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OUTPOURINGS

THE SI>IRIT;

OR,

A NARRATIVE OP SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS IN
DIFFERENT AGES AND COUNTRIES.

Eev. W. a. 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

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.

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

•^Hmmw

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

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.

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

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?

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

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?

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-

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?

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

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?

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

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

OUTPOURINGS OF THE 8PIHIT.

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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-

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.

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

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.

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 ••

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.

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-

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.

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-

Ail

Sri
m

j!;f ■
1^1

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.

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.''

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.

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.

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

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<e-
rents, so evangelical, so earnest, so mighty a
power for good, and we ask, How did tlt^
Church attain its present position and char-
acter within the comparatively short period
of a hundred and fifty years? The reply
comes : Its converts have been made not
one now and another again, but they have
come in by fifties, by hundreds and by thou-
sands under mighty outpourings of the Holy
Ghost. The Metliodist Church is a revival
Church, and we thank God for revivals.

; --=;•. 1

CHAPTER IV.

" "■ '.i'x

REVIVALS IN SCOTLAND,

AN ERROR CORRECTED — PRESBYTERIANISM

IN SCOTLAND BORN IN A REVIVAL

KNOX, WISHART, COOPER — THE GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF 1596 — JOHN LIVINGSTONE
AND THE KIRK-OP-SHOTTS REVIVAL —
OTHER AWAKENINGS — REV. W. C. BURNS
AND KILSYTH — REV. R. MCCHEYNE AND
THE REVIVAL AT DUNDEE — THE ^* LAY-
MElir's REVIVAL '' — THE MOODY AND SAN-
KEY REVIVAL.

^* Presbyterians don't believe in revivals."
So wrote a youthful member of the Church to a
minister who was at the time assisting a brother
in special evangelistic services. At the funeral
of Jabez Bunting, when the officiating clergy-
man declared that there was not such another

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

just and good niau living as Jabez Bunting, a
somewhat eccentric but veracious woman cried
out, " Thank God, that's a lie !" I was strik-
ingly reminded of this gQod woman's reply
when I read the statement, "Presbyterians
don't believe in revivals." On page 822 of
the Minutes of the Second General Council of
the Presbyterian Alliance, which met at Phil-
adelphia, 1880, 1 find the following statement :
" It is a matter of record that probably seven-
eighths of the hundreds of thousands of Pres-
byterian communicants in America are the
fruits of these blessed means of grace " (revi-
vals). Presbyterians may, indeed, conscien-
tiously differ from some of their fellow-Chris-
tians as to the best means and methods of con-
ducting and promoting revivals, but they most
assuredly believe in revivals, and no Church
on earth owes more than the Presbyterian to
powerful and extensive awakenings.

We will look in this chapter at her history
in Scotland. There she was born in a revival,
and has prospered largely by means of revivals;

1 1

REVIVALS IN SCOTLAND.

and to-day her clear apprehension, unflinching
maintenance and earnest propagation of Script-
ure truth evince her origin and her history.
See the earnestness of John Knox, who under
the burden of souls could not sleep, but, leav-
ing his bed in the cold night, knelt down and
prayed for Scotland ; and when his wife im-
portuned him to come back to the pillow,
replied, *^ Woman, how can I sleep when my
country is not saved ? O God ! give me Scot-
land or I die !" Under the preaching of John
Knox, George Wishart, William Cooper and
other men with glowing hearts and tongues of
fire Scotland from centre to circumference was
aroused from spiritual slumber, redeemed from
the blight of the papacy, and a direction was
given to the whole of modern Scottish thought
that has made itself felt throughout the civil-
ized world. A gracious rain descended on the
pastures of the wilderness, and the thirsty land
became springs of water. " The whole nation,"
says the historian, " was converted by lump.
Lo ! here a nation born in a day.''

OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT.

It would be difficult to estimate the far-
reaching influence of that mighty outpouring
of the Spirit upon the General Assembly of
1596, when more than four hundred ministers
and elders humbled theraseh'^es before God
with "sighs and groans and shedding of
penitential tears." These were also the days
when the venerable Bruce preached with such
power at Edinburgh, the house of Gc be-
coming literally "a Bochim," a place of
weeping.

Who has not heard of that memorable day
in the history of Scottish Presbyterianism
(Monday, June 21, 1630) when John Liv-
ingstone, only twenty-seven years of age and
not yet ordained, took his stand on a tomb-
stone in the churchyard at the Kirk of Shotts,
and preached amid a heavy shower of rain ;
but the Spirit of God came down with such
power that nearly five hundred souls were
converted in one day? Nor did the good
work cease on that day, "It was,'' says
Fleming, "the sowing of a seed through

REVIVALS IN SCOTLAND.

Clydesdale, so that many of the most emi-
nent Christians in that country could date
either their conversion or some remarkable con-
:rmation from it." Again, in 1638 refresh-
ing showers of divine influence were poured
on many congregations, so that Livingstone
said, " In all my lifetime, excepting at the
Kirk of Shotts, I never saw such motions
from the Spirit of God. I have seen more
than a thousand pei'sons all at once lifting
up their hands and tears falling down from
their eyes.'' Space will not permit us to
dwell upon the great spiritual awakenings that
occurrjed in 1742 atCambuslang and Kilsyth,
at Campsie and Calder, and in all the regions
round about. Saints were quickened, sinners
were converted and God was glorified.

In 1771, under the preaching of White-
field, the mighty power of God was seen in
many places, particularly at a place called
Ijundie, five miles north of Dundee. Scarce-
I3' had the preacher begun when the divine
presence was felt. " Never,'' adds his fellow-

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

traveler, " did I see such weeping in any con-
gregation."

We read of an extensive awakening at
Moulin in 1800, at Arran in 1813, at Skye
in 1814 and at Lewes in 1834. Under these
gracious outpourings many a barren spot be-
came fruitful, many a sorrowing heart was
made glad and many a wilderness home blos-
somed as the rose.

In 1839, while Rev. W. C. Burns, after-
ward the famous Chinese missionary, was
preaching the gospel at Kilsyth, the Spirit
of God was poured out on the people. '' They
were," says one, *^ overwhelmed with a flood
of commingled sorrow and joy, so that fre-
quently the voice of the preacher was drowned
in the sobs and cries of the penitents." The
power of the Lord's Spirit became so mighty
upon their souls as to carry all before it, like
tlie rushing mighty wind of Pentecost. The
movement soon spvead to Dundee, where a glo-
rious work was accomplished chiefly through

REVIVALS IN SCOTLAND.

the iDstru mentality of Rev. R. M. McCheyne, of
blessed memory. There is much in the biog-
raphy of this eminent minister of Christ from
which every Christian worker, and especially
every gospel preacher, may learn useful les-
sons. His was a strong intellect and a loving
heart, but, more than all, a soul living in clos-
est communion with God. Herein lay his
wonderful power. And so still : real, effective
power lies not so much in what a man says as
in what a man is. There is no rhetoric so
persuasive, no logic so powerful, as the earn-
estness of a man who lives near to God. We
i ant eloquent sermons, but the sentences that
are most brilliant, that please the ear and charm
the fancy, may be as hard as diamonds and as
cold as icicles. The sermons that fall upon
men's hearts as the good seed of the kingdom,
that germinate and bring forth fruit, are not
always great intellectually ; but they are ser-
mons that have been " steeped in prayer, and
that are preached to those whose spirits have
been mellowed by prayer."

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

"When one who holds communion with the skies
Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise,
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings ;
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide,
That tells us whence these treasures are supplied."

But we must return to the Dundee revival.
It began under the ministry of W. C. Burns
while McCheyne was absent from home on a
mission to the Jews in Palestine. McCheyne
tells us that on his return he found no less
than thirty-nine prayer-meetings held weekly
in connection with his congregation ; " five of
these were conducted and attended entirelv
by children." Within three months not fewer
than from six hundred to seven hundred came
to converse with him about their souls, and
this by no means included all who were deeply
concerned. " I have observed at times/' says
McCheyne, " an awful and breathless stillness
pervading the assem.bly, each hearer bent for-
ward in the posture of rapt attention. , . .
Again at times I have heard a half-suppressed
sigh rising from many a heart, and have seen

REVIVALS IN SCOTLAND.

many bathed in tears. At other times I have
heard loud sobbing in many parts of the
church, while an awfully soleLin sense of
the divine presence pervaded the whole
audience. ... I have seen persons so over-
come that they could not walk or stand
alone. I have known cases in which be-
lievers have been similarly aflFected through
the fullness of their joy." I am sure my
readers will excuse me for giving a few
more words from this, one of the most
saintly and Christ-like ministers tliat ever
blessed the Presbyterian Church of Scot-
land or of any other land. Speaking of
the immediate and outward results of this
revival, he says : *^ The effects upon the com-
munity are very marked. It seems now to
be allowed, even by the most ungodly, that
there is such a thing as conversion. Men
cannot any longer deny it. The Sabbath
is now observed with greater reverence than
it used to be, and there seems to be far more
of a solemn awe upon the minds of men than

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

formerly. I feel that I can now stop sinners
in the midst of their open sin and wickedness,
and command their reverent attention in a
way that I could not have done before The
private meetings for prayer have ad a
sweet influence over the place. There is far
more solemnity in the house of God, and it
is a different thing to preach to the people
now from what it once was.'' Farther on he
adds : " I do entirely and solemnly approve
of such meetings, because I believe them to
be in accordance with the word of God, to be
pervaded by the Spirit of Christ and to be
ofttimes the birthplace of precious never-dy-
ing souls.''

In 1859 tidings of the work of grace in
America and in Ireland stirred the hearts of
Scottish Christians, and in many places there
were gracious awakenings. These awaken-
ings were called the "Laymen's Revival,"
from the fact that at this time the divine
Head of the Church, as if to assert his own
sovereignty find the power of divine grace in

REVIVALS IN SCOTLAND.

the salvation of meo, was pleased to raise up
an extraordinary number of eminent laymen
to preach the gospel. Among these honored
laymen the following may be mentioned :
Brown low North, Reginald Eadcliffe, H. M.
Grant, Duncan Matheson, James Turner, Rob-
ert Annan and Robert Cunningham. The re-
vival was indeed led and sustained by bands
of earnest ministers of various denominations,
but the laymen named and many others were
extra harvest-hands called to the work on
this remarkable occasion, and many were the
sheaves gathered in. We cannot go into par-
ticulars, but in many parts of Scotland con-
gregations and communities rejoiced that the
winter was gone and the time for the singing
of birds had come. A single illustration must
suffice. Duncan Matheson thus writes of one
place : " At eight o'clock Mr. Campbell and I
preached to thousands in the open air. What
a night ! We had over and over to preach.
The crowds had to be divided, for they were
too large. We could not till nearly eleven

OUTPOURINGS OP THE SPIRIT.

:^ill

o'clock get away from the awakened. Pray
for us. The Lord is doing great things. I
believe almost every time one speaks souls are
brought to Christ."

An outpouring of the Spirit at this time
reached the fishermen of Scotland, a class
usually found to be painfully proof against
the operations of the ordinary means of grace.
Out of the crews of two boats numbering fifty
men, forty-two were conv^erted to Christ, and
on many a fishing-boat earnest prayers were
offered, and the sweet melodies of David's
psalms might often be heard mingling with
the still more ancient harmonies of the great
ocean.

Rev. J. Macpherson says of this revival :
"Many thousands were added to the Lord.
Of these a large proportion consisted of young
men, not a few of whom are now ministers at
home or missionaries abroad. In fact, there is
scarcely a church in which you do not find
some of them in honorable posts of office or
useful spheres of work. Nor is there a for-

REVIVALS IN SCOTLAND.

eign mission in connection with which some
of thera are not laboring. Out of that move-
ment there sprang, too, a host of Sabbath-
school teachers, district visitors and other
Christian workers. The impulse given to
family religion was a striking feature.'^

The last, and perhaps the greatest, revi-
val of religion that has blessed the Scottish
churches since the days of John Knox was
that under the now world-renowed American
evangelists. Moody and Sankey, in the latter
part of 1873 and the beginning of 1874.
Space forbids going into detail. The record
of the work is a history of one long-continued
miracle of grace. Drs. Blaikie, Bonar, Brown,
Duff, Thompson, A. Moody Stuart, Prof. Cal-
derwood and a large number of the most emi-
nent ministers and professors in Scotland joined
hands with the evangelists, prayed for their
work and rejoiced in their prosperity. No
building could contain the multitudes that
came to hear Moody preach the gospel and
Sankey sing the gospel. At an open-air

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

meeting in Glasgow the policemen on the
ground estimated the number present at not
less than fifty thousand persons. In a place
with a population of not more than twenty-
five hundred as many as fourteen hundred
persons would come together for prayer.
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon says of this work:
^^The gracious visitation which has come
upon Edinburgh is such as was probably
never known before within the memory of
man. The whole place seems to be moved
from end to end. When we hear of many
thousands coming together on week-days to
quite ordinary meetings, and crying, * What
must we do to be saved?' there is, we are
persuaded, the hand of God in the matter.''
Speaking of the work. Dr. Bonar says : " In
all my life I never preached to such an audi-
ence. The vast multitude bowed under the
simple preaching of the gospel, and without
any excitement were melted into tears of peni-
tence and the children of God to tears of joy.
. . . The presence of God pervaded the very

REVIVALS IN SCOTLAND.

air and was felt everywhere." Upward of
three thousand persons were added to the
various churches of Edinburgh alone as the
result of this great awakening, and the work
was endorsed as a great work of God by the
most eminent clergymen and Christian work-
ers in the land. I now leave it for the read-
ers to say whether or not Presbyterians be-
lieve in revivals. Oh for the fire from
heaven!

CHAPTER V.

REVIVALS IN IRELAND.

THE SETTLEMENT OF ULSTER — EARLY RE-
VIVALS — UNITARIANISM AND ITS BLIGHT-
ING EFFECTS — THE YEAR OF GRACE (1859)
— THE BISHOP OF DOWN — CHURCH UNION
— "STRIKINGS/^ "seizures," "PROSTRA-
TIONS " — SOME WORSE THINGS THAN PHYS-
ICAL EXCITEMENT — THE MOODY AND SAN-
KEY REVIVAL.

If religious revivals have not been so
frequent in Ireland as in England and
Scotland, they have undoubtedly been more
fervent. What is lost in extension is gained
in intension. In Ireland, very emphatically,
the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence
and men of violence have taken it by force.
Protestantism in Ireland dates from the Plan-

REVIVALS IN IRELAND.

tation of Ulster about the beginning of the
seventeenth century. At this time many Pres-
byterians in Scotland fled from persecution iu
their native land and settled in the province
of Ulster. In 1615, the first Protestant Con-
fession of Faith was drawn up by James
Ussher. It was not, however, till 1626 that the
beginning of the Presbyterian system was laid
by Hugh Campbell. Blair, Livingstone and
other men of good parts represented the Pres-
byterian cause about this time. Under their
preaching a very powerful revival of religion
occurred about the year 1628, and continued
for some years thereafter. This revival Flem-
ing describes as " a bright, hot sun-blink of
the gospel," and as " one of the largest mani-
festations of the Spirit and of the solemn
times of the downpouring thereof that al-
most since the days of the apostles hath been
seen." As to the effects of it upon the char-
acter of the people, Livingstone, after describ-
ing the conversion of a very bold and wicked
man, says, "But why do I speak of him?

OUTPOUKIKGS OF THE SPIRIT.

; ' !

We knew, aud yet know, multitudes of such
men who sinned, and still gloried in it, be-
cause they feared no man, yet are now pat-
terns of sobriety, fearing sin because they fear
God.'^ The goodly vine that was planted at
this time struck its roots deep into the soil
and spread its branches over the whole prov-
ince of Ulster, and, watched over by the hf av-
enly Husbandman, it is still bringing forth
good fruit. How is it that the people of Uls-
ter are to-day educated and industrious, hap-
py and prosperous, while the rest of Ireland
is poverty-stricken and distracted with lawless
violence ? Any answer to this question will
be exceedingly defective that does not point
us to the powerful awakening during the firsi
half of the seventeenth century.

But trying times were in store for Presby-
ter ianism in Ulster. Especially did it, in the
course of time, suffer grievously from the with-
ering bliglit of Uuitarianism, which though,
perhaps, the best heathenism, is the pooi st
Christianity the world has ever seen. And

REVIVALS IN IRELAND.

although Unitarianisni was, after many a hard
battle, driven from the field, a general indif-
ference and deadness reigned throughout the
whole province. The outward form of relig-
ion was there, but the inner life was gone.
Church organization was complete, but of
spiritual power there was none. A corpse
is as well organized as a living body.

Many ministers and earnest Christians felt
this pf' :tual death and mourned over it, and
the burden of many an earnest pr*yer was,
^* O Lord, revive thy work.*' Their prayers
were answered in the great awakening of 1859.
This was Anniis Mirabilis, a year of wonders
in Ulster. During the preceding year news
of the extraordinary display of divine grace
with which the American churches had just
been visited was borne across the Atlantic
and widely circulated through the country.
That year the General Assembly devoted a
portion of its sittings to special conference
and prayer with reference to this great spirit-
ual movement. These conferences were sea-

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

sons of peculiar spiritual solemnity and sacred-
uess; and "when one after another of the
fathers rose up in his place to tender his pa-
ternal counsels, and when the voice of praise
and supplication ascended afterward to heav-
en, all hearts were touched as by a common
sympathy, while from the reigning harmony
and fervor many fondly cherished the expec-
tation of a time of more abundant blessing.'^
The blessing came, but far beyond their expec-
tations. It was indeed a "cloud-burst" of
grace. Within one year eleven thousand were
added to thc^ Presbyterian Church alone. The
Episcopal Church also largely shared in this
wonderful work. Mr. Brownlow North, a
member of that Church and an eminent evan-
gelist, visited the country, was publicly ac-
knowledged by the Presbyterian Assembly as
an eminent servant of Christ, and preached
in Piesbyterian pulpits, as well as in those
of his own Church, with the happiest results.
" When Christian love is at a low ebb,'' says
the late Dr. James Hamilton, " the differeut

KEVIVALS IN IRELAND.

sects stand apart, like shrimps iu the pools
on the sea-coast when the tide is low. Each
company of shrimps lives in its own little
pool, knowing or caring nothing about those
in the other pools ; but when the tide rises
and overflows the little pools, they are all
brought into the same great ocean and form
one family. Thus, when Christian love is
strong it overflows all minor differences ; it
overcomes previous barriers, and all who love
the Lord feel that they are brethren.'^ So it
was during the *' year of grace " with the dif-
ferent branches of Christ's Church in Ulster.
And a powerful revival of religion would do
more toward effecting a real union of the
different branches of the Church of Jesus
Christ in any country or place than any
number of deputations, committees or reso-
lutions can ever accomplish.

The bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore
bears the most gratifying testimony to tlie
spiritual blessings of the revival, such as the
careless aroused, the impure made pure, the

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

drunkard reformed, the prayerless prayerful
and every means of grace eagerly attended.
From the queries addressed by His Lordship
to the clergy of his diocese on the subject
of this revival, I submit the following two,
along with a number of answers from the
clergy:

Q. I. — "How has the revival operated in
reference to your congregation — the attend-
ance at the Lord^s Table or at your school-
house or cottage lectures?"

A. 1. — " I formerly had about twenty at a
cottage lecture; for the last ten weeks there
has been an average of about seven hundred
every Thursday evening at an open-air serv-

ice.

A. 2. — " Hundreds leave my church unable
to get in. Communion three times the former
average." -'-■^-^-^^ '•■- -^:.. /%t\-

A. 3. — " The effect of the attendance on
every means of grace has been almost mirac-
ulous. The Sunday-morning service is more
than double; the evening service has been

REVIVALS IN IRELAND.

increased sixfold, and the communion quad-
rupled."

A. 4. — "Congregation increa .J. School-
house lecture overflowing. A most solemn
feeling and deeply-seated earnestness charac-
terizing all."

Q. II. — "Since the appearance of the re-
vival have you observed any improvement in
the habits of your people?"

A. 1. — " Decidedly less drunkenness, less
violation of the sanctity of the Lord's Day."

A. 2. — "A most marked improvement.
Drunkenness and other notorious vices have
almost disappeared. In one large establish-
ment the business of each day is commenced
and ended with prayer."

A. 3. — "A total change for the better;
the police have confessed that they have
little to do." >, -

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." *.

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.

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

iws%9

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.

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

^^■'

;

'<■]

y\\

I ),

1 1'

!•:

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.

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

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

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.

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 '

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,

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 »

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.

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

111 ■ *i
1 ■

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

«!

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.

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

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.

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-

PHPRmnnvr

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 ?"

REVIVAIiS IN AMERICA,

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).

CHAPTEE VII.

REVIVALS IN CANADA.

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

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

( 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.

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

i gn

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.

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-

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.

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

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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.

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

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.

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

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

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

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

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.

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

■ 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 ■

il ■

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

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

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

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

mi !>>
r

■ ':.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 tempte<l to sin or
when you are living in neglect of duty,
solemnly say to yourself, " I am baptized ;
I have been sealed to God in a solemn
covenant; I am not my own, I am God's;
therefore I cannot yield to temptation or
live in willful neglect of duty. I dare not
repudiate the covenant made on my behalf

REVIVALS AND THE YOUNG.

Ill

)V-

with the Father, Son and Spirit. Rather
will I anew dedicate myself to the God of
my fathers, the God who loved me and cared
for me in earliest infancy and through all the
way of life, and I will seek grace to walk
every day as in covenant with him."

Young and old, all you who fear the Lord
and mourn over the desolations of Israel,
come join in prayer for such a thorough
revival of religion by the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit as will break up the all-en-
grossing spirit of worldliness that so gen-
erally pervades the homes of our land, caus-
ing a great shaking among the dry bones —
"very many and very dry" — -the divine
breath entering in until our revived and
quickened people, parents and children, shall
stand upon their feet, an exceeding great
army, ready and willing to do the Lord's
work, whatever difficulties or discourage-
ments may lie in the way.

CHAPTER IX.

EMINENT REVIVALISTS AND HONORED

TESTS.

A MUCH-XEEDED CAUTION, WITH ILLUSTRA-
TION — JOHN LIVINGSTONE AND KIRK OF
SHOTTS — ORIGIN OF THANKSGIVING MON-
DAY — WHITEFIELD AND THE THREE r's
— TESTS — JONATHAN EDWARDS AND HIS
GREAT SERMON — SOME OF HIS TEXTS AND
THEMES — EDWARD PAYSON : HIS LIFE —
TEXTS AND THEMES.

We are not of those who love to exalt men
or one class of Christian workers above an-
other. No need to sound a trumpet for any,
for when the great trumpet shall sound every
man's work shall be revealed. The true
Christian worker is like the harp which, as
one says, sounds sweetly, yet hears not its

112

REVIVALISTS AND TESTS.

113

r's

own melody. We are poorly qualified for
comparing Christian workers, and much harm
has been done by unduly magnifying the office
of the evangelist to the disparagement of the
regular ministry. Two men enter a forest
and toil hard during the winter months fell-
ing the trees. Then when spring comes they
spend long weary months chopping and log-
ging and rooting and stumping, until, with
great patience and perseverance, they succeed
in gathering the whole into heaps. All over
the ten acres there are the piles which result
from their industry, and no one perhaps but
themselves knows how much of labor it re-
quired to accomplish such a result. It was
hard work, but very quiet and obscure and
seen only by a few. But one day a third
man starts into the field with a shovel full
of coals, and, applying them to a heap, sets it
all ablaze. The flames leap up to the sky,
and as he goes from heap to heap with his
torch he soon has the whole field in a fury of

fire and smoke, and people for miles around
8

114

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

see and wonder. Who did all this ? Why,
we are told, the man with the torch, who has
run from pile to pile to start it blazing. It
is thus ofttimes in the Church that laborious
pastors work through long years of care and
toil, getting things ready for somebody else to
fire and put in motion. They preach and
pray and teach and weep and agonize for a
long, anxious time, and then the stranger
arrives and by a few explosives ignites the
heaps and sets all ablaze, and gets all the
praise.

Honor to whom honor is due. They that
turn many to righteousness shall shine as the
stars for ever and ever ; and our object in this
chapter is to mention a few of these eminent
workers, and especially to point out those
precious passages of Scripture which in their
hands were so wonderfully blessed by the
Spirit.

Monday, June 21, 1630, will ever remain
a memorable day in the history of Scottish
Presbyterianism. On that day John Living-

REVIVALISTS AND TESTS.

115

7»
as

>us

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 '

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

118

OUTPOURINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

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.

Rom. 4:5: " Justification by Faith alone."
Rev. 5 : 5, 6 : " The Excellency of Christ."
Ps. 25 : 11 : " Pardon for the Greatest Siu-

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

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

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

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