The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-12-05

Was epnelnef4l. On, IL IS easy ~ ldlh
against REVEALS
A man said to Mr.. Dawson: Il like
your sermons very much, but the after
meetings l despise. When the prayer
meeting begins 1 always go up into the
gallery and look down. and L am dis
gusted." Well" said Mr.. Dawson, the
reason is you go on the top OF your neigh
boris house and look down his chimney to
examine his fire, and Of course you only
get smoke in your eyes. Why don't you
come in the door and sit down and
The Downward Road.
Oh. 1 am afraid to say anything against
revivals of religion. or against anything
that looks like them, because I think it
may be a sin against the Holy Ghost. and
you know the bible says that a sin against
the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven,
neither in this world nor the world to
comet Now, If you are a painter, and
speak against your pictures. do 1 not
speak against you? If you are an arch-
tect, and l speak against a building you
put up. do 1 not speak against you? IL
a revival be the work of the Holy Ghost,
and l speak against that revival do l not
speak against the Holy Ghost? And who
S0eVer Speaketh against the Holy Ghost,
says the bible he shall never be forgiven,
neither In this world nor in the world to
come. 1 think sometimes people have made
fatal mistake in this direction.
Many of you know the history Of Aaron
Burr. He was one Of the most brilliant
men OF his day. 1 suppose this country
never produced stronger intellect He
was capable Of Going anything good and
great for his country or for the church Of
God had he Oeen rightly disposed, but his
name is associated with treason against
the United STATES government. which he
tried to overthrow and with libertlnism
and public immortality.
Do you know where Aaron Burr started
on the downward road? 1t was when he
was in college, and he became anxious
about his soul and was about 10 put him.
self under the influences Of a revival, and
a minister of religion said Don't go
there. Aaron; don't go there. That's a
place of wildfire and great excitement. No
religion about that. Don't go there He
tarried away. His serious impressions de-
parted. He started on the downward road.
And who is responsible for his ruin? Was
it the minister who warned him against
that reyiyal2
The Real difficulty.
When l am speaking of excitment in re-
vivals. of course do not mean temporary
arrangement Of the nerves. 1 do not mean
the absurd things of which we have read as
transporting sometimes in the church Of
Christ but 1 mean an intelligent. intense,
all absorbing agitation of body, mind and
soul in the work of spiritual escape and
spiritual rescue.
Now I come TO the real. genuine cause
Of objection 10 revivals That is the cold
ness of the objector. 1t is the secret ana
hidden, bu- unmistakable cause in every
case, A low state of religion in the heart.
Wide-aWake cOnsecrated, useful Chris
tians are never afraid of revlvals. 1t IS
the spiritually dead VINO are afraid of
having their sepulcher mO.ested. The
flf Of a u
awakening are always unconverted profess
sOrs Of religion. As soon as Christs work
begins they begin u gossip against l. and
take pail of water and try to put out
this spark of religious influence, and they
try 10 put out another spark. Do they
succeed? As well when Chicago was on
fire might some one have gone 0ut with
a garden water pot and try to eXtin-
guish it.
The difficulty is that when revival be-
gins in a church it begins at so many
points that while you have doused one
anxious soul with a pail Of cold water
there are 500 other anxious souls on fire.
Oh how much better it would be 10 lay
hold Of the chariot Of ClriSt's gospel and
help pull it on rathe' than TO fling our
selves in front of the wheels, trying to
block their progressi We will not STOP
the chariot but we ourselves will be
ground to powder.
Did you ever hear that there was a con-
vention once he'd among the icebergs in
the Arctic. II seems that the summer was
coming on. and the sun was getting hot
ter and hotter, and there was danger that
the whole ice field would break up and
flow away. So the tallest, and the coolest,
and the oroadest of all the icebergs, the
very king Of the arctics, stood at the head
Of the convention, and with a gavel of ice
smOte on a table Of ice GAZING the cOnven-
ton to order. But the sun kept growing
in intensity of heat, and the south wind
blew stronger and stronger, and soon all
the icefie-d began TO grind up, iceberg
against iceberg, and 10 flow away. The
first resolution passed by the convention
was. Resolved, that we abolish the sun. -
But the sun was not 10 be abolished.
The heat of the sun grew greater and
greater until after awhile the very king
Of the icebergs began TO perspire under the
glow. and the smaller icebergs fell over.
and the cry was: TOO much excitement.
Orderl Orderr' Then the whole body.
the who.e field of ice, began to ask:
Where are we going to now? Where
are we floating to? We will al break to
pieces" BY this time the icebergs had
reached the gulf stream, and they We're
melted into the bosom OF the Atlantic
ocean. The warm sun Is the eternal spirit.
The icebergs are frigid Christians. The
warm gulf stream is a great revival. The
ocean into which everything melted is the
sympathizing God.
a UncOnverted Ministry.
But I think. after all, the greatest OBJ
stacle to revivals throughout Christendom
today is an unconverted ministry. We
must believe that the vast majority OF
those who officiate at sacred affairs are re-
generated. but I suppose there may float
into the ministry of all the denominations
of Christians men whose hearts have
never been changed by the grace of God
OF course they are all antagonistic to re-
ViVals.
How did they get into the ministry
Perhaps some of them chose it as a respec-
table profession. Perhaps some chose it as
a means of livelihood. Perhaps some OF
them were sincere, but were mistaken.
As Thomas Chalmers said, he had been
many years preaching the gospel before
his heart had been changed, and, as many
ministers of the gospel declare, they were
preaching and had been ordained to sacred
orders years and years before their hearts
We're regenerated. Gracious God, what a
solemn thought for those of US who min
lister at the ALTAR With the present min
istry in the present temperature Of piety
the world will never be enveloped with re-
vivals. While the pews on one side the
altar cry for mercy the pulpits on the