C. G. Finney
WE are told about this wonderful preacher that, while hesitating between skepticism and Christianity, he seemed to hear a voice speak from heaven to his soul, and he resolved to seek the Lord if haply he might find Him. Going out into the woods to pray, he found a sanctuary between some fallen trees; but he realized that he was more anxious lest some passer-by should notice him than he was to have his sins forgiven and become a child of the kingdom. Then, while he was broken and abased before God, the Spirit impressed upon his mind the words from the Book of Jeremiah:” Then shall ye find me, when ye shall seek for me with all your heart.” Thus he sought, and thus he found. On the same evening, as he went to his room, “it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then, nor did it for some time afterward, that it was wholly a mental state. It seemed to me a reality that He stood before me, and I fell down and poured out my soul to Him.”
So he continued in communion and prayer, when—again to give his own words: “Without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my mind that there was such a thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul.... It seemed like the very breath of God. I wept aloud with joy and love.”
After his conversion he was consumed with love to Christ and precious souls. He had to face bitter persecution, but God was with him. For instance, at a mill the opposition was so great that it was seriously proposed to “tar and feather” him, and eject him from the place. So he and another Christian spent the whole “afternoon in prayer in a wood, receiving the assurance that they had prevailed with God.” As the two were seen returning towards the meeting-place, shopkeepers left their places of business, the ball-players left their clubs on the green, and the building was thronged. Finney had taken no thought as to what he should preach, but the Holy Spirit was upon him. Immediately, without any introduction whatsoever, he “opened upon them” with the quotation: “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” (Isa. 3:10, 11). And to quote his own words:—
“The Spirit of God came upon me with such power that it was like opening a battery upon them. For more than an hour the word of God came through me to them in a manner that I could see was carrying all before it. It was a fire, and as a hammer breaking the rock, and as the sword that was piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.”
Opposition was almost at an end. In answer to entreaties Finney went out to visit, and everywhere he found a state of deep conviction of sin. A band of intelligent men, who were Deists, and who had endeavored to thwart the revival, were nearly all concerted. Among those who remained obdurate was an infidel who railed furiously at religion, with many blasphemies, his case being notorious. Suddenly this man fell to the ground in a fit of apoplexy, and a physician who was called in bade him prepare for death, adding: If you have anything to say, you must say it at once.” The aged infidel could find strength to stammer out only one sentence; it was: “Don’t let Finney pray over my corpse.” With this death the opposition died also.
The story has often been told how Finney went by invitation to preach in a village school-house three miles from Antwerp, N.Y., at which place a revival had broken out under his preaching. Exhausted with the walk, for the day was hot, he arrived in the village to find the building crowded. At length he was able to find a place for himself, near the door. He cast himself upon God, and, as by inspiration, rose from his knees and forthwith began to preach from the text: “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city” (Gen. 19:14). Dwelling-earnestly upon the Bible story of Abraham and Lot, and Sodon1, he noticed that the people became infuriated; but, although he could not understand the reason for this, he continued to press home the truth, and” an awful solemnity seemed to settle upon the people; the congregation began to fall from their seats in every direction and cry for mercy. If I had had a sword in each hand, I could not have cut them down as fast as they fell. I was obliged to stop preaching.
The meeting continued all night, and, having been adjourned to a private house in order to make room for the school-children, went right on through the next day until the afternoon. Then Finney found an explanation of the anger of the congregation; the place was commonly called “Sodom,” and the brother who had invited Finney was familiarly known as “Lot.”
There was in Rochester at this time a certain judge who stood out against Finney upon particular points of doctrine and of method. Finally, he strongly opposed the idea of inviting people forward to the “anxious” seat. ‘Thereupon, Finney prepared a sermon calculated to impress such a person, and proceeded to deliver it. The judge entered and managed to find a seat in the gallery, but afterwards went out. Much distressed at the apparent failure of his sermon, Finney was drawing to a close, with a heavy heart, when, as he after-wards wrote: “I felt someone pulling at the skirt of my coat. I looked, and there was the judge. He said: ‘Mr. Finney, won’t you pray for me, by name? And I will go to the “anxious” seat.’ There was a great gush of feeling, in every part of the house. Many held down their heads and wept; others seemed to be engaged in earnest prayer. He went round in front of the pulpit and knelt down immediately. The lawyers arose and crowded into the aisles, filling the open space in front, wherever they could get a place to kneel. The movement had thus begun, without my requesting it; but I then publicly invited any who were prepared to renounce their sins and to accept Christ, to come forward, or kneel down wherever they could. I appointed a meeting for inquirers the next day. The audience was composed almost exclusively of prominent citizens. I continued from day to day, having an opportunity to converse freely with numbers; and they were as teachable as children. A large number of lawyers were converted.”