THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT REVIVAL

This is a true story about prayer and revival.

The church was cold, in a lukewarm state; most of the members were dead; seemingly all that was needed was a funeral. A small crowd greeted us for the first week. There was no enthusiasm and not enough religious force to send the hand around the dial plate. It was hard preaching and harder praying. There was ice in the pew, frost in the choir, and zero weather everywhere. The religious grass was frightfully short and the folks were so poor, so weak, that we could pull no load. The clouds were dark and hung very low, a dense fog hung all over the town.

Some said, "You might just as well quite, there isn't anything doing and there is no likelihood of there being a stir. First, because the enemy, hoof, hide, and horns, has had this city for a lifetime, and he is so entrenched, so fortified that it's impossible to man any heavy artillery against him, or to force him out of his fortified positions. Second, the folks who profess live like the folks who never did follow Jesus Nothing comes to town that you do not see a big bunch of church folks in the lead. You will find scores of them in a circus, dozens at progressive euchre parties, and Sunday baseball parks are filled with those whom you will see, on communion Sunday, acting like saints." So all seemed to prophesy that there could be nothing done that would as much as look like a revival.

One night there was a high "nor'-wester," whose bleak winds spelled out loudly twenty degrees below zero and an eight-inch snow. Our crowd was smaller than ever, and the enthusiasm, if we had had any, was frozen up. We could almost see and hear imps chuckling in every direction, and whispering, "You might just as well close. This hard preaching, this going out into zero weather, is more than likely to bring on pneumonia; you have been sneezing and coughing today, and your chest is getting tight. Aren't you aware of the fact that man is a free moral agent? Didn't God try to keep Adam and Eve from that bad, puckering fruit? But they went right on, across light, and people's mouths are still puckering because of their eating that fruit, their abuse of free moral agency. These people are free beings, have heads of their own, and you can never bring them over from their pre-conceived ideas. Bigger men, brighter men, greater men, greater preachers than you have been here by the week, and have shelled the woods with heavy artillery until it looked like the stars would melt from their golden sockets, the moon would weep herself to death, and the mighty king of day would hide his face in shame all because these giants, with their tremendous logic could not break through the strong walls of stubbornness."

Again they would say, "You are foolish. You are a young man, there is too bright a future before you for you to wear your life away, injure your body, and give yourself preacher's sore throat, trying to win these people who have sinned away their day of grace." And again, "You have been here one week; you have fasted almost every morning and prayed two and three hours each day, and there isn't one bit of interest. The pastor, although a good man, and a brilliant fellow, has not said one encouraging word to you, but, both by looks and acts, shows how hopeless the undertaking."
Then Satan came along and said, "If the church folks are so wholly indifferent, would rather go to a nickelodeon than come to a revival, would it not be best for you to go where you will be appreciated and where the folks will be interested? I feel sorry for you. This people does not want the Gospel, they will not receive it; you can lead a horse to water, but you can not make him drink. Russell has proven that there isn't any Hell, and that's a dead doctrine, therefore this people resent and reject such a backwoods, Dark Ages Gospel; now, if you were to lecture on 'A Trip from the North Star to the Moon,' you might attract the people. Or if on 'The Cyclones Sweeping Across the Face of the Sun,' you would have a packed house.

"Why not get the crowds? Why not use means to that end? There are men in mission halls, under small tents and brush arbors, preaching to a handful, who could just as easily be preaching in the centers of population to thousands, if they would only listen to me and change their tactics and preach a twentieth-century gospel. We are all aware of the fact that this Is a progressive age, and,

to keep pace, we must necessarily be a progressive people, hence, the things used a century ago can never be in use today. Washington rode in a stage coach to Washington, D. C.; President Wilson went in a flying palace car. Your forefathers plowed with wooden plows fastened to an ox; today you have great steam plows. So the Gospel which, a century ago, attracted the masses and turned the multitudes Gospelward, today, with the scientific investigation, the great libraries, the mighty brain girth of so many, will have to be made to suit the times.

"You will have to make a radical change in your manner and method of conducting these evangelistic campaigns, and you will have to change the matter of your sermons, for culture is the great demand of this day and time. The more science you can pack into your messages, the greater your sweeps of rhetoric, and the more powerful your logic and oratory, the greater preacher you will be considered and the larger will be your salary.

"I have had this little chat with you purposely, for I admire your zeal and pluck, and have thus advised that you may have great success in your efforts among this wealthy, up-to-date, wide-awake cultured people. If you ever win them you will always have them. They are not soft, easily moved by deathbed scenes and graveyard tales. They are a people not given to much weeping or emotionalism. Now, before leaving you, let me urge you to be a constant student of Hindu philosophy, and to use philosophical terms. By so doing, your crowds will think that they have a master in the pulpit. Preach more to the heads, for there is but little heart in anything these days. Let me further advise that you copy after great men, get their manners, cute phrases, pert sayings, and you will soon make a reputation. Let no old fogy instill into your head to be original, for there is no originality today.
"Again, do not be too hard on the people; do not expect too much of them, for they are weaklings. Remember that you can get hundreds to sign a card and the papers will blow you all over pressdom, and most people will think that you are having a sweeping revival. This way you will not have to wear your life out so soon, you will not have to preach so hard, and then you will not have to fast and go hungry, and wrestle and agonize hours in prayer. This card-signing way is so restful for you and easy for the people. They do not have to confess, dig down, repent, restore; then the rich will take to you; folks who have been a little crooked in business will flock to you like bees to a hive. The Gospel of repentance is a hard Gospel. For instance, here is a man with a fine business, a lovely home, a big auto; getting along nicely, until one of these cranks who everlastingly preaches on confession comes to town. This rich man gets under his sway, his hypnotic influence, and confesses that he got most of his money in a swindling way, so looses his fine home and flourishing business -- all because this crank hammered on the Gospel of repentance, It would have been much better for him, had he had a cultured mind, a classical education and preached a beautiful, soothing gospel. This rich man would have contributed $1,000.00, but he got only $140.00 and wrecked a good business. Many say he did not only ruin the business of this man but caused the man to turn preacher, and that spells for his family, a scant living and little hope of ever having a permanent dwelling-place, It is very discouraging, for look at this man six weeks ago -- great throngs of customers, a mansion, proud family, hundreds of friends, and today in a rented shack, conducting meetings in a mission hall. He tells folks that the Lord convicted him, gave him light, and by walking in that light, he had to make wrongs right, black white, and, in so doing, has plunged his family into poverty.

"Let me advise you once more, before leaving, rearrange all your sermons, make them more cultured, take up-to-date topics, follow such lights as the great Dr. Blank. He sneers at Hell and the Virgin birth of Christ, but my! he holds down the biggest thing in Christendom, and gets a big pile of gold to boot. He lectures between spells all over the country, is in great demand. The Chautauquas are crazy for him.

"You can climb, for I have given you enough counsel to take you to the top rung, to give you an international reputation, to pile thousands of gold into your coffers. You would be a fool to go on and preach to handfuls and get a meager compensation, keeping your family on scanty fare. Let me urge you, as your best friend, to climb, there is plenty of room at the top, but the bottom is always crowded. Your family can easily ride in fine autos, live in a mansion, go in the best walks of society, have a wardrobe packed with clothing, a pantry filled with plenty, all be in ease and comfort, and you a great leader, if you will only follow this friendly advice. There is no excuse for you, as you have had too good opportunities and too good scholastic training to go ahead in the same old rut and keep your family on starvation rations. Can't you see in the not distant future that glittering high steeple? can't you hear the great rolling pipe organ, and that high-sounding choir? Now, make your choice; be somebody, be a coming man, be in great demand, command a pile of gold, and ease and comfort will crown your old days and your stomach will never go empty."

The second week had come and everything was as bad as ever. We never saw things freeze tighter; there was no warmth at all. Some of our best people had become so discouraged that they advised pulling stakes, and it seemed to us, from the human viewpoint, that a revival was far, far away.
About this time God sent a Mordecai into the camp; he was a clerk in a drygoods store. He came to us saying, "I have to work hard all day, can t get here only of a night, and have but little time to pray through the day. I will do this, I'll meet you here in the church at 3 A. M. and we will pray until 6, and will keep this up until we see the cloud the size of a man's hand. God says where two or three pray, in His name, He will be with them. Now let us agree, and pray until He breaks up this stubborn indifference. Mordecai and Esther prayed three days and nights and God saved the Jewish people. Is He not still the same God? Will He not answer us as He did Mordecai and Esther, and as He answered Daniel?"

I said, "I will go into this covenant with you with this understanding, if you get to the church first, ring the bell until I get there, and if I beat you there, I will be pulling on the rope when you reach the church." At 2:30 A. M. I awoke, hurried my toilet and had reached the high-school building when Brother V began ringing the church bell. In a few minutes lights were in every home, and men running through the yards, dressing, and screaming, "Fire! fire! fire!" We yelled, "Yes, at the church." Soon that big church had 320 souls in it. Think of it, at three o'clock in the morning, and zero weather, too, and a zero congregation! How that good man did shout as he saw the people flocking into the church at that early morning hour.

God saw that we meant business, that we were determined, that our hearts were breaking under the tremendous, crushing burden; He saw that two of us had agreed, and answered before we

had time to pray. There was much excitement and people from various walks of life crowded into the church. We took our text and preached in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit, and conviction deep and pungent fell on that crowd. People sobbed aloud; the State's attorney jumped from his seat and hurried to the altar. What confessions! how he cried to God for mercy, for forgiveness. He promised there at the altar to burn up an Ingersol library and there and then he and his wife found pardon.

There was a going in the mulberry-trees, and the meeting ran at high tide until Sunday morning. That morning while I was preaching the power fell and the head of the First National Bank, like a hoop came rolling by me down out of the choir into the aisle, screaming, "My God! I am a lost man." There seemingly was a shock, a great break, and eighty-three rushed to the altar. Such a scene as followed is indescribable; about fifty men were gloriously converted that morning. Such shouting, such rejoicing, could only follow such an altar service; children were in the arms of their parents, parents were in the arms of their children. One old sainted man attending this meeting from another town said to me, "I have never seen such a scene, this is simply out of the ordinary, God is here, God is with us. In this meeting over three hundred were saved, and scores joined the church.
It pays to be prayerful, and never listen to the whisperings of the devil. No matter what the hardness of the territory or the indifference of the people, if you will be true to God and stick to the old Gospel guns, you will rout the devil, stir Hell, and victory will come. It pays to dig.

This is a "surface age" and part of the people are doing nothing but surface work, That is easy, but not lasting; that is shallow, never deep; that is sowing on stony ground, no depth of soil; the hot sun will cook your seed; plow deep is God's way, and must be ours, if we follow Him. God knows your needs and not a few times will answer before you pray.

Let us be prayerful, for it is only through prayer that we can be victorious, more than conquerors upon every battlefield, A praying man has foresight, hence plans for the battle, and never gets the least discouraged when things do not break up, when things do not break loose the first two or three weeks, but keeps drilling, drilling. He is after a well, is not digging a cistern; an artesian well overflows winter and summer. wet or dry; no matter about the surface, it never depends upon the surface water.

We must take time to plant our artillery, dig trenches, man our heavy guns, prepare the fields for the battle. If the general gets discouraged, grows faint-hearted, it is contagious, it will spread throughout the army and a galling defeat is inevitable. The general must be level-headed, and have cool brains; but he must be hot-hearted, for he is to cheer, encourage, enthuse the army.

Once a young sergeant came trembling, with tears in his eyes, to Napoleon, saying, "General. we are hopelessly defeated, they are ten to one." Napoleon straightened himself in his stirrups, saying, "Put me down for twenty-five thousand. I am worth twenty-five thousand men; my skill, my ingenuity is worth twenty-five thousand men. We will be victorious." And when the smoke of battle had cleared away, Napoleon's army had won one of its greatest victories, This great warrior knew how to tune his men for their greatest strength and their best fighting. In the heat of battle he was cool-headed and deliberate, never suffered himself to become nervous or the least discouraged. He enthused his army by his courage.

Even so, Christians, we must plan for the battle and where all is not sunshine and victory, then it is ours to be victorious and to encourage our weaker brethren. Prayer enables one to be of the best service to his fellows and his God. A prayerless man is a powerless man, he has no connection with the power-house, hence he is easily disheartened and put out of commission. We must be in the spirit of prayer. God help us to pray clear through.