against the cause of revivals; and that God is not honoured, but offended, by the least attempt to go beyond the truth, even in recording the triumphs of his grace. It is a matter of importance, that all narratives of this kind should be furnished by competent and responsible persons—those who have opportunity to know the facts, and ability properly to estimate them. While it cannot be questioned, that there are many instances, at the present day, in which the evil of which I am speaking is strikingly exemplified, it is an occasion for joy, that there are many other cases, in which revivals are detailed seasonably, judiciously, and in a manner fitted, in all respects, to subserve the cause of truth and piety.

6. Undervaluing divine institutions, and divine truth, is another evil which often exists in connection with revivals.

It is common, and no doubt right too, during a season of special attention to religion, to increase the number of occasional services during the week; and especially the number of meetings for social prayer. And it is desirable that Christians should feel a deep interest in these exercises, and should regard it as not less a duty than a privilege to engage in them, as their circumstances may admit. But they are not to be considered, in the strict sense, as divine institutions; for, though there is a fair warrant for them in the general spirit of the gospel, and, as we believe, even a direct sanction in apostolic usage, yet the regulation of them is a matter which God has been pleased to leave to the wisdom of the church; and whenever Christians exalt them to an equality with those institutions which are strictly divine, they

may expect to incur the displeasure of the Master, as well as lose the benefit which these exercises are adapted, when kept in their proper place, to impart. But there is reason to apprehend, that many Christians, during a season of revival, actually do, in their feelings, attach an importance to these services which is even paramount to that which they recognise as belonging to the public exercises of the Lord's day. The secret feeling of the heart, there is reason to believe, often is, that to attend public worship on the Sabbath, though it is a duty, has yet too little in it that is distinctive and out of the common course, to be regarded with very deep interest; whereas those services which are observed during the week, and which seem more like a free-will offering, rise in their estimation to the highest degree of importance. There is in all this, no doubt, more or less of selfrighteousness a sort of unacknowledged and perhaps undetected feeling, that the eye of God rests upon them even with more favour, when they are rendering him a service which he has left in some measure to their own discretion, than when they are walking in the plain and broad path of his direct commandments. These occasional services, I repeat, are not to be undervalued; for they are important helps, in every point of view, towards sustaining and carrying forward a revival; but that we may reap the benefit they are designed to secure, we must give them no higher place than the great Head of the church has manifestly assigned to them.

And while there is danger that the social exercises which the church may establish during a revival, may lead to too low a comparative estimate of the stated

services of the Sabbath, there is perhaps equal danger, that they may bring into some degree of disregard the duties of the closet. Especially if these occasional exercises are greatly multiplied, the time which is requisite for attending them, beside other duties of a more secular nature, may leave but little opportunity for self-communion, reading the Scriptures, and private prayer; and there is reason to fear, that, sometimes at least, the Christian makes a compromise with his conscience, for at least a partial neglect of these latter duties, by calling to mind his exemplary diligence and constancy in respect to the former. And besides, there is no doubt that it lays his powers under far less contribution, to be engaged in a constant round of social exercises which are fitted to excite the mind, than to enter into his closet, and commune with himself, and apply the truths and precepts of the gospel, for the regulation of his affections and conduct. It is to this practical error, I doubt not, that we are to attribute, in a great degree, the fact, that many Christians, who engage with much interest in a revival, still seem to turn it to so little account as it respects their own personal piety. Nothing is more certain, than that the neglect of closet duties, whatever other duties may be performed, must wither the believer's graces, and render his Christian character sickly and inefficient.

If you

would avoid the evil which is here contemplated, and secure the good which is aimed at by those who incur the evil, let God's institutions be kept in their proper place. Regard the public services of the Sabbath as far the most important which you can attend. Think it however a blessed privilege, that

you may meet for religious purposes frequently at other times; but never let such meetings be a substitute for secret devotion. And if the effect of them should ever be to keep you away from your closet, or to give you a disrelish for its duties, you need no other evidence that there is something wrong; either that your attendance on these social services is too frequent, or not with the right spirit.

Nor is there less danger that a revival may be perverted to the undervaluing of God's truth. At such a time, especially, men love to be excited; and while those who hear the preaching of the word are apt to delight in those stirring and earnest appeals which are most fitted to rouse the feelings, there is a strong temptation on the part of ministers to feed this passion for excitement, by limiting themselves to a few topics of exhortation, rather than by holding up gospel truth in all its extent and fulness. And in this it often comes to way that there is an pass, aversion contracted to instructive preaching; the doctrines of the Bible come to be regarded, both by people and ministers, as comparatively tame; and I hardly need say, that, as a consequence, the ministry loses much of its real efficiency, and the piety of the church languishes for want of its appropriate nourishment.

Nor is this all. It cannot be questioned that revivals are sometimes made the occasion, not only of inspiring a disgust for sober scriptural doctrine, but of introducing into the church a flood of error. Ministers, in seasons of great excitement, and in the desire of saying something that shall seize hold of the feelings, sometimes make unguarded expressions, which involve some important error; and if these expres

sions seem to be followed by good effects, they are in danger of repeating them, until they come really to adopt the error which is thus involved. And then again, the excited multitude in such circumstances are usually carried away by the appearance of great zeal and earnestness; and he who evinces the most of these qualities is almost sure to be the favourite preacher: and if he be disposed to commingle error with truth, there is every probability, that, in many instances at least, the one will be received with the other, without inquiry or suspicion. Such has been the history of the introduction and progress of some of the wildest reveries and grossest errors, which have disturbed the peace, and marred the purity, of the church. Let ministers and private Christians, those who preach and those who hear, be alike on their guard against this tremendous evil.

7. There are certain things which sometimes occur during a revival, that are fitted to impair the dignity, and lessen the influence, of the ministerial office; an evil which should always be guarded against with great caution.

gross

It must be acknowledged that ministers themselves not unfrequently contribute to this unhappy result. Sometimes they are carried away by strong excitement into the region of extravagance, and even fanaticism, and say and do things, under this influence, which, in their cooler moments, will take them to their closets for confession and humiliation. In other cases, they come, perhaps honestly, to the conclusion, that some new expedient is necessary to secure attention: and the result is, that they come out with something which not only offends a correct taste,