New-York tribune., 1901-01-13
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY REVIVAL

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY REVIVAL.
Every one who desires the betterment of the
race will hope that the twentieth century gOs
pei campaign will meet with a large measure of
success. Broadly speaking. the object of the
movement. which is projected by the evangeli-
cal churches of the United States and Canada,
is to persuade men and women to lead better
lives, or, to use the churches phrase, to per
suade them to accept Christ" The Central
Committee in this city is sending letters to re-
ligious associations and ministers in nearly all
the large cities of this country and Canada ask
ing them to form local organizations for the
better prosecution OF this work. An impetus
has already been given to the movement in
Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, St Louis and
Newark. William Phillips Hall. the chairman
of the campaign. in company with F. II. Jacobs
the Gospel singer, is about to make tour of
the country, and will call meetings of the min
listers in all the large cities In order to lay be-
fore them his plans A representative working
committee is about to be appointed in this city,
and everything possible will be done to stimu-
late the interest of pastors and people in the
movement.
The working plan of the campaign has not
yet been announced but it is fair to assume
that it will be largely an appeal to the emo
ology. Great meetings will be held at which
revivallsts will speak and Gospel singers will
sing, and the hope is that the masses of people
who are Indifferent to religion will be so pow
erfully affected thereby that they will be con-
verted and join some one of the evangelical
churches. In short, attempt will be made
TO reproduce on National scale results similar
to those Of the great awakening in New-Eng-
land in 1897 the Moody and Sankey re-
vivals in the seventies. But ii is only fair to
say that many Christians who most ardently
desire more general acceptance of the law of
righteousness doubt seriously whether such
revival will bring ii about, and If they take
part in the movement at all il will only be be-
cause they are unwilling to hold aloOf from any
sincere effort to uplift humanity, and also be-
cause they hope that subsidiary benefits to the
churches may accrue from such a united
hibitiOn of faith and enthusiasm. The recent
history of revvals shows that they have little
power to touch the hearts or the consciences of
those whom the churches are most anxious to
reach. The unchurched masses are unaffected
by appeals TO the emotions. For they have
ceased to believe the theology which alone can
give any pertnency or strength to such emo
tional appeals. Even those Of them who in
their hearts believe in the obligation of the
moral law are utterly unconvinced by the argu-
ments of the revivalsts. They cannot be made
TO see any connection between a good life and
the theological system they are asked to ac
cept In this they may be entirely wrong. but
there is little hope of bringing them to a differ
ent way OF thinking.
Naturally the foes of Christianity hold the
churches responsible for this attitude toward
revivals. Posing the champions Of the old
theology. they declare that the drift away from
that theology has left the churches with no
divine message to man. The churches, they
say. have ceased to hold the faith, and are
ioundernG about in the misty speculations of
criticism and doubt. This view is plausible
and in a measure serves the purpose intended
OF putting the churches in hole" but II is
ignorant. dishonest and false 1t is ignorant
because 1t fails to see that the men who have
discarded the old theological conceptions are
impeled solely by n wish to get closer to the
teachings OF Jesus. II is dishonest because it
imputes to these men the base desire to over
throw Christianity. when their ardent hope is
that they may so present 1t as to bring all men
to acknowledge its truth and beauty freed from
the accretions Of tradition ana opinion. And
II is false because no theological setting of
Christianity whether Greek Roman or Protest
ant, is necessarily divine final, and may
therefore be modified or rejected in part with
out implying any rejection of Christianity itself.
The whole history of Christianity, indeed from
the very beginning is record of such modifica-
tions and reflections and only thus has the
Church been able to deliver its message TO the
world If the revival method is no longer
potent It is not because Christianity is dead
or dying. 1t would he just as sensible TO infer
the death of Christianity because the love feast
and the kiss of peace of the Apostolic Church
are discontinued The real message of Chris
tianity Is convincing and powerful as IL ever
was. And If the Church finds that certain
methods of delivering it, once effective, are no
longer so, the wise and sensible thing to do is
TO devise some other method that will be ef-
fective.