From the Editor
Greetings to all in the name of Jesus! It is with great excitement that we present another special edition of The Heartbeat of the Remnant. In this issue we’ve chosen to highlight the Lancaster Revival of 1951. The front and back covers are both pictures from this revival. Preparing for this article was full of a lot of excitement and surprises. I had the opportunity to interview several people who were present at the revivals, and each one of them had something interesting to say. I combed through the newspapers and other resource materials at the Lancaster library and even in the basement of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society. All the newspaper clippings were interesting, but I think my favorite one was the headline from the front page of the Lancaster paper, “Revival Meeting Leads Boy to Confess $10,000 Barn Fire!”
The Historical Society proved to be the most successful collection of information. As I had looked at the Lancaster revival in the past, I had never before noticed what a place prayer had in the preparation of the revival. In most all of the historic revivals that I had read about in the past, prayer was a definite initiating factor. In the basement of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, I found more than I could have ever dreamed of. I found a few articles in old issues of the “Gospel Herald” that gave an overwhelming witness to the place of prayer in this revival. I was very blessed by what I found there. I hope they were equally blessed with my presence there… You see, I had decided to bring my three-year-old son John Wesley along the day I visited. I showed him the door with the clear sign “Quiet please”, and he said, “Okay, Daddy.” It was indeed very quiet in there. A man was there, Jacob Stahl, who I started to talk to at the help desk. I soon found out that when Jacob was a young man, he was at the revivals himself. But while we were talking—not more than three minutes—my three-year-old had discovered a nifty-looking red lever and proceeded to pull the fire alarm! Every siren and light started flashing, and in a few short minutes, even the fire department showed up! Luckily, they were very kind and even offered my son a tour of one of the fire trucks. All in all, it turned out to be a small distraction and I soon was able to continue with the purpose for my visit.
For those of you “history buffs”, you might be
interested to know that the Lancaster revival started across the
street from the East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church. This church
sits on the corner of East Chestnut and Sherman streets, next
door to what is now a Turkey Hill convenience store. They then
moved to the corner of Manheim Pike, between Service Road and
Steelway. For a landmark, that’s a bit behind the Home
Depot store. Also, notice that the Lancaster Pump building
is virtually unchanged since the 1951 picture.
Who are we? The Heartbeat of the Remnant is a quarterly magazine of Charity Ministries of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Starting out as an outreach newsletter, The Heartbeat of the Remnant has now grown to reach thousands of readers all across the globe. Springing from the rich Anabaptist heritage of Lancaster County, Charity Christian Fellowship has endeavored to maintain a strong biblical orthodoxy with a genuine heart-cry for revival and radical Christian living. While maintaining an Anabaptist direction overall, the magazine does not desire to lift up any specific denomination, church or man. We desire only to glorify the name of Jesus.
The magazine features articles from a wide variety of Christian sources, ranging from ancient to modern-day testimonies. We frequently reprint articles from revival preachers and histories, missionary stories, early Christian trials and martyrs, challenging Puritan writers and Methodist circuit riders, as well as modern-day preachers. We hope you will be blessed and inspired by this special edition of The Heartbeat of the Remnant!
~Bro. Dean Taylor
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