THE GREAT REVIVAL
THERE was a spirit of religious awakening in many widely separated places in the United States just before the Civil War. There were rather remarkable revival meetings in New York, Philadelphia and in other cities in 1858 and in Indianapolis in 1857-1858. The peak of Charles J. Finney's revival was in the decade 1850-1860. This awakening was checked by the Civil War but broke out again in the late 1860's. There was a renewal of revival activities in Indianapolis in 1865-1866. Finney's movement was still strong between 1865 and 1870. In 1870 Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey began their great evangelistic campaigns.
Similar tendencies had been working in the Society of Friends before 1860. The ground had been prepared by the ministry of English visitors such as Robert Lindsey, William Forster and John Pease. These Friends visited almost all of American Quakerism and were very vigorous in their preaching. Of especial importance was the ministry of Eli and Sybil Jones of Maine, who visited a large part of American Quakerism. Sybil Jones was a preacher of great power and was distinguished by her direct appeal to her hearers for a personal religious decision.1
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