Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-09-26
BISHOP GAMBLERS MESSAGE
BY BISHOP w. A. GAMBLER.

SX 5GSAOF W. a S8AN 1AEESs
In The Journal of September 21st
was shown the effect of the yves
leyan Revival" upon the economic,
industrial, social and political life of
Great Britain in the eighteenth CEN
fury. Septical writer's, like Leckey,,
do not hesitate to affirm that IT
saved England in a most critical
period of the history of the United
Kingdom.
About the same time that the
wesleyan Revival" was working it's
wondrous results among "our kin
across the sea-" a similar visitation
of grace, 1.-The Great Awakening"
was blessing our Colonial ancestors
on this side the ocean.
Writers of both the secular and
religious histories of the rise of the
Great Republic agree with marked
unanimity in saying that the "Great
| Awakening" had the most decided
| influence upon the colonies in the
direction of making union possible
and bringing to birth our great dem
| ocratic alton.
| The movement began at North
| hampton, where Jonathan Edwards
was poster, in the latter part of the
month of December, 1874; but it did
not spread throughout all the col
| onies until the coming of George
| Whitefield IN 1740. That remarkable
man was no more than twenty four
years of, age when he came first to
America, and he had not been an or
dained minister of the Gospel above
four years; but Notwithstanding his
youth and inexperience, his preach
l1I
wonderful results. In both England
and America thousands flocked to
hear him and accepted Christ under
his melting ard moving appeals
Without him the work of Jonathan
| Edwards at Northampton would
have achieved nothing greater than
local effects; but with his coming
the flames Of the revival were com
municated to every section of the
British colonies in America.
Leonard Woolsey Bacon in his in.
teresting History of American
Christianity says, an the glow OF
the revival the continent awoke tc
the consciousness of common
spiritual life. Ranging the con.
tinent literally from Georgia tc
| Maine, with all his weaknesses anC
lndlscretions, and with his incom.
parable eloquenc@ welcomed by ev.
cry sect, yet refusing an exclusive
aIleglans to any, Whitefield eXercis.
ed true apostolate, bearing daily
the. care of all the churches. anC
becoming a messenger of mutual
| fellowship not only between the
ends of the continent, but between
the Christians of two hemispheres
remote churches exchanged offices
of service. Tennent came from New
Jersey to labor in New England
Dickinson, Burr and Edwards were
the gilt of the northern colonies tc
the college at Princeton. The quick.
ened sense of a common religious
life and duty and destiny was nc
small part of the prepare ton for the
birth Of the future nation
Another Says, "Whitefield, MOVING
up and down the Atlantic coast as a
shuttle, wove together the senti-
ments of the thirteen colonies, and
made union possible by creating a
national spirit
Moreover, Whitefield wove new
bonds of attachment between the
| British Isles and the American colo
MES. On his first visit to the west
ern world he came just out of the
wesleyan Revival" and in his seven
| successive visits to these shores he
| brought to the colonists fresh revi-
| val influences and in turn carried
| pack most stimulating accounts OF
the work Of grace in America, which
fired anew the Veal of the revival
lists of Great Britain. Indeed. he
may be called justly the originator
Of line of religious communica-
ton and fellowship between the peo-
pie of the United Kingdom and the
people Of the United States, which,
from that time until the present,
mas been an increasingly potential
factor in unifying the Anglo-Saxon
nations of the old and new worlds.