The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-08-17

ing feeling employed In the old REVEALS.
The noisiest Salvation Army meeting Is
peaceful as compared with the eliminating
scenes at some Of the old revivals. Drums
were not beaten in those days to stir the
martial arior Of the throng but the passion
ate intensity OF the feeling aroused by revi-
valists Of the school of Elder KNAP and Elder
FTNNEY was far more overmasterinR than
are the emotions provoked by the meth
DDS of Gen. BOOTH and his subordinates.
In the old days men and women groaned
and writhed in their terror of the fate Of the
sinner as described by the uncompromising
revivalists. They trembled and shrieked a.
II they stood on the brink Of a veritable
fiery pit, into which they were rushing with
an irresistible impulse. Every resource of
~eloquence and dramati. art was used TO
terroriZe them.
That plan Of campaign proved so success
full that, "a we have said, the great Baptist
and Methodist denomination were largely
built up "a a consequence OF Its adoption.
Terrified sinners, including men Of the vilest
and wickedest antecedents, were CON
verted by thousands under the Indictment
of fear OF everlasting punishment, and
those already in the fold OF the Church were
stimulated to frantic efforts to save their
unredeemed fellow men from the burning.
These ~revivals started the great movement
for the conversion of the heather. which
gave a new stimulus to Protestant zeal.
The Salvation Army uses the same means
Of producing excitement, but with modi-
f~cations made necessary by the changed
religious spirit of this time, when among
Protestants there il less opportunity to
make fear OF hell effective in conversion.
The doctrine OF hell has fallen into disre-
pute even at the camp meetings, where the
greatest efforts are expended to create relig-
ious interest. 1t is true that the Salvation
Army has not discarded 10, as an in
ducement to conversion. That religious
host is still firm in its belief that fiery
punishment awaits the impenitent sinner,
but it seeks more to win people by sympathy
than to brighten them with the terrors of
the law. 1t is both active in philanthropy
to assuage temporal suffering, and earnest in
its admonitions to escape from terrible tor
ture in the world to come. Its mission is to
the poor and those who are indifferent to re-
ligion. 1t is q sort Of monastic order, in the
sense that its members are separated from
worldly amDltlOnS ana enlisted solely IN the
warfare against sin. Som Of them have
fallen by the way, and some of them have
proved to be impostors; but, as a whole,
they have come to command respect as
honest enthusiasts. The religious de-
nominations which once employed methods
analogous to theirs have become averse to
such devices as ~savoring Of indecorum, and
even Of irreverence, but the feeling that
such sensational means Of provoking re-
ligious excitement are still necessary has
not been stifed, even among the conserva-
tive, as the support Of the Salvation Army
by Mr.. CORNELL and Mr.. COLGATE and
other self-contained Protestants shows.
1t will be interesting to watch the future
of this remarkable religious movement, now
SO conspicuous here. Already It is progress
ing in heathendom, or in the Eastern coun-
tries in which Christianity has obtained
only a feeble foothold after long years of
effort; and in England and this country 1t
has gathered force steadily in the face of
ridicule and opposition even from the mass
Of Protestants.