Pentecost to the Present – Book Two Reformations and Awakenings, Jeff Oliver: By the 1670’s, New England Puritan leaders began calling out for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to revive their languishing churches. Samuel Torrey, pastor at Weymouth, Massachusetts, began raising doubts as to whether the churches’ reform efforts were even possible without an effusion of the Holy Spirit and proactive prayer for revival. In 1705, Samuel Danforth, Jr. wrote: ‘We are much encouraged by an unusual and amazing Impression, made by God’s Spirit on all Sorts among us, especially on the young Men and Women.’ Danforth said he had no time for his regular pastoral duties because of constant visits from young people seeking salvation and believed it to be a sign of greater things to come. He said, ‘I think sometimes that the Time of the pouring out of the Spirit upon all Flesh, may be at the Door.’ In 1713, Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, Massachusetts, grandfather of Jonathan Edwards, wrote, ‘The Spirit of the Lord must be poured out upon the People, else Religion will not revive.’ He believed seasons of revival characterized by special outpourings of the Spirit were necessary to quicken believers’ faith, convert sinners, and make disinterested people interested in the things of God. In 1721, Samuel Whiting’s church in Windham (now Maine) saw eighty new people join the church in six months. Observing this, another minister wrote, ‘Pray that the Spirit may be poured out from on High on every part of the land.’ Then in 1727, an earthquake rocked New England. Suddenly churches everywhere were being filled with anxious people seeking salvation as church leaders began wondering if this was not the nature of all revivals to happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Revival did ensue but not for long.