Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-03-27
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| am very apt to look upon revivals as
connected witt certain men who foster
ed them. People who in this day do not
like reyivals nevertheless have not words
TO express their admiration for the re-
vivalists of the past, for they were re-
vivalsts-Jonathan Edwards. John Wes-
ley, George Whitfield, Fletcher, Griffin,
Davies, Osborne. Knapp, Nettleton, Moo
dy and many Others whose names come
| to my mind. The strength of their in
| tellect and the holiness of their lives
make me think they would not have had
| anything 10 do with that which was
| ephemeral. Oh, it is easy to talk against
reyivals.
Sin Against Holy Ghost.
Oh, am afraid TO say anything against
revivals Of religion or against anything
| that looks like them, because / think it
| may be a 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 painter
/ and | speak against your pictures do
| not speak against you? II you are an
architect, and | speak against building
| you put up, do | not speak against you!
| If a revival be the work of the Holy
| Ghost, and | speak against that revival.
| do not speak against the Holy Ghost!
And whose 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 direc-
| ton.
| Many of you know the history Of Aaron
! Burr. He was one of the most brilliant
men of his day. | suppose this country
/ never produced a stronger intellect. He
was capable of doing anything good and
| great for his country or for the church of
| God had he been rightly disposed, but
/ his name is associated with treason
against the United States government,
! which he tried to overthrow, and with
| libertinism and 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 put himself
under the influences of a revival, and
minister of religion said: Don't go
| there, Aaron; don't go there. That's Il
/ place of wildfre and great excitement
| No religion about that. Don't go there"
He tarried away. His serious impress
] sions departed. He started on the down
| ward road And who is responsible for
his ruin for this world and his everlast-
ing ruin in the world to come? Was it
the minister who warned him against
that revival? When 1 speak of excite
ment in revivals, do not mean temper
airy arrangement of the nerves, do not
mean the absurd things of which we have
/ -, l,.,
church of Christ, but / mean an intelli-
| gent, intense, all absorbing agitation of
| body, mind and soul in the work of spir-
| itual escape and spiritual rescue.
Goodness of the objeotor.
| Now | come to the real, genuine caUe-
of objection TO REVEALS. That is the
GOODNESS of the objector. 1t is the secret
and hidden but unmistakable cause in
every case. low state of religion in the
heart. Wide awake, consecrated, useful
! Christians are never afraid of reTivals.
/ 1t is the spiritually dead who are afraid
| of Having their sepulcher molestel. The
| chief agents of the devil durirl, a great
awakening are always unconverted pro-
fessors of religion. AS soon as Christs
work begins, they begin to gossip against
| it and take u 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 we'll when Chicago
was on fire might some one have gone out
! with a garden water pot trying TO extin-
| guish it. The difficulty is that when a
revival begins in church it begins at so
many points that while you have doused
one anxious soul with pail of cold wa
| ter there are 500 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 progress. We will not stop
! the chariot, but we ourselves will be
| ground to powder.
| Did you ever hear that there was a
convention once held among the icebergs
| in the arctic? 1t seems that the sum-
mer was coming on, and the sun was
| getting hotter and hotter, and there was
danger that the whole icefieid would
break up and flow away. SO the tallest
and the coolest and the broadcast of all
the icebergs, the very king of the arctics,
stood at the head of the convention and
| with a gavei of ice smote on a table OF
| ice, calling the convention to order. Bur
the sun kept growing in intensity of
heat, and the south wind blew stronger
and stronger. and soon all the ieefie.d he
gan to grind up, iceberg against iceberg,
and to flow away. The first resolution
passed by the ice convention was, RE
solved, That we abolish the sun" But
the sun would not be abolished. The
heat of the sun grew greater and greater
until after while the very king of the
icebergs began to perspire under the
glow, and the smaller icebergs fell over.
and the cry was: TOO much excitement!
0rderi Order"' Then the whole body.
the whole field of ice, began to flow ont.
and thousand voices began to ask:
where are we going to now? Where
are we floating 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 icebergs are frigid Chris
tians. The warm gulf stream Is a great
revival. The ocean into hich every
thing melted is the great, wide heart of
the pardoning and sympa,hizing God.
An Unconverted Ministry
But l think, after all, the greatest OBJ
stacle to revivals throughout Christen-
dom is an unconverted ministry. We
must believe that the vast majority of
those who officiate at sacred affairs are
regenerated, but | suppose there NAV
float into the ministry of all the denomi.
nations of Christians men whose hearts
have never been changed by grace. They