Chapter 12

The Sound of Rain

Camp Meeting at Cane Ridge, Kentucky (1801)

After the American Revolution, most Churches suffered a decline. The Kentucky frontier especially remained a spiritual wilderness as uncontrolled alcoholism and land-grabbing lust fueled a moral collapse. Self sufficient pioneers felt God would excuse their conduct or was not watching. Thus, wilderness populations doubled and tripled, while the Churches dropped in attendance.

Some people of God were moved to pray. In 1798 Kentucky Presbyterians called for special prayer, which other groups also supported. Soon, a marvelous thing transpired! In June 1800 several minister came together for revival and communion. Among these a Rev. McGready, the Presbyterian William McGee, and his Methodist brother John. Nothing unusual occurred until the third day of meetings. While one local minister preached, a woman who had been seeking for the assurance of salvation began shouting and singing. The sermon was concluded and the ministers went out except for the McGee brothers. The Presbyterian William sat down next to the pulpit and began weeping. Soon the congregation was weeping. The Methodist John rose to preach and said, "The Lord God omnipotent reign in their hearts, and to submit to him." Next, the people began to cry aloud and shout.

Then the woman who first shouted added a shrill cry. Methodist John McGee, while going to comfort her was reminded that this was a Presbyterian church where emotionalism was not condoned! Later John recalled, "I turned to go back and was near falling; the power of God was strong upon me. I turned again and, losing sight of the fear of man, I went through the house shouting and exhorting with all possible ecstasy and energy, and the floor was soon covered with the slain." This was only the beginning of a mighty torrent of Holy Ghost revival.

Quickly, this revival spread through Kentucky and Tennessee as sinners cried to God and fell while praying and wailing for mercy. At Desha's Creek, thousands of people attended to worship. Many fell before the Word, like corn before a storm of wind, and many rose from the dust with the divine glory shining from their face. The Methodist James B. Finley spoke of the meetings and said, "The nearest approximation to it was the revival on the day of Pentecost."

At Cane Ridge in 1801 the revival reached its zenith. The estimates of attendance varied between 10 and 25 thousand. Those attending were greatly affected by the spirit as, sometime more than 1000 persons fell to the ground including many infidels. The worship continued night and day and even through heavy rains.

Deep wholehearted worship was the order of the hour. Consequently, the work of God was manifest to all; many fell down in a moment, as slain in battle, and laid for hours in a motionless state. These slain of the Lord groaned, shrieked, prayed for mercy and declared His wonderful works. All types of people responded and were moved upon by the Spirit, including, the very young, blacks, whites men and women. Excitement mounted as the camp erupted in a torrent of noise like the roar of Niagara: the cries and shouts of the penitent, "the babble of incoherent speech,"⁷² the crying of babies, the shrieking of children, and the neighing of horses. Worshipers jerked under the hand of God; some falling, dancing, running and singing heavenly songs. Sinners dropped on every hand, shrieking, groaning, crying, praying, agonizing, fainting, clapping their hands, laughing in the raptures of joy conversion!

Barton W. Stone wrote of one woman saying, "The singing exercise is more unaccountable than anything else I ever saw. The subject in a very happy state of mind would sing most melodiously, not from the mouth or nose, but entirely in the breast, the sounds issuing thence. Such music silenced everything, and attracted the attention of all. It was most heavenly. None could ever be tired of hearing it." Rev. Stone "concluded it to be something surpassing anything we had known in nature." ⁷³

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⁷² Cane Ridge America's Pentecost, -- Paul Conkin, p. 94, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1990

⁷³ The Cane Ridge Meeting-house, -- James R. Rogers To which is appended the Autobiography of B.W. Stone. 1910, p. 162

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One 7-year-old girl sat on a man's shoulders and spoke inspired words until she tired. When she lay her head on his as if to sleep, someone in the audience suggested "the poor thing" had better be laid down to rest. The girl roused and said, "Don't call me poor, for Christ is my brother, God my father, and I have a kingdom to inherit, and therefore do not call me poor, for I am rich in the blood of the Lamb!"

Was this mere religious enthusiasm or the true work of God? When the Spirit overcame a farmer as he plowed and many believers broke into glorious shouts on their beds, was this human ecstasy or divine visitation? Those living in the territory of these revivals knew that it was God. All of society changed as: Cursing was hushed, feuds were calmed, faith was embraced by the faithless and slaves were freed! An infidel named James B. Finley, who attended the Cane Ridge revival said, "An extraordinary sensation, such as I had never felt came over me. My heart beat, my knees trembled, my lip quivered, and I felt as though I should fall to the ground. A strange supernatural power seemed to pervade the entire mass ... I fled for the woods again, and wished I had stayed at home."

Finney Revival (1830s)

In the early 1800s the Calvinism of the Northeast had degenerated into lifeless formalism. Calvin and Knox would have certainly disowned the dead theological system that honored their names. Because Modernism had replaced Scripture, conversion was never taught or experienced and no one expected miraculous answers to prayer. Pitifully, the theology of Princeton made God to appear absent or quite dead. Ah! God was not dead but was seeking for a man to stand in the gap and believe for fresh Holy Ghost showers from above. In this hour of need, God's man proved to be one Charles Finney.

In 1821 the young Presbyterian lawyer Finney, came under a great conviction of sin and an unquenchable desire to find the assurance of his salvation. While seeking God in his study, Finney at last met God. He said, "No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart. (Romans 8:26) These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recollect I cried out, 'I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me. 'I said, "Lord, I cannot bear any more;' yet I had no fear of death."

Finney called this experience the Baptism of the Spirit. After his baptism he preached under an anointing that brought multitudes to Christ. (Acts 1:8) The most marked effect of this revival was the moral reform that that it brought among the people of the Northeast. Sinners turned about face and fervency served God. Many that had the outward trappings of Christianity also found their first true conversion! Finney's Presbyterian Pastor and mentor was among those that followed Finney into an experience of conversion. In the city of Rome, New York the change was so marked that one observer said. "Whatever of sin was left, was obliged to hide its head. No open immorality could be tolerated there for a moment."

During the revival God manifested His miraculous gifts of the Spirit. Finney's Autobiography catalogues many emotional and supernatural happenings. Among these were:

Holy laughter

Visions

Falling under the power of God

Divine protection from murder

Supernatural hunger for God among the population

An illiterate woman was given the gift of reading

Healing the sick

Healing of the insane

God's personal leading

Prophecies

Finney repeatedly confirmed that the key to revival was PRAYER. He said, "For several weeks . . . I was very strongly exercised in prayer, and had an experience that was somewhat new to me. I found myself so much exercised, and so borne down with the weight of immortal souls, that I was constrained to pray without ceasing. Some of my experiences, indeed, alarmed me. A spirit of importunity sometimes came upon me so that I would say to God that He had made a promise to answer prayer, and I could not, and would not, be denied."

Such prevailing prayer opens doors of spiritual captivity and turns the kingdom of Satan upside down. One pastor joyfully told Finney that, "So far as my congregation is concerned, the millennium is come already. My people are all converted. Of all my past labors I have not a sermon that is suited at all to my congregation, for they are all Christians."

The Power of God waxed so great that no one could escape God's presence. The sheriff of Utica, N.Y. heard of the revival and jested about the reports. Finney said, "But one day it was necessary for him to go to Rome. He said that he was glad to have business there; for he wanted to see for himself what it was that people talked so much about, and what the state of things really was in Rome. He drove on in his one horse sleigh, as he told me, without any particular impression upon his mind at all, until he crossed what was called the old canal, a place about a mile from the town. He said as soon as he crossed the old canal, a strange impression came over him, an awe so deep that he could not shake it off. He felt as if God pervaded the whole atmosphere. He said that this increased the whole way, till he came to the village.

He stopped at Mr. F's hotel, and the stable boy came out and took his horse. He observed, he said, that the stable boy looked just as he himself felt, as if he were afraid to speak. He went into the house, and found the gentleman there with whom he had business. He said they were manifestly all so much impressed, they could hardly attend to business. He said that several times, in the course of the short time he was there, he had to rise from the table abruptly, and go to the window and look out, and try to divert his attention, to keep from weeping. He observed, he said, that everybody else appeared to feel just as he did. Such an awe, such a solemnity, such a state of things, he had never had any conception of before. He hastened through with his business, and returned to Utica; but, as he said, never to speak lightly of the work at Rome again." Later, this sheriff was converted.

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