Editing Matthew Simpson (section)

==Ministry==
Shortly thereafter, feeling it his duty to enter the ministry, Matthew was licensed to preach in the M.E. Church, and was received on-trial in the Pittsburgh [[Annual conferences within Methodism|Annual Conference]] in 1833.  He was ordained by Bishop [[Robert Richford Roberts]].  Matthew was appointed pastor of the Liberty Street Methodist Church in Pittsburgh in 1835, and of a church at [[Monongahela, Pennsylvania]], in 1836.  He was [[ordained]] elder in 1837.

The Rev. Simpson was appointed Professor of [[Natural Science]] and elected vice-president of [[Allegheny College]], [[Meadville, Pennsylvania]].  In 1838 he was elected professor, and in 1839 president of the newly established [[Indiana]] Asbury University (now [[DePauw University]]) in [[Greencastle, Indiana]], remaining until 1848.  The Rev. Simpson was then elected editor of the ''Western Christian Advocate'', which he made a strong [[Temperance movement|temperance]] and [[abolitionism in the United States|anti-slavery]] organ, from 1848 to 1852.

The Rev. Dr. Matthew Simpson was elected to the [[episcopacy]] of his [[Christian denomination|denomination]] by the M.E. General Conference, May 1852.  In discharging his duties, Bishop Simpson visited and presided over conferences in all of the states encompassing the [[Methodist Episcopal Church|M.E. Church]] as well as most of the related [[U.S. Territories]].  He was sent by the General Conference as a delegate to the Irish and [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]] [[Methodist Church of Great Britain|Wesleyan]] (i.e., Methodist) Conferences in 1857, as well as to the Evangelical Alliance in Berlin the same year.  He traveled with [[John McClintock (theologian)|John McClintock]].  From Berlin, Bishop Simpson extended his travels through [[Turkey]], [[the Holy Land]], Egypt, and [[Greece]], returning to the United States in 1858.

In 1859, Bishop Simpson changed his residence from Pittsburgh to [[Evanston, Illinois]], where he accepted the position of president of the [[Garrett Biblical Institute]] (now, [[Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary]]).<ref name = "Paxson"/> In 1868 he became a Trustee of [[Drew Theological Seminary]] (today Drew University), the new Methodist seminary in Madison, NJ, and served as president of its board from 1877 to 1880.