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the subject of religion unscriptural, it is not enough that we should be able to show that it is not expressly commanded; but we should also make it appear that it is either expressly or implicitly forbidden. There are many things which all admit to be right among Christians, and which are even regarded as important parts of duty, for which there is no express warrant in the Bible; "though no doubt they judge rightly when they suppose that they find a sufficient warrant for these things in the general spirit of the Bible. For instance, the Bible has said nothing about the monthly concert of prayer for the conversion of the world, which is now so generally observed throughout evangelical Protestant Christendom; and of course this is not to be regarded as a divine institution; but so long as God has commanded his people to pray for the prosperity of Jerusalem, and so long as the Saviour has promised to bless them where only two or three are met together in his name, it would be folly for any one to contend that the monthly concert is an anti-scriptural institution. The spirit of the Bible manifestly justifies it, though the letter of the Bible may not require it. In like manner, even if we were to admit that what we call a revival of religion, so far as human agency and influence are concerned, were not directly required by God's word, nevertheless, if it can be shown that it is consistent with the spirit of God's word, no man has a right to gainsay it, on the ground that it is unscriptural.

Now we claim for revivals, (and it is the least that we claim for them on the score of divine authority,) that there is nothing in the general spirit of the Bible that is unfavorable to them, but much of an opposite character. It is the tendency of all the instructions of God's word to form men to a habit of serious reflection; to abstract their affections from the world; to lead them to commune with their

hearts, and to commune with God, and to seek with greater earnestness than any thing else the salvation of the soul. Now this is precisely what is accomplished in a revival of religion. In such a scene, if any where, is fulfilled the great design of God's word in bringing men to serious consideration; to self-communion; to a right estimate of the comparative value of the things which are seen and are temporal, and the things which are not seen and are eternal. We say nothing here of the means employed, but simply speak of the effect produced; and we are sure that no one who admits that the effect is as we have stated, will doubt that it is in keeping with the general tenor of God's word.

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But we need not stop here: for the Bible has given a more direct sanction to revivals; and in various ways. Look for instance at many of the prayers which it records, as having been offered for the spiritual prosperity of Zion, when she was in a state of deep depression. Says the Psalmist, "Turn us, O God of our Salvation, and cause thine anger towards us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger unto all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation." And again, Return, we beseech thee, O God of Hosts; look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine; and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself." And again, the prophet Habakkuk prays "O Lord, revive thy work; in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy." These prayers were offered in behalf of the church, when she was in a state of temporal bondage, as well as of spiritual affliction; nevertheless, they relate especially to spiritual blessings; and what was meant by a revival then, was

substantially the same thing as what is intended by a revival now. Accordingly, we find that these very prayers are constantly used by the church at this day; and that from a regard to them, as we cannot doubt, God often appears to lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes; the blessings of divine grace descend upon her in such profusion, that she puts on her beautiful garments, and looks forth fair as the morning.

There are also recorded in the scriptures many signal instances in which God has poured out his spirit, and effected a sudden and general reformation. If you go back to the Jewish dispensation, you will find this remark strikingly verified in the reigns of David and Solomon, of Asa and Jehosaphat, of Hezekiah and Josiah. After the church had languished during the long and gloomy period of the Babylonish captivity, her interests were signally revived under the ministry of Ezra. A similar state of

things existed in the days of John the Baptist, when the kingdom of heaven is said to have suffered violence, and many of the most profligate part of the community became impressed with religious truth, and were baptized unto repentance. On the occasion referred to in our text, no less than three thousand, and on the day following two thousand more, were subdued to the obedience of the truth, and were added to the Lord. Shortly after this, multitudes in Samaria experienced the regenerating power of the gospel; and upon the dispersion of the disciples after the martyrdom of Stephen, they were instrumental of exciting a general attention to religion in the remote parts of Judea, and even as far as the territories of Greece. Here then are facts recorded by the unerring finger of inspiration, precisely analagous to those which the objection we are considering declares to be unscriptural.

But in addition to this, there is much in the prophecies

which might fairly lead us to expect the very scenes which we denominate revivals of religion. If you read the prophetical parts of scripture attentively, you cannot, I think, but be struck with the evidence that, as the millenial day approaches, the operations of divine grace are to be increasingly rapid and powerful. Many of these predictions respecting the state of religion under the Christian dispensation, it is manifest, have not yet had their complete fulfilment; and they not only justify the belief that these glorious scenes which we see passing really are of divine origin, as they claim to be, but that similar scenes, still more glorious, still more wonderful, are to be expected, as the Messiah travels in the greatness of his strength towards a universal triumph. I cannot but think that many of the inspired predictions in respect to the progress of religion, appear overstrained, unless we admit that the church is to see greater things than she has yet seen; and that they fairly warrant the conclusion that succeeding generations rejoicing in the brighter light of God's truth, and the richer manifestations of his grace, may look back even upon this blessed era of revivals, as a period of comparative darkness.

If then the general spirit of the Bible be in favor of revivals; if the prayers which holy and inspired men have offered for them are here recorded; if there be many instances here mentioned of their actual occurrence; and if the spirit of prophecy has been exercised in describing and predicting them; then we may consider the objection that they are unscriptural as fairly set aside; nay, we may regard them as having the sanction of divine authority in the highest and clearest possible manner.

II. It is objected, again, that revivals of religion are unnecessary. In the mouth of an infidel, this objection would doubtless imply that religion itself is unnecessary;

and so, of course, must be all the means used for its promotion. But in this view it does not fall within our present design to consider it. There are those who profess to regard religion, who maintain that revivals are modern innovations; and that they are unnecessary on the ground that the cause of Christ may be sustained and advanced, as it has been in other days, without them. This is the only form of the objection which it concerns us at present to notice.

The first thing to be said in reply, is, that the objection supposes what is not true-viz. that revivals are of modern origin. The truth is that if, as the objection asserts, the cause of religion in preceding ages has been sustained and carried forward without them, so also it has been sustained and carried forward with them; and during the periods in which they have prevailed, the church has seen her greatest prosperity. You have already seen that, instead of being of recent origin, they go back to an early period in the Jewish dispensation. And passing from the records of inspiration, we find that revivals have existed, with a greater or less degree of power, especially in the later periods of the Christian church. This was emphatically true during the period of the Reformation in the sixteenth century; Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, the Low Countries, and Britain, were severally visited by copious showers of divine influence. During the season of the plague in London in 1665, there was a very general awakening; in which many thousands are said to have been hopefully born of the Spirit. In the early part of the seventeenth century, various parts of Scotland and the north of Ireland, were blessed, at different periods, with signal effusions of divine grace, in which great multitudes gave evidence of being brought out of darkness into marvellous light. During the first half of the last century,

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