By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
Speaking for self, I am sad but not surprised that a man who boldly describes himself as a democratic socialist has been elected as the new mayor of New York City. Ronald Reagan famously said,
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
When I consider the fact that there are more Jews in New York City than there are in the entire nation of Israel, and that this man is an adherent to a faith that calls for the death of “people of the book” (Jews and Christians) in its scriptures, I don’t think it is inappropriate to be concerned. However, the purpose of this Publisher’s Point is to bring hope based on both faith and history, and to do it with love. Revival historian Vance Christie noted:
In the 1840s and 1850s the United States experienced thirty-five-percent population growth. Much of that explosive growth was due to immigration and led to work shortages and race riots. America’s unresolved slavery issue was splitting the country and some Christian denominations right down the middle. The stock market crashed on October 10, 1857. Bank runs and failures occurred in New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago.
Then, in New York City from 1857-1858 there was a remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit that occurred daily during lunch hour, literally. A man by the name of Jeremiah Lamphier felt led of God to start a prayer meeting amongst businessmen in NYC. It became known by many names, including the Businessmen’s Revival, the Third Great Awakening, and the very first meeting, on September 23rd had a whopping six people attend it. They only attended for the last thirty minutes, and Jeremiah Lamphier had to sit alone for the first half hour wondering if he had completely missed it. That is one tough place to be, and is a common occurrence for people who are tasked by God to start something that is completely above their pay grade. Just ask Gideon.
However, we are told to “despise not the day of small beginnings,” and what happened next was extraordinary. Word of the prayer meeting spread, and places of worship all over NYC were eventually filled to capacity every day from noon to 1 pm. It was estimated that there were at least 10,000 people praying together, and the secular press gave daily updates of attendance and published them. There were a few rules, mostly that this was a time of prayer and not preaching, and even if you only had five minutes to spare, you were encouraged to come and spend that five minutes well.
True revival always has impact on the culture and the nation, and as Christie notes:
Countless people participated in thousands of daily prayer meetings throughout the country. The revival continued to be marked by highly orderly prayer meetings, remarkable trans-denominational unity, innumerable conversions, definite easing of interracial tensions and a significant drop in crime rates.
If you look back, it is also interesting to note that this gracious outpouring occurred just a few years before the beginning of the War Between the States. One of the people who became a Christian as a result of these prayer meetings was Dwight L. Moody, revivalist and founder of the YMCA, and he ministered to both Union and Confederate soldiers in their respective camps. Christie said further:
Many revitalized believers and new converts from the recent revival played a vital role in the rarely-reported ongoing spiritual developments that took place during that war. Some historians estimate that upwards of two million soldiers confessed faith in Christ during revivals in Union and Confederate military camps.
Do we need to be concerned not only about New York City, but our whole nation? We do indeed. What should we do? Start having lunch with Lamphier. It certainly can’t hurt.
