Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-03-05
MISSION AND REVIVAL SERVICES.

The skeptlcs, deDyer5 OF the faith once
delivered to the saints, agnostics, positivists'
and atheists, whether condemning religion
on the ground of the forms under which its
truths are impaired, like Inger soil; or deny
ing the basis on which it rests, like Clifford,
Spencer and the positivists, among their
many errors make no greater mistake than
when they assert that christianity has out
lived the day of its usefulness and is now
declining, as the classic beliefs of Greece and
Rome declined to that darkness which is only
an historic memory. Never was the mind OF
the English-speaking people more occupied
with religious thought than to-day. Forms
change; old truths assume new aspects;
abuses that time has allowed insensibiy to
creep in are regarded with impatience; the
divisions of sects arouse disapproval, and a
the same truths are regarded by minds
differently constituted-or oppositely i'm
pressed by direct education, and by the in
huence of unlike modifying circumstances
give tolerance to judgment, while a deeper
knowledge of the springs and secondary causes
has scientific discovery, unmiDgled with specu
lative vagaries, brought 10 light-have i'm
parted to the christian mind an esteem rather
for deeds than creeds; for purity integrity, and
the love that is the bond OF perfectness, in
preference to the lip-calling, Lord, Lord"
Judging the man who assumes the christian
profession by that lnfallible rule that says:
'By their fruits ye shall know them" The
change that is thus passing in the christian
world is not the imbecility of decay, but the
vigor OF maturing manhood, the mightier
grasping o. truth which comes from more in
tense conviction of the soundness of truths
foundations. Looking at our own city, we
can see that change has come; that indi-
viduals of different faiths can join in deeds
the angels rejoice to see, without jarring or
jealousy We find in our social circles
broader charity, and simpler yet more pro-
found apprehension of the teachings of Him
of whom his contemporaries said: "Never man
spake like this manp Also a more lively
appreciation of the noble, manly character
of Jesus, who was yet so full of sympathy
that it overlooked in deeds and words of in
effable tenderness; nature that shrunk not
before dignity and power, and yet gazed with
sympathizing love upon poor, lost woman
whose tears of penitence flowed upon his
feet On Easter Sunday will be opened, rem
ovated and beautifed, a church, Calvary,
whose improvements have cost the sum of
SO, 900, yet none of the money cast into the
treasury has come from fair, or rattle, or con-
cert, or dinner. With direct honesty and
from christian principle the money has been
given with no stimulant but such as come
from christian motive. The unbeliever will
find nothing to support his assertion tn at
christianity is dying faith, in a fact like
this. Among another body of christians,
the Roman Catholics, in our city, is another
proof that christianity yet lives. The
sacred season of lent is now filling
nightly their churches with teeming con-
gregations that listen with wrapt atten-
ton to the burning eloquence of men who
call upon the wicked to forsake his ways
and the unrighteous his thoughts and turn
TO Him who is gracious and merciful, slow
to anger and of great kindness. On those
earnest faces, the eyes gazing with hushed
reverence toward the figure OF the Man OF
Sorrows above the altar, there is no sign OF
an effete and expiring religion. In other
churches the solemn tones that issue from the
lips of that powerful pleader for man to sur
render his all to the God who made him,
Rev. E. P. Hammond, is engaged in the
same solemn work. The seats of the sanctu-
airy are filled, the hymn is sung, the prayer,
intense with earnest pleading is offered up,
then this man pleads with his fellow man "lf
the Lord be God, serve Him" Filled with
zeal, ardent, devoted, passionate in his de-
sire to save souls, the overhowings of his
heart find utterance, earnestness lends power,
and the orators words beat down fortress
walls, disarm opposition, and arouse 1.-THE
most .lethargic. to thought, until the heart
cries out to God-spite of previous indiffer-
ence, spite of prejudice, spite OF what the
world may say s"What shall l do to be
saved?' and turning back on sin and
sel6shness, and folly, the pilgrim journey be-
is struggled with and
overcome, worldly policy is disregard
ed, the darts of Apolyon are
met and defed. Go to one of these services
to-day, gaze upon the scene, the faithful
earnestness OF the congregation, the ardent,
burning, inspiring words of the powerful
speaker, the absorbed attention of the hearers,
the reverent awe upon their countenances,
the gentle sigh from the overloaded bosom,
the disregarded tear that trickles down the
cheek, the utter abandonment OF mind and
feeling to the solemn influences of the mo-
ment-scan all this and say whether these
are signs of faith that has lost its vitality,
Of sapless tree that can put forth no leaves,
Of an exhausted river adown whose channel
no water can flow? No! the religion that
nad God for its author and Christ for its
is yet vigorous with the might
If Jehovah, and will go on and conquer until
he world is subdued and there come new
heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth
ighteousnessi