Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-02-18


In an extended article published in the
Christian Union, from the pen of Rev. DR..
Lyman Abbott, its editor, and who is also
at present occupying the pulpit of Ply
mouth Church, recently made vacant by
the death of Mr.. Beecher, thus says upon
the subject of revivals and as to the moral
deeadence or growth of mankind:
1t is sometimes said, by those who regret
the {" good old times" that we no longer
see any old-fashioned revivals in our
churches, and that even the type of indi-
vidual experience has entirely changed
that conversions, with their clearly marked
experience of pungent remorse, exhilar-
ating hope and delicious repose, are almost
as rare as revivals. Ministers, stirred by
the stories of the labors of Finney and
Beecher, or by the older story of the Pen
tecost, endeavor in vain to reproduce the
same effects by similar methods. Protracted
meetings produce no other effect than a
sense of WEAKNESS deepening into disgust
and the discouraged pastor laments his
own efficiency if he be Undetermined, or
scolds at the worldliness of his church il
he is not.
That there is some ground for this
lament we do not deny. The gulf of sep
aration between the world and the church
has grown, if not shallower, at least mar
rover; not by degeneracy in the church,
but by improvement in the world
Worldly amusements are less pagan, if not
more Christian, than they were when men
and women looked on murder in the Col
iseum with applause; trade is less hid
eously, if not less really, selfish and inhu-
man than when the slave traffic was a
reputable means of amassing wealth.
Worldliness finds its way more easily and
readily into the church; though that the
church is really more worldly than it was
in the eighteenth century no one will own
who reads Lecky's admirable picture of the
English Church at the beginning of the
Methodist revival that it is more worldly
than it was in Apostolic days he will
hardly believe if he reads atten-
lively Paul's picture of its condi-
ton, in the Epistles to the Corinthians.
That there is more missionary enterprise
in the church to-day than ever before is
attested by the work of our various Mis-
sionary Boards; that it is more unsectarian
is attested by the work of our Young
Mems Christian Associations; that it has
behind it more universal spirit of devo-
ton is attested by the meetings of our So
cieties of Christian Endeavor, which allow
no proxies in the prayer-meeting The
lack of emotional revivals and of dramatic
conversions is due, not alone-not,
we think, chie6y-to impiety in the
church or paganism in the world, but
to changes in human character and human
society, which, leaving the essential prin-
ciples of religion unchanged, involve neces-
sarily great changes in its methods
In the first century the society of the
whole civilized world was built on wrong
principles, and the whole current of human
life was moving in wrong direction. The
gods were objects of fear, not of love. They
We're supposed to be pleased by special acts
of alteration, not by a moral life Death
was the last and greatest enemy of man
kind Hades, dark and shadowy under
world; meekness and temperance were
marks of efieminacy; to hate ones enemy
was as much virtue as to love ones
friend. Labor was disgrace, the work of
slaves; idleness the prerogative OF the noble
W do lllC
oratory and pugilism the only honorable
professions. Punishment was revenge; that
sin should be cured, not avenged, was a
notion undreamed of in the worlds philos-
ophy. At such time the voice of Chris
tianity to the world was, "Halt
Right about facew This was its com
msnd to the race, and to each individual in
the race. Noprogress could be made in
human life and character without first re-
versing all the principles which governed
human life and nodded human character.
If after eighteen centuries humanity had
paid no attention TO this command, if the
church stilln had other message for the race
than "Halt Right about face p' we should
certainly have to doubt its efficacy, even if
We approved its principles But this is
not the case. The world has heard and
needed. 1t is hardly too much to
say that unchristian society in America
to-day is more Christian than Christian
society in Corinth in the days of Paul.
Certainly the great majority in any Christ
ian congregation are so. The message of
the minister to his people is not COM
mand to Right about face" but to For
ward, march," His work is not to reverse
their direction, but to quicken their steps.