We are in the Evangelism Awakening Revival Institutes,
and if you'll turn in your handouts to
the Fulton Street Revival, this revival is also
known as the Businessman's Revival, the Layman's Prayer
Revival, the Revival of 1857 to 1858, and
some have even referred to it as the
Third Great Awakening.
However you refer to it, this remarkable move
of grace began with a prayer meeting at
the Old North Dutch Church in Fulton Street,
New York.
In 1857, a layman by the name of
Jeremiah Calvin Lamphere joined the church, and in
July of that year, he began his work
as a in New York City.
He began his labors in the lower wards,
the more neglected portions of the city.
He handed out gospel tracts and stopped people
on the street to pray with them and
share the gospel, and he recorded in his
diary on July 1st, 1757, Going my rounds
in the performance of my duty one day,
as I was walking along the streets, the
idea was suggested to my mind that an
hour of prayer from 12 to 1 o
'clock would be beneficial to businessmen, who usually,
in great numbers, take that hour for rest
and refreshment.
But the idea was to have singing, prayer,
exhortation, relation of religious experience, as the case
might be, that none should be required to
stay the whole hour, but that all should
come and go as their engagements should allow
or require.
While arrangements were made, and at 12 o
'clock noon on the 23rd day of September,
the door of the third story lecture room
was thrown open, at half-past twelve, the
step of a solitary individual was heard upon
the stairs, shortly after another, and another, then
another, and last of all another, until six
made up the whole company.
They had a good meeting, Lamphere recorded.
The Lord was with us to bless us.
So ends that diary entry of Jeremiah Lamphere,
a sign attached to a lamppost at the
church, simply read, daily prayer meeting from 12
to 1 o'clock, stop five, ten, or
twenty minutes, or the whole hour, as your
time admits.
It is important to give you friends the
backdrop of New York City at this time.
The autumn of 1857 saw New York in
the midst of financial failure, which ruined many
of its one million people, but there was
a pall of mourning over every house.
The panic of 1857, as it was called,
began with the stock market decline.
It started when the big flour and grain
company failed and caused a panic on the
heels of that was the failure of the
Ohio Life Insurance Company, and this caused a
market sell-off.
More than 5,000 American businesses failed within
a year, putting thousands into unemployment, and this
financial crisis was the backdrop of the emotional
attitudes of the citizens of New York who
passed by the old Dutch Reformed Church and
saw that sign advertising a meeting for prayer,
but people were hurting and looking for answers.
It wasn't long that the Fulton Street prayer
meeting grew in size day by day.
As people began to throng the meeting, searching
for answers, a sign posted inside the meeting
announced the rules of the time for prayer.
Prayers and exhortations, not to exceed five minutes,
in order to give all opportunity, no controverted
points discussed, or the atmosphere of the meetings
was one of uncommon fervency and prayer, of
deep humility and self-abasement and great desire
that God would glorify Himself in the outpouring
of His Spirit upon them.
The meetings grew and grew until larger rooms
had to be provided to accommodate the people.
One month from the date of the first
noonday prayer meeting, the religious papers began to
report on the increased interest in the meetings.
The revival was in full swing.
Soon, churches in other communities like Brooklyn began
to host similar prayer meetings, and meetings sprung
up in other parts of the United States
throughout the country.
It seemed at times as if the entire
nation was consumed with prayer.
Many were brought to Christ, and reports of
conversions were numerous.
Jeremiah Lanphier wrote one day in his diary,
at the noonday prayer meeting, a young man,
one out of a great number, told what
the Lord had done for his soul, which
sent a thrill through every Christian heart, and
which will be remembered with joy.
Well, soon the same scenes were reported all
over the nation from coast to coast.
There were noonday prayer meetings popping up in
California, to Florida, and throughout the Midwest and
the South.
It was stated that by April 1858, 10
,000 businessmen were gathering daily for prayer in
New York.
By May of 1858, it was reported there
were 50,000 converts, as the revival continued
to gain momentum and spread like a prairie
fire, until every city, village, and school was
impacted.
It was said that by 1860, a million
converts had been added to the American churches.
Well, putting this revival in perspective is recognizing
the hand of God and the salvation of
souls right before the commencement of the Civil
War, which would last four years, and where
750,000 soldiers would die, not including civilian
casualties, putting the number closer to one million
loss of life.
God, in his sovereignty, sent a powerful move
of grace and a national awakening, because the
country would soon be immersed in a slaughterhouse.
The Fulton Street Revival is worthy of our
study, and a wonderful book written by an
eyewitness of the revival is the book entitled
The Power of Prayer, the New York Revival
of 1858, written by Samuel Prime.
It is published by the Banner of True
Trust, and it's significant because this rare title
was the last which Dr. Morton Lloyd-Jones
urged for republication before his death.
Well, this concludes our session for today.
We will prepare for session 13.