A lot of people will tell you about a book they read on the life of the great revivalist Charles Finney. They will heartily lecture, preach, teach and expound on secondary or tertiary sourced materials. Let us read what Charles Finney himself said, wrote and espoused. I promise it is much richer than what you’ve read by someone else’s hand.
https://landmarks.podbean.com/e/episode-16-therevivalist
“Charles Grandison Finney, “American clergyman, revivalist preacher, and educator. Finney was born in Litchfield county, Conn., on Aug. 27, 1792. He studied law from 1818 to 1821, when he had a sudden conversion experience. After this he began to preach and was licensed to preach by the Presbyterian denomination in 1824. Wherever he traveled he started extensive religious revivals.
Finney was appointed professor of theology at Oberlin College (1835), minister of the First Congregational Church at Oberlin (1837), and was named president of the college in 1852. His Lectures on Revivals (1835) became a handbook for American revivalists, and his Lectures on Theology (1846) indicate the modifying influence of evangelicalism on American Calvinism. Finney died at Oberlin on Aug. 16, 1875.” From the Oberlin College Website
From Britannica
From William Federer’s American Minute
Hindrances to Revival – A Lecture from his time at Oberlin College.
From his newspaper articles published from 1869-1875. They address the culture, the church and are as pertinent on issues of that day as they are this moment.
The Decay of Conscience – The Independent, New York, December 4, 1873