William Seymour - Azusa Street Papers - Apostolic Faith (1906-1908)

From the Editor

The following collection includes the full text of the Apostolic Faith Magazine, as originally published.

If you have been blessed by this volume, you may also be interested in some of our other Christian Classics Treasury collections:

Missions Classics:

• Classic Missions Texts ( Murray, Allen, Carey, Zwemer )
• 3 Missionary Classics, Vol 1 (Amy Carmichael, Hudson Taylor, John Paton)
• 3 Missionary Classics, Vol 2 ( Lull, Brainerd, Carey )
• David Livingstone Collection (5-in-1)
  

Classic Biographies:

• 10 Early Christian Saints
• The Top 5 Christian Classic Autobiographies (Augustine, Bunyan, Guyon, Finney, Muller)
• Five Christian Classic Biographies (Brainerd, McCheyne, Muller, Carey, Booth)

Classic Collections:

• The Top 7 Prayer Classics
• The Top 7 Classics on Holiness
• The Top 7 Catholic Classics
• The Top 7 Rules & Exercises of the Christian Faith
• The Top 5 Classics of Devotion (St Augustine, Kempis, Bro Lawrence, Smith, Sheldon)
• The Top 5 Classics on the Holy Spirit
• The Top 5 Christian Classics on Power
• The Top 5 Classics on Revival
  

Early C hristian Classics:

• The Didache (Teaching of the 12 Apostles)
• Sketches of Jewish Social Life ( Edersheim )
• The Temple-Its Ministry and Service ( Edersheim )
• Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia (Ramsay)
• St Paul the Traveller (Ramsay)

Preachers and Revivalists:

• Charles Spurgeon: 40 sermons on Prayer
• Charles Spurgeon: Lectures to My Students
• The George Muller Collection
• The Revival Writings of Jonathan Edwards (7-in-1)
• The Works of Catherine Booth (7-in-1)
• The Works of Charles Finney
• The Works of D. L. Moody
• The Works of R. A. Torrey
• The Works of William Booth
• The Works of Jeanne Guyon
• The Best of Henry Drummond
• The Azusa Street Papers

Azusa Pictures

Note from the Editor: Below are a few illustrations from Azusa Street and the original Apostolic Faith Magazine.

1. The first edition of The Apostolic Faith, September 1906.

2. Headline in the Los Angeles Daily Times regarding the revival, calling it a Weird Babel of Tongues (April 18, 1906)

3. William Seymour, the main leader of the Azusa Street revival

4. A photo of the mission on 312 Azusa Street

Vol. 1.1 Pentecost Has Come

THE APOSTOLIC FAITH

Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.Jude 3

Vol. I. No. 1 Los Angeles, Cal., September, 1906 Subscription Free

Pentecost Has Come.

Los Angeles Being Visited by a Revival of Bible Salvation and Pentecost as Recorded in the Book of Acts

The power of God now has this city agitated as never before. Pentecost has surely come and with it the Bible evidences are following, many being converted and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues as they did on the day of Pentecost. The scenes that are daily enacted in the building on Azusa Street and at Missions and churches in other parts of the city are beyond description, and the real revival has only started, as God has been working with His children mostly, getting them through to Pentecost, and laying the foundation for a mighty wave of salvation among the unconverted.

The meetings are held in an old Methodist church that had been converted in part into a tenement house, leaving a larger unplastered, barn-like room on the ground floor. Here about a dozen congregated each day, holding meetings on Bonnie Brae in the evening. The writer attended a few of these meetings and being so different from anything he had seen and not hearing any speaking in tongues, he branded the teaching as third-blessing heresy, and thought that settled it. It is needless to say the writer was compelled to do a great deal of apologizing and humbling himself to get right with God.

In a short time God began to manifest His power and soon the building could not contain the people. Now the meetings continue all day and into the night and the fire is kindling all over the city and surrounding towns. Proud, well-dressed preachers come in to "investigate." Soon their high looks are replaced with wonder, then conviction comes, and very often you will find them in a short time wallowing on the dirty floor, asking God to forgive them and make them as little children.

It would be impossible to state how many have been converted, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost. They have been and are daily going out to all points of the compass to spread this wonderful gospel.

BRO. SEYMOURS CALL.

Bro. W. J. Seymour has the following to say in regard to his call to this city:

"It was the divine call that brought me from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles. The Lord put it in the heart of some of the saints in Los Angeles to write to me that she felt the Lord would have me come over here and do a work, and l came, for I felt it was the leading of the Lord. The Lord sent the means, and I came to take charge of a mission on Santa Fe Street, and one night they locked the door against me, and afterwards got Bro. Roberts, the president of the Holiness Association, to come down and settle the doctrine of the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, that it was simply sanctification. He came down and a good many holiness preachers with him, and they stated that sanctification was the baptism with the Holy Ghost. But yet they did not have the evidence of the second chapter of Acts, for when the disciples were all filled with the Holy Ghost, they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. After the president heard me speak of what the true baptism of the Holy Ghost was, he said he wanted it too, and told me that when I had received it to let him know. So I received it and let him know. The beginning of the Pentecost started in a cottage prayer meeting at 214 Bonnie Brae."

LETTER FROM BRO. PARHAM.

Bro. Chas. Parham, who is God's leader in the Apostolic Faith Movement, writes from Tonganoxie, Kansas, that he expects (D.V.) to be in Los Angeles Sept. 15. Hearing that Pentecost had come to Los Angeles, he writes, "I rejoice in God over you all, my children, though I have never seen you; but since you know the Holy Spirit's power, we are baptized by one Spirit into one body. Keep together in unity till I come, then in a grand meeting let all prepare for the outside fields. I desire, unless God directs to the contrary, to meet and to see all who have the full gospel when I come."

THE OLD-TIME PENTECOST.

This work began about five years ago last January, when a company of people under the leadership of Chas. Parham, who were studying God's word, tarried for Pentecost in Topeka, Kan. After searching through the country everywhere, they had been unable to find any Christians that had the true Pentecostal power. So they laid aside all commentaries and notes and waited on the Lord, studying His word, and what they did not understand they got down before the bench and asked God to have wrought out in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. They had a prayer tower from which prayers were ascending night and day to God. After three months, a sister who had been teaching sanctification for the baptism with the Holy Ghost, one who had a sweet, loving experience and all the carnality taken out of her heart, felt the Lord lead her to have hands laid on her to receive the Pentecost. So when they prayed, the Holy Ghost came in great power and she commenced speaking in an unknown tongue. This made all the Bible school hungry, and three nights afterward, twelve students received the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, and cloven tongues could be seen upon their heads. They then had an experience that measured up with the second chapter of Acts, and could understand the first chapter of Ephesians.