The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1876-02-16
From the Christian Intelligencer.
THE HISTORY OF AN UNSOUND
REVIVAL.
BY PROF. R. L. DABNEY, D. D.
(CoNCLUDED.)

The caring time of the valley church.
es mas now been described. Let US look al
the harvest. In the spring of 1847 the
writer succeeded to the pastorate of the
Tinkling Spring Church, and found nearly
all the actors in the great excitements OF
1924 still on the ground, with majority
of the pastors who have been mentioned
The fruits of the work were then nature
The reader cannot be made to see and esti-
mate them better, than by placing him sim
ply in the post of observation. This will be
done by faithful and unvarnished state
ment of what was then apparent. The
church rolls had already undergone an ex.
tensive, and in some cases, very summary
and not very lawful revisal. In one of the
larger churches, for instance, on the incom-
ing of new pastor who wished to examine
the organization of the charge and place it
in working order, long meeting of the ses-
sion was held for the purpose of "purging
the roll" As name after name was called,
some elder responded: "He was one of
those converts--has not communed for
years we don't count him" and the pen
was quietly passed through his name. Thus
the list of cCmmunicants was reduced from
the neighborhood of four hundred to two
hundred and fifty. The Rev. Mr.. Morrison
testified that of the hundred added to his
church all but about .fve lapsed and the
large part of them very speedily. He was
asked how the first hundred, added the pre-
vious year, had run ? He replied: With
the exception of three or four, they had all
run well in the judgment of charity. When
amazement was expressed at this startling
contrast, he added, with his wonted modera-
ton and fairness, " That it might not be
Just to charge the whole of this deplorable
result merely to the new measures for he
had always asoribed part of it to the fact
that the new evangelists had to work upon
unprepared material ," His ingathering
of the previous year had included all the
material which he considered as at all pre-.
pared. He remembered baving stated that
opinion to his session at a conference just
before the great excitement began. He told
them that they were not entitled to expect
or to aim at further acceSsions at that time,
because the prepared material was now
worked in; and that for the next year or
two they must make their account to labor
almost exclusively latter seeking the growth
and edifcation of existing professors 10 pre-
pairing new material by household instruc-
tion of the children and bondsmen, Sabbath
School and catechetical labors among the
outlying classes. But when the revivalists
came, there was nothing for them to operate
upon except the young people of this out
lying class, mostly ignorant of Presbyte-
ings at the impulse of curiosity, and were
there infected with sudden and unintelli-
gent religious excitement. Hence the mis-
erable futility of the results. The admis-
sion of such a mass to the communion of
such church is, by the way, striking evi,
dence of the extent to which Christians and
church sessions were swayed by the storm,
and to which more far seeing men were fain
to bow before it, though under protest.
The venerable DR.. Hendren concluded,
upon deliberate review of the work, that it
had been not revival, but the perversion
of one. Before the new measures were in.
troduced, the state of the churches was be.
coming increasingly and steadily hopeful
under the operation of the ordinary Scrip
tural means of grace. Accessions to the
communion were quiet but constant. Gases
of religious awakening being nurtured under
private pastoral visitation and religious
reading, meditation and prayer, almost uni
formly resulted in sound conversion. So
constant had been this experience, that when
any cburch-gOiDg person came under the
power of truth, he had come to look with
confidence for his conversion in due time,
and his profession of the faith. Awakened
souls seemed teachable and docile, and re
sponded easily both to the admonitions and
eucouragements of the Gospel. But after
the storm had blown over and the spurious
converts had generally gone back to the
world, all this was changed. The churches
were for years scene of spiritual dearth,
while communion after communion passed
without a single accession. Of the back
sliders, some became profane and dissolute,
and not few sceptical; but the deeply
planted habits of order and reverence, which
marked the Valley community, kept the ma
jority of them still under the outward in
huences of the sanctuary. This, however,
seemed to avail nothing. Religious impres.
sions afterwards made, though often painful
and tedious vanished without frnit An