In 1891, he was appointed secretary of the American Presbyterian Mission. He visited missions in Persia, 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. Under his leadership, the foreign missions of the Presbyterian church became remarkably successful.[citation needed] 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, where he was murdered in his home on campus, on 14 September 1934.[3] Their daughter Margaret Bailey Speer (1900–1997) was dean of Yenching Women's College in China in the 1930s, and headmistress of the Shipley School from 1944 to 1965.[4]
Although he published two articles in The Fundamentals,[5] some have called him liberal because he sided with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and opposed John Gresham Machen during the anti-liberal/modernist controversies of the 1930s.[6][7] 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 which placed him closer to theological liberals than some conservatives would tolerate.[8] 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."[9]
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.[2] He coined the famous four principles of Jesus which became embedded in Moral Rearmament[10] and in Alcoholics Anonymous[11] 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.[12] While the initiator of Moral Rearmament, Dr Frank Buchman, held Robert E. Speer in high regard,[10] he used a version of the four principles which had been reworked by Pr Henry Burt Wright from Yale.[13]
^Lefferts A. Loetscher (1974). "Speer, Robert Elliott". Dictionary of American Biography. Vol. Supplement Four 1946-1950. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
^Raftery, Kay (25 September 1997). "Margaret Speer, 96, educator". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 32. Retrieved 3 November 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^Chapter 28 "God in Christ the Only Revelation of the Fatherhood of God" (originally, Chapter III Volume III, pp.61-75) and Chapter 54 "Foreign Missions, or World-Wide Evangelism" (originally, Chapter IV Volume ?, pp.64-84)
^Bradley J. Longfield, "The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates" (New York ; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 7
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1916). "Speer, Robert Elliott". New International Encyclopedia. Vol. 21 (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. p. 380.
