Life on Wings: The Forgotten Life and Theology of Carrie Judd Montgomery

Want to learn how to live effectively through revivals, be inspired by a healing revivalist who impacted the Divine Healing movement and early Pentecostalism, or learn what it was like to be a woman in ministry 100 years ago? 

Learn all about Carrie Judd Montgomery's inspiring legacy and get your copy of Life on Wings for $20 today! (USA orders only, all other international, please go through Amazon). All proceeds of book go towards the Destiny Healing Home that is based off of Carrie's healing home model.  

This book comes from 4 years of my PhD research. Here is an overview: Over the years, Christian historiography has overlooked Carrie Judd Montgomery’s (1858-1946) significant contribution to both the Divine Healing movement and Pentecostalism. Since the extent of her effect within both movements as a whole has been greatly unexamined, the purpose of this book is to recover her forgotten life and theology and to discover her impact. 

Montgomery’s healing account in 1879 and her early literature acted as a “Tipping Point” within American Evangelicalism to turn Christians from believing that it was good to suffer unto God, to them believing that God wanted to heal. Her healing homes were also among some of the earliest in the country. These things in addition to her early contribution to the formation of the doctrine of healing in the atonement make Montgomery one of the most influential people in the American Divine Healing movement. She additionally influenced early Pentecostalism. Following her 1908 tongues experience, Montgomery spread Pentecostal themes throughout her networks. She introduced many significant leaders to healing and the Pentecostal Spirit baptism who later built and expanded the movement in profound ways.

An analysis of Montgomery’s writings from 1880-1920, reveal that the prayer of faith in James 5 and healing in the atonement were two of the major foundations in her theology of healing. The implications of these lived out in relation to suffering and the gift of healing demonstrate that neither one of these was really necessary since healing was already available in the finished work of Christ to those who appropriated it.

An analysis of her Pentecostal pneumatology  (study of the Holy Spirit) shows that Montgomery actively pursued the fullness of the Spirit, also at times referred to as “Spirit baptism,” both before and after her own 1908 tongues experience. While the manifestation of tongues enhanced her spirituality, added a new flavor to her ministry, and caused to her re-interpret past experiences through a Pentecostal perspective, it did not produce any major shifts within her theology of healing. In light of her experiences with the Spirit throughout the years, a proposed redefinition of the Pentecostal Spirit baptism is presented. 

In conclusion, Montgomery’s approach to the newer manifestations of the Spirit and her relentless pursuit of the “fullness of the Spirit” however that looked in her generation can similarly inform present day approaches to revival and inspire Christians from all traditions to dive into the fullness of the Spirit available today.   

Paperback: 368 pages 
Publisher: CPT Press (March 21, 2012)  
Language: English 
ISBN-10: 1935931296  
ISBN-13: 978-1935931294  
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches 

For discounts on bulk orders please email me at JenMiskov@silvertogold.com with the quantity. See also first intro book on Carrie's life: Spirit Flood: Rebirth of Spirit Baptism for the 21st Century in light of the Azusa Street Revival and the life of Carrie Judd Montgomery.

Listen to Carrie's sermon that inspired the title of this book...

The Home of Peace

Carrie's involvement with the Slum Sisters (Salvation Army)

by Jennifer A. Miskov

In the spring of 1892, while on a visit to back to New York, Carrie Judd Montgomery participated with the Salvation Army in their ministry in the slums. In conjunction with Mrs. Ballington Booth, a small group of women who became known as the “Slum Sisters,” put aside their nice Salvation Army clothes and dressed in a humbler manner so that they could be more approachable to reach those on the streets. 

This ministry started in 1886 when two women moved into two “tiny rooms” in one of the most “degraded” places in the city so that they could be with the people they were trying to reach.^[1] William Booth remarked that some of the women who did this work were those “who have not been afraid to exchange the comfort of a West End drawing-room for service among the vilest of the vile, and a residence in small and fetid rooms whose walls were infested with vermin.”^[2] 

Carrie saw that these workers wanted to set about their “mission of love in the most quiet and unobtrusive manner, until they had worked their way into the confidence of the people around them.”^[3] They helped the sick, fed the poor, cleansed the homes of the “Slummers,” cared for babies, and helped people find work. They also visited the “saloons and low dives” three times a week to talk to people about salvation and invite them to their Gospel meetings. They had services the other three nights of the week as well.^[4]

           

One Saturday night while still in New York, during one of the peak times of “sinful revelry” in the saloons, Carrie accompanied these “slum sisters” in their outreach to the girls on the streets. Carrie recalled that “for three hours we tramped in and out of saloons and houses of ill-resort, preaching the Gospel, as far as was possible…” Carrie had some previous experience of doing similar work but noticed that the act of wearing simpler attire made her more approachable to the people than before. Through her visit to the slums of New York City, she learned that many of the girls were tricked into this kind of lifestyle, forced into prostitution one way or another. She believed that many times the sins done against them were greater than the sins they committed.^[5]

             

These bold Salvation Army women went into the saloons and sang hymns and shared with the people there. To have the courage to preach on the streets as well as sing hymns in saloons was a brave thing to do, especially as a woman. While Quakers and some Methodists gave women some freedom to preach, Evangelicalism as a whole had not arrived at that place of equality for men and women.^[6] Carrie took extreme steps to see people converted to Christianity regardless of the social or religious trends in her day. The time spent with the “Slum Sisters” was eye opening for Carrie and caused her to initiate a similar work in her home city on her return. 

When she returned back to the West Coast, Carrie capitalized on the fact that Salvation Army women could “go unprotected into any of the saloons and dives.”^[7] She recounted a story to her readers of her Saturday night outing to the saloons and “evils lurking” in San Francisco. She was accompanied by a young girl captain in the Salvation Army. Beginning their night at 9:30pm and dressed in their Army uniforms, they went out to the bars filled with men who just got their pay checks and wanted to spend it all on alcohol. 

Carrie Judd Montgomery later on in the 1890s in the traditional Salvation Army Uniform. Special thanks and copyright permission come from the Salvation Army for the use of this photo.

Their way to get into the saloons was through selling the Army’s magazine called the War Cry; Carrie also gave out her healing tracts. They went to dance halls and talked with young girls whom they found out their mothers had no clue where they were. After the saloons, they walked down dark alleys to give out more of the tracts. They collected several names and numbers so they could meet up with the people during the daytime a few days later. They finished their street ministry and returned home at 2am. 

Carrie, then about 34 years old, wrote that “with sore heart and weary feet, and yet with a consciousness that I had been ‘about my Father’s business,’ I reached our abiding place and found that my dear husband had not retired to rest, but had long been on his knees, asking the Lord to mightily use His little, weak messengers, and to fill them with the glorious power of the Holy Ghost.”^[8]

           

 I'm inspired by this story, are you??? 

 ©Jennifer A. Miskov (feel free to quote as long as you correctly reference and link back to this article)

---

[1] Possibly Mrs. Cook and Mrs. Webb were the two who started this ministry initially in London.

[2] General William Booth, Chapter 5, Section 1 entitled “A Slum Crusade- Our Slum Sisters” in In Darkest England and the Way Out, 1890 1^st edition (London: The Salvation Army, 1890). In this same section are two first hand accounts from journalists who spent time with the slum sisters and report first hand their experience of what it was like and the conditions surrounding their life in the slums. Also in “Darkest England,” in an address delivered by General Booth in San Francisco December 17, 1894 and reported by Cecilia Decker in Triumphs of Faith 15:2 (Feb 1895) and TF 15:3 (March 1895), he told some stories of these “slum angels” as well as some graphic stories of the poor ones the Salvation Army rescued.

[3]Carrie Judd Montgomery, “Salvation Army Work in the New York Slums,” Triumphs of Faith 12:5 (May 1892), 108. At the time when Carrie wrote this, there was then 22 Slum Sisters involved in the ministry as well as a Rescue Home being built to help the girls get off of the streets.

[4] Booth, Chapter 5, Section 1 entitled “A Slum Crusade- Our Slum Sisters.”

[5] Carrie Judd Montgomery, “Salvation Army Work in the New York Slums,” TF 12:5 (May 1892), 108-109.

[6] David Bebbington,  A History of Evangelicalism: People, Movements and Ideas in the English-Speaking World, vol. 3 in The Dominance of Evangelicalism: The Age of Spurgeon and Moody (Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 2005), 225.

[7] “Wealthy Warriors: A Rich Salvationist and His Famous Wife,” The Illustrated Buffalo Press, May 8, 1892, p. 4.

[8] Carrie Judd Montgomery, “Through the Darkest San Francisco” TF 12:10 (Oct 1892), 220.

Thirsty for the Living Waters?

Living Water
By the Editor (Carrie Judd Montgomery)
Triumphs of Faith 7:3 (March 1887)

“I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses.”

If you are thirsting for God, yea, for the living God, then this promise is for you. You need not be discouraged because of your thirst, but rather you may be encouraged, because the blessing is only held out to “him that is thirsty.” The invitation reads, “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,” and again in the same chapter we find the definite promise, “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”

Thus, you see, dear thirsting soul, that you need not longer thirst, for there is the sound of abundance of water, of which you may freely partake.

The Lord Jesus had pronounced those blessed who thirst after righteousness, and He has allowed to come to you the utter dissatisfaction with all human springs, in order that you may seek after living water to satisfy your thirsty soul. You have indeed proved that those who drink from earthly wells shall thirst again, and now you are ready to hear the voice of Jesus as He calls, “If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink.” “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Shall not your response be, “Lord, give me this water, that I thirst not?” Then shall you not only be filled yourself, but streams of living water shall flow forth from your heart, to refresh and bless other thirsty lives. And that we might not be left in any doubt as to what was meant by this water of life, it is recorded, “This spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive.” The invitation is given in a very broad sense, so you cannot be left out. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” You need not, must not bring money or price for the gift of God cannot be bought, and the one called is “he that hath no money.” So you cannot be too needy to come. The more needy you are, the more right you have to this invitation.

The needy ones are especially mentioned in Isa. 41: 17, 18, “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongues faileth for thirst, I the Lord, will hear them, I the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.” Even when “their tongues fail for thirst,” when they can no longer make a cry or a moan, yet the Lord hears them. And why does He notice so quickly our failing lips and parched spirits? Ah, have you forgotten that scene on Calvary, when the crucified One said with failing tongue, “I thirst”? And in the prophetic record we read the moan of agony, “I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.”

The blessed Saviour thirsted that we might not thirst, and therefore He waits to pour floods of living water - the fullness of His lifegiving spirit, upon all who are fainting and longing for Him. The rock has already been smitten, and we have only now to “speak unto the rock” to bring forth the waters of life. - (Num. 20:8).

God grant, dear reader, that you may constantly drink that “spiritual drink,” even as it is recorded of God’s ancient people, “they drank of that spiritual Rock that went with them (margin) and that Rock was Christ.”

“They thirsted not when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow out of the Rock for them; He clave the Rock also, and the water gushed out.”

see also her "Floods of Living Water Freely Available" article.

Hungering for the fulness of the Spirit! Interview with Heidi Baker

Interview with Heidi Baker, in regards to Revival History, Hunger for the Spirit, and Carrie Judd Montgomery.
See also article on my journey where I intersected Heidi Baker when I was researching Carrie Judd Montgomery.

FLOODS of Living Water Freely Available!!!

       

The following is an account that Carrie gave when she was in her early 20s displaying her hunger and passion for the fullness and flooding of the Spirit in every way. May it stir a similar hunger in us today... 

RIVERS OF LIVING WATER

By the Editor (Carrie Judd Montgomery)

Triumphs of Faith 1:4 (April 1881)

He cutteth out rivers among the rocks. – Job 28:10

I know that there are many dear ones thirsting to-day for more of the “water of life,” and crying in the words of the Psalmist, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.”

            Precious, indeed, is the answer which our pitiful Father vouchsafes to His weary children, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.” - (Isa. 44:3).

            Such an outpouring of God’s Spirit as is here promised is essential to every believer before he can work with power in the service of the Lord: for we cannot give what we do not possess, and we cannot water others unless we, ourselves, are drawing from the Living Fountain. Blessed be God, He “giveth not the Spirit by measure” unto those who will open their hearts to receive Him. It is not His will that we should be limited to occasional dews of His grace, but His unbounded mercy reveals itself in the promise of “floods” of blessing “upon the dry ground.”

    And why then are we not filled? Why are we not so full of the blessed Spirit of God that His fullness can flow through us, and out of us, refreshing our own souls and all those with whom we come in contact? Alas! we will not take the receptive attitude of faith. Jesus bids us “ask and receive” that our “joy may be full.” We obey His command in asking, but we do not throw open our souls that we may receive. God’s word to us is, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psa. 81:10), yet we do not pause in our cries of hunger to accept what is so freely offered.

            The mistake that very man of us make is in asking God to give us holiness of heart as though it were something apart from Himself. We do not realize that Jesus has already been given to us by the Father, and that our possession of His attributes consists only in our possessing Him: “A Man shall be . . .  as rivers of water in a dry place.” - (Isa. 32:2).

            This “Man,” Christ Jesus, when “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree” knew what it was to suffer thirst; though He was, and is, the “Living fountain.” He thirsted for our sakes that we might be made to “drink of the river of His pleasures.” We hear Him saying those words of patient grief, “They gave Me also gall for my meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink: (Psa. 69:21), and then in vivid contrast with man’s mocking cruelty we hear the Saviour’s message of matchless grace : “ When the poor and needy seek water and there is none; and their tongue faileth for thirst, I, the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them, I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water.” - (Isa. 41:17,18).

            The “cold flowing waters” (Jer. 18:14) never cease in their beneficent action. They are available for us at all times if we will only receive them, but we must drink by faith. Jesus has said, “If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink,” and the utterance of faith would be, “Lord Jesus, I come, and according to Thy word I do drink now.” And depending on that unfailing word we may rest in the sure conviction that marvelous refreshing will be shed abroad in our souls by that living draught. “The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams.” - (Isa. 33:21). Not only shall our own souls be abundantly satisfied, but “rivers of living water” shall flow from us to the reviving of other thirsty souls, and they, and we, shall show forth the praise of the Lord; for “unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” - (Eccl. 1:7).  

      

            In Isa. 48:21, we read, “He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: He clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.” Dear friends, the Rock has already been cleft for us, and the spiritual drink of love and peace is even now gushing out to satisfy our every need. Shall we in our impatience and unbelief  “smite the Rock” which is so ready to satisfy our longing that a single word of appeal shall enable us to partake of its “living waters”?  Shall we continue to cry with thirst when by an act of simple faith we may drink of its abundant outflow? Let us beware lest in our disobedience and lack of trust we fall short of the end of our service, and hear the rebuking words, “Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”- (Num. 20:12).

            If we have not wherewith to water the fainting souls around us, shall we not be held accountable by our Master for the unfruitfulness of our service? We read that at the last day the Judge of all the earth shall say unto the unprofitable servants, “I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink. . . Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did it not unto Me.”- (St. Matt. 25:42, 45). Solemn words that we should ponder well! For if we fail to drink deeply of Christ’s spiritual drink we shall be without excuse, inasmuch as the gracious invitation is even now sounding in our ears, “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”- (Rev. 22:17).

            Are we “athirst”? Then we are invited to drink of this living water, and let us partake so freely that those who have not yet known a “thirst after righteousness” may realize by our fullness their own lack, and be constrained to “ask and receive.”

            “Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters.”- (Isa. 55:1).

            “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”- (St. John 4:14)."

Carrie's passion and hunger for the floods of living water freely available is evident here. May we similarly be stirred to press into the measureless abundance of the Spirit's presence that we might go to new heights experiencing and living from the Father's great love. For more on Carrie's personal journey of being flooded by the Spirit, see Spirit Flood: Rebirth of Spirit Baptism for the 21st Century.