The Layman’s Prayer Revival of 1858

By John D. Hannah

[John D. Hannah, Assistant Professor of Historical Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary.]

Of the six major eras[1] of large ingatherings into the American churches, which are commonly designated as revivals,[2] the Layman’s Prayer Revival is the most unique. The revival began prior to the great civil holocaust of 1861–1865, but continued unabated through the war and to the turn of the century. Estimates of conversions are listed between three hundred thousand and one million, over one hundred thousand alone in the Confederate Army.[3] That, however, is not the most unique feature of this divine visitation.

The first startling feature was the dominance of lay leadership and the absence of the famous itinerant evangelists of previous eras.[4]

Even Charles G. Finney confessed that the revival put him in the shadows.[5] A second feature was the almost universal lack of emotional excesses that so deeply characterized the Second Great Awakening and Finney’s era of revival technology.[6] No cases of emotional convulsions were reported in the Layman’s Prayer Revival. Third was the use of large prayer meetings in the major cities, with hundreds of businessmen desiring to pray.[7] A fourth feature was the mobilization of laity for house-to-house visitation and tract distribution.[8] While intense revival became evident in New York City, it was preceded by the visitation of every home by the church. A fifth characteristic was the intensity of the revival. Though the revival began in the large metropolitan areas, it penetrated the smallest hamlet throughout the countryside.[9] And sixth, the impact, of the revival was not limited to the United States but became a worldwide event, as reports from America occasioned deep stirrings in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and beyond.[10] The influence of the revival circled the globe.

Charles Gardison Finney (1792–1875), America’s most significant antebellum revivalist, stated in his Memoirs that “this winter of 1857–58 will be remembered as the time when a great revival prevailed throughout all the Northern states.”[11] Though this revival made a deep impression on the ecclesiastical life of the United States and throughout the world, it had a particular impact in the Northeastern United States. It is to this revival in that geographical region that this article is devoted. It is the writer’s hope that this article may encourage believers toward an awakening of interest and confidence in the power of prayer.

The Preparation for the Prayer Revival

The Secular Factors

Much has been made of the economic depression of 1857 as a major if not the major causative factor in the 1858 revival. Indeed, McLoughlin, writing a history of revivalism, states that “as everyone recognized at the time, it developed out of the financial panic of 1857”![12] Such an accusation, which would place the religious upheaval within a naturalistic framework, has been refuted by such contemporaries as T. W. Chambers. He wrote:

But does adversity always lead men to God? Is it not alas, common to see both individuals and communities acting after the example of that wicked king of old, of whom the emphatic record runs, “And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord; this is that king, Ahaz.” Besides, in the year 1837, there was a commercial revulsion, quite as widespread and unexpected as that of 1857, and tenfold more disastrous; yet there was then no unusual turning to religion, no mighty movement of the popular mind, no upheaving of the foundations. The people as a whole were far more intent upon examining into the political or economic causes of the pecuniary pressure, than into its spiritual bearings, or its final cause as ordained in the providence of God.[13]

This should not, however, lead one to conclude that the distressing political and economic situation had no religious ramifications. Indeed in the midst of a period of unprecedented prosperity and intense political excitement—as evidenced by the Dred Scott Case, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the Mexican War, and the slavery issue—the nation reeled as financial woes due to extended, optimistic speculation “reached its crisis in an overwhelming panic that prostrated the whole monetary system of the country.”[14] Beardsley comments that in “the summer of 1857 a commercial revulsion took place.” Thirty thousand factory workers in New York City were idled.[15] Noble states that “the great revival of 1858 was ushered in by a period of financial embarrassment, extending over the entire nation.”[16] In that context one journal reported, “In the lull of business enterprise, when riches had suddenly taken to themselves usurps, and the moth and rust have seized on earthly treasures, minds found leisure for reflection, and hearts grown cold to the spiritual, gradually warm to religious emotion.”[17] Chandler wrote, “And now that the wheels of industry stood still and the noisy cries of greed were hushed, men stopped to hear the voice of the Spirit calling them to repentance,”[18]

The Religious Factors

Although the political and economic life of the nation experienced prosperity in the 1840s and 1850s, ecclesiastical life was in decline. Not only did the advent of Millerism cause spiritual declension and turmoil,[19] but “for several years from 1843 to 1857, the accessions to the churches scarcely equalled the losses sustained by death, removal or discipline, while a widespread indifference to religion became prevalent.”[20]

Distress over this religious decline led to a stirring among religious leaders in the summer and autumn of 1857. For example, the YMCA under the leadership of Edward Colgate in New York City considered “the resumption of noon prayer meetings which had been suspended at the beginning of the summer.”[21] Specific concern among Old School Presbyterians led them on December 1, 1857 to assemble for a convention on revival in Pittsburgh and later in Cincinnati, that was attended by “hundreds of ministers” and resulted in concrete plans (spelled out in “An Address to the Churches”) to alter the spiritual trends.[22] The Philadelphia Baptist Association at its annual conference on October 6–9, 1857 set aside January 4 as a day of intercession for revival.[23] The Methodists were also involved in a house-to-house visitation program. Conant writes of the origins of the revival that “we should be led, more immediately to consider the Revival Conventions, and synodical visitations of churches, the Sabbath-school conventions, and the systematic visitations of parishes.”[24] At the root of the stirrings in New York City were both systematic visitation and Sunday school work.[25]

This has led Beardsley to write that in the “later part of 1857 a systematic church and Sunday School visitation was undertaken in New York and Brooklyn, the results most salutary, such as increase in attendance, immediately became apparent.”[26] Also impetus and encouragement was provided for those longing for religious change, as the reports of stirrings in Canada appeared in American journals. In a letter dated October 17, 1857 Phoebe Palmer reported on the revival in Hamilton, Ontario on October 9 that “the work began only a little over one week since and already between three and four hundred have been brought to the fold of Christ. And still the work is going on with rapidly increasing power.”[27] Palmer went on to challenge the American churches to action: “O will not the ministers of the sanctuary at once bring all these instrumentalities into action! Dormant power is in the church, which, if brought into immediate use, would result in the salvation of thousands speedily.”[28]

These factors have led a scholar such as Beardsley to conclude that “the revival, in a measure, was thus prepared for,”[29]

The Progress of the Prayer Revival

The chronological history of the revival in the Northeast spans a period of approximately nine months, from September, 1857 through May, 1858. Within that period the revival picked up increasing momentum in the early months of 1858 and crested in March of that year.

In New York City

The origins of the 1858 revival can be traced to the city of New York and most particularly to the labor of Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier and Edward Colgate. Lanphier, a successful businessman and member of the Brick Presbyterian Church, was employed by the North Dutch Reformed Church in lower Manhattan as a lay missionary beginning on July 1, 1857.[30] He is described as “tall, with a pleasant face, an affectionate manner, and indomitable energy and perservance; a good singer, gifted in prayer, and exhortation, and a welcome guest to any house, shrewd and endowed with much tact and common sense.”[31] He commenced his labor by dividing the city into districts and distributed Bibles and tracts house-to-house.

In the midst of that labor he conceived the idea of noon prayer meetings[32] which he shared with Edward Colgate, the local leader of the YMCA. Although previous YMCA prayer meetings had to be suspended, due to lack of patronage, the devotional committee determined to direct the undertaking.[33] Hence Francis writes, “From his contact and consultation with Colgate’s committee, there evolved the idea of the joint-sponsorship of a meeting that would be shared by members of all evangelical churches.”[34]

The first such meeting was announced for September 23, 1857 in the third floor of the “Consistory” of the Old Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street and six people were in attendance. At this point writers such as Noble[35] and Chandler[36] indicate that only three came to the first meeting but the discrepancy can be dissolved by understanding that they consider Lanphier’s meeting with the YMCA committee as the first meeting. On September 30 twenty met for prayer, and when forty came on October 7 the meetings became daily.[37] By mid-January the Consistory was filled on all three floors and many were turned away; attendance reached three thousand.

As a result other locations were sought to hold the meetings throughout the city until “by spring more than a score of such meetings were in operation.”[38] In February the John Street Methodist Church started meetings under YMCA auspices, and in March, Burton’s Theatre was used, which was located near city hall. The New York Times reported on March 23 that the “Old Burton Theatre was again completely filled yesterday.”[39] On March 22 the same newspaper reported on the prayer meeting at Burton’s Theatre by saying, “an immense crowd assembled with many more pressing at the doors…never a crowd to compare to this. Among the three thousand collected there was not the least confusion or disorder.”[40] At the peak of interest some twenty-one daily meetings were held in Manhattan with six others in Brooklyn. Meetings were held at various times throughout the day to accommodate the businessman with locations and places announced daily.[41]

In the height of the religious interest the New York news media began to print news of the events. Beardsley states that “at one time the New York dailies published several extras filled with accounts of the work in various parts of the land.”[42] The New York Times gave this remarkable testimony to the interest and effect of the revival:

It is not often that the Daily Press feels called upon to chronicle the spiritual movements of the public mind, The great wave of religious excitement which is now sweeping over the nation is one of the most remarkable movements since the Reformation.

In this city we have beheld a sight which not the most enthusiastic fanatics for church observances could have ever hoped to look upon: we have seen in a business quarter of the city, in the busiest hours, assemblies of merchants, clerks, and working men, to the number of some 5,000, gathered day after day for simple solemn worship. Similar assemblies we find in other portions of the city, a theatre is turned into a chapel; churches of all sects are opened and crowded day and night.[43]

The revival peaked in March and April and then slowly declined. The meetings at Burton’s Theatre on Chambers Street were discontinued in mid-April[44] and by June current literature gave notice of the decline.[45]

In Philadelphia

The origins of the Prayer Revival in the city of “brotherly love” are to be found in the New York meetings and the YMCA. The connecting link was John C. Bliss, a young businessman from Alabama, who left Philadelphia to work in New York where he attended the Fulton Street Meetings. As a result of observing the fruitfulness of those services he took the idea back to Philadelphia. Noble writes:

As good had resulted from these meetings in one city, why might not equal good be done by them in another. When some of his fellow members of the YMCA in Philadelphia, with whom he had conversed, were of the same opinion and promised their co-operation in the matter, he applied to the trustees of the M. E. Union Church, Fourth Street below Arch Street, for use of their lecture room.[46]

The meetings were formally sponsored by the executive committee of the YMCA under the chairmanship of George Duffield with George H. Stewart and John Wanamaker.[47]

Accordingly a noon meeting was commenced on November 23 with less than twenty in attendance. Attendance remained small, never more than thirty-six, for some months which, when coupled with the manifestation of hostility by the church’s pastor, caused Wananmaker to seek a more hospitable location.[48] Noble simply states that “at length it was deemed expedient to remove the meeting to a more central position, and when the ante-room of the spacious hall of Dr. Jayne was generously granted by him for this purpose, the first meeting was held there February 3, 1858.”[49]

The meetings near city hall prospered so that by March 8 the small anteroom was filled with three hundred; and on the next day it was evident that many were going away for want of room. On March 10 the main hall was opened and filled to overflowing with four thousand people. Similar large auditoriums were used such as American Mechanics and the Hayden and Handel Hall. The crowds became so large that the YMCA erected a huge tent in the city in May that was used for over four months with some 200,000 attendees.[50] Noble notes that afterwards it was removed to Quakertown, and there and in other places many conversions occurred through the services held in this “Union Tabernacle.”[51]

In Boston

The presence of large prayer meetings emerged in Boston in March of 1858. Conant notes that eight major prayer meetings were in progress including those at Old South Church, Park Street Church, Tremont Temple, the YMCA, Mt.Vernon Chapel, and Dr. Robbin’s Unitarian Church which “every Tuesday evening is densely crowded.”[52] Finney noted that at the Old South Church the crowds were so large the “multitudes could not get in at all” and the “meeting was continued, day after day, with wonderful results.”[53] The North Congregational Church reported that attendance on March 4 was near two thousand; indeed the literature indicates that “hundreds are reported to have been converted in the city and the interest is unabated.”[54] Finney preached at Park Street Congregational Church as well as Chelsea and Charlestown but reported that the meetings were “carried to a large extent through lay influence, so much so as almost to throw the ministers into the shade.”[55]

A unique feature of the Boston revival was a united visitation program designed to reach into the entire city. The Christian Advocate and Journal included the following on March 18:

At a meeting held in the Park Street Church on the 2nd nite another Boston “motion” was projected. This was to district the city, and assign a portion to each religious denomination for systematic visitation. The denominations who have entered into this visiting compact are the Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists. This move contemplates visiting every family in the City.[56]

The religious fervor began to decline in May, 1858 and by June the revival was viewed as a historical event. One journal stated that “the blessed religious interest with which we have been favored for some time past is manifestly subsiding, but it is far from having ceased. Our special meetings have decreased in numbers and in attendance thereon.”[57]

In the Smaller Cities and Towns

While the thronged prayer meetings in the large metropolitan areas received most of the publicity, it must not be supposed that the revival did not penetrate the grassroots of the Northeast. One source states that “the work is confined to no denomination, instrumentality or locality, nor is any class alone the subject of it.”[58] The purpose of this section is to demonstrate the latitude and penetration of the revival in the Northeast. Conant boldly states that “nearly every city or town of importance in the Northern portion of the United States has now its daily prayer meetings in the midst of business hours thronged.”[59]

In New York State, Conant notes that “some 200 towns are named as sharing in the revival.”[60] Such towns and hamlets as Albany, Troy, Poughkeepsie, Peekskill, Kingston, Schenectady, Utica, Syracuse, Buffalo, and Geneva held daily prayer meetings. Smaller towns such as Milan, Durham, and Greenbush all reported scores of conversions.[61]

In New Jersey, Conant discovered over sixty instances of revival.[62] The most remarkable meetings were held in Newark, where nearly two thousand conversions were recorded, as well as in Paterson, Plainfield, Hoboken, and Jersey City.[63] In New Jersey numerous minor towns experienced revival such as Burlington, Rahway, Suckasunny, and Tappan. In hamlets like Bridgeton, Salem, Sharpstown, Paulsborough, Swedesboro, Clarksboro, Williamstown, Glassboro, Alloway, and Cape May the Methodist Church alone counted 1,200 conversions.[64] On the Harmony Circuit the church reported:

We are in the midst of another gracious work at Summerfield Church. At Harmony God was with us in power for six weeks. As a result of our extra efforts one hundred and thirty souls have professed conversion and one hundred and twenty united with us in church fellowship.[65]

In Pennsylvania, Conant states that the number of towns affected by the revival were about sixty-five.[66] A report from Delaware County briefly noted that “we are in the midst of revival” and the Evansburgh Conference reported that “the Lord has been pleased to grant unto us his reviving and regenerating.”[67] A host of other towns such as Minerville,[68] Westchester,[69] Butternuts,[70] Willow Grove,[71] Thompson,[72] and Milesburgh[73] similarly experienced the revival.

The influence of the revival almost uniformly penetrated New England as it did the middle states. Conant, the Baptist professor at Rochester Theological Seminary, counted 88 towns in Maine experiencing revival, 40 in New Hampshire, 39 in Vermont, 147 in Massachusetts, and 36 in Rhode Island.[74] He states, “The revival appears to be extending in Northern New England, which has been comparatively slow to feel the influence of the general movement…the same spirit is prevailing in all the surrounding towns.”[75] In Portsmouth, New Hampshire the Methodists alone added over three hundred,[76] and in New London, Connecticut it was reported that “most of the churches have been open every evening for more than three months past, nor is there any immediate prospect of these yet being closed.”[77] In Milford, Connecticut a pastor reported that “the revival now in progress here exceeds in pace any which has preceded it during our history as a station. An aweful solemnity rests upon…the people who throng our church evening after evening.”[78]

The revival also penetrated the institutions of higher learning in New England such as Harvard, Williams, Amherst, and Yale. One writer commented about Yale that “a great change has come over the city and college with respect to the state of religious feeling…for the last two weeks the meetings have been regularly attended by large and counted audiences, making on the average, at least fifteen hundred people.”[79] As a result of the revival 204 Yale students, out of the student body of 447, professed conversion.[80]

One journal summarized the breadth of the revival in New England as follows:

The prominent parts from whence successful battle is being done against sin and hell are Boston, New Bedford, Lawrence, Newburyport, Lynn, Springfield, and Westfield, Massachusetts; Hartford, New Haven, and New London, Connecticut; Providence and East Greenwich, Rhode Island; Portland, Bangor, and Bedford, Maine; and Portsmouth, Great Falls, and Nashua, New Hampshire…. The result is already an aggregate of thousands of conversions.[81]

The revival news became so abundant that the Christian Advocate and Journal confessed that “whole columns of the Advocate would be filled with the latter, should we publish them in detail.”[82]

The Fruit of the Prayer Revival

The revival in Northeastern United States, not unlike its course elsewhere, was manifestly unique. Beardsley correctly states that “it stands apart both in method and its aims from other awakenings. …there was no effort to get up a revival or to rouse great public interest upon the subject. …none of the elaborate machinery of modern revivals were made use of.”[83] The essential methods employed were tract distribution, personal work including house-to-house visitation and Sunday school work, and daily prayer meetings. The Sunday School Times reported that “there has been no Wesley, no Whitefield, no Nettleton, whose powerful labors and preachings have seemed to cause this movement.”[84] The Christian Advocate and Journal listed five characteristics: (1) not introduced by any special agency, such as a Finney or Knapp, (2) being almost universal and simultaneous, (3) remarkable for calmness, (4) reached the business class, and (5) produced a spirit of charity.[85] A unique characteristic of the revival was the “absence of excitement [which] is indeed a most remarkable feature.”[86] The union prayer meetings did not originally function for the conversion of sinners but for prayer and worship, “to find spiritual refreshment in a brief communion with God.”[87] This leads Beardsley to attribute the revival to the worship of a sovereign God, not to the meetings nor to the zeal of the city.[88]

The fruit of the revival can be measured by two criteria: (1) the pragmatic or functional effect on the church, and (2) the ingathering of the lost. On each of these points the Prayer Revival was remarkable. A Yonkers, New York pastor summarized the effect of the revival on his flock as follows: (1) willingness to hear, (2) realization of the need to witness, (3) religion became a social topic, (4) repair of family altars, (5) testimonies nightly given, and (6) the seriousness of the congregation.[89] Dexter noted these similar results: (1) considerable ingathering to the visible church, (2) great harmony and quietness, (3) spontaneous and isolated manner in which the Holy Spirit has been pleased to convert sinners, (4) prominence into which home missions has been brought, and (5) the individual activity of the members of the churches.[90] Agreeing with this last point one writer analyzed it as follows: “God has taught his people in this revival that it is the duty of individual Christians to engage personally in the work of spreading the gospel…. Never before have private Christians, laymen, taken so large a part in originating, conducting, and sustaining religious meetings.”[91] The zeal of the Christian community became evident as “the activity of the church thenceforth took on new forms of development with reference to the exigencies of the home field…. The towns and cities were sometimes divided among the different churches that their members might personally visit every habitation and every family for religious conversations, prayer, and other pious labors.”[92] The Spirit of God overwhelmed His church that quietly stood in awe of Him.

Awed by that manifest presence of God which we have felt to be around us, conscious that it has arisen from no measure of ours, nay, more that it has come in spite of our coldness, of our inaction, and of our indifference,—it is natural that we should stand half-fearful, lest our hands should disturb, rather than advance the work,—least of all presuming that we can direct its progress. As the disciples, before their transfigured Lord, we feel that it is good indeed to be thus in the presence of the Master. We would build tabernacles, and ask perhaps, why we may not ever dwell thus near the Lord.[93]

Not only did the church experience a renewed awareness of the Savior’s presence and power, but it also experienced an unprecedented ingathering. The students of the revival differ widely in their statistical evaluation. Humphrey, for example, writes that in 1858 alone there were “between three and five thousand converts.”[94] Beardsley places the total figure between three hundred thousand and one million, but hastens to assume that five hundred thousand is a conservative figure.[95] He also estimates that one hundred thousand were converted between January and April, 1858, four hundred thousand the first year, and a million in all.[96]

These figures, while they appear generous, may have some resemblance of reality when compared with the figures available in the Northeast.[97] The Methodist Christian Advocate and Journal estimated that conversions reached two hundred thousand by June, 1858.[98] In the month of March the Baptist churches reported an ingathering of 17,000 of which 6,700 were from the Northeast.[99] In Philadelphia, Beardsley suggests that there were ten thousand conversions in 1858.[100] These figures do not reflect the hundreds that were converted in the small towns and hamlets which have not been gathered together. Of the results in the city of Boston, Finney wrote, “The revival became too general to keep any account at all of the number of conversions, or to allow of any estimate being made that would approximate the truth.”[101] What is known in Boston is that in one instance the Baptists, Methodists, and Congregationalists collectively listed fourteen hundred conversions.[102] Also the six Methodist conferences in New England collectively listed 8,480 additions to the churches through June, 1858.[103] Statistics on the additions to the Congregational churches in the Northeast show 12,509,[104] which is marvelous in light of the fact that the church previously had witnessed decline for years. It is not beyond reason in light of the available statistics in the Northeast that five hundred thousand conversions nationally is entirely too conservative.

Over one hundred years separates the contemporary church from the marvelous Prayer Revival of 1858 and the church stands again in need of spiritual strength and vitality. In the history of revivalism the moving of the Spirit is first manifested in the saints resulting in confession of sin and witness, and then in the conversion of sinners through the ministry of renewed saints. It is the prayer of this writer that the Lord might encourage His church to see that the origin of spiritual strength is in the quiet moments of prayer-fellowship which then results in vital witness. “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16b, NASB).

Notes

1. The six eras are usually designated as the First Great Awakening (1720–1770), the Second Great Awakening (1785–1810), the era of Charles G. Finney (1820–1835), the Layman’s Prayer Revival (1858), the era of the Great Evangelists (1875–1930), and the era of Billy Graham.
2. Calvin Colton wrote in 1832 that a revival must be distinguished from individual unrelated cases of conversion (History and Character of American Revivals of Religion [London: Frederick Westley & A. H. Davis, 1832; reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1973], pp. 1-2). In his mind a revival is an intense outpouring of God’s Spirit touching many people over a wide geographic area. He wrote. “A revival, therefore, may be defined as the mutiplied power of religion over a community of minds, when the Spirit of God awakens Christians to special faith and effort, and brings sinners to repentance” (ibid.).
3. J. Edwin Orr, The Fervent Prayer: The Worldwide Impact of the Great Awakening of 1858 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1974), p. 64; Herman Humphrey, Revival Sketches and Manual (New York: American Tract Society, 1859), p. 281; and Warren A. Chandler, Great Revivals and the Great Republic (Dallas, TX: Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1904), p. 193.
4. Frank Grenville Beardsley, Religious Progress through Religious Revivals (New York: American Tract Society, 1943), p. 48; “The Great Work of God in the Land,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 11, 1958, p, 4; and “What the Revival Teaches,” Sunday School Times, January 1 1859, p. 1.
5. Charles G. Finney, Memoirs (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1976),p. 442.
6. William C. Conant, Narratives of Remarkable Conversions (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1858), p. 376; and “The Great Work of God in the Land,” p, 4, The latter article simply states that the great evangelists such as Knapp and Finney “attracted no interest in the country generally.” Also see Frank Grenville Beardsley, A History of American Revivals (New York: American Tract Society, 1912), pp. 228-29.
7. Orr, The Fervent Prayer, p. 6; and “The Great Work Of God in the Land,” p. 4.
8. “What the Revival Teaches,” p. 1; and Beardsley, History, p. 231.
9. “The Great Work of God in the Land,” p. 4; and Henry M. Dexter, “The Religious Progress of the Past Year,” The Congregational Quarterly 2 (January 1860): 72-75.
10. Orr, The Fervent Prayer, pp. 45-110.
11. Finncy, Memoirs, p. 442.
12. William C. McLoughlin, Jr., Modern Revivalism (New York: Ronald Press, 1959), p. 163.
13. T. W. Chambers, Noon Prayer Meetings (New York, 1858), p. 284.
14. Conant, Narratives of Remarkable Conversions, p. 357.
15. Beardsley, Religious Progress, p. 41.
16. W. F. P. Noble, 1776-1876—A Century of Gospel Work (Philadelphia: H. C. Watts & Co., 1876), p. 417.
17. “The Great Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, April 1, 1858, p. 1.
18. Chandler, Great Revivals and the Great Republic, p. 190.
19. Beardsley, History, p. 214.
20. Beardsley, Religious Progress, p. 40.
21. Russell E. Francis, “Pentecost: 1858, A Study in Religious Revivalism,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1948), p. 51.
22. Beardsley, Religious Progress, p. 42.
23. Francis, “Pentecost,” p. 56.
24. Conant, Narratives, p. 358.
25. Beardsley, Religious Progress, p. 43.
26. Ibid.
27. Phoebe Palmer, “Letter to Brother Dikeman,” Christian Advocate and Journal, November 5, 1857, p. 4.
28. Ibid.
29. Beardsley, Religious Progress, p. 43.
30. Beardsley, History, p. 218.
31. Quoted by Beardsley, History, pp. 218-19.
32. Quoted by Beardsley, Religious Progress, pp. 44-45.
33. “The Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, April 1, 1858, p. 1.
34. Francis, “Pentecost,” pp. 51-52.
35. Noble, A Century, p. 418.
36. Chandler, Great Revivals, p. 191.
37. Beardsley, History, p. 221.
38. Beardsley, Religious Progress, p. 44.
39. “The Revival,” New York Times, March 23, 1858, p. 4.
40. “The Revival,” New York Times, March 22, 1858, p. 4.
41. “The Revival,” New York Times, March 25, 1858, p. 8.
42. Beardsley, History, p. 223.
43. “Religious Revival,” New York Times, March 20, 1858, p. 4.
44. Conant, Narratives, p. 362.
45. “The Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, June 17, 1858, p. 4.
46. Noble, A Century, p. 420.
47. Ibid., p. 422.
48. Francis, “Pentecost,” p. 97.
49. Noble, A Century, p. 420.
50. Ibid., p. 421; and Beardsley, History, p. 225.
51. Noble, A Century, p. 421.
52. Conant, Narratives, ppl 374–77.
53. Finney, Memoirs, p. 443.
54. “The Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 18, 1858, p. 1.
55. Finney, Memoirs, p. 442.
56. “The Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 18, 1858, p. 1.
57. “Letter from New England;” Christian Advocate and Journal, February 5, 1858, p. 1.
58. “Work of Grace in New Bedford,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 11, 1858, p. 1.
59. Conant, Narratives, p. 414.
60. Ibid., p. 432.
61. “Revival correspondence,” Christian Advocate and Journal, April 15, 1858, p. 1.
62. Conant, Narratives, p. 433.
63. Ibid., pp. 368-69.
64. “Revival in New Jersey,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 25, 1858, p. 1.
65. “Revival in New Jersey Conference,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 4, 1858, p. 1.
66. Conant, Narratives, p. 433.
67. “News from the Churches,” Christian Advocate and Journal, February 5, 1858, p. 1.
68. “Church Intelligence from the Philadelphia Conference,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 11, 1858, p. 1.
69. Ibid.
70. “Revival in New Jersey and Other Conferences,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 25, 1858, p. 1.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid.
73. “Good News,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 4, 1858, p. 1.
74. Conant, Narratives, p. 426-33.
75. Ibid., p. 379.
76. “Letter from New England,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 8, 1858, p. 1.
77. Ibid.
78. I. Abbott, “A Short Letter from Connecticut,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 14, 1858, p. 1.
79. “Religious Feeling in Yale College,” Christian Advocate and Journal, April 9, 1858, p. 2.
80. Ibid.
81. “The Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, April 8, 1858, p. 1.
82. “Good News,” p. 1.
83. Beardsley, History, pp. 228-29.
84. “What the Revival Teaches,” p. 1.
85. “The Great Work of the Lord in the Land,” p. 1.
86. “The Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, March 25, 1858, p. 1.
87. Beardsley, History, p. 231.
88. Ibid., p. 235.
89. “A Thorough Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, January 28, 1858, p. 4.
90. Dexter, “The Religious Progress,” p. 72.
91. “What the Revival Teaches,” p. 1.
92. Dexter, “The Religious Progress,” p. 75.
93. “The Religious Awakening of 1858,” The New Englander 16 (August 1858): 664-65.
94. Humphrey, Revival Sketches and Manual, p. 281.
95. Beardsley, History, p. 235.
96. Ibid.
97. Chandler, Great Revivals, p. 193.
98. “The Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, June 24, 1858, p. 1.
99. “Accessions to Churches,” Christian Advocate and Journal, May 6, 1858, p. 1.
100. Beardsley, History, p. 235.
101. Finney, Memoirs, p. 443.
102. “Boston Revival,” Christian Advocate and Journal, July 1, 1858, p. 1.
103. “New England Conference,” Christian Advocate and Journal, July 15, 1858, p. 1.
104. Alonzo H. Quint, “American Congregational Statistics for 1858,” The Congregational Quarterly 1 (January 1859): 88.