THE Thames Advertiser. SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1875.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VIII, Issue 2039, 8 May 1875, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1875.

N(st a little apace has for some time beeu devoted by tho English journals to descriptions and reports of the meetings held by Messrs Moody and Suukey, r the American Revivalists. These gentlemen have mads a lour of the , United Kingdom, everywhere awakening displays of religious fervour surprising many who had come to the conclusion that enthusiasm in .these matters had died away, had become a matter, with the pious, of meditation and solitary feeling, and that over society there 'was such a spirit of doubt and coldness that nothing like the demonstrations which Messrs Moody and Saukey, Lave evoked could be excited. To read some of tho accounts oue would almost be led to think that, these taking part in the revivals of Messrs Moody and San key were penetrated with the samo spirit which led the people of tho Middle Ages to march to Palestine (o deliver the Holy Sepulchre in.obedience to the preaching of Peter the Hermit. And now we read that, having stirred up with emotional preaching even Scotland, where the cold precise definitions of Calvin have always reigned supreme, these Aineri- 1 cans have undertaken to storm ' ondon, and by the advice of friends have sent over for some fellow-countrymen to aid them in tho campaign, . Whether the movement is for good or for evil, is a much-debated question, and probably au extreme and categorical answer cannot be given; Most of those who give utterance to opinions on the sub-j.-ct hold atremc views. Speakers at

religious meetings and writers in religious journals refer to what has been done as something like miracle, and as a special visitation from God for tho purpose of doing incalculable good in tbese times. On the other hand, those who are called sceptics* and scorners ridicule the whole affair, and argue that a great deal more barm than benefit is likely to arise, out of the triumphant progress of the " Yankee evangelists," They say that Messrs Moody and fc'aukey deserve credit for their cleverness in having converted prayer meetings into popular amusements, and having enabled them to compete, successfully with theatres and concert-rooms. For our own part, we are inclined to7think that the safe ground is between tho extremes, with the conclusion that tho evideuco respecting,, these revival)', Messrs Moody and' Sankey's included, does not show such evident good as to make them worth promoting or encouraging. Such "revivals".only can occur at considerable intervals, and aro always succeeded by periods of lethargy, and, to ijdopt' the technical phraseology, "times of backsliding.:' In plain terms, when there has been a " great awakening" in a locality, and any considerable proportion of the community have been in the hiabifc of for a time frequently attending exciting meeting?, a . reaction takes place naturally, or perhaps we ought rather to say, invariably follows, and, the last stateja. worse than the first. . Whether most good is done to these people by an attendance fo t six months at exciting serwhere people howl out loudly because of their sins, and some fall down in fits, and *the nervous systems of all are •injuriously agitated, while for the six months they are quito careless about these things, like a lot of Galliosj or whether it would havo . been better had they continued all the twelvemonth going to church, at least the respectable once a-day, and quietly minding their business and cultivating and amusing their minds during the rest of the week, we should not venture to pronounce decisively.' ' ! We sliould. be inclined, however, to give the preference to the latter course, and to. believe that, on the wholp, it' turned' put the best' men. '■■■ Wo observe that a considerable number of clergymen in Scotland stood aloof from the . movement. They found that the Moody and Sankev services drew people from the churches which they, were, inthe'; habit of attending,, antl rendered the quiet preaching of' the Gospel tame and distasteful., Perhapjj at some of these meetings, here, and : there a man received an impulse to a nobler and better life than he had lived in the past, and continued a better man. But such cases were few and far between, like angels' visits, and in most instances nature and human nature had their way, and the convert who had been awakened, and who had cast himself at the feet of Moody or Sankey, as the case might be, was just the man which his constitution suited h'm for, " and " compounded • for sins be was inclined to, by damning those he had no mind to," or perhaps did not even put himself to the trouble of the so compounding, We have seen a story; lately'bf a- powerful negro preaclier who, when asked to .wain his.congregation against the pilfering: of which tbey - were habitually guilty, objected, because, it would " throw > a col'ness over de meeting," and Messrs Moody aud Sankey would certainly not be so successful if, instead ofterrific appeals," they preached quiet practical discourses, affecting each man's ; • behaviour to his neighbour, like the' Sermon on the Mount. Revivals, can only be got up effectively when there is an excited and'exciting orator, alarge assemblage, each man acting and re-acting upon his neighbour, and. a hot and feverish atmosphere. .Then we will have such manifestations • as rejoice those who think that the crying out aboub sinfulness is anything more. than a spasm' of - the nervous system. ' The truth is, that the preachers on such occasions go far above or beneath every-day life. -. r Lct it be seen, and proved to the satisfaction, of all, tliat those who come, under the influence of revivals are above the average in their conduct towards their fellow-men, and then revivals-will be believed in to a much greater extent than they are at present.