(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
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("We believe the folling letters from the pen of the long-...)
"We believe the folling letters from the pen of the long-since departed Mr. Finney, have a vital bearing on the affairs of our time. We send them forth, with the omission of a few brief sentences, exactly as we find them reprinted." - Publishers Note
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(This Collection contains the following books: Lectures o...)
This Collection contains the following books: Lectures on Revivals of Religion, Revised Edition Lectures on Systematic Theology, Revised Edition Sermons on Gospel Themes Lectures to Professing Christians ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charles Grandison Finney was a leader in the Second Great Awakening. He has been called The Father of Modern Revivalism. Finney was best known as an innovative revivalist, an opponent of Old School Presbyterian theology, an advocate of Christian perfectionism, a pioneer in social reforms in favor of women and blacks, a religious writer, and president at Oberlin College.
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"Finney is recognized as America's most effective 19th century evangelist. Told in his own words, this condensed edition of the original 1876 autobiography records his insights on the work of the Holy Spirit, instruction on revival, and timeless principles that many still find vital for advancing the kingdom of God"--Provided by publisher.
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Charles Grandison Finney was born in Warren, Connecticut, the son of Sylvester and Rebecca (Rice) Finney. He was of early New England stock, and his father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. When he was two years old his parents joined the westward migration, settling in Hanover (now Kirkland), Oneida County, New York, where among pioneer conditions he grew up.
He attended such common schools as existed there, and spent two years at Hamilton Oneida Academy, Clinton, where the principal, Seth Norton, took especial interest in him, training his natural ability for music, and stimulating his desire for a college education.
After the removal of his parents to Henderson, on Lake Ontario, he taught a district school for several years, and then went to Warren, Connecticut, to prepare for Yale. He did not enter, however, being persuaded by his schoolmaster that he could do the work of the college curriculum by himself in two years. Accordingly he went to New Jersey where he taught and studied privately.
In 1818 he entered the law office of Benjamin Wright, Adams, New York, and later was admitted to the bar. He had the moral stamina and religious tendency of his New England ancestry, but as a youth had received little religious training.
Not until in his study of the law he came across references to Mosaic institutions, did he own a Bible. What preaching he had heard repelled him.
In 1823 he put himself under the care of the St. Lawrence Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry. Some of the members urged him to study theology at Princeton, but he refused on the ground that he did not want to be under such influences as they had been.
His pastor, Mr. Gale, and another clergyman were accordingly appointed to superintend his studies. Extremely independent, and aggressively opposed to Gale’s views on the atonement, he worked out his theology largely on the basis of his own study of the Scriptures. The Presbytery licensed him, however, in March 1824, and he was ordained in July of the same year.
Lyman Beecher and Asahel Nettleton opposed him vigorously. As a result a convention was held at New Lebanon, New York, in July 1827, composed of Presbyterian and Congregational ministers, friends and opponents of Finney, to consider the points in controversy. The general effect of this gathering seems to have been in Finney’s favor.
In 1832 he became pastor of the Second Free Presbyterian Church, New York, for the use of which Lewis Tappan and others had leased the Chatham Street Theatre. At his installation service he was stricken with the cholera, which was then prevalent in the city.
After he recovered, his labors resulted in many converts and the establishment of several other churches. He shortly became dissatisfied with the working of the disciplinary system in Presbyterian churches, and the Broadway Tabernacle was organized for him, its place of worship being constructed in conformity with his desires.
He withdrew from the Presbytery in 1836, and the church became Congregational in polity. While in New York he delivered lectures on revivals, which were printed weekly in the New York Evangelist, and published in book form in 1835.
The work went through many editions and was widely read abroad. He also took a decided stand on the slavery question, but did not, he says, “make it a hobby, or divert the attention of the people from the work of converting souls” (Memoirs, p. 324).
While he was in New York, young men asked him to take them as students in theology. Having no time for such work, he proposed as a partial substitute to give a course of theological lectures each year, and a room in the Tabernacle was provided for this purpose.
When, however, in 1835, after the students at Lane Seminary had left that institution because of restrictions placed on discussion of the slavery question, he was invited to establish a theological department for them in the newly founded college at Oberlin, Ohio, and Arthur Tappan had guaranteed him financial support, he accepted.
He retained his pastorate in New York, giving to it about six months of the year. This dual arrangement was detrimental to his health, and on April 6, 1837 his connection with the church was severed.
He long carried on his evangelistic work during a part of each year, visiting Great Britain in 1849~50 and again in 1859-60, where his preaching had great effect. Through the Oberlin Evangelist, established in 1839, to which he contributed regularly, his view’s on doctrinal and practical matters were disseminated.
As his theology developed, certain aspects of it aroused opposition.
Although made a Mason in his youth he attacked the order later and published in 1869 The Character, Claims, and Practical Workings of Freemasonry. His Lectures on Systematic Theology were published in two volumes in 1846 and 1847, and after some revision, republished in England in 1851. Among his other works are: Sermons on Important Subjects (3rd ed. , 1836) ; Lectures to Professing Christians (1837); and Skeletons of a Course of Theological Lectures (1840). In the forties he was an editor of the Oberlin Quarterly Review and later was a frequent contributor to the Advance and the Independent. Two volumes of sermons delivered at Oberlin and reported by Prof. Henry Cowles W'ere published posthumously as Sermons on Gospel Themes (1876) and Sermons on the Way of Salvation (1891).
He retained his vigor in an unusual de gree to the last, delivering his final course of lectures in his eighty-third, year. Death came at the end of a quiet Sunday in August, from some affection of the heart.
During the thirty- eight remaining years of his life he was connected with Oberlin College, upon the character of which he exerted a powerful influence. From 1851 to 1866 he was president, although relieved of much administrative detail; and from 1S35 to 1872 he was also pastor of the First Congregational Church, Oberlin.
(This Collection contains the following books: Lectures o...)
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
("We believe the folling letters from the pen of the long-...)
("Finney is recognized as America's most effective 19th ce...)
He was in general a New School Calvinist, but the emphasis that he laid upon the individual’s ability to repent was exceptional. He also taught that sin and holiness, which he vicw’ed as attaching only to voluntary actions, cannot coexist in a person; and that a high plane of experience is possible in the Christian life, in which one becomes superior to one’s weakness and enjoys a state of spiritual stability, which he designated as sanctification. This view was attacked as tending to Arminianism and Perfectionism, and “Oberlin theology” was long in ill-repute among more conservative Calvinists. Having this exalted idea of what a Christian should strive to attain, and feeling that a church should always be at a revival pitch, he was averse to popular amusements and other pursuits which might prove a hindrance. He was a strong advocate of temperance and opposed to the use of tobacco, and even tea and coffee.
His own study of the Bible, however, together with his natural religious sensitiveness, finally resulted, after violent struggles, in his conversion. This event and his immediate subsequent experiences were attended by great emotional excitation. He seemed to see the Lord standing before him; he received a “mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit, ” and wept aloud with joy and love; wave after wave came over him, until he cried, “I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me” (Memoirs, p. 20).
At another time, he beheld the glory of God about him, and a light ineffable shone into his soul. He saw all nature worshipping God except man, and broke into a flood of tears that mankind did not praise God. His conversion involved a retainer from the Lord to plead his cause. He thought no more of the law, but straightway applied himself to the conversion of his fellow men.
He cast aside the ordinary conventions of the pulpit; used expressive language and homely illustrations; was startlingly direct and even personal in his appeal to men’s consciences and in his prayers, so that he was threatened with tar and feathers, and even with death. He portrayed the terrible guilt and awful consequences of disobeying the divine law, and put the fear of God into his hearers.
His command over all classes was phenomenal; he broke down contrary wills by his logic and by the superior force of his own will. Violent physical manifestations resulted from his preaching; people burst into tears, shrieked, fainted, and fell into trances. Nevertheless, he produced permanent beneficial results; lives were transformed and whole towns cleansed. His views, methods, and idiosyncrasies subjected him to widespread persecution and misrepresentation, and awakened severe criticism, even in his own denomination.
At this period he was a handsome fellow, six feet two inches tall, erect, alert, full of energy and fond of outdoor sports.
The following October he married Lydia Andrews of Whitestown, Oneida County, New York. For almost a decade he conducted revivals in the Middle and Eastern States with results that attracted attention all over the country.
Finney’s first wife died in 1847, and he later married Mrs. Elizabeth Ford Atkinson, after whose death in 1863 he married Mrs. Rebecca (Allen) Rayl, an assistant principal of the women’s department at Oberlin.
Although at Adams he attended the church services and was a friend of George W. Gale, its pastor, he was frankly critical of the dogmas taught and the prevailing practises.
