The Fulton Street Revival

We are in the Evangelism Awakening Revival Institutes, and if you'll turn in your handouts to the Fulton Street Revival, this revival is also known as the Businessman's Revival, the Layman's Prayer Revival, the Revival of 1857 to 1858, and some have even referred to it as the Third Great Awakening. However you refer to it, this remarkable move of grace began with a prayer meeting at the Old North Dutch Church in Fulton Street, New York. In 1857, a layman by the name of Jeremiah Calvin Lamphere joined the church, and in July of that year, he began his work as a in New York City.

He began his labors in the lower wards, the more neglected portions of the city. He handed out gospel tracts and stopped people on the street to pray with them and share the gospel, and he recorded in his diary on July 1st, 1757, Going my rounds in the performance of my duty one day, as I was walking along the streets, the idea was suggested to my mind that an hour of prayer from 12 to 1 o'clock would be beneficial to businessmen, who usually, in great numbers, take that hour for rest and refreshment. But the idea was to have singing, prayer, exhortation, relation of religious experience, as the case might be, that none should be required to stay the whole hour, but that all should come and go as their engagements should allow or require.

While arrangements were made, and at 12 o'clock noon on the 23rd day of September, the door of the third story lecture room was thrown open, at half-past twelve, the step of a solitary individual was heard upon the stairs, shortly after another, and another, then another, and last of all another, until six made up the whole company. They had a good meeting, Lamphere recorded. The Lord was with us to bless us.

So ends that diary entry of Jeremiah Lamphere, a sign attached to a lamppost at the church, simply read, daily prayer meeting from 12 to 1 o'clock, stop five, ten, or twenty minutes, or the whole hour, as your time admits. It is important to give you friends the backdrop of New York City at this time. The autumn of 1857 saw New York in the midst of financial failure, which ruined many of its one million people, but there was a pall of mourning over every house.

The panic of 1857, as it was called, began with the stock market decline. It started when the big flour and grain company failed and caused a panic on the heels of that was the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance Company, and this caused a market sell-off. More than 5,000 American businesses failed within a year, putting thousands into unemployment, and this financial crisis was the backdrop of the emotional attitudes of the citizens of New York who passed by the old Dutch Reformed Church and saw that sign advertising a meeting for prayer, but people were hurting and looking for answers.

It wasn't long that the Fulton Street prayer meeting grew in size day by day. As people began to throng the meeting, searching for answers, a sign posted inside the meeting announced the rules of the time for prayer. Prayers and exhortations, not to exceed five minutes, in order to give all opportunity, no controverted points discussed, or the atmosphere of the meetings was one of uncommon fervency and prayer, of deep humility and self-abasement and great desire that God would glorify Himself in the outpouring of His Spirit upon them.

The meetings grew and grew until larger rooms had to be provided to accommodate the people. One month from the date of the first noonday prayer meeting, the religious papers began to report on the increased interest in the meetings. The revival was in full swing.

Soon, churches in other communities like Brooklyn began to host similar prayer meetings, and meetings sprung up in other parts of the United States throughout the country. It seemed at times as if the entire nation was consumed with prayer. Many were brought to Christ, and reports of conversions were numerous.

Jeremiah Lanphier wrote one day in his diary, at the noonday prayer meeting, a young man, one out of a great number, told what the Lord had done for his soul, which sent a thrill through every Christian heart, and which will be remembered with joy. Well, soon the same scenes were reported all over the nation from coast to coast. There were noonday prayer meetings popping up in California, to Florida, and throughout the Midwest and the South.

It was stated that by April 1858, 10,000 businessmen were gathering daily for prayer in New York. By May of 1858, it was reported there were 50,000 converts, as the revival continued to gain momentum and spread like a prairie fire, until every city, village, and school was impacted. It was said that by 1860, a million converts had been added to the American churches.

Well, putting this revival in perspective is recognizing the hand of God and the salvation of souls right before the commencement of the Civil War, which would last four years, and where 750,000 soldiers would die, not including civilian casualties, putting the number closer to one million loss of life. God, in his sovereignty, sent a powerful move of grace and a national awakening, because the country would soon be immersed in a slaughterhouse. The Fulton Street Revival is worthy of our study, and a wonderful book written by an eyewitness of the revival is the book entitled The Power of Prayer, the New York Revival of 1858, written by Samuel Prime.

It is published by the Banner of True Trust, and it's significant because this rare title was the last which Dr. Morton Lloyd-Jones urged for republication before his death. Well, this concludes our session for today. We will prepare for session 13.