SPIRITUAL REVIVAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17235, 15 April 1930, Page 10

SPIRITUAL REVIVAL

PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH KEY. J. W KEMP'a VIEWS •'Xi)o world lias always bad the habit of ‘going to tho devil,’ and'it cannot ho that we are any worse now than formerly,”' commented the llev. Joseph Kemp, president of the Baptist Union, who is at present in Gisborne, when interviewed concerning the trend ot evangelical work. There were always stages of retrogression, hut ho said Unit deliverance had always come by periods of revival. He referred to the revivals that thud taken place under Wesley, Whitfield, and the Haldanes in Scotland, at, a, time when morality was at a low chi*. It was said at that time that a man could get drunk for Id and hopelessly drunk for 2d, and one investigating the conditions in those days had said ho had gone round England sampling pulpits of many denominations without finding one Gospel preacher. ‘‘The drift is scarcely as bad to-day,” continued Mr. Kemp, “although it is pronounced enough. There are indications of a coming revival, and this conviction is based, not ori fancy, hut on fact, The heart-hunger for spiritual life, and the trek of young people towards God are evidences of an imminent quickening. Not all young people are tobogganing to hell, and on every hand there are evidences that they are seeking after Divine things. The Bibleclass movement, and young people’s camps like those, that arc being hold at Ngni'ua\vahia at Easier, are thronged with young people. Without young people our church conventions cannot be held. This is true, not only in our own land, but also in other places beyond tho seas.

“This reaction from modernism is a quirked sign of a spiritual weakening,” he went on. “The modernists every where are finding that the people refuse to he fed on ashes, and great centres of heretical leaching are swinging round to the acceptance of the fundamental i position. Although wo have not yet entered the revival movement, (here are signs in many countries of an awakening. Tin' church' as a whole will ho revived when she recovers her lost buoyancy and elasticity. Tho jov note has been lost, and when this is recovered she will commend the Gospel she preaches to the acceptance of (hose who are outside the church. Tho world demands 'that we. produce our samples, and the man who is rejoicing in a sense of forgiveness is the best evidence of (ho power of the Gospel. “Another lack in modem church life,’’ Mr Kemp continued, “is that of prayer passion. The church lias'fed her auxiliaries, but weakened her centre. The prayer, meeting has given place to social gatherings, and in very nianv churches' prayer meetings have ceased. When a church ceases to pray sho.become') short-circuited. Braver passion must In' revived, and a return made to the old Biblical words of conversion, m pen I mice, and sanctification, there must be no mumbling about human destiny. for it is still true that there is a heaven for the righteous and a hell for the wicked.”