TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
The Father of Revivalists
CHARLES G. FINNEY, Apostle of Revival. The spiritual experiences which render Finney’s name an outstanding one in Revival annals began soon after he entered the office of Mr. Benjamin Wright, at Adams, N.Y., in 1818, when, as he assures us in his “Memoirs:” “I was almost as ignorant of religion as a heathen. I had been brought up mostly in the woods. I had very little regard to the Sabbath, and had no definite knowledge of religious truths.”
In the course of his legal studies, however, he found that sundry authors made frequent reference to the Mosaic Law and therefore, for professional reasons alone, he purchased a Bible. He also came into contact with a number of professing Christians, but they were dead and worldly, and he pointed out to them, in frigid terms, that their prayers were never answered: “You have prayed enough since I have attended these meetings to have prayed the devil out of the town, if there were any virtue in your prayers. But here you are, praying and complaining still.” On further reading the Bible, however, it struck Finney that the reason why their prayers were not answered was simply because they did not comply with the revealed conditions upon which. God had promised to answer prayer. The thought, at any rate, relieved his doubts; yet he was brought face to face with the question, whether he would yield his whole being to Christ or pursue a career of worldly emulation and personal aggrandisement.
While hesitating thus between ambition and Christianity, he seemed to hear a voice speak from heaven to his soul, and he resolved to seek the Lord, if haply he might find Him. Going out into the woods to pray, he found a sanctuary between some fallen trees; but he realised that he was more anxious lest some passer-by should notice him than he was to have his sins forgiven and become a child of the Kingdom. Then, while he was broken and abased before God, the Spirit impressed upon his mind the words from Jeremiah 29. 13: “Then shall ye find Me, when ye shall seek for Me with all your heart.” Thus he sought, and thus he found. On the same evening, as he went to his room, as he said: “It seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then, nor did it for some time afterwards, that it was wholly a mental state. It seemed to me a reality that He stood before me, and I fell down and poured out my soul to Him.”
The news of his conversion was received with incredulity, so bitter had he been against the church-members. “If religion is true,” scoffers had said, “why don’t you convert Finney? If you can do that, we will believe in religion.” Even the minister, with whom he had often spoken, refused to credit the story. But, in the evening, there was a general movement towards the Presbyterian Church. The place was thronged with an expectant congregation; and Finney, without waiting for a formal opening, related, with simplicity and directness, his experience of the Lord’s dealing with him. That meeting was the beginning of a Revival which changed the character of the district.
Finney immediately commenced the long and arduous and faithful labours which have associated his name so closely with the stirring word, “Revival.” He went at first into new settlements, and preached in school-houses, barns, and groves. Religion was at a low ebb, and the people thought much of the works of Tom Paine. Universalism was strong, and ridicule was poured upon Evangelical preaching. Now came Finney with his close reasoning, plain speaking, and simple faith, his spirit of prayer and eager anticipation of vast results. Wherever he went, extraordinary scenes were witnesses. He continued his labours till 1875.