ComeRevive.Us

Author| Unknown
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| R.A. Torrey,1856-1928, Preacher, Evangelist

Reuben Archer Torrey BORN: January 28, 1856 Hoboken, New Jersey DIED: October 26, 1928 Asheville, North Carolina LIFE SPAN: 72 years, 8 months, 28 days

EXCELLENCE IN TWO AREAS of ministry has been achieved by a few; it has been a rare genius who has been so gifted in three areas, but to excel in four capacities would seem near impossible…but it has been done two or three times in history. Reuben Archer Torrey is a classic example, for he was renown as an educator, a pastor, a world evangelist and an author.

Besides his obvious gifts in all these areas, he was also a man of prayer, a student of the Bible, and an outstanding personal soul-winner. It is said that he daily read the Bible in four languages, having a good working knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. Some students of church history feel he did more to promote personal evangelism than any other one man since the days of the apostles. His prayer life has seldom been equaled in the annals of Christendom.

One wonders if there has ever lived a man who did so many things well for Christ. One of his favorite phrases was, “I love to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Torrey was the son of a New York City corporation lawyer and banker. His parents, Reuben and Elizabeth, were refined and cultured Christians, with mother spending much time in prayer for her son. The family moved to Brooklyn when he was three and, when he was ten, they moved again to a country home on 200 acres amid the uplands of New York State. The fortune of the father was lost, so that Torrey’s eventual inheritance was only a matchbox and a pair of sleeve buttons. The Lord’s Day was respected, but somewhat lax restrictions the rest of the week produced a worldly teenager. Once, in the attic, he read a book that explained about being a Christian, but he felt God might make him a preacher rather than a lawyer, so he determined not to follow through.

At age fifteen he was at Yale University and passed through a period of scholastic skepticism. His quick mind learned easily. He was an expert dancer and his conscience was not oversensitive about campus good times. “What more could I want?” he thought. “I’ve got all I need to make me happy.” Social and worldly delights like race tracks, cards, the theater all crowded out any pursuit of Christian objectives.

One night at Yale, he dreamed his mother came to him as an angel asking him to preach. His melancholy increased. He had a sudden impulse to commit suicide. He hurried to the washstand and fumbled for his razor or any other sharp instrument that would serve this purpose, but could not find a suitable weapon. His mother, miles away, was pulled from her bed by an invisible power to pray for her son whose faith had been shaken. Young Reuben, about to commit suicide one way or another, was gripped by a desire to pray. Snapping back to reality, he knelt at his bedside and asked the Lord to come into his heart. He said, “Oh, God, deliver me from this burden–I’ll even preach!” He returned to his bed with a soothing peace settling over his mind and his future plans were settled. This was in the spring of 1875, when Torrey was 18 years old. In Yale chapel he made a public profession of faith and, following graduation in 1875, he entered the Yale Divinity School.

Winning people to Christ became an obsession with him, and soon he was renown as a great personal soul-winner. After his conversion, the first time he saw the young lady he had been taking to dances, he witnessed to her. He says of the incident: “I commenced to reason with her out of the Scriptures. It took two hours, but she accepted Christ.”

Both of his parents died in the summer of 1877.

While in Seminary, Torrey first heard a man whom the students called a strange, uneducated evangelist. It was D.L. Moody at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1878. After Moody spoke, Torrey and others said, “Tell us how to win people to Jesus Christ.” Moody said, “Go at it! That’s the best way to learn!” So Torrey plunged into personal work starting right there at the meetings. His method was to put the Bible in the hands of the inquirer and have him read a selected passage. Torrey would then ask questions about the words and phrases of the passage until the seeker understood it. His approach to individuals was sometimes brusque and always direct and pointed. There was no attempt to try to win people to himself first as a means of winning them to Christ. It was always directly to Jesus Christ in his witnessing. Torrey also heard Moody say in another sermon, “Faith can do anything!” and faith became the keynote of his life. Reading the works of Finney those days also helped mold his life.

Torrey got his B.D. in 1878, with his D.D. coming later in 1889. He was ordained a Congregational minister in 1878 and pastored the Congregational Church in Garretsville, Ohio, a community of 1,000, from 1878 to 1882. It was during this time he married Clara Smith on October 22, 1879. His wife was a constant inspiration to him. They had five children, beginning with Edith (Nov. 8, 1880), Blanche, Reuben, Elizabeth, and ending with Margaret (Feb. 16, 1893).

Not satisfied with the training he received in the States, he studied at the German universities of Leipzig and Erlangen in 1882-83. As a brilliant student, he made great progress in school. Early in his studies he was a pronounced higher critic, but before he had completed them, he was convinced of the falsity of his views and swung gradually back to old conservative doctrines, reversing the usual trend because of Europe’s emphasis on higher criticism. In fact, Torrey became a most bitter foe of liberalism the rest of his days. He was hopelessly orthodox.

Upon returning to the states, he received two calls. One was to pastor a wealthy church in Brooklyn and the other to pastor a weak and poor church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He chose the latter. He organized the church with about a dozen members and it became known as the Open Door Church. He stayed from 1883 to 1886, then moved on to the People’s Church from 1887-89. Along with these pastoral responsibilities, he accepted the superintendency of the Congregational City Mission Society, 1886- 89. It was in Minneapolis that his motto became “pray through” as a result of reading Mueller’s Life of Trust. He received no stated salary and was supported by freewill offerings. He said later:

“A number of years ago (1888), I came to the place where it seemed my duty to give up my salary and work for God among the poor…From that day on, every mouthful came directly from my Heavenly Father, not a meal on our tables…not a coat that went on my back…not a dress on my wife’s back, nor the clothing on the backs of the four children, that was not an answer to prayer. We got everything from God. I was never more serene in my life.”

Mr. Torrey also made it a habit to hold special prayer meetings asking God to pour out His Spirit in mighty revival power around the world. Little did he suspect how instrumental his own life would be in bringing this to pass.

One day D.L. Moody was talking with a friend, E.M. Williams, and lamented that he wished he knew of a man to head his new school. Williams gave a glowing account of Torrey’s ministries. Moody called for him, and at the age of 33, Torrey became the first Superintendent of the Chicago Evangelization Society (later Moody Bible Institute), guiding it from its inception September 26, 1889, until 1908. He was the chief executive officer and the success of the Institute can probably be attributed to Torrey’s contribution more than any other individual. He laid the groundwork for the curriculum and the practical Christian work program. Torrey’s leadership at the school, plus his part in the 1893 World’s Fair evangelism outreach, brought him to the attention of the Christian world. Torrey was automatically considered the “Elisha” to carry on Moody’s work upon his death in 1899. When Moody collapsed in Kansas City in November, 1899, just prior to his death, it was Torrey who carried on the crusade.

At school, the students were constantly amazed at his ability. His teaching and prevailing prayer became renown. As he lectured in the classroom, he poured out the brilliance of his Yale and German training, which had been endued with faith and emboldened by the Holy Spirit. He was sound in doctrine and an exceptional Bible teacher. His successor, James Gray, said of him, “Few men were better equipped than he to expound the Holy Scriptures before a popular audience or in a classroom.” And how he could pray! One student reported how he went to Torrey’s office with a particular need, and after the session kneeling in prayer together was over, a pool of tears remained when Torrey arose. His booklet How to Pray is a classic.

Torrey also took upon himself the pastorship of the Chicago Avenue Church (now Moody Memorial Church) from 1894 to 1905, where again he wielded a tremendous amount of influence in the Christian world. The 2,200-seat auditorium soon began to be filled. Torrey later said he didn’t believe a day went by without someone being saved as a result of the church. The success was the prayer meetings, for all over the city there were little groups who would stay up late on Saturday night, or get up early on Sunday morning to pray for their pastor. This, plus the fact that his membership was always trained in soul-winning, produced a church that lived in a constant revival atmosphere. Every year he spent several months in Northfield, Massachusetts, teaching and preaching in the various conferences there.

In 1898, a weekly prayer meeting began at the Bible Institute each Saturday night from 9 to 10 p.m. The attendance grew until it numbered an average of 300 people. Its purpose was to pray for worldwide revival. For the next three years the prayer meetings continued, followed by Torrey and three or four associates having a second prayer meeting until about 2 a.m. One night Torrey had a strange burden to pray that God would send him around the world with the Gospel. Within a week two strangers from the United Churches of Melbourne, Australia approached him following a Sunday service saying they felt Torrey was the man God wanted to come to their country for evangelistic services. Torrey was stunned and challenged by the proposal. It seemed the years of praying were about to bear fruit.

Getting a leave of absence from his Chicagoresponsibilities, he quickly began to ponder that God might use him as the human instrument to bring worldwide revival–his burden for many years. He was to see some 102,000 come to Christ in the next few years in the most globe-girdling enterprise ever undertaken by an evangelist.

He wired a former student, Charles M. Alexander, to meet him in Australia. Torrey went to Japan and China on the way, where he preached with great power and saw hundreds of converts made during his brief visit there.

It was April, 1902, that Torrey and Alexander met in Melbourne, Australia, and began their work there. This movement was known as the Simultaneous Mission and it lasted a month. For the first two weeks, meetings were held in fifty different centers by fifty different ministers and evangelists. The “Glory Song” (O That Will Be Glory) seemed to set the nation on fire. During the last two weeks the meetings were held in the Exhibition Building seating 8,000 people. Up to 15,000 were trying to get in nightly. W.E. Geil, another American evangelist, assisted in the meetings. Some 8,600 converts were recorded and the news of the awakening stirred all Christendom. Calls came from other key cities of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, where they ministered for the next six months. In Sydney, Torrey spoke to thousands in the massive city hall with hundreds converted. In Bendigo, Alexander met and led Robert Harkness, a brilliant young musical genius, to Christ, and he became his pianist, soon joining the team for the rest of their tour. In one Australian city, a largely build man thundered at Torrey, “I am not a Christian, but I am moral, upright, honorable and blameless–and I’d like to know what you have against me!” Torrey looked him straight in the eyes and replied, “I charge you, sir, with high treason against Heaven’s King!”

Up to 2,000 prayer bands were conducted in various sections of the country praying continually for revival!

Two campaigns were held in Tasmania in Launceston and Hobart. The heavyweight boxing champ of Tasmania confessed Christ as Saviour the same night a member of Parliament did. Thirty days in New Zealand climaxed their tour. Revival fires broke out with a total of 20,000 decisions for Christ in the land “down under.”

Calls now came from England and they headed that way, stopping in India for six weeks en route. Campaigns were held in Madura, Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, and Benares. Hundreds were saved. A convention of 400 missionaries listened to Torrey for four days receiving much blessing to bring back to their people.

They were welcomed in London in a great meeting in Exeter Hall by the leading clerics of England. They spent three weeks in Mildmay Conference Hall in North London stirring up church members to fresh zeal in soul-winning and witnessing, resulting in large numbers of conversions. They went on to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a four-week campaign held in Synod Hall. In the weeks to follow, they also ministered in France and Germany.

The team made a brief trip to America during July and August, 1903, where a welcome home crowd of some 10,000 endeavored to gain admission to the Auditorium of the Bible Institute.

In September, 1903, they were back in England, and beginning the Liverpool crusade. In four weeks they saw about 5,000 converts. The crowds became so large that two meetings per night had to be held, one for women, and the second for men. At Dublin, Ireland, at the Metropolitan Hall, some 3,000 accepted Christ.

By 1904, some 30,000 persons around the world had committed themselves to pray for the team and worldwide revival. In January, 1904, the Birmingham campaign began. It was probably the most successful campaign held anywhere on their tour. Meetings were held in Bingley Hall, seating 8,000 with space for 2,000 standees. The thirty-day crusade had some 7,000 conversions! Here Alexander met his future wife, Helen Cadbury, whom he married in July.

In September, 1904, the team was in Bolton, Wales (3,600 saved), then on to Cardiff to a 7,000-seat auditorium which filled nightly (3,750 saved). Evan Roberts led that nation to God the next year and surely the sparks of revival were lit at those meetings.

From Cardiff, the evangelists went back to Liverpool to conduct a nine-week campaign. The Tournament Hall, seating 12,500, was reserved. At times it proved inadequate and it is estimated some 35,000 were turned away on the last day of the meetings. Some 7,000 were saved and an old resident said it surpassed the Moody-Sankey revival many years previously. The choir numbered 3,658 alone, which was the largest evangelistic chorus ever organized up to that time. Two banquets were held, averaging 2,200 each for the poor people of Liverpool, averaging about 225 decisions for Christ at each.

From February to June 1905, the famous London Crusade was held. Total expenses amounted to $85,000 with nearly 15,000 professed conversions. Meetings were held at the Royal Albert Hall for the first two months; an iron and glass building seating 5,500 in South London for the next two months; and another great iron building seating over 5,000 in the heart of London on the Strand for the last month. A 1,000-voice choir helped nightly. The crusade began at the 11,000-seat Royal Albert Hall on February 4 with a welcome by many of the cities’ dignitaries. The first evangelistic service was held the following night with 10,000 unable to secure admission. Some 250 were saved. A well- known concert hall singer and entertainer by the name of Quentin Ashlyn was saved soon after. It seemed as though all of London was singing revival hymns. The “Glory Song” captured the city. It was sung at every service. Tell Mother I’ll Be There was also greatly used. Some 6,500 were saved at the Royal Albert Hall with special meetings for men and children also packing out the hall. Meetings held in South London produced 5,000 converts and then in the final month another 2,500 were saved. A closing service at the Royal Albert Hall announced the totals–202 meetings, 1,114,650 attended (average 5,500 per service) with over 17,000 converts!

Wherever they had gone–to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Dundee in Scotland; to Dublin and Belfast in Ireland (4,000 saved); to Manchester (4,000 saved) and the other above mentioned crusades in England and Wales–the halls were unable to hold the crowds. Not since the days of Moody and Sankey had Great Britain been so stirred. A total of 70,000 came to the Lord during these three years of ministry there.

Returning to the United States in December, 1905, with more revival preaching on his mind, he made his leave of absence permanent at the two hallowed institutions that had stood by awaiting his return. James M. Gray became the chief executive officer at Moody Bible Institute and A.C. Dixon became pastor of Moody Church. From 1906 to 1911, a heavy series of crusades in America occupied his time. Oswald J. Smith was converted in the 1906 Toronto, Ontario, crusade. Atlanta, Ottawa, Ontario, San Francisco, Omaha, Cleveland, Nashville, Buffalo, Montreal, Quebec, Detroit, Los Angeles and Chicago all had good revival sessions with him. Perhaps his most successful revival stateside was in Philadelphia in the spring of 1906. Newspaper headlines blared out, “Hell is absolutely certain, Dr. Torrey warns his hearers!” These meetings lasted 62 days in three different armories at a cost of $38,365. John Wanamaker and John Converse, successful Christian businessmen, were among the chief supporters. Some 7,000 converts were claimed, although decision cards totaled only 3,615. Charles Alexander left Torrey in 1907- 08 and joined up with J. Wilbur Chapman.

Torrey helped establish the Montrose (Pennsylvania) Bible Conference in 1908. Later he would be buried there on Conference Hill.

In 1911 he went back to England, Scotland and Ireland for more meetings.

Now a call came from the west coast of the United States to give Los Angeles similar institutions to those he led in Chicago. From 1912 to 1924 he served as dean of the Los Angeles Bible Institute (now called BIOLA). He also helped to organize and served as the first pastor of the Church of the Open Door (1915- 1924). There he preached to great throngs and God blessed both his pastoring and teaching. Thousands were trained at the school including Charles E. Fuller, famed radio preacher of the next generation.

In 1919 he visited Japan and China with the Gospel and in 1921 he toured China and Korea in evangelistic endeavors.

From 1924 to 1928 he devoted his time to holding Bible conferences, giving special lectures at the Moody Bible Institute among other places. He made his home in Biltmore, North Carolina. He passed on quietly at Asheville, North Carolina.

Will Houghton, preaching his funeral, said:

“…But those who knew Dr. Torrey more intimately knew him as a man of regular and uninterrupted prayer. He knew what it meant to pray without ceasing. With hours set systematically apart for prayer, he gave himself diligently to this ministry.”

Reuben A. Torrey wrote some forty books and his practical writings on the Holy Spirit, prayer, salvation, soul-winning, and evangelism are still favorites of many Christians. His Gist of the Lesson continued for more than thirty years. This was a series of helps on the International Sunday School lessons. Many of his works have been translated into foreign languages.

His first book was How to Bring Men to Christ (1893). His last, Lectures on the First Epistle of John, published in 1929 after his death. His How to Promote and Conduct a Successful Revival (1901) is considered one of the best books on personal and mass evangelism ever written.

Author| Ruckman
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| Quintus Florens Tertullian, 160-220 AD

Quintus Florens Tertullian
160-220
North African defender of the faith. Tertullian was born of heathen parents in Carthage, Africa. He studied law and lived an exceedingly sinful life until he received the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of 30. He became an intense, hardhitting defender of the fundamentals of the Christian faith against the traditions of Romanism. He joined the Montanists, a group of premillennial, Bible-believing Christians, and spent the rest of his life writing and preaching primitive Christianity as opposed to Romanism with its ecclesiastical traditions and
ceremonies contrary to the Scriptures.

Author| Ruckman
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| Polycarp, 69-155A.D., 1st Century Disciple

Polycarp 69-155 Polycarp was born in Smyrna and later became bishop there. He was a disciple of the Apostle John and also a friend of Ignatius. He was a very dedicated student of the Pauline Epistles and the Gospel of John. He had very little to say about sacraments or ritual. He maintained that each church was independent of any outside human authority. He never referred to the ministers as priests, and he never taught that water baptism had anything to do with salvation.

As a very old man, he was arrested, tried and condemned. When asked to renounce his faith in Christ, he re- plied, “Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He hath done me no wrong. How can I speak evil of my King who saved me?” Polycarp was burned alive, and when the flames refused to consume him, he was killed with the sword and then burned.

Author| Unknown
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| Peter Cartwright, 1785-1872, Circuit Preacher

Peter Cartwright 1785-1872 American Methodist circuit rider. Peter Cartwright was born in Amherst County, Virginia. His father was a colonial sol- dier in the War of Independence. Shortly after the War, the family moved to Kentucky, which was then a wilderness filled with thousands of hostile Indians. There, in those frontier surroundings, Peter Cartwright was reared. And, like many of the young men in that primitive area, became wild and wicked, engaging in many sinful practices. His mother was a devout Christian woman, who opened their cabin home for preaching by the Methodist circuit preachers. As a young man of 16, Peter was convicted of his sins as a result of these meetings. And, after several weeks of deep agony and contrition, he was soundly converted at an outdoor revival meeting. His new faith completely changed his life, and he immediately began to witness for Christ. One year later, he was licensed as an “exhorter” and began riding a circuit of his own. His appointments were few and far between, and he preached wherever people would open their homes, because meeting houses were few. At the end of three months, he had taken 25 people into the Methodist Church, and had received a salary of $6.00. This was the be- ginning of his long career as a circuit-riding Methodist preacher. Cartwright was a hellfire-and-brimstone preacher af- ter the style of Wesley, and his character and personality often matched his sermons. Often, he personally thrashed the rowdies who disturbed his camp meetings–after which he saw many of them “get religion.” His fearlessness is described in an incident which took place in Nashville. As he was preaching, General Andrew Jackson entered the service. The local preacher whispered the news to Cartwright, which prompted him to thunder, “And who is General Jackson? If General Jackson doesn’t get his soul converted, God will damn him as quickly as anyone else!” Jackson smiled and later told Cartwright that he was “a man after my own heart.” In over 50 years of traveling circuits in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, Cartwright received 10,000 members into the Methodist Church, personally baptized 12,000, conducted over 500 funerals, and preached more than 15,000 sermons. He was strongly opposed to comfort in reli- gion, education, and culture in the ministry; his equipment consisted of a black broadcloth suit and a horse with saddlebags, while his library was composed of his Bible, hymnbook, and Methodist discipline. He was the epitome of the Methodist circuit riders who preached, traveled, suffered, and firmly planted the old-time religion in the frontier of the infant United States of America.

Author| Ruckman
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| Mordecai Ham, 1878-1959, Baptist Evangelist

Mordecai Ham 1878-1959 Baptist evangelist. There were more than 33,000 conversions during the first year of the ministry of Mordecai Ham. As a result of his ministry, more than 300,000 new converts joined Baptist churches in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Carolinas in a space of 30 years. The au- thor of the amendment for Prohibition stated that Billy Sun- day and Mordecai Ham nearly put the saloons out of business. A close observer wrote concerning him, “He exalts Christ and fights sin with all his might. There is no middle ground in his campaigns. It is impossible to evaluate his ministry. Un- der his preaching I have seen murderers saved, drunkards con- verted, homes reunited, and men and women dedicate their lives for special service.” Billy Graham was saved under Mordecai Ham’s preach- ing, in a revival in Charlotte, North Carolina, in November, 1934.

ARTIST’S NOTE: Fruit is the main theme of Mordecai Ham’s life. The purple is indicative of the passage on the vine, and fruit-bearing found in the 15th chapter of the Gospel of John.

Ruckman ‘65

Mordecai Flower Ham BORN: April 2, 1877 Scottsville, Kentucky DIED: November 1, 1961 Pewel Valley, Kentucky LIFE SPAN: 84 years, 6 months, 29 days

MORDECAI HAM’S MOST FAMOUS convert was Billy Graham, one of 303,387 people brought to Jesus Christ through his crusades. Includes were preachers such as John Wimbish and Grady Wilson, Judge Jenkins (Truett’s father-in-law), plus scores of the hardened sinner type. Ham’s career in evangelism stretched from 1902 to 1927 and 1929 to 1961. It was in November, 1934, that a sixteen-year-old boy named Billy Graham went forward in the Charlotte, North Carolina crusade. Little did Graham realize at that time that he would be preaching to multitudes one day. Ham was the son of Tobias and Ollie (McElroy) and was born on a farm in Allen County near Scottsville. He came from eight generations of Baptist preachers. In 1886 his family moved to Bowling Green staying till 1888 when they returned to a second farm near Greenwood in Warren County. His conversion and spiritual inclinations were attributed to the devotional habits of his boyhood home. He cannot date his conversion. He stated, “From the time I was eight years old, I never thought of myself as anything but a Christian. At nine I had definite convictions that the Lord wanted me to preach….” At sixteen he was Sunday School superintendent of the family church at Greenwood. From country school, young Ham went to Ogden College (later Western Kentucky State Teacher’s College) in Bowling Green, also studying law with a private tutor. Because he was too young for a Bar examination, he took a job as a traveling salesman for a grocery concern. From 1897 to 1900 he was crew manager for a picture-enlarging firm with headquarters in Chicago. His grandfather’s death on Feb. 28, 1899 was a renewed call of God to start serving the Lord. He married Bessie Simmons in July, 1900 and in December he quit his business and answered the call to preach. He gave his partner his entire share in the business, borrowing money to get started in the Lord’s work. For the first eight months of 1901 he carefully studied and prayerfully read his Bible. His first sermon was on the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ. In September, 1901, he accompanied his father to a meeting of the District Association at Bethlehem, near Scottsville, where his grandfather had pastored for over forty years. There he was put on the spot and asked to preach. When he finished, the congregation was praising God and someone invited him to speak in the First Baptist Church of Scottsville that very night. He was then asked to preach in Kentucky at the Mt. Gilead Baptist Church. At this, his first revival, he established a pattern that was to follow him the rest of his days. He went after the biggest sinners in town and often saw them saved. He believed enough personal evangelism would produce mass results. A typical story is that of Ham seeking out the most notorious sinner in a Southern town. Ham was directed to a certain cornfield. The infidel saw the feared preacher approaching and went into hiding. The evangelist began to hunt his prey and, hearing suspicious sounds under a cornshock, hauled him out. “What are you going to do with me?” the atheist quavered. Ham retorted, “I’m going to ask God to kill you! You don’t believe God exists. If there is no God, then my prayers can’t hurt you. But if there is a God, you deserve to die because you are making atheists out of your children and grandchildren.” As the infidel begged him not to pray that way, Ham said, “Very well then, I shall ask God to save you.” He was saved, and before the meeting was over, all of that infidel’s family was baptized–forty of them! At Mount Gilead he encountered two incidents he could never forget. First, a strange power came over him to prepare him for an experience on the next day. It was much like that which Finney and Moody described…an almost unbelievable power from the Holy Spirit. Ham always preached in that power from then on. The next day came the other incident. Ham visited a dying girl named Lulu. As Lulu, who apparently was unsaved, closed her eyes in death he called to her, “Lulu, how is it?” A voice came back, not the voice of one living, but that of one who is in another world. He was never able to forget it…”Lost…lost…Oh…so dark; so dark!…” His sermon, “And Sudden Death,” was heard by thousands in the days ahead. When he closed out this crusade he had sixty-six baptized and received a love offering of $34.00. This was the beginning of his career in evangelism. He was ordained back home at the Drake’s Greek Baptist Church in Bowling Green. While Ham was holding a meeting at Mount Zion, Kentucky, he ran into the type of opposition that was to follow him most of his career. On the second night of the meeting the moonshine crowd surrounded the church and threw rocks at the preachers. The leader threatened Ham with a long knife. Ham said, “Put up that knife, you coward…Now I’m going to ask the Lord either to convert you and your crowd or kill you.” The bully died the next morning before Ham could get to his bedside. On the same day a neighborhood sawmill blew up and killed three others of the crowd. That night he announced he wanted everything that was stolen to be returned before God killed the rest of the tormentors. Everything was returned. Eighty were saved in his revival. His first year ended with 339 conversions. In 1902, his second year as an evangelist, he had 934 additions. In January, 1903, he took his first meeting outside of Kentucky when he went to the First Baptist Church of New Orleans, Louisiana. Here one man threatened to kill him if his daughter joined the church. He later came back and was converted after Ham warned him that God was going to kill him. Other great 1903 revivals were in Garland, Texas and Russellville, Kentucky. A large meeting was held in Paducah, Kentucky, in January of 1904. His first revival to produce large results was in Jackson, Tennessee, in April 1905, where he had 1,500 additions. The whole area was shaken and Ham’s fame was rising. On December 4, 1905 his wife died, stricken with cerebral meningitis. He was shaken to the depths, losing some fifty pounds and in January, 1906 he sailed abroad to tour the Holy Land, greatly upset by the course of events. The Houston campaign of November 12, 1906 to March 1, 1907 was outstanding. Starting as a Baptist meeting, it soon became a city-wide endeavor with 4,000 attending in a downtown skating rink. Enthusiasm swept throughout the city. Five hundred were converted during the first five weeks. Then came two issues to hurt the crusade–an “Apostolic Faith” movement started to infiltrate the revival with their “tongue” participation. Then a controversy concerning the enforcement of Sunday laws (closing of theatres and saloons, which was not enforced) detracted from the meeting and divided some of the sponsoring pastors closing the meeting prematurely. The 1907 Asheville, North Carolina, crusade saw some of the big saloon men converted. Then it was Louisville, Kentucky, and Wilmington, North Carolina, where the liquor crowd fought him hard. One night a drunken desperado rushed into the church and threatened everybody with a gun. Ham jumped off the platform singing, Tell Mother I’ll Be There, and by the time he reached the fellow, the Lord had knocked him down, and he was on the floor begging for mercy. He was gloriously saved as he threw down a liquor bottle, a pair of dice and a gun. In August of 1907 he held a meeting at Pleasureville, Kentucky. His fame reached to the communities all around, including Eminence, seven miles distance. From here, a Dr. and Mrs. W.S. Smith and their fourteen-year-old daughter, Annie Laurie, attended the meetings. Ham had just turned thirty. Visiting in the home, the little girl took the preacher for a ride in the buggy. Before the meeting closed, he mentioned to Mrs. Smith he wanted to take her daughter with him to Europe, as his wife! On June 3, 1908 the thirty-one-year-old evangelist married a beautiful girl of fifteen. Three days later the happy couple sailed for Naples, Italy. She traveled with her husband for the most part during his meetings, playing the piano often in his campaigns. They had three daughters, Martha Elizabeth, on September 16, 1912; Dorothy, December 16, 1915; and Annie Laurie, Jr., born December 11, 1924. The marriage was very successful and her warm and encouraging spirit enabled him to shoulder burdens that few have had. They made their home in Anchorage, Kentucky (1909-1927), then two years in the pastorate at Oklahoma City, and after 1929 in Louisville, Kentucky. The mother-in-law, Mrs. W.S. Smith, lived over forty years of her life in their home, enabling Mrs. Ham to travel frequently with her husband. In March, 1908 the Mardi Gras of New Orleans proved an exciting time. Ham started his city-wide crusade during the corruption of this celebration. Three thousand were added to the local participating churches before it was all over. It is said this was the first time that New Orleans became Protestant conscious. The Ham revival was the only other important thing happening besides the election of a pope during the year as far as the local townspeople were concerned. Thousands of Gospels of John were distributed, but the Roman Catholics instructed their people to burn them. As a result of that crusade, the state legislature passed two reform bills: one that separated saloons from grocery stores, and another that killed race-track gambling. At one point, a drunken ex-steamboat captain entered Ham’s hotel room waving a gun in his face, threatening to kill him. Ham got him down on his knees and prayed (with his eyes open). The man was saved. In 1908 he was also back in Asheville for another meeting. On to Salisbury, North Carolina, where in May the State Prohibition election was to be held. The night before the election Ham had to be escorted to and from the tabernacle by armed guards and after the service the men paraded through the streets all night shouting, “Hang Ham! Hang Ham!” As he left by train, a U.S. Marshall had to stand outside on the station platform holding two pistols pointed toward the crowd. A railroad detective sat by his berth all the way to Asheville, and got saved. There’s a great fascination in learning how some of the great hymns of all time came to be written. Here’s the story of one of them, Saved, Saved: As Mordecai Ham preached on the “Cities of Refuge” during a July, 1910, meeting in Gonzales, Texas, a murderer was sitting in the audience. He had killed four men and despaired of ever being saved. Midway through the sermon, he jumped up from his seat and shouted, “Saved! Saved! Saved!” Jack Scofield was directing the choir and was so inspired that, on the next afternoon, he sat outside the hotel and composed both the words and music for the hymn, titled, Saved, Saved. That night the tabernacle audience heard the song for the first time. In April, 1911, Ham held his first meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, sponsored by J. Frank Norris and the First Baptist Church. During the first half of 1912 he held other meetings in Texas. It was at a Waco crusade that his song leader, W.J. Ramsey of Chattanooga, Tennessee, joined him. Texas and Oklahoma continued to dominate these days. In January of 1916 he began a meeting in Corpus Christi, Texas, and as usual, hit liquor hard. On this occasion, after preaching hard against liquor, he was assaulted in the lobby of his hotel. Ham deflected the blow with his Bible, and another man rushed up saying, “You are under arrest for fighting.” Nothing came of this, but Justice Miles subpoenaed him to appear in court and give the sources of his information concerning corruption and law violation in Corpus Christi. Word that the evangelist might be arrested, placed under bond, and tried for contempt of court fired up 3,500 followers of the meetings. As a result, the matter was thrown out of court. Then the grand jury took up the attack and ordered him to appear. Three thousand people gathered outside to take the courthouse apart, so the trumped up charges were dismissed. During this time, Mordecai Ham received constant threats that his little daughter would be kidnapped. Back at Fort Worth, on September 11, 1916, Ham was assaulted as he was leaving the Westbrook Hotel on his way to the tabernacle to preach. He was struck from behind on the back of the head with gashes cut into the side of his face. Leading up to this, the “wet” opposition harassed and crippled the work of the campaign by outrageous nuisance tactics. At the tabernacle where some 12,000 people assembled, the meeting was broken up by a procession of automobiles laden with yelling men, following a squad of policemen who pushed back the ushers and others who attempted to bar their entrance. The meeting ended in a near riot, with Ham’s crowd declaring war on the city administration. In San Benite, Taxas, in January 1918, some military servicemen broke into the Woodman Hall and put on a dance. They were angered because Ham refused to allow his tabernacle to be used for a Red Cross rally when he heard a dance was to be part of the rally. Crazed with liquor, they marched into his tabernacle, seized him and started up the railroad tracks with a rope, a bucket of tar, and a sack of feathers. A detachment of cavalry from the nearest army base came to his rescue as the mayor wired Washington of the predicament. They were three miles down the track before they were overtaken. In 1920 and 1921 he was back in Kentucky and Tennessee, eight months of 1921 spent in Nashville, Tennessee. From 1922 to 1925 he was in the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia. The 1924 Raleigh, North Carolina, meeting had 5,000 decisions for Christ. Then, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Mordecai Ham was to endure a new wave of persecution and “thorn in the flesh” pain at the hands of one W.O. Saunders, who compiled a viciously slanderous book titled The Book of Ham, and circulated it in the cities where the evangelist undertook to hold meetings. But Ham continued to minister. There were meetings in Burlington, North Carolina, as well as Greenville, South Carolina, where he had 3,000 additions, in April of 1925. In 1926 and 1927 he had two meetings in Danville, Virginia, resulting in 4,000 additions. His total results since starting to preach up through 1927 included 33,650 souls in Texas, 8,737 in Oklahoma, 12,043 in Kentucky, 10,013 in Tennessee, 26,475 in North Carolina, 9,500 in South Carolina, and 4,385 in Virginia. It was thought that much of the success of Prohibition was attributed to the preaching of Billy Sunday and Mordecai Ham. Ham’s team members varied through the years but his closest associate was W.J. Ramsay, who, from May, 1912, through 1945 was his right-hand man. He was an excellent choir director and counterbalanced Ham’s sternness with his own sense of humor. Ham turned to pastoring in 1927. It all started with a crusade in 1926 that won 888. He then went to London in the fall of that year. In the spring, upon returning to his friends in Oklahoma City to give a report, he was met at the train by forty of the leading laymen of the First Baptist Church. Their pastor had resigned and they entreated Ham to accept the pastorate. At first reluctant to be the pastor of a local congregation, Ham said a unanimous vote by the congregation would clinch it. He had always made enemies and never dreamed of total support anywhere– so it was with shock he received the news of a unanimous ballot. He became their pastor on June 19, 1927. His big fight at the time was against the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. On August 3, as he was crossing the street, he was struck down by an automobile and dragged for half a block. Whether it was an accident or a deliberate plot by the enemies of Christ remained an unanswered question. He was knocked out of commission for six weeks with a skull fracture. Fourteen doctors cared for him. Members of his Bible class guarded his hospital room to keep out curious visitors. Then, back in the harness against atheism and modernism, prayer meeting crowds rose to 2,200. He campaigned hard and fast for Herbert Hoover in the 1928 election, the first and only time he allied himself with politics. On June 16, 1929 he resigned from the pastorate as the fires of evangelism burned in his soul. The Hams moved to Louisville, and joined the Walnut Street Baptist Church late in 1929. He began campaigning in Jackson, Tennessee; Lubbock, Texas; Danville, Kentucky; and then in November-December of 1929, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Here a miracle happened. Meeting in a tabernacle on an icy, snowy night, the timbers creaked from the weight of the snow on the roof. During the message, someone suggested they go to the First Baptist Church to finish the meeting. When the last person had left the building, the center section caved in with a roar, cutting down seats like a great knife! A great tragedy was averted as God spared His people. Six crusades were held in 1931, witnessing 11,400 decisions for Christ. In Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1931, Ham led 2,500 to the Lord in a six-week meeting after the Pastor’s Conference had voted not to ask him to come. Three outstanding conversions took place in the next three years to further confirm Mordecai Ham’s ministry: The 1932 crusade in Chattanooga saw Wyatt Larimore converted. He was the “king” of the local underworld. He had been in court for almost everything from minor traffic violations to first-degree murder. He had more than 300 men working under him. In January of 1933 Ham opened a campaign in Little Rock, Arkansas, where a man named Otto Sutton was saved. He was a wild, worldly, wicked and reckless heavyweight fighter at the time. He later became the pastor of the Valence Street Baptist Church of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was in the fall crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Ham was having a trying time, that Billy Graham was saved. The place was a temporary tabernacle on Pecan Avenue on the outskirts of town. A total of 6,400 were saved at this crusade. Young Graham was amazed as he saw more than 5,000 in every meeting, and every seat was filled. People were getting saved all around him. It seemed to the young boy that the only place safe from the evangelist’s wrath was the choir–and that’s where he and his friend, Grady Wilson, sat the next night. The evangelist’s first words were, “There’s a great sinner in this place tonight.” Billy thought, “Mother’s been telling him about me.” That night he turned to Grady and said, “Let’s go!” Graham was saved and later became the most renown evangelist in history. Ham went on to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he saw 8,500 making decisions for Christ! This was the largest crusade of his life. The Ham-Ramsay tent revival of 1937 was launched in Louisville, Kentucky, lasting four months. Some 4,000 decisions for Christ were made. In 1939 he led a campaign in Jacksonville, Florida, where 2,000 a night came. In 1940 it was Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. His last campaigns in 1941 were in Decatur, Alabama, Murfreesboro and Nashville, Tennessee, and Denver, Colorado. In 1935 Ham was honored with a D.D. degree from Bob Jones University. In 1936 he was elected president of the International Association of Christian Evangelists. His rugged pace continued until his sixty-fifth year, 1941, when he began his last year in tent and tabernacle campaigns. From 1929 to 1941 he had seen some 168,550 decisions (new converts, backslidden church members reclaimed), in sixty-one crusades in fifteen states. Southern Baptist churches benefited the most. The last twenty years of his life he continued a vigorous schedule highlighted by his radio preaching and appearances in over 600 cities, often preaching three and four times a day. He started a network ministry in 1940 on Mutual Broadcasting Network’s southern hookup of some fifty stations. In 1947 he started the publication of a paper bearing the title, The Old Kentucky Home Revivalist. A close observer said it well: “He exalts Christ and fights with all his might. Under his preaching I have seen murderers saved, drunkards converted, homes reunited, and men and women dedicating their lives for special service.” Over 7,000 workers were saved or called into Christian work during his meetings. Ham authored the books, The Second Coming of Christ and Revelation. Booklets bearing his titles are Believing a Lie, Light on the Dance, The Jews, and The Sabbath Question.

Author| Unknown
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| Menno Simons, 1492-1559, Dutch Anabaptist

Menno Simons 1492-1559 Dutch Anabaptist. Menno Simons was born in Friesland, Holland. Little is known of his early life and education. In 1524 he was ordained to the priesthood of the Roman Church. However, his study of the New Testament soon began to produce doubts about many of the doctrines. Luther’s writings also influenced him to leave the Roman Church. His preaching thereafter is described as evangelical rather than sacramental. Simons went farther than either Luther or Calvin in rejecting the teachings of Romanism, and soon allied himself with the Dutch Anabaptists. He was immersed in 1537 by Obbe Philip. His fame as a writer and as a preacher grew, and soon the Anabaptists of that area acknowledged him as their leader. In his church discipline, which was drawn from the Swiss Baptists, silent prayer was common and sermons were without texts. He taught that neither baptism nor communion conferred grace upon an individual, but that grace was obtained only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Although he was not the founder, his preaching and influence were such that many of the Dutch Anabaptists adopted his name, and thereafter were known as Mennonites.

Author| Ruckman
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| Martin Luther, 1483-1546, German Reformer

Martin Luther was converted to Christ from the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church by reading the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. He became professor of theology at the University of Wittenburg in 1512, and retained that position until his death in 1546. He nailed his famous Theses, in which he denounced the unscriptural position of the Catholic Church on many doctrines, to the church door in Wittenburg in 1517. This brought protracted and endless opposition from Rome. He was summoned to appear before the German Congress at Worms in 1521 to answer charges of heresy. Using the wit- ness stand as a pulpit, Luther made his well-known defense of the Scriptures, which ended with the immortal statement, “Here I stand…I cannot do otherwise…God help me!” He was promptly excommunicated from the Catholic Church. He firmly established in Europe the three great truths of the New Testament, which had been buried for centuries under ritual and dead formality. Those truths are (1) that man is justified by faith alone, (2) that every believer is a priest with direct access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and (3) that the Bible apart from tradition is the sole source of faith and authority for the Christian.

Author| Unknown
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| Jonathan Goforth, 1859-1936, Missionary to China

Jonathan Goforth 1859-1936 Missionary to China. Jonathan Goforth was converted to Christ at the age of 18. While attending college, he did rescue mis- sion work. He read Hudson Taylor’s book about missionary work in China, and it so moved him that he dedicated his life to the Lord as a missionary. He and his wife labored in Honan, China, training hundreds of Chinese pastors and evangelists. During the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the Goforths barely es- caped with their lives, though suffering severe wounds. They returned to the Orient and helped start a re- vival in Korea in 1907. This revival seemed to follow them as they went back to China. In 1925 they went to Manchuria and served there for eight years before ill health forced them to return to Canada. Although Goforth was blind the last years of his life, he and his wife promoted missions until they went home to be with the Lord.

Author| Unknown
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758, Bib.Scholar, Preacher

Jonathan Edwards BORN: October 5, 1703 East Windsor, Connecticut DIED: March 22, 1758 Princeton, New Jersey LIFE SPAN: 54 years, 5 months, 17 days THE DREAM OF MOST PREACHERS is to have the proper balance of knowledge and zeal, brain and brawn, faith and works, head and heart. If there ever was such a preacher it would be Edwards. Many theologians and Bible teachers would strike out in a soul-winning ministry. Likewise, many who turn others to righteousness could seldom score a point in defending the faith in some tribunal. But Jonathan Edwards’ combination of reason and passion causes many to believe America never knew a preacher who excelled in both areas as Edwards did. His story begins with his heritage. His father, Timothy, was pastor of the local Congregational church for 64 years. His mother, Esther, who died in 1770, was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, pastor of the church in Northampton, Massachusetts for over 50 years–the same church that Jonathan Edwards would some day pastor. Edwards was born the same year another baby by the name of John Wesley was born in England. Edwards was the fifth child and only son among eleven children. He grew up in an atmosphere of Puritan piety, affection and learning. At six he studied Latin. By age seven he had some encounter with God. He had a rigorous schedule of schooling at home. At age nine he composed a brief paper on the nature of souls. His first recorded interest in spiritual things came at ten during a revival at his father’s church. He and his playmates built a “prayer booth” in a swamp. Often he and his chums talked to God in the woods. At twelve he wrote about revival like a seasoned saint. He later also wrote his famous essay on the spider, which became a pioneer work in the history of American natural science. This essay, written shortly before he went to college, exhibits his remarkable powers of observation and analysis. He habitually studied with pen in hand, recording his thoughts in numerous hand-sewn notebooks. He entered Yale University when not quite 13 years of age in the fall of 1716. Before going to Yale he was acquainted with Latin, Greek and Hebrew, having a working knowledge of the same under the tutorship of father and four older sisters. The school was then called Collegiate School of Connecticut. As such, the school had no certain home, and much of Edwards’ course was spent in Weathersfield, Connecticut, but before he graduated, the college had ceased wandering. During his second year in college he read with profit Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding. He graduated valedictorian of his class from the New Haven campus in September, 1720, receiving his B.D. (or B.A.). He remained at New Haven for two years after this, studying divinity subjects. He was licensed to preach in mid-1722. Had he not absorbed himself with theology, he would have become one of the great philosophers of his time. About this time came an incident that gave him assurance about his salvation. He had always thought himself a Christian from childhood days. While meditating one day on I Timothy 1:17 the truth hit him. There came into his soul “a sense of the glory of the Divine Being.” He thought, “How excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be if I might enjoy that God…and be as it were swallowed up in Him forever.” That’s exactly what happened. Prior to this he struggled with God’s absolute sovereighty, but now it was “exceedingly pleasant, bright and sweet.” He then took an eight-month pastorate in New York City in a Presbyterian church (August 1722 to April 1723). One source says he left the church May 21, 1724, to September, 1726. On January 12, 1723, he entered into his diary, “I made salvation the main business of my life.” He also made a resolution, “Never to do any manner of things, whether in soul or body, less, but what tends to the glory of God…” He returned to Yale as a tutor from 1724 to September, 1726, receiving his M.A. degree in September, 1723. He became a distinguished scholar and a preacher of great ability and his services were sought by several churches. February 15, 1727, he became ordained and joined his grandfather as associate pastor. On July 28, he married Sarah Pierrepont of New Haven. The bride was but seventeen but possessed an unusual degree of tact and sweetness of character, and proved a most valuable helpmate to the young minister. Their home life was nearly ideal. George Whitefield, while visiting them in 1740, was so impressed that he wrote in glowing terms of their ideal marriage. Eleven children were born to them, eight daughters and three sons. The children were Sarah, the eldest (1728), who would marry Elisha Parsons in June, 1750; Jerusha (1731), who died in 1748, just a few months following the death of the man she loved, David Brainerd; Esther (1732), who would later marry Aaron Burr, Princeton’s first president, and have a child, Aaron, Jr., who would be a major political figure in the early history of the new American nation. Esther Edwards Burr died on April 7, 1758, just two weeks after the death of her father, from the same smallpox inoculation that took his life–and only seven months after her own husband’s passing. Then there was Mary, who later married Timothy Dwight of Northampton in November, 1750, who became parents of the famed educator Timothy Dwight Jr. Other children of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards were: Lucy, Timothy (1738), Sussanah, Eunice, Jonathan (March 26, 1745), who became a great preacher in his own right; Elizabeth; and Pierrepont, their youngest and last, born in April, 1750. A 12th child died in infancy. Ten of these children survived Edwards. The Edwards family tree has produced scores of preachers, university presidents and men of the highest character in many fields. It might be noted that Sarah’s father was the pastor in New Haven from 1685 to 1714. When Stoddard died on February 11, 1729, Edwards became the pastor of the most important church in Massachusetts except for Boston. For over 20 years he was to have one of the more renown and God-blessed pastorates in history. His first published sermon was one given in Boston on July 8, 1731, titled, God Glorified in the Work of Redemption by the Greatness of Man’s Dependence upon Him, in the Whole of It. Edwards blamed New England’s moral ills on its assumption of religious and moral self-sufficiency. Thus began his lifelong fight against rationalism. Edwards worked hard, spending as much as thirteen hours a day in his study. Northampton was a small city of wealth and culture. At the same time there was a good deal of vulgarity and looseness of life to undermine morals. By 1734 he was openly attacking Arminianism which was becoming popoular. Then came a series of sermons in November of 1734 on the theme “Justification by Faith Alone.” At once half a dozen people were converted. One was a young woman, a natural leader among the young people of the town, who had been living a notorious, gay and dissipated life. Edwards had not heard of her conversion until she came to his study, in humble penitence, to converse with him about her soul. As news of the conversion spread through the town, many others, both old and young, acknowledged that God alone could produce so sudden and marked a change in such a life. This news spread to other towns and numerous revivals broke out in other places throughout New England and continued for several years. A great revival broke out in the winter and spring of 1734-35, during which time there were more than 300 professions of faith. This was about half of the 670 membership. As he went about his visitation, Edwards carried a burden for souls and his words fell with authority of the Holy Spirit upon them. He spoke in a quiet, calm tone, unlike the stormy type, but inspiration and warmth were felt. He recorded some of his accounts during this time in a book called Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God (1737). The awakening in 1740-41 throughout the colonies was led by evangelist George Whitefield. However, pastors like Gilbert Tennent in New Jersey and Jonathan Edwards in Massachusetts provided the climate for Whitefield’s preaching. Edwards surely was the spiritual father of the “first great awakening,” for New England is where it started. New England’s population was about 300,000 and it is estimated some 60,000 were saved during this period, a half of these being previously unconverted church members. Heavenly power swept from Northampton to 150 towns and cities of the North. For 20 years the revival fires blazed and from them sprang 120 new Congregational churches! Whitefield was in Northampton October 17-20, 1740. Edwards kept his congregation free from violent emotional reactions as was happening some places. However, on several occasions, he was right in the middle of such happenings. His sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, first preached at Enfield, Connecticut, on Sunday, July 8, 1741, has long been recognized as one of the great sermons of history. During the previous night godly women had prayed for a spiritual visitation. It came. A special service had been called for by a group of ministers with Edwards as the speaker for the afternoon session. As the ministers entered the meeting place, they were shocked by the levity of the congregation. They appeared thoughtless and vain, and hardly conducted themselves with common decency. As Edwards preached, he used no gestures but stood motionless. His left elbow leaned on the pulpit, and his left hand held his notes. His text was Deuteronomy 32:35, Their foot shall slide in due time! Strong men held onto their seats, feeling they were sliding into hell! Men shook, some losing their reason. His words would so grip the audience that they felt, should he cease speaking, the doom he pronounced would immediately come upon them. He flashed before the people the fiery prospects of eternal damnation, as hell was a living reality to him. Yet, unlike Whitefield, he did it with calm tones. So vivid was his imagination that he could graphically picture the eternal torments of the lost. The theme of the message was, “The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over a fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked.” Men and women stood up and rolled on the floor, their cries once drowning out the voice of the preacher. Some are said to have laid hold on the pillars and braces of the church, apparently feeling that at that very moment their feet were sliding, that they were being precipitated into Hell. Through the night, Enfield was like a beleaguered city. In almost every house, men and women could be heard crying out for God to save them. Before it was all over 500 were saved in the community that day. Someone has said about that sermon, “New England might forgive it, but she could never forget it.” The revival spirit continued for years to come, despite much controversy concerning it. Criticism came naturally from high- brow and near atheistic places. However many Christians criticized the excesses, disorders and civil disruptions associated with the revival. Edwards personally rebuked Whitefield for some of this, but as a whole maintained that it was the work of God to be furthered and purified. He wrote several books defending what God was doing, The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1741), Thoughts on the Revival (1742), and A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746), a book in which he attempted to answer the question, “What is the nature of true religion?” A close friendship with David Brainerd began in September, 1743, and ended in 1747, as Edwards conducted his funeral. In the backlash of the revival the people of Northampton were left exhausted and irritable. Edwards was accused of haughtiness, his family of extravagance of dress. In March, 1744, he alienated many of the leading citizens by the way he conducted an investigation into certain activities of their children, who were supposed to have circulated books with indecent speech. He also attacked the custom of “bundling,” where young courting people fully clothed would lie in bed. He charged, “It is one of those things that lead and and expose to sin.” He also called upon the youth to stop attending worldly amusements such as the dance. His popularity began to decline when he began stepping on toes. His position was correct, but perhaps he did not exercise great skill in handling people. For example, from the pulpit he read a list of those who were to meet a church- appointed committee of inquiry, not distinguishing between those who were to appear as witnesses and those who were accused. However, the big issue for many years was the “Half-Way Covenant” that Edwards said was wrong. Stoddard for many years had instituted a practice of admitting to the Lord’s Supper ordinance all who were “in the covenant” even though they were not converted. This meant if your parents or grandparents were “in the faith” you could participate. People then considered themselves as Christians, with the Lord’s Supper becoming the saving ordinance. In essence, this was filling the church with unsaved people. Not only the Lord’s Supper, but baptism was involved. This covenant allowed baptized parents to have their own children baptized, regardless of whether they or the children were converted. Edwards’ abhorrence of shallow revivalism and emotional excesses caused him to insist that a real conversion meant living a responsible, moral life; hence, he began to tighten up his requirement for church membership. This caused opposition in the Northampton congregation. Edwards simply came to the conclusion that a born-again experience was necessary–not mere doctrinal knowledge, godly parents or a moral life–in order to have communion. In 1749 he publicly declared these matters, insisting on some statement as to conversion and convictions, refusing to administer the Lord’s Supper to those not willing to declare their faith or live a Christian life. The church and town rebelled, and after a controversy of exceeding bitterness, Edwards was fired on June 22, 1750, by a vote of 230 to 23. On July 2, 1750, he preached his Farewell Sermon. Edwards wrote two books defending his position, Qualifications for Communion (1749) and A Reply to Solomon Williams (1752), who was a pastor at Lebanon, Connecticut. Edwards’ position was vindicated later and facilitated the separation of church and state after the Revolution. Years later many of his parishioners wrote him, asking for forgiveness.

Author| Unknown
Posted on| believersweb.org
Category| Biographies
Source| CCN
Originating Post| John Wycliffe,1320-1384,Reformer, Bible Translator

John Wycliffe 1320-1384 The Morning Star of the Reformation. John Wycliffe was a Saxon, born in Hipswell, England. He earned degrees at Oxford University and became a doctor of theology in 1372. After serving as an envoy to France, representing England in a dis- pute with the Pope, he returned to England and published writings against the secular power of the Papacy. In spite of attempts by the Church to have Wycliffe arrested and assassinated, he continued to write and to preach. He maintained that no Pope nor council was infalli- ble, and if their views contradicted the Bible, those views were wrong. He taught that the clergy should not rule as princes of the church, but should help the people and lead them to Christ. Finally prohibited by the Bishop of London from preaching, Wycliffe confined himself to writing and translat- ing the Bible from Latin to English. Thirty-one years after his death, the Church ordered all his books burned, his bones dug up and burned, and his ashes scattered on the Thames River.