Part 12 (pages 162–175)
rival. The glance of his full sharp eye and the tones of his: commanding voice were in keeping with the sterner aspects of truth, which he never failed to present with searching discrimination and powerful effect. Mr. Finney preached inno other pulpit than this, but the results were by no means limited to this congregation. Many, -who ascribe their conversion to his instrumental- ity, united with other churches in the village and- vicinity; and now, after a generation has passed, and with it the prejudice of the.time, there can be no question of the service then rendered to the cause of vital religion.
Due to the numerous invitations Charles received during his Auburn stay, he. decided against going to Union College as he had planned. Instead, he went to Buffalo where he preached for one month:-Though his stay in Buffalo was brief, a large number of people were con- verted, including many prominent citizens. Increasingly, the evangelist’s revivals encompassed those described as upper-class New Yorkers.
In June, Charles left for his father-in-law’s home in Oneida County. He needed time for rest and recreation and to regain strength, so he stayed there most of the summer. Lydia’s family certainly didn’t object to the opportunity to spend time with their daughter and her growing family. Early autumn found the evangelist min- istering in Providence, Rhode Island, where he. stayed just three weeks. He sensed, however, that “my stay was stitch vwfiers: Edward: seecher, Lyman Beeo son; served as. pastor. ‘The*Bostén :bélievers}: how
_ seemed spiritually. cold in response to his first sermon, SO:
_ the evangelist tried some new tactics. His next sermons -- were very probing and penetrating.
‘The tactic: seemingly. backfired. Charles vratches: the congregation begin to’ dwindle. Each night there were fewer and fewer people attending. This. was a completely. - new. experience for him.» He had never seen Christians - “shrink ‘back,” as he said. ‘The ‘believers, though, saw. — things differently. They wondered, ‘What will the Unita- - -rians say, if such things are’ true of us who are orthodox? Tf Mr. Finney preaches. to us in this way, the ‘Unitarians : will triumph over us, and say, that at least the orthodox are. not better Christians than Unitarians.” - ° ae
"They felt resentment at Charles’s intense probing: 80° they actively rejected it. As always, however, the Spirit : . - of God began to move in response to prayer, overcoming * _the believers’ objections. The Christians began to listen intensely to. Charles’s ‘sermons and gradually came. to appreciate them. Even Lyman Beecher, Charles’s former
eriemy-on the hew measures issue, jumped-in with enthu- S ~ siasm.- Although he: willingly took part in the revival. — meetings, - Pastor Beecher was. relieved to ‘eave the — _dnquirers’ mbetings to Charles. ane younger evangelist, soe always gracious to Beecher, handled the situation with the utmost delicacy so as not: to offend nor.embarrass him. Overall, the Boston meetings turned out to be quite successful. Finally Charles had gained acceptance in one of the most conservative, traditional cities in America.
At last the evangelist’s travels had come to an end, and the Finneys would proceed to‘a new challenge: fill- ing a church pulpit in New York City.
thirteen
") harles was as surprised .as. anyone. when he
( received a.call to pastor the Second Free Pres-
byterian Church in New York City. As he made
clear: “Having had no training for the ministry, I did not
expect nor desire to labor in large towns and cities, nor
minister to cultivated communities. I intended to go to
the new settlements, and preach in schoolhouses and barns and groves.as best I could.”
His pulpit in New York, however, was a renovated theater on old Chatham Street. Charles was gratified when, after a brief.interval, “the Spirit of the Lord was immediately poured out upon us and we had an exten- sive revival that spring and summer.” At the first service, more than two thousand people packed the theater, and the crowds continued to come regularly after that.
A few months after the evangelist had come to. New York, a severe epidemic of cholera broke out. People retreated from the city in droves, hoping to escape the dreaded disease. The Chatham Street section was espe- cially hard hit, and Charles wrote that one morning he counted five hearses at nearby houses, waiting to collect the dead.
With true pastoral concern, Charles stayed in the city with his family so he could minister to the suffering and dying people. After a time, his own strength was de- pleted, and he went to the country for two weeks of rest. He returned for his installation service as pastor of the Second Free Presbyterian Church.
The service, of course, was a joyous time, but in the middle of it, Charles became very ill. Following the bene- diction, he went home, got in bed, and called the doctor. The doctor’s diagnosis was the one he dreaded. Charles had cholera. His next-door neighbor got cholera the same day, and the following morning the neighbor was dead.
Both the Second Free Presbyterian Church congregation and the doctor gave Charles a stern warning: rest or die. Help was sought to provide Charles with time to conva- lesce, and an associate pastor, Jacob Heffenstein, arrived to carry on with ministerial duties.
A year or so before this turn of events, when Charles was still recovering from cholera, his doctor had recom- mended a sea voyage to the Mediterranean to restore his health. So that winter he left by himself on a small ship going east across the Atlantic, which is notorious for stormy weather during that time of year. The little ship tossed violently up and down, and Charles’s cabin was anything but comfortable. , - could-not eveh manage the: ship. Incredibly,:the: :
- fell to. Charles; who ‘had ‘Jeartied:s ‘sailing: year: earlier on S ‘Lake Ontario. Not: only did:@harl ‘ship: ; fellow: passengers "as well
Sicily: Bye ‘ties time « ‘hes left fot! home ‘exhausted as ‘when he left} But ; had an ‘encounter with: God and
vi feared that Shey would decline iepushoud thers country. I Seared. that. the opposition that had been.
ao revival vote This: view: Of the's subject: distréise Beas me so much that one. day I ‘found myself unable to. Te, nMy BOUL was in an: “utter ‘agony. i spent almo. ;
gi the: deck i in such’ ‘agony as to “sand almost to:-gnaw. my tongue; asii 2 of thé. State:of things. Infact, felt. crushed with the burden that was on my soul: 'There was:no on on board to-whom I could open my mind; or say’ SE WOPED REE C8 Sea It was the spirit of prayer that was upon me; that which I had often experienced in kind, but perhaps never before to such a degree, for so long a time. I besought the Lord to go on with His work, and to provide Himself with such instru- mentalities as were necessary. It was a long sum- mer day, in the early part of July. After a day of unspeakable wrestling and agony in my soul, just
_at night, the subject cleared up to my mind. The Spirit led me to believe that all would come out right, and that God had yet a work for me to do; that I might be at rest; that the Lord would go forward with His work; and give me strength to take any part in it that He de-sired. But I had not the least idea what the course of His providence would be.
While Charles was overseas, the members of Chatham Street Church, along with a group of abolitionists, held a liberation rally on July 4, but the meeting stirred:up some enemies. The anti-abolitionists thought it was-an. anti- slavery rally, and the entire event grew out of proportion.
Returning from his voyage, Charles was met by the Rev- erend Joshua Leavitt, the editor of the New York Evange- list, a publication which supported Finney’s new measures. The periodical had been created as.a voice in opposition to The Observer, a publication partial to Asahel Nettleton. Earlier, The Observer had refused to print anything favor- able to Charles, so.the evangelist’s friends had started the other periodical. Now Leavitt gave Charles some'stunning news. Being a fervent abolitionist, Leavitt had fired off tirades in the Evangelist opposing slavery. The result was that they had lost many subscribers and the subscriber list was now dangerously small.
In a voice choking with emotion, Leavitt told Charles: “Brother Finney, I have ruined the Evangelist. Thave not been prudent as you cautioned me to be, and I have gone so far ahead of public intelligence and feeling on the subject [of abolition], that my subscription list is rapidly failing; and we shall not be able to continue its publication beyond the first of January, unless you can do something to bring the paper back to public favor again.” Sadly, Charles responded that his health would not per- mit him to do much. :
Then Leavitt told him that if he could write a-series of articles on revivals, he believed. that the paper could be restored to public favor. Charles tossed the idea around
_ for a couple days and then gave his answer to the editor. He said that he would preach an entire course of revival lectures to his church, which could then be published in the Evangelist. Leavitt. was ecstatic. In the following issue of the paper, he advertised the forthcoming series, and the subscriptions increased almost immediately. He boasted to Charles: “I. have as many newsubscribers every day, as would fill my arms with papers.”
Through the winter of 1834 and 1835, the evangelist gave one lecture each week on revival. Leavitt recorded the gist of Charles’s message in longhand, and the next day, he filled in his sketchy notes as best he could. The evangelist never edited nor developed the articles in any way, and they went directly to press from Leavitt’s hand.
Charles’s oral messages lasted about one and a half hours; Leavitt’s recorded notes on the lectures ‘can be read in roughly one-third of that time.
The interest sparked by Charles’s lecture series. was phenomenal. Each Friday night the building overflowed with eager listeners.. Not only. did the series on revival save the Evangelist, it soon found its way into book form under the-title, Lectures on Revivals of Religion. Thus was born a revivalistic classic. Twelve thousand copies sold initially, but as fast as the press could produce new editions, they were sold out. Soon, they were translated into French, German, and Welsh. The. English bought tens of thousands. of editions, as did the entire English- speaking world. Even though the recorded messages left out much, the lectures have become timeless.
Perhaps the lectures’ most amazing impact was the revivals it birthed for years to come. In Merioneth, Wales, revival broke ‘out in 1840. The book also -pro- moted many conversions in England and Scotland, and - numerous young men were called into the. ministry. The views of William and Catherine Booth, who later founded the Salvation Army, were greatly influenced by Charles’s Lectures on Revivals. The book stirred people all over America, as well, with its clarion call to revival. ;
Charles refused to take credit for the book. He saw the book as a spiritual victory:
This was not of man’s wisdom. Let the reader remember that long day of agony and prayer at sea, that God would do something to forward the : answered; and I Ihave regarded all that ve ai ‘abi scomplish; asina.
also proved popular with many different types of people, including young people: With his reasoned. sermons and teaching, Charles helped young people to gain confidence in their faith. .
Some time later, a woman.came into the church who had committed. an offense in another New York Presby- terian church. In accordance with a previous ruling, the Chatham Street Church excommunicated her. She then appealed to the presbytery, and the presbytery acquitted her. The presbytery also took Chatham Street Church to task for their action. With that decision, Charles and the presbytery began a debate, and Dr. Cox of the presbytery spoke vehemently against the evangelist and Chatham Church. Soon, this incident stirred up the old controversy over Charles’s new measures.
Shortly after the discipline debate came to.a boil, some Christian lay people decided to build a large new church on Broadway. The people wanted two things: a Congre- gational church and Charles Finney as their pastor. Of : course, there were many Congregational ministers they could have called, but there was only one Finney. Would he be willing to leave his Presbyterian ties and come min- ister to them?
Charles later said nothing of the anguish his decision must have caused him, but simply reported: “I then took my dismission from the presbytery, and became pastor of that Congregational church.” The Broadway Church would turn out to be Charles’s most commanding platform.
The building of the Broadway Church was not with- out controversy. Rumors began to fly that the new church 1834. The institute was: located about thirty: » - westiof Cleveland on:a wooded five hundred-acre The:sck ool: was: s-named for John: ‘Frederick Obe
tB distinguished French pastor from Alsace in the Vosges Mountains in France. Oberlin had achieved renown as.a Christian philanthropist.
In January 1835, after Charles had started the theo- logical lectures at Broadway Church, John Shipherd and Asa Mahan of Cincinnati approached him. They had come‘to ask Theodore Weld to be Oberlin’s professor of theology, but Weld had declined. He recommended Charles Finney as the only man for the post. Now the two men put their proposition before the evangelist.
". After much prayer, Charles decided he could divide his time and efforts between the Broadway Tabernacle and the Oberlin: Institute. He would spend the six winter months in New York and then travel to Oberlin to spend the six summer months at the school. The Oberlin trustees approved.the appointment of Charles by an overwhelming margin. Some of the stipulations that Charles: put forth before he agreed to the post included: (1) the trustees must agree not to get involved in the internal affairs of the school, and (2) no one should be denied admission on the basis of race or sex—black students should be admitted onthe same basis as white, and women: should be admit- ted on the same basis as men.
Some of the-trustees objected to this last point, but Charles; Shipherd, Mahan, and others stood firm, and the condition’ was granted. Oberlin Institute became the first co-educational college in the history of American higher education. It was. also one of the first institutions to accept students regardless of race or color.
Charles prepared to move his family to Oberlin in the early. summer of 1835.’ He was reluctant to leave his = pastorate but knew that God had.called him to go: 100
‘For-some time the dual-role of pastor-and: professor prove: - successful: But as his responsibilities, grew, Charles ‘knew. he would have to choose between the two posts.- ; -- He resigned the pastorate of the: New York church i in
Providence which has brought us:to the Painful ne neces ; ity of separation.” .
~ Although he hated to leave his church; Charles kne his: calling was to prepare young men ‘for the mini