Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1904-05-19
"NEED OF A REVIVAL"
A Brilliant Sunday Sermon By Rev. Dr.
Philip R. MOxam.
We Require a Fresh Conviction Of tho Realty
OF Salvation.

Moxom's subject was 1.-The Need of Re-
yival." He took his text from llabakknk
iii:2: 80 Jehovah, revive Thy work in the
midst of the years; in the midst OF the
years make it known; in wrath remember
mercy" DR.. MoNom said:
In times past, when the church was in
low state of religious vitality, the more
spiritual of the members, distressed By, the
absence of vigorous life and burdened by
the condition of the multitude who were
looked upon as lost, sought a revival OF
religion. They sought by prayer, earnest
and long continued, to deepen their own
experience of divine grace; they sought by
communion with others of like mind and
by mutual eXhortation to increase their
zeal in the service of God; they sought by
means of pungent aud powerful preaching
to arouse sluggish Christians and awaken
careless sinners.
The "protracted meeting as it was
called, was simply continuous series OF
meetings for preaching and PRAYER and eX-
hortation and confession. The preacher
wrought upon the consciences of men ly
setting forth Gods claims on them and
their neglect of duty. He wrought upon
the fears of men by denunciations # the
imminent danger and certain and terrible
punishment of impenitent sinners. lie
wrought upon the hearts of men by vivid
presentations of the love of God and p)r-
trayals of the vast selfsacriicc of the Son
of God in making atonement for the sins
of mankind on the cross. Often, II not a.
WAYS. much was made of the physical SUI
ferings of Christ. Much was made also of
the material pains of perdition.
An important accompaniment of the
preachers work was the work of private
visitation and appeal, and the testimony
of religious experience. Men tod, with
astonishing frankness, their sins, their
doubts aud fears. their repentance. their
self surrender and their JOY and peace IN
the conscious experience of pardon. They
talked of Gods dealings with them with a
familiarity that would be shocking, were
it not, on the whole. so rerercnt.
The result of these combined efforts OF
ten was the awakening of community;
the meeting house was throngcd with hear
ers, many became alarmed on account of
their sins, hacks,dcrs were flied with
conjunction and reclaimed to their neg.
lectcd fcalty, the Indifferent were aroused
and convicted and brought to d state of
deep contrltion. There were numerous
conversions. and the testimony of the con
verts increased the religions fervor of be.
levers and produced conviction OF sin aud
desire Of salvation in other unbcIevcrs.
Considerable numbers were added to the
church, and for time the whn,e cNmmu.
nifty was raised to higher level of re, Z
ions HE. and in many instances to higher
morality.
Usually, after time. the revival was
followed by a gradHa' rc,ap>c into to"mN,-
ity Of religions service. o,duc.S OF Iclg-
ious temper. and ind!f'rrntc 10 the hiGn-
er Gains of the church, Fever was fol.
lowed by chill. until, after months or
years, a new demand arose tor "a season
Of rcfre shlng from the '.ord.' Thus inter
mittcnCy OF re g'ors III" was "A characters
istic feature OF Protestant church lite Tor
many gCneratlpnS-a period covering quite
200 wears, TVS period. extending from
the seventeenth TO the nineteenth ccntur,
les, was r;arkcd by meat crises OF rrhgous
awakening Notable among them were
those signa,izrd by tn" u2}acs %. Edwards,
Wesley Whitcir,d. Summarized and,
later. FIHncy and Moody.
That Prevails OF religion" in what may
now be called the historic sense. did great
good cannot successfully he disputed; nor
can it he denied thai they a>o did much
harm. On the whole. the good was IN cX.
cess of the harm "Revya,s" were in ac-
cord with the religious ideas preva cnt at
the time, and were a naturi, product Of
those ideas. During their hectic existence
many individual men and women we're
Transformed from lives of wickrdneSs or
vanity to lives OF virtue and unse fish Scrv-
ice to their fellow men Reverence for
God was deepencd and faith IN God was
| stimulated and nourlshcd.
The evils were incident to the mistaken
theology that held supreme pace in the
churches and Largely suppantcd the sim.
plicity OF the gospel OF Christ. These evil
were very great, aud the effect OF them
still remains, though in diminishing de-
gree. Among them may he noted a false,
or at least, mistaken and inadequate, mo.
tive for Christian propaganda, IA mschlev'
Gus separation between religion and NOR
atty, an unnatural and icvcrIsh piety that
on the one hand, became a morbid scntl.
mentallSm, or, on the other. dcgenrra,cd
| into a Journalism not less real because often
it was not rltualistlc.
Wrong ideas OF God and Christ and sin
and salvation and righteousness and the
hereafter were rooted SO deep that they
| could be destroyed only by a criticism So
drastic that it has seemed to tear up fun
| damental truth OF the spiritual life. a
! kind of orthodoxy was established that
perpetuated, If it did not create. opposition
between nature and providence, science
and faith, the business of life and the IN
terests of the immortal soul. 1t produced
an artltclailty of life which stimulated self
deception and hypocrisy, and gave great
opportunity and scope to the bigut Much
OF the irreIgion of to-day, or what is yath
er undiscriminately called irreligion, is
simply reaction, though often UNCONSCIOUS
from the unrea,ity of Yesterday.
AT the present time an attempt is being
made to restore the revival methods Of
last century. Organizations have been
formed the more efficiently to prosecut,
this ATTEMPT. In the nature OF the case
the attempt will fail. 1t will fail because
it is not in accord with prevailing IDEAS Of
religion--of God and man and their mutua
relations and Of human dcyeonment and
destiny, The principle Of eynlution ha,
overthrown, not the truths, but the stmct
ural princip,es and the elaborate theory Of
the old theology. The new biology ha,
made necessary a new thcn'ocv and y new
theology is alreadv dffmscd IN the a,mos
nhere Of the common thonght '''
But / psak Of Vii, attemnt now NOT &c
criticise it. | would rather welcome II e il