How to Experience the Higher Life

Most people who have heard something of Finney and his revivals do not realize that he experienced a complete overhaul in his relationship with God in the middle of his ministry. He was converted in 1821 and was used in revivals for the next fifty years perhaps more than any man since the times of the apostle Paul. Yet even though thousands were converted in the early years and displayed the remarkable piety, Finney did not see many converts experience the highest privileges that believers can experience through Jesus Christ. He went to Oberlin in the 1830's and while ministering there with President Asa Mahan they came to see that the experiences of Paul ought to be the experiences of all believers. Finney came to the fullness of this experience in his own life later in 1843 as we will see in the introduction. After this baptism his preaching was fuller and noticeably more heavenly. The selection of sermons therefore are after this time and illustrate the change in his doctrine and experience concerning the purification of the entire man, and the higher life. This book is composed of unaltered selections from Finney's Memoirs, miscellaneous sermons from The Oberlin Evangelist, and his 1851 Systematic Theology.