RELIGIOUS REVIVAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1179, 4 July 1874, Page 5

RELIGIOUS REVIVAL.

From the " Sydney Mail." He passed over the remainder, although it was profoundly interesting, and he should not read any more, except to give one fact or two, before he sat down. He had marked an extract that deeply touched himself— he could not altogether pass it over, for it was the latest intelligence from England, kindly forwarded to him by his friend and deacon, Mr Fairfax, who, he regretted was unable to be present that evening. It was in the March papers that he found the following accounts :— " The revival movement north of the Tweed continues unabated, especially in Glasgow, where the crowded services, including Beveral noon-day prayer meetings, continue. All classes of the community — rich and poor, old and young, parents and children— are affected by the movement, and the work now seems to go on with undiminißhed interest, whether the American revivalists take part in it or not, and most of the clergy of all denominations are unitedly and actively engaged in it. One of the meetings recently held has been that of fallen women in the Lesser Trades' Hall. About 150 were brought in by ladies and gentlemen who had gone to seek them in the streets, and having been provided with a hot supper and tea, they were addressed by Dr Wallace and others, and about twenty-five consented to enter various establishments with a yievr of regaining a position of respectability. At some of the meetings accounts are given of the progress of the revival. At one Mr Moody said that the news of what was going on in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dundee, had stirred up other places, and special services were now being held in almost all the towns and villages of Scotland. A Liverpool minister reported that prayer-meetings had already commenced there ; another from Yorkshire said that in some places in that county there were united services and much inquiry. Lord Polwarth told of the interest aroused in the work in the country districts of the east, and a clergyman from [Edinburgh said the movement was deepening and widening in that city. On Saturday week there was an overflowing noon-day meeting in Wellington street United Presbyterian Church specially devoted to children. Both Mr Moody and Mr Sankey were present, and a series of suitable hymns were sung, led by the latter, the former giving a short address, and other ministers doing the same. Next day, Sunday, the City Hall was crowded at 9 a.m. with young men, and an impressive service followed, and there was in the evening a meeting in Free St. David's Church of men converted during the Glasgow special services. In the evening also the City Hall was crowded, many persons being unable to gain admission. 1 Addresses were delivered by the Revds. Dr. Wallace, Mr Scott, and G. Reith. Mr Sankey was present, and along with a select choir sang a number of hymns. On the same" day the special services throughout Glasgow were numerous and the attendance large, several of them being devoted to individual classes of the population. On Monday week the noon-day meeting was crowded to excess, many having to go away, being unable to find admission. It was calculated that no less than 1800 were present. The meeting was conducted iv a similar manner to those held previously — Mr Moody presided, and made a few remarks ; Mr Sankey and the choir of ladies sang a selection of hymns. A lengthy list of special requests for prayer was read, and the meeting engaged in silent prayer. The Rev. Andrew Bonar read a portion of the Book of Samuel, and made some appropriate remarks. The meeting was then declared open, and encouraging reports were given by several ministers and laymen relative to the work being carried on in Glasgow and iD different towns and villages in the country. One speaker stated that the movement had created a deep impression at the west end of the city. A number of gentlemen followed with accounts of the results of the movement especially among young men and also domestic servants. Amongst the meetings held in the evening was the first of a series of nightly prayer-meetings, begun by the Independent Order of Good Templars which was held in the Grand Lodge Hall. It was explained that the object of the meetings was to offer prayer to God on behalf of temperance. At Tuesday's meeting Sheriff Campbell said he had left Edinburgh that morning, and was glad to be able to tell them that the work was going on as satisfactorily as ever it had done. They had, however, entered on a new phase of themovement. Instead of paying so much attention to the organization of their own meetings, they were sending out men who had seen all that had been going on to tell it to the people in the towns and villages of Scotland. The special requests for prayer are prominent at all these meetings." The results of this work were very numerous. There was put into his hands that night an extract from a letter from their devoted, loving, noble brother in Christ, who had preached more than once in that pulpit— the Rev. A. N. Macray, now of Torquay, and he writes to his friend to the following effect : — " I send you a narrative of the remarkable work of God at present going on in Scotland. We are receiving droppings of the same gracious showers. Lord Radstock, a very de/oted Evangelist, spent a week with ua lately, and we had meetings twice daily,

largely attended, and with hopeful results. I had more anxious inquirers visiting me last week than during my whole previous ministry. I believe 1874 is to be a very remarkable year of grace throughout the world, and I often remember the colonies at our united prayer meetings." Thanks be to God that when it was well with their brother he did not forget them. Did not they want a key to open and solve the problem of how scepticism was to be met ? God would put the key into the hands of his Church now. They were not to take this on the logical side, but on the intuition and spiritual side, and they were to take it from Heaven by earnest prayer. Had they not been looking for some solution of the difficulty of how to reach the working classes and others ? God himself had solved the difficulty — looking at the six hundred working men coming up from the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, rushing into the church, falling down upon their knees, and asking for mercy — being led in prayer by the very men whom they had once despised. They had been looking for a solution of the difficulty connected with ritualism— the ingress of that dark tide that would bear them back to the dark ages and to Judaism ; and what was the solution ? It was to be found in congregations baptized with the Holy Ghost, and worshipping in spirit and in truth. When they had the reality, then crucifixes, images, genuflexions, priestly robes, and priestly assumptions would melt away like the drifting icebergs of the north melting in the warm latitudes of a moderate or torrid zone. God himself was showing them ■what was his Churches' power — power on their knees in prayer ; and the agent that was to go forth and gain the victory through the world was the Holy Ghost, which he sent down from the Father to help his Churches to subdue the world. Should they not be loyal to Christ, and lay aside whatever would hinder his work ? In Scotland the most logical and the most metaphysical of countries, they had been trying for hundreds of years to solve the problem of Church unity, and now God had solved the difficulty. Scotland was now coming to unity on the basis of an inward spiritual life, and in the unity of the spirit, which is the bond of peace — living Christians, and doing his work in the land, i The congregation then united in singing the 817 th hymn, " See how great a flame aspires." The Rev. J. H. Fletcher said the facts which had been given to the meeting spoke for themselves, and he thought it was the wish of all the ministers who were present tonight that they should as much as possible leave the facts to speak for themselves. They were so striking, and were so singularly and well vindicated, and so characteristic of the working of God's spirit, that they spoke more strongly to their conscieaces and more directly to their faith than any arguments ' which they could employ. He could not help feeling, however, in listening to these remarkable statements, that they all had i much to learn in reference to this great work [ of the revival of religion, and of such a revival of religion as they wished to see and had good reasoa to hope to see in this intelligent, stirring, and, to so great an extent, ungodly sceptical nineteentli century. He was I quite sure there were very many here tonight who felt how true were the words of a \ vigorous Scottish writer that Christianity was a strong remedy for a strong disease. It was not a mild mixture of sentimentalism of which the less we had the better, but it was a strong medicine for a strong disease ; it was a charge of cavalry upon the embattled squares of infantry, which must be conquered and scattered. Their hearts must be encouraged to-night to hope and pray that God, in his own way, and by such instruments as he saw best, would send them a revival of religion which would take hold of the masses, and take hold of the century as effectually as the great revival at Pentecost took hold of the first Christian century and all that followed it. There was no doubt that they had much to learn. That great wisdom and power to which they all devoutly bowed would choose His own instruments, and employ such means as He saw best. In the metropolis and most of the Scottish cities, there were so many men remarkable not only for intellect and learning, but for holiness of living and deep thankfulness to God ; yet God had been pleased to employ strangers as the first instruments of this great awakening of the masses ; but in which, nevertheless, these wise and good men had joined so heartily, and had shown so strikingly what good men they were by accepting the method which God in his wisdom had been pleased to adopt. He trusted that such was the feeling with them. They had much to learn, and God might be pleased to make little use of many who might think that God should use them ; but God might be pleased to fashion his own instruments, and to choose and employ instruments of whom previously they had not heard much. He trusted, however, they were prepared to stand aside, prepared to accept any position, and prepared, if necessary, to stand still and see the salvation of God's people. He trusted they were prepared to co-operate in any way with all the instruments that God was pleased to use, and they would have a revival which would awaken all the Churches, and awaken all Australia. God had sent them such an awakening, and i he was quite sure that there were many present to-night who thought they had need of it, and that the revival which God sent, coming in what way it would, would be an unmingled blessing. He was sure that what they wanted was a spirit of prayer ? He thought he could not do better than relate an anecdote which perhaps some of those present had already heard. It was one given to them by Finnic in connection with the American revivals. He told them that in a certain village there was a

'blacksmith, a very good man, who stammered, and was quite unable to say as much as he wished to say for Christ. On a certain afternoon, while engaged in his smithy, he felt his mind much depressed on account of the Church with which he was connected, and he was so disturbed that he was constrained to close his smithy and spend the afternoon in prayer. It was Friday, and on the following Sunday he visited his minister and asked him to invite those who were concerned for the salvation of their souls to meet him that afternoon. " Why," said the minister, " I will do it, but I fear it will be of very little use." But the minister was astonished to see the great and crowded assemblage of persons concerned for the salvation of their souls, and who all praised the beginning and conviction on that Friday afternoon when that good man, unable as he was to open his lips eloquently to his fellow-men, had opened them so eloquently to praise God and brought down such an answer as that. The true revival of religion must spring up in prayer, and must be brought out by prayer. There might be some present to-night who felt like the good blacksmith, that, when they spoke to men, they stammered, but who nevertheless could draw nigh to God with confidence. Let everyone pray that the Lord would revive the work, and an answer would be given ; and while they prayed let them remember that, whatever they might think they wanted, they could ask nothing more than God himself had promised. They would do well to go home from the service of that evening singing to themselves some of the words of the glorious hymn in which he had heard them join so heartily : — To bring fire on earth He came, Kindled in some it is — Oh ! that all might catch the flame, , And partake of glorious bliss. (To be continued.)