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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. 7