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Revival Luncheon in Philadelphia
Stirring Scenes at Hotel Luncheon. —A Girl’s Remarkable Transformation. —The Story of Dr. Jacoby’s Conversion.
By GEORGE T. B. DAVIS
URING the past few days new and
striking developments of revival enthu
siasm have been witnessed in different
sections of Philadelphia. One night re
cently Mr. Alexander went out to a
little church in West Philadelphia and
addressed an audience of only about
200 in the basement of the building.
At first the people were cold and unre-
sponsive; but before the meeting finally ended the
revival spirit burst into a bright flame. At the con
clusion of the first meeting, a dozen men gathered
around the gospel singer and confessed that they
had not been leading right lives. During the pray
er-meeting which followed, a baptism of fire seemed
to come upon the little group. The church has
since been completely transformed, and the entire
neighborhood has been stirred as never before.
They are having conversions at every service.
A business man who was present at the meeting
led by Mr. Alexander was so filled with revival fer
vor that the other morning, before beginning the
day’s work, he called his employes together and
had prayer with them that God would keep them
from profanity and other evils during the day.
Revivals at Luncheon.
Another man who was present at the basement
meeting was a prominent real estate man, who now
says that although he had been a member of the
church for twenty-five years, he had not been a
'Christian. He now goes about testifying every
where for Christ. He has had notices posted up in
all his houses That no more inspection will be al
lowed on Sundays. Last Friday he gave a busi
ness men’s luncheon at the Colonial Hotel in honor
of Mr. Alexander. About forty young business and
professional men were present, and before the meal
ended the revival fire had brokn out so strongly
that five men stood up around the table and then
and there declared that they would confess Christ
as their Savior. More than one man present was
in tears, and the luncheon closed with the singing of
two revival hymns. It was the first revival lunch
eon ever held in Philadelphia. Mr. Alexander says
it was one of the most remarkable scenes he ever
witnessed since the beginning of his world-wide tour.
The Fire of the Holy Spirit.
One afternoon a Philadelphia pastor told how
Dr. Alexander had visited his church and spoken
one night, and as the result a genuine revival had
been started. The next afternoon Dr. Torrey spoke
on the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of burning”
(Matt. 3:1). He told how, when God’s Spirit
comes upon us in power. He burns up our dross,
and illustrated his words by the remarkable story
of a young woman which held the breathless at
tention of his hearers. He said:
“The fire of the Holy Ghost cleanses by consum
ing the dross and the scum. Oh, there is so much
in us that needs to be burned up—that’s all it is
good for. Pride, family pride, race pride, pride
of wealth, spiritual pride, all kinds of pride, self
ish ambition, impure thought, greed for gold, harsh
ness and bitterness all need to be burned up. Now,
friends, moral cleansing by the old methods is a
very slow process; but a baptism of the Spirit of
burning can work wonders in a second.
“I remember a young woman who once came to
the Bible Institute to study. She was everything
that a young woman going into Christian work
ought not to be. She was loud, boisterous, self-assert
ive, headstrong; in fact, when I heard she was
coming to the Institute— I had known her in Mas
sachusetts—l went over to the superintendent of
the Woman’s Department, who also knew her, and
said, ‘>So-anJSo is coming to the Bible Institute.’
She said, ‘ls she? What is she coming here for?’
But the young woman's uncle was the best friend
the Bible Imtitute ever had; io, egelnit our better
The Golden Age for March 29, 1906.
judgment I am afraid, we consented to take her for
her uncle’s sake.
Stubbornness Burned Away.
“ She came out there and she was stubborn and
loud and rebellious and pretty much everything
that a Christian worker should not be. It was
required of her, as of every other young woman in
the Institute, that on certain afternoons in every
w-eek she should go down to the poorer parts of
the city, go from tenement to tenement and from
family to family, trying to do them good. One
day she had been down to the lower streets of North
Chicago. Utterly disgusted with the vile sights
and the vile smells, and the poverty, hunger and
want, she said, ‘I have had enough of this,’ and
instead of coming right back to the Institute, she
went down to Lake Shore Drive. She walked past
Potter Palmer’s mansion and past General Tor
rence’s mansion, and the rest of them, and said to
herself, ‘I have had enough of Milton avenue; I
have had enough of Townsend street; I have had
enough of dirt and poverty; this is what I like,
and this is what I am going to have.’
“She came back to the Institute in that rebel
lious mood. As she was getting ready for tea she
was still in that rebellious mood. She went down
to tea with the other young women in that mood.
She had been at the table but a few moments when
the Spirit of burning fell right where she was sit
ting. In an instant she sprang to her feet, rushed
across the room, threw her arms around the neck
of a young lady friend, and said, ‘I am a volun
teer for Africa!’ And the fire of God burned and
burned, and that girl was completely transformed
in her views of life, in her thought, in her ambi
tions, in her manner; her very face was so changed
that one could hardly believe their eyes and ears.
Belief in the Bible.
“I was away when all this happened. I got back
some two or three days afterward, and my secre
tary told me of the transformation that had been
effected in that girl’s life. A few hours later I met
her. When she saw me coming, she looked up at
me, her face aglow, her eyes dancing. ‘Oh,’ she
said, ‘Mr. Torrey, have you heard?’ I said, ‘Yes,
Jack (by the way that indicates her character that
a young lady should have been called ‘Jack’.) I
have heard.’ And do you know, she fairly danced
on the sidewalk—the first time I had ever known
in my life what it meant to dance before the Lord.
The girl literally danced, she couldn’t help her
self—she couldn’t have kept still if she had tried.
There was nothing unbecoming about it. She just
looked up in my face. ‘Oh!’ she said, ‘and Mr.
Torrey, it is so wonderful—the Bible is a new
book. Why,’ she said, ‘I didn’t believe the Bible.
I did believe in the divinity of Christ, but I didn’t
believe the Bible; it was just the stupidest book
I ever read. But now GocT is showing me the most
wonderful things every day from His own precious
Word.’ ”
Life Story of Mr. Jacoby.
During the next few weeks, Dr. Torrey and Mr.
Alexander will be assisted in the revival movement
by Rev. Wm. S. Jacoby, assistant pastor of Moody
Church, Chicago, whom Dr. Torrey calls ‘the best
loved man in Chicago.’ Like Mr. Trotter, Mr. Ja
coby was once a drunkard and a criminal; today
he is a miracle of grace, and is filled with the
Holy Spirit. Following Dr. Torrey’s address on
the Holy Spirit on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Ja
coby told the story of his transformation, and it
proved a fitting climax to the stirring service. The
people listened with hushed attention to the big
six-foot westerner, and many were in tears as he
related his life story. He said in part:
“I used to be a police officer here. My beats
were first Sixth and Chestnut, then Eighth and
Chestnut; and finally Broad and Chestnut streets
I was an awfully wicked man. I hope you have
better men now on the force. I thank God He can
save a policeman as well as anybody else. The
sergeant often found me around an alley some
where in a saloon. I had a friend with a pull, w r ho
had me reinstated a number of times; but finally the
mayor said he would not take me back again if I
were his own brother.”
Turning After Forty-Five Years.
The speaker went on to trace his wanderings from
his home to the west, always being in trouble or
jail, from his desperate character. He was finally
converted in a little town in lowa. “It was short
ly after the town authorities had decided to out
law me,” he said. “I found myself down on my
knees at the altar of a little Methodist meeting.
The people around where I was kneeling kept ask
ing me if I didn’t feel different. I told them I
didn’t feel anything at all. I expected from what
they said that I had to wait until a galvanic shock
of some sort struck me. I went up to the altar
six or seven nights, ‘waiting for the feeling,’ but
it wouldn’t come. But I had made up my mind
to be a Christian, and they decided to put me on
probation. Without any feeling, without knowing
that I was saved even, I went about giving my
testimony. I simply said, ‘I have served the devil
forty-five years. I am going to serve Jesus the
balance of my life.’ I had made up my mind that
the ‘feeling’ was for good people, and that a man
who had been as great a rascal as I had been
couldn’t expect to have it.
“One day a Methodist preacher told me I could
be sure I was saved, because the Bible said I was
if I accepted Christ. Then he said, ‘Pray for the
power of the Holy Ghost.’ I did, and I received
the consciousness of* the baptism with the Holy
Ghost. Finally, I found myself shaking. We were
all soon laughing, crying, dancing, and shouting for
joy. Then 1 knew what it was to have feeling. The
people in that lowa I own later asked me to run for
mayor on both tickets.”
The Greatest Sunday School in America.
Rev. William Patterson, pastor of Bethany Pres
byterian Church, told me of the practical effect of
the movement upon his congregation. His church
is a typical one, with a membership of over 3,500,
and an enrollment of 5,400 in the Sunday school
and its branches/ It is the largest Presbyterian
church in the United States, and has the largest
Sunday school in America. Dr. Patterson said:
“The movement has roused up a great deal of
enthusiasm, especially among the men of our broth
erhood, and also among the younger element of the
congregation. This was made very manifest on
last Friday night, when Mr. Alexander conducted
the service in the new building in West Philadel
phia. About 2.000 were in the building, and many
hundreds were turned away. It was also manifest
ed in the Sunday morning service in Bethany
Church, also conducted by Mr. Alexander, when
about 3,000 people listened to and were intensely
moved by the whole service. And the power of
these meetings has shown itself in our ordinary
week night services and Sunday services. People
are talking about these things, and as a result of
the mission a new prayer meeting has been started
on Saturday evenings. Then several cottage pray
er meetings have been started by the congregation,
and conversions are being recorded at almost every
one of these meetings. The fire is burning, and the
results will become even more manifest at our next
communion. Bethany and the branches in connec
tion with the church have been wonderfully revived
and quickened through the mission in Philadelphia,
and we all believe that this is only the beginning
of what is to be, We are looking for and expect
greater thing! yet from the miiibn*”
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