Times of Refreshing

C. L.Thompson

Comparing one with another the various waves of revival power that have passed over portions of our country within the past one hundred and forty years, it is noticeable that in some the human agents have appeared in groups, with perhaps some one central figure, more prominent than the rest; while in others the human agency has been almost exclusively that of some one man. Of the latter sort are the revivals that have been associated with the name of Charles G. Finney. Contemplated on their human side, these revivals appear in the light of history to have been very largely due to his personal influence and labors. Let it not be supposed that for this reason there has been in them more of man and less of God, or that any more honor is due to the human instrument than if the labor had been shared by so many that no one name could legitimately appear in history at all.

Mr. Finney's personal prominence in these great revivals serves to simplify their study as bearing upon the philosophy of revivals—the relation of the human element to the divine. It becomes mainly the study of one man. Naturally it must contemplate this one man as a preacher of the gospel, for the pulpit must be the throne of his power. To reach the sources of his pulpit power, we must needs study his original endowments, mental and moral; his antecedent education; his experiences at the point of his conversion and in his subsequent spiritual life; his practical views of the gospel scheme; his way of putting the great truths of the gospel before his hearers; and, if last, not least, his power with God in prayer.

Mr. Finney was born in Warren, Conn. August 29th 1792; but at the age of two years was removed with his parents to Oneida county. N. Y., and, shortly after, to Jefferson county, near Lake Ontario, then a very new settlement and but scantily supplied with higher schools or instructive preaching. His own narrative (“Autobiography:” A. S. Barnes & Co.1876) speaks of attending common schools summer and winter till the age of fifteen, after which he enjoyed still better opportunities in high schools for some three years in New Jersey, and spent also considerable time in teaching. He never enjoyed the advantages of a college course, but readily mastered the branches taught then in the higher schools, and ultimately obtained some knowledge of Latin, Greek, and, in later years, of Hebrew. Three years (1818—1821) he devoted to the study and practice of the law—a training which developed in his mind the great principles of law and jurisprudence; prepared him in some points for Bible study by schooling him in the science of interpretation; and, moreover, through his practice at the bar, initiated him into the skill of direct personal address, thinking on his feet, and adjusting his appeals to the men before him and the very case in hand. It is remarkable that the Bible was first brought to his particular notice by the references to it, which he met in his law books. So he bought his first Bible to add to his law library.

It was during these years of his law studies (then aged 26—29) that he was gradually brought face to face with religious truth and the claims of God upon his heart. Leading the choir in church, and hence mainly constant in attendance; occasionally dropping into a prayer meeting, and there struck with the fact that so many prayers were apparently unanswered, while yet the Scripture promises seemed to him very definite and strong; agitating profoundly the question whether the Bible must be accepted as from God; his mind opening more and more to the mighty conviction of personal responsibility to his Maker—to a sense of sin and of personal need of a Redeemer— he came at length to see that he must be born again and to feel that now is the accepted time. With his natural simplicity and frankness he tells us in his narrative of his conversion (p. 12), how he found himself very proud without having been aware of it; how he kept shy of religious people, put his Bible out of sight, and dared not pray above his breath, and yet how some unknown power held the truth pressing more and more upon his conscience. At the vital point (in his own words) “something seemed to confront me with questions like these—indeed it seemed as if the inquiry was within myself, as if an inward voice said to me: 'what are you waiting for? Did you not promise to give your heart to God? And what are you trying to do? Would you work out a righteousness of your own?'

“Just at this point the whole question of gospel salvation opened to my mind in a manner most marvellous to me at the time. I think I then saw, as clearly as I ever have in my life, the reality and fullness of the atonement of Christ. I saw that his was a finished work, and that instead of having or needing any righteousness of my own to recommend me to God, I had to submit myself to the righteousness of God through Christ. Gospel salvation seemed to me to be an offer of something to be accepted; and that it was full and complete, and all that was necessary on my part was to get my own consent to give up my sins and accept Christ. Salvation, it seemed to me, instead of being a thing to be wrought out by my own works, was a thing to be found entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ, who presented himself before me as my God and Savior. After this distinct revelation had stood for some little time before my mind, the question seemed to be put, 'Will you accept it now, to-day?' I replied 'Yes, I will accept it today, or I will die in the attempt.'” (“ Biography,” p. 13—14.)

Having found a closet in the forest, a yet deeper sense of his great pride came over him: “Just at this moment I again thought I heard some one approach me, and I opened my eyes to see whether it were so. Right there I saw that my pride of heart was the great difficulty in my way. An overwhelming sense of my wickedness in being ashamed to have a human being see me on my knees before God took such powerful possession of me that I cried at the top of my voice and exclaimed that I would not leave that place though all the men on earth and all the devils in hell should surround me. 'What!' I said, 'such a degraded sinner as I am, on my knees confessing my sins to the great and holy God, yet ashamed to have any human being, and a sinner like myself, find me on my knees endeavoring to make my peace with my offended God!' The sin appeared awful, infinite. It broke me down before the Lord.”

“Just at this point this passage of scripture seemed to drop into my mind with a flood of light: 'then shall ye go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. Then shall ye seek me, and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart.' Instantly I seized hold of this with my heart. I had believed the Bible before intellectually, but never had the truth been in my mind that faith was a voluntary trust instead of an intellectual state. I was as conscious as I was of my existence, of trusting at that moment in God's veracity. Somehow I knew that was a passage of scripture, though I do not think I had ever read it. I knew it was God's word, and God's voice, as it were, that spoke to me. I cried to Him, “Lord, I take thee at thy word. Now thou knowest that I do search for thee with all my heart, and that I have come here to pray to thee; and thou hast promised to hear me.”

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He then gave me other promises, especially some most precious promises respecting Jesus Christ. I can never in words make any human being understand how precious and true those promises appeared to me. I took them one after the other as infallible truth—the assertions of God who could not lie. They did not seem so much to fall into my intellect as into my heart, to be put within the grasp of my voluntary powers of mind, and I seized hold of them, appropriated them and fastened upon them with the grasp of a drowning man.”

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“The question whether I was converted had not occurred to me, but on my way back I recollect saying with great emphasis, 'If I am ever converted, I will preach the Gospel.” Then came a peace of soul, which he could not understand. At first it led him to fear he had grieved the Spirit. He says (page 18): “The repose of my mind was unspeakably great. I can never describe it in words. The thought of God was sweet; the most profound spiritual tranquillity had taken full possession of me.”

Another scene, evincing the depth and power of his feelings, he puts thus (page 19): “As I went into the office alone and shut the door after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus face to face. It did not occur to me then, nor did it for some time afterward, that it was wholly a mental state. On the contrary, it seemed to me that I saw him as I would see any other man. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me right down at his feet. I have always since regarded this as a most remarkable state of mind; for it seemed to me a reality that he stood before me, and I fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a child; I made such confessions as I could with my choked utterance. It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears; and yet I had no distinct impression that I touched him, that I recollect.”

Closely following this came a mighty baptism of the Spirit, of which he says (page 20): “Without any expectation of it, without even having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love; for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense wings. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love.”

Certain circumstances suggested to his mind some doubt as to the nature and significance of this baptism, but another recurrence of it brought his soul to rest. “When I awoke (page 22) in the morning, the sun had risen and was pouring a clear light into my room. Words cannot express the impression that this sunlight made upon me. Instantly the baptism that I had received the night before returned upon me. I rose upon my knees in the bed and wept aloud with joy, and remained for some time too much overwhelmed with the baptism of the Spirit to do anything but pour out my soul to God. It seemed as if this morning's baptism was accompanied with a gentle reproof and the Spirit seemed to say to me, 'Will you doubt? Will you doubt?' I cried—'No! I will not doubt; I cannot doubt!' He then cleared the subject so much to my mind that it was impossible for me to doubt that the Spirit of God had taken possession of my soul.”

Then followed a conscious experience of justification by faith, presented by himself in these words: “In this state I was taught the doctrine of justification by faith as a present experience. I had never thought of it distinctly as a fundamental doctrine of the gospel, nor did I well understand its proper meaning. But now I could see what was meant by the words, 'Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' I could see that the moment I believed, while up in the woods, all sense of condemnation dropped entirely out of my mind. From that moment I could not feel a sense of guilt or condemnation by any effort that I could make. My sense of guilt was gone; my sins were gone; and I do not think I felt any more sense of guilt than if I had never sinned.”

Whoever would fathom Mr. Finney's power in revivals, must take his first soundings here, in his experiences at the point of his conversion. To know him, we must know his heart—the great depth and intensity of his emotional nature; the transparent clearness of his apprehensions of God, of Christ, and of the Spirit, and of the overwhelming power of those apprehensions upon his will—his purposes of life, his whole character. Whatever may be thought of these experiences as an average model and standard by which all genuine conversions are to be estimated, none can reasonably doubt that in his case they were thoroughly genuine and honest, penetrating to the very depths of his soul and transforming his heart into love and obedience to God. “ If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; all things have become new.”

This doctrine of Paul is at one with both his own experience and that of Mr. Finney with both, conversion had a mighty significance; opened a new world of truth to the mind's eye; a new life for the whole activities of the soul. Paul says of himself: “ Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, but forthwith preached the faith I once destroyed;” and even so Mr. Finney; his unassuming narrative shows that forthwith he laid hold of men on the right hand and on the left, to “save them with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” In his own words (page 25): “I soon sallied forth from the office to converse with those I should meet about their souls. I had the impression, which has never left my mind, that God wanted me to preach the gospel, and that I must begin immediately. I somehow seemed to know it. If you ask me how I knew it, I cannot tell how I knew it any more than I can tell how I knew it was the love of God and the baptism of the Holy Ghost that I had received. I did somehow know it with a certainty that was past all possibility of doubt, and so I seemed to know that the Lord commissioned me to preach the Gospel.”

In his characteristic way he tells us how he closed off his law business. Dea. B. came into the office and said, “Mr. Finney, you recollect my case is to be tried at ten o'clock this morning; I suppose you are ready.” (I had been retained as his attorney on this case.) I replied to him, “Dea. B. I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause, and I cannot plead yours.”

Forthwith he began. His words were barbed arrows sharp and fast in the heart of the King's enemies. The work pervaded the village, and spread outward in every direction through the country.

But before we follow the track of his evangelistic labors, particular attention should be given to two points, (a) his personal experience in prayer; (b) the truths he preached and the points of personal duty which he impressed upon the hearts of men.

(a) As to prayer, let us recall those first impressions, which he received when he stepped into prayer meetings and was struck with the difference between the amount asked for and the amount received. Manifestly his view of real prayer will be drawn, not from conventional notions or usages, but from the revealed promises and the perfect veracity of God. Hence prayer must needs have with him a very great significance. It brought him face to face with God. It meant the pleading of promise—an asking that grew out of conscious want and sought the promised supply. How it brought him into debate with God and an urgent pleading that could not be denied may perhaps be put best in his own words, thus: (p. 142) “In regard to my own experience I will say that unless I had the spirit 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. In this respect my experience was what it has always been. For several weeks before I left De Kalb I was very strongly exercised in prayer, and had an experience that was 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, and that faithfulness to his promises and to himself rendered it impossible that he should not 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 cannot be denied.' I cannot tell how absurd unbelief looked to me, and how certain it was, in my mind, that God would answer prayer—those prayers which from day to day and from hour to hour I found myself offering in such agony and faith. I had no idea of the shape the answer would take, the locality in which the prayers would be answered, or the exact time of the answer. 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 in that new country where I had been laboring.” It should also be said that a spirit of most importunate prayer prevailed extensively in those revivals. In some instances young converts were constrained by their burdens for souls, to pray whole nights, and until their bodily strength was quite exhausted. (See page 141.)

(b) As to the truths he preached and the points made most prominent and pressed most earnestly, it must suffice to say: He justified God's ways and condemned the sinner's. He preached everywhere that men must repent, or perish; must accept Jesus, or be lost, he found men abusing the doctrine of gracious help from God under the notion that God must give them a new heart before they could repent, and they must wait till he did; and that at the utmost they could do nothing more or better than to pray for God to do his antecedent work. According to his own statements (Autobiography, p. 189), “Instead of telling sinners to use the means of grace and pray for a new heart, we called on them to make themselves a new heart and a new spirit, and pressed the duty of instant surrender to God. We told them the Spirit was striving with them to induce them now to give him their hearts, now to believe and to enter at once upon a life of devotion to Christ, of faith and love and Christian obedience. We taught them that while they were praying for the Holy Spirit, they were constantly resisting him; and that if they would at once yield to their own convictions of duty they would be Christians. We tried to show them that everything they did or said before they had submitted, believed, given their hearts to God, was all sin, was not that which God required them to do, but was simply deferring repentance and resisting the Holy Ghost.” “We insisted on immediate submission as the only thing that God could accept at their hands; and that all delay, under any pretext whatever, is rebellion against God. Under this teaching it was very common for persons to be convicted and converted in the course of a few hours, and sometimes in a few minutes” (p. 190).

If space could be afforded here, it would throw a flood of light upon the great spiritual forces in these revivals to present fully his way of putting the great themes of gospel truth. “ Few preachers in any age have surpassed Pres. Finney in clear and well-defined views of conscience and of man's moral convictions; few have been more fully at home in the domain of law and government; few have learned more of the spiritual life from experience and from observation; not many have discriminated the true from the false more closely, or have been more skillful in putting their points clearly and pungently.” A volume of sermons reported from his lips, and subsequently indorsed by himself, entitled, “Gospel Themes” (Oberlin: E. P. Goodrich, publisher, 1876), will give the reader a just view of what he preached; how he put his points; how he made them clear by statement and illustration, and then, by most impassioned personal appeal, pressed them home upon the heart and the conscience.

We resume our narrative. In the spring of 1822, Mr. Finney put himself under the care of Presbytery as a student of theology, and was placed under the special direction of Rev. Geo. W. Gale, then pastor of the church in Adams. His narrative shows, however, that the Bible became the fountain of his theology, and that his studies were guided by the intuitions of his own mind and the wisdom he sought constantly and fervently from above. After two years Presbytery gave him their license to preach. With modest views of his attainments, he remarks in substance (p. 61), “ Having had no regular training for the ministry, I did not expect or desire to labor in large towns or cities, or minister to cultivated congregations. I therefore took a commission from a Female Missionary Society of Oneida county and went into the new settlements in the North part of Jefferson County.” Everywhere he preached the word with boldness; everywhere the word preached was with power. It is utterly impossible by any general statements to give the reader the same vivid conception of the results, which he would get from the preacher's own graphic and often-minute narrative. The first case is perhaps as good for a specimen as any—that at Evans' Mills. Think of him in a stone schoolhouse filled with people, among them the merest sprinkling of professed Christians. After a few sermons, but no such fruits as he sought, he brought one meeting to a close by saying, in substance: “You compliment my preaching, but you do not turn from your sins. I came here, not to amuse you, but to save your souls. I cannot spend my time here unless you will receive the gospel. Now deal truly with me and my Master. If ye will receive God's message through me, tell me, and I stay; if not, tell me, and I go. I must have your decision. If aye, then rise; if nay, keep your seats.” All remained sitting, as he expected. Then, after looking round upon them a few moments, he said: “You are committed; you have taken your stand; God is witness; you reject Christ and his gospel.” They began to look angry, and rising, started for the door. He said, “I am sorry for you; the Lord willing, I will preach to-morrow evening.”

There was no small stir in that place. At first, many were deeply offended; some cursed the preacher; said he had got them under an oath not to become Christians. But they came once more; packed the house; he opened upon them from these words: “Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Wo to the wicked; it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” “The Spirit of God came upon me with such power that it was like opening a battery upon them. For more than an hour, and perhaps an hour and a half the Word of God came through me to them in a manner that I could see was carrying all before it. It was a fire and a hammer breaking the rock; and as a sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. I saw that a general conviction was spreading over the whole congregation. Many of them could not hold up their heads.” During the ensuing night, he was sent for several times to visit persons under awful distress of mind. The great power of God swept through the community.

His own published narrative sketches vividly his labors, first in those new settlements in Northern New York; thence onward into Oneida Co., at Western, Rome and Utica; then westward to Rochester in 1830-31 where the city, then of ten thousand people, was profoundly moved, and the converts were estimated at eight hundred. He labored there again in 1842 when one thousand were converted; and again, in 1856 when nearly another thousand were added to the Lord. The work in this city received a great impulse from a course of sermons preached to men in the legal profession, great numbers of whom, were converted.

Worn down with his protracted labors in Rochester; he journeyed East, and stopped at Auburn to rest awhile. The awakened people could not let him rest. Restricting himself rigidly to less than half his accustomed work be preached there six weeks. The converts were estimated at five hundred. He labored in many other cities, Philadelphia, Reading, Boston and Providence; in New York City from 1832 to 1835, where he became pastor of a church worshiping in Chatham St. Chapel, removing ultimately into Broadway Tabernacle. In June 1835, he removed to Oberlin; taught in the Theological Department, and preached as pastor of the First Congregational Church till nearly eighty years of age. During this period he spent several winter vacations elsewhere in Evangelistic labors, especially in Rochester and Boston. Twice he visited England, viz., in the autumn of 1849, and again in December, 1858; remaining about one year and a half on each visit. In England as well as in America, his preaching was with power and many were turned to the Lord.

An inside view of his revival work as developed in Rochester has been well given by Rev. Dr. Charles P. Bush, in a paper prepared for the memorial day devoted to reminiscences of Prof. Finney at the commencement next following his decease. The extracts below are in point. “At first his preaching was addressed almost exclusively to professors of religion, with hardly a word to the impenitent; but the duties and responsibilities of the Christian life were so portrayed as absolutely to amaze and frighten the cold and backslidden professor. The sins of worldliness, lukewarmness, and neglect of duty were set in startling colors. There was indeed something fearful in those sermons, so searching, scorching, withering; and yet no one could find fault with them, for they were drawn directly from the Word of God. He had a 'Thus saith the Lord' for every statement; and the Holy Spirit was evidently attending every word spoken and carrying conviction to every mind. Indeed the very atmosphere of the place seemed surcharged with the solemnity of eternity; and there was in the speaker the dignity and majesty of one of the old prophets. His words were like flames of fire. False hopes were consumed like tow by their touch. Backsliders were brought trembling and astonished to the feet of the Savior to ask for mercy. Reconciliation’s were effected among estranged brethren. Confessions, sad and pitiable, fell from penitent lips. Forgiveness was sought and found at the mercy-seat; all were melted together in love and new consecration to the Master

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The church being thus shaken as by an earthquake, and Christians aroused to pray fervently for God's blessing, Mr. Finney was prepared to preach to sinners. He began with the law, showing what its requirements are, what its penalties, and how just they are, how absolutely necessary to the order and stability of the universe; how even the law itself, as really as the Gospel, demonstrates the goodness of the divine Being; amid therefore how fearful a thing it must be to sin against such a lawgiver and against all the interests of the universe.

“There was something fearful in those sermons also. Indeed, it almost makes one shudder, even after this lapse of years, to recall some of them, that especially from the text: 'The wages of sin is death.' The preacher's imagination was as vivid as his logic was inexorable. After laying down self-evident principles of human nature and of divine government, then drawing out scripture truth touching the same, making all plain and irresistible by argument and illustration, how he rung the charges on that word 'wages' as he described the condition of the lost soul. 'You will get your wages, just what you have earned, your due; nothing more, nothing less; and as the smoke of your torment, like a thick cloud, ascends forever and everyone will see written upon its curling folds in great staring letters of light, this awful word wages, wages, WAGES!'

“As the preacher uttered this sentence he stood at his full height, tall and majestic—stood as if transfixed—gazing, and pointing toward the emblazoned cloud as it seemed to roll up before him; his shrill, clear voice rising to its highest pitch and penetrating every nook and corner of the vast assembly. People held their breath. Every heart stood still. It was almost enough to raise the dead; there were no sleepers within the sound of that clarion voice. And yet that same mighty man, when speaking of the love of Christ or the peril of a soil in its sins, was as great in tenderness and pity as before in majesty and truth; himself moved to tears and entreaties enough to break a heart of stone. Many seem to think of him only as the stern, uncompromising preacher of righteousness. He was that, and more also—a Paul in doctrine, but touching and tender as John himself in his delineations of divine love. But he did not preach love as a mere instinct, or a weak, mawkish, and indiscriminating sentiment. His God was not all pity; but was also a God of majesty and of law and of justice; his love all the more glorious because intelligent, and because it saves from wrath deserved.”

Of results estimated by numbers, the paper stated that during that year (1831), over twelve hundred new members were added to the churches of Rochester presbytery alone, besides the great in-gathering on the same field into churches of other denominations. “But the grandeur of that work is not to be estimated by numbers alone. The whole community was stirred. Religion was the one topic of conversation, in the house, in the shop in the office, on the street. The soul's interests were uppermost in all minds. God was near, eternity real; the judgment sure.”

“It is worthy of special notice that a large number of the leading men of the place were among the converts—the lawyers, the judges, physicians, merchants, bankers, and master mechanics. From the first these classes were more moved than any other. Tall oaks were bowed as by the blast of the hurricane. Sceptics and scoffers were brought in, and a large number of the most promising of the young men. It is said that no less than forty of them entered the ministry.”

Treating of his personal characteristics, Dr. B. admits that he “had his peculiarities—what great man has not? But he was never accused of levity or insincerity. He was a plain, blunt man who spoke right on, and always meant just what he said. His soul abhorred deceit and hypocrisy. Perhaps it is not too much to say that he saw the truth in greater clearness, and more fully appreciated its value and importance than most men could. He was, in fact, a giant in intellect, in the grandeur of his thoughts and purposes and in the sublime force of his character; and this was enough to justify some of his peculiarities.

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Before his conversion he remarked to an Elder of the Church that ‘Christians generally did not half believe what they professed.'” 'If ever I become a Christian,' he said, ‘I shall go into it with all my might,' and he did. That is, he went to work as though he really believed that God had a right to all his powers; as though men around him were really sinners, going down to death eternal; and as though something ought to be done for their salvation. Hence, like Paul, he began at once to 'warn every one night and day with tears;' and with the Bible in his hand he could not see why this was not the proper thing to do.”

“As to his manner and style of preaching, it is not too much to say that he introduced a new era, the era of simplicity, directness, and earnestness; looking for definite and immediate results. He discarded technical terms and talked to the people so that they knew he meant them and was talking about their interests; and that they were guilty and in danger, and had something to do to escape the wrath to come.” He tried to adapt his instructions to the times. Like John the Baptist, he came preaching repentance. The notion prevailed somewhat, at that time, that sin is more a misfortune than a fault; it is inherited; it comes with our blood, and we can not help it. On the contrary, Mr. Finney from the first preached “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself”— showing that sinners are the guilty authors of their own destruction; not the innocent victims of a terrible calamity. Here he explained the nature of sin as a transgression of the law; rebellion against divine authority; the foolish, wicked choice of our own way in preference to God's way.

A few words should appear as to Pres. Finney in Oberlin, i.e., from 1835 onward to his death. Of the first score of years, his narrative (p. 348) bears this testimony: “During these years of smoke and dust, of misapprehension and opposition from without, the Lord was blessing us richly within. We not only prospered in our own souls here, as a church, but we had a continuous revival, or were in what might properly be regarded as a revival state. Our students were converted, by the scores; and the Lord overshadowed us continually with the cloud of his mercy. Gales of divine influence swept over us from year to year, producing abundantly the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”

This sketch may be closed fitly by testimony from one who during forty years stood in most intimate relations with Pres. Finney, associated with him in the pulpit, in prayer and inquiry meetings, and especially as a listener in the pew. He puts the salient points of his revival labors thus:
1. Prayer in order before preaching prayer for special help from God before any direct effort to convert sinners. This means and implies both his own personal prayer, pleading with God, and taking hold of his promises for special blessings; and also bringing to his help as many others as possible; laboring to revive the church, renew its spiritual life, beget true devotion to gospel work and the spirit of prevailing prayer.

2. Conviction before conversion. No hope of leading sinners to their Savior, and no effort for it till they both see and feel themselves sinners. Hence his order of topics in preaching would always be, first, the law; then, the gospel; first, to beget a sense of guilt and of conscious need of Christ; then, hopefully, Christ will be welcome for what he is.

3. A knowledge of human hearts that seemed to miss nothing. You would suppose he had seen a thousand human hearts dissected, from circumference to centre; had observed and studied till he knew all their secrets, could track out every winding, fathom every great deep. His eye, moreover, was keen, and took in with astonishing precision the general impression and ruling thought of a congregation. He knew if the truth was taking effect, he felt the reaction upon himself when his words had power upon the hearts of his hearers. If the masses were moved, like the trees by the mighty wind, he saw it, and could judge when it was wise to call for a public expression of personal decision. I have seen him call for such expression many scores of times, and have never known him to misjudge as to the fact of a deep and general impression.

4. The fruits of revivals under his labors have rarely been superficial. True, all human work in the gospel ministry will have, on its human side, defects; but in the main the converts under his preaching have run well, have lived Christian lives, and endured to the end. During the last hundred years few preachers, if any have swept away so many false hopes and helped so many to build again, not on the sand, but on the rock. No man's preaching has borne such fruits in confession of hidden sins, in restitution under the law of love to one's neighbor, in profound heart-searching, and astounding disclosures of things before known to God only. No sham morality, no shallow and soft sentimentalism would he ever allow himself to baptize as genteel and current Christianity. A system of gospel preaching and labor which so signally honored the Spirit of God; which so judiciously unfolded and mightily enforced the most fundamental gospel truths, has been honored of God to results enduring and glorious.