DANIEL NASH: CHARLES G FINNEY’S PERSONAL INTERCESSOR:
Daniel Nash pastored a small church in the backwoods of New York for six years, and travelled with and prayed for a travelling evangelist for seven more years until his death.
As far as we know, he never ministered outside the region of upstate New York during days when much of it was frontier territory. His tombstone is in a neglected cemetery along an unmade up road behind a livestock auction barn. His church building no longer exists, its location marked by a historical marker in a corn field, its timber used to house grain at a feed mill four miles down the road. No books tell his life story, no pictures or diaries can be found, his descendants (if any) cannot be located, and his messages are forgotten. He wrote no books, started no schools, led no movements, and generally, kept out of sight.
Yet this man saw revival twice in his pastorate, and then was a key figure in what can be claimed as the greatest revival in the history of the United States, if not in the world. He is known almost exclusively for his powerful prayer ministry.
The great evangelist, Charles Finney, left his itinerant ministry for the pastorate within three or four months after this man’s death. Finney never counted on his theology, messages, preaching style, logic, or methods to save souls. He looked rather to mighty prayer and the resulting powerful work of the Holy Spirit to sweep in with great conviction on his audience, that his conversions might be thorough. This may well explain why 90 per cent of those converted in his meetings stood the test of time. Years later Moody followed a similar pattern but without such a prayer warrior. He saw perhaps 50 per cent of his converts last. Today, a well-known evangelist (well-financed and highly organized) recently stated that he would be delighted if 20 per cent of his converts were genuinely converted. In this day of apostasy with many decisions but few true conversions, with many programmes but little prayer, with much organizing but little agonizing, we would be wise to learn lessons from the past. One of our godly forefathers whose life can teach us such is Daniel Nash.
His early years seem mostly lost from the records. We do know, however, that he was born on November 27, 1775 in Cummington, Massachusetts. He became a carpenter before preparing for the ministry. In 1809 he was ordained as a Congregational minister, and in 1816, at the age of 40, he became the pastor at Stow’s Square Congregational-Presbyterian Church in Lowville, New York State. During his first year of pastoring this union church, he saw revival, with at least 70 being converted. One of the first he baptized on December 18, 1816, was a Sally Porter to whom he was married by February of 1817. He baptized five of her children that year, and possibly a sixth several years later. A meetinghouse was built and dedicated on December 13, 1819.
There was a group who split from the main group during this period. They located themselves four miles south, where the town of Lowville was beginning to develop. Pastor Nash was able to peaceably work with this group and establish it as a mission throughout the rest of his pastorate. Upon the completion of the meetinghouse and while working with the mission work to the south, he was able to start a Sabbath School in the union church. Such a ministry would seem to be the basis for a long-term relationship. However, on September 25, 1822, a church meeting was called at an unusual time and he was voted out by a vote of nine to three! The only reasons surviving to this day in the records were that they wanted “a young man to settle in.” At the age of 46 they felt him too old, and resented his travelling.
Even though his term as pastor ended on November 10, 1822, he often went to preach, to act as moderator, to baptize converts and hold communion services over the next few years! During this period, there was a second time of revival (1822-23) when over 200 people were converted. This occurred in a town of only 308 homes with a population of approximately 2,000 people! Imagine God blessing a rejected pastor with such a revival, and the church taking no steps to recall him! Yet, through all of this God was breaking and preparing the heart of His man to leave a public ministry of preaching for a private one of prayer.
Such rejection by those he loved and had ministered to, did its crushing work, and by 1824 he was so damaged spiritually that any human hope of a prayer ministry seemed impossible. At that time, Charles Finney was examined for a licence to preach, and he records his first meeting with Daniel Nash as follows: “At this meeting of the presbytery I first saw Rev. Daniel Nash, who is generally known as ’Father Nash.’ A large congregation was assembled to hear my examination. I got in a little late, and saw a man standing in the pulpit speaking to the people, as I supposed. He looked at me, I observed, as I came in; and was looking at others as they passed up the aisles. As soon as I reached my seat and listened, I observed that he was praying. I was surprised to see him looking all over the house, as if he were talking to the people; while in fact he was praying to God. Of course it did not sound to me much like prayer; and he was at that time indeed in a very cold and backslidden state.” Finney added that not only did Nash pray with his eyes open, but preached with them shut! It is not surprising that Asa Mahan described Nash as “one of the dullest preachers that ever ascended a pulpit in the United States.”
But God was preparing His man. After this meeting, Nash was struck with a serious case of inflamed eyes. According to Finney, ” Nash was almost entirely blind for about six months.” For several weeks he had to be kept in a dark room where he could neither read nor write. During this time, he gave himself up almost entirely to prayer. He went through a complete overhaul of his Christian experience. Daniel referred to this time as his second conversion. He felt that God had called him to leave his family and his farm, and devote himself entirely to the work of saving souls. He made arrangements for his family, but he did not make his home with them again. He felt that his home was in God, and in the work that God had given him to do. As soon as he was able to see, at first with a double black veil before his face, he sallied forth to labour for souls. His labours did not take the form of personal evangelism or of evangelistic preaching, even though he was an agent of a missionary society. Instead he began one of the greatest ministries of prayer evangelism recorded in history. This rejected and broken former preacher gave himself to a work that would influence praying people to this day.
Charles Finney’s labours in evangelism began in the region of Evans Mills, Jefferson County, New York, and here Daniel Nash started his special prayer ministry. When he arrived, Finney stated, “He was full of the power of prayer. He was another man altogether from what he had been at any former period of his Christian life.” Finney found out that Daniel had a praying list of the names of people whom he made subjects of his prayers every day, and sometimes, many times a day. Unbelievers who were put on the list did not remain long as unbelievers.
The story is told of Daniel, while he was at Gouverneur, getting up, as his custom was, at a very early hour, to go out to a wood that was about 100 yards away from where he was staying, in order to pray. An unbeliever heard the sound of Daniel praying. He could not tell what was being said, but he knew it was prayer, and he knew who was praying. Just the sounds and that knowledge “lodged an arrow in his heart, and brought a sense of the reality of God” that was so great that he was under conviction of sin until he found faith in Christ.
“Praying with him,” continued Finney, “and hearing him pray in the meetings, I found that his gift of prayer was wonderful, and his faith almost miraculous. The two men were drawn into a partnership that was ended only by Daniel’s death seven years later. Their goals were stated simply in a letter as follows: “When Mr. Finney and I began our race, we had no thought of going amongst ministers. Our highest ambition was to go where there was neither minister nor reformation and try to look up the lost sheep, for whom no man cared. We began and the Lord prospered. . . But we go into no man’s parish unless called. . . We have room enough to work and work enough to do.”
The two of them were regarded as an evangelistic team in many places. A report on the revival in New Hartford spoke of “the labours of Mr Finney and Mr Nash.” Their union operated on the basis of prayer being essential for the preparation of an area for evangelism. Finney often sent Nash to an area to prepare the place and people for his coming. Often it would take 3 or 4 weeks of prayer to get the area ready. When God would direct where a mission was to be held, Father Nash would slip quietly into town and seek to get two or three people to enter into a covenant of prayer with him. Sometimes he had with him a man of similar prayer ministry, Abel Clary. Together they would begin to pray fervently for God to move in the community.
One record of such is told by Leonard Ravenhill: “I met an old lady who told me a story about Charles Finney that has challenged me over the years. Finney went to a place to minister, but before he began, two men knocked on the door of her humble cottage, wanting lodging. The poor woman looked amazed, for she had no extra accommodation. Finally, for about twenty-five cents a week, the two men, none other than Fathers Nash and Clary, rented a dark and damp cellar for the period of the Finney meetings (at least two weeks), and there in that self-chosen cell, those prayer partners battled the forces of darkness.”
Another record from Finney states: “On one occasion when I got to a town to start some meetings, a lady contacted me who ran a boarding house. She said, ’Brother Finney, do you know a Father Nash? He and two other men have been at my boarding house for the last three days, but they haven’t eaten a bite of food. I opened the door and peeped in at them because I could hear them groaning, and I saw them down on their faces. They have been this way for three days, lying prostrate on the floor and groaning. I thought something awful must have happened to them. I was afraid to go in and I didn’t know what to do. Would you please come and see about them?’”’ No, it isn’t necessary,’ Finney replied. ’They just have a spirit of travail in prayer.’
Not only did Nash prepare the communities for preaching, but he also continued in prayer during the meetings.” Often, he would not attend the meetings, and while Finney was preaching, Nash was praying for the Spirit’s outpouring upon him. Finney stated, ’I did the preaching, and Brother Nash gave himself up almost continually to prayer.’ While the evangelist preached to the multitudes, Nash in some adjoining house would be upon his face in an agony of prayer, and God answered. With all due credit to Mr. Finney for what was done by him, it was the praying men who held the ropes. The tears they shed, the groans they uttered are written in the book of the chronicles of the things of God.” No wonder cities were stirred and a vast harvest of souls reaped.”
Nash went before Finney to prepare the way and to break up the fallow ground, and then stayed to destroy the enemy’s strongholds in many places during the 1820s: Evan Mills in Jefferson County, Gouverneur and De Kalb in St. Lawrence County, Rome, Utica and New Hartford in Oneida County, Troy and New Lebanon in Rensselaer County, and, above all, Rochester, in Monroe County. This concept of an evangelistic party made up of praying men has nearly been lost in these days of organizers and promoters. Such praying men not only sustained Finney’s ministry, but explain the power in his preaching and the long lasting results.
Charles Finney could always go to Brother Nash when an obstacle arose in the meetings. One such occasion occurred at Gouverneur where some young men seemed to stand like a bulwark in the way of the progress of the work. “In this state of things,” wrote Finney, “Brother Nash and myself, after consultation, made up our minds that that thing must be overcome by prayer, and that it could not be reached in any other way. We therefore retired to a grove and gave ourselves to prayer until we prevailed, and we felt confident that no power which earth or hell could interpose, would be allowed permanently to stop the revival.”
Now there are times when confidence gained in prayer requires action, and this was such a time. Brother Nash was by nature a quiet man, and by practice stayed out of the limelight. Yet confidence in prayer may cause this to change if God so leads. Here is Finney’s own account of what happened in a service shortly after the victory was won in prayer: “The meeting-house was filled. Near the close of the meeting, Brother Nash arose, and addressed that company of young men who had joined together to resist the revival. I believe they were all there, and they sat braced up against the Spirit of God. It was too solemn for them really to make ridicule of what they heard and saw; and yet their shameless boldness and obstinacy were apparent to everybody.
“Brother Nash addressed them very earnestly, and pointed out the guilt and danger of the course they were taking. Toward the close of his address he spoke even more boldly, and said to them, ‘Now, mark me, young men! God will break your ranks in less than one week, either by converting some of you, or by sending some of you to hell. He will do this as certainly as the Lord is my God!’ He was standing where he brought his hand down on the top of the pew before him, so as to make it shake. He immediately sat down, dropped his head, and groaned with pain. The house was as still as death, and most of the people held their heads down. I could see that the young men were agitated. For myself, I regretted that Brother Nash had gone so far. He had committed himself, that God would either take the life of some of them, and send them to hell, or convert some of them, within a week. However, on Tuesday morning of the same week, the leader of these young men came to me, in the greatest distress of mind. He was all prepared to submit; and as soon as I came to press him he broke down like a child, confessed, and openly gave himself to Christ. Then he said, ’What shall I do, Mr. Finney?’ I replied, ’Go immediately to all your young companions, and pray with them, and exhort them at once to turn to the Lord.’ He did so; and before the week was out, nearly if not all of that class of young men, were hoping in Christ.” We know of at least two of them visiting other places, and being influential in bringing people to the Lord.
Nash’s prayer ministry made him “as remarkable a character in his way as Finney himself.” The importance of such to Finney’s ministry and success cannot be over estimated. “Finney depended more upon the prayers of Fathers Nash and Clary to bring down Holy Ghost revival than upon his own resistless logic. So accustomed are we to the Laodicean condition of the church that the all-pervading influence of prayer in Finney’s time amazes us.” Of the great revival in Rochester from 1830-1831,” Finney said that the key which unlocked the heavens in this revival was the prayer of Clary, Nash, and other unnamed folk who laid themselves prostrate before God’s throne and besought Him for a divine out-pouring.” Not all the prayers at Rochester were unnamed. We know the names of Billious Pond from Camden, Deacon Truman from Rodman, and Deacon Baker from Adams, but there were many others, both men and women, who spent a great deal of time in prayer for God to move in power..
Considering the souls being saved and the very culture of the area being changed in such a thorough revival, it should be no surprise that persecution came to these co-labourers. Some came from jealous ministers, some from those of other doctrinal persuasions, and some from the lost. False statements were sent to newspapers by his enemies. Nash wrote a letter on May 11, 1826, telling of some of the opposition. Part of it said, “The work of God moves forward in power, in some places against dreadful opposition. Mr. Finney and I have both been hanged and burned in effigy. We have frequently been disturbed in our religious meetings. Sometimes the opposers make a noise in the house of God; sometimes they gather round the house and stone it, and discharge guns. There is almost as much writing, intrigue, lying, and reporting of lies, as there would be if we were on the eve of a presidential election. Oh, what a world! How much it hates the truth! How unwilling to be saved! But the work will go on.”
In this letter he refers to being hung and burned in effigy. Here is an account of the event:
“Swinging above your heads are two distorted figures suspended on ropes. At the touch of the torch they leap into flames and the crowd screams in sheer delight. Is this a scene from a lynching or a race riot? Not at all. It is a religious gathering. The charred creatures smouldering in the air represent the public’s expression of opposition to the preaching and praying of America’s greatest evangelistic team. Charles Grandison Finney and his partner-in-prayer, Daniel Nash, have just been burned in effigy. Preachers and pew-warmers alike joined forces against the two men who did more to spearhead revival than any other pair in American history.”
The enemies of revival counted Nash a full partner to Finney in the work. They feared and hated his praying at least as much as they did Finney’s preaching.
The most remarkable revival of this period in American history was that which occurred in Rochester, New York, in 1830-1831. “Rochester was a young city,” wrote Finney, ” full of thrift and enterprise, and full of sin.” Nash and Clary were well aware of this, as they teamed up for the praying with the assistance of others, as we have noted. These two men were so similar in their praying that one is often described to explain the other. Such fervent praying in agony of soul brought sights that may seem strange to our eyes today. Our gentle prayers accomplish so little, but then they cost us so little. Finney wrote: “I have never known a person sweat blood; but I have known a person pray till the blood started from his nose. And I have known persons pray till they were all wet with perspiration, in the coldest weather in winter. I have known persons pray for hours, till their strength was all exhausted with the agony of their minds. Such prayers prevailed with God. This agony in prayer was prevalent in Jonathan Edwards’ day, in the revivals which then took place.”
During the Rochester meetings there are several accounts of these two men in deep agony of soul while praying day and night. Some accounts name Nash, some Clary, others both. It seems they were together in fasting and prayer much of the time, weeping and crying out to God. Sometimes they lay prostrate without strength to stand up. Their concern over sinners being lost brought great stress to their minds and souls. They groaned under the load, they risked health and gave up comforts that the battle of the heavenlies might be won. Sometimes they “would writhe and groan in agony” over souls. God honoured their burden-bearing and poured out His Spirit. The Spirit of prayer was poured out so powerfully that some people stayed away from the services to pray, being unable to restrain their feelings under the preaching. Privately they prayed and publicly God answered.
The results of this awakening were incredible. One of the first results was the coming together of the different churches, which constituted a huge breakthrough in those days. As the awakening swept through the town, the great mass of the most influential people, both male and female, were convicted and converted. It seems almost impossible to believe, but “it began with the judges, the lawyers, the physicians, the bankers and the merchants, and worked its way down to the bottom of society, till nearly everybody had joined one or other of the churches.” Consequently, the public affairs of the city were put, to a large extent, into the hands of Christian men.
Because the awakening was so powerful, and gathered in such great numbers of people, especially the most influential people, it created great excitement. Like the Welsh Awakening in 1904-1906, many people came in from near and far to witness the great work of God, and were converted. The New York Evangelist reported that “Almost every town within 40 or 50 miles of Rochester is favoured…with the special presence of the Lord.” Finney preached in as many places as he had time and strength to do, asserting that “the work spread like waves in every direction.” Wherever he preached, he was astounded that “in every instance, the Lord has come down and commenced a work upon the spot.” Finney was only too well aware of the opposition of the evil one, and how that had to be dealt with first. Therefore he knew that a huge breakthrough had been made in the heavenlies, so that the Lord was free to come down and do His work.
Years later, Dr Beecher, the renowned preacher of Boston, remarked that the 1830-1831 Rochester Revival was the greatest work of God and the greatest revival of religion that the world has ever seen in so short a time. 100,000 people were reported as having joined themselves to churches as a result of the awakening. “This,” he said, “is unparalleled in the history of the Church. Moreover, these were not shallow conversions, but genuine works of God, for the most ungodly sinners had been convicted of sin. “So manifestly were the great mass of the conversions sound, the sinners really regenerated and made new creatures; so profoundly were individuals and whole communities reformed; and so permanent and unquestionable were the results, that almost universally it was acknowledged that this was the work of God. There were so many instances of conversion that were so striking; such characters converted, and all classes, both high and low, rich and poor, so thoroughly subdued by the Spirit, as to silence all opposition.”
The proof of all this was seen in the effects on society. The only theatre in the city was converted into a livery stable, the circus into a soap and candle factory, and the bars and taverns were closed. But it is in the realm of crime that the most astounding results were seen.
The most full and careful census of crime in the city, both before and after the awakening, was taken by the most competent men, including the prosecuting attorney for the city. This census showed that during the period 1830-1842, the number of prosecutions for crime decreased to less than a third of the number prior to the revival. That is amazing enough, but what is astounding is that this took place during a period when the population of the city increased threefold. The population of the city in 1830 was 10,863, so that means the population by 1842 was about 32,000. If the prosecutions in 1829 were about 300, i.e. 3%, this means the prosecutions in 1842 were less than 100, which would be a prosecution rate of only 0.3%! This means that the awareness of the presence of a holy God was so strong and so powerful that it continued for years afterwards, so that all the new people who were coming into the town, who would have included many different kinds of characters, including violent criminals, were so subdued by the manifest presence of God, that almost no crimes were committed. Nothing like this has been seen in the history of the world.
And all this was due to a few people, including Daniel Nash, really praying, and one man preaching. Within a few months, Daniel was dead. He, like John Hyde, had literally prayed himself to death. But he had left his legacy. The world would never again see an awakening like that at Rochester. I leave you to draw the obvious conclusion.
If we refuse to strive in prayer, we should not be surprised at the lack of God’s mighty stirrings. Is it not amazing that we have no problem with people wearing themselves out in sports for pleasure, work for money, politics for power, and programmes for charity, but think it fanatical to so pray for souls? Is it any wonder we see so little of God’s great working? Daniel Nash would pray until he had to “go to bed absolutely sick, for weakness and faintness, under the pressure.”
Finney told of this relationship of intense prayer and successful preaching. Speaking of Nash he wrote: “I have seen Christians who would be in an agony when the minister was going into the pulpit, for fear his mind should be in a cloud, or his heart cold, or he should have no unction, and so a blessing should not come. I have laboured with a man of this sort. He would pray until he got an assurance in his mind that God would be with me in preaching, and sometimes he would pray himself ill. I have known the time when he has been in darkness for a season, while the people were gathering, and his mind was full of anxiety, and he would go again and again to pray, till finally he would come into the room with a placid face, and say: ’The Lord has come, and He will be with us.’ And I do not know that I ever found him mistaken.”
Nash had great confidence in a God who heard and answered prayer. He was not satisfied to stop praying until God answered in mighty power. Praying day and night, great strugglings and weakened health were but prices to be paid that God might move in power. The results were opened heavens, glorious power, souls saved, and God glorified. This may well explain why over 90 per cent of Finney’s converts stood without ever backsliding, and may also explain why less than 10 per cent of today’s converts last a couple of years.
We have seen some of the importance of Nash’s prayer life through various events and results. Now let us look a little closer at its principles and concepts.
PRIVATE PRAYER:
“Someone asked Finney what kind of man this Daniel Nash was. ’We never see him,’ they said. ’He doesn’t enter into any of the meetings.’ Finney replied, ’Like anybody who does a lot of praying, Father Nash is a very quiet person. Show me a person who is always talking and I’ll show you a Christian who never does much praying.”
The majority of prayer for those who would be so used must be in private. They do not seek either the eye nor ear of men, but rather the ear of God. They seek a room alone with God. Nash used a cellar, a room in a boarding house, a nearby house, or a grove of trees where he could pour out his heart to God alone or with just a few others of similar burden and heart. James A. Stewart emphasizes this point. “As in the case of John Hyde and Daniel Nash, it may be a life of isolation from the Christian public for the ministry of intercession.”
FERVENCY IN PRAYER:
Though he prayed in private, yet he often prayed with such fervency that others became aware of his praying. This was not intended, but simply was the release of a deeply burdened soul. The lady at the boarding house became aware of his groans as he prayed. His enemies claimed “that it was impossible for him to pray in secret since, whether he went into his room or the woods, he prayed with such vehemence that he could be heard a long way away.”
PRAYER LIST:
An organized and systematic list of people and matters to pray for is a common tool of effective prayer warriors. Preparation of our case, listing our requests, and thoroughness in prayer help establish a meaningful ministry. It also helps us rejoice in written evidence of answers to prayer. Nash used such a method: “Daniel had remarkable power in prayer and was in the habit of making a ’praying list’ of persons for whose conversion he daily prayed in secret. . . The answers to his prayers sometimes seemed almost miraculous, for he did not confine his ‘list’ to those whom he thought might be reached by the revival, but the most obdurate and unlikely cases were made the subjects of prayer, with results that were truly astounding.”
PRAYING WITH OTHERS:
As has been mentioned previously, Nash customarily sought for a few others to help carry the load in each of the places he went to minister in prayer. Many times he had as a partner Abel Clary who was gifted and exercised in a similar fashion. He knew the importance of praying alone, but he also knew the value of praying with others, for praying together multiplies prayer power: “One [shall] chase a thousand and two [shall] put ten thousand to flight.” The efforts of several with such a burden for victory greatly increases the power of prayer.
FOCUSING IN PRAYER:
Strong praying must be effectual praying. There must be a desired effect. This effect must be definite and clear to the one praying. Scattered praying in general directions is of little value. A list is a starting point in this matter, yet the items on the list must be focused on one by one if we are to expect results. Hear Finney tell of Nash’s way in this matter:
“I was acquainted with an individual who used to keep a list of persons for whom he was especially concerned; and I have had the opportunity to know a multitude of persons, for whom he became thus interested, who were immediately converted. I have seen him pray for persons on his list when he was literally in an agony for them; and have sometimes known him call on some other person to help him pray for such a one. I have known his mind to fasten thus on an individual of hardened, abandoned character, and who could not be reached in an ordinary way.”
Such praying required mental effort to aim at the proper effect with true soul struggle. To move from real burden to solid faith often requires the path of soul agony. We too easily avoid our responsibility by blaming others.. It may require a wrestling in prayer until we obtain the desired blessing. This is on a far higher plane than the physical. These struggles of soul and spirit may produce more than weariness in the physical realm. But the body agony is but a result of such praying, and not an integral part. Some would counterfeit this soul struggle by physical manifestations. This may fool man but such hypocrisy is of no help in the courts of Heaven.
PRAYER OF FAITH:
Nash was convinced that we have a responsibility for the destiny of souls. He felt that God has committed great tools to us, and the use or disuse of them was a serious matter for which we would have to give an account to God. His ministry of prayer had this as a basic premise. He was despised by those of a more fatalistic position. He did write a letter on this subject shortly before his death. The only part of the letter to survive, to our knowledge, is a group of excerpts given in a book attacking his position. “Since you were here I have been thinking of prayer, particularly of praying for the Holy Ghost and its descent. It seems to me I have always limited God in this request. I have never felt, till since you left us, that I might rationally ask for the whole influence of the Spirit to come down; not only on individuals, but on a whole people, region, country, and world. On Saturday I set myself to do this, and the devil was very angry with me yesterday for it. I am now convinced, it is my duty and privilege, and the duty of every other Christian, to pray for as much of the Holy Spirit as came down on the day of Pentecost, and a great deal more. I know not why we may not ask for the entire and utmost influence of the Spirit to come down, and, asking in faith, see the full answer. I think I never did so freely ask the Holy Ghost for all mankind. My body is in pain, but I am happy in my God. I have only just begun to understand what Jesus meant when He said, ’All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.’ I have felt like praying that I might be overwhelmed with the Holy Ghost, die in the operation, and go to heaven thus; but God knows.”
To our knowledge these are the last recorded words of Daniel Nash.
We now come to the scene of his death. In the small village of Vernon during the cold winter of an upstate New York December, when temperatures often run below zero, Daniel Nash continued his ministry of prayer. Charles Finney gives the account of the homegoing of his co-worker: “Said a good man to me: ‘Oh, I am dying for the want of strength to pray! My body is crushed, the world is on me, and how can I forbear praying?’ I have known that man go to bed absolutely sick, for weakness and faintness, under the pressure. And I have known him pray as if he would do violence to heaven, and then have seen the blessing come as plainly in answer to his prayer as if it were revealed, so that no person could doubt it any more than if God had spoken from heaven. Towards the end, he prayed more and more. He used to take the map of the world before him, and pray, and look over the different countries and pray for them, till he expired in his room, praying. Blessed man! He was the reproach of the ungodly, and of carnal, unbelieving nominal Christians; but he was the favourite of heaven, and a prevailing prince of prayer.”
Thus he entered glory on his knees December 20, 1831, at the age of 56. His body is buried near where he pastored in that former church’s graveyard with a small stone to mark the spot.
Oh that God would raise up others to have a similar ministry in these needy days. If God could use someone in such wonderful ways who had become so backslidden and spiritually cold, then He can use every one of us. Ask God to do so and give you a similar ministry.
BY Pastor J. Paul Reno, 1989