Sam Jones Phenomenon

Chapter 15 National Phenomenon He was called the wonder of the ages and the sledgehammer. Listening to Sam Jones preach was both an enjoyable and painful experience. Enjoyable because he got you to laugh about yourself and others.

Painful because his sledgehammer preaching unearthed all the vermin hidden for years beneath a false foundation of self-righteousness and fabricated veneer of self-delusion. With the national notoriety of being featured in newspapers all over the country, Samuel Porter Jones was thrust into a position of national fame that mirrored his prophetic poem he proclaimed at the age of five. The coming years and thundering tones the world shall hear of Sam P. Jones.

Invitations to preach came from all over the nation. And soon he was filling the largest auditoriums in major cities like Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York. He had gained a level of reputation that was incredible.

On January 7, 1886, the evangelist traveled to Cincinnati. The ministers of the city had begged him to come and assured him that they had booked him the huge music hall, which had a seating capacity of 10,000. The Cincinnati papers were soon covering all the meetings and reporting the general excitement that was stirring the city.

It read like a chapter from the book of Acts. The great religious revival conducted by Sam Jones has been spreading like wildfire day by day until now little else is thought of or spoken of in our city. In the hotel lobbies, offices, stores, clubhouses, and police circles, the subject of religion and the man who is now so forcibly proclaiming it in this community or the general topics of conversation and the subject of purity versus impurity and goodness versus ungodliness have been penetrated where before such thoughts were never dreamed of.

Yesterday, Mr. Jones preached two sermons in music hall. The one he delivered in the afternoon was his first to men only. It was attended by at least 6,000 men, and he held them in sympathy and interest from the beginning until the close of the sermon.

At night, he addressed a mixed audience, which numbered not less than 9,000 persons. The doors were closed shortly after seven o'clock, though the services did not commence until 730, and at least 5,000 disappointed people were turned away for want of room in the hall. Expressions of wonderful, wonderful are heard on all sides.

The moral good done to this community is wonderful to contemplate. This evangelist can already number his friends here by the thousands. He has made impressions on the hearts of the people that will not be obliterated.

The following newspaper account of his closing service in Cincinnati will hopefully give us a glimpse of the power he held over a city. Bear in mind, the evangelist D.L. Moody had campaigned in Cincinnati before Jones and called the difficult field a graveyard for evangelists. Listen to this startling account from a secular newspaper, which one can only marvel at the reading of it.

The services of last evening concluded the labors of Sam Jones in Cincinnati for five weeks. He has been laboring in God's cause in the city, and his efforts have been crowned with unparalleled success. Never before was such a religious awakening known in Cincinnati.

Large crowds have attended the services both day and night, and the revivalist has averaged two sermons each day. Conversions have been many, and thousands of people sincerely regret the departure of the earnest and plain-spoken preacher from the city. It was generally known that yesterday was the last day of his stay here, and everyone who had heard him wanted to hear him again, while those who had not were anxious to embrace the last opportunity.

Early in the afternoon, policemen were stationed at the doors to control the crowd for a time. The street was completely blocked for two squares by the great crowds coming and going. It is not an extravagant estimate to say that 50,000 people sought admission at Music Hall last night.

As early as half-past five o'clock in the afternoon, a large crowd of people had already assembled in front of the building, awaiting the opening of the doors. By six o'clock, at which hour promptly the doors were thrown open, the crowd in front of the building had been so largely augmented that within ten minutes after the doors opened, ten thousand people were rammed, jammed, and packed in every nook and corner of that immense building. A reporter came along fifteen minutes after six o'clock, had great difficulty in working his way to the front by reason of the crowds that thronged the aisles in every inch of standing room in the hall.

A few minutes later, the doors were shut and bolted. It being dangerous to admit any more people. At seven o'clock, Elm Street from 12th to 14th Streets was one surging black sea of humanity that were locked out.

That no one was crushed to death is a miracle. There were at least 40,000 people around Music Hall. All the streetcars were completely blockaded and the streets were utterly impassable.

Mr. Jones drove up to the building after seven o'clock and with the aid of stalwart policemen, entrance was forced out of the way when finally the policemen took him up on their shoulders and carried him into the entrance of the building. When he reached the hall, he was almost breathless and bewildered, looking as if he had a personal encounter with some demonstrative admirer. When he walked up on the platform, he was greeted with prolonged applause.

Facing the vast audience, he said that he thanked God the gospel of Jesus Christ can overdraw anything else in Cincinnati and that 10,000 people who got in and the 40,000 people who didn't brand the sentiment as a slander that this is a wicked lawless and irreligious city. There's no truer, nobler, or better city in the world than Cincinnati, he said. After preaching his farewell sermon from Proverbs 317, her ways are the ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace, he told the immense audience goodbye.

Dr. Joy stepped up to the end of the platform and taking the hand of Mr. Jones, who remained looking at the immense congregation, he clasped it warmly. Mr. Jones returned the hand pressure and hand to hand, the two reverend gentlemen turned to the congregation and Mr. Jones said, brethren, I cannot shake hands with you all personally as I'm nearly worn out, having had to remain in my room all the afternoon to gather strength to preach to you tonight, but in shaking hands with Dr. Joyce, I shake hands with you all. Goodbye, brethren, and may we all meet together again in the glorious hereafter and once again shake hands.

If we never meet here on earth, goodbye, brethren, goodbye. Oh, well, that was an excerpt from a new book on Sam Jones called Sam Jones, A New Biography. You can get your copy on amazon.com friends and read it and see how God has moved in former times through surrendered men like a Sam Jones and a D.L. Moody and pray that God will do it again in our day.