Call to Commitment

When you read Finney’s autobiography, you will notice many instances in which he refers to a “spirit of prayer”. When questioned concerning methods used in revival, his response was, “Our method is prayer.” This was evidently true, to the point that I want to devote a good amount of space in these chapters to the power of prayer. Already, I have earlier pointed to this truth. I don’t remember the person who remarked that, whenever God’s purpose is to do a special work at any point in history, He first moves His people to pray. Prayer itself, then, is an initial work of the Spirit of God and comments are made that sometimes hundreds and thousands of people are in prayer in a certain geographical area, without having contact with one another. The call to prayer was supernatural.

I also want to point out the fact, that in revivals, the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are in constant operation. There were supernatural words of wisdom and knowledge, as well as prophecy. Certainly, the gift of miraculous faith was frequently manifested. Therefore, I am giving the reader several cases that demonstrate this truth. I suppose, that there are different opinions regarding these operations and what gift specifically is demonstrated in various cases, but that is not my primary concern. My concern is to point to the fact that when the Spirit of God is moving, these gifts continue to occur in the church and through its members in the 19^th Century, resulting from a post-conversion baptism in the Holy Spirit.

 When Finney was baptized in the Spirit, he wrote, “I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart.” This could easily be interpreted as a kind of speaking in tongues (1 Co. 14:2). In the first paragraph he prayed “with groanings which cannot be uttered,” certainly under the influence of the Holy Spirit, according to Romans 8:26. Finney mentions two cases of insanity, of which I would note that there are some cases, such as those he mentions, where it is obvious that evil spirits had taken possession of the mind. These people needed a supernatural deliverance, which comes through the proclamation of the Spirit of Truth (Jn. 8:32). Therefore, I include these two situations under the subtitle of supernatural signs.

The Spirit of prayer 

The Lord taught me in those early days of my Christian experience, many very important truths in regard to the Spirit of prayer. Not long after I was converted, a lady with whom I had boarded, was taken very sick. She was not a Christian, but her husband was a professor of religion. He came into our office one evening, being a brother of Esquire Wright, and said to me, "My wife cannot live through the night." This seemed to plant an arrow, as it were, in my heart… the nature of which I could not at all understand, but with it came an intense desire to pray for that woman.

  The burden was so great that I left the office almost immediately, and went up to the meetinghouse to pray for her. There I struggled, but could not say much. I could only groan with groanings so loud and deep as would have been impossible, I think, for me, had it not been for that terrible pressure on my mind. I stayed for a considerable time in the church in this state of mind, but got no relief. I returned to the office, but I could not sit still. I could only walk the room and agonize. For a long time I tried to get my prayer before the Lord, but somehow words could not express it. I could only groan and weep, without being able to express what I wanted in words. I returned a third time to the meetinghouse. At this time the Lord gave me power to prevail. I was enabled to roll the burden upon Him; and I returned to the office. She did recover, and soon after obtained a hope in Christ. At first, I did not understand what this exercise of mind that I had passed through was. But shortly after in relating it to a Christian brother he said to me, "Why that was the travail of your soul." A few moments conversation, and pointing me to certain Scriptures, gave me to understand what it was.

 I again saw Father Nash, the man who prayed with his eyes open at the meeting of presbytery when I was licensed. After he was there at presbytery, he was taken with inflamed eyes, and for several weeks he was shut up in a dark room. He could neither read nor write, and gave himself up almost entirely to prayer, as I learned. He had a terrible overhauling in his whole Christian experience; and as soon as he was able to see with a double black veil before his face, he sallied forth to labor for souls. When he came to Evans' Mills, he was full of the power of prayer. He was another man altogether from what he had been at any former period of his Christian life. I found that he had "a praying list," as he called it, of the names of persons whom he made subjects of prayer every day, and sometimes many times a day. And praying with him, and hearing him pray in meeting, I found that his gift of prayer was wonderful, and his faith almost miraculous. I did the preaching altogether and Brother Nash gave himself up almost continually to prayer.

It was very common to find Christians, whenever they met in any place, instead of engaging in conversation, to fall on their knees and engage in prayer. Not only were prayer meetings greatly multiplied and fully attended, not only was there great solemnity in those meetings, but there was a mighty Spirit of secret prayer. Christians prayed a great deal, many of them spending many hours in private prayer.

 When I was on my way to Rochester, as we passed through a village some thirty miles east of Rochester, a brother minister whom I knew, seeing me on board the canal boat, jumped on to have a little conversation with me, intending to ride but a little way and jump off and return. He however became so interested in conversation, and upon finding where I was going, he made up his mind to keep on and go with me to Rochester; and he did so.

 He almost immediately fell under great conviction, and the work was very deep with him. We had been there but a few days, when this minister became so convicted that he could not help weeping aloud at one time as he passed along the street. The Lord gave him a powerful Spirit of prayer, and his heart was broken. As he and I prayed much together, I was struck with his faith in regard to what the Lord was going to do there. I recollect he would say, "Lord, I do not know how it is; but I seem to know that Thou art going to do a great work in this city." The Spirit of prayer was poured out powerfully, so much so that some persons stayed away from the public services to pray, being unable to restrain their feelings under preaching.

 And here I must introduce the name of a man, whom I shall have occasion to mention frequently, Mr. Abel Clary. He was the son of a very excellent man, and an elder of the church where I was converted. He was converted in the same revival, in which I was. He had been licensed to preach; but his Spirit of prayer was such, he was so burdened with the souls of men, that he was not able to preach much, his whole time and strength being given to prayer. The burden of his soul would frequently be so great that he was unable to stand, and he would writhe and groan in agony in a most wonderful manner. I was well acquainted with him, and knew something of the wonderful Spirit of prayer that was upon him. 

 The first I knew of his being at Rochester, a gentleman who lived about a mile west of the city called on me one day, and asked me if I knew a Mr. Abel Clary, a minister. I told him that I did know him well. "Well," said he, "he is at my house, and has been there for so long a time,"--I forget how long, but nearly from the first of my being in Rochester. Says he, "I don't know what to think of him." I said, "I have not seen him at any of our meetings." "No," he replied. "he cannot go to meeting, he says. He prays nearly all the time, day and night," said he, "and in such an agony of mind that I do not know what to make of it. Sometimes he cannot even stand on his knees, but will lie prostrate on the floor and groan; and then throw himself upon the bed and roll from side to side, and groan and pray in a manner that quite astonishes me." I inquired what he said. He replied, "He does not say much. He cannot go to meeting he says; but his whole time is given to prayer." I said to the brother, "I understand it; please keep still. It will all come out right; he will surely prevail."

 I knew at the time a considerable number of men who were exercised in the same way. A Deacon Pond, of Camden, Oneida County; a Deacon Truman, of Rodman, Jefferson County; a Deacon Baker of Adams in the same county; this Mr. Clary, and many others among the men, and a large number of women, partook of the same Spirit, and spent a great part of their time in prayer. Brother, or as we called him, Father Nash, a minister who in several of my fields of labor came to me and aided me, was another of those men that had such a powerful Spirit of prevailing prayer. This Mr. Clary continued in Rochester as long as I did, and did not leave it until after I had left. He never, that I could learn, appeared in public, but gave himself wholly to prayer. 

Supernatural gifts and signs of the Spirit

 Not long after I was converted, a lady with whom I had boarded was taken very sick. She was not a Christian. I obtained the assurance in my own mind that the lady would not die, and indeed that she would never die in her sins. My mind was perfectly quiet, and I soon left and retired to rest. Early the next morning the husband of this woman came into the office. I inquired how his wife was. He, smiling, said, "She is alive, and to all appearance better this morning." I replied: "Brother Wright, she will not die with this sickness; you may rely upon it. And she will never die in her sins." I do not know how I was made sure of this, but it was in some way made plain to me, so that I had no doubt that she would recover. I told him so. She did recover, and soon after obtained a hope in Christ.

 I addressed a tall, dignified looking woman, and asked her what was the state of her mind. She replied immediately that she had given her heart to God; and went on to say that the Lord had taught her to read, since she had learned how to pray. I asked her what she meant. She said she never could read, and never had known her letters. But when she gave her heart to God, she was greatly distressed that she could not read God's Word. "But I thought," she said, "that Jesus could teach me to read, and I asked Him if He would not, please, to teach me to read His Word." Said she; "I thought when I had prayed that I could read. The children have a Testament; and I went and got the Testament, and I thought I could read what I had heard them read. But," said she, "I went over to the school ma'am, and asked her if I did read right; and she said I did. And since then," said she, "I can read the Word of God for myself." I said no more; but thought there must be some mistake about this, as the woman appeared to be quite in earnest, and quite intelligent, in what she said. I took pains afterwards to inquire of her neighbors about her. They gave her an excellent character, and they all affirmed that it had been notorious that she could not read a syllable until after she was converted. I leave this to speak for itself. There is no use in theorizing about it. Such, I think, were the undoubted facts.

 There were two very striking cases of instantaneous recovery from insanity during this revival. As I went into meeting in the afternoon of one Sabbath, I saw several ladies sitting in a pew with a lady dressed in black, who seemed to be in great distress of mind; and they were partly holding her and preventing her from going out. As I came in one of the ladies came to me and told me that she was an insane woman. That she had been a Methodist; had, as she supposed, fallen from grace; which had led to despair, and finally into insanity. Her husband was an intemperate man, and lived several miles from the village; and he had brought her down and left her at meeting, and had himself gone to the hotel.

 I said a few words to her; but she replied that she must go. That she could not hear any praying, or preaching, or singing. That hell was her portion, and she could not endure anything that made her think of heaven. I cautioned the ladies privately to keep her in her seat, if they could without her disturbing the meeting. I then went into the pulpit and read a hymn. As soon as they began to sing, she struggled hard to get out. But the ladies obstructed her passage, and kindly, but persistently, resisted her escape. After a few moments she became quiet, but seemed to avoid hearing, or attending at all to the singing. I then prayed. For some little time, I heard her struggling to get out; but before I had done, she became quiet, and the congregation was still. The Lord gave me a great Spirit of prayer… and a text, for I had no text before settled upon in my mind.

 I took my text from Hebrews: "Let us come boldly to a throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." My object was to encourage faith, in ourselves, and in her, and in ourselves for her. When I began to preach, she at first made quite an effort to get out. But the ladies kindly resisted, and she finally sat still, but held her head very low and seemed determined not to attend to what I said. But as I proceeded, I observed that she began gradually to raise her head and to look at me from within her long black bonnet. She looked up more and more until she sat upright and looked me in the face with intense earnestness.

 The other case of recovery from insanity, was that of a lady in the town, who had also fallen into despair and insanity. I was not present when she was restored, but was told that it was almost or quite instantaneous, by means of a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Revivals of religion are sometimes accused of making people mad. The fact is, men are naturally mad on the subject of religion, and revivals rather restore them than make them mad. During this revival we heard much of opposition to it from Gouverneur, a town about twelve miles, I believe, farther north. We heard that the wicked threatened to come down and mob us, and break up our meetings.

 While I was at Brownville, God revealed to me all at once in a most unexpected manner, the fact that He was going to pour out His Spirit at Gouverneur, and that I must go there and preach. Of the place I knew absolutely nothing, except that in that town there was so much opposition manifested to the revival in Antwerp the year before. I can never tell how or why the Spirit of God made that revelation to me. But I knew then, and I have no doubt now, that it was a direct revelation from God to me. I had not thought of the place, that I know of, for months; but when engaged in prayer, the thing was all shown to me as clear as light that I must go and preach in Gouverneur, and that God would pour out His Spirit there.

 Brother Nash addressed (young men, who opposed the meetings) in a very warm manner, and pointed out the guilt and danger of the course they were taking. Toward the close of his address, he waxed exceeding warm, and said to them: "Now, mark me, young men! God will break your ranks in less than one week, either by converting some of you, or by sending some of you to hell. And He will do this as certainly as the Lord is my God!" He was standing where he brought his hand down on the top of the pew before him so as to make it thoroughly jar. He sat immediately down, held down his head, and groaned with pain. The house was as still as death, and most of the people held down their heads. I could see that the young men were agitated.

 However, I regretted that Brother Nash had gone so far. He had committed himself that God would either take the life of some of them and send them to hell, or convert some of them within a week. I was afraid that in his excitement, he had said what would not turn out to be true, and that would embolden the young men all the more in their opposition. However, I think it was on Tuesday morning of the same week, the leader of these young men came to me in the greatest distress of mind. He was all prepared to submit; and as soon as I came to press him he broke down like a child, confessed, and manifestly gave himself to Christ. Then he said, "What shall I do, Mr. Finney?" I replied, "Go immediately to all your young companions and pray with them, and exhort them at once to turn to the Lord." He did so, and before the week was out, nearly, if not all, of that class of young men were hoping in Christ.

 I called in at Mr. Harris', and found him pale and agitated. He said to me, "Brother Finney, I think my wife will die. She is so exercised in her mind that she cannot rest day or night, but is given up entirely to prayer. She has been all the morning," said he, "in her room groaning and struggling in prayer, and I am afraid it will entirely overcome her strength." Hearing my voice in the sitting room, she came out from her bedroom, and upon her face was a most unearthly, heavenly glow. Her countenance was lighted up with a hope and a joy that were plainly from heaven. She exclaimed, "Brother Finney, the Lord has come! This work will spread over all this region! A cloud of mercy overhangs us all, and we shall see such a work of grace as we have never yet seen." 

 In the autumn of 1855, we were called again to the city of Rochester. N.Y., to labor for souls. At first, I had no mind to go, but a messenger arrived with a pressing request bearing the signatures of a large number of persons both professors of religion and non-professors. After much deliberation and prayer, I made up my mind to go. We commenced our labors there, and it was very soon apparent that the Spirit of God was working among the people. Some Christians in that place, and especially the brother who came after me, had been praying most earnestly all summer for the outpouring of the Spirit there. A few souls had been wrestling with God, until they felt that they were on the eve of a great revival. When I stated my objections to going to labor in Rochester again, the brother who came after me set that all aside by saying: "The Lord is going to send you to Rochester, and you will go to Rochester this winter, and we shall have a great revival.