IS A GREAT RELIGIOUS REVIVAL TO BE EXPECTED NOW ?

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1915, Page 55

IS A GREAT RELIGIOUS REVIVAL TO BE EXPECTED NOW ?

(By the Very Rev. Dean Burke.)

The words. Religious Revival, are here used in the modern newspaper sense. America is the homeland of those great awakenings. Thence they have spread over English-speaking countries. Is a great national or international revival to be expected at the present time ? This question has been recently discussed with much interest in American religious circles. The harvest is white, many say; there are millions of Churchless people straying religionless round about— at least twenty millions of them in the United States. There are many hustlers ready to operate on them. There is Mr. Billy Sunday, whom his followers call the modern John the Baptist, eager to give a lead. The times are suited: ■ there are world portents and disturbances by sea and land. Mexico is in revolt, and Europe is in a blaze. The time is opportune, the field is ready, and the preachers eager. All that may be so ; still consideration of the circumstances of former great national revivals would lead one to think that the time-spirit for a great awakening does not hover over New York just as yet.

The First Great Revival—l73s.

Jonathan Edwards, Presbyterian minister, Northampton, Mass., was the originator of the first American revival, or great awakening’ as it was called. He was a kind of Calvinistic mystic. In his eighth and ninth years he experienced, lie tells us, ‘ two remarkable seasons of awakening.’ In his sixteenth and seventeenth years he had various ‘ satisfying convictions ’ and assurances intelligible only to the Calvinistic adept. Sad and sour, *of a low tide of spirits, and of a constitution in many respects unhappy,’ he gave himself to much meditation on predestination, original sin, total depravity, effectual calling, and similar insoluble questions. Displeased with the laxity of the time, he started a series of rousing meetings. He was a very learned man but no orator. Still he gripped his hearers. Mis earnestness was desperate, and his logic was merciless. Three hundred persons soon became assured of salvation in the little town of Northampton. Thence the movement spread all over the States. It was introduced to England by the Wesleys and Whitefield, and ended in the formation of the various sects of Methodists.

The Second Great Revival—l 797.

Half a century passed before the next great awakening occurred. It came in 1797, and lasted for ten years. Again this revival arose amongst the Calvinists. It is odd that a religion so grave and gloomy should be the parent of such enthusiastic explosions. This revival began during the wars with France; it flourished during a bad epidemic of yellow fever, a series of great fires, and much business distress. Among the results of this movement were camp-meet-ings, the opening of jnany Sunday schools, the organisation of missions to the heathen, and the foundation of new sects, such as the Cumberland Presbyterians, the United Brethren, and the Disciples of Christ.

The Third Great Revival—lß3l

The next revival began 34 years later. Its leader was Charles Finney, a converted lawyer. He began to preach in a New York theatre. The atmosphere ,was suitable. . There was much distress. Jackson’s 'fight against the United States Bank had caused a business panic. Civil war was threatening in the Southern States, whilst a fierce form of Asiatic cholera swept away thousands of the urban populations. People were alarmed; they gathered round Finney for consolation. They built him a great tabernacle in Broadway. Thence the movement spread like a prairie fire through the land. . . , - - , H The Fourth Great Revival— lßs7. | A quarter -of a century passed and with it, of course, all ; traces of the Finney excitement. . The hunt for the dollar became once more the all-absorbing pursuit. ‘ ’ Business prosperity, .wealth, worldliness, luxury

supervened. But business prosperity comes and goes in great waves; you have the rise and you have the fall. In 1857 began a period of depressionof strikes, of business panics, riots, and poverty. A 1 civil - war broke out in Kansas and threatened the whole nation; Unrest and distress; the conditions favorable tora’revival, prevailed, and the revival came. A city missionary began noon-day meetings for the conversion of merchants and their men in William Street Church, New York. Soon two crowded meetings were held. The demand for conversion became so strong that daily and nightly meetings were found necessary in this church. Other missionaries and ministers joined in the movement, which spread from town to town. Prayer meetings were held in front of legislatures and courts for the conversion of members, judges, lawyers, and officers. Policemen were buttonholed on the streets by old gentle people of both . sexes and questioned, not as to whether they had caught the thief, but whether they had found the Lord ! No one was safe from holy assault on coach or boat unless he was ready to profess ‘a joyous assurance’ that all his sins were forgiven. The revival spread, as usual, to England and Scotland, and— even to Ireland. The sobs and groans of those wrestling in the agonies of conversion in the ‘souper’ meeting-houses in remote Connaught astonished the natives mightily.

The Fifth Great Revival— lß7s.

The fifth widespread revival began in 1875. This was a season of much political graft and corruption. Industrial disorder, followed by business depression and unrest, disturbed the minds of the people. The hollow between the waves of prosperity had come. Pleasureseeking found itself much restricted. Money was not easily got. There was a kind of panic and much grumbling as to the general outlook. Then Moody appeared, preaching against the vices of the age, and Sankey, singing of the happiness of a higher sphere. The season was propitious. The movement took hold not only in the States and Canada, but also in Great Britain and the Australian colonies. Millions of converts were made : many by the process called ‘ instantaneous conversion.’ Needless to say the results were for the most part fleeting : yet, though 40 years have passed since Moody preached and Sankey sang, many traces of their influence still remain. Many churches, schools, meeting-halls, and like institutions owe their foundation to Mr. Moody. Indeed,' the University of Princeton and the Theological Seminary of Andover owe their being to these revivals.

The Expected Revival of 1915.

Will the much-discussed revival of 1915 come? Some say yes, the period for an awakening has come. Forty years have passed since the last began. Fervor has cooled. Grossness, sensualism, disorder, dishonesty are pretty rife in our cities. The harvest is surely white. That is undeniable. Then, there are great portents and calamities by sea and land. Mexico is in rebellion, Europe is in a blaze. Philanthropists, preachers, and uplifters of humanity were never before so numerous, and Mix Billy Sunday is eager to lead. Yet I fancy there will be no great general revival just now. The American is saving too many dollars; he has little time to save his soul. He is now on the crest of the wave ;. wait till the hollow and depression come. The time-spirit for a revivaldistress and unrest— not hovering over New York. Judging from the history of previous awakenings, a revival is notcoming in 1915. *