Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-03-01
Food for Reflection.

III rolttiou 10 SUBJECTS winch nave beer
. of interest to this community for SOM
: time past. And instead of giving M
I OWE opinions in my own words, pre-
fer to bring forward testimony which
! all your intelligent and well informed
readers will admit to be Independent
, and unpastor;al
} The late Dr. j. G.. Holland. Author
J of"Bay Path" arthur Boncastle etc
; is well known to have been an eminently
} concientious, upright man, and deer
: thinker and most powerful writer
, Representing, as he does a school o.
theology SO different from that il which
J was trained, his opinions will have the
greater weight. assume that the opin-
J ions of the hero in Arthur BOnicastle
are those of the author. On page 178;
he says-''I beg the privilege OF saying
to those who may be interested in this
narrative, that | have not addressed
myself to the task of writing down revi-
walls. am detailing the experiences
of human soul. that revivals are use
full in communities where great excite
ments are necessary to attract the atten-
ton of the careless and the vicious, |
can well believe. That multitudes begin
a religious life through their influence
there is no doubt. That they are dan
gerous passages for the church to pass
through, would seem also to be well es-
tablished, as by the laws OF the human
mind all great excitements and all
extraordinary labors are followed by
corresponding depressions and exhaus-
tons. | seriously doubt whether Chris.
tan growth is greatly fUstered by these
exceptional agencies. All true growth
in the realm of nature is the result of IA
steady unfolding from a germ, and the
realm of grace is ruled by the same Be-
ing who perfects the flowers and builds
the tree, | can afford to be miscon-
strued, misunderstood and misrepre-
sented if | can do any thing to direct
the attention of the Church 10 the faci
that there are better methods of pro.
gress than those which are attended
with such cost and such danger, and
that in the Christian nurture of children
and the wide opening of the Christian
fold to them, abides the hope of the
Church and the world. | shall be ten
thousand times repaid for any suspicion
of my motives, if can bring single
pastor or single Church to the resli-
cation of the fact that true Christian
beginnings are not necessarily con
formed to any special dramatic exper-
fence; that pastor can lead his flock
better than y stranger whose voice they
do not know, ana that their creeds are
larger and more elaborate than they
have any right to make. If the labor
exhausted upon revivals were spread
evenly over greater space and applied
with never tagging persistencY to the
shaping and the nurture of the plastic
and docile minds Of the young, | am
sure that the Christian kingdom wonld
increase in numbers and advance in
power by a progress at once natural,
healthy and irresistible. The fiery
shower, .Aat ponrs its flood on the earth
| in an hour, leaves the earth for day
but it also leaves it SCARED and scanned,
the swollen torrents carrying half its
wealth into the sea; while the steady
rain of days sinks into the earth to
nourish the roots of all things and make
the springs perennial.
The ''change" referred to in the fol-
lowing quotation as having taken place
under Mr. Bedow's pre- aching was his
supposed conversion at that time, and
the "terrible winter alluded to, was
that of the revival under Mr.. Bedlow at
the sametime.
"rhe change(a later experience) was
something better than had happened to
me under Mr.. Bedlow's preaching, long
years before; but neither was CONVEX
sion. For back in childhood, at my
mothers knee, at my fathers side and in
my own secret chamber, those changes
were wrought which had directed my
life towards Christian conSummation.
My little rivulet was flowing towards
the sea increasing as it went, when it
was disturbed by the first awful exper.
fences of my life, and its turbd waters
were never until this latter time. wholly
clarified. My little plant, tender but
upright, was just rising out of its nurs-
ing shadows into the light, whom the
great tempest swept over it. If my
later experience was conversion, then
conversion may come to man every
year of his lite. 1t was simply the re-
vivitication and reinforcement of the
powers and process of spiritual life.
1t was ministry direct and immediate to
development aud growth, and with
me it was complete restoration to the
track of my Christian boyhood, and a
thrusting out of my life Of all the ideas,
policies and results of that terrible
winter which cannot recall without
self-pitY and humiliation,
Speaking of Mr.. Bradford's being re-
ceived into the church he says: The
Greed has been revised. The refine
ments and elaborate definitions and
non-essential dogmas have been swept
away, and the simple old Apostles
creed, il which millions of disciples and
Saints have lived and died in the retir
ing centuries is all that is read to him
and all to which he is called upon
to respond "
A minister in Lawrence, Mass, writ
ing of recent revival in that city.
among his own people as well as others.
says, referring to persons already pro-
Tossing christians. "Some have said.
We nerer csre converted. Thea are
probably mistaken. A new hold on the
truth has so quickened them that on
the first flush of the experience, they
have fOruotten the emotion of .ha;r