DANIEL NASH

PHIL NOORDMANS – WEST REGIONAL PASTOR

Most of us have heard of Charles Finney’s (1792-1875) and the Second Great Awakening, but we have not heard about Daniel Nash. When Nash was 48, he decided to give himself to prayer for Finney’s meetings.

“Father Nash,” as some called him, would quietly slip into a town three or four weeks before Finney’s arrival, rent a room, find two or three other like-minded Christians to join him, and start pleading with God. In one town the best room he could find was a dark, damp cellar; it became his center for intercession.[1]

Finney reported one of the secrets to the Great Awakening.
When I got to town to start a revival, a lady contacted me who ran a boarding house. She said, “Brother Finney, do you know a Father Nash? He and two other men have been at my boarding house for the last three days, but they have not eaten a bite of food. I opened the door and peeped in at them because I could hear them groaning, and I saw them down on their faces. They have been this way for three days, laying prostrate on the floor and groaning. I thought something awful must be happening to them. I was afraid to go in and I did not know what to do. Would you please come see about them?”

“No, it isn’t necessary,” I replied. “They just have a spirit of travail in prayer.”[2]

[1] Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, 174.
[2] Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, 175.