ligion, because here, too, individuals are sometimes left to this most fearful visitation.

I have said that some such cases as the objection supposes occur, but I maintain that the number is, by the enemies of revivals, greatly overrated. Twenty men may become insane, and may actually commit suicide from any other cause, and the fact will barely be noticed: but let one come to this awful end in consequence of religious excitement, and it will be blazoned upon the house-top, with an air of melancholy boding, and yet with a feeling of real triumph; and many a gazette will introduce it with some sneering comments on religious fanaticism; and the result will be that it will become a subject of general notoriety and conversation. In this way the number of these melancholy cases comes to be imagined much larger than it really is; and in the common estimate of the opposers of revivals it is no doubt multiplied manifold.

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But admitting that the number of these cases were as great as its enemies would represent-admit that every extensive revival there were one person who actually became deranged, and fell a victim to that derangement, are you prepared to say, even then, upon an honest estimate of the comparative good and evil that is accomplished, that that revival had better not have taken place? On the one side, estimate fairly the evil, and we have no wish to make it less than it really is. There is the premature death of an individual-death in the most unnatural and shocking form, and fitted to harrow the feelings of friends to the utmost. There may be a temporary loss of usefulness to the world, and, as the case may

be, a loss of counsel, and aid, and effort, in some of the tenderest earthly relations. Yet it is not certain but that the soul may be saved; for though, at the time the awful act is committed, there may be thick darkness hanging about it, and even the phrenzy of despair may have seized hold of it, yet no mortal can decide that God's Spirit may not after all have performed its effectual work, and that the soul, liberated from the body by the most dreadful act which man can commit, may not find its way to heaven, to be for ever with the Lord. But suppose the very worst-suppose this sinner who falls in a fit of religious insanity, by the violence of his own hand, to be unrenewed-why in this case he rushes prematurely upon the wrath of God, he cuts short the period of his probation, which, had it been protracted, he might, or might not, have improved to the salvation of his soul. Look now at the other side. the revival in which this unhappy case has occurred, besides the general quickening impulse that has been given to the people of God, perhaps one hundred individuals have had their character renovated, and their doom reversed. Each one of these was hastening forward, perhaps to a death-bed of horror, certainly to an eternity of wailing; but in consequence of the change that has passed upon them, they can now anticipate the close of life with peace, and the ages of eternity with unutterable joy. There is no longer any condemnation to them, because they are in Christ Jesus. And, besides, they are prepared to live usefully in the world-each of them to glorify God, by devoting himself, according to his ability, to the advancement of his cause. Now far

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be it from us to speak lightly of such a heart-rending event as the death of a fellow-mortal, in the circumstances we have supposed; but if any will weigh this against the advantages of a revival, we have a right to weigh the advantages of a revival against this, and to call upon you to decide for yourselves which preponderates? Is the salvation of one hundred immortal souls (supposing that number to be converted) a light matter, when put into the scale against the premature and awful death of a single individual, or, to suppose the very worst of the case, his cutting short his space for repentance, and rushing unprepared into the presence of his Judge?

V. It is farther objected against revivals, that they occasion a sort of religious dissipation; leading men to neglect their worldly concerns for too many religious exercises; exercises, too, protracted, not unfrequently, to an unseasonable hour.

No doubt it is possible for men to devote themselves more to social religious services than is best for their spiritual interests; because a constant attendance on these services would interfere with the more private means of grace, which, all must admit, are of primary importance. But who are the persons by whom this objection is most frequently urged, and who seem to feel the weight of it most strongly? Are they those who actually spend most time in their closets, and who come forth into the world with their hearts deeply imbued with a religious influence, and who perform their secular duties from the most conscientious regard to God's authority? Or are they not rather those who rarely, if ever, retire to commune with God, and who engage in the business of

life from mere selfish considerations; who, in short, are thorough-going worldlings? If a multitude of

religious meetings are to be censured on the ground of their interference with other duties, I submit it to you, whether this censure comes with a better grace from him who performs these duties, or from him who neglects them? I submit it to you, whether the man who is conscious of living in the entire neglect of religion, ought to be very lavish in his censures upon those who are yielding their thoughts to it in any way, or to any extent? Would it not be

more consistent, at least, for him to take care of the beam, before he troubles himself about the mote?

Far be it from me to deny that the evil which this objection contemplates does sometimes exist—that men, and especially women, do neglect private and domestic duties for the sake of mingling continually in social religious exercises: nevertheless, I am constrained to say, that the objection, as it is directed against the mass of Christians, during a well-regulated revival, is utterly unfounded. For I ask who are the persons who have ordinarily the best regulated families, who are most faithful to their children, most faithful in their closets, most faithful and conscientious in their relative duties, and even in their worldly engagements? If I may be permitted to answer, I should say, unhesitatingly, they are generally the very persons who love the social prayer meeting, and the meeting for Christian instruction and exhortation; those, in short, who are often referred to, by the enemies of revivals, as exemplifying the evil which this objection contemplates. God requires us to do every duty, whether secular or religious, in its right place;

and this the Christian is bound to keep in view in all his conduct. But there is too much reason to fear,

that the spirit which ordinarily objects against many religious exercises, is a spirit which, if the whole truth were known, it would appear had little complacency in any.

But it is alleged that, during revivals, religious meetings are not only multiplied to an improper extent, but are protracted to an unseasonable hour. That instances of this kind exist admits not of question; and it is equally certain, that the case here contemplated is an evil which every sober, judicious Christian must discourage. We do not believe that in an enlightened community, it is an evil of very frequent occurrence; but wherever it exists, it is to be reprobated as an abuse, and not to be regarded as any part of a genuine revival, or as any thing for which a true revival is responsible. But here, again, it may be worth while to inquire how far many of the individuals who offer this objection are consistent with themselves. They can be present at a political cabal, or at a convivial meeting, which lasts the whole night, and these occasions may be of very frequent occurrence, and yet it may never occur to them that they are keeping unseasonable hours. Or their children may return at the dawn of day, from a scene of vain amusement, in which they have brought on an entire prostration both of mind and body, and unfitted themselves for any useful exertion during the day; and yet all this is not only connived at as excusable, but smiled upon as commendable. I do not say that it is right to keep up a religious meeting during the hours that Providence has allotted to repose: I be