June, 1942
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before his words. There were scarcely any dry eyes in the congregation, and the key - keeper finally a r o s e and promised in the afternoon to open the meeting house. Everybody, Finney affirms, was at that afternoon service. “The Lord let me loose' upon them in a wonderful manner. My preaching seemed to them to be something new. Indeed it seemed . . . that I could rain upon them hail, in love.” Great conviction fell tipon the place, and before the revival ended, the spiritual success of Evans Mills attended it. In community after community was repeated the same sequence of spir itual opposition, of the evangelist’s prevailing in prayer alone with God or in fellowship with his prayer help ers, fbllowed by mighty public mani festations of revival blessing in the conversion of souls ,and rekindling of f o r ma l , cold Christians. His own words, written in 1825, can best tell' of this burden of prayer: “Unless I had the experience, of prayer I could do nothing. If even for a day or an hour I lost the spirit of grace and supplication, I found myself unable to preach with power and efficiency, or to win souls by per sonal conversation. “I found myself so much exercised and so borne down with the weight of immortal souls, that I was constrained to pray without ceasing. I felt so cer tain that God would hear me that fre-* quently I found myself saying to Him; “ T hope Thou dost not think that I can be denied. I come with Thy faith ful promises in my hand, and I can not be denied.’ ” Meeting Opposition— Prayer the Resource The victories of Finney’s evangel istic ministry were not without cost to him and his coworkers. Father Nash in a letter dated May 11, 1826, said, “The work of God moVed for ward in power in some places against dreadful opposition. Mr. Finney and I have been burned in effigy. We have frequently been disturbed in our religious meetings. Sometimes the opposers make a noise in thé house of God. . . There is almost as muph writing, intrigue, lying, and reporting of lies as there would be if we were on the eve of a presidential election. . . . But I think the work will go on.” While these clouds were blackening his sky, Finney felt a divine urge to pray them away. He said nothing publicly or privately about the ac cusations, merely looked to God for direction and guidance. “I looked to God with great earnest ness day after day to be directed . . ,” says the revivalist. “After a season .of great humiliation before Him there [ Continued, on Pofie 2711
he gave himself wholly to prayer. “He had a terrible overhauling,” as the revivalist says it, “in his whole Chris tian experience.” When Father Nash came to Evans Mills, he was full of the power of prayer, and an altogether different man from what he had been when Finney first met him. Father Nash kept a “praying list,” as he termed it, of the names of persons whom •he made subjects of prayer each day. “And praying with himv” affirms Mr. Finney, “ and hearing him p r a y in meeting, I found that his gift of prayer was wonderful and his faith almost miraculous.” Through t h e i r years of laboring t o g e t h e r , often Father Nash would not even attend meetings, and while ' F i n n e y was preaching, Nash was praying for the Spirit’s outpouring upon him. When Mr. Finney went over to the village of Antwerp, New York, after the startlingly fruitful Evans Mills re vival had run its course, he,found the church key in the custodianship of a tavern keeper, who refused to open the building. So the meeting Was transferred to the schoolhoüse. But God’s man gave himself to prayer,' and though “the atmosphere seemed to be poison,” God’s answer came in the words, “Be not afraid . . . for I am with thee . . . for I have much people in this city.” That Sunday morning Mr. Finney arose early and went into the woods, for he realized he must pray this re vival down. He went back to those woods for prayer three distinct times that morning before he felt ready for the opening service. He found the schoolhouse packed to the doors. Speaking from John 3:16, he said, “You seem to howl blasphemy about the streets like hell - hounds.” The people, knowing this was true, quailed The Refiner By ETHEL M. CLARKSON O Thou, the Refiner of. silver, I offer myself to Thee, To take me, and b r e a k me, and make me What Thou wouldst have me to be. As grace for each trial is offered. So grace I rejoicingly take— No wish but to mirror my Saviour, To live (or to die) for His sake. O blessed Refiner of silver, Work on till the Father can see The thorn-scarred brow and pierced hand Of His Well-Beloved in me.
and when' I heard that he -was con verted, I had no faith; I did not be lieve it;” Then Charles appointed a meeting for the youth of the church, whom one by one he was shortly to see converted, “ and the work continued among them until but one of their number was left unconverted.” Mr. Finney soon felt led to visit his family at Henderson, where his father met him at the gate of his home. “How do you do, Charles?” asked his father. : “I am well, Father,, body and soul,” he replied. “But, Father, you are an old man; all your children are grown up and have left your home, and I never heard a prayer in my father’s house.” - “I know it, Charles; come in and pray yourself.” In the son went for prayer, shortly to see both father and mother gen uinely brought to the Lord. The key to Finney’s early ministry as well as to his evangelistic suc cess is to be found in “the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is indispens able to ministerial success.” A. M. Hills, who studied under Fin ney at Oberlin many years later, says of his matchless ministry, “Our mind goes hack tp the college days when we heard Finney, and felt again the thrill of his overpowering eloquence. We thought him then to be the prince of preachers and evangelists, a judg ment we have never reversed. He was . . . a man of nature and of the desert, unspoiled by society, and untram meled by the . . . regulations of the schools, but taught of God and filled with the Holy Ghost. God had His giant at last:" After abput two years of special Bible study following his conversion, Mr. Finney was licensed to preach, and was prepared to take up God’s cause in earnest. The Bible was his chief textbook, the Holy Spirit his Teacher, prayer his strength, and he was prepared to go forth declaring that others might receive the marvel ous experience which he possessed. Grounded in a know-so redemption, he proclaimed to o t h e r s they too might have the divine witness that they had been born .anew. Prayer That Prevailed Finney firmly believed that nothing could be effected in a revival except through prayer and by the Spirit’s special aid. At Evans Mills, New York, his first pastorate after receiv ing his license to preach, F i n n e y formed a lasting friendship with a minister named Father Nash, whom he had met first at the Presbytery where he had been licensed. Since then Nash had suffered a breakdown due to inflamed eyes; consequently
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