From the video description:
Methodist evangelist Rev. James Caughey saw 20,000 souls saved in just 6 years under his revival preaching in Britain. Before and after, he made stops in Canada, preaching hundreds of sermons and seeing thousands of Canadians turn to the Lord Jesus in saving faith. He attributed every success to the prevenient grace of the Holy Spirit.
This video was published on Youtube Jan 9, 2024: https://youtu.be/S7j_CYoR2NI?si=fj5EK1SSHsfhkOWf
In his book Methodism in Earnest (1851), Rev. James Caughey recounts how early in his ministry, he discovered the importance of the prevenient grace of the Holy Spirit in conversion of sinners.
His biographer, Rev. Daniel Wise, writes of Caughey’s ministry that “It was marked by this feature: his theory concerning the necessity of the help of the Holy Spirit in preaching became a conviction—a stern, living conviction.” (Methodism in Earnest, page 13)
Caughey describes his discovery and conviction this way (pages 13-15):
From the hour I read the following striking remarks of Dr. Adam Clarke, a few months previous to my ordination, I have never varied a hair-breadth from the great truth they advocate. I can only quote from memory, as the page which first presented them to my eye is many thousands of miles from me, and I cannot turn to the place in his Works where they stand recorded; but they differ little from the following:
“But all this spiritual and rational preaching will be of no avail, unless another means of God’s own choosing be superadded to give it an effect—the light and influence of the Holy Spirit. That Spirit of life and fire penetrates, in a moment, the sinner’s heart, and drags out to the view of his conscience those innumerable crimes which lie concealed there under successive layers of deep and thick darkness, when, under that luminous burning agency, he is compelled to cry, ‘God have mercy upon me a sinner!’ ‘Save, Lord, or I perish!’ ‘Heal my soul, for it hath sinned against thee.’”
I shall have eternal cause of thankfulness that the above sentiments ever came under my notice. If my ministry has been rendered a blessing to many, that blessing has been vouchsafed through the merits of Christ, to a steady recognition of the necessity of the influence of the Holy Spirit.
On the evening of that never-to-be-forgotten day in which I read the above, I took up my pen, in secret, before God, and gave vent to the emotions of my deeply-impressed heart, in language something like the following:
I see, I feel now as I have never done before upon this particular subject. From the convictions of this hour, I hope, by the grace of God, never to vary. I see, I feel,—
1st. The absolute necessity of the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost to impart point, power, efficacy, and success to a preached gospel.
2d. The absolute necessity of praying more frequently, more fervently, more perseveringly, and more believingly, for the aid of the Holy Spirit in my ministry.
3d. That my labors must be powerless, and comfortless, and valueless, without this aid; a cloud without water, a tree without fruit, dead and rootless; a sound uncertain, unctionless, and meaningless; such will be the character of my ministry. It is the Spirit of God alone which imparts significancy and power to the word preached, without which, as one has expressed it, “all the threatenings of the Bible will be no more than thunder to the deaf, or lightning to the blind.”
A seal requires weight, a hand upon it, in order to an impression. The soul of the penitent sinner is the wax; gospel truth is the seal; but, without the Almighty hand of the Holy Ghost, that seal is powerless. A bullet demands its powder, without which it is as harmless as any other body. The careless sinner is the mark; truth is the ball that must pierce him; but it cannot reach, much less penetrate him, separate from this influence from heaven. In apostolic times, they preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. 1 Peter 1:12. In our day we need an energy from no lower source, to overturn the wickedness of the vile and profane, and to counteract the formality and worldliness which are every where visible.
4th. I am now fully persuaded, that in proportion as the Spirit of God shall condescend to second my efforts in the gospel message, I shall be successful; nor need I expect any success beyond. No man has ever been signally useful in winning souls to Christ, without the help of the Spirit. With it, the humblest talent may astonish earth and hell, by gathering into the path of life thousands for the skies while without it, the finest, the most splendid talents remain comparatively useless.
5th. The entire glory of all my success shall henceforth be given to the Holy Spirit. By this I shall conscientiously abide, as by any other principle of our holy religion. It is written: “They that honor me, I will honor.” To this may be added, that righteous, inalienable, and unchanging determination of Jehovah: “My glory Twill not give to another.”
The complete book is available online here: Methodism in earnest (1851)
