Father Daniel Nash
Before there was a Billy Graham, or a Billy Sunday, or a D.L. Moody, there was Charles Finney. Rev Finney is often credited as one of the chief catalysts of the Second Great Awakening in the United States, in the 1790s to the early 1800s. He preached a Gospel of personal conversion and called out sin – often naming people by name. He had a great ability in his preaching to show love while at the same time calling out specific sins. His revival services were used by God to impact entire communities for the Gospel, and many thousands were led to Christ.
Enter Finney’s friend, Father Daniel Nash. Father Nash was an Episcopal priest, 17 years older than Finney, who had been run out of his little parish. Charles Finney was at a prayer meeting when he first heard Father Nash speak. Nash was still broken from his rejection, but his eyes darted back and forth among the crowd as he spoke. However, it struck Finney that, instead of preaching, Father Nash was actually praying. Finney later wrote, “He was full of the power of prayer.” The two met and they both strongly felt that God was leading them into an evangelistic ministry. They agreed that their calling was to go to the places where there were few or no churches, and refused to reach out to established churches unless the churches first reached out to them.
Their established practice was like this. They would pray about where God would lead them to preach next. When they felt established about a place, Father Nash would quietly slip into town, rent a boarding-house or basement of a home or even a grove of trees, and find two or three people to covenant with him in prayer for God to move within the community. Father Nash would pray with this small group, and Nash would send word to Finney when he felt impressed that the time was right, often 3 or 4 weeks later. During the meetings, Nash and his recruited partners would remain fervent in prayer throughout the revival – and God blessed with great success. One person wrote of Nash, “With all due credit to Mr. Finney for what was done, it was the praying men who held the ropes. The tears they shed, the groans the uttered are written in the book of the chronicles of the things of God.”
In one New York town, after the revival, it was observed, “The whole community was stirred. Religion was the topic of conversation in the house, in the shop, in the office and on the street. Practically everyone in the city was converted. The only theater in the city was converted into a livery stable, the only circus into a soap and candle factory, and the grog shops (bars and taverns) were closed.”
Finney was in awe of his friend and his prayer life. He felt that the real work of the revival was done by Nash in prayer, bringing the Holy Spirit to fall on people. At that point, he had little to do but point them to the Lamb of God.
Finney’s revivals led to an estimated 100,000 conversions. Even more remarkably, it is estimated that 80% of those who professed faith were solid Christians, active in their churches many years later. By way of comparison, the same number for D.L. Moody is estimated at about 50% and such revivals today trend at about a 20% rate of faithfulness to the Gospel over the course of their life. What made Finney so unique? He had a personal prayer warrior.
In 1831, as Father Nash was on his deathbed, his main regret seemed to be that his pain made it difficult to focus on his prayer as he had done for so many years. He was found dead in his room, with an open map, as he had been praying for the countries of the world.
Today, if you drive in upstate New York, almost to the Canadian border, in a neglected cemetery along a dusty road, you will find the grave of Father Daniel Nash. It reads simply, “Daniel Nash, Laborer with Finney, Mighty in Prayer, Nov 17, 1775 – Dec 20, 1831.”
Less than six months after the death of his friend, Charles Finney left the evangelistic trail and accepted a pastorate in New York City, and later became the professor of Systematic Theology at the newly formed Oberlin College in Ohio.
https://www.hopefaithprayer.com/prayer-warrior-charles-finney/
https://dwoj.org/daniel-nash-the-great-charles-finneys-intercessor/
https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/daniel_nash_prince_of_prayer.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grandison_Finney#Abolitionism
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