Smith Wigglesworth

Smith Wigglesworth was born on June 8, 1859, in Menston, Yorkshire, to an impoverished family. His father worked as a stonecutter when work could be found. At age six, Smith began working in a turnip field for sixpence a week to help support the family. By seven, he was pulling turnips twelve hours a day. Formal education was a luxury his circumstances could not afford — he remained functionally illiterate until his wife taught him to read in his twenties, and even then his reading was largely confined to the Bible. He was converted at age eight during a Wesleyan Methodist service, though the depth of that early experience would be questioned by his later spiritual development.

As a young man, Wigglesworth worked as a plumber in Bradford, eventually establishing his own plumbing business. In 1882, he married Mary Jane Featherstone, who had been educated and came from a family of some standing. Mary Jane became not only his teacher but his spiritual mentor. She was involved in Salvation Army work and later helped establish a mission in Bradford. It was Mary Jane who initially held the more prominent ministry role, with Smith supporting her work while maintaining his plumbing trade. The dynamic began to shift around 1907 when Wigglesworth encountered the emerging Pentecostal movement. He received what he understood to be the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues while visiting friends in Sunderland. The experience transformed not only his spiritual life but his sense of calling.

Mary Jane's death in 1913 marked a turning point. Grief-stricken, Wigglesworth threw himself entirely into itinerant ministry, traveling throughout Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas. His ministry was marked by claims of dramatic healings and miracles that drew both devoted followers and harsh critics. His approach was uncompromising, often rough. He would frequently strike or push those for whom he prayed, believing that faith required bold action. Many found his methods offensive; others testified to remarkable healings. The controversies that surrounded him were not merely methodological. His lack of formal theological training showed in sermons that, while fervent, often lacked doctrinal precision. Yet his influence within the developing Pentecostal movement was undeniable.

His Teaching and Influence

Wigglesworth never wrote books in any conventional sense — his illiteracy persisted in practical terms throughout his life, though he could slowly work through his Bible. What became his published works were transcriptions of his sermons and teachings, compiled by others and published with varying degrees of editorial intervention. The most significant of these compilations include "Ever Increasing Faith," "Faith That Prevails," and "Greater Works." The voice that emerges from these transcribed sermons is direct, urgent, and unpolished — the Yorkshire plumber never entirely disappeared behind the evangelist.

His theological emphasis was relentlessly focused on divine healing, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and what he termed "faith" — though his understanding of faith often bordered on what critics called presumption. He taught that sickness was always contrary to God's will and that sufficient faith could overcome any physical ailment. This theology brought him into conflict not only with cessationist evangelicals but with many within the Pentecostal movement who found his positions extreme. His famous declaration that "I am a destroyer of unbelief" summarized both his ministry philosophy and his approach to theological nuance, which he often viewed as faithlessness dressed in scholarly clothing.

Wigglesworth died on March 12, 1947, characteristically — he had been attending a funeral and, after reportedly saying "I feel that the Lord is going to take me," collapsed and died almost immediately. His legacy within Pentecostalism remains significant but contested. While many point to the dramatic healings and spiritual renewals that accompanied his ministry, others note the doctrinal problems and the pastoral wreckage left by his uncompromising approach. His influence can be traced through subsequent generations of Pentecostal healing evangelists, though most learned to temper his rougher edges with greater theological sophistication.

Who should read Wigglesworth: Readers interested in the raw, unrefined origins of Pentecostalism and those studying the development of divine healing theology in the early twentieth century. His writings offer insight into a form of faith that many find either inspiring or troubling — sometimes both. He is not for readers seeking theological sophistication or pastoral sensitivity, but for those who want to understand how Pentecostalism looked when it still carried the smell of Yorkshire wool mills and had not yet learned to speak in academic vocabularies.