" In the woods of Michigan men rode into a village to
obtain mercy, having heard that the Lord was there. In New York City
noon prayer meetings were held. A conductor found salvation suddenly
while operating his horse car in Sixth Avenue. A sailor saw Christ at
the wheel. Christ was met in parlors, in places of worldly gayety. An
actor had been rescued from his wicked calling. Harriet Beecher Stowe
wrote: "We trust since prayer has once entered the counting rooms it
will never leave it; and that the ledger, sandbox, the blotting book and
the pen and ink will all be consecrated by heavenly presence." Her
brother, the pastor of Plymouth church, had converted one hundred and
ninety souls. A theater was used for a place of worship. Actors were
called upon to repent: You who have portrayed human nature before the
footlights, fall on your knees and acknowledge God! Rum had been driven
from a saloon near this theater. "Thank God," said Beecher, "let us pray
silently for the space of two minutes. What a history has been here. A
place of fictitious joys but of real sorrows has been reformed. It is
open for God's people to sing and pray in. God be thanked that Heaven's
gates have been opened in this place of hell."
Garrison saw the point. Of the revival he wrote that it had "spread like
an epidemic in all directions, over a wide extent of country.
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