The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-02-13
HOPS ON REVIVALS
REV. HALL SAYS THEY ARE
RELIGIOUS DISSIPATION.
Declares it Should Not be a Question
OF Saving Souls in Given Time,
hut as to How Can be Perma-
nently Saved-Other State
mentS From the Divine.

1 Inc uliLIcIcIS dSS~LOkCA az tuS
association last night.
The subject up for discussion was ''Is
! the Modern Revival Method Bane or
Benefit to Christianitys" Mr.. Halls
paper on the subject was spicy and bold,
and he gave revivals an over-hauling.
1t was the first of series of papers to be
given on the leading religious questions of
the day.
MIR. Hall commenced by saying that
there is right way and wrong way of
saving souls,
''It should not be a question of how many
souls can be saved in II given time, but
how many souls can be saved to perman-
emily help the saved to help others he said
well, they say. but if one soul is saved
it will pay. Now it is poor work that
can't save one soul. Even Christian
Science with all its humbug should be
able to do that much. Our Lord as a
preacher and Christian model differed
from all other teachers and preachers in
no particular more than the method by
which he did his work"
NOT OPPOSING CHURCH REvIvALs.
eve are not opposing revivals," said
Mr.. Hail, 'if you mean by them special
waves of religious life and power that are
generated in q church or community and
sent out over a town, nation or the world,
provided there be an adeQ uate cause. The
movements of Christianity are not uni
form. II has special periods of progress.
Christianity moves through the world
like a stream through the land and con-
forms to the depth and condition of the
bed; but for such special movements there
are special causes, not from Heaven but
from EARTH"
"a true revival should be the
result OF an intensified Christian
life within the church when it breaks OUT
The old channels of prayer meeting, Sun
day school work, personal work, no longer
contains the swollen streams, each life
contributing to the main channel sur
plus of energy and some saving power.
The old bed has overfown. 1t is not.a ques-
tion of getting up revival meeting or
getting down revival. 1t is not wish
of clearing brush and sediment out of the
old channel, but it is a Qpestion of swollen
tributaries increased. more consecrated,
more Intelligent individual work.
PRAYER NO GOOD BEFORE LUTHER.
"The world" said Mr.. Hall, may pray |
for a revival to the day of Judgment before
Luther's time, but there would be none. |
God does not provide for a thing twice. |
Look at a modern revival. 1t dOn't mean |
every religious movement called by that
name. but the method of the movement is
sufficiently well known to be recognized |
by the pu bic when its picture is presented. |
This is an age of imitation and ma |
cbinery. Young men and women are too |
busy to take the time for life. Preparatory |
they must take short cut" 1t Is |
fashionable to have an education, hence |
few weeks elOcutionary training, or short
hand typewriting, will give them a |
diploma, and diploma is diploma. |
especially if it is written in Latin. They |
all read the same. Men find it
easier to do work by machinery |
than by hand. Especially religious work. !
They hire their religion done pretty much |
the same as they do their boots and shoes. |
Many of them never get nearer soul that
is to be saved than the contribution box |
and there is a plush lining aud kid glove |
between 1T and them.
SAYS THEY ARE CRANKs.
1t is fashionable to have revivals 1t is |
also fashionable to have them at a certain |
time of the year; when it costs the least |
sacrifice and furnishes the best entertain
ment. Hence there has arisen a demand |
for a certain class of peripatetics called |
evangelists to visit regularly organized |
churches in large cities; churches of 200 or
500 ablebOdied men and women with an |
open Bible and preachers far above the |
average evangelist. Because, with all |
respect for the good men III that work. |
their average is far below the pulpit in |
piety, preaching power, or soundness of |
doctrine. They have more cranks proper
than any other class of men;
more childish tricks and questionable |
mel hOds than any other class of teachers.
Ii an ordinary pastor would do what
endure from evangehsts the Off
GERS OF the church would ask him TO resign
in three months.
Yet the church has got into the fashion
Of believing that u revival is something
that has no connection with the ordinary
means of grace, but spasmodic outburst |
Of divine energy, manipulated by experts
whose prime qualification is eccentricity. I
Hence women preachers and boy preachers.
attended by fiddlers. or stereopJcons, that
they endure these things for the sake OF
the good.
CHURCH MEMBERS AND CARDS
A prime qualification for revival on
he part of the church is (aside from the
time of the year, January,) is coldness,
Church members are around
the card table, the dance and the theater.
Churches that have internal life are hav
ing great movements whenthese worldlings
crawl out of their shells. want to know
# it is not about time for them to have
revival. What they lack in religion they
make up in money. They must have souls
DR. else they will become extinct. 1t is
question OF church life and death. While
hey have no special talent for praying. or
speaking to souls, or attending prayer
Meeting, they will leave progressive
,uchre few evenings to be entertained by
an evangelist, whom they are able to re-
1umerate for a soul-saving campaign, |
" vhich will sort of atone for their sterility
nd keep up the appearance of live |
hurch.
MOTHERHOOD.
II they can't give birth to chill
ireu themselves, never having felt the
true pangs of spiritual motherhood, they
will adopt spiritual offspring Into their
worldly family. In poultry raising the
mother hen, with her warm feathers and
parental training, is being suppIanted by
, machine-she incubator. But it is hard
work, | am informed, to bring even one
put Of three through for the market. We
i've in a wonder age. God made man
upright but he sought out many inven-
lions" What men lack in reality they
make up by imitation.
Some things can't be done by machin-
cry: Trees are supplied with sap in the
way, by its pumps of cap
pillary attraction. Telegraph wires, cleo
tric cars, the monument of modern
civilization. will not be substitute for
thinking and old-fashioned
-rpentiug.
Where an organized church exists there
S but one way 10 have healthy children
The church herself must feel the birth
.hroes OF anxiety and prayer Such chill
iren are loved, trained and made good
mothers.
A church that IS net able with its pastor
20 bring forth children, what will she do
With them after they are born and adopted I
oy her:
A church thst cannot prevail with God
,y its Cody life and daily anxiety for
,ouls. as well as By special effort, has no
1usin&s with converts.
a widowed washerwomau, struggling to