Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-01-05


out OF thousand of the ministers has
it continuously Not more than one
out OF ten thousand Christians has it
ali the time Given in abundance,
these last ten years Of the Nineteenth
century would accomplish more for
God. and the church, and the world
than the previous ninety years OF this
century
POWER FROM ON HIGH.
\ few men and women in each age
of the world have possessed it, Caro-
line Fry, the immortal Quakeress, had
it, and three hundred of the depraved
and suffering of Newgate prison under
her exh0rtation repented and believed.
Jonathan Edwards had it, and North
ampton meeting house heard the out
burst of religious emotion as he spake
of righteousness and judgment to come.
Samuel Budget the Christian mer-
chant, had it. and his benefactions
showered the world. John Newton had
it. Bishop Latimer had it. Isabella
Graham had it. Andrew Fuller had it.
The great evangelists, Daniel Baker
and DR.. NettletOn and Truman Osborn
and Charles G. Finney, had it. In my
boyhood I saw Truman Osborn rise to
preach in the village church at Somer-
Vile, n J., and before he had given
out his text or uttered a word people il
the audience s0bbed aloud with relig
iOus emotion. 1t was the power from
on high. All liz greater or less degree
may have it. Once get it and nothing
can stand before you. Satan goes
down. Caricature goes down. Inf
deity goes down. Worldliness goes
down. All opposition goes down.
Several times in the history of the
church and the world has this power
from on high been demonstrated. In
the Seventeenth century, after great
season of moral depression, this power
from on high came down upon John
TillOtsOn and Owen and Flavel and
Baxter and Bunvan, and there was a
deluge of mercy higher than the tops
of the highest mountains of sin. In the
Eighteenth century, in England and
America, religion was at a low water
mark. William Cowper, writing of the
clergy of those days, said:
Except a few with Ellis spirit blest,
Hophni and Phineas may describe the rest.
The infidel writings of Shaftesbury
and Hobbies and Chubb had done their
work But power from on high came
upon both the Wesleys and Lady Hunt
ington on the other side the Atlantic,
and upon William Tenant and Gilbert
Tenant and David Brainerd on this
side the Atlantic and both hemispheres
felt the tread of a pardoning God.
Coming to later date there may be
here and there in this audience an aged
man or woman who can remember
New York in 1881, when this power
from on high descended most won
drously. It came upon pastors and
congregations and theatres and com
mercial establishments Chatham
Street theatre, New York, was the
scene of a most tremendous religious
awakening.
A committee of Christian gentlemen
called upon the lessee of the theatre
and said they would like to buy the
lease of the theatre He said what
do you want it fore" They replied,
For church" For VIII -a-t?" said
the owner For a church, was the
have it, and l will give you a thousand
dollars to help you on with your
work" Arthur Tappaa, a man might
lily prosecuted in his time but Il man,
as [ saw him in his last days, as honest
and pure and good as any man I ever
knew, stepped on the stage of old
Chatham theatre as the actors were
closing their morning rehearsal, and
said, There will be preaching here to-
night on this stage" and then gave out
and sang with such people as were
there the old hymn:
The voice OF free grace cries, escape to the mount
ain,
For all that believe Christ has opened fountain.
A DARKROOM MADE A PRAYER ROOM.
The barroom of the theatre was
turned into a prayer room, and eight
hundred persons were present at the
first meeting. For seventy successive
nights religious services were held
in that theatre, and such scenes of
mercy and salvation as will be subjects
of conversation and congratulatiOn
among the ransomed in glory as long
as heaven lasts. But [ come to a later |
time-1S57- remembered by many who |
are here. [ remember it especially as
I had just entered the office of the min
istry. 1t was a Year of hard times. A |
great panic had flung hundreds of |
thousands of people penniless. Starva-
ton entered habitatiOns that had never |
before known want. Domestic life, |
in many cases, became a tragedy. Sui |
eide, garroting, burglary, assassination |
were rampant. What an awful day |
that was when the banks went down! |
There has been nothing like it in thirty |
years, and pray God there may not |
be anything like it in the next thirty |
centuries. Talk about your Black Fri |
days. 1t was Black Saturday, Black |
Sunday, Black Monday, Black Tues
day, Black Wednesday, Black Thurs
day as well as Black Friday.
This nation in its extremity fell help |
less before the Lord and cried for par
don and peace, and upon ministers and |
1aymen the power from on high de-
scended. Engine houses, warerOoms,
hotel parlors, museums factories from |
II to 1 o'clock while the operatives
were resting, were opened for prayers
ctIId SSLIAlO11S tlI1C 1udt1Iy IOOlIS, el1d
Burton's old theatre on Chambers
street, where our ancestors used to as
semble to laugh at the comedies, and
all up and down the streets, and out
on the docks and on the deck of ships
lying at the wharf, people sang, "All
hail the power of Jesus name, " while
others cried for mercy A great mass
meeting of Christians on week day,
in Jayne's hall. Philadelphia, tele-
graphed to Fulton street prayer meet
ing in New York, saying, what hath
God wrought@ and telegram went
back, saying, Two hundred souls
saved at our meeting today"
A ship came through the Narrows
into our harbor, the captain reporting
that himself and all the crew had been
converted to God between New Or
leans and New York In the busiest
marts of our busiest American cities
where the worshipers of Mammon had
h. -,