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Sam Small Gets Right With God
The Once Famous Evangelist Thrills the Audience by Asking Prayers in the Torrey-Alexander Meeting —Money
Restored by Converts —Doctor Torrey’s Full Surrender.
Thrilling scenes are marking the progress of the
revival in Atlanta. The converts are making re
storation of stolen money; Christians are getting
up and declaring publicly that they will henceforth
give up theatres, card-parties and dances; and hun
dreds are being stirred to go out seeking and saving
the lost at almost all hours of the day and night.
One evening recently the most thrilling and dra
matic scene of the campaign thus far occurred. Dr.
Torrey had just concluded a sermon on “The Judg
ment Day,’ and had made a call for all those who
would accept Christ to stand up. Only a few re
sponded, and there was silence as the evangelist
pled in vain for others to start the Christian life.
The meeting was about to end when a grey-haired
man sitting at the reporters’ table on the platform
stood up and asked Dr. Torrey to pray for him.
As he did so a thrill ran through the audience, for
the man was Sam Small, who as a minister of the
Gospel has held audiences spellbound by his elo
quence all over the United States. He was once
one of the most famous evangelists in the country;
his name was a household word, and he led thou
sands to a knowledge of Christ. He wandered away
from God, however, and for years has been a back
slider. He had gone into all sorts of schemes, and
had held various positions. For some time past he
has been doing editorial work on an Atlanta news
paper. In a voice full of emotion Sam Small said:
“Doctor Torrey, I once accepted Christ, and knew
the full joy of His salvation, but I have drifted
away, and God knows I need to repent, and God
helping me I do now and here repent and surrender
my life to Him,” and so saying he sank back into
his chair, buried his head in his hands on the table
in front of him and wept.
Dr. Torrey, his own voice trembling, called on Mr.
Alexander to pray, and when the singer had con
cluded, he himself prayed:
“Father, I had the joy of hearing this man preach
years ago in Minneapolis, and Thou didst bless his
work. Oh, God, we believe Thou didst do a real
work before. Now do a thorough one and transform
our brother Small. Fill him with the Holy Ghost,
make him strong to resist temptation, and make him
once more a power for Thee.”
The scene enacted at the front sent a wave of
religious fervor over the audience. Dr. Torrey, who
had been about to dismiss the people, made the
request that if there were any others in the audi
ence whose lives were not right with God, but who
wanted to get right before they left the building,
they would stand up. They began rising in every
part of the skating rink, and then at the evange
list’s request went down to the penitent seats in
front, w’here they knelt in prayer. Among the num
ber who went to the front was a prominent business
man of Atlanta, who is manager for three states of
a leading insurance firm, and who has other business
interests in the city, which it is stated will be ser
iously affected by the step he has taken. At a meet
ing the next morning the insurance man’s wife and
daughter rose and told with tears in their eyes of
what a transformation had already come into their
home through the starting of a family altar.
One of the features of the mission is the number
of people who are making restoration of money dis
honestly gotten. One afternoon as Dr. Torrey was
preaching a young man interrupted him to declare
that he had just paid back S3O which should have
been paid back five years ago, but which he had put
off doing until it had escaped his mind, until he had
attended the revival meetings and determined to
get entirely right wi+h God.
One voung man who had stolen slOl was so deeply
convicted that he went to the man from whom he
had stolen it and returned the money in person. He
also went to his next door neighbor, with whom he
The Golden Age for May 31, 1906.
By GEORGE T. B. DAVIS
was at enmity, and asked his neighbor to forgive
him. He declared that the latter step was harder
than the former, but that God gave him the courage
to do his duty.
Hundreds of Christians in Atlanta are being
aroused as never before with a desire to go out and
save the lost, and stories of conversions on the street
and in all sorts of unexpected places are being re
lated by the soul-winners.
Visitors are coming long distances to witness the
great work and get a touch of the revival fire. The
most interesting visitors during the past week have
been two business men from Philadelphia, Mr. M. B.
Lockyar and Mr. E. 11. Perry, who received such
a great blessing from the campaign in that city that
they made the long journey to Atlanta—over 800
miles—to spend two or three days in the meetings
here. ' *
An interesting scene occurred last Sunday when
Mr. Alexander occupied the pulpit of a church which
he had attended as a boy. The singing evangelist
plead with the audiencet o make a full surrender to
God, and broke through all precedent in the staid
Presbyterian Church by asking those who would do
so to stand up and go down to the front of the
church. The congregation is reputed to be the weal
thiest of the Presbyterian churches of the Southern
states, yet between seventy and eighty rose and went
to the front, where the singing evangelist prayed for
them.
In closing his sermon one afternoon Dr. Torrey
told his audience the secret of his happiness, which
he says he has every day in the week and every
hour in the day. He said it was because he believed
in God’s spirit as a Person, and not as a mere in
fluence, and had received Him as such into his heart.
He said:
“I am such a happy man—happy every day in the
year, happy every waking hour in the day. Why
this afternoon I lay down for a few minutes—l had
caught cold in my back and lay down to see if I
couldn’t get it out—and I fell asleep, and I found
myself praising God and praying in my sleep. Happy
all the time! ‘Oh,’ but you say, ‘you were born
that way.’ No I wasn’t. I was born despondent
—if ever a person had the blues it was I. But I
was born again without them. Ever since that time
I have known the friendship and personal compan
ship of the Holy Ghost; sometimes it just comes
sweeping over me in waves of unutterable peace and
joy. It is all in Him, and you can have Him, too.
He is just as near you as He is near me. If you
are a child of God you have Him in your heart just
as much as He is in mine, if you will only recognize
Him and just turn over the entire control of your
life, inward and outward, to Him. That is the secret
of everything.”
Last Tuesday was observed as a day of fasting
and prayer that the city might be shaken yet more
mightily by the power of God. At the morning ser
mon Dr. Torrey delivered a powerful discourse, after
which, many arose in the audience to declare that
thev had been holding on to things that they knew
to he wrong, but that with God’s help they would
give them un then and there. Tn the course of his
sermon Dr. Torrey told how he himself had held on
to a certain sin for a long time, and it was not
until he gave it up that he had the fullest power in
praver. He said:
“Some years ago T was at the place where I
reeded some monev verv badly: if I didn’t get that
monev my work world he at a standstill. I would
either have to close up or go in debt. I had taken
fTm oronnd that T world never go in debt to anvhodv.
for running in debt is not faith, it is disobedience to
God. who savs. “Owe no man anything!” T com
menced to cry to God for that money. It didn’t
come; but nearer and nearer came the day when I
must have the money or God’s name be dishonored,
for people knew I was trusting God for the money.
“I went to bed one night, all alone in the house;
my family were all away, and I went to sleep much
burdened about that money. I woke up in the night
in awful physical distress, suffering untold agony.
I commenced to cry to God to send me that money
and to heal my body. Not a w T ord of answer. It
seemed as if the heavens above me were brass; my
prayers didn’t seem to go higher than my head. The
devil came and taunted me. He said, ‘There’s no
God. If there’s a God why don’t He answer your
prayers ? Why don’t He send you the money or heal
your body?’ And it seemed as if the foundations of
my faith which had been secure for years were being
cut out from underneath my feet.
“I looked up, and I said, ‘O, God, if there is any
thing in my life that hinders the answer to my
prayer, show me what it is.’ Something came up;
it had come up often before; but every time it had
come up I would say, ‘Oh, that’s not wrong; it’s
perfectly right; of course it’s right;’ but all the
time way down in the bottom of my heart I knew
it was wrong. This came up, and I said, ‘Oh, God,
if this is wrong I’ll give it up.’ No answer. The
heavens were brass. And I looked up and I said,
‘Oh, God, it is wrong; it is sin, and I give it up.’
“In a moment my pain was all gone; I fell asleep
like a little child.
“The next morning I got up perfectly well; the
money came and everything went right along. When?
When I judged my sin. I hope there will be a good
deal of judging of sin this morning.”
Reports from Philadelphia indicate that the re
vival there is going forward with unabated fervor.
The inquiry rooms in the office building are still
kept up, while the revival hands are going about
from church to church spreading the fire day by day.
I have just received the following letter from a young
fellow who was a church member, hut who was
wrecking his life through drink. He made an ab
solute surrender to God and became fired with a
passion for soul-winning. After working in the
Government service all day he would attend the
meetings each night, and frequently did not leave the
building till 12 o’clock. He is now a member of one
of the revival bands which are going from church
to church in Philadelphia. He writes:
“Although Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander have
been away from Philadelphia for almost a week the
revival spirit is still with us, and in fact is increas
ing rather than diminishing, and we are all confident
that our city is yet to receive its greatest blessing.
“To-day many of the churches in West Philadel
phia held echo meetings. Tt is indeed wonderful how
God uses a man after he has made a full surrender.
My life is getting stronger every dav. and I find
that my influence is going out to my old friends and
acquaintances. one of whom when told of mv con
version said that he guessed I would be after him
before long, and he was not far wrong either. Mv
dear mother looks ten years younger, and our home
is full of sunshine.”
•
On Mav 7 the efforts of the neonle of America to
nreservp the scenic effects of Niagara Falls resulted
in the President’s sending to Congress the renort of
the International Waterwavs Commission nn this
snbmet. This commission finds that it would he a
sacrilege to destrov the heautv of the falls, and that
to avoid this onlv 30 000 enhic feel - of waler net
spnnnd can ho diverted from the Canadian sidn.
IP 500 cuhie foot per second from thp Arnariean cddp
"nd 10.000 cubic fppf nor second from thn Chieao-o
Drainage Canal. It is recommended that these
amounts alone he permitted to be used.
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