Charles Finney Quotes from His Memoirs, with Chapters
RevivalPrayerPreachingBiography
Charles Finney said a lot of memorable things, and plenty of quotes credited to him online can't be traced to anything he wrote. The ones below are different. Every one is copied word for word from the Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney, the story of his life he wrote in his seventies, and each comes with its chapter so you can read it in context.
They're grouped by subject: his conversion, prayer, preaching, revival and the Christian life. For the story behind them, see Who was Charles Finney?
On his conversion
Finney was converted in the woods outside Adams, New York, in October 1821. The full account is in Charles Finney's conversion, and these lines come from it.
“Will you accept it now, to-day?” I replied, “Yes; I will accept it to-day, or I will die in the attempt.”
Memoirs, chapter 2
Salvation, it seemed to me, instead of being a thing to be wrought out, by my own works, was a thing to be found entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ, who presented himself before me as my God and my Saviour.
Memoirs, chapter 2
As he knelt in the woods, a verse from Jeremiah came to mind, and he took hold of it:
I had intellectually believed the Bible before; but never had the truth been in my mind that faith was a voluntary trust instead of an intellectual state.
Memoirs, chapter 2
If I am ever converted, I will preach the Gospel.
Memoirs, chapter 2
That evening, alone in the law office:
Indeed it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love; for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God.
Memoirs, chapter 2
On leaving the law
The next morning a client came to remind him of a ten o'clock trial. This is probably the best-known line in the book.
I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause, and I cannot plead yours.
Memoirs, chapter 3
I had no longer any desire to practise law. Everything in that direction was shut up, and had no longer any attractions for me at all.
Memoirs, chapter 3
My whole mind was taken up with Jesus and his salvation
Memoirs, chapter 3
On prayer
Before he was converted, Finney was troubled that the church in Adams prayed for revival and never seemed to expect an answer. He told them so:
You have prayed enough since I have attended these meetings to have prayed the devil out of Adams, if there is any virtue in your prayers. But here you are praying on, and complaining still.
Memoirs, chapter 1
He came to believe their prayers weren't answered because they didn't pray in faith. All through the Memoirs he credits revivals to praying people more than to preaching. Of one long day of prayer at sea, on his way home from a trip abroad for his health, he writes:
The spirit of prayer came upon me as a sovereign grace, bestowed upon me without the least merit, and in despite of all my sinfulness.
Memoirs, chapter 23
On preaching
Finney preached without a manuscript, in everyday language, and the educated ministers of his day often criticized him for it. In chapter 7 he answers them.
The captain of a fire company, when a city is on fire, does not read to his company an essay, or exhibit a fine specimen of rhetoric, when he shouts to them and directs their movements.
Memoirs, chapter 7
So it always is when men are entirely in earnest. Their language is in point, direct and simple. Their sentences are short, cogent, powerful.
Memoirs, chapter 7
They often preach about the Gospel instead of preaching the Gospel.
Memoirs, chapter 7
He reports what ordinary hearers said about his own preaching:
Why it don’t seem like preaching; but it seems as if Mr. Finney had taken me alone, and was conversing with me face to face.
Memoirs, chapter 7
And he says what he believed every preacher may have:
All ministers may be, and ought to be, so filled with the Holy Spirit that all who hear them shall be impressed with the conviction
Memoirs, chapter 7
On revival
Some of the most striking scenes in the Memoirs come from ordinary places. Near Utica, a cotton mill was so moved that its owner stopped the machines and the workers met in the mill itself:
Stop the mill, and let the people attend to religion; for it is more important that our souls should be saved than that this factory run.
Memoirs, chapter 14
On why he began to call seekers forward in Rochester:
From my own experience and observation I had found, that with the higher classes especially, the greatest obstacle to be overcome was their fear of being known as anxious inquirers.
Memoirs, chapter 21
On error and conviction of sin:
I have learned, again and again, that a man needs only to be thoroughly convicted of sin by the Holy Ghost, to give up at once and forever, and gladly give up, Universalism and Unitarianism.
Memoirs, chapter 26
And on the charge that his meetings were disorderly:
Most churches call anything disorder to which they have not been accustomed. … But in fact nothing is disorder that simply meets the necessities of the people.
Memoirs, chapter 32
On the Christian life
In a winter in Boston in 1843 Finney went through a long season of searching his heart and giving everything to God. Afterward he wrote:
It seemed then to me that that passage, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” meant so much, that it was wonderful I had never understood it before. I found myself exclaiming, “Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!”
Memoirs, chapter 27
My bondage seemed to be, at that time, entirely broken; and since then, I have had the freedom of a child with a loving parent.
Memoirs, chapter 27
It seems to me that I can find God within me, in such a sense, that I can rest upon him and be quiet, lay my heart in his hand, and nestle down in his perfect will, and have no carefulness or anxiety.
Memoirs, chapter 27
How others saw him
The book closes with a short conclusion written by the editors after Finney died in 1875. They sum him up this way:
It presents him in the ruling purpose, and even passion of his life, as an evangelist, a preacher of righteousness.
Memoirs, Conclusion
Read the quotes in context
A quote is best read where it was written. Every line here is in the Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney, free to read online. Good places to start are chapter 2, on his conversion; chapter 7, on preaching; and chapter 27, on his experience in Boston. For a map of the whole book, see the Memoirs of Charles Finney summary.
Finney's teaching to church members is in Lectures to Professing Christians, and his gospel preaching in Sermons on the Way of Salvation. More on these subjects is under Revival and Prayer.