The Golden age. [volume], February 18, 1909, Page 7, Image 7

About The Golden age. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1920

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GREAI REVIVAL SWEEPS ’BOSTON
The Whole City Thrilled by a Great Alvakening Which Gathers Force Ebery Day—Tlventy-Fibe Thousand Hear the
Gospel Daily—A Call to America to Unite in Prayer for the Tlobement.
This article in no respect overstates the situation
in Boston.
Dr. A. Z. Conrad, General Chairman.
Herbert S. Johnson, Chairman Press Committee.
HE city of Boston is in the grip of a
great revival. The whole city is being
moved by the power of God in a marvel
lous manner. The churches throughout
the city are being tilled to overflowing,
and people of every walk in life are
being deeply convicted of sin. Every
where throughout the city, in homes, in
factories, in stores and even in the
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newspaper offices, the revival is the chief topic of
conversation.
The newspapers are devoting- page after page to
the spread of the awakening. Today the most
conservative morning paper in Boston devotes
seven columns to the revival, while another paper
devotes most of three pages to the movement. Yes
terday a reporter told me that for two hours after
he reached the office he did no work, but simply
talked with the other reporters about the revival.
Everyone is amazed at the manner in which the
power of Clod has fallen upon the city.
The Churches United.
The movement is under the leadership of Dr. J.
Wilbur Chapman and Mr. Charles M. Alexander,
assisted by about 60 evangelists, ministers and
gospel singers. Practically all the evangelical
churches in Greater Boston have united in an effort
to win the lost of the city to a knowledge of Christ.
Before the arrival of the evangelists there had been a
long and earnest preparation and a great volume of
prayer. The revival tires were already kindled and
only awaited the arrival of the evangelists to burst
into flame. Although the movement has been in
progress less than a week, Boston is aglow- with the
light and joy of the presence of God’s spirit. Other
revival fires are being kindled in many towns
throughout New England.
The chairman of the committee which called the
evangelists is Dr. A. Z. Conrad, the pastor of the
f ’.moils Park St reet Congregational Church. He de
clares that he is amazed at the way in which God
is working, and that even the evangelists do not
realize the depth and sweep of the revival. He
says: “We are already in the midst of what is in
many respects the greatest revival New England has
ever known, and before we get through we will see,
I firmly believe, one of the greatest revivals Ameri-
"The Limit of the Line. ”
Shirley clasped her hands in her lap, with a
dumb gesture of pain.
“Death,” she mused, pitifully, “how horrible!’
Then, with a superb effort, “I am doing ray best,
Mr. Ford, to reduce the chaos of my mentality to
something like order. But, you understand,” with
an appealing glance from her amber-brown eyes,
“that I am not finding it 'an easy task.”
“Yes, I understand,” he replied, gently, as he
sat down on the log beside her, glancing at the
derailed coaches, the overturned engine, and the
track annihilated for many yards.
“I can guess from the evidence before my eyes, 7
he went on gravely, “that the chief actors in this
tragedy will be sometime in recovering their poise.
But pray tell me, how you came to be the Lady of
t'he Occasion?”
“I don’t care for the Carnegie medal, Mr. Ford.
Please don’t ask me.”
(To be Continued.)
n *
If we should treat our friends as shabbily as we
treat the Lord. we would soon have no friends,
The Golden Age for February 11, 1909.
ca has ever known.” He says that as the head of
the movement, he is in a position to fee} the pulse
not only of the city of Boston, but also of the
countrny, and that the letters and telegrams he is re
ceiving daily show- that the fire is spreading rapidly,
not only throughput New England, but also to the
Western States.
Have Never Seen Anything Like It.
Similar testimony is given by other pastors of
long and wide experience. A well known religious
editor, who has been in the ministry for nearly fifty
years, told me he had never seen a great city so
stirred by the power of God. He mentioned that a
strange quietness has come upon the streets of the
city at night. The Rev. L. B. Bates, D. D., father
of ex-Governor Bates, says that he has never seen
anything like this movement in the last thirty years
At one of the meetings in Cambridge, a suburb of
Boston, the mayor presided, and said that he had
spoken to a policeman who declared that the effect
of the revival was wonderfully lessening the work
of policemen.
The crowds which flock to the meetings remind
me of the scenes in Swansea during the Welsh re
vival four years ago. It is estimated that fully
25,000 people attend (he meetings nightly, while 30,-
000 were present on Sunday, although regular ser
vices were continued in most of the churches.
Dr. Chapman and Mr. Alexander conduct meet
ings twice daily, at noon and at night in the Tre
mont Temple, and on each occasion the building,
which accommodates about 3,000, is packed, with
many people standing and a crowd in the street clam
oring vainly for admission. On Sunday Tremont Tem
ple was filled in the afternoon with an audience of
3,000 men only, and a thrilling scene was witnessed,
when at the close of Dr. Chapman’s powerful ad
dress nearly or quite 200 men went to the front to
signify their desire to begin the Christian life or
come back to God.
Three Thousand People at the Noon Hour.
To me no feature of the movement is more im
pressive than to see 3,000 people, over half of them
men, pack Tremont Temple at noon daily to get a.
touch of the revival spirit. Yesterday, in spite of
the extreme cold, hundreds stood outside the doors
hoping by some possibility to gain admisson. The
throngs are so great that two extra meetings down
town are now held daily, one in the Park Street Con
gregational church, and the other- in the historic
Faneuil Hall.
The singing of the gospel songs forms one of the
"Nothing, To Like For.”
This was the complaint of a young man, healthy,
wealthy, and respectable, an inheritor of large pos
sessions, able to supply every reasonable want, and
plan his own affairs to suit himself; and yet he had
“nothing to live for.” He had never been educated
to live for others; he had been educated to get and
to save, but not to give, and he had found out by
experience that a man who lives for himself has
very little to live for.
If he had been willing to live for others, to deal
his bread to the hungry, and his raiment to the
needy; if he had been taught to go about doing good,
like the Son of God whom he professed to serve;
if he had learned to be “rich in good works,” will
ing to communicate, ready to distribute; if he had
learned that “it is more blessed to give than to
receive;” if he had acquainted himself with the
condition of the thousand million of perishing sin
ners living and dying without God and without
hope; if he had known the stories of sorrow and
sin and misery and trouble in this world—then he
would not, while in the prime of manhood, in the
By George T. B. Dabis.
chief features of the awakening. The city is ring
ing with revival melodies. Everywhere Mr. Alexan
der’s Gospel Songs are being hummed and whistled
and sung. A number of revival hymns have been
published in the newspapers, and a few days ago
two drummers were seated in a train going out of
Boston, holding a newspaper before them singing
from it lustily, “Don't Stop Praying.” A
man who happened to be in the same car, which was
filled with people, said he finally approached them
and asked them if they were ministers. “Oh, no,”
was the reply, “we are just drummers.” In one
of the hotels some theatrical women were singing,
“He Will Hold Me Fast,” instead of their own
songs. These are simply indications of the way in
whch the Gospel songs have permeated the entire
city.
The Ultimate Cause of the Revival.
The ultimate cause of the revival lies in the fact
that the people have been led to cry mightily to
God, and the Lord has heard and answered their
prayer. Dr. Conrad recently declared that he be
lieved 100,000 were praying for the work. In the
suburb of Dorchester it was declared at the report
meeting yesterday that one hundred praying groups
had been formed.
Dr. Chapman and Mr. Alexander are so impressed
with the magnitude of the awakening, and are so
desirous that the revival fire may spread throughout
America, that they desire (’limpco' ever y_
where to unite in prayer for the work of Boston.
They send out the following appeal to Christianas
everywhere:
“We are profoundnly impressed with the depth of
spiritual interest which has been aroused in connec
tion with the Boston Evangelistic Campaign. In view
of (his, we feel more and more the necessity of
prayer. In order that this rity may be still more thor
oughly awakened, New England aroused, and the en
tire country moved for God, we send forth this ap
peal to the Christian people, not only of Boston, but
also of America, to pray as never before, and we
suggest the following as being worthy of your con
sideration :
“The Covenant of Prayer.
“With God’s help 1 will endeavor to spend
ten minutes or more daily, alone or with others,
in special prayer for the evangelists, for the
unsaved, and for the great spiritual awakening
in Boston. This Covenant to continue until the
dose of the Mission on the 21st of February.
enjoyment of health, and the possession of wealth,
be saying, “I have nothing to live for.
If instead of denning himself up in a hole, or
drawing himself up within himself, he would make
the acquaintance of those who are at work heart
and hand in the cause of God; if instead of keeping
away from men who are doing the work of the
Lord, for fear he might be asked to participate in
their blessed labors, he had given himself to such
service, and with heart and soul entered upon the
work of the heavenly Master, he might have had
his hands full of glad and useful work; and instead
of mourning that he had nothing to live for, his
days and nights would have been tilled up with
faithfulness and usefulness, and he would have been
blessed of God, and a blessing to those around him
for time <and for eternity.
They that will be rich fall into snares, “and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown
men in destruction and perdition;” while they who
are willing to do the will of God, will find that
there is work for all His servants, and that there
are present blessings for all who labor in the work
of God, and future and eternal rewards for all who
obey the Lord’s commands. —The Common People.
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