The Perennial Revival

For full twenty-five years evangelism was on the decline in this country. In the early ministry of Mr. Moody “soul-winning ‘* was his watchword, and the results were more pronounced and satisfactory than ever appeared after this mighty man of God turned his attention to the correction of church-ianity. In recent years the cry of “evangelism” has been taken up again, and the hope of a wide-spread revival is giving expression tO’ prayers and shape to plans. The cry is worthy “the Church of God.” If this volume adds aught to the realization of “A Perennial Revival” the writer will be most content with his reward. To make a contribution to such a result is cooperation and companionship with Him who came “to seek and to save that which was lost.”

W. B. R.

Evangelism is, at this moment, the watchword of the churches. For the first time in many decades the watchword is worthy the followers of the Nazarene. With a strange unanimity conservatives and critics alike have accepted the term, and with one voice are calling for evangelism.

Do not ask what we mean by the term; that would divide our forces instantly into many factions. It is not to be expected that the verbal inspirationist and the destructive critic will accept common definitions of any theme. And yet even these may agree in their desire for a revival of the religion of Christ which shall be potent and permanent, provided the word “revival” is kept strictly to its original meaning. It is not to the term itself, but to the uses to which it has been put, that many object. They say it often describes a condition of unreasonable excitement produced by appeals to the emotions of men, and destined to end in little or no lasting good.

Occasions of complaint at this point have not been wanting. When we make only a mechanical appeal to the feelings of men, stirring in them more of physical excitement than of spiritual vision, our efforts result only in fanatical actions, transient professions, and newspaper puffs; but few sinners are saved, and no saints are refreshed.

And yet, as against this fact, it remains true that the state of perennial revival is the normal state for the church of Jesus Christ. The men who oppose that idea set themselves against apostolic religion and criticize the apostolic churchy since the centuries have known few revivals such as that in which the church of Jesus Christ originated. It is little wonder that people have always prayed, and continue to pray, for a duplicate of Pentecost. Adding to the church day by day those that are being saved is the ideal state.

In discussing “The Imperative Need of a Perennial Revival,” it may be necessary to spend a moment on

The Definition

Revival! What do we mean by it? Let the Standard Dictionary speak: “A renewal of special interest in and attention to religious services and duties and the subject of personal salvation; a religious awakening.” Who can object to the definition? Is not that exactly what the Psalmist meant when he cried: “Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?”

Many years ago we knew a church which had been without preaching for months; it had worshiped only occasionally in a hired hall, while divisions between official brethren distracted the forces of the institution which had once been God’s agency for saving men. A pastor was secured; a house was erected; services became regular; brotherly love displaced the old hatred and healed the differences; at the end of six months conversions began, and every communion witnessed new accessions to the organized body of believers. The pastor’s salary was doubled and paid with greater promptness; offerings to missions multiplied many fold; the “twicea-month” preaching gave way to the employment of a pastor for all of his time; the little body which had, for a long season, been without prestige in its association became one of the most influential. That was a revival!

Perennial! “Continuing through the year or through many years; unf aiHng; unceasing; as, perennial springs.” The dictionary’s figure, “as perennial springs,” is a most happy one when applied to the problem of the church. Those of us who were brought up in the hill-country of the South appreciate the difference between the wetweather and the perennial spring. Many a time in the rainy season we have driven our knees into the black loam of a newly cleared hillside and drunk from a vein, full to-day, but destined to fail to-morrow. The water was always sorry stuff, and was always used as a makeshift of indolence, since the perennial spring was at the foot of the hill, and to enjoy it imposed a walk in going and work in returning. And yet the cold, refreshing draught from the latter always sent one back to his service with a sense of compensation. The springs of revival which have characterized recent centuries have been toO’ much after the wet-weather sort; they have opened only at a certain season and remained in action for a very short time. Our fathers in the faith behaved as if they believed the streams of salvation were closed the rest of the year; and one man, at least, brought up in a church where that idea of a revival obtained, will never forget the utter disappointment, the despair akin to that which must characterize the damned, when the annual meeting of two weeks had closed and left him unsaved. He was like the man in the Bethesda porch. He had seen the waters troubled at a “certain season” and others stepping in to be made whole, while he must remain in his paralysis; for the waters grew quiet, and he knew that it would be a twelvemonth before the opportunity would return. Strange to say, his seniors seemed also to forget that Jesus was at hand, and could work the miracle of healing out of season. We believe that the very bitterness of that experience gave origin to the idea of this book, and emphasis to a ministry which, for thirty years, has sought as assiduously to reach men’s souls in the dog-days of August as in the appointed season of January.

Perennial! Is not that the word upon which we are to lay emphasis if we are rightly to interpret the injunction of Paul to Timothy: “Preach the word. Be urgent in season, out of season “?

With this definition of the perennial revival before us, let us pass on to the discussion of

The Necessity

The very word “necessity” removes us from the realm of argument. There are voices, more eloquent than ever were heard upon platform, pleading this necessity; there are silences more urgent than the voices of angels.

The prayer of the saint pleads it.

It is a blessed fact that regenerate men are ill-content to lead a languid Christian life, or to see their churches experience the same. William Cowper’s hymn is now seldom sung in the sanctuary, but we believe it is often repeated in the closet:

Oh, for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame,
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!
Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of Jesus and his word?
What peaceful hours I then enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.

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