REVIVALS AT ANTWERP, "SODOM," GOUVERNEUR, AND DEKALB

There was a village by the name of Antwerp, north of Evans' Mills, The township was largely owned by a rich land-owner of Ogdensburg, who had built a brick meeting-house to encourage settlement. The meetinghouse was locked up, and the hotel-keeper carried the key. A Presbyterian elder, living five miles away, had tried to carry on Sabbath services, until the ungodly Universalists, through whose community he had to pass, would take off the wheels of his carriage, and make it impossible for him to get to the meeting. All religious services were abandoned, and the devil seemed to rule supreme. Finney went there, and found three praying women. They feared it would be impossible to hold a religious service; but one of these Christian sisters opened her parlor. Finney went around and invited the people, and got together an audience of thirteen, and preached to them on Friday night, and announced a service on the Sabbath, for which Finney himself secured the schoolhouse. On Saturday, as he was going about the village, if seemed to him as if the men playing ball on the green, and in every business place, were all cursing and swearing and damning each other. He thought he had never heard so much profanity, and felt as if he had arrived upon the borders of hell. An awful feeling, a kind of terror, took possession of him. He betook himself to prayer, and pressed his petition until the answer came: "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city." This completely relieved him of fear.

Sunday morning he went to the woods three times, and prayed for the people until relief came, It was then meeting time. The house was packed. He took for his text John iii, 16. He largely dwelt on the treatment God received for His love. He pointed out men in the audience whom he had heard damning each other the day before, and told them they seemed "to howl blasphemy about the streets like hell-hounds, until it seemed to him he had arrived on the verge of hell."

"I felt like rebuking them with all my heart, and yet with a compassion which they could not mistake. It seemed as if my love to God, in view of the abuse they heaped upon Him, sharpened up my mind to the most intense agony. It seemed to myself as if I could rain hail and love upon them at the same time. The people quailed under the message. They did not appear offended; but they wept about as much as I did myself. From that day, appoint a meeting when and where I would, the people would throng to hear, and the work went forward with great power."

Would to God that all of us who are called to preach would learn this simple lesson from this great preacher's experience! The way to preach these stern truths and the judgments of God is with weeping eyes and a compassionate heart, "Sodom."

Now comes that remarkable incident that shows how the Spirit of God guided and used Finney. On the third Sabbath at Antwerp an aged man came to him as he was entering the pulpit, and asked him to come out and preach in his schoolhouse, three miles distant, where they had never had any services. An appointment was made for the next day at five o'clock in the afternoon, It was a warm day, but the schoolhouse was packed. Finney gave out a hymn, which the people "bawled" out in such awful discords that he had to cover his ears to shut out the distressing sounds. He then dropped on his knees, in a state of desperation, and began to pray. He says: "The Lord opened the windows of heaven, and the Spirit of prayer was poured out, and I let my whole heart out in Prayer."

He immediately rose from his knees, and God gave him this text, "Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city." He told them he did not recollect exactly where the text was; but he went on to tell the story of Abraham and Lot and the destruction of Sodom. He saw that, for some unaccountable reason, they were very angry while he was giving the narrative, But when he had finished that, he turned upon them, and said he had understood that they had never had a religious service in that place, and he was compelled to take it for granted that they were an ungodly people. He pressed it home upon them with more and more energy, and with a heart almost bursting. Suddenly an awful solemnity seemed to settle upon them. The congregation began to fall from their seats and cry for mercy. He wrote:

"If I had had a sword in each hand I could not have cut them off .their seats as fast as they fell. I think the whole congregation were on their knees or prostrate in two minutes. Every one prayed for himself who could speak at all.

"I saw the old man who had invited me to preach sitting in the middle of the house, and looking around in utter amazement. I raised my voice almost to a scream, and, pointing to him, said, 'Can't you pray?' He instantly fell upon his knees, and poured out his soul in a stentorian voice to God. The people did not hear. Then I said to them as loud as I could, 'You are not in hell yet; let me direct you to Christ.'"

The explanation of this strange scene was this, as Finney afterward learned: The community was so desperately wicked that with one consent they called themselves "Sodom," and the only Christian in it was the old man who had invited Finney to preach; and they had named him "Lot." Hence their anger at the Bible Story, and the explanation of the wonderful leading of the Holy Ghost.

Finney pointed one, and another, and another to Jesus, and they found peace. He had to go to another preaching service, and left the meeting in the charge of the old man, whose name was Mr. Cross. "There was too much interest, and there were too many wounded souls to dismiss the meeting, and so it was held all night. In the morning there were still those that were prostrate and helpless, and they were carried to a private house in the neighborhood to make room for the day-school."

Finney preached there again, and the community was renovated. The converts were sound, and the work, so sudden and noisy in its beginning, was permanent and genuine. A grandson of that old man, Rev. R. T. Cross, graduated from Oberlin, and was at the head of the Preparatory Department when I was a student in Oberlin College. His father, a son of the old man, was converted in that ever-memorable meeting, and became a minister.

We have mentioned the Universalist neighborhood, whose people took the wheels off the elder's carriage to vent their hatred of God. Finney was invited to preach there, and he did so, With that holy boldness that ever characterized him, he took for his text, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" The scene was similar to that in Sodom. Conviction fell upon the whole assembly, and the people with one heart turned to God.

The reader will miss the secret of Finney's success in preaching the gospel to these excessively wicked communities if he fails to bear in mind, first, that. he was filled with the Holy Spirit; second, that the intensity of his religious convictions and his courage in presenting the stern truths were fully matched by the tenderness of his heart. "His words of rebuke were not those of one who loved denunciation; they were rather like the faithful probing of the surgeon who knows full well the gravity of the case. When his words of rebuke had accomplished their design, he then, with tears, set forth the love of God and the atoning mercy of Christ." Furthermore, his preaching was intensely Scriptural, and a sermon would consist largely in expounding some great truth of the Bible.

In October, 1824, Finney married Miss Lydia Andrews, a young lady of the highest personal qualities, who had been deeply interested in praying for his conversion. After three days he went to Evans' Mills to spend the Sabbath, expecting to return for his wife the next week. But revivals broke out in so many places, and calls were so abundant to preach, that he plunged into the work night and day, and never saw his wife until the following spring.

"It would," as Professor Wright has well observed, "be doing the keenest injustice to Finney to attribute this long separation from his wife, so soon after their marriage, to any indifference of feeling, It is to be taken purely as an index of the strength of his devotion to the ministerial work to which he felt himself called. For, throughout his life he was passionately devoted to his family, and was never separated from them except upon occasion of necessity, and then with much self-sacrifice and solicitude."

In the early spring, before the sleighing broke up, he started to get to his wife, one hundred miles away. He had to stop at the town of LeRaysville to have the shoes of his horse reset, It was about noon. No sooner did the people learn that he was in town, .than they gathered about him, and begged him to speak at one o'clock. He did so. The interest was so great that he felt constrained to remain over night. This he did from day to day, gathering souls in such numbers that he did not dare to leave the work, and finally was compelled to send another man to bring his wife to him, The great mass of the people were converted, and among them Judge C____, the leading man in the community.

GOUVERNEUR

While laboring at Antwerp, the wicked people of Gouverneur, twelve miles distant, threatened to come down and mob Finney and break up his meetings. He paid no attention to it, But months afterward, the Holy Spirit, while he was in prayer; revealed to him in a most explicit way, as clear as the light, that he must go and preach in Gouverneur, and that God would pour out His Spirit there. He afterward saw a man from Gouverneur, and told him of this revelation. He stared at Finney as if he were insane. But Finney charged him to go home and report to the brethren that he was coming, and for them to prepare for the outpouring of the Spirit. Father Nash had joined himself to Finney, and was sent ahead to explore the place, find the spiritual condition, and report to him. Finney sent him back to announce his coming on a certain day.

He writes: "There was a general turning out of the people. The Lord gave me a text, and I went into the pulpit, and let my heart out to the people. The Word took powerful effect." This brief quotation is an epitome of much of Finney's life during these eventful and fruitful years. He had literal revelations from God. God gave him his texts, much of the time, without previous meditation as to what he should preach. When he preached he truly "poured out his heart," and the Holy Spirit caused the Word to take instant and powerful effect, Would to God we had more of such Spirit-filled preachers!

The village hotel was kept by Dr. S____, a confirmed and avowed Universalist. The next day, after the first sermon, Finney found all the Universalists and their leader, Dr. S____, in a shop, and intent on having a debate on the subject. Finney agreed, but insisted on preliminary conditions: First, to take up one point at a time; secondly, that they should not interrupt one another; thirdly, that there should be no caviling or mere banter, but only candor and courtesy in debate. Finney showed that endless punishment was a Bible doctrine. The Universalist held that endless punishment was unjust, and that, if the Bible taught it, it could not be true. Finney then closed in with him on the justice of endless punishment. Soon the friends became greatly agitated; then one left the shop, then another, and another, until the leader was left alone, When he had nothing more to say, Finney tenderly urged him to attend to his personal salvation, and then kindly bade him good-morning.

The doctor went home from that conversation, walked his house in agony, and finally told his wife, with tears, that Finney had turned his weapons on his own head. He soon surrendered to Christ, In a few days his companions, one after another, were brought in, till the revival made a clean sweep of them.

The Baptist Church began to oppose the revival. This encouraged a set of young men to join hand in hand to strengthen each other in opposition to the work, and their resistance was peculiarly bitter and strong. Father Nash and Mr. Finney, after a consultation, decided that this opposition must be overcome by prayer, and that it could not be reached in any other way. They therefore retired to a grove, and give themselves to prayer until they prevailed, and were confident that no power which earth or hell could interpose would be allowed to stop the revival.

Finney preached, and Father Nash gave himself continually to prayer. At one of the Sabbath meetings the young men were all present, and sat braced up against the Spirit of God. "It was too solemn for them to ridicule what they heard and saw; and yet their brazen-facedness and stiff-neckedness were apparent to everybody." Father Nash addressed them With great earnestness, pointing out the guilt and danger of their course, closing in great warmth with these words: "Now, mark me, young men! God will break your ranks in one week, either by converting some of you, or by sending some of you to hell. He will do it as certainly as the Lord is my God!" He then dropped on his knees and groaned with pain.

The house was still as death, and the people held down their heads. Finney regretted that Father Nash, in his mighty faith, had gone so far, thus committing God to convert some or send some to hell within a week. But, sure enough, on Tuesday morning the leader of the band broke down and was converted, and before the week closed nearly all of them.

This Father Nash was almost as unique and wonderful a character as Finney himself, and was on terms of marvelous intimacy with God. He became a marked subject of attack from those ministers who banded together to oppose Finney. His detractors averred that it was impossible for Father Nash to pray in secret, even though he Shut the door of his closet or retired Into the depths of the forest, since "they could hear him pray half a mile off." One morning, before sunrise, he rose up, as was his custom, and went back to a grove fifty rods from the road to have a season of prayer alone. A man living a long distance away heard the voice, and knew that it was Father Nash in prayer. It brought a profound sense of the reality of religion to him, and lodged an arrow in his heart. He found no relief from it until Jesus, the Healer, touched his convicted soul.

The work in this place was greatly hindered for a time by the shameful proselytizing of the Baptist pastor and people. They had first opposed the revival; but when there came to be many scores of converts, then they began to preach immersion and to proselyte. The disgraceful procedure went on until the Spirit was grieved, and there was not a convert for six weeks. Finney was compelled to speak on baptism, and was so fair in his discussion that all hearts were touched, sectarianism and narrowness were put to shame, and the blessed Spirit returned with great power, until the great majority of the people in the community were converted to Christ. (Memoirs, Chapter 10.)

From Gouverneur, Finney went to DeKalb, a village sixteen miles farther to the north. Here there were Presbyterians and Methodists, and ill-feeling had grown up between them because, in a previous revival led by the Methodists, a number of cases of people falling prostrate under the power of God had taken place, and the Presbyterians had made light of it and resisted the work, But now the tables were to be turned. Finney had preached but a few times when a man fell from his seat near the door. It caused Finney a little uneasiness for fear the old feud would start up; but lo! this time it was a leading member of the Presbyterian Church, In this revival there were many such instances, and in every case they were Presbyterians. This led to their humiliation and confession, and the binding together of Christians in Christian union and love most favorable to the work. An elder of the Church received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Some of the leading people of Ogdensburg came down to visit the meeting over Sunday, among them Elder S_____ of the Presbyterian Church, The Spirit-filled Elder B____ invited S____ to his house for refreshment, Sunday noon, As they sat at the table, Elder S____ asked Elder B____ how he got this blessing. B____ replied: "I stopped lying to God. All my Christian life I have been making pretenses, and asking God for things that I was not, on the whole, willing to have; and I had gone on and prayed as other people prayed, and often had been insincere, and really lied to God. As soon as I made up my mind that I would never say anything to God in prayer that I did not really mean, God answered me, and the Spirit came down, and I was filled with the Holy Ghost."

"Mr. S____, who had not yet commenced to eat, shoved his chair back from the table, fell on his knees, and began to confess how he had lied to God, and how he had played the hypocrite in his prayers as well as in his life. The Holy Ghost fell upon him immediately, and filled him as full as he could hold." (Page 139.)

In this fullness of blessing he rushed into the church, and into the pulpit, caught Finney in his arms, and cried, "God bless you; God bless you!" He then began to speak to the people in the power of the Holy Spirit, and people melted on every side, among others his own son. The Roman Catholic who had come from Ogdensburg to measure Finney for a suit of clothes was converted on the spot, and began to testify. Thereupon people were converted on every side. There was no chance to preach. Finney could Only sit still and see the salvation of the Lord, by the spontaneous movement of the Holy Ghost in convicting and converting sinners. These people, returning to Ogdensburg, called and prayed and conversed with people along the way, and thus the work spread clear to the city.

We might pause here long enough to express the wish that a multitude of people would stop "lying to the Holy Spirit," The number of people is legion who pray for the baptism with the Holy Ghost, but who, in their hearts, are not willing to pay the price and meet the responsibility involved in receiving the blessing, It is almost safe to say that a thousand ministers pray for this blessing for every one who is really willing to die to sin and self and the world, and live ever and Only for God in holiness of heart.

In October, Finney went to Utica, with his wife, to attend the Synod. It led, as we shall see, to larger and more gracious work than he had yet known. It was preceded by remarkable experiences in prayer. All these revivals of which we have been writing were carried on in the spirit and power of prayer. "Christians would take alarm at any tendency to fanaticism or disorder, and give themselves to prayer that God would direct and control all things." "It was common for young converts to be greatly exercised in prayer, and in some instances they were constrained to pray whole nights, and until their bodily strength was quite exhausted, for the conversion of souls around them."

"In regard to my own experience," Finney writes, 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 personal conversation. For several weeks before going to the Synod I was very strongly exercised in prayer, and had an experience somewhat new to me. I found myself so much exercised, and so borne down with the weight of immortal souls, that I was constrained to pray without ceasing. Some of my experiences, indeed, alarmed me. A spirit of importunity sometimes came upon me so that I would say to God that He had made a promise to answer prayer, and I could not, and would not, be denied. I felt so certain that He would hear me that frequently I found myself saying to Him: 'I hope Thou dost not think that I can be denied. I come with Thy faithful promises in my hand, and I can not be denied.' I can not tell how absurd unbelief looked to me, and how certain it was, in my mind, that God would answer those prayers that from day to day I was offering in such agony and faith. My impression was that the answer was near, even at the door; and I felt myself strengthened in the Divine life, put on the harness for a mighty conflict with the powers of darkness, and expected soon to see a far more powerful outpouring of the Spirit of God." God) did not disappoint His believing child.