| The name of Charles Finney is legendary amongst students of Revival. After experiencing a thorough Christian conversion he received a powerful infilling of the Holy Spirit and subsequently became an unusually gifted itinerant evangelist. It is claimed (not by himself) that over half a million people came to Christ through his ministry. He had a keen mind, always preached extemporaneously, often without any preparation, and emphasized man’s responsibility in salvation. When dealing with convicted sinners he stressed the importance of immediate response by repentance and faith for salvation, rather than the prevailing near-fatalistic idea of expecting them to wait for God to save them in His own time. His ministry was largely conducted in local revival campaigns in New York State in the years of 1824-1832. They were in small towns by today’s standards, most being less than a thousand in population. The Revival in Rochester in 1842 was the exception. In a population of 10,000 people, around 1,200 were converted, mostly from the educated classes. |  |
| The character of the entire town changed and forty of the converts became ministers of the gospel. It was this work which gave him national prominence and sparked off revivals in hundreds of other towns. Revival phenomena like conviction of sin, crying out to God, and prostrations frequently accompanied his labours. Later, ill health caused him to travel less and he became a lecturer to ministry candidates and wrote his famous book, ‘Lectures on Revival,’ which has probably ignited more fires of revival than any other single piece literature in history. This particular edition is an English version which edited out some controversial paragraphs which the publishers thought might help the cause of the Gospel in Britain. |
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