Revival?
The winds of revival had died in America. After gold had been discovered in California, western expansion boomed. Banking and Stocks were creating unheard of wealth.
The good times were in. Prosperity led to laxity and its twin sister apathy.
On October 12, 1857 panic on Wall Street ground the economy to a halt. People were distraught and devastated. During that time of confusion Jeremiah Lamphier got a burden to pray. Jeremiah was a lay worker at the Dutch Reformed church in NYC.
He announced a noon prayer meeting on Tuesday. 6 people showed up. The next week 20. The third 40. Soon prayer was being held daily.
Like wild fire it engulfed other churches in New York, then the surrounding states, then the Nation. The prayers began promptly at noon and ended at 1. People came and went. Few stayed for the entire hour.
Controversial conversations were banned. Anyone who wished to address the gatherings had to limit their remarks to 5 minutes; otherwise they just prayed and sang.
Within 2 years 1,000,000 new believers were added to the church across the land. Saloons became prayer halls, liquor sales plummeted. Atlanta dismissed half its police force. Many men who would soon die on the bloody fields of Shiloh and Gettysburg were born again. It was called the Prayer meeting revival.
In its wake revivalist preachers like D.L. Moody preached to awakened crowds of hungry souls.
Prayer made sweeping changes in our land. Could it do so again?
“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile pray also for us that God would open to us a door for the word…” Colossians 4:2,3a
Because of grace,
Tim
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