The Need of an Awakening
It is not the purpose of this book to discuss the awakenings of the past, they are a part of our Church history, with which any one may easily familiarize himself. The briefest outline, however, may at least be suggestive.
There was the awakening of the sixteenth century called the German Reformation under the leadership of Luther.
The awakening of the seventeenth century, known as the Puritan Revival, in which the doctrine of God’s sovereignty was necessarily presented.
During the awakening of the eighteenth century, with Wesley and Whitfield as leaders, the Church was in a sad state.
Religion had lost all spirituality. Isaac Taylor calls the Church of this period, “a fair carcass;” and Blackstone says that he went to hear every preacher of note in London and that there was not one whose discourse indicated 30 whether he was a follower of Confucius, or of Mohammed, or of Christ. Religion seemed to consist in its outward and formal observances. The great spiritual truths of Christianity were neglected. There was a profound lack of spiritual earnestness. The teachers of religion had little experience of its power. Wesley himself had been in the ministry thirteen years, and had served as a missionary in Georgia for two years before he had a deep experience of the spiritual truths of the gospel. He tells us in the journal of his homeward voyage that he “who went to America to convert others was never himself converted to God.”
The awakening of the nineteenth century in the first half of which Finney was the leader and man’s free agency was prominently preached.
In the latter half, D. L. Moody was the leader with the love of God as his theme.
The history of American revivals began before the middle of the eighteenth century, then followed the great awakening in New England, under the leadership of Jonathan Edwards. It was during this time that the preaching of Whitfield was such a factor for good.
1 The Next Great Awakening.’’
During the next era the leaders were Dr. Griffin, President Dwight, and others, and later on came such representative revivalists as Nettleton and Finney.
The next special era was that which embraces the work of Mr. Moody, and without reference to him and his work, no book on revivals in general or present day evangelism in particular would be complete.
We are now well past the threshold of the twentieth century and in many parts of the Church we are being asked, “Is there to be during the twentieth century a great religious awakening such as occurred in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in both the first and second half of the nineteenth?”
It is hardly necessary to ask if an awakening is needed. This is apparent on every side. It is more fitting that we should try to determine what sort of an awakening is to-day an absolute necessity. Beyond doubt we are all of us agreed that it must be world wide in its scope. It is needed in America, but elsewhere too.
“I have it on the authority of two leading German pastors, that only four per cent, of the population of the great towns in Germany ever go to or enter a place of worship. How many of that four per cent, have life in Christ? *’
In the annual letter of the Yorkshire Convention of the Society of Friends in which the condition of England is discussed, it is declared, “We are faced by a practical paganism which finds its nourishment in an unparalleled increase of wealth, and which under a thin veneer of Christian phraseology is debasing our civilization.”
Canon Hensley Henson, in his paper read before the Church Congress which recently concluded its session at Northampton says, “A Spirit is abroad amongst us which threatens the basis of social order. It is a spirit of lawlessness, a hunger at the hearts of men — a law of anarchy. It pervades our literature, degrades our politics, disturbs our streets, defiles our homes! “2
Just what sort of an awakening is needed?
First: There must be an awakening in the matter of Bible study. Because of the recent experience of the Churches in the discussion of creeds very many people have been unsettled as
“A Revival CaU to the Churches.”
A Revival Call to the Churches.”
to their faith, and since there has been a disposition to question the integrity of the Scriptures, some have given up the careful and prayerful study of the Bible. Others have lived inconsistent lives and inconsistency always blinds the reader to the beauty of the word of God. Still others have been positively indifferent. There never can be an awakening until we go back to the faithful study of the Bible, and reverently approach it as God’s divine revelation to a lost and ruined race.
Second: There must be an awakening in
the matter of prayer.
“The pivot of piety is prayer. A pivot is of double use; it acts as a fastener and as a centre; it holds in place, and it is the axis of revolution. Prayer is also the double secret; it keeps steadfast in faith, and it helps to all holy activity. Hence as surely as God is lifting his people in these latter times to a higher level of spirituality, and moving them to a more unselfish and selfden)nng service, there will be new emphasis laid upon supplication, and especially upon intercession.
“This revival of the praying-spirit, if not first in order of development, is first in order of importance, for without it there is no advance. Generally, if not uniformly, prayer is both starting-point and goal to every movement in which are the elements of permanent progress. Whenever the Church is aroused and the world’s wickedness arrested somebody has been praying. If the secret history of all true spiritual advance could be written and read, there would be found some intercessors who, like Job, Samuel, Daniel, Elijah, Paul and James, like Jonathan Edwards, William Carey, George Miller and Hudson Taylor, have been led to shut themselves in the secret place with God, and have labored fervently in prayers. And, as the starting-point is thus found in supplication and intercession, so the final outcome must be that God’s people shall have learned to pray; otherwise there will be rapid reaction and disastrous relapse from the better conditions secured.”
Third: There must be a revival of family religion. A missionary who had been absent from this country for twenty-five years, not having accepted his furloughs, was asked on his return what impressed him most in America. He did not say the marvellous inventions, nor the 1 “Forward Movement in the Last Half Century.” rapid progress made in the matter of education and benevolence, but declared that that which impressed him most was the decadence of religion in the family life. When he left America, a quarter of a century ago, he said there was hardly a home without a family altar, that since he had returned he had hardly found one with this source of blessing. This is a horrible condition of affairs.
Fourth: There must be an awakening in the matter of benevolence. Let us not be deceived by the fact that the Church is in such a healthful condition because her benevolences have been so munificent, for the giving has been confined practically to a few and the ofTerings of the many have been selfishly withheld. Forget it not that it is when we bring the tithes into the storehouse that he will pour out his blessing upon us.
Fifth: There must be an awakening in the matter of holy living. Inconsistent, worldly living on the part of the follower of Christ presents an almost insurmountable barrier, in the way of the coming to Christ of those who are lost. It is said that there is an increase of worldliness in the Church; if so God pity us.
A distinguished preacher recently said that frequently it was true that the reason why the world did not join the Church was found in the fact that in certain places at least the Church had almost joined the world. From this enthralldom we need to pray for deliverance. If there is to be a genuine awakening, it will be,
First: The outcome of much prayer.
Second: It will be in accordance with divine revelation.
Third: It will be in close harmony with the time honored doctrines of the evangelical and reformed faith.
Fourth: It will give great prominence to the work of the Holy Ghost.
Fifth: “A genuine revival will carry with it as a conclusive proof of its Divine origin a transforming power over the lives of men. It will be a loud and emphatic call to personal holiness — a holiness which will reflect the character of the Master himself by giving the world living illustrations of what men may become who are partakers of the Divine nature. This transformation of life will exhibit a visible consecration to God’s service of time, talents, money, and all that is in the possession of the individual. It will solve the question of the evangelization of the world, for when men are purified and empowered by the Divine Spirit, their personal response to the Lord’s call will be: ‘Here am I, send me, There is no great issue, religious, political, or social before the minds of men at the present moment that may not be solved, and solved forever, by a world-wide revival in Apostolic power. They are right who tell us that sin lies at the foundation of all human woe. Political legislators deal with the suffering, but overlook the sin. A genuine revival in the power of the Holy Ghost will lead us first of all to Grod. When we are right with him, the problems that worry us will become secondary, and finally disappear.”