"I was powerfully converted on the morning of the 10th of October 1821. On the evening of the same day, I received overwhelming infillings of the Holy Spirit, that went through me, as it seemed to me, body and soul. I found myself so endued with power from on high, that a few words placed here and there were the means of immediate conversations." With these words, the twenty-nine year old lawyer from Adams, New York, described his conversion experience and subsequent equipping for power.

From that initial encounter with Jesus Christ, Charles Grandison Finney cut a swath of powerful evangelism through western New York, and finally throughout the entire northeast of the United States, that was unparalleled in the first half of the nineteenth century. Fairchild eulogized him by stating, "He spearheaded a revival in America which literally altered the course of history. The implications of the preaching and example of this towering figure can hardly be measured."

As Baptist historian Leon McBeth pointed out, "Perhaps the greatest leader of the second great awakening was Charles G. Finney. The converted lawyer is credited with transforming the style of evangelism in America."

Finney's preaching broke with traditional Presbyterian practice. From the very outset, the evangelist was an extemporaneous preacher, many times even speaking impromptu His disdain for the written sermon manuscript is obvious. He said, "In delivering a sermon in this essay style of writing the power of gesture and looks and attitude and emphasis is lost. We can never have the full of the gospel till we throw away our written sermons."

At the same time, however, Finney did not ramble in the pulpit. He had a keen analytical lawyer's mind and his sermons are amazingly well-organized. Often he would write the outline after the sermon.

His rational approach produced good homiletical style. In all of his sermons there was a remarkably logical progression. Akin to the lawyer arguing before a jury -- to which Finney often likened his own preaching -- his sermon points usually fell under three essential headings: 1) what a scripture passage (or topic) did not mean; 2) what it did mean; and 3) inferences or remarks upon the text.

Finney was convinced that all preaching should be direct, personal and practical. He said, "The gospel should be preached to men, and not about them. The minister must preach to them about themselves, and not leave the impression he is preaching to them about others."

He was fond of using the personal pronoun you as over against more generalized pronouns. It was, in his words, "not the design of preaching to make men easy and quiet, but to make them act."

A case in point is one sermon in which he said, "I demand your decision now and whom do you suppose that I am now addressing? Every impenitent sinner in this house -- everyone. I call heaven and earth to record that I have set the gospel before your today. Will you take it? Sinner, the infinite God waits your consent!"