On September 23 at 12:00 noon in 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier conducted his first prayer meeting in the Old Dutch North Church at Fulton and Williams Streets in New York City. The church was in decline and hired this businessman to visit and build up the church. He decided to hold a prayer meeting. Only six showed up, but it was decided to meet again during the lunch hour when businesses closed from 12-1:00 p.m. Twenty men came the next Wednesday and forty the following week. The group decided to meet daily.
The next week on October 14, the financial crisis of 1857 struck the nation. Many people suffered great financial losses. Soon more than 3,000 were meeting daily for prayer.
Rules were posted:
“Brethren are earnestly requested to adhere to the 5-minute rule.” Another rule read: “Prayers and Exhortations Not to exceed five minutes, in order to give all an opportunity.”
The spread of the prayer revival
The prayer revival spread from coast to coast. Within six months 10,000 businessmen were meeting daily in New York City at twenty other prayer meetings in the city.
By January of 1858, the newspapers were covering the meetings in “The Progress of the Revival.”
Here is the schedule of the prayer meeting from an eyewitness account
1. The meeting started promptly at 12 noon.
2. The leader arises and commences the meeting by reading two or three verses of a hymn.
3. Next, they all sing the hymn.
4. The leader offers a short prayer.
5. He then reads a brief portion of Scripture. Ten minutes have passed.
6. During the ten minutes prayer requests in sealed envelopes have been passed up to the front of the church.
7. The leader stands with slips of paper in his hand. He says, “This meeting is now open for prayer. Brethren from a distance are specially invited to take part. All will observe the rules.
8. The chairman reads: “A son in NC desires the fervent, effectual prayers of the righteous of this congregation for the immediate conversion of his mother in Connecticut.”
o A father rises: “I wish to ask the prayers of this meeting for two sons and a daughter.” He sits down and bursts into tears, and lays his head down on the railing of the seat before him.
o Two prayers in succession followed these requests---very fervent, very earnest.
o Then arose from all hearts that beautiful hymn, sung with touching pathos, so appropriate too, just in this stage of this meeting with all these cases full before us:
There is a foundation filled with blood. Drawn from Immanuel’s veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains
o The leader reads another prayer request: “A praying wife requests the prayers of this meeting for her unconverted husband, that he may be converted and made a humble disciple of the Lord Jesus.”
At once a stout, burly man arose and said, “I am that man. I have a pious, praying wife, and this request must be for me. I want you to pray for me.”
As soon as he sat down, another man got up and said, “I am that man. I have a praying wife. She prays for me. And now she asked you to pray for me. I am sure I am that man, and I want you to pray for me.” The eyewitness then noted, “Time has fled on silver wings.”
Then came the closing hymn, the benediction, and the parting for twenty-three hours.
The Fulton Street Prayer Revival provides an example
This example of prayer could be emulated by pastors and churches following the example of Paul’s concern in Romans 10:1: “My heart’s desire and prayer is that Israel might be saved.” I have taken the account and quotes from the Fulton Street Revival from America’s Great Revivals: The Thrilling Story of Spiritual Revival in the United States. (Minneapolis: Dimension Books,