THE GREAT REVIVAL AT GROUND ZERO IN NEW YORK, 1857

THE GREAT REVIVAL AT GROUND ZERO IN NEW YORK, 1857



In the shadow of Ground Zero in New York City,  150 years before the world-shaking 9/11 event took place, one man invited others to join him in prayer at a church on Fulton Street.  Within months, 10,000 were standing outside of the church waiting to get into pray.  A Great Awakening ensued and swept the nation.  Over 1 million received salvation.  That is the equivalent of 10 million being saved today.  This Awakening then swept the world!  Passengers on ships coming into New York harbor fell under the Presence of the Holy Spirit while the ships were 20 miles off the coast of America.  Hundreds experienced salvation.  This was one of the Greatest Awakenings in American history!  It was called the "Prayer Revival."

1857 Prayer Revival in America

The 1857 PRAYER REVIVAL in AMERICA

extracts by Wesley Duewal.

A quiet, zealous forty-six-year-old businessman in New York was 
appointed on July 1,1857 , as a missionary in downtown New York 
at the Dutch Church. Jeremiah Lamphier had been converted in 
1842 in Broadway Tabernacle, Finney's church that was built in 1836.

Lamphier felt led by God to start a noon-time weekly prayer meeting 
in which business people could meet for prayer. Anyone could 
attend, for a few minutes or for the entire hour. Prayers were to 
be comparatively brief. Lamphier's group met on the third floor of 
the old North Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street in New York. 
Lamphier printed some handbills announcing the prayer meetings 
with the title, "How Often Should I Pray?" 

The first day, September 23, 1857, Lamphier prayed alone for half 
an hour. But by the end of the hour, six men from at least four 
denominational backgrounds joined him. The next Wednesday 
there were twenty. On October 7 there were nearly forty. The 
meeting was so blessed that they decided to meet daily. One
week later there were over one hundred present, including many 
unsaved who were convicted by the Holy Spirit of their sin.

Within one month pastors who had attended the noon prayer 
meetings in Fulton Street started morning prayer meetings in 
their own churches. Soon the places where the meetings were 
held were overcrowded. Men and women, young and old of all 
denominations met and prayed together without distinctions. The 
meetings abounded with love for Christ, love for fellow Christians, 
love for prayer, and love of witnessing. Those in attendance felt 
an awesome sense of God's presence. They prayed for specific 
people, expected answers, and obtained answers.

Newspapers began to report on the meetings and the unusual spirit 
of prayer that was evident. Within three months similar meetings 
had sprung up across America. Thousands began praying in these 
services and in their own homes.... By the end of March over six 
thousand people met daily in prayer gatherings in New York City. 

Meetings began in February in Philadelphia. Soon Jayne's Hall 
was overfilled, and meetings were held at noon each day in public 
halls, concert halls, fire stations, houses, and tents. The whole 
city exuded a spirit of prayer.

Almost simultaneously noon prayer meetings sprang up all across 
America in Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Richmond, 
Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, 
St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and in a multitude of 
other cities, towns, and in rural areas. By the end of the fourth 
month, prayer fervor burned intensely across the nation. It was an
awesome but glorious demonstration of the sovereign working of 
the Holy Spirit and the eager obedience of God's people.

INVISIBLE CLOUD of GOD'S PRESENCE

A canopy of holy and awesome revival influence - in reality the 
presence of the Holy Spirit - seemed to hang like an invisible cloud 
over many parts of the United States, especially over the eastern 
seaboard. At times this cloud of God's presence even seemed to 
extend out to sea. Those on ships approaching the east coast at 
times felt a solemn, holy influence, even one hundred miles away,
without even knowing what was happening in America.

Revival began aboard one ship before it reached the coast. People 
on board began to feel the presence of God and a sense of their 
own sinfulness. The Holy Spirit convicted them, and they began 
to pray. As the ship neared the harbor, the captain signaled, 
"Send a minister." Another small commercial ship arrived in port 
with the captain, and every member of the crew converted in the
last 150 miles. Ship after ship arrived with the same story: both 
passengers and crew were suddenly convicted of sin and turned 
to Christ before they reached the American coast.

HOMES, SHOPS, FIELDS and CHURCHES

Reports came in of hundreds being converted in prayer meetings, 
private homes, workshops, and fields. Often the doors of businesses 
held signs reading, "Closed, will reopen at the close of the prayer 
meeting." Five prayer meetings took place daily in Washington, 
D.C. Five thousand or so attended daily services in the Academy 
of Music Hall.

In Philadelphia, Jayne's Hall removed partitions and added space 
for six thousand people to attend daily meetings.... The services 
consisted of simple prayer, confession, exhortation, and singing. 
But it was "so earnest, so solemn, the silence. ..so awful, the 
singing. ..so over-powering" that the meetings were unforgettable. 
A canvas tent was erected for outdoor meetings, and it immediately 
filled with people. In four months' time, a total of 150,000 people 
attended the ministry in the tent, with many conversions..... the 
best estimates are that 6.6 percent of the entire population of the 
United States was converted during the revival.

When Revival Ran Epidemic

"When Revival Ran Epidemic"

Words from other authors.....

Sometimes it is during the days of hopelessness and despair that
revival comes to a people! So it was in the middle of the nineteenth
century. In the United States, it was a spiritual, political, and
economic low point. Many people had become disillusioned with
spiritual things because of preachers who had repeatedly and
falsely predicted the end of the world in the 1840's.

Agitation over the slavery issue had bred much political unrest, and
civil war seemed imminent. A financial panic hit in 1857. Banks
failed, railroads were bankrupt, factories closed, unemployment
increased. Many Christians realized the need for prayer in such
dire situations, and prayer-meetings began to spread around the
country.

In the lower Manhattan section of New York, a Dutch Reformed
church had been steadily losing members; they hired missionary
Jeremiah Lamphier to reverse the trend with an active visitation
program. However, he had little success in awakening church
members by his visits, so in September, 1857, he rented a hall on
Fulton street in New York City and advertised its availability for
prayer meetings. Six men assembled for that first prayer meeting
on September 23. Two days later the Bank of Philadelphia failed.
In October the men began praying together daily; on October 10
the stock market crashed. The financial panic triggered a religious
awakening, and people flocked to the prayer meetings. Within six
months 10,000 people were gathering daily for prayer in New York
City alone.

The movement explodes:

Other cities also were experiencing a renewed interest in prayer.
In Chicago, the Metropolitan Theater was filled every day with
2000 people assembling for prayer. In Louisville, several thousand
came to the Masonic Temple for prayer each morning. Two
thousand assembled for daily prayer in Cleveland, and the
St. Louis churches were filled for months at a time. The newly
formed YMCA also played an important role in holding prayer
meetings and spreading the revival throughout the country.

When media actually helped:

In February 1858, Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald gave
extensive coverage to the prayer meeting revival. Not to be outdone,
the New York Tribune devoted an entire issue in April, 1858 to
news of the revival. News of the revival quickly traveled westward
by telegraph. This was the first revival in which the media played
an important role in spreading the revival.

Prayer everywhere:

The prayer meetings were organized in the cities by lay people
and were interdenominational.

Unlike earlier awakenings, prayer rather than preaching was the
main instrument of revival. Tents were often set up as places
where people could gather for prayer, introducing a custom
followed by later revivalists. The meetings themselves were very
informal -- any person might pray, exhort, lead in a song, or give
a word of testimony, with a five minute limit placed on each
speaker. In spite of the less structured nature of the prayer
meetings, they lacked the extreme emotionalism which some
had criticized in earlier revivals.

This was the first revival beginning in America with a worldwide
impact. From the United States the revival spread to Ireland,
Scotland, Wales, England, Europe, South Africa, India, Australia,
and the Pacific islands. In geographical and proportionate
numerical extent, the revival of 1857-1860 has not been equaled.
Even ships coming into British ports told of the revival in America.
Ireland soon began to experience a prayer meeting revival as well,
with crowds becoming so large they had to meet in the open air.
When John Cairns preached in Belfast in May, 1859, he had
never before seen such eagerness to hear the gospel or lives
which had been so transformed by the revival. He said: "Nature
does not contain any epidemic so like to Christian conversion."

When Andrew Bonar heard of the work in Ireland, he increased his
prayer for a revival in Scotland. In his diary of July 3, 1859, he
wrote, "Again this night in sorrow of heart over the terrible
carelessness, indifference, deadness of this 'valley of dry bones.'
O my God, come over to Scotland and help us!" Within two
months Andrew Bonar found himself in the midst of revival in
Scotland. On September 10th he wrote in his diary, "This has
been a remarkable week: every day I have heard of some soul
saved among us..." All classes became interested in salvation,
backsliders returned, conversions increased, and Christians
desired a deeper instruction in spiritual truths. Families
established daily devotions, and entire communities underwent
a noticeable change in morals. Not celebrities but ordinary people
praying. Similar changes were noted as the revival spread to
Wales, England, and beyond.

There was an absence of great names connected with the revival;
lay people in prayer were the prime instruments used by God in
awakening the people. The preaching, which in many areas had
become too intellectual and lifeless, now concentrated on the
truths of the gospel of Christ and His cross. The results of the
revival of 1859 in the areas of evangelism, missions, and social
action continued for decades.

Many who became Christian leaders during the second half of the
nineteenth century were greatly affected by the revival-- such as
D.L. Moody, William Booth, C.H. Spurgeon, and A.B. Simpson.
As James Buchanan of Scotland summarized, it was a time when
"new spiritual life was imparted to the dead, and new spiritual
health imparted to the living."

Getting a people spiritually ready to face tragedy:

The revival of 1859 had similar effects in the North and the South,
and may have prepared many Americans spiritually to survive the
horrors of the war that broke out a few years later. The awakening
continued into the Civil War period, a great revival occurring in the
Southern armies in 1863-64.