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REVIVAL GROWS IN POWER
Converts Pay Old Debts. —The Baptism of the Holy Spirit. —What Hymns Are Most Popular.
By GEORGE T. B. DAVIS
HE power of God has fallen upon Phil
adelphia, and the city is being moved
in a marvellous manner. The very at
mosphere seems charged with spiritual
fervor. People are accepting Christ on
the street-cars, railroad trains, every
where. One old woman, who has just
been converted, said that nobody had
spoken to her about accepting Christ
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for the past fifty years. All sorts of people—news
paper reporters, policemen, servant girls, business
men—are catching the fire and are becoming ardent
sonl winners. A young convert with a, radiant face,
told me a few nights ago that he now reads his
Bible on the street-car as he goes to work in the
morning instead of the newspaper, and he finds
it more interesting. The young man, by the way,
was an Irishman who recently came to this country
and had been drinking heavily before his conver
sion. His wife expects to join him in a short time,
and he has written her that when she reaches Phila
delphia she will find a new husband. One day Dr.
Torrey read a letter from a detective asking prayer
for the score of policemen who handle the crowds
at the revival meetings. “Hell is too real,” wrote
the detective, “for me to doubt that there is a
hell.”
Restitution by Converts.
The genuineness of the revival is being shown
by the way in which the converts are paying up
old debts and making restitution of goods and
money stolen years ago. A grocer recently received
a touching letter from a convert, enclosing ten
2-cent stamps. It ran as follows:
“Dear Sir: Years ago I stole a small basket of
grapes from in front of your store. I have been to
the Torrey-Alexander meetings and heard the story
that we would never have any peace so lo'ng as we
have any sin on our minds. Please accept the
stamps as payment which I think fully covers the
cost of the grapes.
“I will now feel better, and hope you are a
Christian, or if not, will become one, as it is the
only life for this world, and surely the best for the
next. Sincerely, W—. ”
Another convert has sent the principal of a High
school, $5 for books taken from the school 20
years before. The money has been turned over to the
city treasurer of Philadelphia.
At the internal revenue office, SSO has recently
been received with a note which said, “Please
place in conscience fund SSO for revenue.”
The collector at the office believes that the revival
is responsible for the return of the money.
Far-Spread Results of Meeting.
At a recent testimony meeting, conducted by Mr.
Alexander, one after another quickly arose and
told how the revival flame was spreading, and how
Christians are going about everywhere witnessing
for Christ.
“I came here from Michigan,” said a grey
bearded farmer. “Language cannot describe what
God has done for me since I have been here.”
“I am here from 140 miles distant, and this is
the happiest day of my life,” testified another.
A middle-aged man arose in the front row and
said, “I went down to the Prudential office this
morning, and I felt like talking io those young
men, after being filled and being made able to go
out and do personal work by what brother Torrey
and brother Alexander have been pouring into my
soul, and I had five of them accept Christ after
one minute’s talk.”
“I belong to Frankford,” said a lady, “and in
our church we have been praying for the blessing
that God has promised. We have had special meet
ings these last four weeks, and there were about
200 saved. We have been praying for the blessing
The Golden Age for April 5, 1906.
of God upon the Torrey-Alexander meetings.”
Baptism With the Holy Spirit.
In his sermon yesterday afternoon on how to ob
tain the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Dr. Torrey told
how two things were necessary—first, an absolute
surrender to God, and second, simply asking for the
gift of the Spirit, and receiving Him by faith. He
said:
“If we are to receive the Holy Spirit, it is
necessary that we should render unto Him implicit
obedience. Obedience is a complete surrender to the
will of God, saying to God, ‘Send me where Thou
wilt, do with me what Thou wilt, use me as Thou
wilt.’ Nothing must be kept from God. All that
we have, all that we are must be given to Christ.
There are many people who give up a great deal,
but deep down in their hearts there is a little closet
that is kept closed from God. There is something
in their hearts they treasure that they will not
sacrifice.”
Continuing, Dr. Torrey said:
“Friends, it is no speculation with me. I know,
as well as I know that I breathe, that God gives
His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. I remember
once in Chicago we held a midnight prayer meet
ing attended by 400 clergymen, laymen and women.
Did you ever attend a meeting where the devil
tried his hardest to break it up? Well, this was
one. But friends, it is a very poor meeting that
the devil can break up. We hadn’t gone on long
before three men got down and commenced to
pound on the chairs and howl and shriek. That
was their idea of ‘working up a meeting. ’ A little
later a man jumped up and announced that he was
Elijah. He wasn’t to blame; he was crazy—he was
not the Elijah you are thinking about.
“We had about two hours of that sort of thing,
but about midnight God gave us complete victory,
and oh, such praying as I almost never heard be
fore for the next two hours. About two o’clock in
the morning we were all upon our knees, when sud
denly the Holy Ghost fell. Not a person in the
room could speak, none of us could pray, none of
us could sing. All that could be heard was our
quiet breathing.
An Endowment with Power.
“Out of that meeting went men and women
clothed with a power I have never seen before. A
layman turned thirty-eight persons to Christ in
a single meeting. Another converted fifty-nine. All
over the world they went filled with the Spirit
which came to them at that time, and in my travels
since, I have met them in Australia, New Zealand,
China, India and Japan, and almost every country
on the face of the globe.”
Dr. Torrey told how the baptism with the Holy
Spirit had transformed his own life and had made
preaching a glorious delight instead of a thing to
be dreaded. He said:
“People tell me that they wonder how I can stand
the strain of preaching so frequently. My only re
gret is that I have to stop for sleep and food. If
Heaven is any gladder than preaching the Gospel,
it is indeed Heaven. People say ‘How can you
sHnd it?’ My wonder is how I can keep from
dancing with joy as I open the Book to people who
dying to receive it: yet until I surrendered to
Cod. I hated to think of preaching His Word.”
No small part of the success of the movement is
due to Mr. Alexander’s magnificent choir, which
has a membership of 3,000, of whom 700 are present
nightly and lead the great audience of over 5.000
in singing the revival melodies with inspiring effect.
They sing from the heart, for Mr. Alexander asks
them to ‘put a prayer behind every word.’ The
mw Gospel melodies in Mr. Alexander’s new book.
“Revival Hymns,” have become instantly popular,
and are being hummed and whistled and sung and
played on pianos throughout the entire city. In a
recent talk with Mr. Alexander, I said:
“Which of your hymns are the favorites in Phila
delphia, and why is it that they have become so
instantly popular?”
The Most Popular Hymns.
“The songs are easy for the average voice to
sing,” replied Mr. Alexander, “without very great
effort. The words have striking pictures in almost
every line of the poetry. The songs that have be
come most popular are those where some sentence is
easy to remember in connection with it, and strikes
a responsive chord in the human heart, For instance,
the song entitled ‘ls He Yours,’ written by my friend
Mr. Harkness, after being sung a few times in the
meetings, was called for by the name of ‘The Pilot
Song-.’ The third verse of the song runs this way:
A pilot who knoweth the dangers at hand;
A pilot who bringeth all vessels to land;
Oh this is the pilot, the pilot we need,
And Christ is a pilot indeed.
Is this Savior who loves you yours?
The business men could not carry much of it in
their minds, but they called for ‘The Pilot Song’
after that naturally. This gives some idea of what
the people want in a hymn.
Song and Sermon Mingled.
“The ‘Glory Song’ still holds first place in the
hearts of the people, but, of course, they are reach
ing out after these new ones. ‘The Old-Time Fire’
is a song that strikes the hearts of the older peo
” pie, and it warms up a meeting in a wonderful
way. ‘The Old-Time Religion’ is close kin to this
song. When every other song fails to warm up a
meeting, I fall back on ‘The Old-Time Religion.’
A few nights ago I was out at the new church built
by John Wanamaker in West Philadelphia. We
started with the ‘Old-Time Religion,’ and I used
it for about 20 minutes, talking between the verses,
and I have heard more about the way that took
hold of the people and the good that resulted from
it than anything that happened during the even
ing. ,
“ ‘Grace Enough for Me,’ is a new kind of
song, and has proved very helpful. ‘When the Com
forter Came,’ is one of the best solos of Mr. Charles
Butler, the beautiful singer from Georgia, who is
assisting me as a soloist; it was written by Charles
Gabriel, the author of the ‘Glory Song.’
“It has been a great source of satisfaction to
me to hear of the number of visitors who have
gone back to their homes and started singing the
new hymns in their own places of worship. The
number of conversions that have resulted from this
has been very great. I am gratified and satisfied
with the way in which Philadelphia has caught the
flame of revival song, and I am convinced that it is
growing in power every day.”
Results of the Published Reports.
It is reported that 100 people were recently con
verted in a town in Pennsylvania, simply through
reading the reports of the meetings. Dr. Torrey
recently received the following letter from a lady
telling how one man was converted just before his
death through a paper which a young lady kindly
suit him. The writer said:
“A devoted Christian young lady visited a poor
sick man, and knowing that he was unsaved, she
sent him a paper containing your sermons, request
ing him to read them. Later on she sent him a
letter urging him to give his heart to Christ. After
a few days he wrote such a beautiful letter express
ing his gratitude, at the same time giving evidence
that he bad accepted Jesus as his Savior. That was
his last letter, as a day or two later lie stepped
from time to eternity, to be forever with the
Lord.”
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