In 1898, a petition with over 15,000 signatures was sent to invite American evangelist D. L. Moody to come to Australia. But D. L. Moody was promoted to glory in 1899. Rueben A Torrey was sent in his place.
When R A Torrey arrived in 1902, 40,000 people were eagerly awaiting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The meetings were held in the Melbourne Town Hall and several theatres. At the same time, there were 50 mission centres with 50 local evangelists preaching in halls and 30 large tents. The meetings were packed. Eventually the numbers grew so big they had to move from the Town Hall to the Exhibition Hall. Weekly attendance across the city reached 250,000 . At that time, Melbourne had just 1.2 million people.
Nearly 9000 people became Christians. Whole families were brought to Christ. Many lives were completely changed. The police for sometime after in some areas had very little work to do. “The Big Revival has begun, glory be to God,” became how Christians greeted one another.
PASSIONAustralia.blog 