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The focal point of the early Pentecostal revival which
began in 1906 was the Apostolic Faith Mission at 312 Azusa Street in Los
Angeles, California. Continuous meetings were held there every day for a
period of three years beginning in mid-April, 1906. This mission on Azusa
Street published the well-known newspaper, The Apostolic Faith, which was
one of the primary means by which news of the revival was spread,
beginning with the first issue, published in September of 1906. The editor
was William J. Seymour. The Apostolic Faith contains many accounts of
shaking, falling, speechlessness, drunkenness in the Spirit, and Holy
Laughter which took place during the early Pentecostal revival at Azusa
Street and elsewhere during the first few years of the revival. It would
be impossible to do an exhaustive study of this topic in the space of a
short article, but here are some representative quotations:
SHAKING AND TREMBLING
The lead article of the third issue of The Apostolic
Faith, published in November of 1906, is entitled "Bible Pentecost." Here
are a few excerpts:
The news has spread far and wide that Los Angeles is
being visited with a "rushing mighty wind from heaven." . . . One
brother stated that even before his train entered the city, he felt the
power of the revival. . . . There is such power in the preaching of the
Word in the Spirit that people are shaken on the benches. Coming to the
altar, many fall prostrate under the power of God, and often come out
speaking in tongues. Sometimes the power falls on people and they are
wrought upon by the Spirit during testimony or preaching and receive
Bible experiences. . . . The demonstrations are not the shouting,
clapping or jumping so often seen in camp meetings. There is a shaking
such as the early Quakers had and which the old Methodists called the
"jerks."
On the second page of the same issue, Glen A. Cook
provided his testimony, in which he wrote:
I could feel the power going through me like electric
needles. The Spirit taught me that I must not resist the power but give
way and become limp as a piece of cloth. When I did this, I fell under
the power, and God began to mold me and teach me what it meant to be
really surrendered to Him. I was laid out under the power five times
before Pentecost really came. Each time I would come out from under the
power, I would feel so sweet and clean, as though I had been run through
a washing machine. . . . My arms began to tremble, and soon I was shaken
violently by a great power, and it seemed as though a large pipe was
fitted over my neck, my head apparently being off. . . . About thirty
hours afterwards, while sitting in the meeting on Azusa Street, I felt
my throat and tongue begin to move, without any effort on my part. Soon
I began to stutter and then out came a distinct language which I could
hardly restrain. I talked and laughed with joy far into the night.
In the fourth issue (p. 4), G. W. Batman wrote, "I
received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire and now I feel the
presence of the Holy Ghost, not only in my heart but in my lungs, my
hands, my arms and all through my body and at times I am shaken like a
locomotive steamed up and prepared for a long journey."
William H. Durham recorded his testimony in the sixth
issue of The Apostolic Faith (February-March, 1907), p. 4, where he wrote:
On Friday evening, March 1, His mighty power came over
me, until I jerked and quaked under it for about three hours. It was
strange and wonderful and yet glorious. He worked my whole body, one
section at a time, first my arms, then my limbs, then my body, then my
head, them my face, then my chin, and finally at 1 a.m. Saturday, Mar.
2, after being under the power for three hours, He finished the work on
my vocal organs, and spoke through me in unknown tongues.
R. J. Scott, the superintendent of Home and Foreign
Missions in Winnipeg, Manitoba, wrote as follows in The Apostolic Faith
(February-March, 1907), p. 7:
After a trip of nearly 3500 miles, we arrived in Los
Angeles on Sunday morning, Nov. 29. I left my family at a hotel and
proceeded with my son on a search for Azusa Mission. After I was there a
short time, a lady got up and testified, and the power of God fell on
her and she began to tremble. . . . Well, glory to God, after this
sister trembled for a few minutes, she started to speak in an unknown
tongue to me, and to my surprise, after she had uttered a few sentences,
she spoke in English, giving the interpretation of what she said.
In the same issue (p. 8), Clara E. Lum of the Azusa Street
Mission wrote:
When I came to Azusa Mission, I went in for the baptism
with the Holy Ghost immediately. Had some digging to do, but the Lord
met me. I was filled with the Holy Ghost many times and was shaken many
times by the power of God.
In a report from San Francisco that appeared in issue no.
7 (April, 1907), p. 4, we read:
The power of God shook her so mightily that an elderly
lady friend, who had accompanied her to the meetings, was greatly
agitated and excited about it; she declared that sister was having a
fit, and said something ought to be done to relieve her. When told that
it was the power of God, and that the sister would come out all right,
she looked incredulous, and flew around in great excitement. Evidently
she had not seen it on this wise before. The sister did not return to
the meetings until Saturday night. . . . The sister was again shaken by
the mighty power of God. Her husband was sitting by her side, and was
evidently amazed; yet he recognized it as the power of God, though not
saved himself, he did not resist the power of God, nor try to hinder his
wife. When his wife went to the altar, still shaking under the mighty
power of God, he sat quietly in his seat, deeply moved by what was going
on.
On the same page of that issue, there was a report from
Spokane, Washington, according to which "little children received their
baptism and spoke in different languages. One Methodist minister and one
Advent minister received the baptism, and before they spoke in tongues
shook for some hours under the power of God."
SPEECHLESSNESS
In vol. 1, no. 5 (January 1907), p. 1, we read: "One who
received the Holy Ghost baptism in Clearwater, testified, 'It was in
morning worship. We read a chapter and I wanted to pray but the Lord tied
my mouth. The power began to come in waves. The Lord took full possession.
I fell over like a dead man. I was dead to the world. I tried to pray
while lying on the floor, but when my tongue was loosened, it was in a
different language."
In issue no. 7 (April, 1907), p. 4, the following was
reported from San Francisco:
On another night a Hawaiian brother was gloriously
converted. . . . The Hawaiian could not speak for some minutes after he
arose to his feet, the power of God was upon him to such an extent.
PREACHING BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE
One of the problems that people had to face during the
early Pentecostal revival was that, very often, they were affected so
strongly by the power of the Holy Spirit that preaching became impossible.
For example, in the December, 1906 issue of The Apostolic Faith (vol. 1,
no. 4), p. 3, the following announcement appeared:
Sister M. E. Judy writes from Columbus, Ohio, that they
have a tarrying meeting there and others in different towns are tarrying
with them in Spirit. She says, "Last Sunday a burden of prayer came upon
the people in our humble little church in such power that our minister
had no opportunity to preach, just said a few word on "This is that" and
closed.
Writing from Norway, A. A. Body wrote concerning T. B.
Barrat's meetings that "the meetings are liable at any moment to be swept
by a wave of spiritual power sweeping through all human arrangements. At
time the noise is strangely awesome, almost appalling to an 'outsider'"
(The Apostolic Faith, vol. 1, No. 6 [February-March, 1907], p. 1).
UNABLE TO MOVE
Levi R. Lupton wrote as follows from Alliance, Ohio, in
the sixth issue of The Apostolic Faith (February-March, 1907), p. 5:
I then became perfectly helpless and for a season my
entire body became cold, and I was unable to move even to the extent
that I could not wink an eye for a short time. Yet, I was perfectly
conscious and restful in my soul and mind. After some three hours the
power of God left my body except in my shoulders and arms, which
remained stiff during the entire time I was upon the floor.
DRUNKENNESS IN THE SPIRIT
Myrtle K. Shideler wrote as follows in the January, 1907
issue of THE The Apostolic Faith (p. 3):
By the time the chorus ended, the power of God was so
heavy upon me. I could scarcely open my mouth, and every fibre of my
being was trembling. Yet my feet felt glued to the floor and my knees
stiff, so I could not sit down. I only got out a few broken sentences
that I remember. (I never fainted in my life and was never unconscious,
but God certainly took me out of myself.) He showed me things which
there are not words enough in the English language to express. . . . I
was under the power the remainder of the meeting, and for three days was
as one drunken. . . . Since then, such waves of power roll over me from
time to time. I can scarcely keep my feet, and I am sure if my old
friends in California could see me, they would think I was indeed
insane.
Here's a report that appeared in The
Apostolic Faith, vol. 1, no. 10 (September, 1907):
Missionaries in China have been seeking
the baptism with the Holy Ghost ever since they received the first
Apostolic Faith papers from Los Angeles. One dear missionary, Brother B.
Berntsen from South Chih-li, Tai-Ming-Fu, North China came all the way
to Los Angeles to receive his Pentecost. And, bless God, he went to the
altar at Azusa Mission, and soon fell under the power, and arose drunk
on the new wine of the kingdom, magnifying God in a new tongue.
THROWN TO THE FLOOR
On January 29, 1907, T. B. Barratt wrote from Chistiania,
Norway that "One man was thrown on his back, a preacher, last Sunday
morning in the Students' Hall, and when he rose, he spoke in four
languages, one of these was English. He could speak none of them before"
(The Apostolic Faith, vol. 1, No. 6 [February-March, 1907], p. 1).
John Barclay, a policeman from Carlton, Melbourne,
Australia, wrote in the May, 1908 issue (vol. II, no. 12): "Presently some
mighty, marvelous unseen power took hold of me, and I was thrown downward
on the floor. Everything around me disappeared. The other friends were as
if they never existed. I saw the heavens opened and my previous Jesus
sitting on the throne. . . . [At another meeting,] about 1 o'clock a.m., a
brother laid hands on me, and I received my baptism. My hands, arms, and
whole body trembled greatly and I was thrown on the floor. All the others
were praising the Lord."
HOLY LAUGHTER
A. S. Copley of Cambridge, Ohio, was quoted by The
Apostolic Faith (January 1907), p. 4, as follows about a meeting that had
taken place on December 8, 1906 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hebden in
Toronto: "One young woman . . . laughed incessantly for hours and hours.
Sometimes she speaks in a tongue while at her work."
Henry Prentiss reported as follows in the May, 1907 issue
(vol. 1, no. 8, p. 4):
We went to the meeting where Bro. Blassco is. The Lord
wonderfully blest in the service, and one precious sinner was saved,
sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost. The Lord filled her mouth
with holy laugher and she spoke in new tongues and has been under His
power ever since, filled with joy and gladness.
The following month, A. A. Body wrote from England as
follows (vol. 1, no. 9, p. 1):
The next morning the Holy Ghost came in mighty power,
causing me to laugh as I had never done in my life.
A. A. Body's wife wrote something very similar in a later
issue (vol. 1, no. 11 [October 1907 to January 1908], p. 1):
After a long time of silent waiting upon Him, God gave
me a wonderful vision of Christ in the glory at the right hand of the
Father, and from Him came a wonderful light on to me, causing me to
laugh as I had never done before.
Here's another example, from vol II, NO. 13 (May, 1908),
p. 4:
Then the power fell. There were times when we were all
shouting, screaming and laughing together under the power of the Spirit.
A WARNING ABOUT INTERFERING WITH THESE MANIFESTATIONS
The ninth issue of The Apostolic Faith (September, 1907),
p. 4, published a warning from Kedgaon, India, about attempts to suppress
manifestations of this kind:
We do not need to worry over these manifestations, nor
seek to suppress them. it is fruit in the life and service that we want
to see [Emphasis in the original]. These manifestations do not hinder
fruit-bearing but we have seen over and over again during the past
fifteen months, that where Christian workers have suppressed these
manifestations, the Holy Spirit has been grieved, the work has stopped,
and no fruit of holy lives has resulted. Who are we to dictate to an
all-wise God as to how He shall work in anyone? When the Spirit is
poured out upon anyone in strong conviction, why should be well them
that it is wrong to cry? Because among idolaters the devil imitates the
trembling caused by the Holy Spirit when He comes in so as to overpower
the physical, why should we say that the person has worked it up or is
possessed by an evil spirit? The writer testifies that she has in the
silence of the midnight hour, alone in her room without a sound in the
house, been shaken from her innermost being, until her whole body was
convulsed, and filled with joy and consciousness that the Holy Spirit
had taken possession of every part of her being. No one had greater
prejudice against religious excitement that she, but every time she put
her hands upon the work at Mukti to suppress joy or strong conviction,
or reproved persons being strongly wrought upon in prayer, the work of
revival stopped, and she had to confess her fault before it went on
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