[ Dr. Gene Bailey ]
Welcome to Revival
Radio TV. I'm Dr. Gene
Bailey. I am so glad you
are with me
today. I got something
really special
today I want to show you. But before I get to
that, let me read again Acts 2 verse 17: Now why did I read that? I want to emphasize
that God in His Word tells us about young people. Your young men,
your daughters, your handmaidens--all of it. He's talking about the
last great revival. And I want to show
you something special. This is an interview... what you are about to
see is an interview done in the seventies about,
you know, quite a few years after the Revival
happened, an interview that Ralph Wilkerson and
Vincent Synan did with two people that were
actually children at the revival and as far as we
know at that point, they were the only two
living relatives. They were well into
their seventies and they talked about being
children in the Azusa Street Revival. So I want to watch right
along with you and I want you to see what
happened as they describe what happened
at Azusa Street. Watch. [ Ralph Wilkerson ]
This is an exciting
day to be alive. Right here in
Los Angeles just a short ways from
the city hall and over there is an
hotel, an old one but this is an experience
because this is the urban renewal site, but
it's something else. A great movement took
place right here on this spot. Dr. Vincent Synan,
one of the foremost authorities who wrote
this book: "Charismatic Bridges" has something to share
with us today. Who and what
happened right here
at this spot? [ Vincent Synan ]
From 1906, Ralph,
until 1909, the Azusa Street
Revival took place right on this open lot. It's open now but one of
the greatest Revivals in church history
because the worldwide Pentecostal movement had
its beginning here as a worldwide force
and services went on
day and night for three years in this
place and from this place Spirit baptized people
went all over the world spreading these stories
of the baptism of the
Holy Spirit. Now I think we
should introduce immediately
our friends
because it's a rare
honor to have
these people
here with us. They were there
when it happened
and we think of this as the
movement that
was started without a man. Jesus is the one
who brought this movement
into existence. Would you
introduce these
friends? Yes, first
this is Miss
Maddy Cummings who was
here at the
beginning
of the Azusa Street
meeting as a
young girl
and this is the Reverend
Lawrence Catley
who was pastor of a church
of God in
Christ in... [ Lawrence Catley ]
Pasadena... --in Pasadena
California. He was here
at this great
revival and
they are the two only
known survivors
that I know of who were here
at that time. Now were both
of you acquainted at
that time? Were you
children
here in the
revival? [ Maddy Cummings ]
Yes, we were. You knew
each other? What did you call
each other then? Lawrence... --and Maddy. Yes. You played
together? [TogetherÑ Son Cadley And this was a
Methodist church? This was
originally an African
Methodist
church and they built a new
church on 8th and
Town Avenue and rented
this to Azusa
Mission and
eventually
Azusa bought
it. Now wasn't it
true that both of you received
tremendous
healings here at
this spot? Yes, I received
healing. I was deaf and
God healed me and now I
can hear. How many
years ago? Oh that's been
around seventy
years ago. Somebody said
healings don't
last! Oh they do. And sometimes
I think I hear
too much but thank God
for hearing. [Laughs] You mean
you really
were deaf? Deaf, yes. I
couldn't go
to school. You could not
go to school? School,
no. And what
about you? Well I had
what we
called TB in those days--
tuberculosis
and it was a terrible
experience and
I heard that there is a place
uptown called Azusa
Mission where they prayed for people
and they got well and I asked my mother
to bring me and she
eventually brought me
and through
the laying on
of hands and the prayer,
God delivered me from that TB
and I know
I'm delivered
because... not only because
of the way I
feel but I have been examined by
lungs specialist
in World War I and they said
nothing matters
with you, boy. Get out
of here. Would you tell
me how old you are? I'm
seventy-nine
years old. Are you
really? November the
23rd, 1974. Hey, this is
quite an
exciting day to be alive,
isn't it? Dr. Synan, what
would you say this
place looked like when the Holy
Spirit began
to fall? Well I think
these two could
tell a lot more than I
could because
they were here. Well you
researched it
so I thought
you might... Well, it
was just a
two blocks
street. Azusa Street
and a very
short street near the
City Hall. It was in the
downtown area and Elder William
J. Seymour had come from
Texas to hold
a revival here in the
Nazarene church but he
preached
the new
experience. The Baptism of
the Holy Spirit
accompanied by speaking with
other tongues. And a Revival
broke out in the
Asberry home on Bonnie
Brae Street. People received
this experience
and crowds filled the
streets and then
they came to find the church
building and
they found
this old abandoned
Methodist church
building that they had
been used as
a warehouse, a storage place
and I think a
stable at one
time too. And they
found it. It
was empty. It had no
stained glass
windows, no
pews. They just had
rough benches
but here a worldwide
revival began
and people
came from all over the
world to
this spot to find out
what they had. Could you tell
us what the
main experience
was that attracted
the people,
Maddy? Well, I think
first, it was because they came and they
began to speak in tongues and people heard
them speak in their own
language: the Japanese,
Chinese and all the different
nationalities. They heard them speak
and the gospel was preached to them. You mean they
had not learned
these languages? Oh no, they had
not learned because the Spirit
of God filled them
and they really knew what the people
were talking about and they
too were saved. Now you saw
this and
heard this with your
own ears? I certainly did. Now Dr. Synan,
was this
interracial? All different
nationalities? The great thing
I believe from studying history
of it was that
people from all races and
nations and
tribes came
here. Los Angeles
was a melting
pot city. The pastor was
a black man
and mostly
blacks to start with but
soon Mexicans
and Russians and Chinese and
Japanese... Just like today. Just
like today! from all over
the world came and there was no
distinction of race,
was there? No, nobody... And one thing
it was so
nice, nobody
ever said well, you are
black or you
are white. But we
were just
children
of God, rejoicing and
praising God for
all of His love and all of His
mercy and His
kindness for His healing and
that was what
brought the
people. What did
they teach here as a doctrine? Well, they
taught that you must first be
converted and
then you must be sanctified and God would
fill you on a sanctified life with His
precious Holy Spirit. And you would
speak with
tongues and... Speak in tongues as
the evidence, yes! And then other
gifts would come
like prophecy? Prophecy,
healing and all the gifts
in the Bible... The
interpretation
of tongues and
every... every gift that
is listed in
the scripture was practiced
right in Azusa
mission. Did it
attract
a lot of
people? Oh my,
yes. We never heard
the expression. We're gonna have
a white preacher
preach for us
today. It was Brother
Sorans or Brother
Simons that was going to
preach today. And the people
would begin in their heart
to pray. Lord give power
to Your Word. I'm interested
in the singing. What kind of
singing did
they do? Oh, they did
all kinds of
good singing. No music. There were no
pianos at first
but they sang "The Comforter Is
Come, Oh, Spread
the Tidings Round Wherever Man Is
Found" and all
songs like that. "Blessed
Assurance". "Deeper Yet I
Pray" and just
good ole hymns. That's the
kind of music
we heard. Happy,
happy
music. One thing they
liked so much is where Jesus is,
tis heaven led. Wasn't Jesus the
center of this
revival? The center, yes. "Oh how I love
Jesus" was one of
the main. What about these
crutches around on
the walls? They were for
people that came and was healed
and many times,
people were healed just by
being prayed for,
not laying on of hands all the
time but sometimes, Reverand Seymour
would just reach
and say: The Lord wants to
heal somebody. Whoever is here
needs to be healed
and people were healed just
like that
because of the power of God. Did you have
an upper
room in the
building? Yes. We had an upper
room and it was on this side of the
building and that's
where people would go and tarry. On the other side was
sleeping quarters where Reverend Seymour used
to sleep and have his little apartment
there but that upper room, I don't think that
it ever was empty because it went
day and night. Somebody was
there to pray
for somebody all the time. Could you tell us
about Elder Seymour, the pastor of
this mission? He was a
black man,
about thirty
some years old from Texas and
he came out here
and the Lord used this man
to bring on this great revival. What
did he look like and what did he
preach like? Well, he didn't
preach like the ministers
preach today. He preached more
just the good word
from the power of God
came upon
him and he
brought the power of God and
the power of God
came upon him and he preached
under the anointing of the power of God and
that was so wonderful. We would like to
know, Reverend
Catley, the typical type of
service that you
had here? How would they open
the service and
what would happen? Well we opened
with prayer and then they would... We had no specified
time, I mean length of prayers so whenever
the Spirit of the
Lord would lift from prayer,
we would get up
sometimes it would be
half an hour
and sometimes
longer. And it wasn't
the preacher
praying this little short
prayer, it was the
people all got together and
prayed aloud. And not like we
are now. God can't
understand all that
conglomeration. I always tell the
folks, I'm not
the oldest in the city praying. God hears everybody
at the same time. [ Ralph Wilkerson ]
Did they have Bible
reading there too? Oh, we had scripture
lessons and... [ Ralph Wilerson ]
Everybody brought
their Bible? Everybody. You knew a Pentecostal
person regardless of where you saw, whether
he was going to work, or going to a picnic. They always had a Bible. And they didn't put it
in their purse or in a briefcase. They had it out so
it could be seen. Now what about the
singing now? Oh the singing was
always so grand. But one little song
is just...well it's so wonderful for me. It's "never will I
forget the day 'twas in a gospel hall". [ Ralph Wilkerson ]
Is it the one
you wrote? You
wrote a song? Why don't you
sing it for us? [ Dr. Synan ]
Could you sing it? I believe both
of you can. Start it, Lawrence. ♪♪ Never will I forget
the day ♪♪ ♪♪ 'twas in a gospel hall. ♪ ♪♪ very deep
contrition. ♪♪ ♪♪ I, on the
Lord, did call. ♪♪ ♪♪ He did not
let me call in vain. ♪♪ ♪♪ but he washed
my sins away. ♪♪ ♪♪ And from that hour, He gave
me power and I know♪♪ ♪♪ that
He dwells within. ♪♪ ♪♪ Glory to God for
He dwells within my soul ♪♪ ♪♪ Praise is His name. ♪ ♪♪ He's made
me fully whole. ♪♪ ♪♪ Glory to God from
His side ♪♪ ♪♪ I'll never depart ♪ ♪♪ For Jesus my Savior is the
joy of my heart. ♪♪ I feel that. She was holding my
hand behind my back. Was she really? Oh that's powerful. Thank God. Would these
people happy? [Together] Oh yes. Would they shout and
raise their hands and
praise the
Lord? Praise the Lord.
Yes, praise. It seems as
those times in my young days,
we would come in
and it looked like you could
just feel the power of God
in the atmosphere. Oh yes. And tears
would run down
and drop off our
chin and
everything. The power of God
was just here, a mighty power. People, young children,
girls and boys... Girls mostly would get up
and sing under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and
grown men would cry like babies under
conviction. What about this
water baptism
service? Were you
baptized? Oh yes. We were
baptized. We went down to the
Pacific Ocean, down in Terminal
Island and there were
always like a couple hundred people
that were baptized and I was baptized. They had to carry me out
but I was baptized there in the Pacific Ocean. Oh it was wonderful. Seventy years ago? That sounds like
the Jesus Revival now, doesn't it? Yes, yes. What about
this great movement that was
going on and I
just felt that... Why did it
all break up? Why the
divisions?
Was it over
doctrine? Over doctrine
because men got
proud and felt like
they could do
things instead of the Holy
Spirit doing
things. And anytime man
gets so proud like
they did at that particular
time, it just breaks up
something. But thank God, it
doesn't break up the love of God. Was there love in
this group? Oh yes, yes... just beautiful
love. All different
nationalities. All different
nationalities. You never knew
what you were. Whether you were black,
white green or grizzly. And Dr. Synan,
you were asking a question a
while ago about
emotionalism. Remember how they
control their
meetings? Elder Seymour
had a way of knowing when something was
not of the Lord and controlling that. What did you say
when he was
upstairs? He would stomp
his feet and just stomp his
feet and they
knew somebody
would get it and say,
stand up
and say: "The Spirit isn't
right in this place". And if they couldn't
stop it, pretty soon Elder Seymour
would come down
and he would pray, he would just pray
until the Spirit
of God just calmed everything
down so beautiful
that it was just wonderful
how he calm... What about these
evil spirits?... Well the evil
spirits would
come, they would come
but God had a way
that through these ministers
and Reverend
Seymour, they pled the blood
of Jesus. It was the blood
of Jesus that
calmed these spirits and
put them out
of the way. And didn't they
sing a lot of songs
about the blood? Oh yes, the
blood, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Under the blood, the
precious blood Under
the cleansing... My mother, by the
way, she used to sing under the blood
so much, we had an
old parrot that he sang
under the blood. [Laughs]
really? That old
parrot, yes. He sang under
the blood, the
precious
blood, yes. What about these
missionaries? Did they go all
over the world? They did. They
went all over the
world and they went
because they
were called and people
believed that
they were called. They went and
they came back
and they brought wonderful
reports of how
God saved the
heathen people and how
they were
brought into the
kingdom of God. How did they
receive the
baptism of the Holy
Spirit? Would they lay
hands on them or
would they receive the
baptism and speak
with tongues back in the
audience? Or did they
have a tarrying
room or what? Well they had a
room upstairs called the upper room
where you went to tarry for the Holy Spirit but
we could not control the Spirit of God. Sometimes a person would
receive the Holy Ghost right in the audience
without even an altar call. Just stand right up and
began speaking in other tongues as the Spirit
gave utterance and sometimes that
happened in conversion. Person would get under
the conviction and submit themselves
to the Lord. I maintain you don't
have to come to a specific place
called an altar. You give up in your
heart and the Lord will save you then there,
wherever you are. But Doctor, I was
so amazed that the same language
problem was
broken down and people were
converted
because they heard the
language here at
this spot. Yes. Did you
actually hear
people speaking in
Chinese... Chinese Russian Russian, yes. Black people,
red people. They spoke
languages, not
gibberish but real languages and Japanese, and
those people would come in and hear them
speak in their language and they would be
under conviction. And they
insisted that
it'd be a language that
would flow and sound like a
language... That' s right. Now the person
didn't know
this language. No oh no,
no, no, no. They hadn't
learned it. One things,
Brethren,
we have missed in the
beginning
particularly. A lot of these
people came off
the streets from gambling
houses and harlot,
places of harlotry, they
didn't know about
church work. They came from
many distances,
didn't they? There is a train
station over there
and over here is the bus
station. Yes. And how far did
you say people
traveled? Oh blocks and
blocks and sometimes, they
would come all
the way from Pasadena and all
these little
outlining cities... Where did you
from? I came from
Watts. We lived in Watts
and we came and we,
many of time, we walk as
Lawrence says,
we walked half way up
here in order
to get here. To get to what? To get to Azusa
street, Sunday
school. Oh, that's good. Yes. Sunday school
was wonderful. You mean the
children loved Sunday school,
children loved because the
teachers loved it. I'm interested in
the children in
this revival. What happened to them? They were saved. well, did they... They were saved,
really saved,
yeah. They got saved and
filled with the
Holy Ghost and
they sat down in
church and just enjoyed the service
like any of the
older people. Who did they
sit with? They sat with
their parents and
sometimes they all sat
together but we
didn't talk. Did any of
them prophecy? Yes, they
prophesied,
spoke in tongues
and prophecied How did they
sound when they
prophesied? Just like
older people. You mean it was
a mature word? Yes real
words. They prophesied
and God knew and
we knew that God was
using them. [ Dr. Gene Bailey]
Wow, wasn't not a
wonderful piece of old film that we
were able to show you today. That was done like
I believe in 1975. Of course, Lawrence
Catley and Maddy Cummings have all gone
on to see Jesus now and so but what, what
a wonderful
testimony of what God
does with
kids! Now you
noticed when
they were
talking about... There are a few things
I want to go back and point out. One is the kids
were getting saved. They were drawn to the
Revival to see what was going on in there and
they were getting saved in the midst of it and
then they were getting filled with the Baptism
of the Holy Spirit and they were speaking
in other tongues. And then, did you hear
them talk, I think it was Maddy talking
about just how much language... How many languages
were being... and she talked about
perfect Chinese and Mandarin and Russian and
all these languages that were being spoken and
of course, we know from history, the
Armenians that
were there,
they were hearing their
languages
perfectly. God has a
way. When He does
it, I mean He
does it right. He's pour out
His Spirit on
all flesh
just like He said there back
in Acts chapter 2. He's doing it and
he's doing it again. I wanted you to see
that special interview because I love the way
they talked about it so many years later. I mean, it was almost
fifty years later when that...or seventy years
later when they were able to actually talk
about and you see how they were recalled
their memories. That was quite an impression
for a young child. Seventy years later
to be able to hear and remember what God did
with them as children. Well, and as you heard,
the gentleman there, Lawrence... He went on to pastor
a church and Maddy continued to
serve God till
she went on to
heaven. But what a
heritage, what
a heritage and I know you
enjoyed hearing
that and of
course, Vincent Synan
and Ralph
Wilkerson doing the interview there. What a great piece of
film history that was there talking
about Azusa Street. You know we've talked
about Frank Bartleman and there was a story
about Frank during the Revival when
he went to... One day he went
to the Revival. And I know we talked a
little bit in a previous broadcast about you
know presumption. You couldn't be
presumptive and people couldn't take the
platform if they weren't hearing from God. And they would either
they would forget what they were talking about,
they had to go sit down or they would get up
and not be able to talk. Or even some went
temporary blinded, I mean...This was
so precious of an environment and
an atmosphere. Things just couldn't
happen of their own. You know nobody knew, he
never published--coming up next week, I'll
be talking about your righteousness in Christ. No. There was no
advertising. There were none other
than the word of mouth advertising that went
from person to person. Frank Bartleman was out
still telling people on the street corners about
the revival and so were many, many, many others
talking about what God was doing. But one night, Frank
Bartleman was on...He had a spat with his wife
and he was on his way to the revival. And he left and he
stormed out of the house and walked over there
to Azusa street to go to the meeting that night. Got just a few feet from
the door and got knocked down. What is this? So he gets up, takes a
step back, looks around, goes back and gets
knocked back again. So, the third time he
gets back and he goes: I got to get a running
start, whatever is knocking me down. So, he gets a
running start. Bam! Right back on his
backside again. He goes, God
what's going on? He told him, "You better
go home and make things right with your wife
before you enter in". You want to go to this
meeting where there is Revival going on and
God is inside there. You better get
your heart right. So He sent him back home
and so Frank Bartleman went all away
back home, made
up with his
wife where he could
come back and go
to the Revival. How wonderful
it would be if
we all had
that same
experience. I know I wonder how many
of us would be able to enter a church
sometimes, you know if we didn't make things
right, you know. So get things right, get
your heart right to be able to enter in to the
Revival and be where God is. Amen. Wow, you know Azusa, there are
stories after stories. If you want to read
about stories on what happened there with
those children as told to Tommy Welchel, he has
a book out about stories from the great revivals
of Azusa Street. I suggest you
go online and
see if you could
get that book. It's
wonderful
reading. It will stir
your heart and
your spirit
man to see and hear what God
did among the
children there in Azusa Street. You know, one thing that
is so interesting to me in my own life as I've
shared with you before, God did a thing with me
when I was eight years old, and eleven years
old in a couple of meetings, that was
huge for my life. And I remember it
like it was yesterday. Now it hasn't been
seventy years but I can see how those indelible
markings of God making a point in your life has
its effect on who you are
as you get older. You don't forget
when God shows up. You don't forget
when things happen. You know, we've talked
about some of the failures of Charles
Parham and the
failures there at Azusa
Street. But Charles Parham
actually for a
while, he did one thing
very interesting. He actually--when
missionaries would
come through, missionaries would
come through to go out on the
mission field. He would actually send
them, I guess, as a clearing house or go
get as a more like a gas station, a
filling station... go over to the Azusa
revival and get touched and see what's going on
there and then go out. Oh my, the stories
that have come as missionaries came
through and then went out and spread what
they heard and saw and experienced at
the Azusa Revival. So many things have
happened since then. Right now there is not
really anything there. There is no Azusa Street
mission or Apostolic Faith Mission there
on Azusa Street. You have to look and
find it but it's not just about the place and
I love something that Lawrence said right
there in that interview is you don't have to
get to a place to get with God. You don't have to have
an experience only if you got to get to a
certain thing and jump through
certain hoops. You can have it right
where you are at, right now, right where
you are sitting. So I want to pray with
you just here in these last couple
of minutes. Father, Sir, I just ask
you to touch each person watching this
program right now. No matter what time of
day it is, Lord, that you would just minister
in their lives. Lord, create a hunger in us,
feed that hunger that we are able to seek
you and search for our own personal revival Lord, as
You speak to these people. Show us your direction
in Your ways as we open ourselves up to you and we open ourselves up
to the Holy Spirit. Father, I thank you for
you're doing in each person's life, in
Jesus name, amen. Now that was a
very simple prayer. All I want you to do
is reach out and accept that prayer as your own. Yes, Lord, create in
me a new heart, if that what needs to happen. Create in me that
revival, that own personal revival
that I need to be able to get back. Maybe you need to get back to
where you once were. Maybe you are in church
earlier in your life and you came across this
program just because it was talking about
old things... and you saw
that old film. Listen, God has a plan
for your life and these are the last days. In the last days, He is
going to pour out His Spirit on all flesh
and that includes you. That includes you. Amen, amen. Listen, we want
you to go to
our Facebook
page there and
follow us on
Twitter and
all of our social media,
you will see
some things up
there. We've got
some great
guests. We are
actually going
to interview
live here that they are going
to come in the
next few
weeks. You're going
to want to
make sure you
are a part and I have so
much more to
talk about:
Azusa, Wales,
Armenian
revival... Oh my goodness, the
great prayer
revival of 1857. We have so much
to talk about. You are not
going to want
to miss an
episode. But if you have
missed, here is
what you need
to do. Go sign up on
the website and download the
show notes. Get the show
notes because
they will have a lot of the
details and
the facts that
you can keep in your
own... create your own
library so that
you can go back and then be
encouraged. If you are like
me, the more I
go back and read about these
things that
happened, and watch old
clips like the
one we saw. Man, it's
exciting
because it's
real and it gets down in your
spirit and you
know, man, thank you God for
what You are
doing and what You
are going to
do. And then you can go
out affect your
world and you can be the
one. I'll see you
next time.
