>> "When REVIVAL RAN EPIDEMIC"

> -from 'Glimpses' #41.
>
> Sometimes it is during the days of  hopelessness and despair that
> revival comes to a people! So it was in the middle of the nineteenth
> century. In the United States, it was a spiritual, political, and
> economic low point. Many people had become disillusioned with
> spiritual things because of preachers who had repeatedly and
> falsely predicted the end of the world in the 1840's.
>
> Agitation over the slavery issue had bred much political unrest, and
> civil war seemed imminent. A financial panic hit in 1857. Banks
> failed, railroads were bankrupt, factories closed, unemployment
> increased. Many Christians realized the need for prayer in such
> dire situations, and prayer-meetings began to spread around the
> country.
>
> In the lower Manhattan section of New York, a Dutch Reformed
> church had been steadily losing members; they hired missionary
> Jeremiah Lamphier to reverse the trend with an active visitation
> program. However, he had little success in awakening church
> members by his visits, so in September, 1857, he rented a hall on
> Fulton street in New York City and advertised its availability for
> prayer meetings. Six men assembled for that first prayer meeting
> on September 23. Two days later the Bank of Philadelphia failed.
> In October the men began praying together daily; on October 10
> the stock market crashed. The financial panic triggered a religious
> awakening, and people flocked to the prayer meetings. Within six
> months 10,000 people were gathering daily for prayer in New York
> City alone.
>
> The movement explodes:
>
> Other cities also were experiencing a renewed interest in prayer.
> In Chicago, the Metropolitan Theater was filled every day with
> 2000 people assembling for prayer. In Louisville, several thousand
> came to the Masonic Temple for prayer each morning. Two
> thousand assembled for daily prayer in Cleveland,  and the
> St. Louis churches were filled for months at a time. The newly
> formed YMCA also played an important role in holding prayer
> meetings and spreading the revival throughout the country.
>
> When media actually helped
>
> In February 1858, Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald gave
> extensive coverage to the prayer meeting revival. Not to be outdone,
> the New York Tribune devoted an entire issue in April, 1858 to
> news of the revival. News of the revival quickly traveled westward
> by telegraph. This was the first revival in  which the media played
> an important role in spreading the revival.
>
> Prayer everywhere
>
> The prayer meetings were organized in the cities by lay people
> and were interdenominational.
>
> Unlike earlier awakenings, prayer rather than preaching was the
> main  instrument of revival. Tents were often set up as places
> where people  could gather for prayer, introducing a custom
> followed by later revivalists. The meetings themselves were very
> informal -- any person might pray, exhort, lead in a song, or give
> a word of testimony, with a five minute limit placed on each
> speaker. In spite of the less structured nature of the prayer
> meetings, they lacked the extreme emotionalism which some
> had criticized in earlier revivals.
>
> This was the first revival beginning in America with a worldwide
> impact. From the United States the revival spread to Ireland,
> Scotland, Wales, England, Europe, South Africa, India, Australia,
> and the Pacific islands. In geographical and proportionate
> numerical extent, the revival of 1857-1860 has not been equaled.
> Even ships coming into British ports told of the revival in America.
> Ireland soon began to experience a prayer meeting revival as well,
> with crowds becoming so large they had to meet in the open air.
> When John Cairns preached in Belfast in May, 1859, he had
> never before seen such eagerness to hear the gospel or lives
> which had been so transformed by the revival. He said: "Nature
> does not contain any epidemic so like to Christian conversion."
>
> When Andrew Bonar heard of the work in Ireland, he increased his
> prayer for a revival in Scotland. In his diary of July 3, 1859, he
> wrote, "Again this night in sorrow of heart over the terrible
> carelessness, indifference, deadness of this 'valley of dry bones.'
> O my God, come over to Scotland  and help us!"  Within two
> months Andrew Bonar found himself in the midst of revival in
> Scotland. On September 10th he wrote in his diary, "This has
> been a remarkable week: every day I have heard of some soul
> saved among us..."  All classes became interested in salvation,
> backsliders returned, conversions increased, and Christians
> desired a deeper instruction in spiritual truths. Families
> established daily devotions, and entire communities underwent
> a noticeable change in morals. Not celebrities but ordinary people
> praying. Similar changes were noted as the revival spread to
> Wales, England, and beyond.
>
> There was an absence of great names connected with the revival;
> lay people in prayer were the prime instruments used by God in
> awakening the people. The preaching, which in many areas had
> become too intellectual and lifeless, now concentrated on the
> truths of the gospel of Christ and His cross. The results of the
> revival of 1859 in the areas of evangelism, missions, and social
> action continued for decades.
>
> Many who became Christian leaders during the second half of the
> nineteenth century were greatly affected by the revival-- such as
> D.L. Moody, William Booth, C.H.  Spurgeon, and A.B. Simpson.
> As James Buchanan of Scotland summarized, it  was a time when
> "new spiritual life was imparted to the dead, and new spiritual
> health imparted to the living."
>
> Getting a people spiritually ready to face tragedy?
>
> The revival of 1859 had similar effects in the  North and the South,
> and may have prepared many Americans  spiritually to survive the
> horrors of the war that broke out a few years later. The awakening
> continued into the Civil War period, a great revival occurring in the
> Southern armies in 1863-64.
>
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