Signs and Wonders God Wrought in the Ministry for Forty Years/Chapter 15
CHAPTER XV
AN EARTHQUAKE AT ANDERSON
The sinners and Christian people of Anderson, Indiana, had been making an effort for two years to get me to go to their city and hold a meeting. I had a strong desire to do so, but was unable to go until July, when I commenced a camp-meeting at the Fair Grounds.
The first night the tent did not hold the people. Nearly all were non-professors, or, dead professors, which is worse. I had very little help. Many citizens who had been professed unbelievers made their way through the crowd and stood by us. They encouraged the meeting enough to make the church members blush and bow their heads in the dust. We had hardly strength to stand or voice to speak, but we commenced the battle in the strength of Elijah’s God, shouting victory!
I did not ask sinners to come, but insisted on professors coming to the front, but the sinners made a rush and came crowding to the front from different parts of the tent.
Before the meeting closed nearly the whole city became interested, and wanted to do something. Ladies from all the different churches called, and invited me to their homes. Every inducement was offered to get me to remain longer, but I had promised to go to Farmland, Indiana, and must keep my appointment. I should have been at Farmland the Sabbath previous. I was publicly announced for that time. I sent several other good workers at that time, to carry on the work until I could go. On the first Saturday night, when I was expected at Farmland, there were two thousand people: at the depot to meet me, and they were much disappointed because I sent others instead of going myself. While sitting in the station at Anderson, waiting for the train to take me to Farmland, I was surprised to see one of the evangelists sitting there that I had sent to Farmland. She said she was discouraged, and could not do anything there; the people were so. hard and spiritually dead. She said she had a vision and saw them all in their coffins, and believed they were so dead they would never be raised spiritually. As soon as I got there one of the other evangelists I had sent there slipped off without telling me she was going.
I had no thought of running. In the strength of God I arose; was helped to the pulpit. I stood trembling, and began to sing. The power came upon me. I prayed and preached, and then called sinners to the altar. To the surprise of all, many came. Soon the shouts of new-born sons and daughters of the Lord were heard over the camp. The altar was crowded, day and night, for ten days with seekers. It seemed almost impossible to close with such an interest, but I had promised to go back to Anderson in ten days. The whole community was stirred, and hundreds under deep conviction, but I had to close.
In ten days I went back to Anderson, and commenced a meeting in a beautiful grove the brethren had secured.
There were twenty-eight conversions the first night of my return. I continued, this meeting for three weeks, holding three services each day; sometimes one service would continue on into the next. There were from twenty to fifty conversions each day. Men and women were converted at this meeting from nearly every State in the Union, and went to their homes to carry the tidings of a Saviour’s love.
There were thousands on the camp-ground every day. The power of the Holy Ghost came as a cyclone, and many times the multitude were swayed as the growing grain in the wind storm. There would be shouts going up all over the congregation. Men and women would be stricken down in every direction, and carried to the large platform; it would not hold the slain of the Lord. The scene was beyond description; more than two-thirds of the large congregation stood through the entire service; many of them old fathers and mothers, whose locks were whitening for the grave. Many of this class were brightly converted.
Lawyers, doctors and infidels were brought to Christ, from the “Tallest cedars” down to the weakest. Many poor drunkards were lifted up by this meeting, who, to-day are bright citizens. Oh, praise the Lord for the wonderful work done at Anderson. There were thousands of conversions.
Two very old ladies were brought to the meetings, who were too feeble to get out of their buggy, and at their request the horse was taken from the buggy and they were left sitting in it. The buggy was drawn up near the stand, and both old ladies were converted during the meeting: An old gentleman living in the southern suburbs of the city attended one of the meetings and purchased a song book, and after he got home, sat down and read it; while reading he was converted and broke forth in song and praise, which drew the neighbors to his house. These joined in and were also converted. The singing and shouting of these converts were heard throughout the neighborhood.
These meetings were participated in by as good men and women as there were in that county, or as can be found in any county.
While hundreds were stepping into the lifeboat, and starting for glory, many bright men and women were almost persuaded, yet they would not surrender. I was very much concerned about them. I felt it was now, or never with them. The Lord impressed me to say it was the last call, and to ask all who believed in prayer to fall on their knees, and raise faces and hands to God, and to ask him to shake the earth; to send an earthquake, if necessary. The people, five hundred or more, knelt in prayer with their hands raised to heaven, and what a wonderful sight it was! All expecting the Lord to come near in some wonderful way. The power of God fell in the congregation, and all at once the earth began to shake. There was an earthquake, and it was felt all over the city. It was the time that Charleston, South. Carolina, was destroyed, and it reached to Anderson, Indiana. The prayer of faith will be answered, if the Lord has to bring heaven, down.
The earth has been shaken at many places so that the multitude swayed and fell.
A lawyer got up one day in the meeting and said he must say a word about the good work that eternity alone would reveal. He held in his hand a letter he had received from his brother, who had been a noted infidel, saying, he had never seen me, nor attended any of my meetings, but what he had seen and heard of them from a distance and by reading my book he was converted and was going into the ministry. He said he had several, hundred dollars worth of infidel books, and he had made a fire and burned them. The lawyer who told this about his brother said he was an infidel when I came to-the city, but his infidelity was all swept away.
I organized a church in the grove. Two hundred and ninetyfive names were enrolled. Hundreds came and took them by the hand in Christian fellowship. It was a sight perhaps no one on the camp-ground had ever witnessed before.
By an earnest request from a number of business men of the city, we held the closing meeting on the court-house steps. As we looked down over the court-house yard and street, we could see a crowded mass of up-turned faces, and from all the stores and windows, eager to see and hear. I praise God for standing by me in that trying hour. It took grace and courage for me to stand on those high steps. There were ministers, lawyers, doctors and reporters all around me. After so many months of constant labor, I was very weak and nervous, but God gave me voice clear and strong. I could be heard blocks away.
While holding meeting at Anderson the ministers of the different churches at Farmland formed a committee, and came to Anderson to try to persuade me to go back. They said they had all seen the good results of the ten days’ meeting I had held there, that there was a great change in the community for good, and the churches were wonderfully revived and strengthened, and those who stood back before were now ready to come to the front and do all they could to help me. I felt it was the Lord’s will for me to go. When I closed the meeting at Anderson. I went and commenced a camp-meeting in a better grove than the one we held the first meeting in, the good results of which eternity alone can tell. Nearly all the ministers of the village came to the front and fought the battle side by side with me.
Hundreds were converted, many. aged ones. I don’t think there were a dozen converted that were not over eighteen years of age. I think half of all that were saved were forty years of age.
“Signs and wonders” truly followed. The Holy Ghost came in slaying melting, anointing and healing power.
Praise the Lord for his wonderful works and the create harvest of souls gathered at Farmland.
The ministers and old people said there never had been such a revival in that part of the country; that there had never been such an outpouring of the Holy Ghost; never such signs and wonders followed; never such an ingathering of souls.