Connecticut western news., 1901-03-28


sent themselves as candidates for the
church, and the one is 10 years of age
and the other is 40 years of age, j
will have more confidence In the pro-
fession of religion of the one 10 years
Of age than the one 40 years OF age.
Why? The one who processes at 40
wears of age has 40 years of impulse
in the wrong direction to correct; the
child has only 10 years In the wrong
direction to correct. -Four times 10
are 40. Four times the religious pros
pect for the lad that comes into the
kingdom of God and into the church
at 10 years of age than the man at 40.
l am very apt to look upon rey1vais
as connected with certain men who
fostered them. People who In this
day do not like revivals nevertheless
have not words to express their ad-
miration for the revivalists of the past,
for they were revivalists-Jonathan
Edwards, John Wesley, George White
field, Fletcher, Griffin, Davies, Osborne,
Knapp, Nettleton, Moody and many
others whose names come to my MIND.
The strength of their intellect and the
holiness of their lives make me think
they would not have had anything to
do with that which was ephemeral.
/ oh, 1t 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, | always go up In the
| gallery and look down, and am dis
gusted." "Well," said Mr.. Dawson,
| 1.-The reason is you go on the top OF
| your neighbours house and look down
| his chimney to examine his fire, and OF
course you only get the smoke In your
eyes. Why don't you come in the door
| and sit down and warmw
Spiritual Rescue.
Oh, am afraid to say anything
against REVEALS Of religion or against
| anything that looks like them, because
| think 1t may be sin against the Ho-
| " 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 l speak
| against that revival, do l 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. l think sometimes people
have made a fatal mistake In this d.
rection.
Many of you know the history of
| Aaron Burr. He was one of the most
brilliant men of his day. l suppose
this country never produced stronger
intellect. He was capable Of doing any
thing good and great for his country
or for the church Of God had he been
rightly disposed but his name Is asso-
clated 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 influ-
ences Of a revival, and minister Of re-
| ligion said: Don't go there, Aaron;
don't go there. That's place Of wild
fire and great excitement. No religion
about that. Don't go there" He tarried
away. His serious impressions depart
ed. He started on the downward road
And who Is responsible for his ruin
| for this world and his everlasting ruin
in the world to come? Was 1t the min
lister who warned him against that re-
vival? When 1 speak of excitement In
| REVEALS, do not mean temporary de-
rangement Of the nerves, do not mean
the absurd things of which we have
read as transpiring sometimes In the
| church Of Christ, but l mean an intel
| ligent, intense, all absorbing agitation
| of body, mind and soul in the work of
spiritual escape and spiritual rescue.
| Objection to RevivnIs.
Now come to the real, genuine cause
of objection to revivals-that is, the
GOODNESS of the objector. 1t is the Sc
cret and hidden but unmistakable
cause in every case, low state Of re-
ligion In the heart. Wide awake, con-
secrated. useful Christians are never
afraid Of revivals. 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 unconverted professors of
religion. AS soon as Christ's work be
gins they begin to gossip against II
and take pail Of water and try to put
out this spark Of religious influence,
and they try to put out another spark.
NJ - IN Nl1f
cago was on fire might some one have
gone out with a garden water pot try
ing to extinguish it. The difficulty is
that when a revival begins In church
1t begins at so many points that while
you have doused one anxious soul with
a pail of cold water 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 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 Ice
bergs of the arctic? 1t seems that
the summer was coming on and the
sun was getting hotter and hotter and
there was danger that the whole ice
field would break up and flow away;
30 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 gavel
of Ice smote on a table of ice, calling
the convention to order. But the sun
kept growing in intensity Of heat and
the south wind blew stronger and
stronger and soon all the icefeld
began to grind up, iceberg against
iceberg, and to flow away. The first
resolution passed by the Ice convention
was, Resolved that we abolish the
sum-" But the sun would not be abol.