The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1904-05-19
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED,
NEED OF A REVIVAL"
The Rev. DR.. Philip s. Moxam Says That
We Require Fresh Conviction Of the
Reality of Salvation-Too Much Alb
1ofption in the Pursuit of Riches.

Reality of Salvation-Too Much Alb
sorption in the Pursuit of Riches.
BROOKLYN. y. Yin Plymouth Church
the Rev. Philip s. Moxom. of Springfield
Mass, preached Sunday morning. DR.
MoXom's subject was The Need of Re
vival.' He took his text from HabakkuL
im:2: 20 Jehovah, revive Thy work in the
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 eyhortation 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 it was
called, was simply a continuous series of
meetings for preaching and prayer and ex-
hortation and confession. The preacher
/ wrought upon the consciences OF men by
setting forth Gods claims on them and
their neglect Of duty He Wrought upon
the fears of men by denunciations Of the
imminent danger and certain and terrible
punishment OF impenitent sinners. He
wrought upon the hearts OF men by vivid
| presentations of the love of God and por-
trayals of the vast self-sacrifce 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.
ferings of Christ Much was made also OF
the material pains OF perdition.
| An important accompaniment or 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 a
familiarity that would be shocking, were
it not, on the whole, so 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
conjunction and reclaimed to their neg
lected fealty, the Indifferent were aroused
and convicted and brought to a state OF
deep contrition. There were numerous
conversions, and the testimony OF the con-
verts increased the religious fervor OF be-
iievers and produced conviction of sin and
| desire OF salvation in other unbelievers.
considerable numbers were added to the
| church. and for time the whole commu.
nity was raised to higher level Of relig.
ious life, and in many instances to higher
morality.
Usually, after a time. tue revival was
/ followed by gradual relapse into formal
ity of religious service, coldness of relig-
ious temper, and indifference to the high
er claims OF the church. Fever was fol-
lowed by chill, until, after months or
years, new demand arose for "a season
| of refreshing from the Lord" This inter-
mittency of religious life was character
istic feature of Protestant church life for
many generations-a period covering quite
2C0 years. This period, extending. from
the seventeenth to the nineteenth centlr-
les, was marked by great crises of religious
| awakening NotabA among them were
those signalized by the names of Edwards,
Wesley. Whiteied, Summerfeld and,
later, Finney and Moody.
That "revivals of religion" in 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-
cess Of the harm. "Revivals" were in &C.
cord with the religious ideas prevalent at
the time, and were 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 unselfsh serv-
fn hnIr r,nn Pnynrannn ~
God was deepened and faith in God was
stimulated and nourished.
The evils were incident to the mistaken
theology that held supreme place in the
churches and largely supplanted the sim
plicity of the gospel of Christ These evils
wer" very great, and the effect of them
81 .emains. though in diminishing de-
gr, Among them may be noted false,
or Il, least, mistaken and inadequate, mo-
tive Tor Christian propaganda, mischiev-
ous separation between religion and NOR
ality, an unnatural and feverish piety that,
Oh the one hand, became a morbid senti-
mentalism. or, on the other, degenerated
into n Journalism not less real because often
1t was not rtualstIe.
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 :he 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 artifciality 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 rath-
er unfortunately called irreligion, is
simply reaction, though often unconscious,
from the unreahty 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 prosecute
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 mutual
relations and of human development 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 a new theology, and new
theology is already diffrsed in the atmos-
phere of the common thought.
But 1 psak of this attempt now not to
criticise it; would rather welcome it If it