der-gra­du­ates of the Am­er­ican col­leg­es, com­menc­ing with New Eng­land and co­ver­ing the en­tire Unit­ed States, more than three hun­dred col­leg­es be­ing in­clud­ed in his itin­e­ra­ry.

In 1900 Mr. Sa­yford ac­cept­ed the Ge­ne­ral Sec­re­ta­ry­ship of the Ev­an­gel­is­tic As­so­cia­tion of New Eng­land which po­sition he held un­til the time of his death. Though fre­quent­ly urged to ac­cept or­di­na­tion to the mi­nis­try, he re­fused, be­liev­ing that his work would be of a broad­er cha­rac­ter as a hum­ble lay­man.

He was the au­thor of se­ve­ral books and had the de­gree of A.M. con­ferred up­on him by his al­ma ma­ter, Penn­syl­van­ia Col­lege, at Get­tys­burg which col­lege he left to serve in the Ci­vil War as a se­cond lieu­te­nant, be­ing the young­est of­fi­cer in his bri­gade.

It was the wri­ter’s pri­vil­ege to meet Mr. Say­ford at the Y.M.C.A. convention in To­ron­to in 1876, and to have for for­ty-five years friend­ship and fel­low­ship with him. He was a true man of God, a lov­er of the Word of God and of the souls of men. His in­he­ri­tance among the saints in light will be rich and age-abid­ing. May God mul­ti­ply his kind.

T. C. H. [Tho­mas Cor­win Hor­ton], The King’s Bu­si­ness, De­cem­ber 1921, p. 1212. [Hor­ton was a co-foun­der of the Bi­ble In­sti­tute of Los An­ge­les (BIOLA).]

One of the great­est Chris­tian move­ments of mo­dern times started with a pray­er-list car­ried in the vest-poc­ket of a com­mer­cial tra­vel­er, Mr. E. R. Graves, tra­vel­ing for a pa­per-house in New York Ci­ty.

He se­cured per­mis­sion from a mer­chant to al­low his name to be en­tered on his pray­er-list. The mer­chant wrote his name in the tra­vel­er’s book, and then pro­ceed­ed to inform Mr. Graves that he had de­ter­mined not to be a Chris­tian, and that he had tak­en too big a con­tract if he ex­pect­ed to pray him in­to the kingdom. But the tra­vel­er simp­ly said, I con­fi­dent­ly ex­pect my pray­er to be an­swered.

When they met again the mer­chant had been con­vert­ed, and, amid tears of re­joic­ing, an­oth­er name was checked off the list.

The mer­chant’s name was Sa­mu­el M. Say­ford.

The Art of Soul-Win­ning, by J. W. Ma­hood (New York and Cin­ci­nn­ati, Ohio: Ea­ton & Mains and Jenn­ings & Pye, 1901), Stu­dy 26, The Pray­er List.

Works

• God’s Cen­ten­ni­al: 1776, 1876, 1976 (Sing­er­ly Print­ing & Pub­lish­ing, 1875)
• Origin and Pro­gress of Mr. Say­ford’s Work in Col­leg­es (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: T. O. Met­calf, 1891)
• Personal Work (New York: In­ter­na­tion­al Com­mit­tee of Young Men’s Chris­tian As­so­cia­tions, 1899)
• Robert Gar­ry, The Man of One Book (New York: As­so­cia­tion Press, 1918)