His sermons were chain lightning, flashing conviction into the hearts of the stoutest sceptics, and the links of his logic were so compact that they defied resistance.

Probably no minister in America ever numbered among his converts so many lawyers and men of intellectual culture.
Soon after commencing his law practice he was brought under the most intense conviction of sin; and the narrative of his conversion--as given in his autobiography--equals any chapter in John Bunyan's "Grace Abounding." After light and peace broke into his agonized soul, he burst into tears of joy, and exclaimed: "I am so happy that I cannot live," He began at once to converse with his neighbors about their souls.

When a certain Deacon B.came into his office and reminded him that his cause was to be tried at ten o'clock that morning, Mr.Finney replied, "Deacon B., I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead His cause, and cannot plead yours." The deacon was thunderstruck, and went off and settled his suit with his antagonist immediately.
From that time a law office was no place for the fervid spirit of Charles G.Finney, and he resolved at once to prepare for the ministry.
Revivals followed his red-hot discourses wherever he went.

At Auburn he declares that he had--during prayer in his own room--a wonderful vision in which God drew so near to him that his flesh trembled on his bones, and he shook from head to foot as if amid the thunderings of Sinai! He felt an assurance that God would sustain him against all his enemies; and then there came a "great lifting up," and a sweet calm followed after the agitation.

Such extraordinary spiritual experiences occurred quite often during his career as a revivalist, and they remind one strikingly of similar experiences of John Bunyan--to whom Finney bore a certain degree of resemblance.