The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-12-14
RECRUITS FOR CHRIST.
The Part Religious Revivals Take
in Furnishing Them.
The UncOnverted Ministry the Greatest
Obstacle to Wholesome ReyivaIs
of Religion Through Their
Antagonistic Attitude.

They inclosed great multitude OF fishes and
| their net brake.-Luke Y, 6.
! Simon and his comrades had expe'
| rienced the night before what fisher
men call ''poor luck" Christ steps on
| board the fishing smack and tells tho
sailors to pull away from the beach
and directs them again TO sink the
net. Sure enough, very soon the net
is full of fishes, and the sailors begin
to haul in. So large a school of fish
was taken that the hardy men begin
to look red in the face as they pull,
and hardly have they begun to rejoice
at their success when snap goes a
thread of the net, and snap goes aDoth-
er thread, so their is danger not only of
losing the fish, but of losing the net.
"Ah!" says some one, chow much bet
ter it would have been if they had
stayed on shore, and fished with hook
and line, and taken one at time, in
stead of having this great excitement,
| and the boat almost upset, and the net
broken, and having to call for help, and
getting sopping wet with the SEAL" The
church is the boat, the Gospel is the
net, society is the sea, and great re-
one sweep of the net. | have admira-
tion for that man who goes out with a
hook and line to fish. l admire the
way he unwinds the reel, and adjusts
the bait, and drops the hook in quiet
place on still afternoon, and here
catches one and there one; but / like
also big boat, and a large crew, and
net mile long, and swift oars, and
stout sails, and stiff breeze, and a
great multitude of souls brought-so
great multitude that you have to get
help to draw it ashore, Straining the
net to the utmost until it breaks here
and there, letting a few escape, but
bringing the great multitude into eter-
nal safety.
In other words, believe in revivals.
The great work of saving men began
with three thousand people joining the
church in one day, and it will close
with forty or a hundred million people
saved in twenty-four hours. when ma
tions shall be born in a day. But there
arc objections to revivals. People are
opposed to them because the net might
get broken, and if by the pressure of
souls it does not get broken, then they
take their own penknives and slit the
net "They inclosed a great multi
tude of fishes and the net brake"
have noticed that those who are
brought into the kingdom of God
through rcvivals have more persistence
and more determination in the Chris
tian life than those who come in under
a low state of religion. People born
in an ice house may live, but they will
never get over the cold they caught in
the ice house. A cannon ball depends
upon the impulse with which it starts
for how far it shall go and how swiftly;
and the greater the revival force with
which soul is started the more far
reaching and far-resounding will be
the execution.
But it is sometimes objected to re-
vivals that there is so much excite
ment that people mistake hysteria for
religion.
We must admit that in every revival
of religion there is either a suppressed
or a demonstrated excitement. In
deed, if man can go ont of state of
condemnation into a state of accept
ance, or see others go, without any
agitation of soul, he is in an un-
healthy, morbid state, and is as repul-
sive and absurd as a man who should
boast he saw child snatched out
from under horses hoOfs and felt no
agitation, or saw a man rescued from
the fourth story of house on fire and
felt no acceleration of the pulses.
Salvation from sin and death and
hell into life and peace and Heaven
forever, is suoh a tremendous thing,
that if man tells me he can look on it
without any agitation, / doubt his
Christianity. The fact is, that some
times excitement is the most important
possible thing. In case of resuscita-
tion from drowning or freezing, the
one idea is to excite animation. Be
fore conversion we are dead. 1t is the
business of the church to revive,
arouse, awaken, resusitate, startle into
life. Excitement is bad or good ac-
cordinp to what il makes us do. If it
make us do that which is bad, it is bad
excitement; but if it make us agitated
about our eternal welfare, if it make
US pray, if it make us attend upon
Christian service, if it make us cry un-
to God for mercy, then it is good ex-
citement.
1t is sometimes said that during re-
vivals of religion, great mul titudes of
children apd young people are brought
into the church, and they do not know
what they are about. 1t has been my
observation that the earlier people
come into the kingdom of God, the
more useful they are.
Robert Hall, the prince of Baptist
preachers, was converted at twelve
years of age. 1t is supposed he knew
what he was about. Matthew Henry,
the commentator, who did more than
anv man of his century for increasing
the interest in the study of the Scrip
lures. was converted at eleven years
of age: Isa bella Graham, immortal in
the Christian church, was converted at
ten wears of age; DIR. Watts whose
bvmns will be sung all down the ages,
was converted at nine years of age;
Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the
mightiest intellect that the American
pulpit ever produced, was converted at
seven years of age, and that father and
mother take an awful responsibility
when they tell their child at seven
wears of age: ''You are too young to
be Christian or, "You are too young
TO connect yourself with the church"
That IS a mistake as long as eternity.
If during . revival two persons pre-