about grammar or niceties. The most prominent characteristic
of her praying was her complete enthrallment with the person
of Christ. She knew Him and He knew her; they were on
speaking terms with each other and exercised this relationship
freely.” 11
One night, after a particularly powerful camp meeting,
Henrietta passionately called all in attendance to become
wholly surrendered—sold out—to God. Her timely message
captivated many who had grown disenchanted with the state
of Christianity in America. Her words would not let them go.
Unbeknownst to each other, a few of the men found their way
to Henrietta’s cabin later that night. In desperation, they spent
all night talking to God. Three of the men who convened in her
cabin were Bill Bright (at the time, a businessman); a youth
pastor, Richard Halverson; and Louis Evans Jr., a pastor’s son.
A chapter in They Found the Secret, dedicated to Richard
Halverson’s life, details in his own words the experience and
impressions of that same memorable night:
The way led past Miss Henrietta Mears’s cabin; and here I was
strangely constrained to enter and pray.... I began to pray, others
followed, and God came down into that cabin. There was no unusual
ecstatic or cataclysmic experience, but God visited us in a way none
of us had known before. There was weeping and laughter, much
talking and planning. What is most clear from that experience is the
fact that upon the hearts of us who were in that prayer meeting was
laid a burden for the world and a world-wide vision that persists to
this day.... In the middle of the night I finally got to my cabin but
could not sleep. Under real compulsion I spent time at the
typewriter and wrote what later became known as the four
commitments of The Fellowship of the Burning Heart. 12Bill Bright’s account also gives the exact details of the four