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NOTABLE CONVERTS' MEETING
Stirring Testimonies Given by Converts of the Revival. —The Evangelist Speaks in Carnegie Hall, New York. —
The Drug Curse Among Women.
HE remarkable way in which Philadel
phia is being moved by the revival is
shown by the large number of new
members who are being received into
the churches of the city. One church
recently received 101 members, another,
106, and another, 96. Next Sunday
about 100 persons will be baptized in
the well known Grace Temple. These
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figures are just an indication of the way in which
churches throughout the city are receiving far more
accessions than they have had for many years
past.
Not only in churches, but even in unexpected plac
es, one constantly hears of how the revival spirit
is working. Last night Mr. Alexander told how
striking scenes were recently witnessed at a G. A.
R. meeting. He said.
“A lady came home, to the house where I am
boarding, and said, ‘There is a G. A. R. man over
at our church, and he told me with the tears run
ning down his cheeks about something that happen
ed at the G. A. R. He said that in the post where
he belongs, they started in to have a supper, but
just before they started in, some one said, “Let’s
have grace.” They had never had it before, and
after it was over, one of the officers got up and
said, “I want to tell you something. I have been
going to the Torrey-Alexander meetings, and
I have changed my life: I am going to live for
Christ from now on.” He made a good talk, and
before they were through nearly everybody in the
room was shedding tears. The man at the organ
was a Christian man. and he jumped up and said.
‘I never was so happy in all my life’’ A stranger
next got up, and said, ‘I am not a Christian, but
this man’s talk is going to make me a better man
all my life.’ ”
“I never wanted to be elected into the G. A. R.
before,” said Mr. Alexander, “but I wish they
would elect me into that post.”
Two Wonderful Meetings.
Although the evangelists were supposed to be
resting last week, preparatory to beginning the final
series of meetings in Philadelphia in the Second
Regiment Armory, yet two memorable meetings
were held, one in Philadalphia, and the other in
New York.
The first meeting was held on Thursday night in
the Academy of Music in this city. It was a con
vert’s testimony meeting, conducted by Mr. Alex
ander, and a Philadelphia newspaper characterized
it as “the most remarkable prayer and testimony
meeting ever held in Philadelphia.” The meeting
was for men only, although a choir of 1,000 voices,
chiefly composed of women, was present on the
platform. Nearly 3,000 men gathered to hear the
stirring testimonies of prominent converts of the
revival. Among those who spoke were “Jimmy”
Briggs, the converted police magistrate, James H.
Macßride, the converted real estate dealer, and
N. B. Lockyer, the converted insurance manager.
In language which deeply moved the audience, they
told what God had wrought in their souls since
they accepted Christ. Mr. Lockyer said:
“I have been a church member since I was four
teen years old, and I felt as hundreds of others
have felt, that because my name was on the church
roll, I was all right. And I was satisfied with being
a respectable man and a respectable church mem
ber. But I came to these meetings, and something
touched me—l don’t know just what it was. I
went home to my wife and said, ‘l’ll keep going
to these meetings till I am converted—that’s what
will happen to me.’ And I did keep coming to the
meetings, and I was converted. I told a friend of
mine who attends the same church that I had been
converted. He said, ‘You don’t mean converted;
The Golden Age for April 19, 1906.
By GEORGE T. B. DAVIS
you mean revived.’ I said, ‘I know what I mean.
1 have been converted.’
Strength to Give up Cigarettes.
“I had to give up smoking cigarettes, and that
was about the hardest thing. I had been accus
tomed to smoking from 75 to 100 cigarettes a day,
and I thought it would be impossible for me to give
up the habit. But I asked God to help me, and a
week ago I gave it up. And to-day, see here (hold
ing up his hand) I am not a bit nervous.”
One of the most interested men in the audience
was Mr. John Wanamaker, the well known mer
chant prince and Christian leader. Mr, Alexander
asked him to speak, and although suffering from
a sore throat, he finally consented, and was greeted
with prolonged applause. He said in part:
“I am deeply affected by this wonderful sight.
The first great meeting that I remember in this
Academy was when General Grant was nominated
for the presidency; the sight of so many men filling
the Academy from top to bottom reminds me of
that wonderful scene. Another occasion was when
James G. Blaine spoke from this platform, when
he had to be carried over the heads of the people
to get in.
“In the providence of God, these two men have
come to our city, and have presented the truth to
us; they have taught it, they have sung it, and this
dear man who leads the meeting to-night has tried
to love us into the kingdom, God bless him. Let us
not resist the wonderful power that is near us to
night.”
A Song Revival Service.
From the commencement of this meeting God’s
Spirit was present in power, and the men were
deeply moved by the testimonies of the converts,
and by the singing of the choir and of Mr. Alex
ander and Mr. Butler. Mr. Alexander delivered
no set sermon, but conducted the meeting largely
on the lines of the Welsh revival meetings. When
he asked who would accept Christ then and there,
one after another quickly stood in all parts of the
building until a total of sixty-eight had arisen.
Mr. Alexander then asked the men to come down to
the front of the stage and repeat in concert: “I
accept Jesus as my Savior, my Lord, and my King.”
On Friday evening Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander
went over to New York, where they were the
chief speakers at an evangelistic meeting in Car
negie Hall, which had been arranged by Dr. James
B. Ely, of the Evangelistic ’Committee of New
York City. The meeting was held for the purpose
of raising money to carry on the evangelistic tent
work in New York during the coming summer.
The announcement that Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alex
ander would be present drew an enoromus throng
to the meeting. Carnegie Hall was quickly packed
with 4,000 people, while 2,000 others attended over
flow meetings in two neighboring churches. As has
been the case everywhere around the world, Mr.
Alexander quickly captivated the New York au
dience, and had the rich and aristocratic gathering
of millionaires, professional men, society people,
minsters and business men singing lustily the stir
ring old melody, “The Old Time Religion.”
An Invitation to New York.
As the song concluded, Rev. Donald Sage Mackay
made an earnest appeal for the work of the sum
mer, and voiced the larger hope that Dr. Torrey
and Mr. Alexander would soon be invited to conduct
a great campaign in New York City, saying:
“I wish it were possible here to-night to frame
an invitation to Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander to
come to us in New York, and by the blessing of
God, and in answer to your prayers and your co
operation, do that work which has been so mightily
blest throughout England. Spotland, Ireland and
this country,”
Dr. Torrey produced a deep impression by his ad
dress on “He That Winneth Souls is Wise.” He
declared that soul-winning should be the business
of every Christian, and when he asked all those
who recognized that they had not been doing their
duty in the past, but who would henceforth make
soul-winning the business of their lives, to arise,
scores responded in all parts of the building. He
then asked all those who would then and" there ac
cept Jesus Christ to stand up, and several arose
on this invitation.
The Closing Series.
The last series of meetings of the Philadelphia
campaign began yesterday in the Second Regiment
Armory on the north side of the city, with the usu
al meeting for women only in the afternoon, and
for men only at night. Dr. Torrey preached a pow
erful sermon on “He is Able.” lie declared that
God is able to deliver from all forms of sin and vice
in modern life, saying in part:
“I wonder if some woman away down in sin has
come in here this afternoon. Let me say to you,
my sister, that Jesus is able to forgive every sin,
even to the uttermost. And some of you who think
you haven’t gone very far into sin, who belong to
m< st respectable families in the city, need forgive
ness just as much as the outcast woman. Perhaps
some woman here has an appetite for strong drink
or drugs. I wish that physicians would be a little
more careful about prescriptions that beget an evil
habit. I have met women all over Europe and
America who were slaves to the drug habit, many
of them to the use of that damnable kind of ca
tarrh snuff which has cocaine in it. Perhaps you
have gotten into the way of taking these headache
powders, some of which have morphine in them.
There is no hope in human help when the drug habit
gets fixed upon you. But thank God He is able,
and will cure you.
“He is able to do all that any one of us can
need or want. I know because I have tried Him.
My heart was for many years a cave of midnight
darkness, and it seemed as if no ray of sunshine
could ever again come into my life. But I found
Him, and He has made me so happy that if I weie
to sing with my voice as 1 do in my heart, Alex
ander and Butler would have to retire.
A Religion of Sunshine.
“Perhaps you have an ungovernable temper,
turning your home into a hell, so that your husband
goes to the club or to the saloon, and his life is
thus shipwrecked. Jesus is able to cure you of it.
He is able to fill your life with sunshine and with
song.
“Another thing. Jesus is able to make use of
you. God delights to take people who appear to
be less gifted than others and do most with them.
The trouble with talente*. people usually is that
they put so much trust in their own talent that they
are of no use to God. God can use them if they will
just put their talents aside. In Philadelphia, as
elsewhere, I have found commonplace people whom
no one thought much about, who were able to do
what people with rare talents would never have
accomplished. God is able to use everybody who
will give himself wholly to Him. In Chicago I
got hold of a drunken expressman who, after his
conversion, won hundreds and thousands of con
verts. His name was Culley. He went into the
slums and gathered in the most abandoned out
casts.
“One iii.dit he came in, and I noticed that he
had a black eye. I inquired the cause. ‘Oh,’ he
said, his face radiant, ‘Mr. Torrey, I praise the
Lord I have been counted worthy to be hit for His
sake.’ God delights to take weak people and use
them mightily,”
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