Introduction

Biography

Evans was the son of Will­iam Rise­ly Ev­ans and Ruth Ann Locke. He mar­ried twice, to Em­ma S. Fer­ry (1887) and Ade­laide Bee Coop­er (1904).

Converted as a youth and bap­tized at age 12, he was edu­cat­ed at Bat­tle Creek Col­lege. He en­tered the Se­venth Day Ad­vent­ist (SDA) min­is­try in Mi­chi­gan as a li­cen­ti­ate in 1882, and taught school in the win­ter.

He moved to Ken­tuc­ky in 1885, and was or­dained the fol­low­ing year. He was elect­ed pre­si­dent of the SDA Mi­chi­gan Con­fer­ence in 1891.

He held that post un­til 1897, when he was elect­ed pre­si­dent of the SDA Ge­ne­ral Con­fer­ence As­so­cia­tion and mem­ber of the Ge­ne­ral Con­fer­ence Com­mit­tee.

In 1899, Ev­ans be­came pre­si­dent of the SDA Mis­sion Board, and in 1901 pre­si­dent and ge­ne­ral man­ag­er of the Re­view and Her­ald. In 1903 he be­came trea­sur­er of the Ge­ne­ral Con­fer­ence. The next year he moved to Ta­ko­ma Park, Ma­ry­land, where the of­fic­es of the Ge­ne­ral Con­fer­ence and Re­view and Her­ald had re­lo­cat­ed.

His wife Ade­laide was ed­it­or of The Youth’s In­struc­tor at the time of their mar­riage. The two them went on to play a sig­ni­fi­cant role in SDA mis­sion­ary work in Chi­na and the Far East.

In 1909, Ev­ans be­came pre­si­dent of the Asi­at­ic Di­vi­sion mis­sion field, a job he held un­til 1913, when he be­came pre­si­dent of the North Am­eri­can Di­vi­sion. In 1918, he be­came vice-pre­si­dent of the Ge­ne­ral Con­fer­ence, pre­sid­ing over the Far East­ern Di­vi­sion.

He held that post un­til 1930, when he and his wife re­turned to Am­eri­ca. Af­ter that, he served as ge­ne­ral vice-pre­si­dent of the Ge­ne­ral Con­fer­ence, then field sec­re­ta­ry un­til re­tir­ing in 1941.

Works

• Repentance and For­give­ness, 1905
• The Story Hour, 1928
• History of Preach­ing
• The Preach­er and His Preach­ing
• The Way of Love Di­vine, 1940
• The Min­is­try of An­gels
• This Is the Way