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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 T 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.” 7