The Iola register., 1891-01-16

season of moral depression, this power
from on high came down upon Tillot-
son and Owen and Flavel and Baxter
and Bunyan, and there was deluge of
mercy higher than the top of the highest
mountains of sin. In the eighteenth
century, in England and America, re-
igion was at low water mark. VIII
liam Cowper, writing of the clergy of
those days, said:
Except a few with EIPs spirit blest
Hophai and Phineas may describe the rest
The infidel writings of Staftesbury
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 of the Atlantic.
and upon William Tennant and Gilbert
Tenant and David Brainerd on this
side of the Atlantic, and both hemis-
phere felt the tread of pardoning God.
Coming to a later date there NAV 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 wondrously. 1t
came upon pastors and congregations
and theaters and commercial establish
ments. Chatham Street Theater was
the scene of a most tremendous re-
hgious awakening.
The bar room of the theater was
turned into a prayer room. and 500 per
sons were present at the first meeting.
For seventy successive nights religious
services were held in that theater, 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 l
come to later ime-1s5T-remember
by many who are here. l remember it
especially as / had Just entered the
Office of the ministry. 1t was year of
hard times A great panic had flung
hundreds of thousands of people penni-
less. Starvation entered habitations
that had never before known a want.
This nation in its extremity fell help
less before the Lord and cried for par
don and peace, and upon ministers and
laymen the power from on high de-
scended. Engine houses, warerooms,
hotel parlors, museums, factories from
II to l o'clock while the operatives were
resting, were opened for prayers and
sermons, and inquiry rooms and Bur-
tons old theater on Chambers street,
where our ancestors used to assemble
to laugh at the comedies, and all up and
down the streets, and out on the docks
and on the decks of ships lying at the
wharf, people sang "All hail the power
Of -t,,l IL Il.
mercy. A great mass meeting of
Christians on a week day. in Jayne's
Hall, Philadelphia, telegraphed to Full
ton street prayer meeting, in New York.
saying: "Wha. hath God wrought"
and telegram went back saying: Two
hundred souls saved at our meeting to-
day" A ship came through the Mar
rows into our harbour. the captain re-
porting that himself and all the crew
had been converted to God between New
Orleans and New York. In the busiest
narts Of our largest American cities,
where the worshipers of mammon had
been counting their golden beads. men
began to calculate, What shall it profit
a man if he gain the whole world and
lose his own soul?'
In those days, what songs. what ser
mons, what turnings to God, what re- |
,itals of thrilling experiences, what |
orodigals brought home, what burning |
idings of souls saved, what serfdom of |
i'm emancipated, what wild rout of the |
'orces of darkness, what victories for |
he truth, What millions on earth and |
n Heaven are now thanking God for /
s51, which, though the year of worse
financial calamity. was the year of
Americas most glorious blessing. How
10 you account for 1857. its spiritual |
riumphs on the heels of its worldly /
1t was what my text calls
he power from on high.
That was thirty-three years ago. and
hough there have been in various parts
If the land many STRINGS of the Holy |
ihOst, there has been no general awalz-
ming. Does it not seem to YOU that we
,ught to have and may have the scenes
# power in 1857 eclipsed by the scenes
# power in 1891? The circumstances
ire somewhat similar. While we have
lot had National panic and universal
as in 1857. there has been
stringency in the money market that
heir wits end. Large commercial in
erests collapsing have left multitudes
# employees without means of support.
The racked brains of business men have
.lmost or entirely given way. New IL
ustrations all over the land of the fact
hat riches have not only feet, on which
hey walk slowly as they come, but
wings on which they speed when they
%.
Brethren in the gospel ministry, if
ve spent half as much time in prayer as
We do in the preparation of our SER
mons nothing could stand before US.
We would have the power from on high
5 we never have had it. Private MEN,
'erShip of all Christendom! if we spent
alf as much time in positive prayer for
his influence as we do in thinking
bout it and talking about it, there
Tould not be secretaries enough to take
own the names of those who would
rant to give in their names for enlist
lent.
Come! Come! All through the United
tates and all through Christendom and
IL around the world let us join hands in
oily pledge that we will call upon God
Dr. the power. o, for the power from
n high, the power that came on Pente-
ost: yea, on 10000 Pentecosts. Such
mes will come in our day if we have
he faith and the prayer and the conse-
ration
AS the power from on high in 1857 was
lore remarkable in academies of music
nd lyceum halls and theaters than in
hurches, why not this winter of 1891,
i these two academies of music, places
Z sac,,1ar apt.ar<ainroap- Whu NOT |