We are in the Evangelism Awakening Revival Institutes,
and if you'll turn in your handouts to
Session 9, Revival Scenes, our churches today desperately
need revival.
We need a touch from heaven.
Revival implies a spiritual declension.
Prior to periods of revival, everything spiritual is
often a wasteland.
Churches in disarray, within fighting and division, widespread
apostasy, and the increase of false doctrines.
Before Wesleyan Whitfield appeared on the scene and
a powerful revival in England, England was in
the grip of drunkenness and debauchery.
It was said at the time, said in
London, every fifth house was a gin shop,
and members of Parliament would often show up
for work dead drunk.
There's a famous print by the artist Hogarth,
depicting the times in London in the mid
-18th century.
In the painting, a woman is nursing a
baby, and she is dead drunk.
Behind her is a man committing suicide.
An undertaker's coffin sign advertises his growing business.
Men are shown gambling, quarreling.
There is a pawn shop where people are
selling all they have to buy more gin.
It's a scene of unrestrained evil, and this
is an accurate picture of what London was
like before God came and such a powerful
revival that shook the entire continent.
I like what Stephen Alford said about times
of revival.
He wrote, It is little wonder that the
preaching that followed Pentecost convicted men and women,
so that they had to cry out, Brethren,
what shall we do?
A revival can never come without an exposure
of and judgment on sin.
And I agree with that, friends.
John Song, whom God used to shake China
and might a revival, had this to say
regarding how God poured out His Spirit in
revival in Nanchang in 1931.
John Song wrote in his diary, Suddenly I
felt deeply touched to speak on sin and
salvation.
Those who have not been touched by the
Holy Spirit are not aware of sin, and
those who are not aware of sin cannot
accept salvation from the Lord.
I agree with John Song that there is
much false faith today, and from the absence
of the Holy Spirit in salvation, men today
join the church like they do a country
club, just on a decision.
Too many in our church today remain unconverted
because they merely made a mental flip for
Jesus.
And few pastors today recognize the times and
the need for revival by preaching revival sermons
to promote revival.
An advertisement in a Boston paper in 1702
read, Ichabod, or discourse, showing what cause there
is to fear that the glory of the
Lord is departing from New England, delivered in
two sermons by Increase Mather.
Our problem today, friends, is a lack of
preaching the full counsel of God, and the
modern church has become a sideshow of entertainment.
The great Methodist preacher Samuel Chadwick commented, When
the church is run on the same lines
as a circus, there may be crowds, but
there is no Shekinah.
Well, we are going to look at some
historical scenes of revival today where God has
moved in former times.
I'll never forget Rolf Barnard saying that when
he was a young preacher, he had an
opportunity to preach in Rochester, New York, and
one of the age deacons of the church
had been alive when Finney was in Rochester,
and this elderly man took Barnard throughout the
town square, and he would point to the
various locations of the revival.
He would say something like, See that street
corner there?
During the revival, you could not walk down
the street without seeing men in their business
suits kneeling on the sidewalk in prayer, weeping
in broad daylight.
Well, I want to relate to you, friends,
a revival scene from the memoirs of Charles
Finney, which occurred during the Second Great Awakening,
and before I get to the story, it's
important to make an observation about Finney, and
this was his eyes.
They were said to be as piercing as
hawks.
A minister said of Finney's eyes, he seemed
to look through and through, and hold you
with its fascination, under its continued scrutiny, till
you felt your very soul was searched.
Well, bear those comments in mind, friends, as
we proceed with the story, because revival breaks
out in a mill, because of Finney's piercing
look.
Here now are his own words.
There was a cotton manufacturer in a place
now called New York Mills.
I was invited to go and preach at
that place, and went up one evening and
preached in the village schoolhouse, which was of
large size, and was crowded to its utmost
capacity.
The word I could see took powerful effect
among the people, especially among the young people
who were at work in the factory.
The next morning, after breakfast, I went to
the factory to look through it.
As I went through the factory, I observed
there was a good deal of agitation among
those that were busy at their looms.
On passing through one of the apartments, where
a great number of young women were attending
to their spinning or weaving, I observed a
couple of them eyeing me, and speaking very
earnestly to each other, and I could see
they were a good deal agitated, although they
both laughed.
I went slowly towards them.
They saw me coming, and were evidently much
excited.
The thread of them broke, and I observed
that her hands trembled, so she could not
mend it.
I approached slowly, looking on each side of
the machinery as I passed, but observed that
the girl grew more and more agitated, and
could not proceed with her work.
When I came within eight or ten feet
of her, I looked solemnly at her.
She observed it, and was quite overcome, and
sunk down, and burst into tears.
That impression caught almost like powder, and in
a few moments all in the room were
in tears.
This feeling spread through the factory.
Mr. Wolcott, the owner of the establishment, was
present, and seeing the state of things, he
said to the superintendent, Stop the mill, and
let the people attend to religion, for it
is more important that our souls should be
saved than that this factory run.
The gate was immediately shut down, and the
factory stopped, but where should we assemble?
The superintendent suggested that the mule room was
large, and the mules being run up, we
could assemble there.
We did so, and a powerful meeting I
scarcely ever saw.
It went on with great power.
The building was large, and had a great
many people in it, from the garret to
the cellar.
The revival went through the mill with astonishing
power, and in the course of a few
days nearly all in the mill were hopefully
converted.
Well, I loved that story of Finney and
the mill friends, and our next subject in
Sains Revival occurred under the ministry of Sam
Jones.
Sam Jones was well known for his pithy
sayings, and he became the most well-known
evangelist to emerge out of the South.
He was a contemporary with D.L. Moody,
and he became famous for fighting against the
liquor crowd.
Sam Jones had been an alcoholic when he
was a lawyer.
Before he was called to preach, he would
say about his past life, How did I
become a drunkard?
By drinking wine like some of you do.
If any man had tasted what I have,
and been where I've been, he'd be recreating
if he did not preach as I do.
I'm not only not gonna drink, but I'll
fight it to perdition, and when perdition freezes,
then I'll fight it on the ice.
Nobody but an infernal scoundrel will sell whiskey,
and nobody but an infernal fool will drink
it.
The greatest revival ever to hit Nashville, Tennessee
occurred under the ministry of Sam Jones.
So wide was it in its power and
lasting in its influence that the citizens of
Nashville voted to build Sam Jones an elaborate
home in his hometown of Quartersville, Georgia.
You can tour that mansion today, friends, as
it is preserved by the local historical society.
That home was built from the appreciation of
thousands of converts from the great Nashville revival.
The year was 1885, and Sam Jones preached
a crowded, overflowing tents of 10,000 hearers,
which means one out of every five in
Nashville heard him.
The entire city was alarmed and gripped with
revival.
As a preacher, Sam Jones knew how to
hold his crowd in the palms of his
hands.
The South was still healing from the Civil
War, and Sam Jones began his meeting with
the following story.
General John Bell Hood was watching with anguish
as the Union forces, entrenched in a fort
near a locust grove, rained fire upon the
faltering Confederates.
Twice General Hood sent his adjutant to generals
in the field, presenting his compliments and asking
for the fort.
Twice he was told that the officers had
fallen.
The third time Hood instructed the adjutant to
present his love to General Cockrell and ask
for the fort in the locust grove.
General Cockrell, straightened himself on the saddle, cast
his bright eye down the line and said,
First Missouri Brigade, attention, and dropped his finger
on the fort, and they charged, with a
fearful loss, on that fort, and captured it,
and silenced the guns.
Then Sam Jones looked over the vast assembly,
and with a choked voice said, Brethren of
Nashville, at this hour an Adjutant General of
the Lord Jesus Christ, I point my finger
at the Citadel of Sin in Nashville, and
I tell you that my Lord and Savior
presents you all his love, and he asks
at your hands this fort that is desolating
so many hearts.
Well, when Sam Jones called upon all to
stand who wanted God to have the victory,
the people rose to their feet with tears
streaming down their faces.
But the most sensational element of that revival
was one of its most famous converts.
He was a notorious riverboat captain who ran
and owned a fleet of steamboats on the
Cumberland River.
They were floating gambling halls and liquor taverns.
Tom Ryman was a figure of mythic proportions
in Nashville.
He owned thirty-five steamboats that carried cargos
of cotton and booze and dancing girls that
entertained in those floating ornate gambling casinos.
It was said of Tom Ryman that he
was a swinging soul who ran floating dens
of iniquity.
He was called Steamboat Ryman, and he came
to see one of Sam Jones' meetings to
protect his liquor business.
Jones that night preached a sermon on the
devil's brew and the rascals who served it.
Jones hit hard for an hour and a
half.
Well, this combination of accusation and entreaty was
too much for Tom Ryman, who walked up
to the platform leaning heavily on his cane.
As he got up alongside of Sam Jones,
he announced to the crowd who knew him
so well, I came here for the purpose
stated by Mr. Jones, and he is with
me with the gospel of Christ.
Well, Ryman gave his heart to God and
his allegiance to Sam Jones, building him a
large auditorium in Nashville to preach in.
That building still stands today as the mother
of the Church of Country Music, the Ryman
Auditorium.
Tom Ryman's old corrupt life was miraculously transformed.
He converted his saloon on the wharf into
the Sam Jones Hall, and he hired a
minister for the steamboat men and gamblers and
drunkards who washed up on the river bank.
And for the next 20 years, two wagons
were a familiar sight to the people of
Nashville.
One wagon was filled with food, medicine, and
clothing for the poor.
The other carried the good news of the
gospel into the neighborhoods without churches, and it
was equipped with its choir, organ, and pulpit.
When Tom Ryman died of a carriage wreck
in 1904, Sam Jones addressed 4,000 people
who attended the funeral, and it was held
in the Ryman Auditorium.
The revival that gripped Nashville under Sam Jones
was powerful and long-lasting.
It literally transformed the life of the town,
and that's what revival does, friends.
Well, this concludes our session today.
We will prepare for session 10.