The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-12-14


/ and the other is forty years of age,
will have more confidence in the pro-
fession of religion of the one ten years
of age than the one forty years of age.
| Why? The one who processes at forty
years of age has forty years of impulse
in the wrong direction to correct; the
child has only ten years in the wrong
! direction to correct. Four times ten
| are forty. Four times the religious
prospect for the lad that comes into
the kingdom of God, and into the
church at ten years of age than the
man at forty.
am very apt to look upon rcvivals
as connected with certain men who
fostered them. People who in this day
do not like revivals, nevertheless have
not words to express their admiration
for the reyivalists of the past. for they
were evivalists-Johathan Edwards,
John Wesley, George Whitefeld,
Fletcher, Griffin, Davies, Osborn,
Knapp, Nettleton and many others
whose names come to my mind. The
strength of their intellect and the holi-
ness of their lives make me think they
would not have anything to do with
that which was ephemeral. Oh! it is
easy to talk against revivals
A man said to Mr.. Dawson: II like
your sermons very much, but the after
meetings despise. When the prayer
meeting begins 1 always go up into
the gallery and look down, and l am
disgusted." "Well," 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 revivals 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 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 I speak
against your pictures, do not
speak against you? If you are an
architect, and l speak against
building you put up, do not speak
against you? If revival be the work
of the Holy Ghost, and l speak against
that revival, do l not speak against the
Holy Ghost? And whosoever speaketh
against the Holy Ghost, says the Bible,
he shall never be forgiven, neither in
this world nor in the world to come.
/ think sometimes people have made
a fatal mistake in this direction.
When / am speaking of excitement
in revivals, of course | do not mean
temporary arrangement of the nerves;
1 do not mean the absurd things OF
which we have sometimes read as
transpiring in the church of Christ,
but mean an intelligent, intense, all,
absorbing agitation Of body, mind and
soul in the work of spiritual eseap apeSad
spiritual rescue.
Now / come to the real, genuine cause
of objection to revivals. That is the
coldness of the objector. 1t is the Sc
cret and hidden, but unmistakable
cause in every case-a low state of re-
ligion in the heart. Wide-awal1e, con-
secrated, useful Christians are never
afraid of rcvivals. 1t is the spiritually
dead who are afraid of having their
sepulchre molested. The chief agents
of the devil during great awakening
are always unconverted professors of
religion. AS soon as Christ'S work be-
gins. they begin to gossip against it,
and take pail of water and try to put
out this spark of religious influence,
and they try to put out another spark.
Do they succeed? As well when Chica-
go was on fire might some one have
gone out with garden waterproof try
ing to cxtinguish it.
The difficulty is that when revival
begins 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 gospel and help pull it on,
rather than to fling ourselves in front
of the wheels, trying to block their prog
ress. We will not stop the chariot, bnt
we ourselves will be ground to powder.
Hut I think, after all, the greatest
obstacle to revivals throughout Chris
tendon to-day is an unconvertcd minis
try. We must believe that the vast
ma jority of those who officiate at SIT
CILd dl IeAS ~ 1NF NlALA HtthS Dtb SUP
pose there may float into tho 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 diG they get into the ministry?
Perhaps some of them chose it as re-
spectacle profession. Perhaps some
chose it as means Of livelihood. Per
haps some Of them were sincere, but
were mistaken. As Thomas Chalmers
said he had been many years preach
ing the Gospel before his heart had
been changed, and rs many ministers
of the Gospel declare they were
sacred orders years and years before
their hearts were regcnerated. Ora
cious God, what solemn thought for
those of us who minister at the altar.
With the present ministry in the pres
cnt temperature of piety the world |
will never be enveloped with revivals. |
While the pews on one side of the altar /
cry for mercy the pulpits on the
other side the altar must cry for mercy. |
Ministers quarreling. Ministers trying
to pull each other down. Ministers |
struggling for ecclesiastical place. Min
listers lethsrgic, with whole congrega- |
tions dying on their hands What spec |
tacle!
Aroused pulpits viii make aroused |
pcws. Pulpits afame viii make pews
afame. Everybody believes in re-
vivsl in trade. everybody likes a re-
vival in literature, everybody likes a |