The Russellville Democrat., 1891-01-15


 Graham had it. Andrew Fuller had it. The great evangelists, Daniel Baker and Dr. Nettleton, and Truman Osborn and Charles c. Kinney had it. In my boyhood saw Truman Osborn rise to preach in the village church at Somer- l vile, N J., and before he had given out his text or uttered word people in 1 the audience sobbcd aloud with rclig- l ious emotion It 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. Caricature goes down. Infideli- 1 ty goes down. Worldliness goes down. l All opposition goes down
 Several times in the history of the church and the world has this Power 1 from on High been demonstrated. In the seventeenth century, after a great 1 season of moral depression, this power l from on High came down upon John | Tillotson and Owen and Flavel and Baxter and Bunyan. and there was a l deluge of mercy higher than the tops of l the highest mountains of sin. In the eighteenth century, in England and l America, religion was at low-water mark. William Cowper, writing of the clergy of those days, said:
 Except few with Ellis spirit blest l Hophn and Phineas may describe the rest. l The infidel writings of Shaftesbury and Hobbes and Chubb had done their work. But Power from on High came upon both the Wesleys and Lady Hun- | tington on the other side of the Allan l tic and upon William Tennant and Gil | bert Tennant and David Brainerd on | this side the Atlantic, and both hemi 1 spores felt the tread of 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 l High decended most wondrously. 1t came upon pastors and congregations and theaters and commercial establish 1nents. Chatham Street Theater, New l York. was the scene of most tremend- ous religious awlxening. A committee of Christian gentlemen called upon l the lessee of the theater and said they would like to buy the lease of theater. He said: What do you want it for?" They replied: | For church" For w-h-a-t?' said the owner. "For a church, was the reply The owner said "You may have it, and I will give you one thou sand dollars to help you on with your work" Arthur Tappan,a q man nightly persecuted in his time, but man, as l saw him in his last days, as honest and pure and good as any man l ever knew, stepped on the stage of old Chatham | Theater as the actors were closing their morning rehearsal and said: There will be preaching here tonight 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 | mountain,
 For all that believe Christ has opened fountain.
 | The bar-room of the theater was turned into prayer-room, and eight hundred persons were present at the l first meeting For seventy successive nights religious services were held in l that theater, and such scenes of mercy and salvation as will be subjects of con versation and congratulation among the I l lasts But 1 come to later tirne-1S57
 remembered by many who are here. I remember it especially as l had just entered the office of the ministry It was year of hard times. A great panic had flung hundreds of thou sands of people pepniless. Starvation entered habitations that had never be- | fore known Il 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. l There has been nothing like it in thirty years, and pray God there may not be any thing like it in the next thirty centuries Talk about your Black | Fridays! It was Black Saturday, Black Sunday, Black Monday. Black Tuesday,
 Black Wednesday, Black Thursday, as well as Black Friday.
 This Nation in it's 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, ware-rooms, hotel parlors, museums, factories from twelve to one o'clock, while the opera
 
 tives were resting, were opened for prayers and sermons, and inquiry rooms, and Burton's old theater 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 d week day, in Jaynes Hall, Philadelphia, tele- | graphed to Fulton Street prayer meet ing in New York, saying: What hath God wrought?" and telegram went back, saving: Two hundred souls saved at one meeting to-day" A ship came through the Narrows into our har- bor, the captain reporting himself and all the crew had been converted to God
 between New Orleans and New York.
 In the busiest marts of our busiest American cities, where the worshippers of Mammon had been counting their golden beads, men began to calculate:
 What shall it profit man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul. The walters in restaurants after the closing of their days work knelt among the tables where they had served. Policemen asked consent of the commissioner of police to be per mitted to attend religious meetings At Albany members of the New York
 Legislature assembled in the room of the Court of Appeals at halfspast eight o'clock in the morning for prayer and praise. Printed invitations were sent out to the firemen of New York, saying: Come as suits your conven- fence best, whether in fire or citizens
 dress, but cone comei' QuarryInen lnelt among the rocks. Fishermen
 knelt in their boats. Weavers knelt among the looms. Sailors knelt among the hammocks. Sehoolmasters knelt