Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians: White Tree Publishing Edition

By James Gilchrist Lawson

A selection of accounts of the lives Christian evangelists of the past, gleaned from their biographies, autobiographies and writings by J. Gilchrist Lawson. These evangelists had one thing in common: after their conversion they needed a Pentecostal experience, a filling of the Holy Spirit before they could work effectively and face the storms, bringing thousands, tens of thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands to come to Christ in their speaking alone. It is estimated that no less than a hundred million people heard the gospel from DL Moody’s lips, and many millions more were -- and still are -- being reached through the books written by some of the people we read about here. White Tree Publishing has taken and abridged a selection from Gilchrist’s original work, detailing the lives of some well-known evangelists, and some who are less well-known to today’s readers. Most people have heard of Bunyan, Wesley and Moody, but how about Christmas Evans? Gilchrist writes in a lively style, bringing us these Godly people from the past to encourage us today, with emphasis on their dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit in all they did.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Tree Publishing
• Release date: Sep 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781912529155

Book preview

Deeper Experiences

of famous Christians

White Tree Publishing Edition

James Gilchrist Lawson

First published in 1911

This eBook is from the 1911 edition

This edition ©White Tree Publishing 2018

eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-15-5

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown's patentee, Cambridge University Press.

About the Book

A selection of accounts of the lives Christian evangelists of the past, gleaned from their biographies, autobiographies and writings by J. Gilchrist Lawson. These evangelists had one thing in common: after their conversion they needed a Pentecostal experience, a filling of the Holy Spirit before they could work effectively and face the storms, bringing thousands, tens of thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands to come to Christ in their speaking alone. It is estimated that no less than a hundred million people heard the gospel from DL Moody’s lips, and many millions more were -- and still are -- being reached through the books written by some of the people we read about here. White Tree Publishing has taken and abridged a selection from Gilchrist’s original work, detailing the lives of some well-known evangelists, and some who are less well-known to today’s readers. Most people have heard of Bunyan, Wesley and Moody, but how about Christmas Evans? Gilchrist writes in a lively style, bringing us these Godly people from the past to encourage us today, with emphasis on their dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit in all they did.

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Book

Introduction

Publisher’s Note

The Pentecostal Experience

John Bunyan

John Wesley

George Whitefield

John Fletcher

Christmas Evans

Lorenzo Dow

Peter Cartwright

Charles G. Finney

Billy Bray

Elder Knapp

George Muller

Frances Ridley Havergal

D. L. Moody

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Original Introduction

The great object of this book is to describe, in their own words so far as possible, the deepest spiritual experiences of the most famous Christians of all ages and climes. The author has spent much of his time for years in the greatest libraries of Europe and America, searching the whole range of Christian literature to glean from it the most spiritual and helpful Christian experiences. He trusts that it will be the means of leading many into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ (Romans 15:29).

Although these pages contain an account of the most important facts in the lives of famous Spirit-filled children of God, it would be impossible in a book of this kind to describe the deeper experiences of all the famous Spirit-filled Christians. In the early Christian church, and in almost every denomination of Christians, there have been many whose consecrated lives and spiritual experiences have made them a blessing to multitudes.

Although the deeper spiritual experiences of Christians of different denominations are given in this book, it will be found that there is a wonderful harmony in the experiences related. The people described, relate their deeper experiences in very different terms; but the deeper Christian experience described is always the same. It is the baptism, or filling, or gift, of the Holy Spirit, and the experience resulting from being filled with the Spirit. The Methodist may describe this deeper Christian experience as entire sanctification, holiness, or perfect love. The Baptist may call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or the filling of the Spirit. The Presbyterian may call it the life of faith, or the rest of faith, or the full assurance of faith. The Congregationalist may call it entire consecration. The Quaker may call it living in the Spirit, or walking in the Spirit, or over-coming power.

All these are Scriptural terms, or ideas, and all refer to a Spirit-filled Christian experience; just as Hannah Whithall Smith, in her The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, and William Arthur, in his Tongue of Fire, describe one and the same experience, although one views the experience from the human side and the other from the Divine; one showing man’s privilege and the other God’s power, just as a person looking at the Niagara Falls from the Canadian side would describe them in very different terms from a person looking at them from the American side, although the falls would remain the same.

Theories differ according to the different standpoints or ways of looking at things. So long as men have different degrees of light they are bound to differ in theory. Now we see through a glass, darkly, says the apostle Paul, but then shall I know even as also I am known (1 Corinthians 13:12). But as there is a practical agreement among evangelical Christians with regard to the way of salvation, so there is a practical agreement among those who believe in a deeper Christian experience than conversion.

All agree that Christians may be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18); that we may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10); that we may be rooted and grounded in love (Ephesians 3:17); that we can be more than conquerors, through Him that loved us (Romans 8: 37); that if we bring all the tithes into His storehouse, the Lord will open us the windows of heaven, and pour us out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it (Malachi 3:10); that we may have peace as a river, and righteousness as the waves of the sea (Isaiah 48:18); that we may have joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8); and so on.

In a court of law the testimony of witnesses would be rejected if they all gave the same evidence, and gave it in the same words and manner. It would prove that there had been collusion among the witnesses. But if each witness gave his evidence in his own words and manner, and yet the testimony of the witnesses agreed as to the essential facts, the evidence would be regarded as of the most convincing character.

So when Christians of so many different centuries and countries relate their deeper Christian experiences in their own manner and language, and yet all agree as to the essential facts, it is overwhelming evidence in favor of the fact that such a deep Christian experience may really be attained.

In the preparation of this book the author is greatly indebted for information, and often for the manner of expressing it, to writers too numerous to mention. He is especially indebted to the biographers of the famous Christians whose experiences are described. The condensed nature of the book has made it impossible for him to acknowledge all the sources of his information, and he has not attempted to do so.

The prayer of this author is that this account of how God has done for others exceeding abundantly above all that they asked or thought (Ephesians 3:20) may be the means of leading others to hunger and thirst after righteousness; that they may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth (human) knowledge, that they may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19).

Publisher’s Note

Names are in date order of birth, rather than the year in which they started their ministry.

Occasional words in square brackets [thus] have been added to remind the reader that this book was written in 1911, and also to explain the mention of an event or person possibly not generally known today.

To help readers who only want to read about some of the names, a hyperlink to the Table of Contents is included at the end of each chapter.

There are 14 chapters in this book. In the second half are advertisements for our other books, so this book may end earlier than expected! The last chapter (DL Moody) is marked as such. We aim to make our eBooks free or for a nominal cost, and cannot invest in other forms of advertising. However, word of mouth by satisfied readers will also help get our books more widely known. When the book finishes, please take a look at the other books we publish: Christian non-fiction, Christian fiction, and books for younger readers.

The Pentecostal Experience

of the Apostles

White Tree Publishing editor’s note: There is an important difference between evangelism and revival.

"Revival always begins, not with the conversion of the godless, but with the reanimation of the people of God. … Evangelism is the work man does for God, revival is the work God does for man" (Revival: Times of Refreshing, Selwyn Hughes 2004).

"Revival is God bending down to the dying embers of a fire just about to go out, and breathing into it until it bursts into flame" (Christmas Evans 1766-1838).

On the day of Pentecost, the world’s greatest example of God’s power was given to transform the lives and character of men, so as to make the weak strong and powerful. Pentecost was the pouring out of the former rain of God’s Spirit, just as in these last days there will be an outpouring of the latter rain (Hosea 6:3; Zechariah 14:7; and James 5:7).

By His death on the cross, Jesus made so great an atonement for sin that God could safely pour out His Spirit on all mankind, without the universe thinking that He was regarding sin lightly. It was the atonement of Christ therefore that purchased the great Pentecostal gift for the world. When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men (Psalm 68:18, and Ephesians 4:8).

Before the ascension of Christ, the Holy Spirit was not yet poured upon all flesh, because that Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39). Jesus told His disciples that it was expedient, or profitable, that He should go away, because if He did not go away the Comforter would not come (John 16:7). He must complete His great work of atonement for the world before the Comforter could come. And it was better for the followers of Jesus that the Holy Spirit should be poured upon them, and upon the world, than that Jesus Himself should remain with them. While in the body, Jesus could be in only one place at a time, but the Comforter could be everywhere present to convince men of sin and of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8).

His three great offices are to convince men of sin, to show them the way of righteousness, and to warn them of coming judgment. He does this by influencing men’s hearts and minds from without, or by coming to dwell within them. Upon those in whom He dwells He bestows one or more of His seven different spiritual gifts.

The seven different gifts of the Holy Spirit seem to be spoken of in Revelation as the seven Spirits of God (Revelation 4:5 and 5:6). They were probably typified in the golden candlestick with its seven branches and seven lamps in the tabernacle and temples of the Old Testament. The apostle Paul seems to enumerate nine gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, but healing and miracles are probably the same gift, and tongues and the interpretation of tongues probably belong to the one gift, so that there are but seven distinct gifts mentioned.

Before Pentecost, Jesus said to His disciples, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth (John 16:12-13). He knew that His disciples were only weak spiritual babes, even after all he had taught them, and He commanded them to tarry at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49, and Acts 1:4-8).

He also said to them, But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8).

If the disciples had not believed that promise, there might have been no Pentecost. If they had said that they were already converted, and so they were not looking for any deeper experience, the world might be still groping in heathen darkness. But their faith laid hold of the promise, and great were the results.

The disciples seem to have prayed together for ten days before the promised Comforter came. One, two, three, four, five, then six days went by, and then a whole week, and still no Comforter came; but their faith did not waver. They tarried on in the upper room until the morning of the tenth day before the Comforter came.

We do not know why they had to tarry so long for the Holy Spirit, for there is no other Bible example of men praying so long a time before they received the Pentecostal gift. Perhaps they did not fully meet God’s conditions before the tenth day, or He may have designed that they should be fully prepared and humbled by long and earnest prayer so that they would not be puffed up and exalted by the great blessing He was about to pour upon them.

It is more probable, however, that the great reason why God did not send the Holy Spirit sooner was because He purposed to send Him on the day of Pentecost, or fiftieth day after the Passover (Pentecost means fiftieth), when multitudes of Jews from all over the world were present in Jerusalem.

Pentecost was one of the three great annual feasts, or religious gatherings, of the Jews. It was a time of rejoicing over the first-fruits, and it was appropriate that on that day the first-fruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:23) should be poured upon the world. It is estimated that in the time of Christ, between one and two million Jews were in Jerusalem to attend the feast of Pentecost. The Bible tells us about Jews of every nation being present to hear the disciples witness to the outpouring of the Spirit.

The Jews were still God’s husbandmen, or chosen people, through whom He was revealing Himself to the world, just as the Gentiles are now His chosen people; and by waiting until Pentecost to pour His Spirit upon them, He secured witnesses from every nation to testify to the outpouring of the Spirit.

Early on the morning of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came with such demonstration and power that no one present could ever doubt the reality of His coming. They were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1-4).

Rev. William Arthur, in his splendid book The Tongue of Fire, suggests that the cloven tongues typified the new power which the disciples would receive to preach the gospel, and that is the generally accepted opinion. The cloven tongues may have typified the fact that their power of speech would be doubled, and also that they would not speak of themselves, but that another would speak through them.

When the Holy Ghost fell on them, He gave them power to witness for Christ. When Jesus called the fishermen from the Sea of Galilee to come and follow Him, He promised to make them fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). On the day of Pentecost this promise was fulfilled, and they indeed became fishers of men. On that day the Lord enabled them to catch more men than they caught fish in the miraculous draught of fish on the Sea of Galilee.

Peter and John, two