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McKAY, B. a., FASTOR OF CHALMERS CHURCH, WOODSTOCK, ONT., CANADA. -«•- PHILADELPHIA : PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK, No. 1884 Chestnut Street. ANIVEX ■ SrACK COPYRIGHT, 1890, BY THE TRUSTEES OP THE PRESBYTERIAN BO^ RD OF PUBLICATION AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. ALL BIGHTS RESERVED. MAR 2 9 1950 Westcott &, Thomson, BUrtoiyptn and El«ctrotyper$f PhUada, To the people of my charge, to whom I have been permitted to minister these twelve years, and with whom I have enjoyed many seasons of refreshing, this little book, com- posed during fragments of time snatched from a busy pastorate, is respectfully dedi- cated by the Author. J CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAOB What is a Revival? 7 CHAPTER II. Revivals in Bible Times 19 CHAPTER III. Revivals in England 30 CHAPTER IV. Revivals in Scotland , 41 CHAPTER V. Revivals in Ireland 66 6 •^Hmmw i 6 COXTENTS. CHAPTER VI. Ketivals in America 71 CHAPTER VII. Revivals in Canada 84 CHAPTER VIII. Revivals and the Young 97 CHAPTER IX. Eminent Revivalists and Honored Tests . 112 CHAPTER X. Shall we Have a Revival? 125 ' • - /I ij OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. CHAPTER I. WHAT IS A REVIVAL t THE NEED OF A EEVIVAL — ENCOUEAGE- MENTS TO SEEK FOR IT. The last few years have been characterized by powerful revivals of religion. In Great Britain, in America, in Germany, in Switzer- land, in France, and especially in India, Ja- pan, and the far-away isles of the sea, Pente- cost has had its successors. A few considera- tions concerning the nature of a true revival, our need of such a gracious visitation and the encouragements we have to seek it will occupy our attention in this chapter. 7 8 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. What, then, is a revival of religion ? Brief- ly, it means a season of special religious inter- est and activity. The word is a famili-ar one. We read of a revival in the study of the fine arts, a revival in science and literature, a re- vival in trade and commerce. By this is meant a sudden and more or less widespread interest in these departments of business or learning. How deep the interest usually felt in such re- vivals! How interested the merchant is in the revival of trade ! How he watches the rise in the markets, observes the multiplica- tion of orders and rejoices in the decrease and cessation of failures ! And see the gardener, how he watches the revival of the season ! No sight so welcome as the opening leaves of the trees, the brightening green of the g iss, the forming buds of the flowers and the prom- ising blossom of the fruit. Or behold the mother bending over her sick child. How she watches for the return of strength, for the first sign of renewed appetite, for the deep- ening of the color in the cheek, the bright- WHAT IS A REVIVAL? eniug of the light in the eye and the gather- ing of strength in the voice ! But of far greater importance and interest is the re- vival of religion in the soul. This was one great purpose for which the Son of God came into the world. "I am come," said he, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." A religious revival is such an outpouring of the Holy Ghost as results in the quickening of believers, the reclaiming of backsliders and the conversion of the unregenerate. *^* The first effect is undoubtedly upon the hearts and lives of God's own people. Un- belief gives way to faith and dark despond- ency to bright hope. Christians are brought to more vivid impressions of divine truth, more solemn views of sin and guilt, more soul-stirring thoughts of the love of God and the grace of Christ, more concern for a perishing world and more fervent prayer for the Spirit. Those who before were cold, formal, heartless in their worship have now 10 OUTPOCaiNGS OF THE 8PIEIT. their hearts filled with love to God and love to their fellow-men. Those who before seemed indifferent to the salvation of others now pray earnestly and labor zealously to bring sinners to Christ. Those who before were cheerless and gloomy are now filled with a holy joy and peace. *^The joy of the Lord is their strength.^' Divisions are now healed, and the dovils of discord, envy and strife cast out. The temple 13 cleansed and a higher standard of Christian experience attained. What delight now in the house of God, what attention to his word, what bursts of holy song, what breathings of real devotion, and then what efforts for the salvation of souls ! Oh, this is revival. It is the re- covery of spiritual health. It is the Church's spring-time. It is the jubilee of holiness. It is the feast of fat things. It is the beau- ty of the Lord. Hear the ministers and eld- ers of the Free Church of Scotland, convened in General Assembly during that wonderful work of grace under the preaching and sing- ^yHAT IS A REVIVAL? 11 ing of the American evangeligts, — hear these venerable brethren singing, amid streaming tears of joy, the words of the one hundred and twenty-sixth psalm : " When Zion's bondage God turned back, As men that dream'd were we. Then filled with laughter was our mouth, Our tongue with melody : They *mong the heathen said, The Lord Great things for them hath wrought. The Lord hath done great things for us, Whence joy to us is brought." Such an arousing and intensifying of the spiritual life of a Church cannot fail to im- press the masses outside the Church. Before such breathing of the Spirit the most stub- born wills bend like the blades of grass before the wind. Thus the awakening becomes gen- eral. Sinners are converted, the membership of the Church increases : worldly and wicked men may sneer and misrepresent, but in spite of all opposition, the good work goes on. Christians are happy and angels rejoice. All this we see abundantly illustrated in the lives 12 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. of Nehemiah, Paul, Luther, Knox, Wesley, Wlit^field, Edwards, Tennent, Payson and many others. The gracious work usually begins with a single man or woman. One live coal kindles a great flame. See the sinner of Samaria. Her mind was dark, her life was unholy, she was not even seeking a Saviour. But Jesus revealed himself to her. She believed, and instantly she became a fountain of life to others. And in that revival of " two days " (John 4 : 39-42) many were saved. The Spirit's work in a community, as in the in- dividual soul, is usually like the water which the prophet saw in his vision, small at the beginning — first ankle-deep, then rising to the knees, then to the loins, and finally waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. Should not such seasons be the objects of intense desire, fervent prayer and earnest effort on the part of God's people? It may, indeed, be said that the Church should WHAT IS A REVIVAL? 13 always be awake and thoroughly in earnest. We readily admit the " should be/' but who will claim that the Church is so at the pres- ent time? It is not a question of duty or privilege, but a question of fact. With the murderous liquor-traflfic, legalized by the votes of church-members, in full blast on every side of us ; with Somanism so aggres- sive ; with the spirit of worldliness so pre- vailing; with immoralities of various forms eating, like a cancer, into the very heart of the community ; with the overwhelming ma- jority of our young men never inside a Chris- tian church, and only five per cent, of them members of the Church; with our prayer- meetings so small; and with a liberality amounting to less than cne-sevenih of a cent a day from each communicant for the evangelization of a thousand million heathen, — who will say that we have no need of revival — no need of a revival in temperance, truth- fulness, uprightness? The time may come when the Church will be all on fire of earn- 14 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. estness; when every heart will be stout and every arm will be strong in the conflict against evil ; when the Sabbath assemblies will be crowded and the prayer-meetings times of refreshing; when church -members, full of fthe spirit of their Master, will rise above the large greeds and little givings of former days, and, like Araunah, as a king give unto a king, pouring out their treasures as brave warriors do their blood ; and giving, or at least striving to give, after the measure of Him who, that we and a lost world might not perish, gave his only-begotten Son. But the time is not yet. The ideal Church will be always earnest, active, hopeful, full of spiritual life and joy. But the actual Church is often weak in faith, poor in effort and low in experience. At such a time ought not our earnest cry to ascend, " Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?" If already we have some degree of spiritual life and vigor, would it not be better if we had WHAT IS A REVIVAL? 16 more? Look at animated nature. There are the lower orders of life and the higher. In the higher we find much sensitiveness, con- sciousness, energy, heat and expression, while in the lower we see but little. So there are Christians who are barely living, and others who have 'Mife more abundantly.'' About the lowest order of life is a small jelly-like thing which does nothing more than stick to the substance on which it feeds. Are there not too many Christians who are bone- less, nerveless jelly-fish " hangers-on " in the Church? How many professing Christians are fast asleep ! Rev. Dr. Rice of Virginia declares his solemn conviction that four-fifths of the membership of our churches add noth- ing to the real power of the Church, It must not be forgotten that spiritual life, whether in the individual or in a com- munity, is seldom, if ever, uniform. There are seasons of declension. " My people," saith the Lord, " are bent to backsliding from me." Who that considers the condition of modern 16 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. society, the keen competition in business, the craving for run isements and sports of every kind, the excitement of politics and the high strain at which we live, but must admit the terrible power of those influences which, at the present time, distract even the most seri- ous Christians and tend to divert their minds from close and constant intercourse with heav- en? Where is the Christian assembly in which there is no reason to lament the prev- alence of siuful conformity to the world, the decay of piety and the lukewarmness of many professors ? Where is the Christian who does not find within himself a proneness to decline from the spirit and power of godliness ? We become weary in well-doing. Indifference, apathy, deadness come upon us. " With outstretched hands and streaming eyes, Oft I begin to grasp the prize ; I groan, I strive, I watch, I pray ; But ah ! my zeal soon dies away.'' How is this downward tendency to be checked? Obviously, the only remedy for WHAT IS A REVIVAL? 17 a season of spiritual declension is a season of spiritual revival. " Rise, Lord, stir up thy quickening power And wake me that I sleep no more." The encouragements to seek a revival of religion are many and great. God is willing to revive us. His pleasure is the prosperity of Zion and the conversion of the world. His promise is, " I will pour out ray Spirit upon all flesh.'' " Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion ; for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come.'' We are living in the dispensation of the Spirit. Supposing the Christians of our land were as dead as the bones Ezekiel saw in his vision, and as sep- arated, one from another, as were they, yet in response to earnest, persevering prayer for a revival the Almighty will bring eveiy bone to his bone, or will clothe and bind them with flesh and sinew, and cover them with skin ; yea, he will breathe upon the yet lifeless forms and they shall live; yea, they shall lilt 18 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. live a united and strong army to do val- iantly for the Lord God of truth and mercy. This indeed would be a day of life, of joy, of power. May the Lord send such a season to all the churches! "Awake! awake! put on thy strength, O Zion ! put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem.'' "Arise, shine; for thy light is cokne, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.'' fjhowers of blessings are descending here and there. " Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." % * „ J./-: CHAPTER II. BEVIVALS IN BIBLE TIMES. prejudices against revivals — ^the gen- uine must not be rejected because op the counterfeit — incidental excesses — revivals in the days of enoch, moses, joshua; in the time of the judges; in the days of samuel, Eli- jah, JONAH, HEZEKIAH AND NEHEMIAH — NEW-TESTAMENT REVIVALS, AND THEIR GLORIOUS RESULTS. It is well known that a strong prejudice exists amongst some good Christians against what are termed " revivals of religion." Per- haps this is not to be wondered at. There has been so much defective if not erroneous teach- ing, so much fanatical excitement and so much hollow profession, connected with some so-called 19 20 OUTPOURINGS OF THE 8PIHIT. i; revivals that it is not surprising that many earnest but sober-minded Christians have ac- quired a distaste for the very word " revival/^ But let us beware of rejecting the genuine gold because of its worthless counterfeit. It is only the good, the precious, that is counterfeited. Were there no true Chris- tians, there would be no false ones, and were there no real revivals, there would be no imitations. How careful also we should be lest we dis- countenance a real work of grace because of some things which occasionally may accom- pany it ! There may many things occur dur- ing a season of special religious interest that do not constitute a part of the revival. When Whitefield was once preaching in Boston, the place was so packed that the gallery was sup- posed to be giving way, and there was a panic in which several persons were trampled to death. But it would be unfair and unrea- sonable to blame the revival for this. Con- nected with many revivals there has been EEVIVALS IN BIBLE TIME8. 21 much of an emotional and spasmodical char- acter. But these are only incidental. The adventitious is not to be confounded with the essential. We do not despise the great river because of the sticks and straws that may oc- casionally float on its surface. The greatest possible evil is a deadly insensibility. The storm is preferable to a parching drought. Better, if that were necessary, to have noisy animal excitement than that the sterile wastes of worldliness should not be transformed into fruitful gardens of the Lord. Notwithstanding incidental excesses, there is such a thing as a true revival of religion. The psalmist when he prayed, " Wilt thou not revive us again V^ was not guilty of presumption and mockery ; nor the prophet when he cried, " O Lord, re- vive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known ; in wrath remember mercy." God's promise is not a meaningless one : " I will be as the dew unto Israel ; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, 22 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, aud his smell as Lebanon/' In this chapter we shall look at some of the revivals in Bible times. Under the old dispensation there were many seasons when the people felt the nearness of the Lord and the power of his Spirit in an extra- ordinary manner. We have a glimpse of such a season in the days of Enoch, when " men be- gan to call upon the name of the Lord." That was a genuine revival of religion when Moses, after communing with God on the mount for forty days and forty nights, called the people together, gave them the commandments of the Lord and spoke to them particularly concern- ing the building of the tabernacle. Great in- deed was the exuberance of their devotion. Every man and woman did offer willingly unto the Lord of the gold and the silver and the jewels, and of the blue, the purple and the scarlet and fine linen, and of all their posses- sions. So freely and liberally did the people contribute that Moses was compelled to send REVIVALS IN BIBLE TIMES. 23 forth a proclamation restraining them from bringing any more. What a blessing such a revival would be to the empty treasury and languishing mission schemes of many congre- gations at the present time! We have the record of a powerful religious awakening iu the last chapter of the book of Joshua. All Israel is gathered at Shechem, and Joshua, old and about to die, gives them his farewell words of warning and exhortation. "Put away," said he, "the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people saith unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.'' That day they renewed their covenant with God. Nor were the results of this awakening spas- modic or shortlived, for " Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua." We read of a revival of religion in the time of the Judges, when " Israel cried unto the Lord," and he raised up Deborah and Barak OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. i to rescue them from Jabin and Sisera ; and in the days of Samuel, when *'' Israel lamented after the Lord/^ and he thundered upon the Philistines and discomfited them ; and in the days of Elijah, when the prophet triumphed gloriously, and the people, ct^nvinced and re- pentant, fell upon their faces crying, "The Lord, he is the God ! The Lord, he is the God !" and in the days of Jonah, when the voice of the stranger, preaching in the streets, carried conviction and penitence into the hearts of all the people of Nineveh from the king to the beggar; and in the days of Hezekiah, when " a very great congregation '' assembled at Jerusalem to observe the passover, and a series of "special services'' was held for two successive weeks amidst "great glad- ness" because of answered prayer and spir- itual blessing. One of the most remarkable revivals re- corded in the Old Testament is that of which we read in the eighth chapter of Nehemiah. For eight days all the people were gathered REVIVALS IN BIBLE TIMES. 25 in the street. The time was occupied with B'ble-reading, free coDversation, prayer, praise and confession of sin. There was " very great gladness," also deep conviction, for " all the people wept when they heard the words of the law." " And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands ; and they bowed their heads, and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground." Many of the Psalms bear striking testimony to special manifestations of the mighty power of God in reviving his people. Coming to the New Testament, we find fre- quent and powerful revivals of religion. This is the dispensation of the Spirit. Christianity was born in a great revival. " From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the vio- lent take it by force." What awakenings under the preaching of John and Jesus, of James and his brother John, of Peter and of Paul, of Silas and of Barnabas I How won- 26 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIBIT. derful the baptism of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand were con- verted under the preaching of one sermon! And so on through the apostolic age. Those were the days of heaven upon earth. Con- verts were then daily added unto the Church. Sometimes they came by tens and sometimes by thousands, and "great grace was upon theLi all." What an experience believers then had ! What communion with God ! What joy in the Holy Ghost ! What tender sympathy with one another ! The rich cheerfully gave of their abundance to supply the wants of the poor, and believers abounded in prayers and good works. The history of Christianity during the first three centuries is a history of one almost un- broken revival. The gales of the Spirit then blew with unwonted freshness. The Church was all on fire with earnestness. Christians wei'e Christians indeed. They believed what they professed ; they knew what thej spoke ; they testified what they had seen ; and, filled BEVIYALS IN BIBLE TIMES. 27 with an irrepressible life, they went forward with an unconquerable energy which even the iron power of Rome could not resist. There were no honorary members in the Church. Every disciple felt that the Lord's last com- mand was addressed to him, and whatever his circumstances — whether he moved in Csesar's household or, like Lydia, in the pursuit of humble commerce — he sought to publish the glad news. Nor was the preaching confined, as is too much the case in our day, to places specially set apart for that purpose, but they went from house to house ; they went to the river-side, to the street-corners, to the market- places, as well as to the synagogues. His- tory tells us of the rapid and far-reaching results. Without our modern facilities for travel or our multiplied agencies for mission- ary work, in less than three centuries from the death of Christ the cross was uplifted in every land, the name of Jesus was pro- claimed in every known dialect, mission- aries passed through the deserts, penetrated f ' 28 OXTTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. into the remote recesses of uncivilized coun- tries and the whole known world was evan- gelized. But, alas ! in her prosperity the Church for- got God. Her faith became corrupted, her love waxed cold, and consequently her activity de- clined. Under Constantine she entered into an alliance with the world. The great papal apos- tasy followed. The Man of Sin, who " oppos- eth and exalteth himself above all that is called God," appeared, and for about one thousand years darkness covered the whole earth and gross darkness the people, until the light was restored and the Church was redeemed by those wonderful revivals of rcMgion that fol- lowed the faithful preaching of the word by Huss, Jerome of Prague, Wyclif, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Farel and the great host of British and continental Reformers and mar- tyrs. We have said enough to show that re- ligious revivals, instead of being something to be dreaded or regarded with suspicion, consti- tute an important factor in the divine econ- REVIVALS IN BIBIi: TIMES. 29 omy in carrying on the work of grace in the world. " There is not," says one, " a denomination in Christendom to-day that has not sprung out of a revival." He who indiscriminately condemns revivals is really challenging the ways of the Almighty and fighting against God. ■wr II •• 1 CHAPTER III. BEVIVALS IN ENGLAND. WyCLIF, his " PRIESTS " AND LAY-PBEACH- ERS, AND THEIR WORK — LUTHER, CRAN- MER, RIDLEY, LATIMER AND HOOPER — THE PREACHING OF THE PURITANS CHARACTERIZED — THE WESLEYS AND THEIR TIMES — WHITEFIELD AND HIS WORK — ^THE METHODIST CHURCH AND REVIVALS. Although the term " revival '^ was not generally applied to active religious move- ments in the fourteenth century, yet even at that date England experienced an awakening which might well be called by that name. To Wyclif, " the Morning Star of the Reforma- tion,'' must be given the credit of inaugurat- ing this movement. The key-note of the pe- so BEVIVALS IN ENGLAND. 31 riod was " an open Bible." Too long it had been a sealed book. But Wvclif made a re- markably faithful translation from the Vul- gate, and the people were exhorted to study that blessed book for themselves. He regard- ed the Scriptures as the supreme authority. '* Even though there were a hundred popes, and all the monks were transformed into car- dinals, in matters of faith their opinion would be of no account unless they were founded on Scripture." Realizing that it was impossible for a single individual to accomplish all that was required to be done, he organized a company of itin- erants who could carry the gospel far and wide. These men were students and grad- uates of Oxford, and were known as the "poor priests." But though poor in this world's goods, they were rich in faith and good works, and they emulated the zeal, the heroism, the devotion and the enthu- siasm of their master. To render the work still more effectual, he sent forth a com- 32 OUTPOURINGS OF THE 8PIKIT. pany of lay-preachers, who labored princi- pally around Oxford and Gloucester. Clad in the plainest garments, without shoes and armed only with a staff, they traveled through the country and summoned men to repentance. Although the results of this movement cannot now be tabulated, yet there can be no doubt that the efforts of Wyclif, as well as those of his "poor priests" and lay-preachers, were crowned with great success. Many of the clergy were induced to lead purer lives; many of the careless awakened ; many of the thought- less aroused ; many of the defiant made peni- tent; and the moral tone of many districts was greatly elevated and purified. But gradually the Church was lulled to sleep again, and, though dreamily opening her eyes as spasmodic efforts were made here and there, she was not thoroughly aroused till the six- teenth century. Then the trumpet-blasts of Luther in Germany were heard in England, and the strains were echoed by such men as REVIVALS IN ENGLAND. 33 Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer and Hooper. Their movement met a serious cheek during the reign of Bloody Mary, but was revived with fresh power under the Puritan divines. Great in- deed was the impetus given to spiritual life and activity through the characteristic preach- ing of these men. The style of their preach- ing was clear, logical and doctrinal ; the tone was calm and subdued ; and if it lacked the "fire" that characterized some of the later English revivals, it was eminently calculated nevertheless to tear down the props of self- righteousness and to build up a vigorous type of Christian character. The third and grandest of the English re- vivals was inaugurated in the last century by the " Holy Club '' or " Methodists ''—names given in derision to the Wesleys and their like-minded fellow-students, who met regu- larly on stated days of the week at Oxford, for prayer, Bible-study and mutual edifica- tion. There was a crying need for a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost. With the res- 3 Ail Sri m j!;f ■ 1^1 1 34 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. toration of the Stuarts there rolled in a flood of licentiousness which swept away almost every barrier interposed by religion for the safety of good manners and morals. Many of the upper classes were saturated with in- fidelity, while many of the lower were shame- fully ignorant of the first principles of Script- ure truth. "The Church/' says one, "was a fair carcass without the Spirit." Many of the clergymen were ignorant of theology, and in their preaching they passed the gospel by on the other side. Sad to say, not a few of them went drunk into the pulpit. The river of life seemed to be frozen over. " Eng- land,'' says Isaac Taylor, himself a Church- man, "had lapsed into virtual heathenism when Wesley appeared." "No man could tell," says Cardinal Manning, " into how deep a degradation England would have sunk had it not been for the preaching of John Wes- ley." But the darkest hour is just before the dawn, and about the year 1730 gleams of light began to stream out from Oxford. REVIVALS IN ENGLAND. 35 The light glimmered for a short time in London, where George Whitefield spent a few days preparatory to his embarking for America. A few months afterward it burst in full glory upon the crude, benighted, irre- ligious colliers in Kingswood, where White- field, who had returned from America, began the then unpopular practice of field-preach- ing. His preaching was indeed a revelation to these men. They had been so long neg- lected that they had become coarse and brutal. So much terror did their very name inspire that scarcely any one would venture to go among them. But Whitefield was no coward. The door was opened and he entered. This was on Feb. 17, 1739. The effect was mar- velous. From their sooty pits these swarthy coi 3rs listened with uplifted faces and stream- ing eyes to the words of life. Whitefield him- self says : " The first discovery of their being affected was to see the white gutters made by their tears, which plentifully flowed down their cheeks as they came out of their coal-pits.'' 36 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. It was DO unusual sight to see an audience of twenty thousand persons, and sometimes sixty thousand, many of them visibly affected. " Probably," writes one, " no other uninspired man ever preached to so large assemblies or enforced the simple truths of the gospel by motives so persuasive and awful, and with an influence so powerful upon the hearts of his hearers." A single incident will serve to show the power of Whitefield's oratory. Chester- field was listening on one occasion while V/hite- field described the sinner as a blind beggar led by a dog. By-and-by the dog left him, so he was forced to grope his way guided only by his staff. Continuing, the preacher said, " Uncon- sciously he wanders to the edge of a precipice ; his staff drops from his hand down the abyss, too far to send back an echo : he reaches for- ward cautiously to recover it ; for a moment he is poised on vacancy, and — " "Grood God ! he is gone !" shouted Chesterfield as he sprung from his seat to prevent the catas- trophe. REVIVALS IN ENGLAND. 37 From Kingswood the niovenient spread to the neighboring town of Bristol, wliere White- field was joined by John Wesley. The latter had some scruples against field-preaching, but under the persuasion of his companion he set them aside. It was a good thing for these two great preachers that they were shut out of the churches ; they might have been shut in. Day by day the interest deepened. Thou- sands flocked to hear the preachers, and both before and after service hundreds came to in- quire the way of salvation. The opposition was mighty, but not almighty, and divine grace prevailed. Moorfield, Gloucester, Hal- stead, Dedham, Ipswich, Withersfield, Col- chester and other places w^ere visited, and in all a gracious work was accomplished. In Moorfield in a single day about three hun- dred were converted. "Give me," said John Wesley, "one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be cler- gymen o£ laymen ; thv.y alone will shake the rwpi •38 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. gat\3s of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven upon earth." He got his heart's desire. The early preachers of Methodism, though for the most jiart strangers to college-train- ing, were men of conviction, men of courage, and, if not profusely adorned with literary titles, they were certainly behind none of u» in faith, in zeal, in self-sacrifice and in a de- termination to win the world for Christ. The gates of hell were indeed shaken, Satan was aroused, and the preachers were subject to al- most every form of insult and outrage. They were mobbed and spit upon, and not infre- quently they returned from a religious service bleeding with wounds. But sometimes " fools who came to scoff remained to pray." On one occasion Wesley was preaching in a barn. At the close of the service a man emerged from his hiding-place in the hay-loft, and with club in hand thus accosted tlie preacher : "I came here, sir, to break your head, but you have broken my heart." So true is it REVIVALS IN ENGLAND. 39 that God is sometimes found of those who are not seeking him. Fortunately for the cause of Methodism and for Christianity in England, John Wesley was a master organizer. His brother Charles sup- plied the hymns which were then and are still such a power in the Methodist Church, and no less than thirty of which are found in the Hym- nal lately authorized by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Men of apostolic zeal, like Fletcher and Dr. Coke, did much to advance early Methodism. There can be no doubt that to the great awakening in which Wesley and Whitefield were the leaders may be traced back many of the ever-widening and deepening streams of religious beneficence of the present day. The history of the wonderful progress of Methodism since the days of Wesley is almost a continuous history of revivals. To only one of these can we here refer, and that in the brief- est terms. Many on this side of the Atlan- tic will distinctly remember the Rev. James BR 40 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. Caugliey. Wonderful indeed was the power of the grace of God as seen in the labors of this man in many parts ot England. During the two years 1845 and 1846 more than ten luou- sand persons professed to have been converted through him. We look at tlie great Methodist Church throughout the world to-day with five million oommunicants and twenty-five million adli, - A. 4. — "It is most gratifying to observe the habit of reading the Bible among families where it was before totally neglected — now become so prominent." *. 64 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. '^li ii ii; A. 5. — "A reverence for religious subjects and a willingness to converse upon them." A. 6. — "The habits of the people com- pletely changed. Formerly, drunkenness was the prevailing habit; now, sobriety. There had been a total neglect of family worship ; it is now very general." A. 7. — " In almost every house and by the hedges I find the Bible read." A. 8. — " Religion is the universal topic of conversation." ;d A. 9. — " The general aspect of the place is changed." Here is another striking testimony to the good results of this revival. The speaker is the judge addressing the grand jury of the Coleraine county court. After observing that there was but one case on the calendar before him, and that an unimportant one, and after contrasting this happy state of affairs with his former experiences, when "calendars were filled with charges for different nefarious prac- tices," he asks, "How is such a gratifying REVIVALS IN IRELAND. 65 state of things to be accounted for ? It must be from the improved state of the morality of the people. I believe I am fully warranted now to say that to nothing else than the mwal and religious movement which commenced early last summer can the change be attributed. I can trace the state of your calendar to nothing else." The origin of this revival is sometimes traced to a prayer-meeting composed of four young men who met in an old school-house near Kells. But its more remote source is probably a Sabbath-school teachers' prayer- meeting at Tannybrake. It was held at the close of the Sabbath-school. Parents were especially invited. And the one great and absorbing topic was salvation through faith in Christ. The beginning of a revival is always hard, perhaps impossible, to fix. We can see only a little way back, and that which we regard as a cause is itself only the effect of some previous cause. Whatever the hu- man agency employed, we must never forget 6 11 II iws%9 66 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. to give all the glory to the great First Cause. He alone can awaken the slumbering and quicken the dead. Reproach has been cast upon this revival because of the intense physical excitements that in some places characterized it. Not that this element was absent from previous revivals in Ireland, England, Scotland or America; but it was far more intense and violent on the present occasion than in any other awakening yet mentioned. These " physical agitations,'^ " strikings," " seiz- ures/' " prostrations," or whatever they may be called, have been variously accounted for. Some think they have sufficiently explained them by referring them to temperament, sym- pathy, hysteria, etc., but even admitting that they may be so referred, it is still open to in- quire if this in the least removes these phe- nomena from under the divine superintend- ence and control. Does not the Moral Gov- ernor rule by law in everything? Granting, REVIVAI^ IN IRELAND. 67 therefore, that these excitements may be e.v- plained on some purely physical theory, ma/ they still not have a most important and spir- itual mission? Some, again, have regarded them as the work of Satan and designed to frustrate the work of grace. And undoubt- edly, when God is doing a glorious work, Sa- tan will rage and to his utmost intrude, and by intermingling his work darken and hinder as much as possible God's work. But we are not left without a sure test to determine what is a work of God and what a work of the devil. Satan does not cast out Satan. And when we see a great reformation take place in a communHy ; when we see multitudes of men suddenly turned from their intemperance. Sabbath-breaking, profanity, uncleanness and worldliness ; when we see error, sin, and sel- fishness giving way to truth, holiness and love, — we say, unhesitatingly, this is not the work of Satan, but a great and glorious work of God. And we will hold our conviction none the less firmly because the change has been ^^■' V 1 ; 1 i Ji '<■] y\\ T I ), 1 1' !•: j: 6i OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. brought about not in ways of our choosing or devising. Many eminent theologians, such as Dr. Gibson and President Edwards, regard these physical phenomena as the work of the Holy Spirit through various agencies, and gracious- ly designed to glorify God by making a direct appeal to the senses of the unbelieving and the careless. It is well known that in Ire- land infidels and scoffers who came to see and ridicule the work were frequently stricken down, and thus convicted and converted and made monuments to the power of the Spirit of God. It is not, however, the purpose of these articles to promulgate any special theory of revivals. Our object will be attained if we succeed only in imparting useful information, removing unseemly prejudices and awakening a more widespread and earnest cry for a work o^ grace throughout our land. We are will- ing to leave the Holy One of Israel to do his work in his own way. May the Spirit de- scend upon us as the geutle dew, silently im- REVIVAT^ IN IRELAND. 69 parting life, growth, and beauty ; but if God so will it, let him come with the thunder ana the lightning and the storm. It is a good thing if under any circumstances men are awakened from the slumber of death and brought to rejoice in a new life. Better, sure, to breast the roaring surge on the live ocean and speed on before the favoring gale, than lie becalmed and motionless amid the stagnation and putridity of the waveless sea of death. Give us the roar of the raging cataract rather than the deadly miasma of the stagnant, putrid pool. We cannot here dwell upon the Moody and Sankey revival in Ireland in 1874. This awakening was in many respects a striking contrast to that of 1859, and sim- ilar to that by the same men in Scotland, al- ready noticed. No wild excitements, but quiet- ness, order and profound solemnity prevailed. The size of the meetings was determined by that of the largest buildings in Belfast, Lon- donderry and Dublin. Over eight hundred J 70 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. ministers of all the evangelical denominations took part in the work. At some of the meet- ings there were as many as seven hundred and fifty inquii*ers ; and at one meeting two thou- sand persons professed to have given their hearts to Christ during the preceding six months. Thus Zion put on her robes of salvation and converts to Jesus were multi- plied as the drops of the morning dew. */i CHAPTER VI. REVIVALS IN AMERirA, THE "great awakening" OF 1729-35 — JONATHAN EDWARDS AND HIS CO-WORK- ERS — " THE REVIVAL OF 1800 " AND SOME OF THE GLORIOUS RESULTS — VARIOUS TES- TIMONIES, INCLUDING THAT OF THE PRES- BYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY — THE FUL- TON STREET PRAYER-MEETING. ^ ., " Oh, sirs," said a wise and good man on his deathbed, "I dread mightily that a ra- tional sort of religion is coming among us. I mean by this a religion that consists in a bare attendance on outward duties and ordinances, without the power of godliness." Such was the state of religion throughout the American colonies at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Church machinery, indeed, there 71 72 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. was in abiindaDce, but the power of goJli- ness was sadly wanting. As the author of The Tongue of Fire would say, the cannon was there and the ball and the powder, but each was powerless in itself, and all put to- gether were powerless, for the fire was not there. Jonathan Edwards says : *^ It was a time of extraordinary dullness in religion." A sort of moral chloroform had put the Church to sleep. The old people thought only of their work, the young only of their play. Sin abounded. God was forgotten. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. When God is going to ac- complish a glorious word he usually does it upon very unpromising material. "I fully believe," says Spurgeon, "that the darkest lime of any Christian Church is just the period when it ought to have most hope, for when the Lord has allowed us to spin ourselves out till there is no more strength in us, then it is that he will come to our rescue." This is in accordance with the REVIVALS IN AMERICA. 73 promises. It is not the field where there is some good growth already, but the wil- derness where nothing grows and nothing is to be seen but dry sand and barren rocks, that is converted into '*a fruitful field." It is not the good soil, but "the dry land," that is made "springs of water." Hear the word of the Lord : " I will give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen." Thus the power and freeness of divine grace are more conspicuous, and God in all things is glorified. Such was the experience of the American churches at the time of " The Great Awak- ening" extending from 1729-35. The dry bones were " very many and very dry," but a mighty breath of the Spirit came upon them, imparting to them life and beauty and power, and they stood up upon their feet, "an exceeding great army." The en- emy came in like a flood and threatened to overrun and sweep away all that was precious, m ill |l' is ' 74 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. ' ■; but the Spirit of the Lord lifted up a stand- ard for the people. In the midst of the prevailing irreligion, apostasy and profligacy there were those who cried day and night that the Lord would refresh his weary her- itage. ■■- '>-•-• ^'---'':^^ '"^ -t ■•■ '^ .:"'V;J:|.- *'If/' says the prince of preachers, quoted above, " there be only two or three whose Jiearts break over the desolations of the Church, if we have only half a dozen that resolve to give the Ijord no rest till he estab- lish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth, we shall see great things yet. If they wiU have souls saved, if so they plead and ago- nize, oh, then the Lord will turn his gracious hand and send a plenteous stream of blessing upon their district." Has he not said, " When the poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth them for thirst, I the Lord will hear them. I the God of Is- rael 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 REVIVALS IN AMERICA, 75 pool of water, aud the dry laud springs of water'' ? --. >-< ■-- ^ -:,-■:■■ .■. Jonathan Edwards, Whitefield, Noyes, Wil- liam and Gilbert Tennent, David Brainerd and Samuel Davies were the foremost among those raised up at this time to arouse a slumbering Church and awaken a dead world. The re- vival extended over the whole of the New England colonies, and it was reckoned that during its continuance upward of one hun- dred thousand souls were brought to Christ. Edwards said of it : " It is evident that it is a very great and wonderful and exceedingly glo- rious work of God, such as has never been seen in New England, and scarcely ever has been heard of in any land." Describing the awakening in his own town of Northampton, this eminent divine says : " There was scarce- ly a single person in the town, either old or young, that was left unconcerned about the great things of the eternal world. Those that were wont to be the vainest and loosest, and those that had been most disposed to think ; ( ^iii f » fl 76 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. slightly of vital and experimental religion, were now generally subject to great awak- enings. And the work of conversion was carried on in a lost astonishing manner, and increased more and more; souls did, as it were, come by flocks to Jesus Christ. . . . The work of God, as it was carried on and the number of true saints multiplied, soon made a glorious alteration in the town. People were now done with their old quar- rels, backbitings and intermeddling with other men's matters ; the tavern was soon left empty. The place of resort was now changed ; it was no longer the tavern, but the minister's house ; and that was thronged far more than ever the tavern had been wont to be. . . . The town seemed to be full of the presence of God ; it never was so full of love nor so full of joy, and yet so full of distress, as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's pres- ence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them — parents rejoicing over their ■^ REVIVALS IN AMERICA. 77 children as new-born, husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands. The goings of God were then seen in his sanc- tuary ; God's day was a delight and his taber- nacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then beautiful ; the congregation was alive in God's service, every one earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth ; the assembly in general were, from time to time, in tears while the word was preached, some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.^' ' ' ' " ^ '^ A little more than half a century from this awakening brings us to what is known as the "Great Revival of 1800." This extended over the whole of the United States, but was most powerfully felt in the region extending from the Allegheny Mountains westward to the borders of civilization and in the South- ern States. Great meetings were held in the 51 Ml 111 ■ *i 1 ■ 78 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. m «! open air, usually in the forest and under the green foliage of the trees. In Kentucky, par- ticularly, was the mighty power of God felt. Here the revival began at a Presbyterian meeting under the ministry of two brothers called McGee, one a Presbyterian minister and the other a Methodist. Vast multi- tudes attended the meetings, many coming from ten to fifty miles to witness the work. "The people,'' says one, "fell under the preaching like corn before a storm of wind," and many were converted. The be- ginning of the present century was indeed a time of refreshing throughout nearly all Christian lands. There was a general shak- ing of the valley of dry bones, God mani- fested himself in his glory in building up Zion. Evangelical religion then made the grandest advance since the days of Martin Luther. Then originated the British and American Bible Societies, by which already millions of copies of the word of God have been distributed in about three hundred of the REVIVALS IN AMERICA. 79 languages and dialects of the earth. Then also commenced nearly all the modem home and foreign missionary efforts of the evan- gelical churches, being a direct result of the gracious refreshing. And we confidently believe that the good work then begun will go on and on until the universal and final effusion of the Spirit shall restore the whole of this lost world to God. To write the history of this great revival in America would be to write the religious history of nearly every State and city and town in the Union for a number of years. The well known Dr. Gardiner Spring of New York thus writes : " From the year 1800 down to the year 1825 there was an uninterrupted series of these celestial visita- tions spreading over different parts of the land. During the whole of these twenty- five years there was not a month in which we could not point to some village, some city, some seminary of learning, and say, ^ Behold what God hath wrought!'" • 'li 80 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. Dr. Samuel Ralston says of it : " That this is a gracious work of the Spirit of God is apparent to me from the effects it has pro- duced. It has reclaimed the wicked and the profligate, and transformed the lion into a lamb. It has brought professed deists to become professed Christians, and turned their cursings into blessings and their blasphemies into praises. Its good effects have readied all ranks, ages, sexes and colors — the African as well as the European and American. The combined hordes of deists, hypocrites and formalists are generally opposed to it. Some also have fallen away, but this is no objec- tion, but rather an evidence that it is the work of the Spirit of God.^^ This revival v/as, in thr opinion of many, one of the most extraordinary that ever visited the Church of Christ. " Surely," said Bishop Asbury, " we may say our Pentecost is fully come this year.*' The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1803 bore the most unqualified testimony to the extent and power of the REVIVALS IN AMERICA. 81 work. A single quotation must suffice : " There is,' it says, " scarcely a Presbytery under the care of the Assembly from which some pleasing intelligence has not been an- nounced ; and from some of these communi- cations have been made which so illustriously display the triumphs of evangelical truth and the power of sovereign grace as cannot but fill with joy the hearts of all who love to hear of the prosperity of the Redeemer's kingdom.'' Some of the results of the revival of 1800 I have already indicated. And here it ought to be mentioned that most of the theological schools of the United States were the out- growth of this revival. In 1810 the General Assembly decided to erect a seminary *^to train up persons for the ministry who shall be lovers as well as defenders of the truth as it is in Jesus — -friends of revivals jj religion and a blessing to the Church oi God." The institution in the year 1812 was located at Princeton, N. J., and many of the most de- W ! w^ PHPRmnnvr 82 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. Mir voted Presbyterian miiiisfcers in the laud have received their theological training there. Very soon afterward many other seminaries sprung up in other parts of the land as a re- sult of this revived interest in religion. Among these the following may be mentioned : Au- Durn, the Western Seminary, Columbia, Lane, Union and Danvdie. Eternity alone can tell the good accomplished by these schools of the prophets in sending out preachers of the glo- rious gospel ^* who have been luvers as well as defenders of the truth as it is m Jesus — friends of revivals of religion and a blessing to the Church of God.'' Space forbids us dwelling at length upon the *^ Fulton Street Prayer- Meeting Revival'' of 1857, so small in its beginning, but so mighty in its development. The voice of prayer and praise was heard in theatre and warehouse and blacksmith-shop and factory, and the noisy cries of the mart were drowned out by the more earnest cries of the people, " Men and brethren, what shall we do ?" i is REVIVAIiS IN AMERICA, 83 I close this chapter with the words of Pres- ident Humphrey of Amherst College : "After all that our eyes have seen and our ears have heard I marvel that any one should look with suspicion on revivals. Rather M us hail them, in this midnight of tribulation, as the harbinger of the light of seven days " (Isa. 30:26). 1: CHAPTEE VII. REVIVALS IN CANADA. I V SOURCES OF INFORMATION — THE AWAKEN- ING OF 1800 EXTENDED INTO CANADA — " THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE '' — PLAYTER THE HISTORIAN — DR. GREGG's "HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM in CANADA ^' — EAR- LY METHODIST AND PRESBYTERIAN REVI- VALS — A CAUTION — THE OLD COMMUNION SEASON OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH — RESULTS — PRESENT DUTY. AcxJOUNTS of revivals in otLii laiif's have been written by inspired and u^i^nsoin^d men, but the narrative of revivals in CVnnda lias not jety so far as th writer is ivvare. en« gaged thv^ pen of an} Ir^jtorian. The Cana- dian churches have^ however, at various times enjoyed gracious \isifations, the accounts of 84 REVIVALS IN CANADA. which, apart from incidental notices by the historians Playter and Gregg, must be gath- ered from church records, from the ephemeral prints of the day and from the grateful mem- ories of the Lord's people. Though such sea- sons have never been witnessed in Canada as Whitefield and Wesley saw in England, Liv- ingstone in Scotland, Gibson in Irelarid or Edwards in America, the Christians in Can- ada have not been left without tokens of the presence of the Lord, and many congre- gations can recall seasons when the divine power was wonderfully manifested in the quickening of saints and in the conversion of sinners. The great awakeiiing of 1800 in the United States, already described, extended into Can- ada, up along the shore of Lake Ontario, even to the head of the lake, to Niagara, and thence to Long Point on the north-western shore of Luke Erie. This gracious work is closely as- sociated with the name of Rev. Joseph Jewell, a Methodist minister who traveled throughout i 86 ( 1! . I •i' OUTt>OtJRrNGS OP THE SPIRIT. this newly-settled district, preaching in log houses, in barns and .netirnes in groves, and ev^ vv^ re bjvjbs^p the power and grace o-' ^^J. AWj-t his same time a powerful vv rk of v^rarv was carried on in the distr* ^^ of Niagai <, chiefly through the instrumentality of Rev. Joseph Sawyer. ■ In 1805 was convened at Elizabeth town what has since been usually known among Methodists as " the Revival Conference." "No other conference in Canada/' says Playter the historian, "is like it, nor any other session of an annual conference in Great Britain or the Ignited States. The awakening and am verting }H)wer of God has apjH^ared freipiently at these sessions, Uit at none of which there is any record >\horo the divino power was so greatly ni;;nifestcHl and with such results/' It has been reckon<\l that during the fixe days th^ conference was lu session more than oi>^ hundred persons were awakened, and the total increase of membership from this -iil REVIVALS IN CANADA. 87 blessed revival at the Elizabethtown Con- ference was about fourteen hundred. Again I quote the historian already named : " In this great revival the labors of the preach- ers, local and traveling, were very great, and some wrought for God beyond their strength. ... A great impression was made on the pub- lic mind by the strange, sometimes wonderful, change of cliaraeter and life in so many per- sons and in so short a time. The young had forsaken their frivolities, and were now seri- ous, fond of the Bible and seeking knowledge to make them useful. Those indifferent to religion, lovers of pleasure, and not lovers of God, were now zealous for the truth and lovers of the Sabbath. The quarrelsome had learned in meekness and love to bear with evil ones and to forgive. Many drunkards had substituted a resort to the house of God for the tavern, the psalms and hymns for the songs of Bacchus, and cleanliness and sobri- ety for rags and strong drink. Rude com- panies and neighborhoods loved the devout m i gn 88 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. ! assemblies of the saints, spent their Sabbaths in tlie house of God and became orderly, civil and hospitable." Thus the Methodist Church in Canada, as in England, was born in a revival, and from the commencement to the present day she has been pre-eminently a revival Church. Other branches of the evangelical churches in our land have had their times of refresh- ing. At present we shall refer only to those in the Presbyterian Church. The readers of Dr. Gregg\s History of Presbyter ioMism in Canada^ pp. 534-551, will learn how largely early Presbyterianism was blessed with sea- sons of revival. As early as 1809, Rev. D. W. Eastman of the American Presbyterian Churcli preached in the Niagara peninsula. For about twenty- five years he labored alone in a wild and com- paratively uncultivated field. In 1830 two or three other ministers joined him. In 1833 the Niagara Presbytery was formed, and from a narrative prepared by a committee of that REVIVALS IX CANADA. 89 Presbytery, and embodied in Dr. Gregg's HMory, I extract the following ; " From that time (1830) to the present God has greatly enlarged our Ziou. This he lias done, so far as means are concerned, chiefly by protracted meetings. These commenced in the churches under Mr. Eastman's care, and they have been held in many places within our bounds with the most blessed results." Of these meetings in the church at Gainsborough the Presbytery says : " Truly it was a time of the right hand of the Most High. The Spirit of the Lord was poured out in rich effusions, humbling and quicken- ing his people, filling their hearts with com- fort, and converting sinners to Christ. Be- tween seventy and eighty, we believe, were born into the kingdom of God, about fifty of whom at once united with the Church.'^ Special mention is made by the Presbytery of revivals about this time in the churches at South Pelham, Hamilton, St. Catharine's, Chippewa, Drummoudville, Brantford, Era- 90 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPTRIT. mosa and Esquesing. It is iuteresting to notice that at this early date so much at- tention was given to the religious instruc- tion of the young and to the temperance cause. In the Presbytery^s narrative it is recorded that there was a teni})erance so- ciety in connection with each congregation, and in some cases we are informed that every member of the church was also a member of the temperance society. Is not a revival of this kind greatly needed at the present day ? Let us guard against a dangerous error. Many hear of a revival, and instantly there are associated in their minds a series of crowded meetings, fervid preaching, much emotional singing, many manifest conver- sions, many anxious inquirers and much religious excitement. But let us beware. There may be much that is outward and demonstrative, and yet no true revival. It is no evidence that a man has wings and can fly because a tornado puts its suction REVIVALS IN CANADA. 91 upon him, lifts him up and hurls him across the street; and it is no evidence that a man is converted because a tremendous physical excitement lifts him for a moment out of the slough of his bad habits, blows the mud oif him and crazes him, so that he talks aiid screams in the language of virtuous insanity. Then, on tli(3 other hand, there may be a true revival of religion where the Spirit of God comes down like the dew, gently, silently, imparting life, beauty, vigor ; where Gol is heard, not in the thunder and the storm, but in the still small voice ; where the convicted take each step deliberately, per- ceiving it to be a duty, and the converts come into the Church quietly and beautifully as buds and blossoms to a tree. Wherever saints are being quickened and sinners con- verted and an impulse given to the cause of true religion we should gratefully recognize the special work of the Spirit. The ideal state of a Church is undoubtedly when each member thereof is so pervaded with the >i. ^. IMAGE EVALUATEON TEST TARGET (MT-3) ^/ ^ ''S ^#/. ^ fe 1.0 ^^ l« ^^ 1^ 1^ 12.2 us II KS .1 ^ 111.25 11.4 IIIIM.6 6" ^. ^^ /^ ^y^ ' HiotDgraphic Sciences Corporation 23 wmr MAIN STXUT WIUTIR.N.Y. 14S6C (71*)l7a-4S03 l-ji^?:ii-ei^U''aiitSsik.ifMrJ^xk'i-M& ^ / d2 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. ill I Spirit of Christ, so "filled with all the fullness of God/^ that revival in the pop- ular sense would be impossible. There may be no " floods upon the dry ground," but if the genial showers regularly descend and the enlivening sun shed his beams, there will be life and growth and beauty. h- . Were not the eld communion seasons in the Presbyterian Church days of hallowed influences? Who that has enjoyed them can ever forget those sweetly solemn sacra- mental occasions? Then the Lord made a feast of fat things, and the King sat at his table, and the spikenard sent forth the smell thereof; then believers sat under his shadow and found his fruit sweet to their taste. He brought them to his banquoting-house, and his banner over them was love. It was no unusual thing for persons to come thirty or forty miles to attend " the communion." And so great was the concourse of hearers on these occasions that it was frequently found neces- REVIVALS IN CANADA. 93 1 sary to have two separate assemblies, one in the church and the other in some grove near by. The season lasted five days, beginning with Thursday. There were two or three services each day, and in a large and scat- tered country congregation there would be each evening from five to ten prayer-meet- ings in private houses in differen*^^ parts of the congregation. Presbyterianisra has al- ways been distinguished for "decency and order." This distinctive characteristic was observable in all the communion services. Each of the five days had its own distinc- tive name, indicating the general character of the services on that day. This was especial- ly the case among the Gaelic section of the Church. I will give these distinctive names in both tongues : Thursday was called the Day of Humiliation or Fast Day (La Tras- gaidh) ; Friday was the day of Self-exam- ination {La Rannsaichaidh) ; Saturday was the Day of Preparation (La UUuchaidh) ; Sabbath was the Day of Communion {La I m 11 94 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. Comunnaidh) ; and Monday was the Day of Thanksgiving (La Taingealichd,) =f^^ ^ ^ ^* The various religious services of prayers, singing, sermons, exhortations, and the per- sonal conversation of each day always had respect to the uniform subject of that day. Monday was the last, and not infrequently the great, day of the feast. Joy commingled with sorrow filled the hearts of the Lord^s people — joy because of the spiritual and social blessings of the season, but profound sorrow that now the communion was at its close and they were about to separate and return to their distant homes, many of them not expecting to meet again for an- other year — i. e, till the next communion season. " When shall we have a commun- ion without a Monday?" was an expression on the lips of many, and meaning. When shall we meet to part no more? Most of these grand old saints are now enjoying their communion without a Monday. May the sons be worthv of the fathers ! The com- REVIVALS IN CANADA. 95 munion season occurred yearly, and was a "time of refreshing'' to Christians, giving spiritual tone to the religious life during the whole year. Under the ministry of Richard Baxter there were, we are told, long streets in the town of Kidderminster on which there was not one house that had not its hours of prayer. But the writer knows whole dis- tricts of Ontario where there were conces- sions many miles in length on which there were few, if any, houses where prayers were not offered morning and evening and the sweet melody of psalms heard slowly and solemnly ascending to the God of heaven. The blessed results are to be seen at this day in the sobriety, industry and faith of their descendants. One such congregation known to the writer has given upward of forty men to the Christian ministry, and has sent forth not a few who have taken the very first place in the legal, teaching and medical professions. -- - -^^ — - :-^-^-.:^.-^^^^-.^ - .-,^^-^.^---, ■. ;-.i.L..-..^,i; -.^.i^a.^... But we must not live in the past. "Act, ,1 1 i i 96 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. I I' i act in the living present." Wilt Thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? A genuine revival of religion throughout our land would do more in a single year to remove our commercial and financial troubles, and secure us against those national dangers which thoughtful people now see looming up in the distance, than our world- ly-wise politicians can accomplish in a decade of years. Dishonesty, private or public, in- temperance, immorality, infidelity, socialism, communism, or Jesuitism cannot prevail among a people who honor God and whose hearts are full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. ,.:■-.»?#;:;. V. •;.jr- ■ ii! li ■'■ ■'/■. '■■■ ■■ 'ii'*' ■■■, . f .'.■ A ^n CHAPTER VIII. ^ REVIVALS AND THE YOUNO. RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE OF SO MANY OF THE YOUNG — ^VARIOUS CAUSES — THE CHIEF CAUSE IN THE HOME — PARENTAL. NEGLECT AND INCONSISTENCIES — HOW SHALL WE DEAL WITH THE EVIL? — A PLEA FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM TO ITS TRUE POSITION IN THE CHURCH — A SOLEMN APPEAL, Why are so many of our young people undecided for Christ? How few of them attend the Bible-class or are seen in the weekly prayer-meetings or are engaged in any specific Christian work! Five millions out of the seven millions of the young men of America were never, or practically never, 7 97 1^1 iNI i i 98 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. )ir inside a Christian church ! Only five per cent, of them ehurch-raerabers, and only three per cent, engaged in any religious ',vork ! Whither are we drifting? Tiiere are breakers ahead. Is not American so- ciety " dying at the top " — that is, in its young men? May the Lord awaken his Church before it is too late ! A very large proportion of these young men are the chil- dren of Christian parents; they were early dedicated to God in baptism ; they have grown up under the ordinary influences of the home and the sanctuary; and yet they have turned their backs upon the Cliurch, ignoring alike the obligations and privileges of the Christian ; and millions of them are rushing forward into life's solemn responsi- bilities apparently without a single thought of consecrating themselves by personal act to the Lord. Here is how the official or- gan of one of the largest and most active churches in our land speaks: "The indif- ference manifested by the vast majority of ■ nil REVIVALS AND THE YOUNG. 99 youDg men is sufficient cause for solicitous alarm. Comparatively few of our young people, young men especially, are being con- verted. Thousands, especially in our cities, scarcely ever enter a place of worship, and very few are actively engaged in Chris- tian work. Many boys leave our Sunday- schools as soon as they grow into manhood, and gradually drift off from all church re- lations. Many others remain with us as regular attendants upon our public services, moral and respectable, but worldly and spir- itually indifferent." t ., , -... Various causes have been assigned for this religious indifference on the part of so many of the young. The vigorous and aggressive skepticism of the day ; the speculative and materialistic spirit of the age ; false views of liberty, properly called libertinism ; licen- tiousness ; eagerness to get wealth without re- garding the morality of the means ; the pop- ular amusements of society, and the excesses usually connected with them; the extensive f ■ ili.i 100 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. reading of trashy, sensational literature, — all these are doing an incalculable amount of mischief by indisposing and unfitting mul- titudes of the young for serious reflection or the discharge of Christian obligation. In- temperance with its kindred vices and asso- ciations hi making havoc of many souls. Then, again, the worldliness, the selfishness, the unkindness of many church-members, are repelling the young from the bosom of the Church, and driving them to seek enjoyment in the world and the things thereof. But, powerful as these evil agencies are, they do not by any means constitute a suf- ficient explanation of the indifference — in some cases, positive aversion — to religion on the part of so many of the young. Would we trace this deplorable evil to its source, we must look beyond the mere tend- encies and temptations of our time — these are themselves but effects which are closely connected with certain causes; we must look beyond the imperfections of church-members iftnis REVIVALS AND THE YOUNG. 101 — these are probably no greater in our time than at any former age of the Church ; we must look to the home. What we want at the present day is a powerful revival of prac- tical piety in the family. We need a deeper and more scriptural sense of the importance of the family and its relation to the State and Church. "Out of families/' says Lu- ther, " nations are spun." The character of the Church as well as of the nation is deter- mined in the home. There the first and strongest impressions are made, and an edu- cation is insensibly gained which schools can never supply nor after-influences ever efface. The family is God's institution (Gen. 2 : 18 ; Ps. 68 : 6), and for more than two thousand five hundred years after the Fall the knowl- edge of the true God was preserved among men chiefly by heads of families. In the absolute and long dependents of children upon their parents for the supply of nearly every want, God surely teaches us how sacred is the trust that lies in the mother's gentle I, t 11, li ■ if il ■ l\ In 102 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT, arms aud claims the father's tenderest care. The young lamb and the little nestling, with the whole animal creation, soon learn to take care of themselves. But the immortal child is first a helpless babe, and long an infant in body and mind, thrown upon the warm bos- om of maternal love, a delicate, sensitive, precious being — the charm of the house- hold, the gift of a beneficent God, to be nourished aud brought up in God's fear and for his glory, '^^-^-'i .^^^^.-^.w: / -■' , ■-,; i^^r^Om Would we save our young people, we must begin at the beginning. We must begin our work, not in the world, nor in the Sunday- school, nor even in the church, but in the home, praying that God in his mercy would " turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers." Parents must carry their religious principles into daily practice. Their home-life must be a standing evidence of the power and value of religion. By little deeds of kindness, by gentle words, by wise counsels, by pleasant REVIVALS AND THE YOUNG. 103 looks, by a loving spirit, and, when neces- sary, by Christian admonition, reproof, cor- rection, they must exhibit to their children the religion of Jesus. Nothing can com- pensate for the loss of parental example and instruction. . fe In the prevailing lack of family religion and parental authority throug-hout our land we find a sufficient, though a sad, explanation of the youthful indiffereoce and irreligion which we deplore. Young persons come to the church, the Sunday-school or the Bible- class, and they are taught the supreme claims of religion and the duty aivJ privilege of pro- fessing faith in Christ. But they go home and see their parents — who, j:»erhaps, are members of the Church — as selfish, as worldly, as fret- ful and irritable in temper as those who make no profession of religion. In the home they see little of the profession and less of the prac- tice of religion. The parents live from day to day as if money-making were everything, and religion only a thing of naught or at 104 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. ill best only an old respectable custom. The public ordinances of religion, such as the con- gregational prayer-meeting or the Sabbath as- sembly, or even the observance of the Lord's Supper, are for the most trivial excuses neg- lected. And even where the parents attend upon these means, how often are the children left at home or allowed to wander no one knows where on the Sabbath ! Children see and feel all this, and instinctively reason, "If there were any great importance in religion ; if God and Chri&t and heaven and hell were what our ministers and teachers tell us they are, our fathers and mother^) would not only tell us so, but they would be pious themselves. Our parents know better than we what is right and safe, and if they are not Christians why should we be concerned?" Is it surprising that under such home-influenccs so many young persons soon come to regard religion with indiiferenec and all public profession of it with positive aversion ? — not a few of them living as if God were a myth, heaven REVIVALS AND THE YOUMG. 105 a dream, the atonement a cheat and eternity nothing? . > li; How are we to deal with this great evil on the part of parents ? Does any one say it is vain to attempt to arouse our people to a right sense of duty on this matter? I reply, No good work is hopeless so long as there is a God of infinite power and grace in heaven. Let every pulpit in the land speak out faithfully, calling parents to repentance for their sin and warning the young of break- ing covenant with God. Let parents be exhorted to walk before their children with a perfect heart, praying not only for their children, but with them, taking them aside one by one for this purpose. John Newton is not the only one who has been saved from destruction by the memory of his motli- er's prayers. Let Christian example and fervent prayer be accompanied with faith- ful instruction. "And these words which I command thee, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy i! 106 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. children" (Dent. 6 : 6, 7). First let the word of God dwell in the parent's own heart, and then let him seize every oppor- tunity to impress that word upon the ten- der mind of his child. The love, the sov- ereignty, the justice, the holiness and the goodness of God ; the perfect requirements of his law ; the lost condition of all men by nature; the only way of recovery through Jesus Christ; the necessity of a change of heart by the renewing of the Holy Ghost; and also of repentance to- ward God and faith in Christ, such faith as shall produce universal obedience to di- vine commands, — ^these are the leading truths of revelation with which the mind of the child should early be made familiar. Let the holy sacrament of baptism be restored from that condition of neglect and obscurity into which, alas ! it has in so many instances fallen, and let it receive that same prominence and reverence in the teaching of the Church that the other sacrament; that of REVIVALS AND THE YOUNG. 107 the Lord's Supjx until parents now receives, clearly realize that baptism is not a " christen- ing " or a mere ^' giving a name to the child /^ but a solemn sacrament in which they recog- nize their child as the property of the Triune God, and enter into a covenant with God on ha behalf. Then as the child gi^ows up it should be taught the nature and design of its bap- tism as a dedication to God. In ev^ery spir- itual way it should be made to understand that God is its Proprietor and has supreme claims upon its love and ol)edience. A child thus instructed with meekness and tenderness will soon learn something of the nature and awful desert of sin and its own lost condition as a sinner. It will learn something of the character of Jesus and of his work as a Sa- viour. The heart of that child will go out to the Saviour, and it will be a delight to submit to that voke whicli is easy and that burden which is light. Instead of being liardened by sin in the *'far country," such a child will never by bitter experience know what it is to 1 108 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. wander from his Father's house, and he will never remember the time when he did not love the name of Jesus. " If parents," says the holy Baxter, "were true to their vows in baptism, nineteen-twentieths of those con- secrated to God in infancy would grow up pious and dutiful, and when they came to mature years would personally assume the vows of their baptism by an open profes- sion of their faith at the Table of the Lord." " If God hath wrought," says Matthew Henry, "a good work in my soul, I desire in humble thankfulness to acknowledge the influence of my infant baptism upon it." Well might an equally high authority say, *' If infant baptism were more improved, it would be less disputed." Kind reader, whose eyes now scan these lines, are you a parent? Then let me plead with you on behalf of tliose dearest to you in life. You are not, like the ostrich in the wilderness, indifferent to your offspring. Your heart is not made REVIVALS AND THE YOUNG. 109 of the nether millstone. You love your chil- dren. Well, then, can you think of them sin- ning against God, abiding under the wrath of the Most High, rushing forward to eternity, having no God and without hope, and yet horror not take hold of you? If you saw your child in the street and the wheels about to run over it, would you not rush to the res- cue? And can you see your child in danger of eternal destruction and yet not be moved to earnest, continued action to save it from the awful doom? Speak to your children concerning the soul and salvation ; do it with all the powerful oratory which the fond heart of a Christian parent can supply ; take them aside, one by one, and plead with them '* day and night with tears ;'' put them in mind of their early baptism ; explain to them the na- ture of that sacrament ; labor to make them esteem its privileges and to feel its obliga- tions ; bring them to the house of God with you ; walk in your house with a perfect heart ; pray for your children as the Syro-Phoenician no OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. mi !>> r I ■ ':.4 :> woman prayed for her child, — ^and the cov- enant God will be a God to you and to them. Or am I addressing one of the baptized children of the Church? Then I would speak an earnest word to you concerning your relationship to the Christian Church. God remembers your baptism. He remem- bers that your parents dedicated you to him and put his seal upon you. He would look upon you as his child. Will you not look upon him as your God? Luther tells us of a pious woman who, when tempted to sin, replied, '"' Baptizata sum^' — I am baptized — and thus overcame. And so, my young friend, when you are tempteus lid to nd r a ger the the stone, twenty-seven years of age and not yet ordained, preached a sermon in the church- yard at Shotts under which five hundred souls were converted and a great work commenced which spread through the whole of Clydes- dale, and the results of which eternity alone will fully unfold. The circumstances were very interesting. The day before was a com- munion Sabbath, and the Spirit of God was evidently working mightily upon the hearts of the people. For several days previous much time had been spent in social prayer. After being dismissed on the Sabbath many spent the whole night in different companies in prayer. On the Monday morning the ministers, seeing the people still lingering, as if unwilling to leave a spot which had been to them as the very gate of heaven, agreed to have service on that day, though it was not usual at that time to preach on the Monday after communion. Young Living- stone was selected for the sermon. His dif- fidence, however, was great, and he was over* ii ' 'M if 'J 116 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. ••. . come with a sense of un worthiness and unfit- ness to speak on such a solemn occasion and in the presence of so many aged and more experienced ministers. Alone in the field in the morning, he began to think of stealing away rather than address the people, and had actually gone some distance, and was just about to lose sight of the kirk, when the words, " Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness?" (Jer. 2 : 31) were brought to his mind with such clear- ness and power that he durst no longer dis- trust God. He returned, took his stand upon a tombstone outside the church, and preached from the text (Ezek, 36 : 25, 26), " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean." The rest I will give in his own words : ^^ I had about an hour and a half on the points I had meditated on; and in the end, ofiering to close with some words of ex- hortation, I was led on about an hour's time with such liberty and melting of heart as I never had the like in public all my life." REVIVALISTS AND TESTS. 117 The first iDdicatiou uf awakening among the people was in this way : During the time Mr. Livingstone v/as preaching there was a soft shower of rain, and when the people began to move about he said, " What a mercy it is that the Lord sifts that rain through these heavens on us, and does not rain down fire and brimstone as he did upon Sodom and Gomorrah ?* After this the practice, still ob- served in most Presbyterian churches, of hav- ing a thanksgiving service on the Monday following the sacrament, became general in Scotland. Whitefield has been characterized as **the Field Evangel ist.'^ His epitaph records that he was born at Gloucester, England, Dec. 16, 1714; educated at Oxford University; ordained in 1736; that in a ministry of thirty-four years he crossed the Atlantic thirteen times and preached over eighteen thousand sermons. His average congrega- tion was two thousand; frequently he preached to ten thousand; at Philadelphia ^H 118 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. i to twenty thousand; at Boston Commons to thirty thousand; and at Moorfield to sixty thousand I He had a voice of won- derful richness acd pathos^ and his deliv- ery, according to Southey, was perfect. His subject ,vas always one or all of the three R^s — Ruin, Regeneration, Redemption: man ruined wholly, eternally ruined by the fall ; man regenerated by the Spirit and made a new creature in Christ Jesus ; man redeemed from all his sins by the precious blood of Christ. He always honored God, and God honored him, and made him as a mighty angel flying from country to country, preach- ing the everlasting gospel to every creature. Some of his most frequent sayings were: "Let us be all heart;'' "The world wants more heat than light;" "Lord, make us all flames of fire;" "We are immortal till our work is done." I subjoin a number of the texts from which he most frequently preached : Jer. 6 : 14: "Saying Peace, peace; when there is no peace." REVIVALISTS AND TEST3. 119 ns to n- V- is ee an HI John 9 : 35: "Dost thou believe on the Son of God r Jer. 23 : 6 : '* The Lord our Righteous- ness. >» Acts 26 : 28 : " The Almost Christian." John 5 : 39 : " The Duty of Searching the Scriptures." Acts 19:2: " Marks of having Received the Holy Ghost." 1 Cor. 6 : 11 : "Justification by Christ." 1 Cor. 2 : 11 : "Satan's Devices." 2 Cor. 5 : 17 : "Regeneration." Eph. 5:18: "The Sin of Drunkenness." Matt. 25 : 46 : " The Eternity of Hell Tor- ments." Josh. 24 i 15 : " The Great Duty of Family Religion." Ps. 46 : 1-6 : " Christ the Believer's Ref- uge." Gen. 6 : 24: "Walking with God." Ps. 45 : 10, 11: "Christ the Best Hus- band." Isa. 54 : 5 : " Thy Maker is thy Husband." 120 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. This last was the text that was most blessed while he was preach iug in Scotland ; and most of those who were converted through the in- strumentality of this sermon were men. Jonathan Edwards is thus described by Mr. Prince in his Christian History : " He was a preacher of a low and moderate voice, a nat- ural delivery, and without any agitation of body or anything else in his manner to excite attention except his habitual and great solem- nity, looking and speaking as in the presence of God and with a weighty sense of the mat- ter delivered." The best known of his ser- mons is that on "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God." The text is Deut. 32 : 35: "To me belongeth vengeance and recom- pense; their foot shall slide in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste." It was preached during the time of the "Great Awakening," and was accompanied with extraordinary manifesta- tions of the Spirit's power. As Edwards REVIVALISTS AND TESTS. 121 in- preached, suddenly the Holy Ghost descend- ed, the people began to tremble and even cry out under the terrors of conviction, and the awakening spread through all the New England colonies, and many thousands were added to the Lord. The following are some of Edwards' themes and t«xts, and from them may be gained a pretty clear idea of the truths that were so wonderfully blessed in his hands : Ps. 94 : 9-11 : "Man's Natural Blindness in the Things of Religion." Rom. 5 : 10 : " Men naturally God's Ene- mies. }y Rom. 4:5: " Justification by Faith alone." Rev. 5 : 5, 6 : " The Excellency of Christ." Ps. 25 : 11 : " Pardon for the Greatest Siu- 9f ner. John 14 : 27 : " The Peace which Christ Gives to his People." Rom. 9:18: "God's Sovereignty." Deut. 32 : 35: "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God." 122 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. Ps. 65 : 2: "The Most High a Prayer- hearing God/' Heb. 11 : 13, 14 : "The Christian's Life a Journey toward Heaven/' Edward Payson was born at Rindge, New Hampshire, July 25, 1783, and died at Port- land, Me., Oct. 22, 1827. His life was one of much physical suflPering; occasional mental despondency, but uninterrupted and most joy- ous confidence in Christ as his personal and ever-present Saviour. Love to the Saviour and for the souls of men was with him an all-absorbing passion. His preaching was characterized by extraordinary pathos and so- lemnity, but the most remarkable thing about him was his prayers. These were just the out- pourings of a soul filled with a glowing, ar- dent, overpowering affection for Christ. One who enjoyed his ministry for seven years says : " It was my custom to close my eyes when he began to pray, and it was always a letting down, a sort of rude fall, to open them again when he had concluded and find myself still REVIVALISTS AND TESTS. 123 er- e a on the earth. His prayers always took my spi into the immediate presence of Christ, amid the glories of the spiritual world ; and to look around again on this familiar and com- paratively misty earth was almost painful,'' His ruling passion was strong in death. " The Celestial City," he said, " is full in my view. Its glories beam upon me, its breezes fan me, its odors are wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ear, and its spirit is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the river of death, which now appears but as an insignificant rill, that may be crossed at a single step whenever God shall give permis- sion. The Sun of Righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appear- ing larger and brighter as he approaches, and now he fills the whole hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of giory in which I seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun, exult- ing, yet almost trembling, while I gaze on this excessive brightness." Among his last words were the following : " The battle's fought ! the 124 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIBIT. Id s ' battle's foaght ! and the victory is won ! the victory is won for ever. I am going to bathe in an ocean of purity and benevolence and happiness to all eternity." I subjoin a few of Payson's texts and themes: Dan. 5 : 27 : " Men Tried and Found De- fective." Job 22 : 5 : " Our Sins Infinite in Number and Enormity." 1 Thess. 5 : 23: "Amiable Instincts not Holiness." 2 Cor. 5 : 10 : " The Final Judgment." Matt. 23 : 33 : " The Difficulty jf Escap- ing the Damnation of Hell." Jcr. 22 : 24 : " Punishment of the Impen- itent Inevitable and Justifiable." John 6 : 37 : " Christ Rejects None that Come to Him." Gen. 15:16: " Why the Wicked are Spared for a Season." Jonah 1 : G : " The Sleeper Awakened." Mark 10 : 14 : " How Little Children are Prevented from Coming to Christ." CHAPTER X. SHALL WE HAVE A BEVIVALf PRESENT STATE OP THE CHURCH AND OF THE WORLD — HUMAN AGENCY IN A REVIVAL — THE MEANS : PLAIN, EARNEST PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL ; CONSECRATION OF J IFE ; PRA/ER; PERSONAL EFFORT ; GIVING GOD ALL THE GLORY. Do we not need a revival ? Where is the congregation the members of which are as holy, as earnest, as prayerful, as liberal and as aggressive as they ought to be? Do not many professors rest in the mere form of religion? They have a name to live while they are spiritually dead. Do not the vast majority of Christians live far below their privileges, satisfied with a mere glimpse of Christ's pardon, a mere crumb from his table, 125 126 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. a mere drop of his love ? Think of the mul- titudes outside the Church who do not even profess any interest in Christ or give any evi- dence of a change of heart. In the light of God's truth how sad their condition, how ter- rible their danger ! Try to realize it. White- field saw it, and sometimes standing before the thousands, he could only exclaim, ^* The wrath to come ! The wrath to come !" and, overcome with emotion, sit down again. Paul felt it, and you know how he expresses his agony for the salvation of souls as a travailing in birth (Gal. 4 : 19). The Psalmist saw it and felt the danger of the unconverted : " Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law'' (Ps. 119 : 53); and again: "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes be- cause they keep not thy law" (Ps. 119 : 136). Isaiah saw it, and hear his language : " There- fore, said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly ; labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people " (Isa. 22 : 4). Jeremiah saw it, and hear him : SHALL WE HAVE A REVIVAL? 127 1- en 1- bf r- e- he Lth ne " Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep clay and night for the slain of the daughter of my peo- ple '^ (Jer. 9 : 1 ). But where is this w^eeping, this intense earnestness, this intense soul-agony, on the part of the Lord's people at the present day be- cause of the souls perishing around us ? Six millions of people die every year, the vast majority of them professing no interest in Christ. The whole world lieth in the evil one. The enemy is coming in like a flood. Intemperan^, Sabbath profanation, licentious- ness, wondliness, fraud prevailing on every side. Only, as observed in a former chapter, five per cent, of the young men of America are members of any Church, and only three per c?nt. of them are doing any religious work, while seventy-five out of every hundred are practically never inside a church-door. The prospect is sufficiently appalling. Oh, sirs, the Church of Christ to-day is engaged in a terrible conflict. We need the baptism of the ■ill -I V' 128 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. Holy Ghost. Shall we not then cry, " O Lord, revive thy work !" We are apt to regard a religious revival as a kind of miracle or as some arbitrary man- ifestation of the Almighty's power, given in his own time and without any reference to any action of his Church as a preparation for it. There is no use trying to " work up a re- vival," we often hear said. " A revival," it is urged, "depends upon the sovereign will of God, and we are not to move until there are unmistakable signs that God is about to commence a work of salvation, lest we run before we are sent, and injure the cause of religion." All such reasoning is based upon an erroneous conception of the divine method. Undoubtedly a revival is a work of God, oth- erwise we need not pray, " O Lord, revive thy work." But God works through means in the spiritual as in the natural world ; and he has ordained that his people shall be co-workers with him in extending his kingdom. They are to plant and to water, in order that he SHALL WE HAVE A REVIVAL? 129 .rd, may give the increase. It is the Spirit that quickens believers and converts sinners ; and the Spirit is given not in any arbitrary man- ner or without regard to the human will, but in answer to prayer and to render the human agency successful A revival is thus in an important sense the result of means employed by the Church. If the Church is seeking a revival, she must "awake and put on her strength ;" she must stir herself to take hold of God. Isaiah said : " As soon as Zion tra- vailed she brought forth children ;" and it is true of the Church to-day. What, then, are the means which the Church should employ to promote revivals ? I answer, We must have much plain, earnest preaching of the gospel. The apostolic Church was a revived and revival Church, and it gave the very first place to preaching. The most strik- ing figure in the Pentecost scene is Peter stand- ing up to preach in the company of his breth- ren. Wherever the apostles went it is said, " There they preached the gospel ;" " they so 9 130 OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT. spake the word;" "the word of the Lord was published throughout all that region;" " it pleased God by the foolishness of preach- ing to save them that believe." Preaching, then, is God's chief means for advancing his kingdom. But remember, it must be the preaehing of the gospel. However the ag- nostic may sneer and the ungodly rage, that preaching is the best preaching, the most effective, the most edifying, the most soul- saviMg, that has the most of Christ in it. Such was Paul's preaching. He determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ. " I am not ashamed of the gospel," he says. And when we say that Christ ought to be the sub- ject of every sermon, let no one think that the subject will ever grow threadl)are — Christ in his divinity and humanity, in his person, his character, his work, as our wisdom, right- eousness, sanctification and redemption ; in his birth, life, death, miracles, parables, his prayers and his preaching ; Christ suffering and con- quering, Christ exalted and ruling, Christ al] SHALT- WB HAVE A REVIVAL? 131 lis in all ! Why, the subject is endless ; eternity cannot exhaust it. And it must be plain preaching if it is to affect the raasses. The hiding of the cross beneath the veil of fine language and the flowers of rhetoric is, I verily believe, the source of much of Ihat want of sympathy with the Church which so sadly characterizes many in the lower ranks of society at the present day. And besides being plainly preached, the gospel must be earnestly preached. McCheyne was accustomed to visit some one or two of his dying parishioners on the Saturday with a view of being stirred up to greater earnest- ness in the Sunday's work. Of his preach- ing one says, " He appeared as if he were dying almost to have you converted." There is a beautiful legend of St. Chrysostom. He was a man of much culture and refinement, yet in his earlier ministry he was not re- markable for success. But one night he had a vision. He thought he was in the pulpl*^ Round about him were holy angels. 132 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. Beside hirn was the Lord Jesus, and be- fore him the congregation to which he was to preach. The vision deeply afifected him. The following day he ascended the pulpit; he felt the impression of the scene, he thought of the holy angels as if gathered around him, of the blessed Saviour as at his side listening to his words and beholding his spirit ; he became intensely earnest, and from that time forward a wonderful power attend- ed his ministry. Multitudes gathered around him wherever he preached. Though he had the simple name of John while he lived, the ages have called him Chrysostom, the Golden Mouth. Could we as ministers forget our- selves in the pulpit, and remember only that there is a heaven above and a hell below with dying sinners before us and a living, loving, mighty Saviour at our side, and that we are commissioned by that Saviour to speak with those sinners, and to plead with them in the name of his love to flee from the wrath to come and lay hold on eternal life, would not SHALL WE HAVE A REVIVAL? 133 our preaching be earnest and would not the almighty Spirit bear our words with wings of fire to the hearts of the people, arousing the careless and convicting the unconverted? " We'd preach as though we ne^er shouid preach again, And as a dying man to dying men." If we want a revival of religion we must see that the faithful preaching of the gospel is backed up by holiness of life. Our God is a God of holiDe&s. Before he appeared on Mount Sinai, the children of Israel had to cleanse themselves for three days. And be- fore Israel could take possession of the prom- ised rest of Canaan, Joshua had to see to it that they were purified. So if we wish God to do a great work for us, we must sanc- tify ourselves. Whatever of pride or envy or anger Oi- evil-speaking or worldliness or covetousness or sloth fulness we find in our- selves, we must be willing to give up for ever; for these things grieve the Spirit, and the Lord will not hold fellowship with us li! 134 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. while we indulge them. Do we not see the explanation of the cheerless, low spiritual life of inany in the Church? They are neglecting some known d^if or living in some known sin. " The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol be, Help me to tear it from thy throne, And worship only thee." Truth is most powerful when • esented in a life transfigured and ennobled b^^- \L The raost effective way to commend our religion is by a godly life. Character is mightier than profession. The world cares not how we preach on the Sabbath or how you speak and sing at the week-evening meeting; but if you live soberly, righteously and godly; if you are gentle in temper, patient in trou- ble, honest in business, always generous, cheer- ful, unselfish, and always seeking to make others happy — the world will see it and recog- nize it, and ask the reason why. Holiness SHALL WE HAVE A REVIVAL? 135 of life is an argument for the truth and power of religion which the most hardened will ob- serve and the most obtuse understand. And if the modern Church is far behind the ancient in faith and zeal and in revival power, per- haps it is because it is far behind it in godly living. And if we want a revival we must jfyray for it. " I would rather/' says Moody, " pray like Daniel than preach like Grabriel.'' We cannot explain the " why '^ or the " how," but we know by revelation and experience that true prayer will give birth to revival. The reason many congregations have no revival is because they do not pray. Ah, my reader, don't criticise your minister, and complain that he does not preach well enough, until you are sure that you yourself have done your full duty in the case. Don't say, " It is Moses' fault that the Amalekites prevail," when God has told you to hold up Moses' hands and you have not done it. When the Church groans and trav- ails in pain and pours forth loud cries and 136 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. tears, the blessing will come, the life will be manifested. When God promises to give a new heart and a new spirit to Israel, he says, "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.'* When God promises to give to Christ the heathen for his heritage, he promises it in answer to prayer: "Ask of me and I will give thee." When he w^ould give life to the dead and dry bones in the open valley, he directs his servant to pray, " Come from the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.'' When Elijah prayed, the nation was reformed ; when Hezekiah prayed, the people were healed; when the disciples prayed, Pentecost ap- peared ; when John Wesley and his com- panions prayed, England was revived ; when John Knox prayed, Scotland was refreshed ; when the Sabbath-school teachers at Tauny- brake prayed, eleven thousand were added to the Church in one year ; when Luther prayed, the papacy was shaken ; when Baxter prayed, SHALL WP: have A REVIVAL? 137 I be by 9} Kidderminster was aroused ; and in the lives of Whitefield, Payson, Edwards, Tennent, whole nights of prayer were succeeded by whole days of soul-winning. To your knees, then, ye Christians ! Plead until the windows open, plead until the springs unlock, plead until the clouds part, plead until the rains descend, plead until the flood:i of blessing come. Then to faithful preaching and holy living and earnest prayer there must be added per- sonal effort to save souls. What would be thought of a man praying for a harvest of wheat, but neither ploughing nor sowing? Yet this is what many are doing in the Church. So far as personal effort to res- cue the perishing is concerned, multitudes of church-members are doing nothing. They are barren trees in the vineyard, withered members of the Christian body, drones in the hive. The minister and a few earnest, consecrated men and women are left to do the whole work, while perhaps two-thirds of the members are fast asleep. Now all 138 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. this must come to an end if there is to be a revival in the congregation. The whole Church must be organized for work, and all must feel that they are equally called to work as they have opportunity. When our Saviour fed the hungry multitude he gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. So, in order to reach a dying world in their various conditions and necess' 'es, we need to organize and distribute by making every mem- ber of the Church a disciple indeed ; and as they go forth with the Bread of Life, he will bless the labor and work to the famishing thousands around. What we want is not an occasional spasmodic effort, to be fol- lowed by a folding of hands and a going to sleep. The whole Church must be en- gaged in a persistent attack on the devil, the world and the flesh. We want special efforts by all means, but after these — what ? Do we not need to be as earnest and diligent as ever in watering the good seed sown, in building up and strengthening the tender vines SHALL WE HAVE A REVIVAL? 139 ! which have been transplanted from the wil- derness, in encouraging the zealous disciples who have become fellow-helpers to the truth, and in watching, working and praying with Jesus ? Look at the early days of Christianity. Those were the days of earnest, persistent per- sonal service. As soon as a man was convert- ed to God in those days be became a worker for Christ. Every Christian, whether he moved in Caesar's household or, like Lydia, in the pursuit of humble commerce, — every Christian did something for Christ and sought to advance his cause. And what was the re- sult? Why, within three centuries after the death of Christ the cross was uplifted in every land ; the name of Jesus was pro- nounced in every known dialect; mission- aries passed through the desert, penetrated into the remote recesses of uncivilized coun- tries, and the whole known world was evan- gelized. They were all at it, and always at it, and the Lord blessed their labors. So, 140 OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT. ye soldiers of the cross to-day ! if you are to obtain glorious victories you must not rest satisfied with one man in a hundred going to battle. Every man of you must fight the good fight of faith, every heart must be stout and every arm must be strong ; every follower of Christ must march forward with the cour- age of a hero and with the strength of God, to do battle against the common enemy of man- kind. Thus, and thus only, will a true, real and permanent revival of religion be experi- enced, will sinners be seen flocking to Jesus as doves to their windows, and will the glory of the Lord cover the whole earth. And, lastly, let us never forget to give God all the glory. Whatever instrumentality he may employ, the work is all his. It is only where the Sun of mercy shines that the fruits of grace will grow. Without the Spirit of God the best arrai' 7;ed means are useless — lamps wiiuout oil, sails without wind, coals without fire. Underrate this truth, and you cut yourself off from the very fountain-head SHALL WE HAVE A REVIVAL? 141 of revival. We may plant and water, but spiritual increase is from God, and God alone. It is not of him that wiHeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Nothing short of God's omnipotent might in Christ's everlasting love, through the Holy Spirit's divine efficacy, can revive a single soul. Remember this, for it will guide your actions, raise your hopes, strength- en your faith and warrant your prayers. "Revive thy work, O Lord, Thy mighty arm make bare : Speak with the voice that wakes the dead, And make thy people hear." THE END. IHS