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THE WORLD-WIDE REVIVAL
News of Mighty Outpouring of God's Spirit in India and Elsewhere.
By GEORGE T. B. DAVIS.
I.
WONDERFUL DAYS IN TEKKALI.
Remarkable scenes have recently been witness
ed in connection with a gracious awkening at Tek
kali, Ganjam district, India. Rev. W. V. Higgins,
of the Canadian Baptist Mission, writes of the work
as follows:
“Sunday morning it seemed as if the devil had
gained the advantage and we groaned as we saw
hearts turn to stone. But before the day was over,
we were permitted to witness a remarkable mani
festation of the Spirit’s power. The whole audi
ence was convulsed, and for hours many were
writhing in agony. When things had quieted down
a little, the confessions began. What horrible
scenes were confessed I In agony men would say,
‘I shall die if I do not confess.’
“Practically the whole Christian community has
been guilty of wickedness almost too terrible to
contemplate. Mission agents have been living dread
ful lives. What wonder that Christians have been
in many cases, a laughing stock among the hea
then ! As the Lord looked upon our churches they
must have been a veritable ‘stench in his nostrils.’
The Lord has indeed come suddenly to his temple
and is cleansing it. Monday’s meeting was glo
rious beyond description.
“Some who had confessed on the previous night
could not get peace or assurance of forgiveness.
We were desperate as we saw them still hopeless,
and we cried to the Lord for immediate deliverance
for them. Almost instantly the Spirit came in great
power ami lifted these prostrate ones out of their,
despair as we quoted text after text to show God’s
willingness to forgive, cleanse and keep. Present
ly the meeting was overcome with the joy of victory,
and we poured out our voices in songs of deliver
ance.”
11.
2,000 CONVERTS IN TWENTY DAYS.
In Korea the Holy Ghost seems to be poured out
upon the church in a manner that has rarely been
witnessed since Pentecost. The march of Christiani
ty is a triumphal progress. The Missionary
Review of the World says:
“When Rev. Samuel A. Moffett, D.D., entered
Pyeng Yang sixteen years ago there was not a
Christian in the city. On June 1, the morning, of
his departure for America, more than 1,000 Christ
ians walked three miles to the station to bid him
farewell. Men, women, schoolboys and girls sang
Christian hymns, and fifty theological students
came forward and through two of their number
pinned on his coat silver medals as a token of love.
There is now a Christian consituency of more than
5,000.
“The Men’s Association of the Pyeng lang City
Church are about to erect a new building, one mem
ber having given a site. The work is carried on
by a committee of twenty-six men. elected by the
various officers of the combined city churches. Ihe
building when completed will contain a reading
room, study classes, committee room and a general
mission agency.
“The new church in the northern part of Pyeng
Yang City, started with less than one hundred
members, now has 250, and is completing a building
which will hold four hundred. The money for the
building was furnished by the Koreans, more than
half of whom had not been six months out of hea
thenism. Some contributions were as large as 500
nyang, equivalent to SSOO in America, a half yeai s
income. I.
“At the Caroline R. Ladd Hospital last year
there were 9,376 patients, of which 6,454 were new
cases. Dr. Wells performed 203 operations and his
assistants performed 153. In Pyeng Yang and
Seoul, as a result of special meetings in February,
there were 2,000 converts in twenty days.”
The dolden Age for January 24,
111.
HEROISM OF RECENT HEATHEN.
The Missionary Voice has a striking account of
the heroism and holy enthusiasm of the newly con
verted savages at the little mission station of
Boliengi, on the Congo, in Africa. The writer
declares that their fervent zeal for the cross should
make the followers of Christ in Christian lands hang
their heads in shame. He says:
“This little mission challenges the admiration of
Christendom for its consecration and heroism. Our
missionaries began work there seven years ago.
The natives they found were naked savages. They
did not even have pagans with language.
Now we have there the banner church of the broth
erhood. This organization has 127 members and
supports fourteen native evangelists. These men go
on long journeys, with their wives, sometimes two
months at a. time, and preach the gospel in the
native villages. They are mightily used of God.
Their return is marked with great rejoicing. They
bring back with them many who are the fruits
of their labors. These poor people whose average
income is about ten cents a day, gave $287 tor
foreign missions last year.
“A proportionate gift would mean at least $5,-
000 from any American church of the same member
ship. If our people in America gave in the same
proportion of money and workers, we would raise
$40,000,000 a year for missions and support 140,-
000 missionaries. ”
A proportionate gift from all the denominations
in. England and America would mean the imme
diate sending forth of millions of missionaries to
heathen lands and the conversion of the world
in the present generation. Think of it I New-born
babes in Christ sending out one missionary for ev
ery nine members and supporting them out of their
pittance. Truly we in Christian lands should hang
our heads in shame.
IV.
GIFT OF TONGUES AT BOMBAY.
Although the supernatural element in revivals is
not the chief thing, but rather the “fruits” of love,
joy, peace, and a holy fervor for souls; yet such
miraculous manifestations seem to be occurring and
as with the miracles in our Lord's day, may they
be used to strengthen the faith of Christians every
where.
Prayer Circular No. 48, published by the Brayer
Union in India, gives the following account of the
gift of tongues coming to a girl in Bombay:
“The girl Sarah hais received the gift of tongues
and of prophecy. No one knows what language
she is praying in though she knows what she is
saying herself. She also gets up and gives most
wonderful addresses, yet she is naturally a very ig
norant girl. Strange to say the country of Lybia
is laid on her heart to pray for and she prays for
this chiefly in the unknown language. It really
seems that 1 Cor. 14: 22 is being fulfilled, for
Miss L. says that the girls who were standing aloof
are very much struck by this and are really alarmed
at their own hardness. Sarah also claims to have
received the burning after praying for a whole
night. Later, last night the gift of tongues came
upon another girl, she prays in five S. Indian dia
lects. To Sarah has come the interpretation. But
this morning Sarah is dumb, cannot speak a word
of Marathi, only the new language which is said
to be a dialect of Arabic; she understands and
writes Marathi, but cannot speak it. It seems like
Ezekiel over again. She is quite happy about it
though. It is said that all the girls in the C. M. S.
Girls’ School, Girgaum, have given evidence of sav
ing faith in Christ.”
V.
REVIVAL AND PERSONAL WORK.
One of the most successful ministers in New York
city, is Dr. Charles L. Goodell, D.D. In two years
he received more than five hundred members into
his church on confession of faith. The secret is
that Dr. Goodell is an inveterate personal worker
and he teaches his people to be the same. He holds
a. month’s revival meetings each January, and the
keynote of the mission is to visit people in their
homes and win them to Christ, and then have
them go to the church and publicly confess their
faith.
Tn a recent address on personal evangelism Dr.
Goodell said, as reported in the Expositor and Cur
rent Anecdotes:
“A minister once said that, if it were revealed
to him that he had only six years to live unless
he should win 1,000 souls for God, and if he might
choose either to preach the Gospel from the pulpit,
or not to enter the pulpit, but to devote his time
to personal effort for the salvation of souls, he
would choose the latter. He spake wisely and well;
I could say amen to that myself. In my own min
istry the blessed personal work, the opportunities
which I have had face to face with the individual,
have brought me better results than any I have
had from the pulpit.
“There is nothing that has paid me as well as
my personal work among the members of my con
gregation. I have a meeting for the mothers during
my special services, and I look them in the face,
200 or 300 of them, and I ask them if there is any
one in the world who wants to see their children
saved as much as they do; I picture their responsi
bility for those immortal souls and I try to lay on
their hearts the great import of the work. God
has moved these mothers’ hearts most wonderfully.
Can you live and be happy while your children are
not saved? You say salvation is a, necessity; do
you act as if you believed it a necessity? Get the
responsibility in your hearts that we must win
our children to God. Many a Christian man hasn’t
his own children saved.
“There was the son of a bishop of our own
church who was not saved, and the bishop came
to me and with tears in his eyes said to me, ‘I have
brought other children into the kingdom of God,
but my own hoy is still outside the kingdom.
Won’t you do something personal for him?’ . I
said, ‘lf there is anything I can do for your boy,
I will do it.’ I saw the boy again and again; it
was a long experience, but at last when he wa|s
about to take a long trip around the world with
his father, I laid my bland on his shoulder, and
calling him by name, I said, ‘You are going on a
long trip and it will be many, many months be
fore you come back again; and I want to ask you
if you are ready to give your heart to God?’
“He answered: ‘I have been waiting now for sev
eral days for you to put me in just this place. By
the grace of God, I will.’ I said: ‘Next Sunday
will be the last Sunday you will be here for a long
time; will you come to the altar in the presence of
the great congregation and confess your belief in
Christ ? ’
“ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I will do that or anything else
that you think I ought to do.’ I went to the bish
op and laying my hand on his shoulder, I said, ‘lt
is settled.’ ‘What is settled?’ ‘Your son has just
told me he has given his heart fully to God, and
will he received into the church on probation next
Sunday.’ I felt the thrill that ran through the
bishop’s body as I told him this, and he said, ‘I
would rather have that message from your lips than
to have you give me a check for $25,000,’ and by
the look on his face I was sure that he meant it.
It is the personal work that counts.”
His Chief Interest.
“Yes, he was pretty well fixed at one time, but
he got silver crazy in 1896 and he lost all he had.”
“I suppose he’s still interested in ‘free silver
at 16 to I’.”
“No, he’s more interested now in ‘free lunch 12
to I’.”
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