MODERN REVIVALS.
We have shown that it ought to be the great aim and object of the
Church to preclude the necessity of occasional religious excitements.
We also showed, by example from Scripture and from Church history,
that it is possible to attain this end. If parents did but understand
and do their duty in the family, teachers in the Sunday-school and
pastors in the catechetical class and pulpit, children would very
generally grow up in their baptismal covenant; and a church made up of
such members would not depend for its growth and life on periodic
religious revivals.
But--alas, that _but_!--parents, teachers and pastors too often
come short of their duty. Carelessness, worldliness and godlessness
hold sway in too many of the congregations, homes and families. There
is a spirit of love of pleasure, greed for gain and haste to be rich,
that has taken hold of the heart and life of too many professedly
Christian parents. There is no time for God's Word or earnest prayer
with and for the children. There is often little if any religious
instruction or Christian example. The little ones breathe in a
withering, poisonous, materialistic atmosphere. The germs of the
divine life, implanted in baptism, either lie dormant, or are blighted
after their first manifestations. They grow up with the idea that
the great object of life is to gain the most, and make the best of
this world.
In the Sunday-school the teachers are often careless and
trifling. They do not live close to Christ themselves, and how can
they lead their pupils nearer to Him? They scarcely pray for
themselves, much less for their pupils, and how can they instil into
them a spirit of prayer?
Many pastors, also, are not as earnest and consecrated as they
should be. They are not burning with a desire for souls. They go
through their ministerial duties in a formal, lifeless manner, and
their labors are barren of results. These things should not be so, but
unfortunately they are. As a result, children grow up ignorant of
their covenant with God, or soon lapse therefrom, and are in an
unconverted state. The communicants of the church lose their first
love, and become lukewarm. An awakening is needed.
If then we admit that, owing to man's imperfections and faults,
_times of refreshing_ are needed, why not have them after the manner
of those around us? Why not adopt the modern system, have union
meetings, evangelists, high-pressure methods, excitements, the anxious
bench, and all the modern machinery for getting up revivals?
We will briefly state our objections to this system.
_First._ We object to the modern revival system, because it
rests on an entire misconception of the coming and work of the Holy
Spirit. The idea seems to be that the Holy Spirit is not effectively
present in the regular and ordinary services of the sanctuary; that He
came to the Church as a transient guest on the day of Pentecost, then
departed again, and returned when there was another season of special
interest. That He then left again, and ever since has come and worked
with power during every revival, and then departed to be absent until
the next.
Now we claim that this is directly contrary to the teaching of
the Divine Word.
When Jesus was about to leave His disciples they were filled with
deep sorrow. He gathered them around Him, in that upper chamber at
Jerusalem, and comforted them in those tender, loving words, recorded
in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of John. In these
chapters He promises and speaks much of a Comforter, whom He would
send. The whole discourse goes to show that this Comforter was
intended to be substituted for the visible presence of Himself. His
own visible presence was to be withdrawn. The Comforter was to be sent
to take His place, and thus, in a manner, make good the loss. Jesus
had been their comforter and their joy. They would no longer have Him
visibly among them, to walk with Him, to talk with Him, to hear the
life-giving words that fell from His lips. The announcement made them
feel as if they were to be left "comfortless" and forsaken. But he
says, John xiv. 16: "_I will pray the Father, and He will give you
another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit
of truth_;" verse 18, "_I will not leave you comfortless_:" revised
version, "I will not leave you _desolate_;" more literally still, as
in the margin, "I will not leave you _orphans_." John xvi. 5, 6, 7:
"_But now I go my way to Him that sent me.... But because I have said
these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your hearts. Nevertheless I
tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I
go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I
will send Him unto you._"
Now, from these words, and others in the same chapters, two
things are plain: First, that the Comforter came as _Christ's
substitute_; Secondly, that He came _to abide_. While Jesus was to be
absent, as far as His visible presence was concerned, the divine
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, was to take His place. His presence was to
substitute Christ's. But if He had come to be present only briefly,
and occasionally, after long intervals of absence, it would be a poor
filling of the painful void. Evidently the impression designed to be
made by the words of Jesus was, that the Holy Spirit would come to
abide. And this is made still more clear by the plain words of Jesus
quoted above "I will not leave you _orphans_;" "He shall _abide_
with you _forever_." He came, then, as a substitute; He came also to
abide forever.
The revival system is, however, built up on the idea that He
comes and goes. He visits the Church, and leaves it again. At
so-called revival seasons the Church has a Comforter. During all the
rest of the time she is left in a desolate or orphaned state. Thus is
the revival system built up on an entire misconception and
misapprehension as to the coming and abiding of the Holy Spirit.
It likewise misconceives entirely the _operations_ of the Spirit.
The idea seems to be that this Blessed One operates without means,
directly, arbitrarily and at haphazard. The Word and Sacraments are
not duly recognized as the divinely ordained means and channels,
through which He reaches the hearts of the children of men. That this
is an unscriptural idea we have shown elsewhere. That the Spirit uses
the means of Grace as channels and instruments, through which He comes
and operates on the hearts of men and imparts to them renewing and
sanctifying Grace, is taught all through the New Testament. We need
not enlarge on these points again, but refer our readers to what has
been written above on this subject.
Our _second_ objection to the modern revival system arises out of
the first. Because of the errors concerning the coming and the
operations of the Holy Spirit, the system undervalues the
divinely-ordained means of Grace. Little if any renewing Grace is
expected from the sacrament of Christian Baptism. Few if any
conversions are expected from the regular and ordinary preaching of
the Word. Little if any spiritual nourishment is expected from the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Who that has attended such meetings
has not heard the idea of Grace bestowed through Baptism ridiculed?
Who has not heard so-called revival preachers scout the idea of
"getting religion"--which must mean receiving divine Grace if it means
anything--through catechising the young in the doctrines of the divine
Word? Are not these divine means often entirely set aside by the most
enthusiastic revivalists? Who does not know that often at these
revival services the reading and preaching of the Word are entirely
omitted? Thus God's means, the means used by Christ and His apostles,
are undervalued. While they are used at the ordinary services, when
there is no revival going on, not much is expected of them.
Our _third_ objection again arises from the second. Because
the regular Church ordinances are undervalued, they are largely
fruitless. Because people have not much faith in their efficacy, they
do not receive much benefit from them. Few conversions are expected or
reported during the ten or eleven months of regular or ordinary church
services, while many, if not all, are expected and reported from the
few weeks of special effort. Even the work of sanctification is
largely crowded into the few weeks. It is during these few weeks that
saints expect to be quickened, refreshed, strengthened and purified,
more than during all the rest of the year.
It is doubtless both as a cause and a result of this undervaluing
and general fruitlessness of the ordinary Church ordinances, that we
find so much levity and irreverence in many so-called revival
Churches. Because the Holy Spirit is not supposed to be effectively
present, is not in the Word and Sacraments, does not bring His saving
and sanctifying Grace through them; therefore there is nothing solemn,
awe-inspiring, or uplifting in these things. Therefore the young, even
if they are members, and sometimes older ones, go to these churches as
to places of amusement, to have a good time, to laugh, to whisper, to
gaze about, write notes, get company, and what not.
A careful observer cannot fail to notice that in Churches which
believe in and preach Grace through the means of Grace, there is an
atmosphere of deeper solemnity and more earnest devotion than in such
revival Churches. The above objection to the revival system we believe
will explain the difference.
_Fourth._ We object to the so-called revival system because, as a
natural result of the above, it begets a dependence on something
extraordinary and miraculous for bringing sinners into the kingdom. As
we have seen, these Churches expect nearly all their conversions from
"revivals." It naturally follows that the unconverted will shake off
and get rid of all serious thoughts and impressions, under the plea
that they will give this matter their attention when the next revival
comes round. We have more than once heard persons say, in effect, "Oh
well, I know I'm not what I ought to be, but perhaps I'll be converted
at the next revival." Thus the gracious influences of the blessed
Spirit, as they come through the Word, whether from the pulpit, the
Sunday-school teacher, or Christian friend, or even when that Word is
brought to a funeral or sick-bed, are all put aside with the hope that
there may be a change at the next revival. And we verily believe that
such ideas, fostered by a false system, have kept countless souls out
of the kingdom of God.
We object _fifthly_ that at these so-called revivals there
is a dependence on methods not sanctioned or authorized by the Word of
God. As we have seen, God's means are generally slighted. On the other
hand, human means and methods are exalted and magnified.
The anxious or mourner's bench is regarded by many otherwise
sensible people, as a veritable mercy-seat, where Grace is supposed to
abound--as though the Spirit of God manifested His saving and
sanctifying power there as nowhere else. But this is a purely human
institution, and has no warrant in the Word. On this point it is not
necessary to enlarge.