Life

DAVID BRAINERD (1717-1747)  

" I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ. .. While I was asleep, I dreamed of these things; and when I waked ...the first thing I thought of was this great work of pleading for God against Satan."

Born in 1718, orphaned by the age of fourteen, he was converted during his first year at Yale. His enthusiasm during a campus revival there part of what was happening in New Haven and indirectly involving the unsanctioned and somewhat emotionally suspect ministry of Tennent caused him to speak disparagingly of an unanointed tutor ("he has no more grace than a table") and he was expelled. Still in Nov 25 1722 he became a missionary to the Native Americans under the Scottish Society for Christian Knowledge.

Brainerd was engaged to Jonathan Edwards' daughter. Edwards (himself one of the greatest natural intellects America ever produced and who ought to know) called his future son-in-law David Brainerd  a "penetrating genius, of clear thought, of close reasoning, and a very exact judgment ... with a "great insight into human nature, very discerning and judicious in general; and said he "excelled in his judgment and knowledge in divinity, but especially in things appertaining to inward experimental religion." His desire to finish his ministry regardless of  physical hardship that had him coughing in the cold praying sometimes in the snow until it was bright with blood finally took him to the edge of death. Mortally ill with TB and pneumonia he finally returned home to Edwards' house to die at the age of 30. His  journal which Edwards published two years after Brainerd's death (and others, including Wesley, did versions of ) records his experiences as a missionary, and his spiritual reflections on his calling. Edwards thought that it might be an inspiration and help to other missionaries. He was right; the book went into thirty editions. Many readers were encouraged by it to dedicate their lives to the preaching of the Gospel. Among them were William Carey, Thomas Coke, Robert Morrison, Samuel Marsden, Henry Martyn, Samuel Mills, and Thomas Chalmers.    

Learning From The Life of David Brainerd

Edwards refers to the struggles that appear again and again in David's diary; the deep sadness and recurring darkness of mind put down to his tender disposition and lonely life in trying circumstances. The truth may well be that Brainerd battled all his sensitive and brilliant young life with an inherited picture of God's work in ministry too hard for his tender heart and too strange for his sharp mind. This he took with him to a frontier rife with unreconciled hurt, hatred and a history of debauchery and to a demon-worshipping mission-field first introduced to strong drink and racial betrayal by those who called themselves by the name of Christ.

Though Brainerd's diary reads like a litany of constant self-doubt, self-examination and struggle with a constant theological reminder of indwelling darkness it is thankfully and repeatedly broken over and over again by his determined abandonment to God in agonized prayer and artless trust in God's sovereign power. Seldom in Christian history have we ever seen a young missionary go through such terrible depression, discouragement and sadness. Yet despite the fact that many times he came close to despair and giving it all up in self-blame, his commitment to the Lord and the mercy of God held him until he saw the work begin that forever marks his life as one who saw real revival. He set his heart on honoring Jesus:  "All things here below vanished; and there appeared to be nothing of any considerable importance to me, but holiness of heart and life, and the conversion of the Heathen to God. I exceedingly longed that God would get to himself a name among the Heathen; and I appealed to him with the greatest freedom, that he knew I "preferred him above my chief joy."  

Brainerds's beloved Native Americans prayed over day-by-day were devotedly taught by a young man with nothing to live for but Christ's glory. In David Brainerd they had one who unreservedly gave his life not only for them, but for us,  as he wrote "for the incitement of all who love the appearing of the kingdom of Christ, to frequent the throne of grace with earnest supplications, that the Heathen, who were anciently promised to Christ for his inheritance, may now actually and speedily be brought into his kingdom of grace, and made heirs of immortal glory"

AIMEE SEMPLE MCPHERSON. 1890-1944
Another powerful evangelist at the century turn was the colorful and controversial Aimee Semple McPherson. Married to Robert Semple in 1908, an Irish Pentecostal evangelist whose supernatural ministry had first swept aside her youthful skepticism, she headed out with him, scared and expecting, to Macao, China. Shortly after he arrived Robert caught a fatal disease. All alone with her new-born little girl Roberta, Aimee returned to America. Remarrying Harold McPherson in 1912 with the stipulation that God's call to ministry was first in her life, she had one more child (Rolf) by him. Though at first content just to be wife and mother, she came to feel she was avoiding her ministry. Her health broken and near death, she surrendered to the Divine call. Aimee began as a tent evangelist. After a disastrous fire in a Durant Florida wooden tabernacle where a kerosene lamp blew up, she moved to Los Angeles, where fifteen years after Azusa, the Pentecostal message was getting a good hearing.

Her illustrated sermons, complete with Hollywood style special effects ("I want to speak on the last days of Pompeii next week" she told her crew "and I need a volcano to erupt behind me.") were the talk of California. But above all, Aimee had a powerful attraction for the sick and the lost in her exceptional ministry of healing. To this day people in Angelus Temple, (her home church) can show you a room full of wheelchairs, crutches and braces that people in her meetings had abandoned, instantly healed by the power of God. Her last authorized biography recounts her story of being kidnapped and the swirl of controversy it generated; Aimee was without doubt the most talked-about Christian woman of her time. She died Sept. 26, 1944 in Oakland California, the same city where she had 26 years earlier received the vision of the "Foursquare Gospel." This denomination she founded grew to over 800 churches with 2,000 foreign mission stations, 32 day and Bible schools, 117 daily or weekly radio broadcasts in the U.S. Canada and 27 other countries. (WP)

Catherine Booth in Scotland
It was their first visit to Scotland, and it was with some degree of wonderment and trepidation that they looked forward to the result. They had been told that the Scotch were wedded to their Presbyterianism, with its republican form of government, that they were stiff, hard-headed, and difficult to be moved, and would require-a great deal of time and consideration before they would accept methods and teachings' so diametrically opposed to those to which they had from their youth been accustomed But the result of 'the first meetings soon dissipated the last doubt as to the advisability of the step, and this notwithstanding, the unlikely character of the hall in which they were conducted. Situated in one of the lowest slums, it was a dull, dingy dirty-looking loft, which had served at one time as a chapel with a pulpit at the end, a gallery round three sides, and accommodating some five hundred people. Nevertheless, it was crowded at the first services, and the power of God was evident from the onset, and the power of God was wonderfully manifested.

It became evident at the onset and was confirmed by remarkable experiences of later years, that no people in world were quicker to appreciate and more enthusiastic to admire the close, incisive, unanswerable reasonings of Mrs. Booth. Their prejudice against female ministry, their antipathy to demonstrative religion, their dislike to anything approaching excitement, and their opposition to the doctrine of Holiness were all forgotten, as they followed with intense eagerness every point of her argument. The boldness of the preacher, the courage with which she assumed the offensive without giving time to be attacked, her unpretentious modesty, her cogent, resistless force of logic, her perfect insight into human nature, her fearless, Knox-like denunciations of evil, her intimate familiarity with the Scriptures, her alternative appeals to the reason, the emotions, and the conscience, her command of language, her transparent simplicity and her all-devouring zeal carried them away.

It was like a resurrection. Here was an old-fashioned out-spoken Covenanter in the land of Covenanters,. a spiritual Bruce, a woman Wallace, stood before them--a champion who had come to enfranchise, from the thraldom of sin and Satan. ...They were convinced, they were fascinated, and from the opening service in that rude hall to the last meeting that she ever held in Scotland nowhere was Mrs. Booth followed by more affectionate and appreciative crowds. ...The sympathetic feeling of that first Scotch audience was unmistakable. The spirit of conviction worked irresistibly in their hearts. The people fell in every part of the building. In the pews, in the gallery, round the pulpit, in the dingy little vestry with its break-neck approach there were men and women sobbing and crying aloud for salvation.

CHARLES FINNEY (1792-1875)
     "When he opened his mouth he was aiming a gun. When he spoke the bombardment began. The effects of his speaking were almost unparalleled in modern history. Over half a million people were converted through his ministry ... in an age when there were no amplifiers or mass communications. He spearheaded a revival which literally altered the course of history."

   Finney, born the year after Wesley died became the link from the Great Awakening of one century to the Second Great Awakening of the next. Harvard professor Perry Miller wrote: "Charles Grandison Finney led America out of the eighteenth century."

A tall (6' 2"), impressively blue-eyed young frontiersman from a non-Christian farming family, he was the seventh child of Sylvester and Rebecca Finney, and a musical, gently mocking pagan. Portraits made near the end of his life rarely catch his irrepressible sense of humor, his zest for life, his impressive athleticism. Deeply attractive and personable, his new wife did not mind waiting months as revivals repeatedly broke out on his way to take her home after the wedding! The story of Gods visitation to the heart of this young lawyer, his conversion, vision of Christ and baptism of power detailed elsewhere is one of the most moving biographies in revival history. It launched a life of such influence that even to this day his work and words still generate both stirring and storm with those who study the wonder of God's ways and works in revival.

Charles Finney (among the 23 million Americans and 40,000 ministers of his time) was "unquestionably the most impressive religious revolutionary that America has ever produced. Even enemies and detractors admitted the awesome way God used him. Three things stand out in Finneys astonishing life; his willingness to change, his deep and loving devotional life and prayer, and his radical message of practical and immediate holiness.

     Finney's life spanned two mighty periods of American and British Christian history, the First and Second Great Awakening; wearing out two of his three wives, radical to the last, he passed away peacefully on Sunday in Oberlin, August 16th 1875. On his tombstone the legend "The Lord be with us as He was with our fathers; let us not fail nor forsake Him."

C.T. STUDD AND THE "CAMBRIDGE SEVEN"
     Out of D.L. Moodys' 1882 Cambridge University meetings came wonderful results from what initially seemed a disaster. Moody said "There never was a place I approached with greater anxiety ... Never having had the privilege of a University education I was nervous about meeting University men." 1700 noisily crowded into a hall that first evening to hear the hick American evangelist who could somehow say "Jerusalem" in only two syllables and even funnier, didn't know any different! They "drowned out 70 brave undergraduates who tried to join in the hymns with vulgar songs". They yelled "Hear, Hear" to Vicar John Barton's opening prayer, shouted derisive "Encore!" to Sankey's solo, and greeted Moody's one-syllable pronunciation of "Daniel" by "bringing down the house with cheering, jeering, clapping and stamping." Yet Moody bravely hung in there. Only a hundred came the next night, but one was Gerald Lander of Trinity college, who (embarrassed by the "civilized" behavior of his colleagues the previous night) apologized to Moody. God touched Lander; he later became Bishop of Hong Kong. Over half responded to Moody's appeal that night. Next night a hundred or more waited behind for counsel. The final meeting drew 1,800 and launched a world-wide interdenominational movement. H.C. Moule, kneeling beside Moody on the platform heard him say: "My God, this is enough to live for."

 C.T. Studd was the toast of the nation, captain of their champion cricket team, Englands' top sportsman and inheritor of a small fortune. His brothers wrote to him about Moodys' challenge, and out of this eventually came the "Cambridge Seven", all Moodys' helpers and some his converts, who toured universities and challenged students for missions. Studd both gave up his cricket and gave away his fortune; large sums to Booth, Moody and George Muellers' orphanages. His wife, not to be outdone by her husbands devotion, sold all their wedding presents! She loved him so much Studd had to write her a little poem: "Jesus thou art more to me/ than Charlie Studd will ever be."

 Together with other "holy madmen" they launched out to redeem another generation of spiritual warriors from the ranks of the "Chocolate Soldiers." Studd took as his motto: "If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, no sacrifice I make can be too great for Him."




 JONATHAN EDWARDS: SCHOLAR, PREACHER, MISSIONARY
1703 -1758
(Note: Jonathan Edwards was the last and greatest of the great New England Puritan preachers. Some historians account him the greatest intellect of the Western Hemisphere before 1900. (The achievements of his descendants are such that the Edwards family used to be cited in psychology textbooks -- and in Ripley's Believe It Or Not column -- as proof that genius is an inherited trait.)
Edwards was born in Connecticut in 1703 and educated at home and at Yale University. As a youth, he had a keen interest in natural science, and wrote treatises On Insects and On The Rainbow (the latter in terms of the discoveries of Newton). At fourteen discovering the just-published writings of John Locke, like the "greediest miser uncovering a rich hoard of gold and silver coins" he adopted Locke's psychology and epistemology as his own, and used them as the basis for an intellectual defense of Calvinism.
Edwards was reading and contemplating on the words of Paul to Timothy (I Tim 6:14-16)
I charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; and this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
As he read, he felt an overwhelming sense of the majesty and grandeur of God, and what a privilege it is to serve so great a being, and what an honor God has bestowed upon us by calling us to his service. The experience of that day changed his life permanently.
However, he hesitated to call it a conversion experience, since he was told by his spiritual directors that the fear of hell was an essential part of any conversion, and he could not find in his experience any trace of fear, but only wonder, awe, peace, joy, and gratitude. Note this since Edwards much later delivered a sermon called "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" that has attracted some interest among non-Christians. Anthologies of American Literature intended for survey courses in high school or college often include a short extract from Edwards, and that extract is practically always from this one sermon. Generations of students have learned nothing about Edwards except that he was a Puritan preacher who preached about Hell -- presumably every Sunday. In fact, mentions of Hell are rare in Edwards' writing. He has far more to say about the love of God than about his wrath.
If you were exposed to Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" in your English class, and would like to see what Edwards is really like when the quotations from him are not all chosen by his opponents, try reading his sermon "On the Excellencies of Christ." Why do school textbooks always print extracts from Edwards on hell-fire and never Edwards on the love of God in Christ? My own suspicion is that they know that most non-Christian teen-agers will simply laugh off a hell-fire sermon, but that a significant number of them might be moved by Edwards' more usual approach as in this sermon. If students from non-Christian families started coming home and saying, "We read a sermon in English class today that really got to me, and I want to become a Christian," their parents would be talking to the school board and perhaps to a judge in nothing flat.
Religious experience is central to the life and thought of Jonathan Edwards. One of his major works is a treatise defending Predestination on logical and intellectual grounds. (This was the book that Feigl considered the definitive analysis of the concept of Free Will.) But it was not through logic that he was himself convinced of the doctrine. As a youth, he had vigorously rejected it as a horrible and immoral teaching, one inconsistent with the love of God. But when he had what he regarded as a direct experience and revelation of the grandeur and absolute sovereignty of God, all his former objections seemed irrelevant.
After college, Edwards became assistant pastor and then pastor of Northampton Church, the most important church in Massachusetts outside Boston. There he preached a series of sermons on justification by faith that gave rise to an area-wide religious revival. A few years later, George Whitefield, an English Methodist evangelist, college of John Wesley, visited the area and his preaching occasioned a more widespread revival. Edwards wrote A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God and A Treatise on the Religious Affections, works in which he analyzed and defended various kinds of conversion experience.
Eventually Edwards had problems with his congregation. He thought that only persons who had undergone conversion ought to be admitted to the Lord's Supper, and his congregation thought otherwise. He accordingly resigned in 1750 and went to western Massachusetts to be a missionary to the Indians. He remained there for seven years, writing two of his major works, and struggling with language difficulties, ill health, and inter-tribal Indian wars. In 1757 he became president of Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey) and a year later died from complications arising from a smallpox inoculation.
He was a pastor and teacher, preacher and missionary, scholar and philosopher, logician and visionary, and throughout it all, a faithful servant of Christ.

Evan Roberts (1876-1951) The Welsh revival.
Evan Roberts worked in coal mines, but he walked in the heavenlies. Never without his Bible, he prayed and wept 11 years for revival in Wales. He entered the Preparatory School for the Ministry at Newcastle,  Enlyn, when about 26. He never finished. Compelled by the Holy Spirit, he  returned in November, 1904, to his home village of Loughor,  to tell of Christ. And fire fell! Evan did not preach. He led  the meetings, praying, "Plyg ni, O arglwdd!" "Send us, O Lord!" And urging, "Obey the Holy Spirit. Obey!"

The Calvinistic Methodist church was moved until all Loughor became a praying, praising multitude. Taverns were  emptied, brothels were closed. The churches were filled  daily. Fire spread until all Wales was brought in repentance to its knees at the cross.         Roberts' life ministry was burned out in the short months of the 1904-05 Welsh revival. Broken in health, he retired from public view for the remaining half century of his life.

The slender, brown-haired young man working in a Welsh coal mine was a Christian. His family were good solid religious folk steeped in Calvinist theology, proud of their purity of home-life, jealous of their moral stand. Photos show him as nothing special to look at; a boy with a plain, pallid face. He was not a brilliant student and certainly no orator. Only one thing marked his life; he was serious about God and serious about revival.

 That message one night at church had done it; "Thomas was not with them when Jesus came." Ever since then he had set his heart on not missing God. "Remember to be faithful" the church elder had said. "What if the Spirit descended and you were absent?"

And he had determined not to be. He was in chapel prayer Monday, Sunday-School prayer Tuesday, the Wednesday night service, the Band of Hope Thursday and Bible class Friday. Through all weather and difficulties he came. He was determined to be there when revival came and didn't care about the cost or discipline. "I could sit up all night" he said "to read or talk about revival."

And often he did. For 13 months he had prayed for revival. He preached or prayed aloud and alone in his room so fervently that his landlady thought him probably mad or possessed and turned him out. But that intensity and discipline worked iron in his soul. A minister later commented on the set of his heart: "He is true to the backbone and above all faithful to God and his conscience. He cannot be bought or bribed. His strength is his character, sanctified by communion with the invisible."

It wasn't a good month for meetings and the few people that did come were pretty hard. Seth Joshua, was a sensitive and godly evangelist who had been saved through the Salvation Army. Every inch a man of God he preached what David Matthews called "a strange, strong new note" that deeply touched one young man who came to listen. Joshuas' campaign for Christ finally closed in disappointment; the people seemed hard and nothing apparently happened. Joshua moved towns; the boy followed. If anything Cardigan Bay was tougher! Almost at the end of another difficult meeting, Joshua prayed intensely: "Bend us - bend us - bend us O Lord!"

Some think this sentence gave birth to the revival; it became famous and the young man who later led it said it often. Right then no-one noticed. A young girl (Maggie Evans) sprang to her feet in terrible soul agony and the 26-yr old Bible college student (who had followed Joshuas messages night after night) silently and seemingly semi-consciously rolled off his seat into the aisle. Silent, covered in perspiration, he lay there apparently unable to move. One lady watching thought he would die on the spot.

Apparently he did. When the services finally ended, Evan Roberts came back to his Bible school a new man. Studies now seemed utterly impossible. Day and night without ceasing, he prayed, wept and sighed for a great spiritual awakening for his nation.

"Go home" said the Holy Spirit to his heart. "Tell the young people of your church what has happened to you."

It began among the young. Mary, one of Evans sisters, was 16. Syd Evans and Evans brother Dan were 20. The "Singing Sisters" who later travelled with Roberts to minister (Priscilla Watkins, Mary Davies, Livinia Hooker, Annie Rees and Anne Davis) were all between 18 and 22. Deliberately, solemnly Evan shared what was on his heart. Words he felt impressed by God to give: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord." The hours flew by unnoticed. Passers-by wondered why the church lights were still on so late. Something was happening in that youth meeting unlike any awakening that had happened before in Whales that was to shake the world.

Whales already knew about revival; God's previous instruments for these were powerful stirring preaching ministries like that of David Morgan in 1859. Even now in the nation there were men like Rhys Bevan Jones and Peter Price with the best youth group in Dowlais who had hundreds of conversions in his church. England had Douglas Brown and Scotland Jack Troup and Duncan Campbell. But this was utterly different; here was something new. Time and time again in prayer and choked confession the young man said what he had been challenged to do himself "Obey the Holy Spirit; be filled with the Holy Spirit; do not grieve the Holy Spirit by disobedience."

A week later the sober, sedate Calvinist Congregation that gathered at Bryn Seian Church in Trecynon Aberdare had no clue what was to about happen that shocking morning. Instead of their minister, there was this young man and some young girls with him. Instead of announcing the customary hymn, one of the girls burst out in song, tears streaming down her cheeks. The whole congregation gasped. Before this impromptu solo finished, her friend joined in also. But the young minister in the pulpit stood utterly silent; and as they watched his body shook as tears coursed down his pale cheeks. A stillness fell on the people like the quiet before a storm. And it broke when one of the proudest members of the church fell on her knees in agonized prayer confessing her sin. The meeting went on all day without a break. By night every church in the city was trying to get into the building. And so it began.   

 What is it like in such a Divine awakening? Again a rare volume written during the time gives us on the spot reports of what was happening as God moved across the land. Here are actual British and American newspaper accounts of this awesome phenomena excerpted from "The Great Revival In Wales"  collected and published by the Rev. S.B.Shaw in Chicago of 1905:

The "Methodist Recorder" Report:

"Wales is in the throes and ecstasies of the most remarkable religious revival it has ever known. It is nothing less than a "moral revolution." ... Already in 5 or 6 weeks the fire has spread to six or seven counties and bids fair find its way ... "into every parish in Wales .. " What has largely contributed to the rapidity of the movement is the widespread publicity given to it in the press - both secular and religious. Every day for weeks past the South Wales Daily News and the Western Mail, the two leading dailies of South Wales have devoted three or four columns to reports of it. "

 "... The converts already number many thousands. Mr. Evan Roberts calculates that in the mining valleys of South Wales alone - there have been at least 10,000 conversions. And if we add to this the harvest gleaned in various other places north and south the number cannot be far short of 20,000."


Here is a vivid report by a newspaper representative:

     "The scene is almost indescribable. Tier upon tier of men and women filled every inch of space. Those who could not gain admittance stood outside and listened at the doors. Others rushed to the windows where almost every word was audible. When at 7:00 the service began quite 2,000 people must have been present. The enthusiasm was unbounded. Women sang and shouted till perspiration ran down their faces and men jumped up one after another to testify. One told in quivering accents the story of a drunken life. A working collier spoke like a practiced orator; one can imagine what a note the testimony of a converted Gypsy woman struck, when dressed in her best, she told of her reformation and repentance. At ten o'clock the meeting had lost none of its ardor. Prayer after prayer went up ... time and again the four ministers who stood in the pulpit attempted to start a hymn but it was all in vain. The revival has taken hold of the people, and even Mr. Roberts cannot keep it in check. His latest convert is a policeman who after complaining that the people had gone mad after religion so there was nothing to do, went to see for himself, and bursting into tears, confessed the error of his ways and repented."

     The dominant note of the revival is prayer and praise. Another striking fact is the joyousness and radiant happiness of the evangelist. It has been remarked that the very essence of his campaign is mirth. To the rank and file of church ministers this is his most incomprehensible phase. They have always regarded religion as something iron-bound, severe, even terrible. Evan Roberts smiles when he prays, laughs when he preaches.

 He is a leader who preaches victory and shows how it may be won - victory over the dull depression and gloomy doubt of our time. Is it surprising that followers flock in thousands to his banner?
A generation had risen that had not seen the arm of God working as it had done in 1849 and 1859. Now to all appearances the revival has arrived and it has all the marks of previous great awakenings. Strong men are held in its grip; the Spirit of God stirs to their very depths whole neighborhoods and districts. There is a tumult of emotion, an overpowering influence and a conviction of sin that can only be attributed to Divine agency. Personal eloquence, magnetism, fervor or mental power do not account for it. The only explanation is the one which the evangelist gives - "it is all of God". ...

 The revival seems to work especially among young people. Its form, which is that of prayer, praise and personal testimony, and its absence of method make it the most methodical expression of the emotions of young hearts aflame with the love of God." These characteristics of brokeness and praise dominate the awakening. When a man asked Evan if the revival would come to London he smiled and said "Can you sing?"

 
George T.B. Davis Newspaper Report in America:

THIRTY-FOUR THOUSAND CONVERSIONS IN WALES:
 "I have just returned from a two days visit to the storm center of the great Welsh revival which is sweeping over Wales like a cyclone, lifting people into an ecstasy of spiritual fervor. Already over 34,000 converts have been made, and the great awakening shows no signs of waning ... It was my good fortune to take two meals with Mr. Roberts and to attend three meetings he conducted ...It was 9:45 when we reached the place and even at that hour there were scores of people seeking admission. But the gates were closed and guarded by policeman for the church was already packed to the doors.

     A hymn was now started, and my attention was riveted on Evan Roberts, who stood in the pulpit and led the music with face irradiated with joy, smiles and even laughter. What impressed me most was his utter naturalness, his entire absence of solemnity. He seemed just bubbling over with sheer happiness, just as jubilant as a young man at a baseball game. He did not preach; he simply talked between the prayers and songs and testimonies and then rarely more than just a few sentences at a time.
 
     In appearance the young evangelist is of medium height, slender, brown-haired. He is extremely nervous in temperament and his pallor showed the strain of the meetings on him."  (This physical, and spiritual strain was to later tell terribly on Roberts health.) In the afternoon meeting while describing the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, he broke down and sobbed from the pulpit; scores in the building wept with him. It had been announced to begin at 2:00 but before 12 the building was packed. ... The air was stifling but the people minded it not a whit. They had forgotten the things of earth and stood in the presence of God. The meeting began about noon and went on at white heat for two hours before Mr. Roberts arrived, ending at 4:30 p.m."

     Thus it was for glorious year after year, with some churches open twenty-four hours a day, producing incredible effects on the world. Before it began, Evan Roberts was a young man consumed with compassion over a world with no-one to weep for it; God gave him a vision of a revival that would go around the world.

 Yet Evan himself may never have known that promise to him had been literally fulfilled. Only recently have we realized just how wide, how powerful and far-reaching this revival was. Roberts himself could never have seen the results we now know; all he had for his life's ministry was what God showed him one night as a young college student beside his bed in agonized prayer. Perhaps he thought he might be the one to carry it afar; perhaps he believed that, like Whitefield or Moody he might travel from a revived British Isles to other continents, carrying the message that reached such astonishing focus in Wales that it has been called the most far-reaching revival in history. But it was not to be.

CRITICISM OF REVIVAL
Long after the Welsh awakening had begin to spread through the British Isles, a nationally-famous Welsh preacher, Peter Price minister of the large and growing Dowlais Congregational church publicly criticized Evan Roberts in print. Some thought Price himself, with a mighty record of evangelism and outreach among the young might be the natural choice of God to bring awakening to Whales before it came to Evan Roberts' town of Loughor. The young revivalist apparently faced "hardness" in his earlier meetings in Prices church; half-an-hour into the service, Roberts stood to deliver a scathing "word from the Lord" that someone "near him" was "blocking the way of revival" by criticism of both it and him, and that unless it was dealt with he would leave; he "would not take part in mock worship where the Holy Spirit was grieved." He left shortly after.

Prices' later letter to the Western Mail to correct misconceptions or misconduct he perceived in young converts of the revival, unfortunately resulted in his denouncing Roberts work as spurious ("a sham Revival, a mockery, a blasphemous travesty of the real thing") and his own work in contrast as part of the genuine. He concluded his honest conviction was for "Evan Roberts and his girl-companions" to go home examine themselves and learn if they were able to a little more of the meaning of Christianity.... instead of pretending to show the Way of Life to people many of whom know a thousand times more about this than they do. ..." (Jan. 31, 1905) Others later would criticized Evans visions, his apparent words of knowledge of those about to get saved and his prophecies; this led to added strain on his already tender temperament..

Replies to Prices letter ran the gamut of "Your letter will reinforce the Devils Army ... may God forgive your blasphemy. Shame. Shame. " ..." The truth is, you are overwhelmed with petty jealousy".. One said "Why don't you wait and see the results and then try to judge a little? If you disagree with Mr. Roberts you should have written to him and not through the Press; the 70,000 souls won for Christ speaks volumes when the great portion of these were Servants of the Devil." Others commended Price, naming it the 'Sham Revival." "nothing more than ignorant excitement and will die out as rapidly as it flamed up..."

The revival of course, went on. It spread internationally, later deepened and mutated into the teaching and instruction of the hundreds of thousands of converts it had generated. Under great strain Roberts took an extended period of rest to re-evaluate his ministry in the home of Mr. & Mrs. Jesse Penn-Lewis and for years after effectively dropped completely and utterly out. What was God's work, as he had always emphasized, after all would continue without him. And it did. He only emerged rarely after this at some public religious events, usually unnoticed and unheralded, deeply respected but to all but a few who remembered (and God), essentially forgotten. He died after a severe winter Jan 29th.  But the work God raised up through him went on around the world, affecting millions.

FRANCIS OF ASSISI (1181-1226)   

Pre-Reform Revivals
There were outbreaks of true revival long before the Reformation under the influence of some of the true Catholic saints who preceded the Reformers.

 In the dark days of the 12th Century there was Francis of Assisi in his brown woolen robe with a rope belt, ex-soldier and playboy who had a vision of Christ "with eyes fixed on him in tender love" that utterly freed him from his pleasure-mad ways and made of him a radiant apostle of love. Francis was born the son of a prosperous merchant. As a young man, while praying in a church outside Assisi, he heard a voice say to him, “Go and repair My house which is fallen down.” Interpreting “house” to mean the building in which he was praying, he immediately went to his father's warehouse, took a horse and a load of cloth, sold both and gave the money to the church for repairs. In retrospect Francis realized “my house” actually referred to the Church.

According to Jacob de Voragine, a thirteenth century writer, Francis had originally been named Giovanni (i.e. John), but adopted the name Francis as the result of a miracle from God that had empowered him to speak French. De Voragine says, “Whenever he was filled with the fervor of the Holy Spirit, he burst forth ardently in the French tongue.” His words were like fire, piercing the heart"; having nothing, he possessed all things.

With his happy band of twelve, Francis was granted permission from Pope Innocent to found a monastic order that stirred all Italy, touched Egypt and Spain; dedicated to studying Scriptures, preaching the Gospel, praying, and helping the poor. Interpreting Matthew 10:7-19 literally, they elected to renounce all earthly possessions and to live in poverty. The order was endowed with great spiritual power and has been called “perhaps the most thoroughly charismatic [order], in its primitive period, that the church has ever known.”.

Francis’ preaching was accompanied by great power. Butler reports God gave Francis the gifts of prophecy and miracles. Many healings also occurred as a result of Francis’ prayers. On one occasion, while preaching in the city of Narni, Francis was taken to a man completely paralyzed. The man had expressed assurance that if Francis would come to him, he would be completely healed. When Francis entered the man’s room, he made the sign of the cross over the man from his head to his feet. Immediately, the man arose fully recovered. Whole audiences responded to his challenge to forsake all and follow Jesus; the brothers eventually numbered in their thousands  (E.H.)

GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH (1829-1912)
"On April 9,1865, Lee met Grant in the parlor of a private home at Appomattox Court House. He surrendered his army bringing to an end four long years of death and devastation called the Civil War. In the same year, a 36 year old Englishman by the name of William Booth declared war on the powers of darkness by founding the Salvation Army." (Paul Smith)

William Booth, destined to become the founder of the Salvation Army and one of the
greatest of social reformers, was born at Sneinton, a suburb of Nottingham, England April 10, 1829. His parents were Established Church members, his mother a very devout Christian. His father made considerable money, but had the misfortune to lose it. William was brought up in poverty and realized much of the sorrow and suffering which afterwards made his heart bleed for the poor. At an early age his father died, leaving William to struggle on in poverty with his widowed mother and deprived of the advantages of a good common school education.

Even as a thirteen-year old teenager, William was a social reformer, longing to do something to alleviate the sufferings of the poor. He left the Church of England at an early age to become a regular attendant at a Wesleyan Chapel, where he yielded his heart and life to God. saying: "The Holy Spirit had continually shown me that my real welfare for time and eternity depended upon the surrender of myself to the services of God. After a long controversy I made this submission, cast myself on His mercy, received the assurance of His pardon, and gave myself up to His service with all my heart. The hour, the place, and many other particulars of this glorious transaction are recorded indelibly on my memory."

Soon after young Booth's conversion, James Caughey, the famous Spirit-filled American
evangelist, visited Nottingham. Caughey was a Methodist and preached Wesleyan sanctification with great unction and power. His preaching made a deep impression on William Booth, and kindled in his heart a great desire to win souls for Christ, but for a long time he was too timid to hold religious meetings. Finally, after much time spent in prayer and the study of the Scriptures, he ventured to read the Bible and deliver some comments on the street corners of Nottingham. He was jeered at, ridiculed, and even bricks were thrown at him; but not discouraged, and later joined some Christian companions in holding meetings in cottages and in the open air. William's early efforts to speak in public were often very discouraging, but they laid the foundation of his future usefulness. Apprenticed to a firm where he had to work hard until 8 o'clock in the evening, he hurried after to cottage meetings which lasted until 10 o'clock, after which he was sometimes called to visit the sick or dying.

Young Booth soon became the leader of his friends in these services, and began to conduct meetings in country places, stumbling home in the dark, late at night, after holding them. At seventeen he was made a local preacher. He preached on the streets and made hundreds of hospital calls before he was twenty years of age Two years later his Superintendent wanted him to become a regular minister, but the doctor advised him that his health was so poor that he was totally unfit for the strain of the life of a Methodist minister.

In 1849, at twenty, Booth moved to London. Here without friends and almost without money, he worked as a clerk, and spent most of his leisure time working among the poor. Finally, he devoted all his time to preaching, and preached in many parts of London with varying success. Though sometimes severely criticized for his style of preaching, frequently souls came to Christ in his meetings. He thought of offering himself for regular ministry, but his Superintendent discouraged him. In 1851, controversy arose in the Wesleyan Church over the question of lay representation; a large number of ministers who favored lay representation and other reform movements either seceded or were expelled from the conference, forming a new movement known as the Reformers. Because of his supposed sympathy with the Reformers (although he took no part in the controversy) Booth's name was dropped by the minister in charge of his circuit. The Reformers then offered him a position as pastor of one of their chapels in London. This he accepted, and here he met Catherine Mumford, the talented and consecrated young woman who several years afterward became his wife.

For two or three years Booth preached in London and various other cities of England, and
in many places met with great success. Many souls were won for Christ in his meetings. But his life was unsettled. The Reformers had no settled policy or organization, and they had many differences of opinion among themselves. Booth tried to induce them to unite with the Methodist New Connexion, which believed in lay representation and most of the reforms they advocated. Finally he and a number of other Reformers joined the New Connexion. He now met with great success in many cities, and his fame as a revivalist began to spread all over England. Hundreds of persons now professed conversion to Christ in almost every series of meetings held by him. At last his financial prospects were such as to enable him to marry Catherine Mumford, who had advised and helped him in so many ways. Their courtship and marriage was an ideal one, and few persons have been so fully joined in heart and life.

For four years until he was thirty-two years of age, Booth preached for the Methodist
New Connexion in a number of leading cities, and many thousands of persons professed conversion to Christ. Nearly two thousand persons claimed conversion in his meetings in less than four months' time, and they continued to flock to the altar for prayer everywhere he went. He repeatedly urged the Conference to allow him to leave the regular circuit work and devote all his time to evangelistic work, but this they refused to do. From 1850 to 1861 he served as a pastor in the Methodist church after which time he and his wife let the church and stepped out by faith in evangelistic work in East London.

After deciding to engage in evangelistic work, William and Catherine waited for some time before receiving a call, their faith sorely tried. Finally called to Cornwall, a great revival broke out under their labors. Here Booth introduced the "penitent form," or altar in his meetings, which was always after a regular feature of Salvation Army warfare. Perhaps no Salvation Army meeting is held in which there is not a chancel-rail, bench, chair, drum-head, or some kind of "penitent form" where inquirers can kneel for prayer. In the Cornish meetings the people were so wrought upon that they exclaimed, "Glory!" "Hallelujah!" and so on, and such ejaculations were common in Army meetings.

Crowds in Cornwall were too great to fit in any building, so they held great open-air meetings, also to become a leading feature of Salvation Army warfare. After their Cornish campaign, Mr. and Mrs. Booth held many other great evangelistic campaigns in which multitudes were won for Christ. In 1865, they began their work in East London.  It was there that he organized the East London Christian Revival Society. A large tent was erected in a disused burying-ground belonging to the Friends, and meetings were held in it every night for two weeks. Open-air meetings were held on Mile End Waste, and the workers marched in procession from the open-air meetings to the tent where another service was held. The tent blew down and an old dancing hall was engaged for the meetings. From this small beginning a regular chain of missions was gradually formed, and this work was known as "The Christian Mission." In 1877, Mr. Booth changed the name to "The Salvation Army," and the work was gradually organized on the plan of a well-disciplined army, with uniform, officers, and regulations resembling those of a regular army. Mrs. Booth designed the "hallelujah bonnet" so well known today. The main emphasis under the Booths holy army was street preaching, personal evangelism and practical philanthropy:

"While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight - I'll fight to the very end!"

In the early days of the Salvation Army, when it was known as "The Christian Mission," the power of God was wonderfully manifest in the meetings. According to Commissioner Booth
Tucker, one of the ablest officers of the Salvation Army, persons were frequently stricken down in the meetings, overwhelmed with a sense of the presence and power of God. After the Salvation Army name, uniform, and discipline was adopted the work grew by leaps and bounds, and in little more than a quarter of a century its flag was unfurled in no less than fifty-five different countries, embracing almost every corner of the earth, and hundreds of thousands of souls had professed conversion to Christ in the meetings; today more than two million derelicts have professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through the work of the Salvation Army since its founding by the "General."  During the course of William Booths ministry he traveled 5,000,000 miles and preached 60,000 sermons. God help us in this desperate and distracted day in which we live to heed the General's advice. "Work as if everything depended upon your work, and pray as if everything depended upon your prayer."

Salvation Army: The Gospel With Power
While "less creed and more deed" is a fundamental of the Salvation Army, they did
not neglect the great essential doctrines of repentance, faith, and the necessity of holy living. To them repentance is not mere sorrow for sin, but a real turning away from sin. Faith is not a mere intellectual act completed in a few seconds; but is a real reliance of the soul upon Christ, beginning instantly but continuing through time and eternity. In every Salvation Army corps throughout the world, a Holiness Meeting is held every week to lead Christians in to an experience of holiness, sanctification, or the filling of the Spirit. With them holiness is not "imputed" only, but is really imparted by the indwelling Spirit. Without the real power of the Holy Spirit it would be difficult for them to hold open air meetings every night and two or three times on Sundays, summer and winter, rain or shine. Without the Spirit's power it would be difficult for every soldier to take part in both the outdoor and indoor meetings every day in the year, and yet every Salvation Army soldier is expected to be at his post and to take part in every meeting if possible. A strenuous life requires spiritual strength. General Booth realized this fact, and made sanctification, or the filling of the Spirit a fundamental doctrine of the Salvation Army. Not only the Army, but most workers in mission halls and open-air meetings learn the necessity of being filled with the Spirit in effectual work for Christ.

SAINTLY SOLDIERS
Few persons have so emphasized and experienced the Holy Spirit's power as did General
Booth and Mrs. Catherine Booth, the "Father" and "Mother" of the Salvation Army. Before her death, Mrs. Booth was universally regarded as one of the saintliest and most spiritual of women. Her influence both within and without the Salvation Army was tremendous. Tens of thousands were won for Christ or led into a deeper spiritual experience through the influence of her life. It was not unusual to see scores and scores, sometimes hundreds of persons seeking salvation or sanctification at the close of one of General Booth's addresses, so manifest was the power of the Spirit in his meetings. He visited more countries, spoke more frequently, won more souls for Christ, and rescued more fallen men and women than did any other person in street ministry history. Already the Salvation Army is at work in fifty-five different countries, and their shelters, rescue homes, farm colonies, and emigration bureaus, do more to reclaim the fallen than is any other agency; we might perhaps truthfully say, they are doing more to rescue the fallen than are all other agencies combined.


SANCTIFICATION AND POWER TO PREACH
In 1861, he and Mrs. Booth decided to launch out into evangelistic work and trust the Lord
for their support. Mr. Booth therefore sent in his resignation. Shortly before launching out on this independent course Mr. Booth was led into a deeper Christian experience. Both he and Mrs. Booth were diligent students of the writings of John Wesley, and they accepted his views on sanctification, or holiness, as well as on other theological questions. General Booth wrote much on sanctification, heart purity, but little concerning his own experience.

One of Catherine Booths letters to her parents briefly describes how she and William were led into the experience of holiness: She says: "My soul has been much called out of late on the doctrine of holiness. I feel that hitherto we have not put it in a sufficiently definite and tangible manner before the people, I mean as a specific and attainable experience. Oh, that I had entered into the fullness of the enjoyment of it myself! I intend to struggle after it. In the mean time we have commenced already to bring it specifically before our dear people."

In another letter, speaking concerning the doctrine of sanctification, she says: "William has preached on it twice, and there is a glorious quickening amongst the people. I am to speak again next Friday night and on Sunday afternoon. Pray for me. I only want perfect consecration and Christ as my all, and then I might be very useful, to the glory, not of myself, the most unworthy of all who e'er His grace received, but of His great and boundless love. May the Lord enable me to give my wanderings o'er and to find in Christ perfect peace and full salvation!

"I have much to be thankful for in my dearest husband. The Lord has been dealing very
graciously with him for some time past. His soul has been growing in grace, and its outward developments have been proportionate. He is now on full stretch for holiness. You would be amazed at the change in him. It would take me all night to detail all the circumstances and convergings of Providence and Grace which have led up to this experience, but I assure you it is a glorious reality, and I know you will rejoice in it."

Describing how she herself earnestly sought for and obtained this experience, she says: "I struggled through the day until a little after six in the evening, when William joined me in prayer. We had a blessed season. While he was saying, `Lord, we open our hearts to receive Thee,' that word was spoken to my soul: `Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open unto me, I will come in and sup with him.' I felt sure He had long been knocking, and oh, how I yearned to receive Him as a perfect Savior! But oh, the inveterate habit of unbelief! How wonderful that God should have borne so long with me.

"When we got up from our knees I lay on the sofa, exhausted with the effort and excitement
of the day. William said, `Don't you lay all on the altar?' I replied, `I am sure I do!' Then he said, `And isn't the altar holy?' I replied in the language of the Holy Ghost, `The altar is most holy, and whatsoever touches it is holy.' Then said he, `Are you not holy?' I replied with my heart full of emotion and with some faith, `Oh, I think I am!' Immediately the word was given me to confirm my faith, `Now are ye clean through the word I have spoken unto you.' And I took hold - true, with a trembling hand, and not unmolested by the tempter, but I held fast the beginning of my confidence, and it grew stronger, and from that moment I have dared to reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, my Lord."

Evident from this account of the Booths deeper Christian experience, both were led into this by means of the teaching that when our all is placed on the altar of consecration, the altar sanctifies the gift. They now became burning, shining lights for the Master. (JGL)

George Fox (1624-1691) The Unshakable Shaker
By Leonard Ravenhill

"The most remarkable incident in modern history perhaps is not the Diet of Worms, still less
the battle of Austerlitz or Peterloo, or any other battle. "The most remarkable incident is passed over carelessly by most historians and treated with some degree of ridicule by others - namely, George Fox's making for himself a suit of leather. "No grander thing was ever done than when George Fox, stitching himself into a suit of leather, went forth determined to find truth for himself - and to do battle for it against all superstition and intolerance."

This was Thomas Carlyle's considered opinion about the poor, uneducated English shoemaker,
George Fox. So hard was his itinerate preaching life that he made for himself that famous pair of
leather breeches, which have since become historical. Those breeches were known all over the
country, says Macauley the historian. In the middle of the 17th century men feared the man dressed in that famous suit as much as the Jordan spectators, centuries before, feared the man who had the leathern girdle about his loins and who ate locusts and wild honey. And rightly so, for George Fox and John the Baptist were kindred spirits.

George Fox first saw the light of day in 1624 at Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leichestershire, England. His godly parents belonged to the Church of England and endeavored to bring up their children in the fear of the Lord. George's first step in his long quest for spirituality was at the age of eleven when he surrendered his heart to the Lord. Ever after, he sought to live an honest and upright life.

The Reformation fires of one hundred years before had burned themselves out. Among the clergy
there abounded much education, loose-living, and ease. The Protestant church had a name to live
but was dead.

George Fox did not enjoy any personal direct communion with God until he was nineteen. Then for some time his soul was full of strange longings and continual reaching out after God. The Christians he met did not possess what they professed. So deeply was he grieved and distressed over examples of their hypocrisy that he could not sleep all night but walked up and down in his room praying to God. He sought help from man but found none.

His relatives did not know what to make of George. One kind soul said that marriage was the
remedy for his melancholic state of mind. Another preferred the view that he should enlist in the
army. A third believed the use of tobacco and singing psalms would bring relief. No wonder the
seeking soul thought that his advisers were all "miserable comforters." One man, supposedly
experienced in the things of God, was "like an empty hollow cask" to George Fox. Seeking the
advice of a clergyman, Fox accidentally stepped on the minister's flower bed, whereupon the angry cleric flew into a rage.

Finding no help from men, Fox gave up seeking from that source. With the Bible as his guide, he
began looking to the Lord alone for help. Slowly the light began to dawn upon him. He was led to see that only those who had passed from death to life were real believers in Christ. Once and for all Fox settled it that "being bred at Oxford and Cambridge did not qualify or fit a man to be a minister of Christ."

When George Fox was about 23, he began preaching to others the truths revealed to him. He was
mightily used of God. Thus he came in the nick of time "to save the church from deadness and
formalism, and the world from infidelity." He was sent of God to call the church to real spiritual
worship.

Fox began his preaching with a limited education, without any special training, and without special advantages of any kind. He so preached that men got the shakes. The name Quaker was attached to Fox and his followers because of the quaking of the men who came to scoff but stayed to pray. Though he made others shake, no man could make him shake.

Walking bare-footed through the crowded market at Litchfield, England, this man in the leather suit upraised his hands and voice, shouting, "Woe unto Litchfield, thou bloody city! Woe unto
Litchfield!" He feared neither man nor the consequences of his tirade. At first the crowd was
amused, then serious, then terrified.

Here was a man with unquenchable zeal. He had "heard a voice." Beat him they might, cast him into prison they would, mock him as a madman they laughingly did. But still he proclaimed the message of Christ. Shut out of churches, George Fox made a stone his pulpit and preached to the crowds in the streets. Taken from the street meeting to the jail, he made the jail a cathedral to declare the wonderful works of God. Often he was found praising the Lord in a stinking prison cell.

From judge to criminal, from Lord Protector to kitchen maid, Fox bore a burning witness. "He
iterated the British Isles," says one of his biographers, "preaching and protesting as no man before him had ever done. In his preaching he wore out clothes, horses, critics, persecutors, and eventually himself."

Many times Fox prophesied of future events that were revealed to him. Visions often came to him. Once in Lancashire, England, as he was climbing Pendle Hill, he had a vision of a coming revival in that very area. He "saw the countryside alive with men, all moving to one place."

In personal appearance Fox was a large man with remarkable piercing eyes. His words were like a flash of lightning. His judgment was clear, and his logic convincing. His great spiritual gift was a remarkable discernment. He seemed able to read the characters of men by looking at them. He likened the temperaments of people to a wolf, a serpent, a lion, or a wasp. He could meet a person and say, "I see the spirit of a cunning fox in you." "You have the nature of a serpent." Or "Thou art as vicious as a tiger." Fox was far in advance of any other person in his day.

The great secret of Fox's power was his faith in God. He started with scarcely any advantages, but soon influenced the whole world for God. His one desire was the extension of Christ's kingdom on earth. Through his influence England, Ireland, and Scotland were soon ablaze. In 1661 several of his followers were moved to go beyond the seas to publish truth in foreign countries. In 1664 he married Margaret Fell. In 1670-73 he sailed for the West Indies and North America. Though he was persecuted even there, the work spread.

No religious or political reformer was ever imprisoned as many times as George Fox, and oh, what prisons! His times in prison were missionary labors. Not in solitary confinement, he always had a congregation and made converts. His fame spread and people came in crowds to hear him.

A distinguished American governor, Livingston, was justified in giving the following elevated opinion of "the unshakable shaker": George Fox alone has, without human learning, done more than any other reformer in Protestant Christendom towards the restoration of real, primitive, unadulterated Christianity and the destruction of priest craft, superstition, and ridiculous, unavailing rites and ceremonies.

He left us an example of fearless, devoted service that alas, few have ever tried to follow. "He
saw hell and heaven, God and judgment with such a clear vision that he was forced to go out in season and out of season to snatch poor sinners from their awful doom. Constantly he appeared just where nobody expected him, blocking the road to hell and pointing the road to heaven - and all because he was completely delivered from all regard for public opinion and utterly impatient of useless routine."

How cities throughout the world today could be made to quake by workers as full of God and faith, as reckless as to their life and interest and comfort, as determined to wreck the devil's kingdom as George Fox was!

Once Fox grasped the truth that he sought for, there was a steady calm in his spiritual life. There were no ups and downs; his life was pure and childlike and truly hid with Christ in God.

His preaching was plain but powerful. It may have lacked eloquence or clearness, it may have been given in involved sentences and been almost unintelligible, but the Holy Ghost was never lacking in all of Fox's discourses. He excelled in prayer.

The work by which Fox is principally known is Fox's Journal. This book, printed three years after his death, is one of the world's most famous books, "rich in spiritual insight, in noble simplicity and in moral fibre." It was Fox's presence and spoken words which made the deep impression vividly portrayed in his journal.

George Fox died in London, January 13, 1691. If you are ever in London, go to his grave right
opposite John Wesley's church in City Road in the weary-looking Bunhill Field. Despite its moss
and age, you will read on the leaning tombstone, "Here lies George Fox!" He is in good company, for beside him, waiting for the great day, sleep Wesley's mother, Sussannah, Isaac Watts, Daniel Defoe, and other famed folk. George Fox, who honored the Son will one day be honored by Him. Sleep on, faithful, fighting Fox!  (LR)

"Above all, George Fox excelled in prayer. The inwardness and weight of his spirit, the reverence
and solemnity of his address and behaviour, and the fewness and fulness of his words have often
struck even strangers with admiration as they used to reach others with consolation. The most awful, living, reverend frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was the prayer of George Fox. And truly it was a testimony. He knew and lived nearer to the Lord than other men, for they that know Him most will see most reason to approach Him with reverence and fear." (William Penn)  

George Mueller (1805-1898) Christian Philanthropist

George Mueller was born and raised in Prussia and lived a life of sin and crime even while studying for the ministry of the State Church. His life was changed when converted at a prayer meeting in a private home. He moved to England and there sought acceptance by the London Missionary Society as a missionary to the Orient. Rejected, he began to preach and to minister wherever the Lord opened the door.

This led him to Bristol, where, in 1834, he founded  the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad. One year later, he opened his first orphans' home for 26 girls.. By 1870 with no financial assistance he had built five orphans' homes, and by prayer and faith in God was feeding 2100 orphans daily. He solicited no one and told only the Lord of daily needs. Only born again Christians were accepted for service in the Institution, and their care of the orphans was spiritual as well as material. Many of thechildren were won  to Christ each year.

The Scriptural Knowledge Institution also was instrumental in sending missionaries, Bibles, and Gospel literature  around the world. The various schools operated by the Institution matriculated over 121,000 students with thousands of  them receiving Christ while there. The Institution distributed almost 300,000 Bibles in many different languages. In addition to one and one-half million New Testaments, 163 missionaries were sent out and/or supported, and over  111,000,000 tracts distributed. In a  period of 63 years God poured out in response to the faith and prayers of George Mueller over $7,500,000.00, which he wisely and  prayerfully distributed in the spreading of the Gospel.

Mueller read the Bible through over 200 times, half  of that on his knees, where he claimed the promise, "Open  wide thy mouth, and I will fill it." He spent his last 17  years touring the world, telling of the blessing of a life of  faith. He died at the age of 93, leaving an estate valued at  less than one thousand dollars, for he had given back to the Institute almost a half million dollars of the personal gifts he had received during 70 years of ministry.   
GEORGE WILLIAMS and the YMCA (1821-18
Something needed to be done for young working people.  George Williams, converted at 16 one Sunday winter evening in 1837, launched the revival-based most effective outreach ministry to them of his generation, the Young Men's Christian Association June 6th, 1844. He, with some of his new converts had "looked with deep concern and anxiety upon the almost totally neglected spiritual condition of the mass of young people engaged in the pursuit of business ... we regard it to be a sacred duty, binding upon every child of God to use all the means in his power and to direct all his energies in and out of season towards the promotion of the Savior's Kingdom and the salvation of souls ..."
 
Two men's messages helped give him heart for this vision; Finney of America and Binney of England! Williams deeply stirred to evangelism, revival and prayer through Finney's "Lectures on Revivals" and "To Professing Christians" which he gave out to his new converts, was also influenced by the English preacher Thomas Binney who preached stirring, contemporary sermons against cant and hypocrisy, calling on young men to rise up and do battle for character and honest work. "Probably no man of his time developed so pre-eminently in the pulpit the tendency of the thinking and reading of the age. (Binney) preached the reality of the battle that is life, and as he pictured it, the fight was glorious, the victory sure." The YMCA, helped by other evangelists and those who had experienced revival like D.L. Moody reached out both in the U.S. and Britain and mobilized thousands of young men for evangelism.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791) Founder of the Methodists
Some of Gods choicest revival jewels are ministers who get converted. The ninth child of at least 13 children, (three sons, ten daughters) was born 17th of June, 1703 to Samuel and Susannah, the fourth generation of preachers on both sides of his family. His early life as an outstanding Anglican student at Oxford, ordained minister and missionary was ruined after a disastrously aborted ministry trip to Georgia, a divine appointment with a storm at sea and a band of young abandoned Moravian missionaries. Their reckless love for Jesus and deeply real faith under threat of life itself shocked him into the stunning realization that despite all his devotion he did not know God at all.

Jan 24th 1738, on the Samuels' homeward voyage after his utter failure in Georgia as a the crestfallen English minister recorded in his diary "I went to America to convert the Indians; but oh, who shall convert me? .... I have a fair summer religion; I can talk well ... and believe myself while no danger is near. But let death stare me in the face and my spirit is troubled, nor can I say to die is gain." Feb. 1st, the day he landed, he wrote "It is now two years and four months since I left my native country in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity; but what have I learned of myself in the meantime? Why, what I least suspected; that I who went to America to convert others was never myself converted to God! I am not mad, though I thus speak; but I speak the words of truth and soberness." (Journals, p.148)

 A prominent Bishop said of him: "If he was not a good Christian when he went to Georgia then God help the majority of those who call themselves Christians!"
 
Thus began his pilgrimage out of self-seeking righteousness involving conferences with other Moravians like Peter Bohler, much prayer and study of the Scripture that finally ended three months later in a little Aldersgate prayer meeting, listening to Luthers "Preface to Romans" on Wednesday May 24th, 1738. He records: "About a quarter to nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

 He woke next morning with: "Jesus, Master" in his heart and in his mouth. That Spring the man who would change Englands history began a new spiritual society at the Fetter Lane Moravian Chapel, the pattern of all later societies. That winter he visited the Moravians in Germany; on his return he began aggressive measures on home heathenism following his friend Whitefields' example..Thus began the ministry of a man who finally learned by freedom from 32 years of deep religious legality to both wholly trust God and trust Him to be holy, how to combine intense methodical discipline with happy abandonment in prayer to faith and miracles, and lived what he preached:. "till you press believers to expect full salvation from sin, you must not look for any revival." He rose daily at 4.00 a.m., was preaching at 5.00 so working men could attend services; and who during the next fifty-two years from 1739 to 1791 travelled 250,000 miles, mostly on horseback, and preached over 40,000 sermons. "Never" says Ryle "did any man have so many irons in the fire at one time and yet succeed in keeping so many hot." J.C. Ryle, " With his brother Charles, a songwriter of some 9,000 hymns and poems including "And Can It Be" and "Oh For A Thousand Tongues To Sing" and other evangelist friends and followers he moved all England, and eventually touched the world.

"Lord, let me not live to be useless"
Wesleys rule for Christian living was "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can as long as ever you can!" To unite his people in one body; give everyone something to do - make each consider his neighbor and seek his edification; call out latent talent and utilize it - in his words to keep "all at it and always at it" were his aims and objects. In those years, travelling some 25 miles a day (over ten circuits of the globe on horseback) he wrote 233 books, on all sorts of subjects including home health remedies (Primitive Medicine, in use for almost 200 years) and one of the earliest texts on electricity! Those who knew his travels wondered he had time to write and those who know his writings wondered he had time to travel. "Leisure and I have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy as long as I live, if my health is so long indulged me." Things the most opposite and unlike, petty and trifling, thoroughly spiritual and secular all alike are mastered by an omnivorous mind, finding time for all and giving directions about all. One day he is condensing old divinity, publishing fifty volumes of theology called the "Christian Library" and writing a complete commentary on the whole Bible. Another day we find him calmly reviewing the current literature of the day and criticizing all the new books with cool and shrewd remarks as if he had nothing else to do. Like Napoleon, nothing seems too small or great for his mind to attend to; like Calvin he writes as if he had nothing to do but write, (over 5,000 tracts & pamphlets) preaches as if he had nothing to do but preach and administers as if he had nothing to do but administer."

He preached for sixty-five years, dying finally at eighty-eight, his last words "The best of all, God is with us" and the first words of the hymn "I'll praise My maker while I've breath; And when my voice is lost in death; Praise shall employ my noblest powers". About 10:00 in the morning he said "Farewell"; then without a groan, he fell asleep in Christ. On March 9th, 1791, when John Wesley was carried to his grave, he "left behind him a good library of books, a well-worn clergyman's gown, and a much abused reputation". He also left behind him "an England moved to the very depths, a Church thrilled through and through with an awakened spiritual life" as well as 750 preachers and 76,968 Methodists in England, 350 preachers and 57,621 Methodists in America in a church that became the fastest-growing work of its time in the nations and by 1957 had become 40 million world-wide.

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1764)

     While raising up Whitfield and Wesley in England, God was doing something unusual in the United States among the young people of Northampton Massachusetts. His instrument was Jonathan Edwards, recognized today as one of the most original and creative native U.S. minds of all time, later a President of Princeton. Edward's father was a East Windsor Connecticut Congregational minister and his mother the celebrated Solomon Stoddard's daughter. A child prodigy, he was studying Latin at six, wrote an essay denying the materiality of the human soul at ten, and at thirteen entered Yale College, graduating September, 1720, not yet seventeen. Touched by awakening in his Dad's church before his college days, his initial strong religious interest did not last, and was later replaced by a legal attempt to discipline his life into holiness that also failed him. It was finally trust in the awesome grace and lovely character of God that brought him into his place of rest in Christ and the great delight in His ways and works that marked his life in revival: "I feel an ardency of soul to be . . . emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust and be full of Christ alone, to love Him with a holy and pure love, to trust in Him, to live on Him, and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with a divine and heavenly purity."

After college in 1727 Jonathan Edwards was ordained as assistant pastor to his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, in Northampton Massachusetts the most important church outside Boston. Within a year the old man died and Jonathan became sole pastor. There he preached a series of sermons on justification by faith that gave rise to the remarkable revival that broke out under his ministry, beginning at the end of 1734, and in 1735. He later participated with others in the area-wide Great Awakening connected with the visit of George Whitefield the English Methodist evangelist colleague of John Wesley in 1740. He wrote A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God on this and A Treatise on the Religious Affections, analyzing and defending various kinds of conversion experience.

Eventually Edwards convictions about no partial conversions caused problems with his congregation. He thought only truly converted persons ought to be admitted to the Lord's Supper; his congregation thought otherwise. "Here was this towering genius, this mighty preacher, this man at the center of a great revival, literally voted out of his church by 230 votes against 23 in 1750." He accordingly resigned and went to western Massachusetts to be a missionary to the Indians. He remained there for seven years, struggling with language difficulties, ill health, and inter-tribal Indian wars, but writing two of his major works. In 1757 he was made president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) but a year later died from complications arising from a smallpox inoculation. Pastor and teacher, preacher and missionary, scholar and philosopher, logician and visionary, and throughout it all, a faithful servant of Christ.

Edwards is a classic example of a mind and heart radiant with God. His lovely legacy left in family and descendents marks him as one of the most beautiful lives in revival history.

Edwards Ministry and Teaching
Martin Lloyd-Jones said of Edwards: "He was an original, suddenly shot forth, a mighty intellect, accompanied by a brilliant imagination, amazing originality; but above all by honesty. He is one of the most honest expositors I have ever read. He never evades a problem; he faces them all. He does not skirt round a difficulty; he had this curious interest in truth in all its aspects, and then with all those scintillating gifts there is his humility and modesty, and added to that his exceptional spirituality. He knew more about experimental religion than most men; and he placed great emphasis upon the heart. What strikes one about Edwards as one looks at the man as a whole is the completeness, the balance. He was a mighty theologian and a great evangelist at the same time. He was also a great pastor; he dealt with souls and their problems. Equally expert with adults as with children, he was a great defender of conversion in children, and paid great attention to children, even allowing them to have meetings on their own. He seems to be everything and to be perfectly balanced."  While steeped in Scripture and both committed to and reinforcing the prevailing teaching of his Calvinist elders, his own direct spiritual experience with Christ is wholly central to all his life and thought; he brings all his Covenant teaching and doctrine to the bar of his frequent revelation of the grandeur and greatness of a sovereign God. He believed in a direct and immediate influence of the Spirit, and in sudden and dramatic conversion. Edwards life was centered in God's immense love, His worth and beauty, the Divine ability and power of the Holy Spirit to change the life and practice of the Church, the driving theme of his revival messages.


Edwards Preaching
Here was a man who often studied thirteen hours a day; whose writing and eyesight was so bad he had to screw his face down close to a sermon manuscript to read it (in a monotone); who inherited his Grandfather's wealthy socially-conscious church so dead he described it succinctly as "Dry Bones." Edward's own form of Calvinist convictions allowed calls for repentance, confession of sin and decision. His Biblically-informed view of sin as selfishness and virtue defined as "disinterested benevolence" or "love to intelligent being in proportion to the amount of being each possesses" authorized powerful commendable evangelical and social concern.  His work and writings deeply influenced young George Whitfield who may have in turn helped his own approach to preaching. His most famous (and much maligned) sermon "Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God" in which he said things like "The God Who dreadfully abhors you ... Who dangles you over the precipice much as one would dangle a spider over a flame" was not at all typical of his logical college-geared apologetics preaching; He would surely attribute the astonishing results on that day to the manifested power of God in answer to prayer than the admittedly terrifying convicting content of his message. Nevertheless the effect was awesome; people screamed aloud, clutched the backs of pews and the stone pillars of the church, lest the ground open and swallow them alive into Hell!
 

Tennent, Brainerd and the Middle Colonies Ministers
Joining Jonathan Edwards in the U.S. were men like Gilbert Tennent. Though "less polished" than Edwards, his sermons had such power that Rev. Jonathan Parsons reports of his ministry in Lyme Connecticut "Many had their countenances changed; their thoughts seemed to trouble them, so that their loins were loosed and their knees smote one against the other. Great numbers cried aloud in the anguish of their souls. Several stout men fell as though a cannon had been discharged and a ball made its way through their hearts. Some young women were greatly disturbed."

 Under Tennent, and other preachers like Blair, Finley, Dickenson and Davies the work of revival  spread through the Middle Colonies and by 1743 the South; through the costly prayer and missionary effort of Edwards son-in-law David Brainerd, it even reached the Native Americans. In twenty years between 25,000 and 50,000 were added to the churches, over a hundred percent increase in both churches and preachers during this massive revival. It culminated in a moral consensus that could no longer tolerate the oppression of George II in England and fuelled Americas bid for ultimate freedom. It justly deserves the title "The First Great Awakening."

Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703   East Windsor, Connecticut DIED: March 22, 1758 Princeton, New Jersey)

THE DREAM OF MOST PREACHERS is to have the proper balance of knowledge and zeal, brain and brawn, faith and works, head and heart. If there ever was such a preacher it would be Edwards. Many theologians and Bible teachers would strike out in a soul-winning ministry. Likewise, many who turn others to righteousness could seldom score a point in defending the faith in some tribunal. But Jonathan Edwards' combination of reason and passion causes many to believe America never knew a preacher who excelled in both areas as Edwards did.

     His story begins with his heritage. His father, Timothy, pastored the local Congregational church for 64 years. His mother, Esther, who died in 1770, was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, pastor of the church in Northampton, Massachusetts for over 50 years - the same church that Jonathan Edwards would some day pastor. Edwards was born the same year another baby by the name of John Wesley was born in England. Edwards, fifth child and only son among eleven children, grew up in an atmosphere of Puritan piety, affection and learning.

      At six he studied Latin. By age seven he had an encounter with God. He had a rigorous schedule of home schooling. At age nine he composed a brief paper on the nature of souls. His first recorded interest in spiritual things came at ten during a revival at his father's church. He and his playmates built a "prayer booth" in a swamp. Often he and his chums talked to God in the woods. At twelve he wrote about revival like a seasoned saint. He later also wrote his famous essay on the spider, which became a pioneer work in the history of American natural science. This essay, written shortly before he went to college, exhibits his remarkable powers of observation and analysis. He habitually studied with pen in hand, recording his thoughts in numerous hand-sewn notebooks.

      He entered Yale University when not quite 13 years of age in the fall of 1716. Before going to Yale he was acquainted with Latin, Greek and Hebrew, having a working knowledge of the same under the tutorship of father and four older sisters. The school was then called Collegiate School of Connecticut. As such, the school had no certain home, and much of Edwards' course was spent in Weathersfield, Connecticut, but before he graduated, the college had ceased wandering. During his second year in college he read with profit Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding. He graduated valedictorian of his class from the New Haven campus in September, 1720, receiving his B.D. (or B.A.).

      He remained at New Haven for two years after this, studying divinity subjects. He was licensed to preach in mid-1722. Had he not absorbed himself with theology, he would have become one of the great philosophers of his time. About this time came an incident that gave him assurance about his salvation. He had always thought himself a Christian from childhood days. While meditating one day on I Timothy 1:17 the truth hit him. There came into his soul "a sense of the glory of the Divine Being." He thought, "How excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be if I might enjoy that God...and be as it were swallowed up in Him forever." That's exactly what happened. Prior to this he struggled with God's absolute sovereighty, but now it was "exceedingly pleasant, bright and sweet."  

    He then took an eight-month pastorate in New York City in a Presbyterian church (August 1722 to April 1723). One source says he left the church May 21, 1724, to September, 1726. On January 12, 1723, he entered into his diary, "I made salvation the main business of my life." He also made a resolution, "Never to do any manner of things, whether in soul or body, less, but what tends to the glory of God..." He returned to Yale as a tutor from 1724 to September, 1726, receiving his M.A. degree in September, 1723. He became a distinguished scholar and a preacher of great ability and his services were sought by several churches. February 15, 1727, he became ordained and joined his grandfather as associate pastor

.      On July 28, he married Sarah Pierrepont of New Haven. His bride was but seventeen but possessed an unusual degree of tact and sweetness of character, and proved a most valuable helpmate to the young minister. Their home life was nearly ideal. George Whitefield, while visiting them in 1740, was so impressed that he wrote in glowing terms of their ideal marriage. Eleven children were born to them, eight daughters and three sons. The children were Sarah, the eldest (1728), who would marry Elisha Parsons in June, 1750; Jerusha (1731), who died in 1748, just a few months following the death of the man she loved, David Brainerd; Esther (1732), who would later marry Aaron Burr, Princeton's first president, and have a child, Aaron, Jr., who would be a major political figure in the early history of the new American nation. Esther Edwards Burr died on April 7, 1758, just two weeks after the death of her father, from the same smallpox inoculation that took his life--and only seven months after her own husband's passing. Then there was Mary, who later married Timothy Dwight of Northampton in November, 1750, who became parents of the famed educator Timothy Dwight Jr. Other children of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards were: Lucy, Timothy (1738), Sussanah, Eunice, Jonathan (March 26, 1745), who became a great preacher in his own right; Elizabeth; and Pierrepont, their youngest and last, born in April, 1750. A 12th child died in infancy. Ten of these children survived Edwards.

      The Edwards family tree has produced scores of preachers, university presidents and men of the highest character in many fields. It might be noted that Sarah's father was the pastor in New Haven from 1685 to 1714. When Stoddard died on February 11, 1729, Edwards became the pastor of the most important church in Massachusetts except for Boston. For over 20 years he was to have one of the more renown and God-blessed pastorates in history. His first published sermon was given in Boston on July 8, 1731, titled, God Glorified in the Work of Redemption by the Greatness of Man's Dependence upon Him, in the Whole of It. Edwards blamed New England's moral ills on its assumption of religious and moral self-sufficiency. Thus began his lifelong fight against rationalism.

      Edwards worked hard, spending as much as thirteen hours a day in his study. Northampton was a small city of wealth and culture. At the same time there was a good deal of vulgarity and looseness of life to undermine morals. By 1734 he was openly attacking Arminianism which was becoming popular. Then came a series of sermons in November of 1734 on the theme "Justification by Faith Alone."

      At once half a dozen people were converted. One was a young woman, a natural leader among the young people of the town, who had been living a notorious, gay and dissipated life. Edwards had not heard of her conversion until she came to his study, in humble penitence, to converse with him about her soul. As news of the conversion spread through the town, many others, both old and young, acknowledged that God alone could produce so sudden and marked a change in such a life.

      This news spread to other towns and numerous revivals broke out in other places throughout New England and continued for several years. A great revival broke out in the winter and spring of 1734-35, during which time there were more than 300 professions of faith. This was about half of the 670 membership.

     As he went about his visitation, Edwards carried a burden for souls and his words fell with authority of the Holy Spirit upon them. He spoke in a quiet, calm tone, unlike the stormy type, but inspiration and warmth were felt. He recorded some of his accounts during this time in a book called Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God (1737).

      The awakening in 1740-41 throughout the colonies was led by evangelist George Whitefield. However, pastors like Gilbert Tennent in New Jersey and Jonathan Edwards in Massachusetts provided the climate for Whitefield's preaching. Edwards surely was the spiritual father of the "first great awakening," for New England is where it started. New England's population was about 300,000 and it is estimated some 60,000 were saved during this period, a half of these being previously unconverted church members. Heavenly power swept from Northampton to 150 towns and cities of the North. For 20 years the revival fires blazed and from them sprang 120 new Congregational churches! Whitefield was in Northampton October 17-20, 1740.

Edwards kept his congregation free from violent emotional reactions as was happening some places. However, on several occasions, he was right in the middle of such happenings. His sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, first preached at Enfield, Connecticut, on Sunday, July 8, 1741, has long been recognized as one of the great sermons of history. During the previous night godly women had prayed for a spiritual visitation. It came.

A special service had been called for by a group of ministers with Edwards as the speaker for the afternoon session. As the ministers entered the meeting place, they were shocked by the levity of the congregation. They appeared thoughtless and vain, and hardly conducted themselves with common decency. As Edwards preached, he used no gestures but stood motionless. His left elbow leaned on the pulpit, and his left hand held his notes. His text was Deuteronomy 32:35, Their foot shall slide in due time! Strong men held onto their seats, feeling they were sliding into hell! Men shook, some losing their reason. His words so gripped the audience that they felt, should he cease speaking, the doom he pronounced would immediately come upon them. He flashed before the people the fiery prospects of eternal damnation, as hell was a living reality to him. Yet, unlike Whitefield, he did it with calm tones. So vivid was his imagination that he could graphically picture the eternal torments of the lost. The theme of the message was, "The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over a fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked."

Men and women stood up and rolled on the floor, their cries once drowning out the voice of the preacher. Some are said to have laid hold on the pillars and braces of the church, apparently feeling that at that very moment their feet were sliding, that they were being precipitated into Hell. Through the night, Enfield was like a beleaguered city. In almost every house, men and women could be heard crying out for God to save them. Before it was all over 500 were saved in the community that day. Someone has said about that sermon, "New England might forgive it, but she could never forget it."

The revival spirit continued for years to come, despite much controversy concerning it. Criticism came naturally from high- brow and near-atheistic places. However many Christians criticized the excesses, disorders and civil disruptions associated with the revival. Edwards personally rebuked Whitefield for some of this, but as a whole maintained that it was the work of God to be furthered and purified. He wrote several books defending what God was doing, The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1741), Thoughts on the Revival (1742), and A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746), a book in which he attempted to answer the question, "What is the nature of true religion?" A close friendship with David Brainerd began in September, 1743, and ended in 1747, as Edwards conducted his funeral.

In the backlash of the revival the people of Northampton were left exhausted and irritable. Edwards was accused of haughtiness, his family of extravagance of dress. In March, 1744, he alienated many of the leading citizens by the way he conducted an investigation into certain activities of their children, who were supposed to have circulated books with indecent speech.      He also attacked the custom of "bundling," where young courting people fully clothed would lie in bed. He charged, "It is one of those things that lead and expose to sin." He also called upon the youth to stop attending worldly amusements such as the dance. His popularity began to decline when he began stepping on toes. His position was correct, but perhaps he did not exercise great skill in handling people. For example, from the pulpit he read a list of those who were to meet a church-appointed committee of inquiry, not distinguishing between those to appear as witnesses and those accused.

However, the big issue for many years was the "Half-Way Covenant" Edwards said was wrong. Stoddard for many years had instituted a practice of admitting to the Lord's Supper ordinance all who were "in the covenant" even though they were not converted. This meant if your parents or grandparents were "in the faith" you could participate. People then considered themselves as Christians, with the Lord's Supper becoming the saving ordinance. In essence, this was filling the church with unsaved people. Not only the Lord's Supper, but baptism was involved. This covenant allowed baptized parents to have their own children baptized, regardless of whether they or the children were converted. Edwards' abhorrence of shallow revivalism and emotional excesses caused him to insist that a real conversion meant living a responsible, moral life; hence, he began to tighten up his requirement for church membership.

This caused opposition in the Northampton congregation. Edwards simply came to the conclusion that a born-again experience was necessary - not mere doctrinal knowledge, godly parents or a moral life - in order to have communion. In 1749 he publicly declared these matters, insisting on some statement as to conversion and convictions, refusing to administer the Lord's Supper to those not willing to declare their faith or live a Christian life. The church and town rebelled, and after a controversy of exceeding bitterness, Edwards was fired on June 22, 1750, by a vote of 230 to 23. On July 2, 1750, he preached his Farewell Sermon. Edwards wrote two books defending his position, Qualifications for Communion (1749) and A Reply to Solomon Williams (1752), who was a pastor at Lebanon, Connecticut. Edwards' position was vindicated later and facilitated the separation of church and state after the Revolution. Years later many of his parishioners wrote him, asking for forgiveness.

LORD SHAFTESBURY - (1801-85), CARE FOR THE CHILDREN and the POOR

One first effect of the Second Awakening was a new and intense sympathy for the poor. "God has not ordained" protested the 7th Earl of  Shaftesbury, young Anthony Ashley Cooper  "that in a Christian country there should be an overwhelming mass of foul, helpless poverty." As a boy of fourteen, he watched with horror as a drunk burial party, shouting a lewd song dropped the coffin of the pauper they were carrying to burial. They fell in a heap in front of him cursing and swearing. "Good heavens!" he muttered: "Can this be permitted because a man is poor and friendless?"

From that day on this teenager (who would grow to become a tall young aristocrat, full of
fun and life, and described by one woman as "the handsomest man I ever saw") purposed to give his life to the poor and oppressed. He wrote in his diary at 26: "Time was when I could not sleep for ambition. I thought of nothing but fame and immortality. But I am much changed. I desire to be useful to my generation, and die in the knowledge of having advanced true happiness by having advanced true religion."

He faced terrible times and conditions and fought for justice with tireless, passionate
determination. Children "sometimes four or five, but generally between seven and thirteen were
shipped by barge-load" to other cities to do the work of men. Bound by "apprenticeship" until 21 and completely at the factory owners mercy, children were employed at cotton mills thirteen, fourteen, fifteen or even sixteen hours a day. During rush periods they sometimes worked twenty-four hours a day with only half an hour off for dinner." Their whip-wielding overseers were paid by each child's output. Ashton attacked these terrible social evils and many others like them in public and in Parliament. To those who said of London's 30,000 naked, wandering, homeless children "What will you do with them when educated?" he replied "What will you do with them if left where they are?"

Shaftesbury, believed "what is morally right cannot be politically wrong and what is morally
wrong cannot be politically right." . He entered Parliament in 1826 as a Conservative member for the borough of Woodstock and from 1831 to 1846 represented Dorsetshire. He originated more Royal Commissions of social investigation than any Parliamentarian in all British history. Shaftesbury was instrumental in the passage of laws prohibiting the employment of women and children in coal mines (1842), reforming the care of the insane (1845), and establishing a ten-hour day for factory workers (1847). He promoted the construction of model tenements for the deprived and model schools, called ragged schools, for neglected poor children.  He extended benefits to all classes of working people, pushed through more true care than Karl Marx ever did, and eventually earned the loved nickname "The Peoples Earl." The Hammonds, economic historians critical of his entire approach, nevertheless admitted of his social reforms: "He did more than any single man or any single government in English history. "

MARIA WOODWORTH-ETTER  (1844-1924)

Maria B. Woodworth-Etter of the United Brethren (born Maria Underwood July 22 in New Lisbon, Ohio).began an influential healing ministry in 1876 and later associated with the Methodist Holiness church, remaining active in revivalism until the 1920s. Her early life was marked by tragedies; she lost her drunkard father to a sunstroke before she was eleven, leaving her mother with eight children to provide for. Around sixteen she married. Fighting a constant battle with sickness and ill health herself, she lost five of her six children. Tragedy cast her more on Christ. Broken and seeking only to know God's will, she received a call to ministry. She had to battle her own prejudices over woman ministries, afraid to bring reproach on Christ and ridicule from her friends and family. Asked God for the power that He gave the disciples she was gloriously baptized in the Holy Spirit: “It felt like liquid fire, and there were angels all around.” Finally accepting what God was obviously doing in her life, Maria launched out on a militant mission against sin in what some called "the most powerful seen in the twentieth century."

"I felt impressed God was going to restore love and harmony in the church. I visited those families; the third day of the meeting the trouble was all settled. All present came to the altar, made a full consecration and prayed for a baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. That night it came. Fifteen came to the altar screaming for mercy. Men and women fell and lay like dead. I felt it was the work of God but did not know how to explain it or what to say. I was a little frightened ... after lying for two hours all, one after another sprang to their feet as quick as a flash with shining faces and shouted all over the house. I had never seen such bright conversions or such shouting. ... The ministers and old saints wept and praised the Lord ... they said it was the Pentecost power, that the Lord was visiting them in great mercy and power"

She began an itinerant ministry of great effect. In Monroeville, Indiana where the inviting minister told her no-one would come, people flooded the mourner’s bench for three weeks. Some people who refused to listen to God’s voice and heed His warnings, died within weeks. In 1889 she purchased an eight thousand-seat tent and set it up in Oakland. She was harassed throughout her meetings, even received death threats. Even though she was frail and weak near the end of her life, suffered from gastritis and dropsy, she still ministered powerfully.  Her people used to carry her onto the podium, she would instantly be filled with power, and afterwards they would carry her home again. On September 16, 1924 at the age of  80 she passed away.

Phoebe and Walter Palmer - A REVIVAL OF PRACTICAL HOLINESS

Phoebe Worrall Palmer (1807-1874) and her medical doctor husband Dr. Walter Clarke Palmer (1804-1883) in common with many of Finneys' converts of the era were ablaze with a burning desire to implement the message of personal and social holiness and from such a practical sanctification extend the Kingdom of God throughout the whole earth.

 Phoebe, a founder of Drew University who became one of the most influential Christian leaders of the 1800s and dominant theologian, writer and evangelist in the Holiness movement, began with the premise "God requires present holiness" and Finney's logic "God would not require what we cannot do." She called for a complete consecration to God; spouse, children, possessions, reputation and (for women) - the willingness to preach! From such an act of simple faith and corresponding testimony, she urged a present possession of holiness, rather than the life-long process of Wesley in his initial emphasis. Her preaching, teaching, half-a-dozen books and editing of "The Guide To Holiness" left "an indelible impact on both Methodism and the wider Church."  Phoebe was already deeply involved in slum work, prison ministry, mission to the poor (The Five Points Mission), juvenile delinquent homes, orphanages (one for 500 black children), ministry to the deaf, and the precursor to the Y.W.C.A. the "Ladies Christian Union". The foremost Methodist advocate of Christian sanctification, she spread benevolent responsibility everywhere through home groups, camp-meetings and the churches. Here the message of personal holiness and social righteousness found its greatest expression of power. Timothy Smith says in his "Revivalism and Social Reform":

... a third and quite utilitarian impulse of the holiness revival, (was) the hunger for an experience which would "make Christianity work". Finney, the reformer, Mrs. Palmer, pioneer of many benevolent and missionary enterprises and William E. Boardman, organizer and executive head of the United States Christian Commission did not seem like mystic dreamers to their generation. ... they rang the changes on ... the theme that the Spirits' baptism was the secret of pulpit power and the fountain of that energy which alone could accomplish the evangelization of the world." ("Evangelical Origins of Social Christianity" Abingdon, 1957. At least 25,000 people were converted in her meetings that ran from a few days to several weeks in the Northeastern United states, Eastern Canada and England, multitudes "baptized in the Holy Spirit" where she records "the Lord was saving people by scores daily" that "His power was sensibly present to heal" or there was such a sense of the Divine Presence that "people were weeping all over the house."

 Salvation Army - Holy Warfare
General William Booth, (1829-one of the greatest religious leaders and reformers of all time
founded and led the Salvation Army. Salvation Army discipline was so rigorous, its standards so high, and its methods so strenuous, as to never attract the great mass of professing Christians. But like the Friends Church, the Army had tremendous influence in deepening spiritual life, and opening up new channels of Christian service and blessing. Israel was a small nation, but to that people God gave the adoption, the covenants, the oracles, and the law. God made Israel the "husbandmen," or teachers of the world. In like manner He taught the world many great lessons through the Salvation Army.

Few Christian denominations are more multi-faceted. While Roman Catholics place stress on outward works and church authority; Protestants emphasize faith often to the neglect of insisting on good works and holy living and Pentecostal Churches may call for power and purity to the neglect of social care and structured service, the Salvation Army gave the world in its day a new and greater vision of how true saving faith should lead to a life of holy consecration and works of service in the Spirit. No other Christian denomination seems to have realized so fully the duty of going into the highways and byways to minister to the lost and suffering. The Army is "The Church of the`Black Sheep.'"

These holy soldiers gave the nations a new revelation of practical Christianity, and won the
confidence of the masses. They did not spent their time discussing creeds and theories, but clothed the naked, fed the hungry, and visited those sick and in prison, and have thus won the people for Christ. On the great day of judgment, the sheep are separated from the goats not by an examination of their theories, but by whether or not they have really loved their neighbors and ministered to the sick, suffering, and needy as did the divine Master when here on earth. The Salvation Army probably measure up to this real test of love better than most others who bear the name of Christ. Their creed is a brief one. It has been summed up in three words: Soap, Soup, and Salvation. They believe in soap to clean men outwardly and better their physical condition; in soup to satisfy their hunger and prepare them to receive the gospel message and in a full and free salvation for all mankind who meet the conditions.

Salvation Army: The Gospel With Power
While "less creed and more deed" is the fundamental basis of the Salvation Army, they did
not neglect the great essential doctrines of repentance, faith, and the necessity of holy living. To them repentance is not mere sorrow for sin, but a real turning away from sin. Faith is not a mere intellectual act completed in a few seconds; but is a real reliance of the soul upon Christ, beginning instantly but continuing through time and eternity. Every Salvation Army corps throughout the world held a Holiness Meeting every week to lead Christians into an experience of holiness, sanctification, or the filling of the Spirit. With them holiness was not only "imputed", but really imparted by the indwelling Spirit. Without the real power of the Holy Spirit it would be difficult for them to hold open air meetings every night and two or three times on Sundays, summer and winter, rain or shine. Without the Spirit's power it would be difficult for every soldier to take part in both the outdoor and indoor meetings every day in the year, and yet every Salvation Army soldier is expected to be at his post and to take part in every meeting if possible. This strenuous life requires spiritual strength. General Booth realized this fact, and made sanctification, or the filling of the Spirit a fundamental doctrine of the Salvation Army. Not only the Army, but most workers in mission halls and open-air meetings have learned the necessity of being filled with the Spirit in order to carry on an effectual work for Christ.

SAINTLY SOLDIERS
Few persons have so emphasized and experienced the Holy Spirit's power as did General
Booth and Mrs. Catherine Booth, the "Father" and "Mother" of the Salvation Army. Before her death, Mrs. Booth was universally regarded as one of the saintliest and most spiritual of women. Her influence both within and without the Salvation Army was tremendous. Thousands and tens of thousands have been won for Christ or led into a deeper spiritual experience through the influence of her life. It was no unusual sight to see scores and scores, and sometimes hundreds of persons seeking salvation or sanctification at the close of one of General Booth's addresses, so manifest was the power of the Spirit in his meetings. He probably visited more countries and spoke more frequently, and won more souls for Christ, and rescued more fallen men and women than did any other person in street ministry history. Already the Salvation Army is at work in fifty-five different countries, and their shelters, rescue homes, farm colonies, and emigration bureaus, are doing more to reclaim the fallen than is any other agency, and we might perhaps truthfully say, that they are doing more to rescue the fallen than are all other agencies combined.

William Booth, destined to become the founder of the Salvation Army and one of the
greatest of social reformers, was born at Sneinton, a suburb of Nottingham, England April 10, 1829. His parents were members of the Established Church, and his mother was a very devout Christian. His father made considerable money, but had the misfortune to lose it. William was brought up in poverty and realized much of the sorrow and suffering which afterwards made his heart bleed for the poor. At an early age his father died, and William was left to struggle on in poverty with his widowed mother. He was thus deprived of the advantages of a good common school education.

Even as a thirteen-year old teenager, William was a social reformer, longing to do something to alleviate the sufferings of the poor. He left the Church of England at an early age to become a regular attendant at a Wesleyan Chapel, where he yielded his heart and life to God. saying: "The Holy Spirit had continually shown me that my real welfare for time and eternity depended upon the surrender of myself to the services of God. After a long controversy I made this submission, cast myself on His mercy, received the assurance of His pardon, and gave myself up to His service with all my heart. The hour, the place, and many other particulars of this glorious transaction are recorded indelibly on my memory."

Soon after young Booth's conversion, James Caughey, the famous Spirit-filled American
evangelist, visited Nottingham. Caughey was a Methodist and preached Wesleyan sanctification with great unction and power. His preaching made a deep impression on William Booth, and kindled in his heart a great desire to win souls for Christ, but for a long time he was too timid to hold religious meetings. Finally, after much time spent in prayer and the study of the Scriptures, he ventured to read the Bible and deliver some comments on the street corners of Nottingham. He was jeered at, ridiculed, and even bricks were thrown at him; but not discouraged, and later joined some Christian companions in holding meetings in cottages and in the open air. William's early efforts to speak in public were often very discouraging, but they laid the foundation of his future usefulness. Apprenticed to a firm where he had to work hard until 8 o'clock in the evening, he hurried after to cottage meetings which lasted until 10 o'clock, after which he was sometimes called to visit the sick or dying.

Young Booth soon became the leader of his friends in these services, and began to conduct meetings in country places, stumbling home in the dark, late at night, after holding them. At seventeen he was made a local preacher. Two years later his Superintendent wanted him to become a regular minister, but the doctor advised him that his health was so poor that he was totally unfit for the strain of the life of a Methodist minister.

In 1849, at twenty, Booth moved to London. Here without friends and almost without money, he worked as a clerk, and spent most of his leisure time working among the poor. Finally, he devoted all his time to preaching, and preached in many parts of London with varying success. Though sometimes severely criticised for his style of preaching, frequently souls came to Christ in his meetings. He thought of offering himself for regular ministry, but his Superintendent discouraged him. In 1851, controversy arose in the Wesleyan Church over the question of lay representation; a large number of ministers who favored lay representation and other reform movements either seceded or were expelled from the conference, forming a new movement known as the Reformers. Because of his supposed sympathy with the Reformers (although he took no part in the controversy) Booth's name was dropped by the minister in charge of his circuit. The Reformers then offered him a position as pastor of one of their chapels in London. This he accepted, and here he met Catherine Mumford, the talented and consecrated young woman who several years afterward became his wife.

For two or three years Booth preached in London and various other cities of England, and
in many places met with great success. Many souls were won for Christ in his meetings. But his life was unsettled. The Reformers had no settled policy or organization, and they had many differences of opinion among themselves. Booth tried to induce them to unite with the Methodist New Connexion, which believed in lay representation and most of the reforms they advocated. Finally he and a number of other Reformers joined the New Connexion. He now met with great success in many cities, and his fame as a revivalist began to spread all over England. Hundreds of persons now professed conversion to Christ in almost every series of meetings held by him. At last his financial prospects were such as to enable him to marry Catherine Mumford, who had advised and helped him in so many ways. Their courtship and marriage was an ideal one, and few persons have been so fully joined in heart and life.

For four years until he was thirty-two years of age, Booth preached for the Methodist
New Connexion in a number of leading cities, and many thousands of persons professed conversion to Christ. Nearly two thousand persons claimed conversion in his meetings in less than four months' time, and they continued to flock to the altar for prayer everywhere he went. He repeatedly urged the Conference to allow him to leave the regular circuit work and devote all his time to evangelistic work, but this they refused to do.

SANCTIFICATION AND POWER TO PREACH
In 1861, he and Mrs. Booth decided to launch out into evangelistic work and trust the Lord
for their support. Mr. Booth therefore sent in his resignation. Shortly before launching out on this independent course Mr. Booth was led into a deeper Christian experience. Both he and Mrs. Booth were diligent students of the writings of John Wesley, and they accepted his views on sanctification, or holiness, as well as on other theological questions. General Booth wrote much on sanctification, heart purity, but little concerning his own experience.

One of Catherine Booths letters to her parents briefly describes how she and William were led into the experience of holiness: She says: "My soul has been much called out of late on the doctrine of holiness. I feel that hitherto we have not put it in a sufficiently definite and tangible manner before the people, I mean as a specific and attainable experience. Oh, that I had entered into the fullness of the enjoyment of it myself! I intend to struggle after it. In the mean time we have commenced already to bring it specifically before our dear people."

In another letter, speaking concerning the doctrine of sanctification, she says: "William has preached on it twice, and there is a glorious quickening amongst the people. I am to speak again next Friday night and on Sunday afternoon. Pray for me. I only want perfect consecration and Christ as my all, and then I might be very useful, to the glory, not of myself, the most unworthy of all who e'er His grace received, but of His great and boundless love. May the Lord enable me to give my wanderings o'er and to find in Christ perfect peace and full salvation!

"I have much to be thankful for in my dearest husband. The Lord has been dealing very
graciously with him for some time past. His soul has been growing in grace, and its outward developments have been proportionate. He is now on full stretch for holiness. You would be amazed at the change in him. It would take me all night to detail all the circumstances and convergings of Providence and Grace which have led up to this experience, but I assure you it is a glorious reality, and I know you will rejoice in it."

Describing how she herself earnestly sought for and obtained this experience, she says: "I struggled through the day until a little after six in the evening, when William joined me in prayer. We had a blessed season. While he was saying, `Lord, we open our hearts to receive Thee,' that word was spoken to my soul: `Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open unto me, I will come in and sup with him.' I felt sure He had long been knocking, and oh, how I yearned to receive Him as a perfect Savior! But oh, the inveterate habit of unbelief! How wonderful that God should have borne so long with me.

"When we got up from our knees I lay on the sofa, exhausted with the effort and excitement
of the day. William said, `Don't you lay all on the altar?' I replied, `I am sure I do!' Then he said, `And isn't the altar holy?' I replied in the language of the Holy Ghost, `The altar is most holy, and whatsoever touches it is holy.' Then said he, `Are you not holy?' I replied with my heart full of emotion and with some faith, `Oh, I think I am!' Immediately the word was given me to confirm my faith, `Now are ye clean through the word I have spoken unto you.' And I took hold - true, with a trembling hand, and not unmolested by the tempter, but I held fast the beginning of my confidence, and it grew stronger, and from that moment I have dared to reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, my Lord."

Evident from this account of the Booths deeper Christian experience, both were led into this by means of the teaching that when our all is placed on the altar of consecration, the altar sanctifies the gift. They now became burning, shining lights for the Master.

After deciding to engage in evangelistic work, William and Catherine waited for some time before receiving a call, their faith sorely tried. Finally called to Cornwall, a great revival broke out under their labors. Here Booth introduced the "penitent form," or altar in his meetings, which was always after a regular feature of Salvation Army warfare. Perhaps no Salvation Army meeting is held in which there is not a chancel-rail, bench, chair, drum-head, or some kind of "penitent form" where inquirers can kneel for prayer. In the Cornish meetings the people were so wrought upon that they exclaimed, "Glory!" "Hallelujah!" and so on, and such ejaculations have always been common in Army meetings.

The crowds in Cornwall were too great to be accommodated in any building, so they held great open-air meetings, also to become a leading feature of Salvation Army warfare. After their Cornish campaign Mr. and Mrs. Booth held many other great evangelistic campaigns in which multitudes were won for Christ. In 1865, they began their work in East London which developed into the Salvation Army. A large tent was erected in a disused burying-ground belonging to the Friends, and meetings were held in it every night for two weeks. Open-air meetings were held on Mile End Waste, and the workers marched in procession from the open-air meetings to the tent where another service was held. The tent blew down and an old dancing hall was engaged for the meetings. From this small beginning a regular chain of missions was gradually formed, and this work was known as "The Christian Mission." In 1877, Mr. Booth changed the name to "The Salvation Army," and the work was gradually organized on the plan of a well-disciplined army, with uniform, officers, and regulations resembling those of a regular army. Mrs. Booth designed the "hallelujah bonnet" so well known today.

In the early days of the Salvation Army, when it was known as "The Christian Mission," the power of God was wonderfully manifest in the meetings. According to Commissioner Booth
Tucker, one of the ablest officers of the Salvation Army, persons were frequently stricken down in the meetings, overwhelmed with a sense of the presence and power of God. After the Salvation Army name, uniform, and discipline was adopted the work grew by leaps and bounds, and in little more than a quarter of a century its flag was unfurled in no less than fifty-five different countries, embracing almost every corner of the earth, and hundreds of thousands of souls had professed conversion to Christ in the meetings.

"In Darkest England and The Way Out"
In 1890, General Booth published his great book, "In Darkest England," which produced a
sensation throughout the world. It was the most far-reaching and practical scheme ever proposed for the uplift of fallen humanity, or the "down-and-out" portion of mankind, or "the submerged tenth" as General Booth called them. He proposed three things: the erection of shelters and industrial homes in the cities, the establishing of farm colonies in the country, and the emigration of the poor to more promising parts of the world. The industrial homes and shelters would give immediate relief to the destitute, the farm colonies would provide temporary employment, and emigration would provide a permanent home. In this way the people would be sent "back to the land" and the congestion in the cities would be relieved.

Already these schemes have been carried out on a gigantic scale. Salvation Army shelters are found in most great cities of the world and have saved multitudes from despair. Successful farm colonies have been established in several different countries, and tens of thousands of persons have been assisted to emigrate to Canada, Australia, and South Africa. General Booth believed in, "Going to the people with the message of salvation;" and this led to the many forms of open-air, factory, slum, and other work of the Salvation Army. He believed in  "Attracting the people," and this has led to the use of the many musical instruments, lively tunes, and striking notices employed by the Army. He believed in, "Saving the people," and this has led to the teaching of a victorious, conquering, sanctifying, cleansing religion that will really save the people from their sins. He also believes in, "Employing the people," and this has led to the many meetings, the testifying, singing, and praying on the part of every soldier; and it has led to the different officers and also to all the varied social work of the Salvation Army.

GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA (1452-1498) Italian Revivalist and City Reformer
As early as the 14th century following the Dark Ages, there were pious priests like Savonarola, who soaked themselves in the Scriptures and got a prophetic word of judgement for their corrupted generation. Not only was Savonarola herald of the coming reformation, but he "did more than any other man to rescue mankind from the abyss of skepticism and corruption into which the world had been plunged by the example of the most degraded and dissolute church which ever bore the name of Christian. Never before the days of the Spanish Inquisition was the church so utterly vile and corrupt as in the fifteenth century, when those monstrous criminals the Borgias reigned as popes and cardinals. By his powerful preaching, his profound philosophy, and by the Divine unction resting upon him, Savonarola convinced the masses faith was not all sham and formalism, and a new day dawned for Christianity and for the world."

Girolamo Savonarola  was born in Ferrara, Italy, September 14, 1452 of cultured but worldly parents, third in a family of five sons and two daughters. A plain, quiet and serious child who became greatly proficient in liberal arts and in philosophy. He was an earnest student of the works of Aristotle and Plato, but the great Greek philosophers left the deepest longings of his soul unsatisfied. His paternal grandfather who trained Girolamo during his earlier years, was an eminent physician at the Duke of Ferraras' court,. Girolamo's parents intended him as his grandfather's successor, but as he began to study the writings of the great Christian philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas he found real food for his soul. Doubtless these led Savonarola, at a very early age, to yield his whole heart and life to God; and Aquinas works probably continued to influence his life more than any other writings except the Scriptures.

Savonarola: Sadness and Solitude in Seeking God
Savonarolas' devotion and fervor increased as he grew older; often fasting, kneeling in church in prayer for hours at a time. Deeply stirred by the vice and worldliness he saw on every hand, the luxury, splendor and wealth flaunted by the rich and the awful poverty of the poor weighed heavily on his heart. Briefly disappointed in love, rejected by his girl who considered his family beneath her station, Savonarola was a sad, sorrowful youth who talked little, and kept himself retired and solitary. He loved wandering in lonely places, in the open fields, or along the green banks of the river Po where, sometimes singing, sometimes weeping, he gave utterance to the strong emotions boiling in his breast. His great soulful eyes the color of the heavens were often filled with tears. April 24, 1475 he joined a Dominican monastery for seven years as a servant, but his transcendent devotion to God brought promotion as a lecturer there. He saw his Italy the prey of petty tyrants and wicked priests, where dukes and popes vied with each other in lewdness, lavishness, and cruelty, all things that brought great sorrow to his young soul burning for virtue and truth. He began to have visions, "They came to me in earliest youth, but it was only at Brescia that I began to proclaim them. Thence was I sent by the Lord to Florence, heart of Italy, that the reform of Italy might begin."

. He began to preach the Bible in 1481 in Florence. This city where he was to become famous was the most beautiful, learned and cultured city in Italy, most of the people knew Greek and Latin and could read the classics. The just flowering Renaissance had affected Florence more than any other city but the De Medici, who ruled were the principal patrons. If Savonarola had high ideas concerning the city, and expected to find the cultured and refined Florentines leading purer and nobler lives than those of other cities; his hopes were doomed to disappointment. He had yet to learn that only faith in God will save people from sin. Florence was indeed beautiful outwardly, situated as it was in the midst of a rich and verdant valley blossoming with flowers, but beneath their veneer of learning the people were utterly corrupt, given over to shows, festivals, worldly display, and entertainment. They were dissolute, selfish, pleasure-loving, with but little thought about God or spiritual things. For years his preaching made little impression on the sophisticated Florentines who came only out to hear priests who could entertain them.  

The Revelation That Began A Reformation
In prayer and meditation Savonarola waited upon God yearning for a direct revelation from Him. One day, while engaged in conversation with a nun, it happened. He suddenly saw in a vision the heavens open. All the future calamities of the Church passed before his eyes; and he seemed to hear a voice charging him to announce them to the people. From that moment convinced of his Divine mission, he was filled with new unction and power. His preaching was now with a voice of thunder, and his denunciation of sin so terrific that people who listened to him sometimes went about the streets half-dazed, bewildered, and speechless. His congregations were often in tears, so that the whole church resounded with their sobs and weeping. Men and women of every age and condition, workmen, poets and philosophers would burst into passionate tears. This fasting, praying 15th century John the Baptist of his time, preached such prophetic messages of fire, light and searing conviction; listeners paled, trembled, their "eyes glazed with terror ..tears gushed from their eyes; they beat their breasts and cried to God for mercy."

 One famous scholar, Pico della Mirandola said "the mere sound of Savonarolas voice was as a clap of doom; a cold shiver ran through the marrow of his bones; the hairs of his head stood on end as he listened." Another tells how his sermons caused "such terror and alarm, such sobbing and tears that people passed through the streets without speaking more dead than alive" as he prophesied the coming judgement on the church and the country.

And that judgement came.. His fame spread and laymen begged admittance to his lectures. His congregations increased daily; the church was thronged and many stood or clung to the iron gratings in order to see and hear the preacher. The voice of Savonarola seemed to have an almost superhuman effect, and the audience was raised to a transport of ecstasy. All Florence spoke of Savonarola, and even the most learned flocked to hear him. By Lent of 1491 the San Marco Church had become too small to hold the people, and Savonarola removed to the famous Duomo, or cathedral church of Florence, where he remained during the remainder of the eight years the limit, as he predicted it would be, of his preaching in Florence. He taught that all believers were in the true church, and continually fed upon
the Word of God. The margin of his Bible is covered with notes of ideas occurring to him while poring over its pages. His sermons are often expositions of the Scriptures from beginning to end, and it was claimed that there was not a text to which he could not turn at a moment's notice. He knew a great portion of the Bible by heart.

People were so anxious to hear him, they arose in the middle of the night, and waited for hours for the cathedral doors to open. They came along the streets singing and rejoicing and listened to the sermons with such interest that when they were finished the people thought that they had scarcely begun. Savonarola " swept onwards by a might not his own" carried his audiences with him. Soon all Florence was at the feet of the great preacher; and Lorenzo de Medici, its corrupt ruler, was greatly alarmed. He tried by flattery and bribery, by threats and persuasion, to induce Savonarola to cease denouncing the people sins (and especially) his own. but Savonarola continued.. Lorenzo hired Fra Mariano, a once popular preacher, to denounce him; but his eloquence and rhetoric had no effect on the people, and after one sermon against him ceased his opposition. Savonarola even prophesied the deaths of some of the corrupt rulers, like Lorenzo and the Pope and the invasion of his country by France all which accurately came to pass and caused a dying Medici to ask for God's pardon.

Florence became a republic due to his preaching. For some time the people debated as to what kind of government Florence should adopt in the place of that of the De Medici, now overturned during the French invasion. They came to no agreement, so Savonarola deemed it necessary to advise them in his sermons. Through his advice they adopted one of the most advanced and enlightened forms of democratic (republican) government. A just form of taxation, abolition of torture, laws against usury and gambling, a court of appeal, and abundant provision for the poor, were some of the principal features. Florentine republic laws and government have served as a model to all nations, and a mighty influence shaping the modern world. . Immensely popular with the common people they elected Savonarola city manager and he became a civic leader

Childrens Revival
The influence of Savonarola in Florence and Italy was now greater than ever. He had always loved children and they formed their own revival army to help clean up their city.  Children marched from house to house in procession, singing hymns, and collecting everything styled vanities. With these a great octangular pyramid was built in the public square, or piazza, formed in seven stages, 60 feet high and 240 feet in circumference at base. A bonfire was made of this amidst the singing of hymns and pealing of bells.. In 1497 the people of Florence abandoned their vile and worldly books, and read Savonarola's sermons. All prayed, went to church, and the rich gave freely to the poor. Merchants restored ill-gotten gains amounting to florins. Even the hoodlums, or street louts, stopped singing ribald songs, and sang hymns instead. All forsook the carnivals and vanities in which they had indulged, and made huge bonfires of their masks, wigs, worldly books, obscene pictures, and other like things.

Though one of the vilest of popes Alexander VI, offered him a cardinal's position if he would quit preaching the Bible and exposing Vatican sins, Savonarola refused the cardinal "red hat" and replied, "I'll take a red hat of blood.". He continued to preach fearlessly for righteousness until finally fierce religious reaction and opposition resulted in his ultimate arrest., In 1498, by express order of Alexander VI, he was excommunicated, imprisoned, tortured, hung then burned to death at the stake in the public square of Florence, the city he loved so well. Dying, he said, "Rome will not quench this  fire.". His last words were, "The Lord has suffered so much for me." Thus perished one of the world's greatest saints and martyrs. Nineteen years after Savonarola's death, a sympathetic Martin Luther who called him a "Protestant martyr" began the Reformation.

Struck By The Power of God  - Moody

I was preaching, and as I looked down underneath the gallery I saw sitting beside one of our deacons a great stalwart man in a flashy dress. I said to myself, "He is a sporting man"; and I was right in the surmise, as I learnt afterwards. Well, he sat there riveted throughout the service. When the meeting was over, we went downstairs to the after-meeting, and he also came. It was rather late before I got through dealing with the inquirers that night. About eleven o'clock the same deacon came to me and said, "Come over and speak to this man." It was that sporting man. He told me that his mother kept a gambling house, and that he had never been in a Christian service before. He added, "I had started out this afternoon to spend the time in gambling. I passed an open-air meeting, and there I heard a young man stand up and testify whom I once knew in a life of sin. I stopped to hear him, and when he was done I went on, thinking nothing. But some strange, mysterious power laid hold of me, and brought me back to the meeting. Then Deacon Young got hold of me and brought me here. And oh! "-the man sobbed and shook all over -" I am so miserable. I never felt this way before in all my life! I do not know what's the matter with me!" I said, "I can tell you what's the matter with you; the Spirit of God is convincing you of sin." (D.L.M.)

RADICAL REFORMERS The Anabaptists
Anabaptism began in Zurich, Switzerland, as part of the reform movement led by Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), a contemporary of Luther. A breach developed between Zwingli and two of his colleagues, Felix Manz and Conrad Grebel. The Zurich city council decreed to continue Mass and halt the destruction of images in churches; Zwingli agreed. This led to a complete break between Zwingli and his two colleagues who insisted remaining true to the Scriptures in all reform efforts. For Grebel and Manz, this meant immediately abolishing the Mass, removing all images from the churches, and discontinuing infant baptism. The council interpreted their stance as an affront to its authority ordering that anyone who did not have their children baptized within eight days of birth was to be banished from the region. and prohibiting the assembling of those who opposed the rite of infant baptism In response on January 21, 1525, Grebel and Manz, along with about twenty followers, met in Manz’s home. After corporate prayer, George Blaurock asked Grebel to baptize him. Grebel consented and then asked to be baptized by Blaurock who proceeded to baptize, not only Grebel, but the entire assembly. Fritz Blanke says this marks “the birth of the Anabaptist movement.”

In Switzerland, indeed, throughout Europe, similar pockets of dissatisfaction arose regarding the work of the Reformers. Referring to Zwingli and Luther as half-way men, many felt both retained too much of the old order; that Luther “tore down the old house, but built no new one in its place,” and Zwingli “threw down all infirmities as with thunder strokes, but erected nothing better in its place.” The Radical Reformers, on the other hand, wanted to recover the apostolic order and discipline of the New Testament Church without compromising with the current order. C. Henry Smith says, “In fact, the whole movement was an attempt to reproduce as literally as possible the primitive apostolic Church in its original purity and simplicity.” (E.H.)


Believer’s Baptism
Anabaptist simply means one who rebaptizes. Because Anabaptists insisted baptism was for believers only, they were severely persecuted by both Catholics and other Protestants who passed laws through most of Europe making adult baptism a capital offense. In spite of the severe persecution leveled against them, the Anabaptists increased in number and spread throughout Europe. Intensely persecuted by both church and state, Anabaptists often met secretly in homes, forests, or fields. There they read the Bible and prayed that the same Spirit and power that had been known by the primitive Church would come upon them. It was not unusual for the Anabaptists to dance, fall under the power, and speak in tongues.

Illumination of the Scriptures
Anabaptists also believed they experienced the illuminating presence of the Holy Spirit when they read the Bible. When Felix Manz was condemned to die as a heretic by the Zurich authorities on January 5, 1527, he was charged with “having boasted of special revelations.” He was accused of pretending that “once or twice in prison and elsewhere certain epistles of Paul were revealed to him as if he had them before his eyes.” The court regarded this as proof that Manz had claimed individual revelation equal to Scripture. For this, he was drowned in the River Limmat the same day.

The Prophethood of All Believers
Anabaptists rejected an hierarchical structure of leadership and emphasized that ministry was the responsibility of the entire congregation. If Luther restored the idea of the “priesthood of all believers,” then the Anabaptists restored the idea of the “prophethood of all believers.” This concept is clearly seen in a Swiss Anabaptist document dated ca. 1532-34 and entitled Answer of Some Who Are Called (Ana)Baptists Why They Do Not Attend the Churches. In this document, the primary reason given for not attending state churches is that those institutions did not allow the members of the congregation to exercise spiritual gifts according to “the Christian order as taught in the gospel or the word of God in 1 Cor. 14. The author chides Luther and Zwingli, accusing them of transgressing their own “original teaching” and of impeding “the rivers of living water” by not allowing the free exercise of Spiritual gifts in their congregations. He says "It is Paul's intention that if one sitting by or listening receives a revelation or is moved to exercise his Spiritual gift or to prophesy, then the first shall hold his peace; and he Paul says that all may prophesy, one after the other.

The author shows an obvious preference for a congregational-charismatic order for church meetings. Because the Holy Spirit resides in every member, and because, therefore, every member possesses one or more of His gifts for the edification of the whole Body, every member should have the opportunity to exercise that gift or gifts for the building up of the congregation. A Christian gathering dominated by one person cannot, therefore, be controlled by the Holy Spirit. He says,
When someone comes to church and constantly hears only one person speaking, and all the listeners are silent, neither speaking nor prophesying, who can or will regard or confess the same to be a spiritual congregation, or confess according to I Cor. 14 that God is dwelling and operating in them through his Holy Spirit with his gifts, impelling them one after another in the above mentioned order of speaking and prophesying.

Apocalyptic Extremists
Along with the rediscovery of prophecy and charismatic gifts many were also rediscovering the New Testament emphasis on the Second Advent of Christ. This was by no means limited to the Anabaptists, even Luther believed that the end of the world was imminent and predicted that it would occur in 1532. In fact, he rushed the publication of his translation of the book of Daniel, giving it priority over the other books of the Old Testament so that everyone might have the opportunity to read and comprehend the prophecy of Daniel before the end of the world.

This expectation of the immediate end, when coupled with prophetic activity and intense persecution, tended to produce extremes in doctrine and excesses in practice. Not surprisingly, certain extremists emerged proclaiming apocalyptic visions of the impending end and of themselves as special end-time prophets. Dreams, visions, and prophetic utterances were the driving force behind their radical approach to reform which often included use of the sword.

On the basis of visions and prophecies, some of these extremists took the city of Munster by force and declared it to be the New Jerusalem. Their occupation was short-lived, however, for the Catholics quickly overpowered them, regaining control of the city. They wasted no time executing the leaders and slaughtering most of the people who had followed these leaders and their prophetic visions.
Because these extremists rejected infant baptism they were classified by both Catholics and Lutherans as Anabaptists. They were, in fact, totally different from the mainstream Anabaptist movement which tended to be pacifist, rejecting all forms of war and conflict. Nonetheless, throughout history Anabaptists have often been vilified because of being mistakenly associated with the Munster fiasco. Only in the twentieth century has their true reputation been reclaimed from this erroneous association.

Pilgram Marpeck
Before the Munster fiasco, Pilgram Marpeck, an Anabaptist leader in central Germany, had been warning his followers to beware of false prophets who claimed to be sent “to institute something different from that which Christ had instituted.” This is an obvious reference to the extremists who were even then claiming special authority and privilege through their many dreams, visions, and prophecies. Marpeck insisted that “the last days” had begun with the ministry of Christ and that charismatic gifts and ministries had continued among the faithful from then to the present time. A special commissioning of super-empowered, end-time prophets was therefore unnecessary. Those who claimed such a commission were false prophets who had been beguiled by the devil and, in turn, deceived the unsuspecting and the naive.

Marpeck, however, makes clear to his readers that what he is writing is for the purpose of warning and not, “as some assume, as an argument to exclude divine miracles and signs.” He continues, “Nor does Scripture assert this exclusion,” for “God has a free hand even in these last days.” He then mentions some who had been martyred for their faith and then miraculously raised from the dead. He says: "Many of them have remained constant, enduring tortures inflicted by sword, rope, fire and water and suffering terrible, tyrannical, unheard-of deaths and martyrdoms, all of which they could easily have avoided by recantation. Moreover one also marvels when he sees how the faithful God (who, after all, overflows with goodness) raises from the dead several such brothers and sisters of Christ after they were hanged, drowned or killed in other ways. Even today, they are found alive and we can hear their own testimony."

Marpeck represents mainstream Anabaptists who affirmed the continuity in the true Church of “apostles, prophets, miracles, and teachers but all under Christ and in conformity to his gospel in Scripture.” In other words, revelation conveyed by genuine prophecy would not violate the revelation already disclosed in Scripture. It was not a matter of whether Scripture or Spirit had priority, but a conviction that the Spirit did not act in any manner contrary to Scripture.


Menno Simons
Menno Simons (1496-1561), a Catholic priest in Holland, joined the Anabaptists around 1535. In 1536, he began gathering scattered Anabaptists of northern Europe into congregations. Eventually recognizing Menno as their founder, these groups later became known as Mennonites.
In his Treatise on Christian Baptism, Simons is obviously not uncomfortable with the subject of speaking in tongues. He says: "Although Peter was previously informed by a heavenly vision that he might go to the Gentiles and teach them the gospel, still he refused to baptize the pious, noble and Godly centurion and his associates, so long as he did not see the Holy Spirit was descended upon them so that they spoke with tongues and glorified God. . . . Peter commanded that those only should be baptized who had received the Holy Ghost, who spoke with tongues and glorified God, which only pertains to the believing, and not to minor children."

The Anabaptist Legacy
The Anabaptist vision of the separation of the powers of the church and state became a foundational principle of modern Western society. Their rejection of force and coercion in matters of faith and their insistence on freedom of conscience have become hallmarks of freedom-loving people and nations throughout the world. George Williams, former Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale University, has said, "The whole Western world, not only the direct descendants of the Continental Anabaptists, not alone even the larger Protestant community, but all who cherish Western institutions and freedoms, must acknowledge their indebtedness to the valor and the vision of the Anabaptists who glimpsed afresh the disparities between the church and the world, even when the latter construed itself as Christian."

Direct descendants of the Anabaptists include the Amish, Hutterite, and Mennonite churches. In addition, their free-church concept influenced Puritan Separatists, Baptists, and Quakers. Even more important is their charismatic influence on succeeding generations. Mennonite scholar John H. Yoder has said that Pentecostalism “is in our century the closest parallel to what Anabaptism was in the sixteenth.” (E.H.)

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770)

"Of all the spiritual heroes of a hundred years ago, none saw so soon as Whitefield what the times demanded and none were so forward in the great work of spiritual aggression. (J.C. Ryle "Christian Leaders Of The Eighteenth Century" (1885) Banner of Truth)

     Most of his adult life George Whitefield was as "famous as any man in the English-speaking world. From the age of 22 till his death he was the foremost figure of the immense religious movement holding the multitudes attention both sides of the Atlantic." Arnold Dallimore says in the preface to his massive and definitive two-volume study of Whitefield -

     "This book was written with the desire - perhaps in a measure of inner certainty - that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more bring into being His special instruments of revival, that He will again raise up unto himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be "fools for Christ's sake" who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labor and suffer and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth's accolades, but to win the Masters approbation when they appear before His awesome judgement seat."

 "They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit and who will witness "signs and wonders following" in the transformation of multitudes of human lives. Indeed this book goes forth with the earnest prayer that amidst the rampant iniquity and glaring apostasy of the twentieth century God will use it toward the raising up of such men and toward the granting of a mighty revival such as was witnessed two hundred years ago." (p.16 "George Whitefield")

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 ENGLAND BEFORE THE REVIVAL
In the decade between 1730 and 1740,  England was morally corrupt and deeply crippled by spiritual decay; yet among these conditions, remarkably similar to those world-wide today - God arose in a mighty exercise of power which became part of the Eighteenth century revival.

    Dallimore describes the previous century as a time when in the violent rejection of Puritanism that accompanied the Restoration of the English monarchy. Much of the nation threw off restraint and plunged into godlessness, drunkenness, immorality and gambling. Puritans became a thorn in the side of the State church and faced increasing legal hassle. Finally in 1662 nearly 2,000 ministers - all who would not submit to an Act of Uniformity - were ejected from their churches. Forbidden to preach under severe penalties, many like John Bunyan imprisoned, hundreds suffered and some died.

Then Deism rose in the nation from 1660 to 1670; a vicious thought-war against supernatural Christianity, seeking to rationalize everything; the Bible, the virgin birth, miracles. Of course the Church responded, but with coldly correct apologetics that lacked soul and fire. Large numbers, both high and low class dropped out of church believing Christianity to be false. Religion became ritual; the people above all feared "enthusiasm" - anyone whose practice of Christianity showed any true fervor. Empty formality was the order of the day. (Whitefield, Vol. 1, pp. 19-21)

      Dallimore further notes the horror of the times: the Gin Craze began with Prohibition in 1689; every 6th house in a generation became a gin shop. The poor were unspeakably wretched - over 160 crimes had the death penalty!  Gin made the people what they were never before - cruel and inhuman. Hanging was a daily gala event, those jerking on the ropes watched and applauded by men, women and children who crowded around the gallows for the best view. Prisons were unimaginable nightmares; young and old, hard crook and first offender were thrown together to fight for survival. Women were treated even worse than the men; hundreds of hardened hookers and murderesses locked in to battle over scant and rotten rations with mothers caught when forced to steal to keep their children from starving. Open sewer trenches for toilets ran through the cells; hundreds were jammed together in cells made to hold a score of prisoners; there were rats and insects everywhere. One man took a dog into prison with him to help protect him against the vermin; the vermin killed the dog!

     Into this kind of world came another friend of John Wesley who became quite the opposite of him in theology, mannerisms and style. As a boy a self-confessed liar, thief and a gambler, addicted to filthy talk, cursing, foolishness and fantasy, (like many of the boys his age), he had a love for novels, plays - and a talent for mimicking ministers!  His parents ran a hotel tavern called the "Bell Inn" where he lived for the first sixteen years of his life among high-way robbers that picked their victims and planned attacks around the tables and pimps plied their trade among the customers. Here, he developed a vivid imagination, and a voice which became so powerful and expressive, that it was later apocryphally rumored that on a clear day you could hear him for 5 miles! (David Garrick, the top celebrated Shakespearian actor of his day said he would give "100 guineas to be able to say the word 'Oh!' like George Whitefield.")

George Whitefields Conversion
    George Whitefield did not grow up a church kid. From eight to fifteen he lived in a home that was poor, with a stepfather and his mother who had been disillusioned, hurt and finally surrendered to a broken marriage. Sent off on his own at 17 to Oxford for a chance to make it in life, he began to re-evaluate his ways and think about his future. Convicted and lonely, under the dealings of the Holy Spirit, he became deadly serious about spiritual things; and in 1733 Charles Wesley invited him to join the Oxford "Holy Club". This gathering for spiritual discipline, Bible study and prayer, though an object of Deist and rationalist derision on campus, was not evangelical, famous or even significant to the revival to come. It was only a legal attempt by the Wesleys and others to be better people. It did not really meet any of their deep inner needs.

 Here young George read Henry Scougals' tract "The Life of God in the Soul of a Man" It so directly contradicted all he believed it alarmed him. He said:

"God showed me I must be born again or be damned! I learned a man may go to church, say his prayers, receive the sacrament and yet not be a Christian ... Shall I burn this book? Shall I throw it down? Or shall I search it? I did search it; and holding the book in my hand thus addressed the God of heaven and earth: "Lord if I am not a Christian, or if I am not a real one, for Jesus Christs' sake show me what Christianity is, that I may not be damned at last!" ... from that moment ... did I know that I must become a new creature."

Then followed not faith, but a fearfully increased asceticism, with Whitefield wearing patched gown, dirty shoes, eating the worst food, and "whole days and weeks .. spent lying prostrate on the ground "... bidding Satan depart from me in the name of Jesus .. begging for freedom from those proud hellish thoughts that used to crowd in upon and distract my soul." (p.52 "Journals") For a year, the fearful pressure almost drove him mad, ruined his studies, and finally cost him his friendship in the Holy Club. He felt that perhaps his love for the other members was the final idolatry holding him back. Two years earlier, another Club member William Morgan had lost his mind and his life; now Whitefield, grimly resolved to "die or conquer" seemed about to do the same. Finally, at the end of all human resources, God revealed Himself to the overjoyed young zealot. A Gospel faith gave him the peace he had struggled so long to attain, and he wrote: "Oh what joy - joy unspeakable - joy full and big with glory was my soul filled when the weight of sin came off, and an abiding sense of the pardoning love of God and a full assurance of faith broke in on my ... soul!"

Whitefields First Public Sermon
  Sunday, June 27 in the church of St. Mary de Crypt, young Whitefield preached his first sermon. His mother, relatives, Robert Raikes the founder of the Sunday-School, and some 300 other people crowded impatiently together to hear him. It was a startling introduction. Fifteen people were, said the presiding Bishop, "driven mad!" Whitefield was twenty-one years old. Thus began the "preaching that startled the nation." Ryle says "From the very first he obtained a degree of popularity such as no preacher before or since has probably ever reached." ... "No preacher has ever been so universally popular in every country he visited, in England, Scotland and America. No preacher has ever retained his hold on his hearers so entirely as he did for 34 years. His popularity never waned. It was as great at the end of his day as it was at the beginning ..." (op. cit. p.49) "Weekdays or Sundays, wherever he preached the churches were crowded and an immense sensation produced. The plain truth is that a really eloquent extempore preacher preaching the pure gospel with most uncommon gifts of voice and manner was at that time an entire novelty in London. Congregations were taken by surprise and carried by storm." He attracted high and low, rich and poor alike. Eminent critics and literary men like Lord Bolingbroke and Lord Chesterfield were frequently his delighted hearers. Bolingbroke said "He is the most extraordinary man in our times. He has the most commanding eloquence I ever heard in any person." Ben Franklin, the calculating Quaker by profession spoke in no measured terms of his preaching powers; Hume the historian said it was worth riding twenty miles to hear him." (Ryle, op. cit. p.35-36)

None of the 75 recorded sermons under his name do him justice; shorthand recorded without correction, they are terribly disjointed and dismembered. He was exceptionally simple, lucid, bold, direct and full of the Gospel. "He met men face to face, like one who had a message from God to them; "I have come here to speak to you about your soul."  He dramatized so vividly sermons seemed to move and walk before your eyes, drawing such vivid pictures his hearers sometimes actually believed they saw and heard them. Lord Chesterfield was so entranced on Whitefield's description of the sinner as a blind beggar that when he moved him to the edge of a cliff, about to take the final fatal step he actually "made a rush forwards to save him, exclaiming aloud "He is gone! He is gone!". He was tremendously earnest; one poor uneducated man said "He preached like a lion. His sermons were life and fire; you must listen whether you liked to or not. There was a holy violence about him which firmly took your attention by storm.":

     "I have not come in my own name. No! I have come in the Name of the Lord of hosts (and he brought down his hand and foot with a force that made the room ring) and I must and will be heard!"

     His sermons were filled with immense feeling and pathos. He commonly wept profusely in the pulpit; Cornelius Winter, who later traveled often with him said he had not seen him get through a sermon without a tear. This was no affectation; he felt deeply for the souls before him; it awakened affections and touched secret springs which no amount of reasoning and demonstration could have moved. It smoothed down prejudices; they could not hate a man who wept so much over their souls.. "I came to hear you with a pocket full of stones to break your head; said one convert: "but your sermon got the better of me, and broke my heart." His actions, voice, fluency of language were of the highest order; his manner in the pulpit so curiously graceful and fascinating it was said no-one could hear him for five minutes without forgetting he squinted.
 
 Whitefields Public Ministry
  Under John Wesley's request he went to Georgia for about a year to help with the Savannah Orphan House set up for children of the colonists. On his return the bulk of the Anglican clergy were no longer favorable to him; scandalized by preaching regeneration or the "new birth" as a thing which many baptized persons greatly needed, many began to denounce him openly, and deny him pulpits. Ryle says "The plain truth is that the Church of England of that day was not ready for a man like Whitefield. ... too much asleep to understand him and vexed at a man who would not keep still and leave the devil alone." (p.39) The door to Church of England ministry began to close, and Whitefield, seeing thousands out of church resolved in a "spirit of holy aggression" to go out into the highways and byways and compel them to come in." His first attempt was among the Kingswood colliers near Bristol Feb. 1739. He began on a hill to speak to about one or two hundred of these coal miners on Matt. 5:1-3.  He said of them:

     "Having no righteousness of their own to renounce they were glad to hear of Jesus who was a friend to publicans and came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. The first discovery of their being affected was the sight of the white gutters made by their tears which fell plentifully down their black cheeks as they came out of the coal-pits...."

"Sometimes when twenty thousand people were before me I had not in my own apprehension a word to say either to God or them. But I was never totally deserted ... The open heavens above me, the prospect of the adjacent fields with the sight of thousands some in coaches, some on horseback, and some in the trees and at all times affected and in tears was almost too much for me, and quite overcame me."

    The word spread; the next audience was 2,000; the third 4 to 5,000, and then audiences multiplied and expanded, 10, 14, 20,000! Shortly he would be preaching to up to 30,000 people at one time. Thousands came to hear him preach at 6:00 am in the snow; whole cities turned out to hear the young man with the golden voice and a supernatural authority from heaven.  From 1739 till his death in 1770, 31 years of immense effect, his life was one uniform outreach, his vision one thing; preach Christ, and entreat men to repent and be saved.

In a Deist nation, God often supernaturally moved to confirm His reality and power in his meetings. In Yorkshire with Lady Huntingdon, about to preach from a gallows scaffold on the text "It is appointed unto man once to die" a wild, terrifying shriek came from the audience; Grimshaw, one of his workers pressed through the crowd and cried "Brother Whitefield; you stand amongst the dead and the dying; an immortal soul has been called into eternity, the destroying angel is passing over the congregation. Cry aloud and spare not!" After a moments silence, he began again, only to hear a second shriek and a second man fall dead near where Lady Huntingdon and Lady Margaret Ingham were standing. After that, the entire mass of the people seemed, predictably enough, "overwhelmed" by his appeal.

 Sometimes like his friend Wesley he faced intense opposition both from churches and the unrepentant: at the fields of Mary Le Bon in London some of his rough opponents tried to push over his pulpit and one tried to stab him with a sword. Others pelted the preacher with filth, some tried to drown out his voice; one even climbed a tree and exposed himself. (Edwards op. cit. p.220.) Yet here God had found another man He could trust; Whitefield was a light-sabre in His hand for the nations. In one single week after preaching at Moorfields, he received one thousand letters from people under spiritual concern, and admitted to communion 350 people.

     He worked tirelessly, like his friend Wesley, embarrassing in his zeal. He usually rose at 4:00 a.m. and often spent whole nights in reading and devotion, sometimes getting up after going to bed at his usual hour of 10:00 p.m. to do so. He preached morning, afternoon and night Sundays; 6:00 every morning and evening Monday to Thursday, and Saturday night; thirteen messages a week, sometimes forty to sixty hours of speaking each week, at the same time carrying on massive correspondence with people in almost every part of the world. In the thirty-four years of his ministry he visited almost every town in England, Scotland and Wales. He crossed the Atlantic 7 times and with Americans like Gilbert Tennant (1703-1764) captured souls in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. He publicly preached an estimated 18,000 messages.

Whitefield's Personal Life and Death
 Whitefields attitude in ministry was no grim-lipped determination like his legal Oxford days; he was so singularly happy that one N.Y. woman speaking of the influences of the Holy Spirit that had won her said "Mr. Whitefield was so cheerful it tempted me to become a Christian." He had a deep humility , and broad catholicity and charity towards others, loving all others who loved Jesus in sincerity. If others Christians misrepresented him, he forgave them; if they refused to work with him, he still loved them. Whitefield, influenced deeply by Jonathan Edwards, and the Huntingdon Connection was a Calvinist; Wesley, the scholar, moved towards a more Armenian view of the Gospel. One censorious professor of religion, knowing the sharp theological differences between them, asked George if he thought he would see John Wesley in heaven. "I fear not" he said "He will be so near the throne and we at such a distance that we shall hardly get a sight of him."

      George died suddenly as he had lived, almost literally "in harness" during one of his U.S. tours at Newburyport, Sunday Sept. 29th 1770 of a single spasmodic fit of asthma (almost before his friends knew he was sick) at the comparatively early age of 55. Though ill and tired, he preached his last open-air sermon the day before on 2 Cor. 13:5 to a huge crowd. He prayed "Lord Jesus I am weary in Thy work but not of Thy work. If I have not yet finished my course let me go and speak for Thee once more in the fields, seal Thy truth and come home and die." He ate with a friend, rode on to Newburyport though terribly tired, and went to turn in early. Tradition says as he was headed for bed with a lighted candle in his hand he could not resist the opportunity to turn at the head of the stairs to speak to friends who had come to meet him; the candle burned down to the socket before he quit! "Sudden death" he had often said "is sudden glory. Whether right or not I cannot help wishing I may go off in the same manner. To me it would be worse than death to live to be nursed and to see friends weeping about me."

 From Whitefield we learn this; God can use anyone who loves enough to care, and gives without sparing a gift of utter devotion to Him.

WILLIE SEYMOUR - GODS FORGOTTEN GIANT (1870-1922)

 To Charles Parhams Houston evangelists school (opened January 1st 1906) came 36-yr. old William J. Seymour a black one-eyed preacher then an already widely-traveled evangelist based as a pastor in a local black Holiness church in the city. Parham liked him and allowed him to attend his state-segregated school, letting him sit outside the classroom door (left purposely ajar). The two men enjoyed a brief but friendly and productive association. In mid-February before finishing the course, Seymour left for LA called to pastor a small Holiness mission congregation, still without receiving the baptism he was seeking. Consumed with a passionate desire for God Seymour said:

"Before I met Parham, such a hunger to have more of God was in my heart that I prayed for five hours a day for two and a half years. I got to Los Angeles, and there the hunger was not less but more. I prayed, “God, what can I do?” The Spirit said, “Pray more.” “But Lord, I am praying five hours a day now.” I increased my hours of prayer to seven, and prayed on for a year and a half more. I prayed to God to give what Parham preached, the real Holy Ghost and fire with tongues with love and power of God like the apostles had." And he got what he asked of God: John G. Lake said of Seymours' later ministry:

"God put such a hunger into that man's heart that when the fire of God came it glorified him. I do not believe any other man in modern times had a more wonderful deluge of God in his life than God gave to that dear fellow, and the glory and power of a real Pentecost swept the world. That black man preached to my congregation of ten thousand people when the glory and power of God was upon his spirit, and men shook and trembled and cried to God. God was in him." Yet his ministry before the fire fell was rejected by the congregational lay leader and founder who disapproved of his enthusiastic Pentecostal emphasis. Only a week after his arrival they padlocked the church door against him after his first sermon on Acts 2:4.

Seymour was left without a mission, without acceptance and without approval, a deformed middle-aged black man cut off from both his culture and his calling, and (despite his desire for God) about as rejected as a man could be.

Undaunted, Seymour formed a (predominantly black) home prayer group, at Richard Asberrys home in Bonnie Bray Street and met regularly until Easter. And God (the God Who never forgets injustice and delights in mercy) saw fit in one Divine moment to target one man who represented the beaten end-product of 300 years of cruel slavery. During three climactic days of Holy Week (April 9-12) amid a 10-day fast Seymour and the others found what they were seeking; "more of God: - glossolalia and other charismatic phenomenon burst forth with unusual intensity and evident sincerity." This was the beginning of the most influential movement for missions in the 20th Century; what we now call the Asuza Street Revival.



THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION - YMCA
CONTEMPORANEOUS with city revival, organizations proven as powerful factors in evangelism expand and develop. George Williams of London, England founded the earliest, instituting a prayer meeting for clerks where he worked in the drapery firm of George Hitchcock & Co. Other business houses established similar meetings and June 6, 1844 organized a "Society for Improving the Spiritual Condition of Young Men Engaged in the Drapery and other Trades". Four weeks later they changed it to the Young Men's Christian Association.

Growth was slow in earlier years; the first American Associations not formed until the latter part of 1851; the earliest organized in Montreal December 9, 1851 and by the 29th the first in the United States at Boston. An American students article describing the London Association written for the Watchman and Reflector attracted the attention of a few Christian young men who corresponded with the London secretary. In 1852 other YMCAs were organized in Buffalo, Washington, New York and Baltimore. The 1857 Revival gave great impetus to the YMCA. Their rooms became rallying places for large numbers of converted young men, furnishing them an effective training school for Christian work. While the Civil War proved disastrous to many associations, depleting their numbers forcing them to disband with excessive enlistment, their work was not wholly lost, for members in the army had a godly influence upon their compatriots.

From 1870 on YMCA growth was phenomenal. New lines of work developed— railroads, evening educational classes, colleges, and the Student Volunteer movement, all phases which the Young Men's Christian Association especially serviced. The Young Women's Christian Association, with no small degree of success attempted work along similar lines for young women. These ministries not only served as an anchor to multitudes of young people who might otherwise have drifted amid temptations of city life, but instrumental also in leading large numbers to embrace the Christian faith. (FB)