The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-11


listening to the exhortations of the various
evangelists whose purpose it is to organize
revival. SO far as New York is concerned
the surface only has been moved, while the
depths are still sluggish and untroubled We
look with some degree of curiosity on the
career of q man like Henry Varley, who ought
to be labelled spiritual stimulant lie
seems to be regarded as sort OF incarnated
thunderstorm, which moves about the country
at the request of the properly authorized com
mittees and clears the atmosphere of each dis
trict by a well arranged apparatus of thunder
and lightning.
We have watched this movement as it has
developed itself in this city, and are some
what surprised at its failure and at the cause
of its failure. That it will not produce the
results anticipated is perfectly evident. As
Old Probabilities can watch hurricane that
comes driving northWard from the Gulf of
Mexico, and predict with something like GER
tainty the degree of longitude beyond which
it will not pass, so the expert in social forces
can risk the assertion that the crisis of religious
enthusiasm has been reached in this city and
that this present spasm OF zeal will soon die
away into the old indifference. The masses
of the people have not taken readily to the
excitement 1t is being pumped into them
with great effort, but it is vastly like pouring
water into sieve-the leakage is very dis
couraging. The revival did not come of
itself, and in spite of adverse circumstances,
but is the result Of certain mechanical con-
trlvances. 1t will last as long as Marley stays
in this country, but when he goes home he
will pack it up, stow it in one Of bis trunks
and take it with him.
Our memory runs back to the religious ex-
citement Of 1887. The scenes Of those days
can hardly be repeated. A dead earnestress
pervaded the whole community, to which this
present stir is not even a shadow At that
time men, women and children were alike
moved and terrified. The enthusiasm spread
over the country with the rapidity and resist
less power OF an epidemic, and theology and
the knotty question Of the probable destiny OF
certain New York officials unless they changed
their course were discussed in the stage, the
counting room and on the street. Those
were rousing times. The ordinary methods of
business were interfered with and well estab-
lished usages and customs broken into.
Brokers and bankers forgot to discuss the
pecularities OF bulls and the eccentricities of
bears, and, strange TO soy, began to talk as
though they had souls. They lost sight of the
quotations Of the stock market and meditatcd
upon quotations from the New Testament.
rvln IN az he tn
ditional morning doze, that bhssful ten min
utes in which waking and sleeping seem to be
inextricably interviewer and which Just pre-
cede the direful necessity Of getting up, 50 far
forgot themselves as to crowd our churches at
the mystic and unhealthy hour Of five A. NJ.
That which is the universal custom Of the
Catholic Church and of which it has never
dreamed Of boasting an early morning ser
vice, was Justly regarded as q sign Of unusual
awakening.
This present movement Is only a mountain
rill by tho side Of that Niagara. Without
doubt the need Of revival is as great now as
then The millennium has not yet swept New
York with its skirts, and though We listen ever
SO carefully we cannot hear the rustic Of her
garments and without doubt the opportu-
nifty to rouse the masses of the country to
unusual thoughtfulness is as good now as it
ever was. We are treading on the ragged edge
Of o panic, when men are thrown out of
employment when capitalists find it hard to
keep what they have, and when fortunes and
regulations are changing hands every day.
The trouble lies in lack Of unity in the Prot
estant body. Diversity of thought has pro-
duced diversity Of method, and unless re
vival comes like consuming fire and burns
down all the fences each denomination sits
still within its own borders, o little bit I'M
willing to help any man on the road to
heaven, unless be goes through their toll gate.
The Evangelical Alliance gave us vast deal
Of information about arms, and legs, and
hands, and about there being one body TO
which these all belonged, but, 50 far as the
Professionalism Of the day is concerned, the
Evangelical Alliance was prophecy but not
present reality. The multifarious sects are
like the little and big stones in q wall; they
help to support each other but they are not
cemented, and when trouble comes they fall
apart. The Protestant Church has yet to
learn the one only secret Of power-a living
unity. Catholicism, in its history affords
proof positive Of what can be done when real
unity exists, while Professionalism shows
plainly enough that diversity Of purpose and
weakness are interchangeable terms.
We have just grain Of suspicion, too,
that the churches of New York are getting to
be too dignified aud respectable for genuine
revival Think Of some Of our classic clergy
men shouting "Amen II as some ragged fellow
tells that he il saved, and tells it in bad gram
mar. Heat and responsibility are not ex-
ac.ly Siamese twins. They are apt TO live
apart Even the Methodists are getting over
their shouting nropensities and otter they