The Delmar news., 1904-05-20
"NEED OF A REVIVAL
A Brilliant Sunday Sermon By Rev. Dr..
Phillip R Moxam.
We Require Fresh Conviction Of tho Reality
Of Salvation.

BROOKLYN, N. YIN Plymouth Church
the Rets. Philip s. Moxom, of Springfield
Mass, preached Sunday morning. DIR.
Moxom's subject was "The Need 6f Re-
vival." He took his text from HabaklSuls
midst of the years; in the midst of the
years make it known; in wrath remember
mercy" DR.. Moxom said;
| In times past, when the church was in a
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 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 exhortatlon to increase their
zeal in the service Of God; they sought by
means of pungent and powerful preaching
to arouse sluggish Christians and awaken
| careless sinners.
The "protracted meeting" as il was
called, was simply continuous series Of
meetings for preaching and prayer md ex-
hortation and confession. The preacher
| wrought upon the conscences of men by
setting forth Gods claims on them and
their. neglect of duty. He wrought upon
the fears of men by denuneiations cf the
imminent danger and certain and terrible
| punishment of impenitent sinners. He
wrought upon-4he hearts of men by vivid
presentations Of the love of God and por
trayals Of the .ysst self-sacrifice of the Son
Of God IN making atonement for the sins
of mankind on the cross Often, if not al.
ways, much was made Of the physical suf.
ferngs of Christ. Much was made also oil
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 told, with
astonishing frankness, their sins. their
doubts and fears, their repentance, their
selfsurrender and their joy and peace in
the conscious, experience Of pardon. They
talked Of Gods dealings with them with d
familiarity that would be shocking, were
it not, on the whole, 50 reverent.
The result of these combined efforts of
ten was the awakening of a community,
the meeting house was thronged with hear.
ers, many became alarmed on account OF
their sins, backsliders were filled with
compunction and reclaimed TO their neg
lected fealty, the indifferent were aroused
and convicted and brought to state OF
deep contrition. There were numerous
conversions, and the testimony of the con
verts increased the religious fervor of be-
levers and produced conviction Of sin and
desire of salvation In other tnbelevers
Considerable numbers were added to the
church, and for time the whole commu.
nifty was raised to a higher level Of relg
ious life, and in many instances to higher
morality.
Usually, after time, the revival was
followed by gradual relapse into formal
ity Of religious service, ooldness Of relig
ious temper, and indifference to the high.
er claims of the church Fever was fol
lowed by chill, until, after months OF
n md fo,-
OF refreshing from the Lord" This inter.
mittency of religious life was q character,
lstic feature of Protestant, church life fof
many generations--a period covering quite
200 years, This period, extending from
the seventeenth to the nineteenth centur-
les, was marked by great crises of religious
awakening. Notable among them were
those signalized by the names Of Edwards
Wesley Whitefeld, Summerfield and,
later, Finney and Moody.
That "revivals of religion" Ii what may
now. be called the historic sense, did great
good, cannot successfully be disputed; nor
can IT be denied that they also did much
harm. On the whole, the good was in ex.
cord with the religious ideas prevalent At
the time, and were q, natural product of
those ideas. During their hectic existence
many. individual men and women were
transformed from lives Of wickedness or
vanity to lives of virtue and unse6sh serv.
ice to their fellow men. Reverence for
GOD was deepened and faith in God was
stimulated and nourished,
The evils were Incident 10 the mistaken
theology that held supreme place in the
churches and largely supplanted the sim
plicity OF the gospel Of Christ, These evils
were very, great, and the effect of them
still remainsj though in diminishing de-
gree, Among them may be noted false,
or at least, mistaken and inadequate, mo.
tive Tor Christian propaganda, mischiev-
ous separation between religion and NOR
aiity, an unnatural and feverish piety that,
on the one hand, became morbid sentis
mentalism, or, on the other, degenerated
INTO Journalism not less real because often
ie was not titualistic.
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 criticism 50
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
IN artihciality Of life which stimulated self
deception and hypocrisy, and gave great
opportunity and scope to the bigot. Much
OF the irreligion Of to-day, or what is ratb-
er undiseriminately called irreligion, is
simply, reaction, though often unconscious,
from the unreality OF yesterday.
AZ the present time an attempt is being
made to restore the revival methods Of
last century. Organizations have been
formed the more efficiently to prosecute
this attempt. In the nature of the case.
the attempt will fail. 1t will fail because
u Is not in accord with prevailing ideas Of
rellgion-of God and man 9nd their MUTUAL
relations and of himnn deyeidpment and
destiny. The principle of evolution has
overthrown,, not the truths, but the struct-
ural principles and the elaborate theory Of
the old theology. The new biology has
made necessary new theology, and new
theology is already diffused in the atmos-
phere OF the common thought.
But psak of this attempt now not to
cilticlse itj l would rather welcome it il il
contained any promise of real good [
speak OF it particularly because it indicates
and emphasizes growing feeling that all
Is not right with the church and society to.
day, and the deepening surmise, il It is
not yet generally a conviction, that we are
IN great need of true revival of religion.
:, NO one can justly criticise the present
lie OF our country without recognizing and
confessing that II presents to the view
very many features which awaken feelings
OF gratitude and hope. Charity was never
30 abundant and wise. The morals of the
average business man were never better.
Laws were never more humane and lust.
Folitics were never less corrupt, The BEN
eficent enterprises Of the Christian church
n IL