I became even more fascinated
with the article, when the author, who claimed no Christian motivation,
launched an investigation to find the reason behind the honor bestowed on
Rochester. Surprisingly, he traced it back over a century to two revivals by
Charles Finney, when hundreds of people were converted and subsequently, began
to involve themselves in many humanitarian efforts, to better their city. I am
sure that they played a part in politics that made good choices for the benefit
of its citizens.
In the last article, I posted
some of Finney’s accounts of what took place, as he witnessed a new beginning
of true and lively Christianity in Rochester, N.Y. He wrote that “this
revival made a great change in the moral state and subsequent history of
Rochester. The great majority of the leading men and women in the city were
converted.” In this article, I have included a revival in a Rochester high
school. As I scanned the book anew, I found that Finney wrote of the Fulton
Street revival in New York City. The only connection with Finney was apparently
chronological. The revival began because a single layman had a desire to start
a one-hour prayer meeting for businessmen, at lunch time in the city. God
worked and this effort produced a revival of prayer among the lay people of New
York, resulting in the conversion of many souls.
This article begins with an
interesting incident, as Finney has taken by a volunteer from New Lebanon to
Stephentown. Then Charles Finney gives some general characteristics of revival,
using Stephentown as an example, and after that, he describes the fear of God
and His presence in Rome, NY. In the
second section, Finney tells of an occurrence among the Methodists of falling
under conviction of sin. Following that, we will read of the foundation of a
crowded church, settling into the ground during a meeting. Finally, Finney
writes of the forementioned revival in a Rochester high school.
General revival characteristics, godly fear, and one
exemplary meeting
Accordingly, the next
Sabbath, after preaching the second time one of the young converts at New
Lebanon offered to take me up in his carriage to Stephentown. When he came in
his buggy to take me up I asked him. "Have you a steady horse?"
"O yes!" he replied, "perfectly so"; and smiling asked,
"What made you ask the question?" "Because," I replied,
"if the Lord wants me to go to Stephentown, the devil will prevent it if
he can; and if you have not a steady horse, he will try to make him kill
me." He smiled, and we rode on; and strange to tell before we got there
that horse ran away twice, and came near killing us. His owner expressed the
greatest astonishment, and said he had never known such a thing before.
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