The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-04-25


citation from drowning or freezing
the one idea is to excite animation.
Before conversion we are dead. 1t is
the business of the church to revive,
arouse, awaken, resuscitate, startle
into life. Excitement is bad or good
according to what it makes US do. If
it make us do that which is bad, it is
bad excitement, but if it make us agi-
tated about our eternal welfare, if
it make us pray, if it make US attend
upon Christian service, if it make us
cry unto God for mercy, then it is a
good excitement.
1t is sometimes said that during re-
vivals of religion great multitudes of
children and young people are brought
into the church, and they do not know
what they are about. 1t has been my
observation that the earlier people
come into the kingdom of God the more
useful they are. Robert Hall, the
IL years of age. 1t is likely he knew
what he was about. Matthew Henry,
the commentator, who did more than
any man of his century for increasing
the interest in the study of the Scrip
lures, was converted at II years Of
age; Isabella Graham, immortal in the
Christian church, was converted at ten
years of age; DIR. Watts, whose hymns
will be sung all down the ages, was
converted at nine years of age. Jona-
than Edwards, perhaps the mightiest
intellect that the American pulpit
ever produced, was converted at seven
years of age, and that father and
mother take an awful responsibility
when they tell their child at seven
years of age: "You are too young to
be Christian" or "You are too young
to connect yourself with the church"
That is mistake as long as eternity.
If during revival two persons pre-
sent themselves as candidates for the
church and the one is ten years of age
and the other is 40 years Of age. will
have more confidence in the profession
of religion of the one ten years of age
than the one 40 years of age. Why?
The one who processes at 40 years of
age has 40 years of impulse in the
wrong direction to correct, and the
child has only ten years in the wrong
direction to correct. Four times ten
are 40. Four times the religious pros
pect for the lad that comes into the
kingdom of God and into the church at
ten years of age than the man at 40.
l am very apt to look upon revivals
as connected with certain men who
fostered them. People who in this
day do not like revivals nevertheless
have not words to express their admi-
ration for the revivalists of the past,
for they were revivalists-Jonathan
Edwards, John Wesley, George Whit
field, Fletcher, Griffin, Davies, Os-
borne, Knapp, Nettleton, Moody 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 to do with that which
was ephemeral. Oh, it is easy to
talk against revivals!
A man said to Mr.. Dawson: IT
like your sermons very much, but
the after meetings I despise. When
the prayer meeting begins I always
go up into the gallery and look down,
and I 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 exam
inc his fire, and of course you get
only smoke in your eyes. Why don't
you come in the door and sit down
and warm?"
Oh, l am afraid to say anything
against revivals of religion or against
anything that looks like them, be-
cause 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 painter and speak
against your pictures, do not speak
against you? If you are an archi-
tect, and I speak against building
you put up, do I not speak against
you? If a revival be the work of the
Holy Ghost, and I speak against that
revival, do I 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. I think sometimes people
have made fatal mistake in this di-
rection.
Now I come to the real. genuine
cause of objection to revivals. That
is the coldness of the objector. 1t is
the secret and hidden but unmistak-
able cause in every case, low state
of religion in the heart. Wide awake.
consecrated. useful Christians arc
never afraid of revivass. 1t is the
spiritually dead who are afraid Of
having their sepulcher molested. The
chief agents Of the devil during a
great awakening are always uncon-
verted professors of religion. As soon
as Christ's work begins 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
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