Christian History Home > Issue 23 > The Time for Prayer: The Third Great Awakening
The Time for Prayer: The Third Great Awakening
During the Third Great Awakening of 1857 to 1859, 10,000 people in New York City alone gathered together daily—even left work—to pray. The same thing was taking place all over the country, in small towns as well as in great cities.
posted 7/01/1989 12:00AM
By 1820 it seemed that the Second Awakening was waning; yet within a few years it had sprung to life under the ministry of Charles Finney. His enormous success inspired a large number of “professional evangelists” to come to the fore from the ranks of every major denomination. By 1840 the concept of large campaigns led by preachers who were not pastors of specific churches was generally accepted. From 1840 until the 1870s numerous preachers entered the ranks of traveling evangelists.
Despite all this, the religious life of America was in decline from 1840 to 1857. Many causes were responsible. Agitation over the issue of slavery in both the North and South had reached fever pitch, and hatreds boiled. Great numbers were disillusioned over spiritual things because of the extremes of the Millerites, a radical group that had widely proclaimed that Christ would return to earth between 21 March 1843 and 21 March 1844. When this did not happen, William Miller, the leader, reset the date at 22 ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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