very candidly,--as becometh brethren. I am convinced that if
there were more fraternal frankness between the living, there would be
less hypocrisy over the departed.

Charles G. Finney was the acknowledged king of American evangelists
until Dwight L. Moody came on the stage of action. They resembled each
other in untiring industry, unflinching courage, unswerving devotion to
the marrow of the Gospel, and unreserved consecration to the service of
Christ. The secret of Finney's power was the fearless manner with which
he drove God's word into the consciences of sinners--high or humble--and
his perpetual reliance on the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit in
his own soul. Emptied of self, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. His
sermons were chain lightning, flashing conviction into the hearts of the
stoutest sceptics, and the links of his logic were so compact that they
defied resistance. Probably no minister in America ever numbered among
his converts so many lawyers and men of intellectual culture.

Soon after commencing his law practice he was brought under the most
intense conviction of sin; and the narrative of his conversion--as given
in his autobiography--equals any chapter in John Bunyan's "Grace
Abounding." After light and peace broke into his agonized soul, he burst
into tears of joy, and exclaimed: "I am so happy that I cannot live," He
began at once to converse with his neighbors about their souls. When a
certain Deacon B. came into his office and reminded him that his cause
was to be tried at ten o'clock that morning, Mr. Finney replied,
"Deacon B., I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead His
cause, and cannot plead yours." The deacon was thunderstruck, and went
off and settled his suit with his antagonist immediately.

From that time a law office was no place for the fervid spirit of
Charles G. Finney, and he resolved at once to prepare for the ministry.

Revivals followed his red-hot discourses wherever he went. At Auburn he
declares that he had--during prayer in his own room--a wonderful vision
in which God drew so near to him that his flesh trembled on his bones,
and he shook from head to foot as if amid the thunderings of Sinai! He
felt an assurance that God would sustain him against all his enemies;
and then there came a "great lifting up," and a sweet calm followed
after the agitation. Such extraordinary spiritual experiences occurred
quite often during his career as a revivalist, and