Revival sketches and manual..
Humphrey, Heman, 1779-1861 | American Tract Society
*0^ -tf* * ^CV oK 4 o a. <i v-* ■^ •^o1 roV" EEVIVAL SKETCHES AND MANUAL. IN TWO PAKTS. BY REV. HEMAN HUMPHREY, D. D.. PITTSFIELD, MASS. PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. / (, ^G Qcjl/fa^^frt^ (^/. /z./£f? TjY^ho Entered according to Act of Congress, in the 3'ear 1859, by the American Tract Society^ in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of Xe-w York. u V*J * . N. \ j ■• ». CONTENTS. PART I. REVIVAL SKETCHES. CHAPTER I. SUMMARY VIEW— TO THE DAY OF PENTECOST AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. The history of the church a history of revivals — What is a revival of religion ? — Revival in the time of Joshua — Josiah and other kings — After the captivity — New Testament — John the Baptist — The day of Pentecost — The apostolic age — Testimony' of Pliny and Tertullian • 11 CHAPTER II. "THE GREAT REFORMATION " —SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. The dark ages — The Waldenses and other witnesses and martyrs — ■ "The Great Reformation" in the time of Luther, Calvin, etc. — Remarkable power and diffusion of the work — Scotland in 1625-8 — "The Stuarton sickness" — Mr. Livingstone at the kirk of Shotts — North of Ireland, 1625 to 1628 — England in the days of Bunyan, Alleine, Howe, etc. — Ministry of Baxter at Kidderminster 26 CHAPTER III. "THE GREAT AWAKENING"— EIGHTEENTH CEN- TURY, ABOUT 1740. Testimony of many as to the low state of religion — Revivals in Scotland — Cambuslang in 1742— England in the days of Wesley, Whitefield, Fletcher, Romaine, etc.— Lady Huntingdon and other 4 CONTENTS. 1 ' honorable women ' ' — The United States ; testimony of Danforth, Edwards, Increase and Cotton Mather, Prince, Blair — Degeneracy under the "Half-way Covenant" — Eevival under Edwards at Northampton — Labors of Whitefield, Tennent, etc. — Extent of the work — Newark and Elizabethtown — Truths chiefly urged in these revivals — "Bodily exercises" — Errors and recantation of Davenport — Benefits of these revivals-- 46 CHAPTER IV. THE REVIVAL EPOCH ABOUT 1800. A period of general declension — Its causes : the "Old French war ;" the Bevolutionary war ; French infidelity and Bevolution — Per- sonal reminiscences of the commencement of the revivals — Bella- my, Edwards, Griffin, Hallock, etc. — Scriptural preaching — Dr. Griffin's life and testimony — Gordon Hall and Samuel J. Mills- -94 CHAPTER V. THE REVIVAL EPOCH ABOUT 1800— Continued. Testimony of Dr. Griffin, 1797-9— Rev. Jer. Hallock, 1798, 9— Dr. A. Hyde, 1792— Rev. A. R. Robbins, 1799— Dr. T. M. Cooley— Rev. Jos. Washburn — Dr. Samuel Shephard — Rev. Alex. Gillett — Rev. Joshua "Williams — Rev. Moses Hallock — Rev. Asahel Hooker — Rev. Ira Hart — Dr. Ebenezer Porter — Judge Reeve and Judge Boudinot — Dr. Baldwin, and Rev. Messrs. Ledoyt and Seamans — Rev. Dr. "Wood — Rev. Jesse Edson — From Rutland, Vt. — Rev. J. B. Preston— Dr. Proudfit— Dr. Thos. De Witt— Dr. John M. Ma- son— Dr. Milledoler — Dr. Griffin in Newark — Dr. Wm. Hill at Hampden Sidney College — Dr. Archibald Alexander, in Va. — Dr. Furman of S. C. — Rev. Jos. Stevenson and Rev. Thos. Marquis, West Pa. — Dr. Davidson, in Kentucky and Tennessee — Dr. Cle- land — Dr. Dwight, in Yale College — Characteristics and fruits of these revivals : missionary efforts 118 CHAPTER VI. THE REVIVAL EPOCH ABOUT 1800— Continued. Revivals in 1814 — Modes of conducting them — Rev. Asahel Nettle- ton — Testimony of Dr. Gardiner Spring — Bishop Mcllvaine — Dr. Archibald Maclay — Dr. Hyde — Dr. Porter — Dr. Ashbel Green — Dr. John McDowell— The author, at Pittsfield, 1821 206 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. THE REYIVAL EPOCH ABOUT 1800— Continued. Brief notices of revivals, 1815 to 1825 — Memoranda from Nettle- ton's life — Some things to be regretted — "Protracted meetings," "revivalists" — Revivals in colleges and seminaries — Yale, Will- iams, Mount Holyoke — Revivals on missionary ground — Sandwich islands, Burmah, etc., the American Indians — The revival of 1858 — Prevailing worldliness of the church — Financial distress — Origin of the revival — Union prayer-meetings — Rapidity of its diffusion — Change in public opinion — Prayers for individuals answered — Dangers to be avoided — England and Scotland — Han- nah More, Newton, Fuller, Rowland Hill, etc. — Robert and James A. Haldane — General summary review - 259 PAET II. REVIYAL MANUAL. CHAPTER VIII. "PREPARE YE THE WAT OF THE LORD." "0 Lord, revive thy work " — "Lord, increase our faith " — Hinder- ances to revivals — ' ' Take up the stumbling-blocks out of the way" — The Saviour's return — " Come down ere my child die" — Preaching to the church — Preaching to the impenitent — The pas- tor in a revival — "Where a revival has just commenced — Inquiry meetings— Conversing with the awakened and the unawakened in revivals— Instruction to candidates for membership— To per- sons about to join the church after a revival — To the converts in a revival when they join the church 303 CHAPTER IX. BRIEF APPEALS. " Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" — " Come unto me, and I will give you rest" — "The carnal mind is enmity against God" — " Strive to enter in at the strait gate "— " She was nothing bet- ter, but rather grew worse " — "Go thy way for this time ; when CONTENTS. I have a convenient season, I will call for thee " — " Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian" — "Commune with your own heart, and be still" — "Quench not the Spirit" — "The wiles of the devil" — To young converts — "He that endureth to the end shall be saved" -372 REVIVAL CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN A PASTOR AND INQUIRERS. 1. A delaying inquirer 425 2. An inquirer satisfied with preparatory work 429 3. Inquirer's plea that he had done all he could do 432 4. Plea that he has not been long enough under conviction — 434 5. Waiting for the influence of the Spirit -- -438 6. Fearing he has committed the unpardonable sin 441 7. Desponding and ready to give up hope of repentance 443 8. Indulging a trembling hope - 445 9. Afraid of religious excitement - 449 10. Excuse that he had once obtained a hope which proved fal- lacious- - - - - 452 11. Had attended all the meetings, and was discouraged -454 12. That all his resolutions of future repentance proved futile- -455 13. Fears that the privileges enjoyed will but aggravate his doom - - ---456 14. Excuse from the fear that hopes suddenly obtained may be delusive - - - 458 15. Excuse from the inconsistency of professors 460 16. Gains no relief, and comes to the pastor as a last resort 462 17. Clinging to a hope that may not abide 463 18. Tests of a well-grounded hope - - 465 19. Great doctrines of the gospel urged by a caviller 468 20. Serious questions for self-examination 470 INTKOBUCTION It is now more than thirty years since it struck me that a concise history of revivals from about the beginning of the nineteenth century might be accept- able to the churches, as a sort of Christian manual to help the cause of pure and undefiled religion in the present and in "the generations following." Having come upon the stage just at the commencement of that memorable epoch, and witnessed many revivals, I was moved to inquire whether the duty of attempting to gather and arrange the materials for such a history to the praise of sovereign redeeming mercy devolved upon me. I consulted Dr. Griffin on the subject, than whom few men had larger experience in revivals. He encouraged me to go on, and I made some collection of the narratives which were within my reach. But I soon became convinced that to do any thing like justice to the glorious theme, within reasonable lim- its, was a task beyond my powers, and for which I then could not command the time. After I had withdrawn from the cares and labors of a public seminary, and of course had more leisure 8 INTRODUCTION. for miscellaneous duties, I was requested to take up the question anew, of preparing a volume of revival narratives and reminiscences, reaching back to about the beginning of the present century. The request was from time to time renewed, by persons in whose judgment I had much confidence. My answer was, I am too old for such an undertaking : I could not sat- isfy myself, much less hope to do justice to the sub- ject. Moreover, as I reflected upon it, although the ma- terials at hand were ample, the field appeared to me quite too narrow. If I said any thing, I wished to go farther back and take a wider range. It seemed to me that I ought to inquire how far back the his- tory of revivals could be traced ; and if they were found to be of very ancient date, to inquire whether their essential features had been everywhere the same ; and whether or not the work of redemption had been carried on by the Holy Spirit chiefly by these " times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.'7 I sus- pected it would be found that religion has never flour- ished and rapidly extended its saving influence, but in connection with special reformations, or revivals as we now call them, interrupted by longer or shorter seasons of declension. As this opened so wide and so interesting a field of inquiry, I at length consented to the attempt, though with many misgivings as to my being able to go over so much ground, gather the materials scatter- ed along the ages, and bring out a book worthy of INTRODUCTION. 9 being received by the churches as a small contribu- tion to confirm their confidence in the desirableness of more frequent and powerful revivals than have yet been enjoyed. The result of these inquiries has more than answered my anticipations, and will be found embodied in these sketches. Going back to the time of Joshua, and tracing this branch of the history of redemption down through the Old and New Testaments to the close of the apostolic age ; then on- ward, groping my way through the dark ages, to the Protestant Reformation ; and advancing still, from stage to stage, down to " the Great Awakening " about the middle of the last century, and the perhaps still more glorious work commencing almost simulta- neously with the present century, I have brought down the history, or rather the brief sketches embraced in the first part of this volume, to the present time. In the second part, which I have ventured to call a Revival Manual, I have first given my view of the way in which revivals should be sought for and pro- moted, then inserted brief practical addresses such as I have been accustomed to make in seasons of the outpouring of the Spirit, and closed the volume with some Pastoral Conversations, out of many which I have been permitted to hold with inquirers. I have fallen far short of reaching my own ideal of what such a book should be, but have " done what I could :" gratefully acknowledging special obligations to the several pastors and others whose communica- tions, written chiefly in the memorable era of the out- 10 INTRODUCTION. pouring of the Spirit about the year 1831, were re- quested from them by the Rev. Dr. Sprague, and embodied as an appendix to his Lectures on Revi- vals. And now nothing remains but, lifting up my heart in fervent thanksgivings to the Infinite Source and Author of all true revivals, and imploring his blessing on this feeble " essay to do good," to commit it to Him who is able to make the weakest instru- mentality subservient to the building up of his king- dom in the world, and the accomplishing of his glori- ous purposes in the awakening, conversion, and salva- tion of sinners. H. H. Pittsfield, April 16, 1859. PAET FXKST. REVIVAL SKETCHES. CHAPTER I. SUMMARY VIEW— TO THE DAY OF PENTECOST AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. The history of the church, including all the times of refreshing and drought that have marked its prog- ress, is identical with the history of Redemption. It is a living stream, as it were, springing just outside of the garden of Eden, scarcely discernible at first, but flow- ing down from age to age ; sometimes sparkling in the sunlight; sometimes all but swallowed up in the sands of the desert ; breaking out again in the prom- ised land; at one period a wide river, then a con- tracted rivulet almost hidden for long reaches, and widening again to keep the promise alive, when it seemed to have disappeared for ever in the stagnant marshes of Babylon. To drop the figure : the his- tory of the church, broken off by the seventy years' captivity, was renewed again when the remnant re- turned to their own land, under Ezra and Nehemiah. 12 REVIVAL SKETCHES. After that, scarcely any thing is said of her till we come down to the New Testament, to that remarka- ble awakening which took place in the days of John the Baptist, when a new and more spiritual dispensa- tion was close at hand, to be introduced and carried forward by the Lord Jesus Christ, as "Head over all things to the church." The first glorious era of her triumphs was that which marked the apostolic age, and to which, in spite of all opposition, so many chapters, full of the first promise, have since been added, which promise will reach its high and glorious culmination when those great voices shall be heard in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world are become the king- doms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever," How, then, has this work of Kedemption been mainly carried on hitherto ; and how have we reason to expect it will be hereafter ? In looking back, we shall find that seasons of special absorbing religious interest, which by common consent are now called the Revival of Eeligion, have a history. When did this history begin? How far back does it date? These are important questions ; but before answer- ing them there is a preliminary one. What is a Revival of Religion? What are some of its phases and true characteristics ? When may it be said there is a true Revival of Religion in any age or part of the world ? We answer, a temporary religious excitement, however high it may rise, which does not go down into the hidden man of the heart, and stir up the WHAT IS A TRUE REVIVAL? 13 depths of the soul to the earnest inquiry, " What must we do to be saved?" is not a true revival of relig- ion. There may be a whirlwind, and the Lord not be in it. There may be great mental and physical excitement where there are few or no conversions. Nor where only a very few persons are about the same time awakened and truly converted by the Spirit of God, is there what we understand by a revival, though it is the self-same Spirit that worketh so mightily when hundreds are born again and seen fly- ing as a cloud and as doves to their windows. As it is not here and there a ripening cluster that makes a vintage, nor a few sheaves that make a harvest, nor a few drops that make a shower, so a few drops of mercy, falling on individual souls here and there, do not constitute what is usually termed a revival of religion. What is it, then ? A genuine revival is the fruit or effect of a supernatural Divine influence, which restores the joy of God's salvation to backsliding Christians, startles the dead in trespasses and sins, convinces them of their lost and perishing condition, and makes them willing in the day of God's power. In the church there is a genuine revival when she rises and shakes herself from the dust and puts on her beautiful garments, which have been laid aside to her great discomfort and reproach. In a congrega- tion there is a true revival when impenitent sinners in considerable numbers are awakened and converted within a few days or weeks, and "many are added to the Lord of such as shall be saved." In their essential nature and effects, all genuine 14 REVIVAL SKETCHES. revivals are alike. Since true religion is everywhere the same in essence, so must genuine revivals be in every age and in every part of the world. But there may be great diversities in many respects. They may be frequent, or far between. They may be isolated, here and there one springing up while the wise and foolish virgins all around are slumbering together; or they may simultaneously occur over wide regions that had long been parched by spiritual drought. In like manner, a revival of religion may be more or less powerful, and may continue for a longer or short- er time. It may show the sovereignty of God in hav- ing mercy upon whom he will have mercy, in a more or less striking manner. He may send the blessing by whom he will send, and may bring scores or hun- dreds or thousands into the church, or only a smaller number. One revival originates in a Sabbath-school, and spreads over a whole congregation ; another breaks out suddenly in an academy, a factory, in a sailor's Bethel, or in a penitentiary. One revival takes in persons of all classes, and another reaches one or two classes, leaving the rest as it found them. One pervades the whole town, while another is con- fined mainly to the centre, or the out districts. One begins among the higher classes, and another among the lower ; one with the young men, another with the young women, and another with one or both sexes in middle life. But wherever and however, it is the same Holy Spirit "turning men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." So, again, while all genuine revivals agree in the essential things, the subjects of them are variously OLD TESTAMENT TIMES. 15 wrought upon in the progress of the work. In some cases, God makes a short work, drawing sinners at once to the foot of the cross ; in others, convictions of sin and wrath long continue before Christ is re- vealed to them. In one revival the thunderings of the law as it were constrain sinners to "flee from the wrath to come " to the only Refuge ; in another, the sweet voice of mercy sounding out from Calvary by the same divine power draws them as with cords of love. Revivals may and actually do exhibit all these and other different phases, modified by such agencies as God is pleased to employ for his own glory in building up his spiritual kingdom. Bearing in mind these leading characteristics, and divers operations by the same Spirit, the way is now prepared to inquire where and how long ago did these special operations of the Spirit begin, and briefly to trace them down through the ages to the present time. Whether any thing like a revival took place when, in the days of Enos, men began to call upon the name of the Lord, we are not informed ; but when the flood came, the whole earth was filled with violence. And so after Noah, when Abraham was called, it seemed as if the apostasy had again become nearly or quite universal. Certain it is that he went out alone as a true worshipper, "not knowing whither he went." There was no organized church in the world, nothing like it, till through his faith in the divine promise one was established in his family ; and then Isaac 16 REVIVAL SKETCHES. and Jacob and Joseph, and others of like precious faith, became heirs of the promise. But among their posterity there was rapidly a great falling away from the worship of the true God. All along there was doubtless a remnant, according to the election of grace ; but we do not find recorded a general reformation till we come to the last chapter of Joshua. Of those who were twenty years old and upward when they left Egypt, all, save Joshua and Caleb, had perished in the wilderness. But now the time had come when there was to be a great national reformation. Joshua, knowing that he must soon lay down his high commission and die, gathered all the tribes together at Shechem, that he might meet them for the last time, and give them his dying charge. It was a solemn and imposing uational convoca- tion. All the people hastened with alacrity to meet their aged and beloved chief, and to hear his parting words. As the chosen captain of the Lord's hosts, he had led them on from victory to victory, had divided the promised land • among them according to their tribes, and nothing now remained but his final charge and benediction. When the hour had come, we seem to see him rising in the midst of the vast assembly, every whisper hushed, and every eye fastened upon him, as he waved his hand and commenced his ad- dress by glancing at the origin of their nation, the remarkable history of God's dealings with them, from the calling of Abraham down through their sore Egyp- tian bondage, their miraculous deliverances, their wanderings in the wilderness, and their now quiet settlement in the land of promise. This done, he OLD TESTAMENT TIMES. 11 proceeded to pronounce the final charge for which he had called them together. And what a charge ! "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord." The appeal was overwhelming. It melted down the whole of that vast assembly, and they answered as one man, "God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods." Joshua, following up the appeal, held them to their promise. "Ye are witnesses against your- selves that ye have chosen the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice we will obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.77 Had the record closed here, we could not know that the tribes were sincere in these solemn reiterated promises, or that if they were sincere, it was not a mere burst of sympathetic emotion, which soon sub- sided. But the event proved that it was a great and abiding national reformation, by whatever name it might be called ; the most remarkable in this respect on sacred record, for it is added, " When Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his own inheritance, to possess the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel.77 This was indeed a glorious revival of true religion. After that generation passed off from the stage, 18 REVIVAL SKETCHES. there was a great falling away under the Judges, down to the time of Samuel, a period of about three hundred years. Towards the close of his life there seems to have been something like what we should call a general awakening. The people were brought under great alarm, and confessed their sin in reject- ing the Lord and asking for a king. But the prophet had not been long in the grave when the great body of the people relapsed into their former state, or rather, for the most part waxed worse and worse. The succeeding centuries under the Kings, many of whom, especially those of the ten tribes, God "gave in his anger" to a people who " would not have Him to reign over them," were marked by shameless idolatry, high-handed, heaven-daring sins, by awful prophetic warnings and denunciations, and by mar- vellous divine interpositions, both in judgment and in mercy. Under David and Solomon, God fulfilled all the good things which he had spoken ; and in the Psalms of David then sung, perpetuated his exalted praises through all periods of time. But though the pious Asa and Jehoshaphat reigned in Judah, and Elijah seemed to have exterminated the worship of Baal in Israel ; though Hezekiah, strengthened by the prophecies of Isaiah, wrought a glorious and wide- spread reformation; and though, "weary with for- bearing," God had driven the ten tribes into captiv- ity, yet Manasseh sinned beyond all who had gone before him, and hope almost expired. I do not mean to say that at any period there were no true conversions; there certainly were a great many. The church was kept alive from age to OLD TESTAMENT TIMES. 19 age, notwithstanding the general apostasy. In the darkest time, when Elijah himself gave up all for lost, and fled, he was assured that there were seven thousand men in Israel who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. We now come to that most remarkable, though temporary reformation, which took place in the reign of Josiah. It commenced on this wise : In looking over some ancient records, Hilkiah the high-priest found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, which had been for a very long time out of sight and out of mind. He brought it out, and when it was read in the ears of the king, he rent his clothes, and trembled under its terrible denunciations. He felt that something must be done at once to turn away the great wrath of the Lord, which hung like a storm of fire over the nation. He saw that it admitted of no delay, and issued his proclamation for a general gathering of the people. When the time came, he went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and all the men of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great, and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. It was an august assembly, and a most solemn occasion. It was the first step in the reformation. Josiah next made a tour through the kingdom, destroying all the places of idolatrous worship as he went, and commanding all the people to keep the passover, as enjoined in the book of the law. They hastened to obey; and the sacred histo- rian adds, "There was not held such a passover in 20 REVIVAL SKETCHES. the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel." Externally it cer- tainly was a wonderful reformation ; and we have no reason to doubt that many truly repented and turned unto the Lord. But again there was an alarming decline, which continued to increase for a hundred years, till the captivity of Judah in Babylon, and was not arrested till the days of Ezra and Nehe- miah. Soon after the return of the people from their long captivity, there was a great reformation. The people gathered themselves together in Jerusalem as one man, and called upon Ezra to bring out the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel ; and he read therein from morning till midday, "and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law." And when he opened the book in the sight of all the people, they all stood up. And when he blessed the Lord, the great God, " all the people answered, Amen, amen, lifting up their hands ; and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces on the ground." And they proved their sincerity by hastening to do works meet for repentance. They at once restored the worship of God which had fallen into disuse, and separated themselves from the heathen family alliances which they had formed during the captivity. This was the severest test of all. After that we hear no more of their idolatries. Malachi, who lived a little later, was the last of the Old Testament prophets ; and for what more we know of the religious state of the Jews during the JOHN THE BAPTIST. 21 four subsequent centuries, at the close of which Shiloh came, we are indebted to uninspired writers. My object, in these rapid historical sketches from the Old Testament history, has been to show that God preserved the church from utter apostasy by special seasons of reformation, after long intervals of decline. This was the divine economy under the Old Testament. JOHN THE BAPTIST. Passing to the New Testament, we are naturally led to inquire, what evidence there is, if any, that the same divine economy was still to prevail. And first, how was it in the day of John the Bap- tist ? Was there any thing under his preaching like what are now called revivals? There was. "The word of the Lord came unto John in the wilderness, and he came into all the country about Jordan, preach- ing the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," and under his fearless and rousing appeals, there was a great and general excitement among all classes of the people. The publicans, the soldiers, and even the Pharisees and Sadducees, came to him to be bap- tized, asking, " What shall we do?" It was more like a national religious awakening than we have found since the days of Joshua; for as Matthew testifies, " Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, went out and were baptized in Jordan, confessing their sins f and though we have reason to fear that in many cases it fell short of true repent- ance, we can scarcely doubt, I think, that many who came for baptism, were "born of water and of the 22 REVIVAL SKETCHES. Spirit," and brought forth good fruits. Such a gen- eral religious excitement could never have taken place without a supernatural influence upon the hearts of men. The instrument was John, " crying in the wilderness, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand •" but the excellency of the power was of God. It was what would now be called a general revival, though by no means so pure as those afterwards in the apostolic age. THE APOSTOLIC AGE. We pass to the glorious " ministration of the Spir- it," given to " abide " with the church as the charac- teristic of the Christian dispensation — a gift which the Saviour promised to his disciples as better than his own personal presence. The riches of this gift were marvellously displayed on the day of Pente- cost, when thousands were converted and baptized. This wonderful scene was an earnest of what might be expected under the faithful preaching of the gos- pel, not of course in its visible miraculous features, but in its awakening and saving power upon the hearts of sinners. This we know was followed by a remarkable se- ries of revivals during the apostolic age. Thus, in the fourth chapter of Acts, we read that when Peter and John preached Jesus and the resurrection from the dead, many who heard the word believed, and the number of men was about five thousand. Again, in the sixth chapter, in connection with the solemn service of choosing and setting apart deacons, "the word of the Lord increased ; and the number of the THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 23 disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly ; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." In the eighth chapter, the disciples, scattered by per- secution throughout the regions of Judea and Sama- ria, "went everywhere preaching the word." Again, chapter ninth, " As Peter passed throughout all quar- ters, he came down to the saints at Lydda," and after the healing of Eneas, all that saw him in Lydda and Saron, "turned to the Lord." Again, chapter elev- enth, " They which were scattered abroad upon the persecutions that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, and spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them ; and a great num- ber believed, and turned unto the Lord." These were all so many glorious revivals in the midst of the years of the right hand of the Most High. And so we may be sure it was in all the cities where the gospel was planted in the primitive age. Indeed, it is hardly conceivable how the gospel could otherwise have so mightily prevailed in so short a time. That was preeminently the revival epoch of the church. Thus far we trace the divine economy by the un- erring guide of sacred history. It was not mainly by isolated conversions that the churches were built up, but under the outpouring of the Spirit, turning many at once from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. In tracing the history of the church down through the subsequent ages, we can look for no further guid- ance of the inspired record ; but the most obvious analogies would lead us to expect that we should find 24 REVIVAL SKETCHES. the same footsteps of Christ travelling in the great- ness of his strength along his triumphant march, till he shall have subdued all things unto himself. The revival epoch, which began on the day of Pentecost, extended down through the second and into the third century ; and though ecclesiastical his- tory throws less light on the subject than we could wish, more than enough is found in the writings of the early fathers to show that the Christian religion rapidly spread throughout the Roman empire, and even beyond its boundaries, in spite of all the rage of earth and hell to crush it out. Pliny the younger, who was some time governor of Bithynia under the bloody emperor Trajan, ear- nestly dissuaded him from persisting in his persecut- ing edicts against the Christians in that province, not only by assuring him that they were a harmless peo- ple, chargeable with no crime, "meeting together to sing hymns and worship Christ as God," but that they were very numerous all over the province, and that the more they were punished the more they in- creased. Tertullian, who lived a century later, and died in 216, writing to the Roman government in vindication of the new religion, as it was called, says, " Though we are strangers of no long standing, yet we have filled all places of your dominions, cities, islands, cor- porations, councils, armies, tribes, the senate, the pal- ace, the courts of judicature. If the Christians had a mind to avenge themselves, their numbers are abun- dant ; for they have a party, not in this or that prov- THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 25 ince, but in all quarters of the world. Nay, if they were to combine and forsake the Roman empire, how vast would be the loss. The world would be amazed at the solitude which would ensue." In another place he expostulates thus with the persecuting governors of Africa : " If you persevere in your persecution, what will you do with these many thousands, both of men and women of every rank and every age, who will promptly offer them- selves ? Carthage itself must be decimated." Once more, after enumerating the nations who had believed in Christ, he declared that the gospel had penetrated into regions which were inaccessible even to the eagles of Rome. " Excellent governors," he exclaims, "you may torment, afflict, and vex us; your wickedness puts our weakness to the test, but your cruelty is of no avail. It is but a stronger invi- tation to bring others to our persuasion. The more we are mowed down, the more we spring up again. The blood op the Christians is seed." Here we have undeniable evidence of the rapid and wide spread of the church by the mighty power of God in what would now be looked upon as a mar- vellous series of revivals over many countries. The main difference, compared with any thing that has been witnessed in these modern times, lies in their permeating immensely greater populations. Call them great reformations, if you will. It is only an- other name, on a vast scale, of what we mean by the word revivals — turning " multitudes, multitudes," al- most simultaneously, from the worship of dumb idols, from the power of Satan unto God. Rev. Sketches. 2 26 REVIVAL SKETCHES. CHAPTER II. "THE GREAT REFORMATION." SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. During the thousand years between the fifth and the fifteenth century, the annals of the true church are so illegible, so interlined and interpolated, so blotted by the grossest superstition, that it is difficult to trace her progress by any light we have. And yet, even in that long midnight of the world, the light glimmered as it were upon the tops of the mountains, and now and then broke out from the gloom, illumi- nating the promises when it seemed as if "the mer- cies of God were clean gone for ever." He who was with the church in the wilderness during her forty years' wanderings, did not forsake her, but kept the pillar of cloud and fire over her till she emerged into the glorious morning of the Protestant Reformation. Thus the gospel was wonderfully preserved among the Waldenses of Italy and the Culdees of Britain. In the thirteenth century there must have been great revivals, for in Bohemia alone, where the gospel had won its way, there were reckoned, in 1315, no less than 80,000 witnesses for the truth. So again in the fourteenth century, John Wyckliff, " the morning-star of the Reformation/7 heralded the day-spring in our fatherland, and many turned to the Lord. So was it also in the fifteenth century, under the labors of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, and more signally still SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 2t in the great religious revolution which a hundred years later shook the Papal throne to its foundations, through the instrumentality of Luther, Zwingle, Cal- vin, and the other illustrious reformers of that remark- able epoch. This reformation commenced early in the six- teenth century, and so rapidly did the light of the gospel spread over the principalities and kingdoms of Europe, so mightily did the word of God grow and prevail over all opposition, that it has ever since been called The Great Reformation ; and it was no less than a wide-spread and glorious revival. It was the reappearance of the divine economy in carrying forward the work of redemption. The night of the middle ages had been so long, that it seemed as if the day would never dawn. But the rising of the sun, glancing from land to land, proved that " God is not slack concerning his prom- ises." The prince of darkness could no longer hold all the nations in bondage. " The man of sin," drunk with the blood of saints and martyrs, and "exalting himself above all that is called God and is worship- ped," received a deadly wound, of which he has never been fully healed and never will be. The Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth cen- tury, under Martin Luther as the first and chief in- strument, was a religious revival on a vast scale. No other word so well expresses it. " Never certainly, since the days of the early Christians," says Rev. Dr. James W. Alexander, "was there so wide-spread a concern about religion. Never were there so many conversions. The published correspondence of the 28 REVIVAL SKETCHES. reformers, and particularly of Martin Luther and John Calvin, shows that a large part of their time was employed in giving counsel to inquiring souls. All the good and great men who were the chief in- struments in this amazing revival felt and avowed that it was entirely of God, and that nothing but the omnipotent Spirit would have produced the change which they observed and experienced So rapid was the progress of it, that in less than forty years, in face of the united opposition of the church and the empire, against all proscription, in spite of rack and fagot, the principles of evangelical religion had over- spread Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, and the British isles. It was an outpouring of the Spirit, under which the mountains flowed down at His pres- ence ; it was a converting power that was acknow- ledged by tribes and nations. "The remarkable condition of religious things among our Puritan and Scottish ancestors, was the sim- ple consequence of this reformation revival prosper- ously carried out and made permanent. The work of grace was upon the hearts of multitudes North America was planted by Protestants, and largely by a race of men whose activity owned evan- gelical religion as its animating principle. They came out from the midst of great awakenings, and every arrival from the old country brought them news of the revivals which took place under the Bun- yans and Baxters of England. "In Scotland, religion made its progress in a kind of triumphal march The subjugation of a whole people within a brief period to the principles of the SEVENTEENTH CENTURY— SCOTLAND. 29 gospel, is proof that the church was increased with rapidity, and by large accessions ; in other words, that there was a great revival throughout the king- dom, in the modern sense of the term." Thus, in looking back three hundred years from our present stand-point upon that mighty upheaving of the moral world, " known and read of all men " as the Great Reformation, and making every abate- ment for its not having accomplished all that could have been desired, it is past controversy that it was the most remarkable Christian epoch since the days of the apostles. One of its main features was the resurrec- tion, as it were, of the cardinal doctrine of Justifica- tion by Faith alone, which being once disinterred from the Popish rubbish under which it had been buried for more than eight centuries, the combined efforts of earth and hell have not been able to force back into the old charnel-house of penances and purgatory. SCOTLAND— KIRK OF SHOTTS, 1625-8. The influence of the Great Reformation most dis- tinctly appeared, the next century, in England, Scot- land, and Ireland. In the reign of Charles I., there was a great persecution of the saints in Scotland who adhered to the faith of their pious fathers. The king and his counsellors were determined at all haz- ards to enforce Conformity there, as well as in Eng- land, to the national establishment. They doubtless would have prevailed, had not the Lord raised up witnesses for the truth, in the spirit of John Knox in the preceding century, and with much of his power. To all human appearance, that cruel usurpation would 30 REVIVAL SKETCHES. have been fastened upon that kingdom, but for re- markable divine interpositions, the most signal of which was the great revival of vital religion which began in Stewarton, in 1625, and lasted about five years. 