THE KING’S BUSINESS
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ers. But. here you ‘ are praying on, and complaining still.” This was sharp talk and a severe arraign ment, coming from a young man who made no profession of religion. Was it much to be wondered at if the pastor and brethren looked askance at the bold assailant, and hinted to Some of their young people to be careful of too intimate association with him ? Did Mr. Finney, who confesses that he was irritated when he made this reply, judge the people too harshly, more harshly than their Lord? True, perhaps, they had no faith or next to none, yet they had desire- enough to meet once a week to pray for a better state of things. Maybe they had not much, if any, expectation of God’s doing anything, but at any rate they had enough interest in Finney and enough expectation from God to lead them to want to pray for him. And was not God answering their prayers for a revival in His dealings with Finney, whom He was shaping to be the hu man instrument through whom He was go ing to send such revivals as that generation had never known? WHO MAY JUDGE? Thank God we have to do with one who glories in not breaking the bruised reed nor quenching the smoking- flax. We are neither defending the “fearful saints” of Adams nor excusing them for their ignor ance of God’s Word nor their low state of spirituality; but we cannot heartily approve of the attack made by one who at this time was in somewhat the same condition as the blind man who saw men as trees walking. At this time Mr. Finney often engaged in the discussion of theological questions with Mr. Gale, whose hyper-Calvinism he could not reconcile with the plain opposing state ments of the Bible. The independent and enquiring young lawyer could not accept great doctrinal statements on the authority of theologians, however learned. This at titude occasioned Mr. Gale a good deal of uneasiness, as Mr. Finney was the acknowl edged leader of the young people. The Word of God was doing Jts quiet, convicting work in the young man’s life.
Is it not interesting to note how God was leading the future evangelist by a way that he knew no t! How little did Moses dream where his curiosity in a bush burning on the hillside would lead him! The story-tract on his father’s library table was to land Hudson Taylor in China, and thousands of others connected with the China Inland Mis sion, but how little he. suspected it that idle afternoon! The Labrador was a long way from London and farther from the mind of the young medical student who dropped in to hear Mr. Moody out of mere curiosity, but that was where Dr. Grenfell was going to be sent by the Master to whom he sur rendered himself that day. LOST IN THE FOG Unconsciously almost, the budding lawyer advanced from looking up legal references in the Bible to reading the Bible because he was interested in its message. One re sult of this was that, he began to compare Mr. Gale’s preaching with the Bible’s teach ing and he decided that it was far from Scriptural—at least as he understood the Scriptures. He became profoundly con vinced also'that there was something wrong with the prayer meeting, where the attend ants were always asking God to do things in answer to their prayers, yet never ex pecting Him to do them, and never seeing them done. Indeed Mr. Finney scandalized •some of the good brethren who asked him if he did not desire that they should pray for him by confessing that he did not, be cause he did not see that God answered their prayers, and’he went on to say: “I suppose I need to be prayed for, for I am conscious that I am a sinner; but I do not see that it will do any good for you to pray for me; for you are continually asking, but you do nQt receive. You have been praying for a revival of religion ever since I have been in Adams, and yet you have it not. You have been praying for the Holy Spirit to descend upon yourselves, and yet complaining of your leanness. You have prayed enough since I have attended these meetings to have prayed the devil out of Adams, if there is any virtue in your pray
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