News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-01-08

not sufficient. Power from on high is
what we need to take possession of us.
Power straight from God. Supernat-
ural power, omnipotent power, all con-
ouering power Not more than one
out of thousand of the ministers has
it continuously. Not more than one
out of ten thousand Christians has it
all 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.
A 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 exhortation 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 6. Finney, had it. In my
boyhood l 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 in
the audience sobbed aloud with relig
ious emotion. 1t was the power from
on high, All in greater or less degree
may have it. Once get it and nothing
can stand before you. Satan goes
down. CaricatyIre 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 a great T
season of moral depression, this power
from on high came down upon John
| Tillotson and Owen and Flavel and
Baxter and Bunyan, 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 Els spirit blest,
Hophni and Phineas may describe the rest
The infidel writings of Shaf5esbury
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 2 pardoning God
Coming to later date there may be
here and there in this audience IN aged
man or woman who can remember
New York in 1881, when this power
from on high descended most Won
drously. 1t 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 forH' They replied,
For church" For VIII a-a-t?" said |
the owner. For a church, was the |
reply. The owner said, You may
have it, and l will give you thousand |
dollars to help you on with your
work" Arthur Tappan, man might |
lily prosecuted in his time, but II man,
as l saw him in his last days, as honest |
and pure and good as any man 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:
rhe 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 |
-1S57-rememberedb by mSny who |
are here. | remember it especially as
| 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. Starya-
| ton entered habitations that had never |
before known want Domestic life, |
in many cases, became 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 |
/ laymep the power from on high de-
| scended. Engine houses, warerooms, |
| hotel parlors, museums, factories from
| II TO / o'clock while the operatives |
were resting. were opened for prayers |
and sermons and inquiry rooms, and |
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 NaPFows
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 Mammop had
been counting their golden beads, men
began to calculate, ''What shall it
pPofit a man 81 ba ,,oir -, ,,,1,.I1 |