The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-04-05
THE PROJECTED REVIVAL.

THE PROTECTED REVIVAL.
Making a revival out of whole cloth
is a task of magnitude. AS a general
thing revfvals come of hard times LOT
communities are prone, when such
ralanities occur and human expedl-
ente to relieve them fail, TO turn to-
wards God seeking help. Thus the
years 1897. 1857 and 1873, which VIII
messed financial ruin in the United
States. also saw wide spread CONVEX
sions. and at no other time has there
been so strong a manifestation OF the
revival spirit. What has been done
at other periods to arouse communities
to the need of grace was inspired by
the eloouence of some one man; but
even Moody in the midst of public
prosperity made no such impression
as he did when the business horizon
was dark. The exception to the finan-
cia1 rule appears to be in Wales where,
without a prelude of hard times, a re-
vivaI of a very stirring sort has come
to pass. But it is we'll to remember
that it has a Man in the midst OF II
from whose lips falls apostolic fire
and who spreads magnetism as lamp
does light
The conditions here at home are
very different from those which usual
w produce revivaIs of religious faith.
AS a whole the community is well-to-
do. Money is not hard to get and no
great calamity has occurred or is IN
sight. There is no spontaneous turning
toward supernatural forces for help
which natural efforts VIII not obtain.
No one has come among us who has
the gift OF rousing communities TO
sense of sin and of need of faith and
redemption. Our pulpit voices are
familiar: and they have reached as
far as they can go. Lacking calamity
to impress men where is the spoken
word that is going to make them stop
in all their devious paths and turn to-
ward Zion? Where is the Whitefield,
the Ffnney. the Earle the Moody that
such undertakings call for? Perhaps
one may arise in the pew and become
the st. John of our new dispensation;
but it is hardly probable. Able as the
evangelical clergy of Honolulu is III
its special field it has never shown
genius for reaching the masses out
side the church. It has not even been
able to drum ZIP respectable vote IN
the Legislature for the closed Sunday
law.
So the whole matter resolves itself
to another test of the efficacy of pray
er. Our evangelical bodies propose to
pray as Elijah the Tishbite did that
a fire shall come down from heaven
and blaze upon the Altar. They want
God Himself for a revivalist VIII He
: come at the summons? Surely if any
place needed the refreshment of His
grace it is this seaport capital with its
deep and widespread iniquity, its greed,
its paganism, it's devotion to pelf, its
Grass materialism. The harvest has
long been waiting for a reaper and per-
haps soon the rust will come and the
rotting of the root Surely Honolulu
needs praying for if prayer does any
good A converted Honolulu would be
far more of a wonder than a convert
ed Wales; yet it would not be a task
too great for God. The question is
can the evangelical churches bring the
power and grace of God to bear upor
it? They are going to try and let Us
of all faiths or none watch them witt
respect if we cannot do so with hope
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