The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-02-02
ESPON NOE.
Letter from Philadelphia.
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. &c, 1881.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 26, 1881.
Messrs EditorS,-The Week of Prayer
has been largely observed in our church
es, though no special results have as yet
appeared. A hopeful element however
shows itself in the almost universal con
seriousness which prevails in the churches
that the one need of the hour is
Revival of True and Vital Religion.
This profound feeling, this deep and ex-
tensive anxiety is the one rift of light
which shines out from all the gloom which
has settled down about the heart of the
church. If Zion travails, she will bring
forth children. We have been having
our councils and reading, our elaborate
papers, and counting our watchtowers
and praising the multiplication of our
machinery-but anxiety for sinners has
been absent, and no special sadness of
heart has manifested itself because of the
abounding wickedness, nor earnest, over
whelming desire to see the aboundings of
grace. The Church has lapsed all too
ceased to be Jealous of her Lords honor,
or to be concerned for the regeneration
of the ungodly. Worldliness, backslid-
ing of heart, compromises everywhere
with sin have choked up the inlets of the
streams which should make glad the city
of our God. The world lying in sin has
given the Church of Christ no trouble.
We surely can have no hope of revival
as long as this stoliditv prevails But if
there be humiliation Of spirit, confession
of sin, deep and extensive yearning of
heart, and vehement desire for souls, then
we shall see revival. This is the stan
dard lifted up in the breast of the ad-
vancing food. 1t is attested by all re-
newing and reviving seasons from Para
disc to Pentecost and times following.
In the remarkable results which attended
the preaching of Jonathan Edwards there
is special illustration. No one who
reads the sermon entitled Sinners in the
hands Of an angry God" can see any
thing wonderful in the sermon in itself
essentially. No biographer of Edwards
claims for him any remarkable eloquence,
yet the effects of that discourse were rhe-
nomenal. The minister who sat behind
laid hold Of the preachers skirts and cried
"Ol Mr.. Edwardsl Is God not God of
mercy? Sinners were crying out under
the sharp sense of sin on every hand.
But the power was not in the sermon nor
In the utterance. The secret lay in the
anxiety, the soul-travail that went before
the delivery of that message The soul
of the preacher and the people of God
were oppressed under the burden of the
Lord. Part of the previous night had
been spent in prayer for the divine bless
ing. Revival will come only when the
troubled soul, the burdened spirit, the
cry in the night watches begins to be ap-
parent in the experience of the Church
Some tokens of these conditions already
manifest themselves and we are encour-
aged to expect that the Lord will fulfil
the promise to Israel and work nightly
among us.
An Extraordinary Spirit of Prayer
Is also token for good The prayer
meeting is the real spiritual criterion OF
the Church And if the attendance on
the prayer-meetings of our city churches
be analysed, it is no marvel that Zion
mourns. Many churches find it difficult
to conduct both lecture and prayer
meeting during the week and show the
appreciation in which prayer is held by
abandoning the pTayer-meeting and cling
ing to the luxury OF an additional preach
ing service. When prayer-meetings are
held the exception and not the rule is to
see full attendance. Talking with God
is not by any means apparently as attrac-
tive matter as talking with man. Ex-
Perlence proves only too sadly that the
life OF prayer is very feeble. Where the
forms Of prayer have been kept up. the
tones Of supplication are languid, naonot-
onous, spiritless. Weary work it is to
many professed Christian to drag over
the hour set apart for the purpose Of