The GOSPEL TRUTH

  Revival at Utica, New York

 

When I had been at Rome about twenty days, one of the elders of Mr. Aikin's church in Utica, a very prominent and a very useful man, died, and I went down to attend his funeral. Mr. Aikin conducted the funeral exercises; and I learned from him that the Spirit of prayer was already manifest in his congregation, and in that city. He told me that one of his principal ladies had been so deeply exercised in her soul about the state of the church and of the ungodly in that city, that she had prayed for two days and nights almost incessantly, until her strength was quite overcome: that she had literal travail of soul to such an extent that when her own strength was exhausted, she could not endure the burden of her mind unless somebody was engaged in prayer with her, upon whose prayer she could lean--some one who could express her desires to God. I understood this, and told Mr. Aikin that the work had already begun in her heart. He recognized it, of course, and wished me to commence labor with him and his people immediately. I soon did so, and be sure the work began at once. The Word took immediate effect, and the place became filled with the manifested influence of the Holy Spirit. Our meetings were crowded every night, and the work spread and went on powerfully, especially in the two Presbyterian congregations, of which Mr. Aikin was pastor of one, and Mr. Brace was pastor of the other. I divided my labors between the two congregations.

Soon after I commenced in Utica, I observed to Mr. Aikin that Mr. Broadhead, of whom I have made mention, did not attend the meetings as I saw. But it was but a few evenings before just before I began to preach, while sitting in the pulpit, Mr. Aikin whispered to me and told me that Mr. Broadhead had come in. He pointed him out to me as he made his way up the aisle to his seat. I took my text and proceeded to address the congregation. I had spoken but a few moments when I observed Mr. Broadhead rise up in his slip, turn deliberately around, wrap his great coat about him, and kneel down. I observed that it excited the attention of those that sat near, who knew him, and produced a considerable sensation in that part of the house. The sheriff continued on his knees during the whole service. He then retired to his room in the hotel in which he boarded. He was a man perhaps fifty years old and a bachelor. He afterwards told me that his mind was greatly burdened when he went home and brought up the subject to which he had been listening. I had pressed the congregation to accept Christ just as He was presented in the Gospel. The question of the present acceptance of Christ, and the whole situation in regard to the sinner's relation to Him and His relation to the sinner, had been the subject of discourse. He said that he had treasured up in his mind the points that had been made, and that he presented them solemnly before himself, and said, "My soul, will you consent to this? Will you accept of Christ, and give up sin, give up yourself? And will you do it now?" He said he had thrown himself, in the agony of his mind, upon his bed. He made this point with himself, and conjured his soul, to accept "now and here." Right there, he said, his distress left him so suddenly that he fell asleep and did not awake for several hours. When he did awake he found his mind full of peace and rest in Christ, and from this moment he became an earnest worker for Christ among his acquaintances.

I have said that he boarded at a hotel, which was at that time kept by a Mr. Shepard. The Spirit took powerful hold in that house. Mr. Shepard himself, the keeper of the hotel, was soon made a subject of prayer and became converted, and a large number of his family and of his boarders. Indeed that largest hotel in the town became a center of spiritual influence, and many were converted there. The stages as they passed through stopped at the hotel; and so powerful was the impression in the community that I heard of several cases of persons that just stopped to dine, or breakfast, or sup or to spend a night, being powerfully convicted and converted before they left the town. Indeed, both in this place and in Rome it was a common remark that nobody could be in the town, or pass through it, without being aware of the presence of God; that a divine influence seemed to pervade the place, and the whole atmosphere seemed to be instinct with a divine life.

A merchant from Lowville, in Lewis County, came to Utica to get some goods, and do some business in his line. He stopped at the hotel where Mr. Broadhead boarded. He found the whole conversation in the town was such as greatly to annoy him, for he was an unconverted man. He was vexed, and said he could do no business there, it was all religion; and he resolved to go home. He could not go into a store but what religion was intruded upon him, and he could do no business with them.

That evening he would go home. These remarks had been made in the presence of some of the young converts who boarded at the hotel, and I think especially in the presence of Mr. Broadhead. As the stage was expected to leave late at night, he was observed to go to the bar just before he retired to pay his bill; saying that Mr. Shepard would not probably be up when the stage passed through, and he wished therefore to settle his bill before he retired. Mr. Shepard said that he observed while he was settling his bill that his mind was very much exercised, and he suggested to several of the gentleman boarders that they should make him a subject of prayer. They took him, I believe, to Mr. Broadhead's room, and conversed with him, and prayed with him, and before the stage came along he was a converted man. And so concerned did he feel immediately about the people of his own place, that when the stage came along he took passage and went immediately home. As soon as he arrived at home he told his family what the Lord had done for his soul, and called them together and prayed with them. Being a very prominent citizen, and very outspoken, and everywhere proclaiming what the Lord had done for his soul, it immediately produced a very solemn impression in Lowville, and soon resulted in a great revival in that place.

It was in the midst of the revival in Utica that we first heard of the opposition to those revivals that was springing up in the east. Mr. Nettleton wrote some letters to Mr. Aikin, with whom I was laboring, in which it was manifest that he was very much mistaken with regard to the character of those revivals. Mr. Aikin showed me those letters, and they were handed around among the ministers in the neighborhood, as they were intended to be. Among them was one in which Mr. Nettleton stated fully what he regarded as objectionable in the conduct of those revivals; but as no such things were done in those revivals, or had been known at all as he complained of, we took no other notice of those letters than to read them and let them pass. Mr. Aikin, however, replied privately to one or two of them, assuring Mr. Nettleton that no such things were done. I said that no such things were done as he complained of. I do not recollect now whether he mentioned the fact that occasionally females would pray in the social meetings. Whether he made that complaint or not, it is true that in a few instances ladies, and some very prominent ladies, who were strongly pressed in spirit, would lead in prayer in their social meetings, which we held daily from house to house. No opposition that I know of was manifested to this either at Utica or at Rome; nor was it a thing that I had myself introduced, for I had no agency in introducing that among their people, and do not know whether it had existed there before or not. Indeed it was not a subject of much conversation or thought, so far as I know, among the people in the neighborhood where it occurred.

I have already said that Mr. Weeks, who maintained the most offensive doctrines on the subject of divine efficiency, was known to be opposed to those revivals. For the information of those who may not know that any such doctrines were ever held, I would say that Mr. Weeks, and those that agreed with him, held that both sin and holiness were produced in the mind by a direct act of almighty power; that God made men sinners or holy at His sovereign discretion, but in both cases by a direct act of almighty power, an act as irresistible as that of creation itself; that in fact God was the only proper agent in the universe, and that all creatures acted only as they were moved and compelled to act by an irresistible act of omnipotence; that every sin in the universe, both of men and of devils, was the result of a direct act of irresistible power on the part of God. This they attempted in a most sophistical way to prove by the Bible.

Mr. Weeks' idea of conversion or regeneration was, that God who had made men sinners, made them also in regenerating them to approve of this, to admit that He had a right to do it for His glory, and to send them to hell for the sins which He had directly created in them, or compelled them to commit by the force of Omnipotence. In conversions that did not bring sinners to accept this view of the subject, he had no confidence. Those that have read Mr. Weeks' nine sermons on the subject, will see that I have not misrepresented his views. However, as this view of Mr. Weeks was embraced to a considerable extent by ministers and professors of religion in that region, his known opposition, together with that of some other ministers, greatly emboldened and increased the opposition. The work, however, went on with great power, converting all classes, until Mr. Aikin reported the hopeful conversion of five hundred in the course of a few weeks, most of them, I believe, belonging to his own congregation. Revivals at that time were comparatively a new thing in that region; and the great mass of the people had not become convinced that they were the work of God. They were not awed by them as they afterwards became. It seemed to be extensively the impression that those revivals would soon pass away, and would prove to have been but a mere excitement of animal feeling. I do not mean that those that were interested in the work had any such idea.

 

One circumstance occurred in the midst of that revival that made a powerful impression. The Oneida Presbytery met there while the revival was going on in its full strength. Among others there was an aged clergyman by the name of Southard, I believe, a stranger to me. He was very much annoyed by the heat and fervor of the revival. He found the public mind all absorbed on the subject of religion; that there was prayer and religious conversation everywhere, even in the stores and other public places. Mr. Southard had never seen a revival, and had never heard what he heard there. He was a Scotchman, and I believe had not been very long in this country. On Friday afternoon, before the presbytery adjourned, he arose and made a violent speech against the revival as it was going on. What he said greatly shocked and grieved the Christian people who were present. They felt like falling on their faces before God, and crying to Him to prevent what Southard had said from doing any mischief.

The presbytery adjourned just at evening. Some of the members went home and others remained over night. Christians gave themselves to prayer. There was a great crying to God that night that He would counteract any evil influence that might result from that speech which had been made by Mr. Southard. The next morning Mr. Southard was found dead in his bed. This again produced a great shock, but on the right side. It more than counteracted all the influence which Mr. Southard's speech had had in the presbytery. In the course of these revivals persons from a distance, in almost every direction hearing what the Lord was doing, or being attracted by curiosity and wonder at what they heard, came to witness what was doing, and many of them were converted to Christ. Among others Dr. Garret Judd, who soon after went to the Sandwich Islands as a missionary, and has been well-known to lovers of missions for many years, was one. He belonged to the congregation of Mr. Weeks, to whom I have referred. His father, old Dr. Judd, was an earnest Christian man. He came down to Utica and sympathized greatly with the revival.

About the same time of the conversion of Dr. Judd a young lady, Miss Fanny Thomas, from some part of New England, came to Utica under the following circumstances. She was teaching a high school, in the neighborhood of Newburgh, N.Y. As much was said in the newspapers about the revival in Utica and that region, Miss Thomas among others became filled with astonishment and wonder, and with a desire to go and see for herself what it meant. She dismissed her school for ten days, and took the stage for Utica. As she passed through Genesee St. to the hotel where she stopped, she observed on one of the signs the name of Briggs Thomas. She was an entire stranger, and did not know that she had an acquaintance or relative in that place. But after stopping a day or two at her hotel, and inquiring who Briggs Thomas was, she thought he might be a relative, and dropped him a note saying that the daughter of a Mr. Thomas, naming her father, was at the hotel, and would be pleased to see him. Mr. Thomas waited upon her and found that she was a distant relative of his, and invited her immediately to his house. She accepted his invitation, and he being an earnest Christian man, immediately took her to all the meetings and tried to interest her in religion. She was greatly surprised at all that she saw, and a good deal annoyed.

She was an energetic, highly cultivated, and proud young lady; and the manner in which people conversed with her, and pressed upon her the necessity of immediately giving her heart to God, very much disturbed her. Especially did the preaching which she heard from night to night take a deep hold upon her. The guilt of sinners was largely insisted upon, and their desert and danger of eternal damnation was made prominent in what she heard. This aroused her opposition, but still the work of conviction went powerfully on in her heart.

In the meantime I had not seen her to converse with her, but had heard from Mr. Thomas of her state of mind. After writhing under the truth for a few days, she called at my lodging. She sat down upon the sofa in the parlor. I drew up my chair in front of her, and began to press her with the claims of God. She referred to my preaching that sinners deserved to be sent to an eternal hell, and said that she could not receive it--that she did not believe that God was such a Being. I replied, "Nor do you yet understand what sin is in its true nature and ill desert; if you did, you would not complain of God for sending the sinner to an eternal hell." I then spread out that subject before her in conversation as plainly as I could. I soon saw that the conviction was ripening in her mind. Much as she hated to believe it, still the conviction of its truth was becoming irresistible. I conversed in this strain for some time until I saw that she was ready to sink under the ripened conviction: and then I turned and said a few words about the place which Jesus holds, and what was the real situation of things in regard to the salvation of those who thus deserved to be damned. Her countenance waxed pale. In a moment after, she threw up her hands and shrieked, and then fell forward upon the arm of the sofa, and let her heart break.

I think she had not wept at all before. Her eyes were dry, her countenance haggard and pale, her sensibility all locked up; but now the floodgates were opened, she let her whole gushing heart out before God. I had no occasion to say any more to her. She soon arose and went to her own lodgings. She almost immediately gave up her school, offered herself as a foreign missionary, was married to a Mr. Gulick, and went out to the Sandwich Islands, I think at the same time that Dr. Judd went out. Her history as a missionary is pretty well-known. She has been a very efficient missionary, and has raised several sons who also are missionaries. One of them was at our house a few months since, and has gone on a mission to Mexico. I was refreshed to hear his account of the spirit and labors of his mother as a missionary in the Sandwich Islands. With his father, Mr. Gulick, I have no personal acquaintance, but his mother I shall not soon forget.

While making it my home in Utica, I preached considerable in New Hartford, a village four miles south of Utica. There was a precious and powerful work of grace, a Mr. Coe being at the time pastor of the Presbyterian church. I preached also at Whitesboro, another beautiful village, four miles west of Utica, where there also was a powerful revival. The pastor, Mr. John Frost, was an efficient, powerful laborer in the work.

Another circumstance occurred which I must not fail to notice. There was a cotton manufactory on the Oriskany creek, a little above Whitesboro, a place now called New York Mills. It was owned by a Mr. Wolcott, an unconverted man, but a gentleman of high standing and good morals. My brother-in-law. Mr. George Andrews, was at that time superintendent of the factory. 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 into 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, and their mules, and other implements of work. 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 that they were a good deal agitated, although they both laughed. I went slowly toward them. They saw me coming, and were evidently much excited. The thread of one of the machines broke, and I observed that the girl's hands trembled so that she could not mend it. I approached slowly, looking on each side at the machinery as I passed, but observed that this 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 nearly 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 more 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.

As much has been said about the hopeful conversion of Theodore Weld at Utica, it may be well for me to give a correct version of that matter. He had an aunt living in Utica, who was a very praying, godly woman. He was the son of an eminent clergyman in New England, and his aunt thought he was a Christian. He used to lead her family in its worship. Before the commencement of the revival, he had become a member of Hamilton College at Clinton. The work at Utica had attracted so much attention that many persons from Clinton, and among the rest some of the professors of the college, had been down to Utica and had reported what was doing there, which had produced a good deal of excitement.

Theodore Weld held a very prominent place among the students of Hamilton College, and had a very great degree of influence. Hearing what was going on at Utica, he became very much excited, and his opposition became greatly aroused. He became quite outrageous in his expressions of opposition to the work, as I understood. This fact became known in Utica; and his aunt, with whom he had boarded, became very anxious about him. To me he was an entire stranger. His aunt wrote him, and wanted him to come home and spend a Sabbath, hear the preaching, and become interested in the work. He at first declined, but finally got some of the students together and told them that he had made up his mind to go down to Utica; that he knew it must be fanaticism or enthusiasm; that he knew it would not move him, they would see that it would not. He came home full of opposition, and his aunt soon learned that he did not intend to hear me preach. Brother Aikin had occupied the pulpit in the morning, and I in the afternoon and evening. His aunt learned that he intended to go to Mr. Aikin's church in the morning when he expected Mr. Aikin to preach; but that he would not go in the afternoon or evening, because he was determined not to hear me preach. In view of this, Brother Aikin suggested that I should preach in the morning, as he wanted much to have Weld hear me. I consented, and we went to meeting. Mr. Aikin took the introductory exercises, as usual. Mrs. Clark came to meeting with her family, and among others Mr. Weld. She took pains to have him so seated in the slip that he could not well get out without herself and one or two other members of the family stepping out before him; for she feared, as she said, that he would get up and go out when he saw that I was going to preach. I knew that his influence among the young men of Utica was very great, and that his coming there would have a powerful influence to make them band together in opposition to the work. Mr. Aikin pointed him out to me as he came in and took his seat.

After the introductory exercises I arose and named this text, "One sinner destroyeth much good." I had never preached from it, or heard it preached from; but it came home with great power to my own mind, and as was my custom in such cases, I took that for my text. I began to preach, and to show in a great many instances how one sinner might destroy much good, and how the influence of one man might destroy a great many souls. I suppose that I drew a pretty vivid picture of Weld, and of what his influence was, and what mischief he might do. Once or twice he made an effort to get out; but his aunt perceiving it would throw herself forward and lean on the slip in front and engage in silent prayer, and he could not get out without arousing and annoying her, and therefore he remained in his seat till meeting was out.

The next day I called into a store in Genesee Street to converse with some young men and people there, as it was my custom to go from place to place to converse with people; and who should I find there but Weld? He fell upon me in a very unceremonious manner, and I should think for nearly or quite an hour talked to me in a most abusive manner. I had never heard anything like it. I got an opportunity to say but very little to him myself, for his tongue ran incessantly. He was very gifted in language. It soon attracted the attention of all that were in the store, and the news ran along the streets and the clerks gathered in from the neighboring stores; and quite a large number of young men ran in and stood to listen to what he had to say. All business ceased in the store where we were, and all gave themselves up to listening to his vituperation. I could only once in a while get an opportunity to say anything to which he would attend. But finally I appealed to him and said, "Mr. Weld, are you the son of a minister of Christ, and is this the way for you to behave?" I said a few words in that direction, and I saw that it stung him; and he, throwing out something very severe, immediately left the store and went out. I went out also, and went down to Mr. Aikin's, where for the time I was lodging. I had been there but a few moments when somebody called at the door, and as no servant was at hand, I went to the door myself. Indeed I was sitting in the parlor alone at the time, and got up to open the front door; and who should come in but Mr. Weld? He looked as if he would sink. He began immediately to make the most humble confession and apology for the manner in which he had treated me, and expressed himself in the strongest terms of self-condemnation. I took him kindly by the hand and had a little conversation with him, assured him that I had laid up nothing against him, and exhorted him strongly to give his heart to God. I believe I prayed with him before he went. He left, and I heard no more of him that day. That evening I preached, I think, at New Hartford, and returned late in the evening.

The next morning I heard that he went to his aunt's greatly impressed and subdued. She asked him to pray for the family. He said that he was at first shocked at the idea. But his enmity arose so much, that he thought that was one way in which he had not yet expressed his opposition, and therefore he would comply with her request. He knelt down and began and went on with what his aunt intended should be a prayer; but from his own account of it, it was the most blasphemous strain of vituperation that could well be uttered. He kept on in a most wonderful strain until they all became convulsed with feeling and astonishment, and he kept on so long that the light went out, and finally closed. His aunt attempted to converse with him, and to pray with him, but the opposition of his heart was terrible. She became frightened at the state of mind which he manifested. She prayed with him, conjured him to give his heart to God, and then retired. He went to his room; and he walked his room by turns, and by turns he lay upon the floor. He continued the whole night in that terrible state of mind, angry, rebellious, and yet so convicted that he could scarcely live.

Just at daylight, while walking back and forth in his room, he said a pressure came upon him that crushed him right down to the floor, and with it a voice that seemed to command him to repent, to repent now. He said it broke him down on the floor, and there he lay broken to pieces, until late in the morning his aunt coming up found him upon the floor calling himself a thousand fools, and to all human appearance with his heart all broken to pieces. The next night he got up in meeting, and wanted to know if he might make confession. I told him Yes, and he made a public confession before the whole congregation. He said it became him to remove the stumbling block which he had cast before the whole people, and he wanted opportunity to make the most public confession he could. He did make a very humble, earnest, brokenhearted confession. From that time, he became a very efficient helper in the work. He labored diligently; and being a powerful speaker and much gifted in prayer and labor, he was instrumental for several years in doing a great deal of good, and in the hopeful conversion of a great many souls. His health became enfeebled by his great labors. He was obliged to leave college, and he went on a fishing excursion to the coast of Labrador. He returned the same earnest laborer as before he went away, with health renewed. I found him for a considerable time an efficient helper where I was attempting to labor. I shall have occasion to mention him in other connections, and therefore will say no more of him at present.

I have said that no public replies were made to the things that found their way into print in opposition to these revivals, that is, to nothing that was written by Dr. Beecher or Mr. Nettleton. I have also said that a pamphlet was published by the ministers that composed the Oneida Association, in opposition to the work. To this, I believe, no public answer was given. I recollect that a Unitarian minister, residing at Trenton in that county, published an abusive pamphlet, in which he greatly misrepresented the work, and made a personal attack upon myself. To this the Rev. Mr. Wetmore, one of the members of the Oneida Presbytery, published a reply.

This revival occurred in the winter and spring of 1826. When the converts had been received into the churches throughout the county, Rev. John Frost, pastor of the Presbyterian church at Whitesboro, published a pamphlet giving some account of the revival, and stated, if I remember right, that within the bounds of that presbytery, the converts numbered three thousand. I have no copy of any of these pamphlets. I have said that the work spread from Rome and Utica as from a center in every direction. Ministers came from a considerable distance, and spent more or less time in attending the meetings, and in various ways helping forward the work. I spread my own labors over as large a field as I could, and labored more or less throughout the bounds of the presbytery. I cannot now remember all the places where I spent more or less time. The pastors of all those churches sympathized deeply with the work; and like good and true men laid themselves upon the altar, and did all they could to forward the great and glorious work; and God gave them a rich reward.

With regard to the doctrines preached in those revivals, I would say that the doctrine of total moral depravity was thoroughly discussed, and urgently pressed upon the people: the spirituality and authority of the divine law was also made prominent; the doctrine of the Atonement of Christ as sufficient for all men, and the free invitations of the Gospel based thereon, were held forth in due proportions. All men were represented as by nature dead in trespasses and sins, as being under condemnation and the wrath of God abiding on them. Then they were pointed to the cross of Christ, and every inducement presented to lead them to a total renunciation of self-righteousness, and of all selfishness in every form, and to a present thorough committal of themselves and of their all to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ministers and Christians who had adopted the literal interpretation of the Presbyterian Confession of faith, had found it very difficult to deal with inquiring sinners. In general they did not like to tell them that they had nothing to do. They would therefore instruct them to use the means of grace, to pray for a new heart, and wait for God to convert them. In this revival we discarded all this teaching and instead of telling sinners to use the means of grace and pray for a new heart, we called on them to make themselves a new heart and a new spirit, and pressed the duty of instant surrender to God. We told them the Spirit was striving with them to induce them now to give Him their hearts, now to believe, and to enter at once upon a life of submission and devotion to Christ, of faith and love and Christian obedience. We taught them that while they were praying for the Holy Spirit, they were constantly resisting Him; and that if they would at once yield to their own convictions of duty, they would be Christians. We tried to show them that everything they did or said before they had submitted, believed, given their hearts to God, was all sin, was not that which God required them to do, but was simply deferring repentance and resisting the Holy Ghost. Such teaching as this was of course resisted by many; but nevertheless the teaching was insisted upon, and greatly blessed by the Spirit of God.

Formerly it had been supposed necessary that a sinner should remain under conviction a long time; and it was not uncommon to hear old professors of religion say that they were under conviction so many months or years before they found relief; and they evidently had the impression that the longer they were under conviction the greater was the evidence that they were truly converted. We taught the opposite of this. I insisted that if they remained long under conviction, they were in danger of becoming self-righteous in the sense that they would think that they had prayed a great deal, and done a great deal to persuade God to save them; and that finally they would settle down with a false hope. We told them that under this protracted conviction they were in danger of grieving the Spirit of God away, and when their distress of mind ceased a reaction would naturally take place, they would feel less distress and perhaps comfortable in their minds, from which they were in danger of inferring that they were converted; that the bare thought that they were possibly converted might create a degree of joy which they might mistake for Christian joy and peace; and that this state of mind might still farther delude them by being taken as evidence that they were converted.

We tried thoroughly to dispose of this false teaching, that it was necessary that sinners should remain a great while under conviction. We insisted then, as I have ever done since, on immediate submission as the only thing that God could accept at their hands; and that all delay, under any pretext whatever, was rebellion against God. It became very common, through this teaching, for persons to be convicted and converted in the course of a few hours, and sometimes in the course of a few minutes. Such sudden conversions were alarming to many good people; and of course they feared and predicted that they would fall away, and prove not to be soundly converted. But the event proved that among those sudden conversions were some of the most powerful Christians that ever have been known in that region of country: and this has been in accordance with my own experience through all my ministry.

I have said that Mr. Aikin privately replied to some of Mr. Nettleton's and Dr. Beecher's letters. Some of Dr. Beecher's letters at the time found their way into print, but no public notice was taken of them. Mr. Aikin's replies, which he sent through the mail, seemed to make no difference with the opposition of either Mr. Nettleton or Dr. Beecher. From a letter which Dr. Beecher wrote about this time to Dr. Taylor of New Haven, it appeared that someone had made the impression upon him that the brethren engaged in promoting those revivals were untruthful. In that letter he asserted that the spirit of lying was so predominant in those revivals that the brethren engaged in promoting them could not be at all believed. This letter of Dr. Beecher to Dr. Taylor found its way into print. I have somewhere among my papers a copy of this letter, as I have also some of Mr. Nettleton's letters. If Dr. Beecher's letter should ever be published again, the people of the region where those revivals prevailed will think it very strange that Dr. Beecher should even in a private letter ever have written such things of the ministers and Christians engaged in promoting those great and wonderful revivals. In another place I must say more of Dr. Beecher's and Mr. Nettleton's opposition to those glorious revivals.

 

HOME | FINNEY LIFE | FINNEY WORKS | TEXT INDEX | SUBJECT INDEX | GLOSSARY | BOOK STORE