The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-03


l poets for the lad that comes into the king
1 dom OF God, and into the church at tel
I years Of age than the man al forty.
/ am very apt TO look upon revivals as
/ connected with certain men who fosterec
I them People who in this day do not like
I revivals. nevertheless have not words q
I express their admiration for the revival
I lists OF the past, for they were revivalists
! Jonathan Edwards. John Wesley, George
I Whiteneld. Fletcher. Griffin. Davies, Os-
I born, Knapp, Nettleton. and many Others
whose names come 10 nv mind. The
l strength OF their intellect and the holiness
I Of their lives make me think they would
not have anything 10 do with that which
was ephemeraL Oh. 1t is easy 10 talk
! against revivals.
man said to Mr. Dawson: Il like your
sermons very much, but the after-meet-
ings l despise. When the pTayer-meeting
begins ! always go up into the gallery
and look down, and I am disguised"
We'll said Mr.. Dawson. ''the reason is
you go on the top of your neighbor's 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 warm"
OH am afraid to say anything against
REVEALS Of religion, or against anything
that looks like them, because ] think it
may be 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
come. Now, if you are a painter, and
speak against your pictures. do 1 not speak
against you? II you are an architect and
/ speak against a building YOU put up do
] not speak against you? II revival be
the work Of the Holy Ghost, and l speak
against that revival, do l not speak
against the Holy Ghost And whatsoever
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, SAYS
the Bible, he shall never be forgiven.
neither in this world nor in the world to
come. i 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 or his day. l suppose this country
never produced stronger intellect. He
was capable of doing anything good and
great for his country. or for the church of
God mad he been rightly disposed; but his
name is associated with treason against
the United States government. which he
rled to overthrow, and with libertinism
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 to mt
himself under the Influences Of a revival
ana minister of religion said: Don't go
there, Aaron, don't go there: that's a
place OF Wild fire and great excitement: no
"Dout thdl, uou 60 there He
tarrled away. His serious Impressions
departed. He started on the downward
road. And who is responsible for his
RUM Was IL the minister who warned
him against that revival?
When l was speaking Of excitement
IN reViVals, of course l do not mean tenn
porary arrangement of the nerves: 1 do
not mean the absurd things of which We
nave read as transporting sometimes in the
church of Christ, but l mean an intel
hgent, intense, all-absorbing agitation of
the body mind and soul in the work of
spiritual escape and spiritual rescue.
Now | come to the real genuine cause
OF objection to revivals. That is the cold
ness OF the objector. It is the secret and
hidden but unmistakable cause in every
case-a low state OF religion in the heart
Wide awake cOnsecrated useful Christ
lans are never afraid of reviVals Ii Is the
spiritually dead who are afraid of hav-
ing their sepulchre molested. The chief
agents of the devil during a great awak-
enlng are always unconverted confessors
OF rellgion. As soon as Christ's work be-
gins, they begin to gossip against #. and
take a pail of water and try to nut ont
this spark of religious influence and try
10 put out another spark DO thew suc-
coed? As well when Chicago was on fire
might some one have gone out with a
garden water pot trying to extinguish it.
A%AS NAaAANNiA9 II AitdA WnGn a revival he
gins in church it begins at so many
points, that while you have doused one
anxious soul with a pail of cold water
there are five hundred other anxious souls
on fire. Oh! how much better it would be
TO lay hold of the chariot of Christ's COS
pei and help pull it on rather than ding
ourselves in front of the wheels trv-
ing to block their progress. We win not
stop the chariot but we ourselves will be
ground to powder
Did you ever hear that there was a
convention once held by the iceberes i'm
the Arctic? 1t seems that the summer
was coming on and the sun was getting
hotter and hotter, and there was danger
that the whole ice-field would break IN
and flow away; so the tallest and the
coolest and the broadcast of all the ice
bergs, the very king of the Arctcs, stood
at the head of the convention, and with a
gavel Of ice smote on a table of ice calling
the convention to order. But the sun kept
growing in Intensity of heat, and the south
wind blew stronger and stronger and soon
all the ice field began to grind up, iceberg
against iceberg, and TO flow away. The
first resolution passed by the convention
was: Resolved, That we abolish the
SUM-
But the sun would not be abolished. The
heat of the sun grew greater and greater
until after awhile the very king of the
glow, and the smaller icebergs fell over.
and the cry was: TOO much excitement
order! order! Then the whole body, the
whole field of ice, began to flow out and
a thousand voices began to ask: where
are we going to now? Where are we float
ing to? We will all break to pieces" BY
this time the icebergs had reached the
Gulf Stream, and they were melted into
the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean. The
warm sun is the eternal spirit. The ice
bergs are frigid Christians. The warm
Gulf Stream is a great revival. The ocean
into which everything is melted is the
great, wide heart of the pardoning and
sympathizing God.
But 1 think, after all, the greatest OBJ
stacle to revivals throughout Christendom
to-day is an unconverted ministry. We
must believe that the vast majority of
those who officiate at sacred affairs are
regenerated, but l suppose there may
float into the ministry of all the denomi-
nations of Christians men whose hearts
have never been changed by the grace of
God. OF course they are all antagonistic
to revivals.
How did they get into the ministry?
| Perhaps some of them chose it as a re-
| spectacle profession. Perhaps some chose
it as means of livelihood. Perhaps some
of them We're sincere. but were mistaken.