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Revival Flames Spreading Everywhere
Revival Rooms in an Office Building—Unique Organizations Begun by Philadelphia Business Men —
Dr. Torrey Preaches on “Three Fires.”
By GEORGE T. B. DAVIS
AY we have house revivals, church re
vivals, Sunday School revivals, revivals
on the street, revivals in the shops, re
vivals on the trolleys, revivals on the
trains—revivals everywhere! Lord, we
thank The that we have four weeks left,
and may they be weeks of tremendous
power.”
M
prayer before beginning one of his last sermons at
the South Armory to an audience of nearly 5,000
people which packed the big building, while hun
dreds of others were unable to obtain admission.
At the end of the second of the three months’ cam
paign, led by Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander, the
prayer of the evangelist is being answered in a strik
ing manner. The revival fire is permeating every
phase of Philadelphia life.
The newest development of the revival wave
which is sweeping over the city, is the inaugura
tion of “revival rooms” in an office building. They
are probably the first rooms of the kind ever opened
in the history of revivals, and their inception is
creating widespread comment. They have come into
being as one result of the recent luncheon tendered
to Mr. Alexander, when five men arose at the table
and announced their acceptance of Christ. The new
departure is being backed by the men who attended
the luncheon, and who are now on fire for the sal
vation of the city, they having led nearly fifty
people to Christ since the luncheon which took
place about three weeks ago. The rooms of the or
ganization are being handsomely fitted up, and will
be located on the sixth floor of an office building in
the heart of the downtown district. The rooms are
to be called “Inquiry Rooms,” and will be open all
day long. Spiritually minded men will be in atten
dance constantly. The rooms will not be for the
members of the organization, but for people who
are seeking the way of life. During the next month
Rev. W. S. Jacoby will be in charge, and will deal
with the anxious souls one by one, explaining to
them just what it means to accept Christ as their
personal Savior.
The “Inquiry Rooms.”
Tn a few days thousands of little cards will be
distributed throughout the city bearing the message:
“Men who want to have a serious talk about their
spiritual life with one who knows men and can sym
pathize with them, come to the Inquiry Rooms, 607
Hale Building. Office hours, 10 to 2, and 3 to 5
daily, except Sunday.”
The rooms are the realization of a plan which has
long been in Mr. Alexander’s mind, but which he
had never before found financial support enough
to inaugurate. When he recently broached the plan
to the score of young business men who gave him
the luncheon, however, it appealed to their business
sense and they sanctioned it immediately. Mr. Al
exander is jubilant over the quick fruition of the
plan. He says: “What a place can be made! Think
of a place where a busy man, or a poor one, or a
puzzled or doubting one, or the fellow who has lost
all hope of ever having any hope again, can come
and talk it over as man to man with some one who
has love for men in his heart, and is working for
the One whose heart is all love for men!”
An Answer Meeting.
At a recent noonday business men’s meeting held
in the Academy of Music, Dr. Torrey did not give
his usual address, but instead he devoted his entire
time to answering questions which had been sent in
to him by correspondents throughout the city. The
questions dealt with statements made by the evan
gelists and with biblical and theological doctrines.
Dr. Torrey first read the questions and then gave
such straightforward and direct replies that the
audience frequently broke laughter and ap-
This was a part of Dr. Torrey’s
The Golden Age for April 12, 1906.
plause. The first question dealt with a lie which has
followed the evangelists around the world. It was
as follows:
“I have been told by three different people that
you have stated in your meetings that your
own mother was in hell to-day. Did you make any
such statement?”
“Everybody who has attended my meetings
knows I didn’t,” declared Dr. Torrey. “My mother
was a good Christian woman. I owe my salvation
to her prayers, humanly speaking, and thank God
she is with Christ in Glory. But everywhere I have
gone around the world that kind of lie has followed
me. People don’t like the doctrine I teach about
future punishment, but they can’t disprove it so
they tell lies about me. Sometimes the lie is varied.
A young man in this town told one of the most
prominent ministers in this town that he heard me
say in the Armory that I knew my grandmother
was in hell because she played cards. I don’t think
that either of my grandmothers Knew one card
from another; I have every reason to believe that
they were both earnest Christian women, and that
they are both in glory. And if they played cards
that wouldn’t prove that they would go to hell.
I know lots of Christian people who play cards. I
think they are doing foolishly.
Variations of the Story.
“Ip England the story was a little different. It
was that I said my aunt had gone to hell, and that
a young man got up to go out of the meeting, and
that I said, ‘Young man, you are going straight to
hell,’ and that he turned round and said, ‘Shall I
take your love to your aunt?’ Now I never had but
two aunts; one of them I never saw; the other was
r'n earnest member of the Presbyterian Church, and
I think that the one I never saw was an earnest
Christian woman.
“And yet the story was circulated in London
when I was going there—told in a meeting of min
isters of the church of England as a reason for not
inviting me to London—that I had said that pub
licly in Cardiff, Wales.
“That story was first told about D. L. Moody,
then about Sam Jones, then about Major Whittle,
and then about an evangelist who was In Australia
before I was, and then it was told about me. It is
wonderful how the devil lacks in originality.”
“Why don’t you get something new?” shouted
Mr. Alexander amid laughter and applause.
Last night in his sermon at the Armory on
“Three Fires,” Dr. Torrey again dealt with ques
tions which had been sent to him regarding the na
ture of hell. Before preaching he said he had been
deluded with letters asking whether he believed
hell is made up of actual fire, and hence, had chosen
for the subject of his sermon “Three Fires,” viz.:
the glorious fire of the Holy Ghost, the searching
fire of the judgment, and the fire of everlasting
doom. In speaking of the third fire, he said:
The Punishment by Fire.
“The Bible always stands for facts. Is the fire
of eternal damnation literal fire? You say the ex
pression ‘fire’ is figurative. Suppose it is. God is
tl-e Lord of Truth. God’s words, figurative though
they may be, always stand for facts. Have you ever
been burned by a merciless fire? You know the in
tense agony. What, then, must be the spiritual, mor
al a°ony that warrants God in using the figure ‘un
ending fire,’ in speaking of he torment in store for
the unrighteous?
“You say, ‘I can’t believe God will let men suf
fer.’ Why, are there not tens of thousands of men
and women in Philadelphia suffering because they
have broken God’s law? Yet they are on probation;
God's mercy remains over them. What, then, is
the suffering of those who have let the time of re
pentence pass? What have they left but everlast-
ing hell, everlasting fire? The Bible tells you what
you have to do—accept Jesus Christ and put your
trust in Him.
“Infidels are guilty of the amazing folly of shut
ting this the only gate of possible escape. It is your
business to know God’s truth. If you don’t it is
your own fault. I was once agnostic, but not for
long. Many agnostics that I have met, when con
fronted with the truth that convinced me, delib
erately refused to hear her. That is where agnostics
perish. ”
Yard-Wide Christians.
“If you want conventional Christians 36 inches
wide, and answering all the usual demands upon
orthodox church-attending Christians, you can find
more to the square mile in Philadelphia than any
where else in the world. What you need is fire. If
you would go out of these meetings aglow with a
baptism of fire, there would be no need of these
meetings in the armories, for there would be meet
ings on the street corners, in the hotels, street-cars,
business houses and everywhere.”
Churches that conduct fairs, picnics, bazaars,
card-parties, and other entertainments to raise
money were roundly scored.
“They bring down the church of Jesus Christ to
the level of a vaudeville show,” declared Dr. Torrey.
“Why, a young man asked one of my daughters
if she would ask her mother to bake some biscuits
as a contribution to a supper his church was giving
to raise money. He said it was the first Christian
work he had ever done. Think of it! He thought he
was doing Christian work by soliciting biscuits. If
the efforts of thousands of good, well-meaning
Christian women who now waste time making bis
cuits, cakes and other tomfoolery for such affairs,
were devoted to enlisting the support of people who
would contribute to church work out of love for
Jesus Christ, the churches would escape much rid
icule.”
Fruits of the Meeting in England.
It is cheering to hear that the missions conducted
by Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander in Great Britain
are still bringing forth glorious fruitage. I have
just received a letter from a young man who was
converted in the Liverpool campaign. He writes:
“I am now working at the London-and-North-
Western Railway Co., as an engine cleaner, and with
two other converts have just started a prayer-meet
ing. We have been the means in God’s hands of
leading one lad to Christ who was a very great gam
bler. My motto is, ‘I am happy in Him.’ ”
At a testimony meeting a few days ago in the
Academy of Music, a man in the gallery arose and
said:
“I want to say a word for the meetings you
conducted in Belfast. I have a letter in my pocket
from an old companion saying that in Belfast at
the present time, there are prayer-meetings going
on in behalf of you two men and your work. The
Lord is still continuing your mission there in the
hearts of many people in the city.”
A woman with a pronounced Scotch accent next
arose and said:
“I should also like to say something about Tor
rey’s and Alexander’s work in Glasgow. I had a
letter from a friend recently telling me that the
work started there is still going on, and the ‘Glory
Song’ is still what it used to be when you were
there. ”
This week the evangelists -will rest, after which
they will begin the last three weeks of the Phila
delphia campaign in the 2d Regiment Armory,
where the first meetings were held. Will not the
readers of this paper cry earnestly to God that the
last meetings may be the best, and that the city
may be shaken yet more mightily than it has been
thus far?
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