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2015REVIVALS:

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THEIR PLACE AND THEIR
POWER.

LIBRARY
Of THE

*/ REV. HERRICK JOHNSON, D. D.
i __________

chicago :

F. H. Revell, 148 and 150 Madison Street,
Publisher of Evangelical Literature.Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by

F. H. REVELL,

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.REVIVALS.

-*-

I. INTRODUCTORY.

That a prejudice, and, in some cases, a very decided prej-
udice, exists, even amongst good Christian men, against
what are termed " revivals of religion," cannot be denied.
Ministers of the Gospel will sometimes express them-
selves as if they regarded revivals as abnormal and unde-
sirable conditions of church life. They will speak dis-
paragingly of them as questionable agencies of growth,
as attended with varied, serious and inevitable evils, as
spurts of enthusiasm born of excitement, as begetting an
emotional and a spasmodic, instead of a principled and
stable piety. They will tell you that the true and healthful
life of the church is one of steady growth, that the
accessions from the world should be constant, that God's
people should always be revived.4	REVIVALS.

Thei* positien is strongly fortified by the large meas-
ure of Xruth that supports it. Unquestionably very
serious evils have attended many of these seasons of
special religious interest, evils so manifestly pernicious as
to challenge the thoughtful attention of the church, and
to justify resolute measures for their repression and
eradication. Just as unquestionably, the people of God
ought to live at a much higher level of spiritual life
than is reached by the mass of them in ordinary and
actual experience.

But with both these points freely conceded, we think
it can still be made clear to demonstration that revivals of
religion have their legitimate place as an important means
of Christian nurture and conquest, that they are, there-
fore, not only not to be condemned and avoided, but to
be counted among the things for which every pastor and
every church should labor and pray.

Let us first define our terms and clearly understand
what is meant by the phrase " religious revival."

II. REVIVALS DEFINED.

They are seasons of special interest and activity in
religion, just as revivals of business are seasons of
increased activity and profit in business. Strictly,VINDICATION OF REVIVALS.	5

revivals can be predicated only of God's people—those
who have once known the life of God, and who by
Gods spirit are now re-vived. They are the quickening
and the stirring to intenser manifestations, graces and
activities that have already had place in their life. Con-
versions from the impenitent world are rather the fruits of

/

revivals in the church, and constitute what might more
properly be termed awakenings. But by accepted and
general usqge the term " revivalis made to cover both
tli£ quickened spiritual interest and activity of Chris,
tians and the turning to God of the hitherto impenitent.

III. VINDICATION OF REVIVALS.

1. FROM HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE.

Revivals have marked the history of God's people
throughout the whole period of God's dealing with them.
They have blazed a path through all the centuries.
The Scriptures themselves testify to this point. Under
the good king Hezekiah, 2 Chron.,xxx, the people were
summoned to the House of God at Jerusalem, to keep
the Passover. Some laughed the invitation to scorn ;
but many humbled themselves and came up to Jerusa-
lem and kept the sacred feast seven days. And when
these were ended the people had so good a time that6	REVIVALS.

they took counsel together to keep other seven days,
and they kept seven days more with gladness; and there
was great joy in Jerusalem, the like of which had not
been known since the time of Solomon. It was a genu-
ine protracted meeting, as true a revival of religion as
was ever known. Again and again did Israel in her
history thus take on new life. And the church in that
upper room, praying for the Holy Spirit in mighty
power (Acts, i, 14), and the baptism that came there on
the day of Pentecost (Acts, ii, 1-4), was another Scrip-
tural revival.

And that wonderful work at Ephesus, when Paul held
a meeting for prayer and conference every day for up-
ward of "two years," and "mightily grew the word of
God and prevailed " (Acts, xix, 8-20)—that was one
of the grandest revivals on record, "all they that dwelt
in Asia " hearing the word of the Lord Jesus.

Ever since there have been times, at frequently recur-
ring intervals, of special manifestations of the mighty
power of God in the outpouring of His Spirit. No
history of the church, no history of any evangelical
portion of the church, could be written without con-
spicuous mention of these marked seasons of grace. To
deny that they have been of God, is to fly in the face ofVINDICATION OF REVIVALS.	7

the most abundant and convincing testimony, both hu-
man and divine. To admit that God has signally and
mightily worked in and through these agencies, thus
setting His seal on them, is to admit their vindication.
Indeed, the divine agency is inseparable from revival.
There can be no genuine revival without it; so that he
who speaks in indiscriminate and sweeping opposition,
is really challenging the ways of the Almighty, and
would best take care lest he be found fighting against
God.

2. FROM THE NECESSITIES OF HUMAN NATURE.

Revivals correspond to the promptings and necessities
of human nature, and are founded in reason as well as
experience. That absorbed and almost exclusive atten-
tion to religious matters which is not only possible but
justifiable at certain periods, would not be possible con
stantly, at all periods. The relations of society and the
necessities of secular life are such as to make unavoid-
able demands upon time and strength. Often these
demands are particularly pressing, and to meet them is as
clearly a duty as to pray. The discharge of such duties,
however, compels withdrawal from that absorbed atten-
tion to duties directly spiritual, to which Christians are
at intervals able to give themselves. Take this in con-8	REVIVALS.

nection with the limitations of our physical nature, mak-
%

ing it impossible to endure for long while the nervous strain
and draft of constant and intense spiritual interest and
unwonted toil, such as is common to seasons of marked
religious fervor, and we have a vindication of revivals
laid in the very nature of things. Labor here, as every-
where else, may be redoubled and intensified on special
occasions for special results, but it cannot be kept at that
tension without prematurely killing the laborer.

This argument gets confirmation in that law of nature
by which we have seed-time and harvest. " One soweth
and another reapeth," is Christ's own application of this
law to the spiritual world. Sowing is not reaping. Seed
requires time for germination and growth. We may
labor and other men may enter into the fruit of our
labor.

Let me say nothing to lessen by one iota any effort
for, and expectation of, immediate and constant fruit.
I would repeat and emphasize the words of the Master,
" Say not ye there are yet four months and then cometh
harvest? Behold, lift up your eyes and look on the
fields, for they are white already to harvest." Let us
be always thrusting in the sickle. Let us cultivate the
habit of believing that on any week of the round year,VINDICATION OF REVIVALS.	9

we may gather sheaves for the Kingdom of Heaven.
We know there are two reapers that never cease their
reaping—Satan and Death. The steady swing of their
sickles never stops. With them the harvest is always
ripe, always now. So should it be with us as reapers for
God.

But while this is true, it is equally true that the
preacher is a sower going forth to sow; that some seeds
never come to quick maturity; that much that is sown
germinates and bears fruit only after a plenteous rain of
righteousness. There are special harvest seasons in the
spiritual world as in the natural worlds—times of great
ingathering, when as round about Ephesus, mightily
grows the Word of God and prevails.

3. FROM THEIR EFFECTS ON THE CHURCH AND THE
MINISTRY.

Revivals deepen the spirituality of the church-and
the ministry. Churches drop their feuds, Christians shake
off their dead weights of formality and worldliness, and
get experiences of Gad's grace they never wholly lose.
Ministers grow used to direct, pungent, personal preaching,
and learn in their dealings with the human heart, more of
its evasions and shifts and lying refuges and its possible
avenues of approach, and become wiser in winning souls,10	REVIVALS.

in one season of revival work than in a whole decade of
ordinary ministry. This, of course, applies only to
revivals of tKe Divine sort, born of the Spirit and the
Truth.

4. FROM THE CHARACTER OF CONVERSIONS IN REVI-
VALS.

Persons born to God in season* of revival, are, as a
rule, more active and constant and consecrated than
those coming into the church at other times. This is
contrary, perhaps, to a somewhat prevalent impression,
but it has been the testimony of many of the best and
wisest ministers of the church. Wesley affirmed it;
Edwards affirmed it; and it is the unquestionable truth.
Look at the facts in confirmation. Take the pillars that
have stood so long in the churches throughout New
York State, the goodly and godly men who have for
scores of years let their light shine, and it would proba-
bly be a surprise to many, to find how large a proportion
of them were the fruits of revivals, and what numbers
date their new life from the mighty awakenings under
Charles G. Finney.

There are two all-sufficient reasons why it should be,
that converts in revivals are the best the church re-
• ceives.VINDICATION OF REVIVALS.	11

(a)	They hear the plainest, simplest, most practical,
most searching truths of God, bearing immediately on
the way of salvation, day by day. The way is made
clear. They know what it is to come to Christ. They
are made familiar with the elementary truths. They
are therefore less likely to be deceived, and they can
give a reason, a clear, intelligent reason, for the hope
that is in them. In my experience as pastor, covering
years of ordinary accessions to the church, and several
years of accessions by precious revivals, I have found
that intelligent views of the truth and proofs of disci-
pleship, and subsequent stability and activity were
much more prevalent in the latter class than in the
former.

(b)	They become immediately active as Christians,
and at once begin to exercise their gifts, both in testify-
ing of the Grace of God and in seeking to bring others
to Christ. Thus they form habits of service and devo-
tion by which they are developed and made robust and
stalwart in Christian character.

Now neither of these points is so likely to be true of
those who come quietly into the church in times of no
special religious interest. Their hearts are not so
searched by the truth, line upon line, and they are not so12	REVIVALS.

likely to be put to active service. There is neither the
stimulus nor the inviting occasion.

Surely, therefore, in view of these facts and these rea-
sons for the facts, revivals are not to be regarded with
suspicion, and as experiences to be avoided, nor even as
" gracious irregularities," but as a normal and blessed
means of growth and ingathering. Their evils, excesses,
questionable methods should be determinedly opposed
and repressed, but revivals themselves should be sought
and welcomed as of God.

IV. EVILS TO BE AVOIDED IN CONNECTION
WITH REVIVALS.

(1) The recognition of any particular ministers or
class of ministers as revivalists. There is no such dis-
tinctive class known to the New Testament. It is mak-
ing an invidious and reprehensible comparison. It is
giving countenance among the people to the idea that
certain ministers on wheels have a kind of monopoly of
the Holy Spirit, and can command His services on call. It
is disturbing and dishonoring to the pastorate. Every
pastor should be a revivalist, should always aim to be
in a revived state, should preach revival sermons, use
revival methods, and expect revival results.EVILS TO BE AVOIDED.	13

(2)	The notion that is implied in the phrase " get-
ting up a revivalas if revivals were a mere matter of
human device and machinery. This notion looks too
much to man's agency. It magnifies the creature. It
is of the earth earthy. Revivals are never gotten up.
They are brought down. They are not subject to order.
They are born of God.

(3)	The notion that any excitement is pernicious,
and is, therefore, to be studiously repressed. Many a
minister has failed of the precious fruits of revival
because of having spread over every meeting a great
blanket of carefulness. We Presbyterians, as a; class, are
too much afraid of the emotions. We seem to be in con-
stant dread of the contagion of a little Methodist enthu-
siasm.

Now, there is an excitement that is wholly or chiefly
animal. It is not grounded in rational conviction. It
is fostered by rubbing of hands, tones of voice, chorus
of song, affecting stories, mere hortatory appeals and
social ^odilj) contact. It can be worked up any day in a
crowd by a skillful leader. Such excitement is indeed a
sore evil in connection with any service of God, and
every pastor ought to set his face like a flint against it.
• But because excitement like this is bad, all excite-14	REVIVALS.

ment is not bad. God's truth is for the mind. The
mind is the rational road to the heart. If the truth
excite, the excitement is based on rational grounds, and
is good and only good. To deprecate this is to deprecate
just those effects of divine truth which it should and
must produce, where it has anything like its appropriate
power. For a minister to report concerning a revival of
religion in his church that it was all very quiet and
unattended by any excitement is either to belie the facts,
or to make out the work most shallow and superficial,
touching only the merest surface of human nature.

A Christian in the midst of revival work, realizing
the condition of the ungodly, their peril, guilt, opportu-
nity and possibilities of life and death, ought to be
stirred with the profoundest feeling.

A sinner, under conviction of sin, asking what he
must do to be saved, and settling the momentous ques-
tion by at last believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
ought to be deeply excited. If he be not, it is because
he has seen precious little, either of his sin or his Lord.

A man who will be stirred and thrilled over his own
rescue from some impending physical danger, and yet will
coolly talk about \having had no feeling in being rescued
from death and hell, betrays his utter misapprehension ofEVILS TO BE AVOIDED.	15

the stupendous fact, and suggests the suspicion that the
fact is as wanting in his case as the feeling.

When those three thousand at Pentecost were con-
victed and pricked in their heart, and were led to cry
out, " Men and brethren, what shall we do ?" is it to be
supposed they had no excitement ? And when the
Philippian jailer sprang in and came trembling, and fell
down before Paul and Silas, and said, " Sirs, what must
I do to be saved ?" was he considering and settling the
great question with that exceeding quietness that we
hear so often commetided ? And when that mighty*
work of grace was going on at Ephesus, and fear fell on
all, and the name of Jesus was magnified, and many
dealers in magic brought their books together and
burned them before all men, the price of which was
fifty thousand pieces of silver, was it all so serene and
still that scarcely a ripple stirred the surface of Ephesian
life, or was the whole city ablaze with excitement, and
everybody talking about the wondrous work? Don't
be afraid of any excitement born of the truth. Be
afraid rather of the conversion that has been unattended
by feeling. President Edwards, in giving some account
of the effect of the great awakening of 1735, says:
" Now if such things are enthusiasm, and the fruits of a16	REVIVALS.

distempered brain, let my brain be forevermore possessed
of that happy distemper. If this be distraction, I pray
God that the world of mankind may be all seized with
this benign, meek, beneficent, beatifical, glorious dis-
traction."

(4.) The notion that any particular method or
machinery is essential to revival. Because certain
methods or instrumentalities have been used successfully,
there is a tendeucy in human nature to lean on them
and to give them vital place in plan and thought, and to
think that revival can be had by no other road. There is
just one agent absolutely indispensable to revival—God's
Spirit. There is just one instrument absolutely indis-
pensable to revival—God's truth. All else, absolutely
all, is minor, secondary, variable, incidental, dispensable#
Special appointments, varied instruments, different
methods may be good. Wisdom will suggest choice of
these to suit circumstances. But all trust for effective-
ness must be in God's Spirit and truth alone.

(5) The notion that anybody who is willing to work,
is fit for work, in time of revival. Indiscriminate
service, whether in the pulpit, the lecture-room, the
inquiry meeting or the parish, is one of the worst evils
connected with revival work. Let the pastor be per-WORK PREPARATORY TO REVIVAL. VJJ.7

fectly sure of his substitute, both as to practical
and present spiritual interest, before he allow that su£?
stitute to take his place either in preaching, or social
religious service, or personal counsel.

V. THE CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL TO RE-
VIVAL.

Here they are in the very words of God Himself:

If my people which are called by my name shall humble
themselves, and pray and seek my face) and turn from
their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven^ and
will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.—2
Chron., vii, 14.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a
right spirit within me; cast me not away from Thy
presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from. me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation) and uphold
me with Thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgres-
sors Thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
-Ps. li, 10-13. QotUV W

vr. WORK PREPARATORY TO REVIVAL.

The stricter definition given to revival, as applicable
only to the church, and the Scriptural conditions just18	REVIVALS.

named, point clearly to the antecedent steps to be taken
hi every case before any mighty work of grace may be
expected. " If my people who are called by my name
shall humble themselves," etc.

(1)	The pastor must begin with his own heart. A
fire in the pulpit is the best means of kindling a fire in
the pews. The pastor should not talk about revival,
but be revived. Let him expect nothing from his people
that is not first in his own heart. He should not
bemoan deadness in the church before the congre-
gation until he has in the closet bemoaned deadness in
himself before God. No searching and rebuking ser-
mons to his flock will avail much, if he has not already
felt the rebuke of them as the truth has searched his
own soul.

(2)	Thus humbled, penitent, burdened, yearning for
the presence and power of God, let the pastor lay his
heart open to the elders or deacons, or whoever are his
constituted spiritual counselors. They are ordained
with him to the care and watch of the church, and his
natural helpers in every good work.

(3)	The pastor should now aim at great searchings
of heart with his people Sabbath after Sabbath, preach-
ing to the church, to the church, to the church,WORK PREPARATORY TO REVIVAL.	19

blow on blow. Let this be followed up in the closer
contact of the prayer-meetings. Compel Christians for
thet ime being to forget the impenitent in their great con-
cern about their own condition before God.

The tendency is to turn at once to the impenitent.
The impression prevails that God is not working if con-
versions are not taking place. The moment some
Christians begin to pray for a work of God, they lose all
sight and thought of the church in a great zeal for con-
verts. Let the pastor correct this habit; get his people
to heart-searching and penitence and confession and
humbling of soul before God; and have them under-
stand that this is more acceptable to God, and more
likely to secure his large blessing, than a sudden zeal for
the impenitent, and that they are in no condition to do
the ungodly much service until they have humbled
themselves before God.

(4) As soon as the pastor finds a heart kindled
with any unusual emotion, or bowed with any unwonted
sense of sin, or yearning with any unwonted desire for
God's glory let him get alongside that heart, lay it and
his own together, and in the fellowship of that common
sense of sin and yearning for a blessing, let them keep
company at the altar of prayer.20	REVIVALS.

(5)	Find a second or third also kindled. Have
with these a special weekly appointment of half an hour
for communion and prayer, pleading God's special prom-
ises and bearing special cases before God.

(6)	Arrange a half hour for concert of prayer
among the mothers in Israel, the devout and godly
women, who will agree quietly to observe a certain half
hour or quarter of an hour of the day together, or
better perhaps alone, for prayer for the outpouring of
God's Spirit.

(7)	Call the Sunday school teachers together, and
have them interested in the same way for their scholars.
Thus get circles of prayer started, different interests
unlisted, many " twos " or " threes " agreed as touching
one thing.

(8)	Increase appointments for public meetings only
as there is demand for them. Have the interest compel
the meetings, and do not appoint extra meetings to get
up interest.

(9)	With a prepared church the pastor may turn to
the impenitent, and pour the hottest shot into their
ranks, with the fullest assurance that the conditions are
now present for a great awakening and multiplied victo-
ries. .WORK COINCIDENT WITH REVIVAL. 21

I do not say that a pastor is to wait for this before
he makes appeal to the ungodly. I do not say that
souls will not be given him, though he have no such
aroused and bumbled and praying church behind him.
But I do say that no large numbers will ordinarily be
born to God in connection with a church, nine-tenths of
whose members are asleep or drowned in worldliness.

VII. WORK COINCIDENT WITH REVIVAL.

PREACHING.

So far as possible it should be by the pastor, and almost
exclusively to the impenitent.

The preaching should be by the pastor, because (1)
no one knows the need so well as he. No one can,
therefore, so well adapt the truth to the special circum-
stances of individuals ; (2) he can thus work on a plan,
have truths in succession, supply what he knows to be
lacking, look toward a definite and fixed result; (3) it
will associate the pastor in the minds of the people with
the work of rescue, and the souls born to Grod under his
preaching will come to look upon him as their spiritual
father, and thus will be formed one of the tenderest,
dearest, most sacred relationships on earth, binding in
bonds of sweet affection for all time, and probably for all22	REVIVALS.

eternity. How can a pastor throw all this away by
sending for a traveling evangelist on every occasion of
special effort or special interest in his parish ? Evangel-
ists are chiefly for waste and. destitute places; not for
fully organized churches with officers and pastors.*

The preaching should be to the impenitent, because
this is the time to strike. The church have had in-
struction and upbuilding all the year. They are ready
for action. Rescue work is now to be absorbing.

VISITATION.

Now is the time for frequent personal interviews, eye
to eye, palm to palm, heart to heart. The pastor should
have a great deal to say " between four e}res." Every
day the winner of souls should be out among the people,
seeking them from house to house.

But personal interviews will be convenienced and pro-
moted often by their being invited. And so a daily
hour at the study should be appointed for them.

USE OF BOOKS AND TRACTS.

Books should be very brief and very pointed. There

♦This is said in full recognition of the inestimable service that has been
rendered to the organized churches, and the unquestionable seal of God
that has been had by such men as Whitefield, Nettleton and Finney. But
these are the exceptions and not the rule. It still remains true that the
natural, normal and Scriptural agencies for doing the rescue work and
structural work in the local church are the Scripturally constituted officers
and members of that church.WORK COINCIDENT WITH REVIVAL. 23

are very few, however, fitted for revival work. An ex-
tended reading is not what a sinner needs who is asking
the question, What must I do to be saved? Tracts
are far better than books, because commonly more brief,
direct, pungent. But it should be known exactly what
condition each tract is adapted to meet. There are
tracts suited precisely to some need, but likely to do a
deal of harm if furnished for every need. Better no
printed page at all than its indiscriminate use.

THE INQUIRY MEETING.

Work here is often most delicate and difficult, and
requires judgment and tact.

A word or two at this point about the inquiry meet-
ing in general before consideration of the work in said
meeting at a season of special revival.

The very proclamation of the Gospel involves and
necessitates an inquiry meeting, or something that
answers to it. Possibly it were well to change the
name in view of existing prejudice against this agency
because of its abuses, but the thing—i. e., some kind of
opportunity to inquire further concerning truth already
heard and felt—is vital to any high and wide success.

The inquiry meeting is drawing the net after it has24	REVIVALS.

been cast by the sermon. It should be a permanent
feature of church work, and held immediately after
every public preaching service the whole round year.

Reasons. (1) At any service there may be a soul
reached and moved by the truth.

(2)	Death may intervene before a later appointment
can be met.

(3)	Delay will give the world, the flesh and the*
devil time to dissipate impressions.

(4)	Under the immediate influence of the truth
inquirers will be most likely to improve the opportunity
offered for personal conversation.

(5)	When the impression is the freshest, further
work will be the easiest. The Spirit of God is already
there, and this is recognizing and following His lead.

(6)	The permanent appointment takes away the
appearance of spasmodic effort, and gives the impres-
sion that the Church of God is always expecting
results.

(7)	It enables the pastor to discover the earliest
" sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees."
If there be any special moving of God's spirit it will at
once be manifested in attendance at this permanent
appointment. I have known good men startled at theWORK COINCIDENT WITH REVIVAL. 25

sudden discovery of wide spiritual interest in their-con-
gregations, they having preached in ignorance of it for
weeks, and even months.

I can conceive of no possible opposing considerations
to outweigh these seven good reasons for furnishing an
opportunity of personal religious conversation with the
Pastor to any who might wish it on any Sabbath Day.

Those invited to this appointment should be made
distinctly to understand that their attendance is not a
profession of religion, nor a commitment to Christ, nor
an acknowledgment of deep feeling, nor even the avowal
of a determination to seek Christ; but simply the
expression of a desire for personal conversation
on the subject of personal religion. The way to
this meeting has often been barred by making the
going there involve too much. It should be under-
stood to involve nothing but a willingness to hear farther
of the matter, concerning which something has already
been heard.

THE CONDUCT OF AN INQUIRY MEETING AT A SEA-
SON OF SPECIAL INTEREST.

(a) It should be in the hands of the pastor always.
For, first, the truth from his lips has made the impres-
sion ; it would seem better that the truth from his lips26	REVIVALS.

should deepen the impression. Who so well fitted as he
to press still further his own thought ? Secondly, the
inquirer will commonly prefer conversation with the
pastor to any other.

(b) If the inquirers are numerous the pastor should
have assistance in the meeting. But the persons to
assist should be selected by the pastor and their consent
to act secured, and the meeting should never be thrown
open to all sorts of volunteers. Superficial and officious
persons may do incalculable harm in such a place.

The pastor should fearlessly go outside his church
officers for persons in his judgment best fitted, both by
experience and present spiritual interest for this work if
they are not to be found amongst his official helpers.
Fitness alone, not office, has any claim here.

Young converts, whose experience is unquestionable,
and whose clear, intelligent views the pastor is sure of,
who are fresh from the world and full of the joy of
their new espousals, certainly may be of service in
pointing others to Christ. It would seem that those
would be able to make the way plain to others who had
just been over the road themselves.

Yet the greatest prudence is needed here. Young
converts know little of the varied methods of theWORK COINCIDENT WITH REVIVAL. 27

Spirit's operations. They are apt to magnify unduly the
particular experience through which they have passed,
and to emphasize therefore that which is incidental and
variant in connection with the great change, rather than
that which is fundamental and constant. Every in-
quirer should be made to understand that no particular
experience is necessarily to be reproduced in his case.

(c)	No time should be taken for general exercises,
whether singing, Scripture-reading or address. The
long range has been had in the more public service.
This is the place for close personal encounter, for face-to-
face individual work with each inquirer.

(d)	In this work of personal conversation the aim
should be, first, to find out the exact posture of the
inquirer s mind. Diagnosis before prescription. The
pastor or Christian teacher shoidd turn inquirer, and
ascertain how the person with whom he is conversing is
viewing the truth, what the trouble is, the point of diffi-
culty, and the direction of the Spirit's striving.

Secondly, to pour in at that very point the truth of
God, making much use of the very words of the
Scripture. Objections should be met by Scripture, dif-
ficulties removed by Scripture, doubts dissipated by
Scripture.28	REVIVALS.

Thirdly, to press to an immediate decision—an in-
stant surrender. Whatever the circumstances of the
sinner, no counsel can be right that does not mean now.

Cautions: 1. Avoid protracted conversation. A
few direct words straight to the conscience and heart,
driven home and clinched by some passage of Scripture,
after the situation of the inquirer is once ascertained,
are far better than a multitude of words, however good.

2.	Avoid successive conversation by different individ-
uals with the same inquirer. These will almost inevita-
bly be confusing and diverting. A profound impression
made by one Christian may be wholly dissipated by the
talk of another who does not know what has already
been done.

3.	Avoid controversy. Nothing will so soon ease a
sinner of trouble on account of his sin, as a good battle
over some controverted point in theology. His presence
in the inquiry meeting implies that he feels himself a
sinner. The Christian is to meet his difficulties there
and nowhere else.

(e) In the case of each inquirer the conversation
should be followed by prayer, and participation in
prayer by the inquirer, personally and audibly, should
by all means be secured if possible, though it be onlyWORK COINCIDENT WITH REVIVAL. 29

with a half dozen words, such as " God be merciful to
me a sinner;" " Lord, save, or I perish," or, better still,
as involving a personal commitment, " Here and now, 0
Lord, just as I am, I give myself to thee forever." It
is some such conscious, solemn act of commitment and
surrender as this that involves faith and brings it to
prominence in the sinner's own mind.

CLASSES OF SINNERS.

The two all comprehensive classes are converted
sinners and unconverted sinners. An inquirer may be
in the former class. Diagnosis should discover the exact
situation.

For the purposes of the inquiry meeting the uncon-
verted need only be classified as without conviction of
sin, and under conviction of sin.

(a) The unconvicted. Say what we may about the
universal conscience and the universal consciousness,
there is a difference amongst men that we must recog-
nize and act upon if we would have any success in win-
ning souls. There are men at ease concerning them,
selves, indifferent as to God's claims, untroubled on
account of sin. They have no care and no thought
about their souls. They have no sense of personal sin30	REVIVALS.

as against God and deserving punishment. They are
unconvicted.

(b) The convicted. These have come to see their
sin in some measure. By seme truth or providence of
God they have been led in greater or less degree to feel
their guilt, and to think about the way of getting rid of
it. The feeling may be very slight, stirring only the
surface ; or very deep, stirring the whole soul. It may
only give a shade of seriousness to the look or heart, or
it may fill with the profoundest anxiety. In either case,
and in any such case they are convicted of si?i—of sin
as against God and as deserving punishment. Blessed
is the pastor who has gotten a soul in such a case. It
is the supreme moment in a sinner's life when he is in a
posture willingly and thoughtfully to consider the ques-
tion, What must I do to be saved ?

DEALING WITH THE UNCONVICTED.

The want of conviction is usually conditioned in one
of three thiDgs—Indifference, Procrastination, or Self-
Righteousness. Find out which, and strike the blows
there. If by any possibility the person's thought as to
himself and God can be gotten, then to show its folly
and sin is a straight road.WORK COINCIDENT WITH REVIVAL. 31

DEALING WITH THE CONVICTED.

The question to be answered is only one. What
such a soul needs to know is, what he must do to be
saved. Not what he must do to have more conviction,
or more feeling or more faith, or anything else.

(a) That advice is wrong which tells a sinner to do
anything which he can do and still be unsaved.

Hence that is bad advice,

1.	Which simply sets a man to the process of refor-
mation. Reformation is not regeneration.

2.	Which merely counsels attendance on religious
meetings. The Bible nowhere sends an inquirer to
religious meetings.

3.	Which consists only in telling the inquirer to pray
and read his Bible. He may have been doing just this
for days and weeks with no result.

4.	Which urges public confession of Christ and
union with the church. He must first find Christ before
confessing Him. And union with the church ought
never to be thought of or suggested until the sinner is
by faith united to Christ.

5.	Which contents the sinner with the thought that if
he desire to be a Christian lie need only Iceep on in his32	REVIVALS.

search and seeking. His a keeping " on is rebellion so
long as he does not surrender and believe.

6.	Which sets a sinner merely to praying for a new
heart. This is no Bible-taught prayer, and God will
never give a man a new heart until the old heart is
given to Him.

7.	Which urges the sinner to try to repent. God's
word says, "Repent."

8.	Which compromises with the sinner; e. g.—the
question is asked, Don't you think one can be a Chris-
tian and dance ? Probe that questioner, and the like-
lihood is he will be found making terms with God
just at that point. If so, however innocent the dance
or any other thing may be in itself, he who makes a
point with God about it must have for answer to the
above question, " Yes, but you can't."

9.	Which tells an inquirer to do anything whatever
when he comes expecting to do something to merit sal-
vation, or to Jit himself for it. Then he is to be told
that nothing is to be done. " Doing," in that mood,
" is a deadly thing." " It is finished " is the word of
Jesus that should knock the foundation out from under
all such hope.

(b) That advice is right which tells a sinner to doWORK COINCIDENT WITH REVIVAL.	33

just what in his immediate case needs to be done to
carry his heart in instant surrender and trust to Christ.
This will be found to be very different in different cases.
To tell one who comes asking what he must do to be
saved, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, may not
meet his need at all. That may not be the thing he
most needs to know and do. Believe he must, beyond
all question, before he can be saved. Faith is first in
the order of the graces, the hinge that turns the whole
soul about, without which no man can please God. But
to tell an inquirer to believe, may not touch the secret of
the difficulty with him. For unbelief may not be his
specific trouble ; may not be the point of the Spirit's
striving.

Paul told the Philippian jailer to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, but Peter told the Jews at Pentecost in
answer to the same question to repent, and Jesus told
the young man of the Gospel to go and sell all that he
had and give it to the poor, and Joshua and Elijah and
Jesus summoned to decision—bade men make choice.
Each struck a blow at the immediate difficulty. The
direction in each case, if followed, would carry the
whole heart. Each told the inquirer to do just what in
each particular case was the specific thing to be done.34	REVIVALS.

Yet in one case it was " believe," in another " repent,"
in another "surrender," in another " choose." Hence,
if right advice is to be given the counselor must know
the case. Hence the importance of the point previously
made—diagnosis before prescription.

VIII. WORK SUBSEQUENT TO REVIVAL.

This brings us to the best means of husbanding the
fruits of revivals.

1.	Converts should be enrolled as members of the
church upon satisfactory evidence of their conversion.
When they show that they are of Christ's flock, they
have a right in the fold.

2.	Converts should be taught specially and system-
atically in Christian doctrine. Express provision of
some kind should be made for this, that these new disci-
ples may be early rooted and grounded in the faith.

3.	Converts should be put immediately at some active
service. Early activity of brain and heart and hands
and tongue in Christian directions will make future wall-
flowers and dumb Lazaruses and drones in the church an
impossibility. Only let the activity be suited to the
case, both in kind and degree, and provocative of neither
pride nor depression.WORK SUBSEQUENT TO REVIVAL.	35

4.	Converts should be given congenial association.
Some of them havd been revolutionized not only in their
inner life, but in all outward association. They must
be surrounded by something that shall take the place of
old companionship. ,

5.	The new disciples should be made to understand
that their type of pidy must be better than that they
find in the church. How is the church ever to grow
beautiful for situation, and to have her robes spotless
and befitting the bride of Christ, if the coming Chris-
tians take no higher plane of Christian living than
those who have preceded them ?

6.	The whole church must be made familiar with the
idea that training young disciples is just as important
as securing them ; and that this duty and privilege are
at the door of every church member receiving these
young converts to communion.This book is a preservation facsimile produced for
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