Memoirs of Charles Finney Summary: A Chapter-by-Chapter Guide
The Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney is the story of the revivals Finney took part in, told by Finney himself. He wrote it at Oberlin when he was in his seventies, at the request of the college's trustees, finished it around 1868, and left it to his family. It was published in 1876, the year after he died. In 36 chapters he tells of his conversion in 1821, his first preaching in the villages of northern New York, the revivals in Oneida County, Philadelphia, Rochester and New York City, his move to Oberlin, and later work in Boston, England and Scotland.
He says at the start that this isn't really an autobiography. He wrote it to set down what was preached in those revivals, what methods were used and what came of them, because so much had been said about them that wasn't true. So the book is mostly revival history, with his own life as the thread.
Below is a guide to every chapter, with links into the free Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney in TheWay Library. For the life in short form, see Who was Charles Finney?
Before the chapters
Preface. The editors explain that Finney left the manuscript to his family, that his children gave it to Oberlin College, and that they have printed it essentially as he wrote it.
Adams: conversion and call (chapters 1–4)
Chapter 1: Birth and Early Education. Finney explains why he is writing. He was born in Connecticut in 1792 and grew up on the New York frontier with little religion. As a law student in Adams he bought his first Bible, argued with Pastor George W. Gale, and was troubled by a church that prayed for revival without expecting an answer.
Chapter 2: Conversion to Christ. The best-known chapter. He prays in the woods on October 10, 1821, comes back to the village in deep peace, and that evening in the law office receives what he calls "a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost." We tell this chapter in his own words in Charles Finney's conversion.
Chapter 3: Beginning of His Work. The next morning he tells a client he has "a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause," gives up the law and starts talking to people in Adams about their souls. Many are converted, his own parents among them soon after. He tells of early lessons in prevailing prayer.
Chapter 4: His Doctrinal Education and Other Experiences at Adams. He studies theology under Gale and they disagree, mainly over the atonement. He is licensed by the presbytery, where he first meets Daniel Nash, "Father Nash."
Preaching in northern New York (chapters 5–11)
Chapter 5: Preaching as a Missionary. With a six-month commission from a women's missionary society, he goes to Evans' Mills and preaches in schoolhouses and barns. A tavern keeper is converted and holds prayer meetings in his bar-room.
Chapter 6: Revival at Evans' Mills and Its Results. He preaches to a German settlement nearby. He lists the doctrines he preached and answers ministers who disliked his plain style.
Chapter 7: Remarks upon Ministerial Education. An aside, written as an old man, on how ministers should preach: without written sermons, in the language of everyday life, as earnestly as a fire captain calling to his men, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 8: Revival at Antwerp. He finds the meeting-house locked and religion at a low ebb. In a schoolhouse meeting so many are struck under conviction that he has to stop preaching.
Chapter 9: Return to Evans' Mills. He marries in October 1824 and goes back for his wife's goods, but revival at Perch River and nearby towns keeps him there for months. He sends someone else with his horse and cutter to fetch her.
Chapter 10: Revival at Gouverneur. Father Nash joins him. Leading men are converted, among them a sceptic. A dispute over baptism stalls the work for six weeks until Finney preaches on the subject and the revival starts again.
Chapter 11: Revival at De Kalb. He works to heal ill feeling between Methodists and Presbyterians, and an elder is changed after resolving never to say anything to God in prayer he didn't mean.
The Western Revivals (chapters 12–17)
Chapter 12: Revival at Western. Coming back from a synod in Utica in 1825, he stops at Western, where Gale now lives. The revivals that spread from here, and the cry of "new measures" against them, begin.
Chapter 13: Revival at Rome. With Pastor Gillett, he sees a powerful work in which the town's meetings are crowded and many are converted in a short time.
Chapter 14: Revival at Utica. The revival in Mr. Aiken's church, the conversion of Theodore Weld, and the cotton mill whose owner stops the machines so the workers can attend to religion.
Chapter 15: Revival at Auburn in 1826. He meets organized opposition from ministers who know him only by report, and finds comfort in prayer that God would overrule it.
Chapter 16: Revival at Troy, and at New Lebanon. Revival in Troy, and the convention at New Lebanon where Lyman Beecher, Asahel Nettleton and other eastern ministers meet Finney and his supporters to discuss the revivals.
Chapter 17: Revival in Stephentown. A young woman begs him to come to her town. He goes, and he describes it as a revival with very little opposition.
The cities (chapters 18–23)
Chapter 18: Revivals at Wilmington and Philadelphia. He works with Old School ministers in Delaware and Philadelphia, and notes how often people under conviction had been taught to wait for God instead of repenting.
Chapter 19: Revival at Reading, Pennsylvania. He keeps pressing against the teaching that sinners can do nothing, tells of a lawyer who thought there was no hope for him, and then goes briefly to Lancaster.
Chapter 20: Revival in Columbia, and in New York City. A German church in Columbia, New York, then meetings in New York City in Prince and Vandewater streets, where Lewis Tappan and others become his supporters.
Chapter 21: Revival in Rochester, 1830. The best-known revival in the book. It reaches many of Rochester's lawyers and leading families, and Finney explains why he began using the "anxious seat."
Chapter 22: Revivals in Auburn, Buffalo, Providence, and Boston. Worn out, he keeps going: Auburn again in 1831, Buffalo, Providence and his first work in Boston.
Chapter 23: Labors in New York City in 1832, and Onward. He pastors a church in the Chatham Street theater, stays through the cholera of 1832, designs the Broadway Tabernacle and gives the lectures later printed as Lectures on Revivals of Religion. In 1835 he accepts the call to teach theology at Oberlin, on condition that Black students be admitted on the same terms as white.
Oberlin and the later revivals (chapters 24–33)
Chapter 24: Early Labors in Oberlin. Students arrive from Lane Seminary, a financial crash leaves the college in debt, and friends in England help. He writes of a season of spiritual refreshing and of how the subject of sanctification came to be studied at Oberlin.
Chapter 25: Labors in Boston and Providence. The anti-slavery cause at Oberlin, the town's place on the Underground Railroad, and revivals in Providence and Boston.
Chapter 26: The Revival in Rochester in 1842. Stopping in Rochester for a day's rest, he stays to preach. A judge who had opposed the anxious seat asks to be prayed for by name.
Chapter 27: Another Winter in Boston. Boston in 1843, stirred up by William Miller's prediction of Christ's return. Finney tells of a deep personal consecration and the rest in God that followed.
Chapter 28: First Visit to England. He sails with his wife in 1849 and preaches in Houghton, Birmingham, Worcester and London.
Chapter 29: Labors in the Tabernacle, Moorfields, London. Nine months in Dr. Campbell's large chapel, with great numbers of inquirers.
Chapter 30: Labors in Hartford and in Syracuse. After returning home in 1851 he works in Hartford and Syracuse.
Chapter 31: Labors in Western and in Rome, 1854-5. He goes back to where the Western Revivals began, and tells stories of confession and restitution.
Chapter 32: Revival in Rochester in 1856. A third Rochester revival, with a course of lectures to the city's lawyers and judges. He also writes on what is and isn't "disorder" in meetings.
Chapter 33: Revivals in Boston in 1856-57-58. Boston again, the businessmen's prayer meeting, and the great revival of 1857 and 1858 across the Northern states.
England, Scotland and home (chapters 34–36)
Chapter 34: Second Visit to England. He sails at the end of 1858 and works in Houghton, St. Ives, London and Huntingdon.
Chapter 35: Labors in England and Scotland. Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Bolton and Manchester, and the voyage home in August 1860.
Chapter 36: Work at Home. Revival work among Oberlin's students and townspeople. The narrative stops here.
Conclusion. The editors tell of his last years and his death at Oberlin on August 16, 1875.
How to read it
The Memoirs is long, about 168,000 words. If you're short on time, read chapters 1 to 3 for his conversion and call, chapter 7 for his view of preaching, and chapter 21 for Rochester. A selection of lines from across the book is on our Charles Finney quotes page.
Some readers in his day disagreed with Finney's theology and his methods, and the Memoirs doesn't hide that. He names his critics and answers them in his own words. Whatever a reader thinks of those debates, the book is a firsthand record of the revivals of the 1820s and 1830s from the man at the center of many of them.
Read the Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney free online. Finney's other books in the library are Lectures to Professing Christians and Sermons on the Way of Salvation.