Hi. Ten years ago, Sarah Foulkes Moore urged the American church to pray for spiritual awakening. Her article is worth passing on. Bryan
Pray On For Spiritual Awakening in America
by Sarah Foulkes Moore
It is 24 years ago in July that God took Sarah Foulkes Moore, co-founder of Herald of His Coming, to her rest. In tribute to this saint of God who poured out her life as few others have, in passion and prayer for world evangelization through world revival, we reprint this anointed plea from her pen.
"Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 14:34).
Men of sober thought are persuaded that nothing will solve the grave problems that menace our nation except a spiritual awakening.
A thoughtful study of the effects of religious awakenings on our national history should make prayerful men and women, at this crisis time, feel seriously the grave responsibility of praying frequently and working effectively for a heaven-sent Spirit-given revival of Christian faith - to restore multitudes in backslidden churches and save our civilization.
The old-fashioned revival which began about 1800 in Kentucky spread through seventeen states. Historians writing of those "camp meeting days" declare: "Neighborhoods noted for vicious and profligate life are as much noted now for piety and good order."
The transformation resulting from this spiritual awakening directly opened the way for winning the West and annexing it to the United States.
With the discovery of gold in California, and the extension of the national boundaries in the bold acquisition of Mexican states, and the ensuing prosperity of rich harvests, railway and steamship developments, America once more turned from God to the worship of mammon. In 1855 she found herself in the midst of a terrible panic, underemployment, want and despair. To add to the grim terror of those days were the ominous rumblings of the coming Civil War, national disruption and fearful strife.
The National Peril Was Great!
Again God turned His hand upon America and saved her from ruin. Beginning in a businessmen's noonday prayer meeting, a revival burst into flame which rapidly spread north and south. The cry: "What must I do to be saved?" pierced the air. Thousands turned to God.
The revival continued unabated throughout the conflict of the North and South and was, under God, the means of reconciling the warring interests in the Civil conflict. "Never in the history of mankind," comments one historian, "was a Civil war followed so quickly by a reconciliation so genuine and so perfect."
Today America is facing a crisis! It is a moral collapse, a breakdown of modern civilization consequent upon its failure in meeting the higher, spiritual needs of the race.
One Thing Can Save The Nation!
The one thing that can save the nation is to get back to her spiritual undergirdings and return to the faith of our forefathers. Only a visitation from on high will turn the tide, and save the day.
The responsibility of securing this spiritual revival rests entirely with praying men and women. Prayer groups and companies, whole churches and assemblies should be mobilized to intercede for a national awakening.
In the early years of the present century, Wales faced a crisis. This crisis was met by organizing three hundred extra prayer groups to pray down a heavenly visitation upon the land. All Wales became as one great prayer meeting! What was the result of this organized banding together to seek the face of God for an imperiled nation? Within a short time revival fires began to sweep Wales and in two months over seventy thousand turned to the Lord!
Revival Follows Prayer!
There is no revival where there is no prayer. What America needs today more than able statesmen in politics is men and women to get desperately determined and in earnest to have God work in revival power, and to take hold of the Lord in an agony of importunate prayer!
The responsibility of calling America to prayer and of taking hold of God, of getting down on our faces before Him and staying there until He again visits us from on high, and once more diverts a crisis in our national history - is your responsibility and mine! (Isa. 64:7).
Our one solemn concern in these days of waning national allegiance and threatened revolutions should be to give ourselves to faithful, constant, prevailing prayer for our beloved land.
Hold your hours of prayer with an iron grasp. Let the people of God everywhere in America recognize the tremendous power of prayer, and mobilize and organize their forces at this strategic point, and our country will be swept out of the present crisis and into a great religious revival!
Pray On!
Include the ends of the earth in your prayers. Thank God for His movings, but we need more! Pray God will send a worldwide outpouring of His Spirit "on all flesh" (Joel 2:28) so His people shall be "one" (John 17:11-23) and shall see "eye to eye!" (Isa. 52:8).
"HERALD OF HIS COMING" July 1997 Vol. 56 No. 7 (667) International Edition
"Herald of His Coming" is published monthly by Gospel Revivals Inc.
304 North Main Street, Newton KS 67114. Tel 316 283 7747
Fax: 316 284 2311 Electronic mail: CompuServe 102716,1613
No comments:
Post a Comment