"There was an old deacon in a city in Michigan who was connected with a Church which had had no conversion for sixteen years. He came to his death-bed, and felt that he could not die in peace and leave his children in that cold and lifeless atmosphere. He sent for the minister, and tried to rouse him to the concern for souls which, in the face of death, pressed upon himself. But the minister had been too long accustomed to the darkness be be easily awakened. Failing also with the elders, and with all the male members of the Church, he sent for the leading ladies, and pleaded with them, as mothers, to pray for a revival. He entreated God for this day and night, and the Lord touched those mother's hearts, so that they prayed and fasted before God. In a little while the whole Church was moved. I received a dispatch from the minister. On my arrival, he took me into a room filled with these mothers, praying that the Lord would reveal His power. I felt, as soon as I entered, that God was there.

The first evening I preached it seemed as if every sinner had braced himself up to resist the truth. Many were up all night; they got down in the dust before God, beseeching Him to give the blessing. The next night the power came, and, in forty eight hours, there was scarcely a young man or young woman who was not converted to God, or anxious to be saved....."

D.L.Moody - Painting by Sheri Doty