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LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 THE REV. ANSEL D. EDDY, 
 
 OF CANANDAIGUA, N. Y. 
 
 OIT THE NARRATIVE OF THE 
 
 LATE IIBTITALS OP RELIGION, 
 
 PRESBYTERY OF GENEVA. 
 
 BY EDWARD D. GRIFFIN, 
 
 PRKBIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 
 
 rniNTED BY RIDLEY BANNISTER. 
 
 1832, 
 
LETTER. 
 
 Williams College Aug. 6, 1832. 
 
 Rev. akd Dear Sir, 
 
 I have received and at- 
 tentively read the Narrative of the late Revivals 
 of Religion in the Presbytery of Geneva, drawn 
 up by a Committee of Presbytery, and founded on 
 reports lYiade by the different Sessions in Februa- 
 ry last. I have not before had leisure to fulfil my 
 promise of sending you some remarks on that Nar- 
 rative. It is a noble paper, and exhibits, in a most 
 gratifying and instructive manner, the mighty pow- 
 er of God. That central and elevated Presbyte- 
 ry, we are told, was never visited with so great an 
 influence before 5 an influence extending, with two 
 exceptions, to all the congregatiorts supplied with 
 pastors, and producing a result, in less than a year 
 and a half, of twenty two hundred added to the 
 churches ; and the work still in glorious progress 
 in several congregations when the Narrative went 
 to press the last of March. 
 
 This is enough to show that powerful revivals 
 are not dependant oh the new measures, and that 
 it is unjust to stigmatize as enemies to revivals all 
 who do not fall in with these measures. 
 
3 
 
 . It is highly gratifying to see so large and re- 
 spectable a Presbytery, centrally located in the 
 western part of New York, take so dignified a 
 stand, with a unanimity almost unbroken; and still 
 more to see the blessed fruits of these revivals in 
 sixty or eighty youth studying for the Gospel mi- 
 nistry, and their benignant influence on the cause 
 of temperance and sabbath schools and charitable 
 contributions. The church in Castleton, not yet 
 four years old, and heretofore sustained by the 
 Home Missionary Society, gave last year more 
 than sixty dollars for foreign missions. The church 
 in West Dresden, organized in 1830, an equal sum 
 for the same object. The church in Galen has 
 three Sabbath Schools, a Tract Society, a large 
 Temperance Society, a Bible Society which the 
 last year supplied every destitute family in the 
 town, and has given forty dollars for foreign mis- 
 sions. The church in Penn-Yan has formed " an 
 auxiliary to almost every benevolent society in the 
 land." The church in East Bloomfield gave the 
 last year for different objects more than nine hun- 
 dred dollars, and the church in Geneva more than 
 forty seven hundred dollars. A society auxiliary 
 to the A B C F M has just sprung up in the 
 Presbytery, which has contributed at once thirty 
 four hundred dollars. In view of these results 
 every friend of revivals may kneel and look up 
 and with a trickling tear thank the Author of all be- 
 nevolence. 
 
 The cautious and prudent and truly evangelical 
 
course which this Presbytery have pursued, is wor- 
 thy of all praise. They have not adopted the opi- 
 nion that some of those truths which Paul and 
 Calvin and Watts and Edwards and Brainerd 
 preached, must now be suppressed, or rarely 
 taught, lest they should check revivals. '' In all 
 the services," says one, " a special prominence 
 was given to the doctrines of the Gospel." " In 
 no year," says another, " since my connexion with 
 this church, have the distinguishing doctrines of 
 the Gospel been so often exhibited and so much 
 insisted on as during the last year ; and the divine 
 blessing has evidently sanctioned this course." 
 Another says of his own congregation, " I am 
 afraid that the sovereign efficacy of divine grace and 
 the reason of its necessity were presented with less 
 frequency and plainness than I now think should 
 have been done." And yet it is testified by others 
 that they were enforced there with great frequency 
 and plainness. The Committee say of the whole 
 Presbytery, " The doctrines which have held a 
 prominent place in the preaching generally, are the 
 plain and humbling doctrines of the orthodox faith. 
 — These have been exhibited, not as matters of 
 controversy or as problems, but as matters of fact 
 and of faith. — The doctrine of divine sovereignty 
 and divine decrees, the doctrine of election and ef- 
 fectual calling, of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, 
 — have been constantly kept in view." On the 
 other hand, one of the Presbytery tells us, " The 
 preaching was designed to urge upon sinners the 
 
duty and the reasonableness of immediate repent- 
 ance and the renunciation of every self- justifying 
 excuse." Another says, " The means which have 
 been owned and blessed of God in promoting this 
 work, have been — the exhibition of divine truth, 
 enforcing the sinner's obligation innnediately to 
 submit to God, keeping constantly in view the ne- 
 cessity of the Spirit's influences, and the ability 
 and the obligation of the sinner to yield to them 
 and to choose without delay the Lord Jesus as his 
 God and Saviour." 
 
 This is as it should be. Though the doctrines 
 of sovereignty, election, and dependance may be 
 disproportionately urged, yet I have found them, 
 in the revivals of forty years, of great efficacy in 
 causing the sinner to die to all hope from himself 
 and casting him wholly upon God. His obli- 
 gations to immediate repentance ought certainly 
 to be urged with the most imperious decision ; but 
 to confine the preaching to this and neglect the 
 other doctrines, is to turn the whole into declama- 
 tion and to encourage that destructive self-depen- 
 dance which it ought to be our constant labour to 
 oppose. It is in short withholding an essential 
 part of that body of truth which unitedly is "the 
 sword of the Spirit." 
 
 That sword is divine truth addressed to the un- 
 derstanding and conscience, and not mere devices 
 to work on the imagination and passions. As far 
 as divine truth, in all its affecting attitudes and re- 
 lations, is calculated to move the passions, let them 
 
be moved. I would not confine myself to cold 
 speculations for fear of moving the passions. They 
 were made to be moved by divine truth. But mere 
 tricks which have no other object than to move 
 the passions, and convey no light at all, are to be 
 avoided as producing nothing but an animal reli- 
 gion v/hich will fill the Church with unsanctified 
 members, delude millions to death, and bring for- 
 ward multitudes of unqualified pastors to turn 
 away the people from the truth. A preacher who 
 feels authorized to address dry bones because God 
 has commanded him, and who relies for success 
 on nothing but the sovereign power of God, will 
 be contented to present truth, in all its nakedness 
 and pungency, to the understanding and con^ 
 science, and there leave it, while he retires to pray. 
 But he who depends on no ally, — who feels that 
 he must accomplish the work alone, — at least that 
 motives must do the whole, — will not stop here. 
 If sinners do not submit at once, he will go in 
 among their passions, and seize their imagination, 
 and work upon their animal spirits, by every art in 
 his power, until perhaps he has driven his audi- 
 ence, not to Christ, but to the wildest excesses. 
 I am glad therefore to hear that in yoiu* Presbyte- 
 ry, with scarcely an exception, there is no calling 
 upon sinners to rise up in public assemblies, either 
 to desire prayers or to })roclaim their determina- 
 tion to submit at once. Besides the power which 
 these measures have over the imagination and pas- 
 sions, (and which by management jnay be indefi- 
 
nitely increased,) they promote a boldness and for- 
 wardness which deform rehgion, give an injurious 
 warp to the character, (especially of young fe- 
 males,) and greatly encourage false hopes. If 
 more show is made and greater numbers are count- 
 ed, it is no proof that more are prepared for heaven. 
 
 As might have been expected, among you have 
 appeared few or no disorders. " All the services," 
 says one, " have been characterized by perfect or- 
 der and regularity, both as to time and manner. 
 No public meetings have been continued after 9 
 o'clock in the evening." "The meetings," says 
 another, "were characterized by great stillness 
 and solemnity." "No irregularities," says a 
 third, " were witnessed, no crying out in public 
 worship, no boisterous expressions of joy, no au- 
 dible sighing or groaning." The Committee say 
 of the whole Presbytery, " The religious services 
 generally have been orderly, still, and solemn ; 
 never interrupted by loud and boisterous expres- 
 sions, either of grief or joy ; never rendered offen- 
 sive to the ear of refinement by low allusions or 
 coarse and vulgar expressions, nor painful to the 
 ear of piety by an irreverent and affected familiarity 
 with sacred things. No quaint and questionable 
 expedients have been resorted to for the purpose of 
 effect ; no audible praying of females in promis- 
 cuous assemblies." 
 
 While passionate and disorderly revivals pro- 
 duce fatal delusions without number, your Pres- 
 bytery have guarded with most commendable cau- 
 
8 
 
 tion against false hopes. This they have done in 
 three ways. First, by substituting knowledge for 
 high excitement. "Many," says one, "whose 
 hope at first was strong and sanguine, were, on 
 being instructed in the nature and evidence of a 
 change of heart, induced to relinquish their hope 
 entirely, and have since given conclusive evidence 
 that it was at first but a delusion. This course of 
 instruction and personal examination has in all 
 cases been previous to their presenting themselves 
 for admission to the church." Secondly, by in- 
 uring the subjects of the work to reserve and hu- 
 mility, instead of boldness and forwardness and 
 rashness, which serve to hurry others into a pas- 
 sionate, shawy, headlong delusion. Their exer- 
 tions, we are told, were " generally in a way of 
 individual influence. This influence was exerted, 
 not in the public meeting, but in the private inter- 
 view. The young converts did not become ex- 
 horters, nor arrogate to themselves the preroga- 
 tives of teachers." Thirdly^ by holding them off 
 for a considerable time from a profession. Instead 
 of urging them forward in a week, under all the 
 excitements of the recent change, the churches 
 have kept them back " in most cases for two or 
 three months." I wish it had been said, for three 
 months as a settled rule. 
 
 As a consequence of all this caution, we are told 
 by more than one, the subjects of the work wear 
 well. 
 
 In these matters much depends on using Ian- 
 
guao e according to truth and calling things by their 
 right names. In some places it has become com- 
 mon to speak of conversions with a confidence 
 which hides the deceitfulness of the heart and as- 
 sumes that every apparent change is real. They 
 say, Such a man was converted on such a day ; 
 so many were converted at such a meeting. In 
 this Narrative a more cautious language for the 
 most part is used. I wish it had been uniform. 
 In a still more important respect your language is 
 highly exemplary. With you there are no anxious 
 meetings or anxious rooms or anxious seats. 
 This is not a point of mere grammatical criticism ; 
 it involves the honour of revivals and the salvation 
 of men. Let a low and barbarous cant be gene- 
 rally connected with revivals, and you drive men of 
 learning and taste from them and plunge them in 
 perdition. This slang of anxious meetings and the 
 like, is an unwarrantable departure from the ana- 
 logy of the language. In no other case do we 
 denominate a meeting from the internal feelings of 
 its members ; (we do not say a repenting meeting, 
 or a believing meeting, or a rejoicing meeting 5) 
 nor do we name a meeting even from the outward 
 marks of its members ; (we do not say a white 
 meeting, or a handsome meeting, or a homely 
 meeting 5) but we take the appellation from the 
 business done at the meeting. Thus we say a 
 prayer meeting, a conference meeting, a singing 
 meeting, a missionary meeting. And in the pre- 
 sent case we ought to say an mquiry meeting ; not 
 
10 
 
 an inquiring meeting ; that is like praying- meet- 
 ino", conferring meeting. We are obliged to say 
 singing meeting, because we have no other word 
 to employ. 
 
 It is a subject of heartfelt congratulation that 
 your distinguished Presbytery do not give up their 
 depen^ance on Ged for holiness and cast them- 
 selves on an arm of flesh. Christians, says one of 
 them, " manifested a deep sense of their depen- 
 dance and unworthiness. In the early stages of 
 the work, and while the church seemed relying on 
 an arm of flesh, a desire was expressed by some 
 to call in the aid of some itinerant evangelist, and 
 that a course of measures might be introduced 
 which had been said to hare been employed with 
 success in other places. But the people of God 
 were soon brought to see and to feel that in God 
 alone was their hope ; and no wish was afterwards 
 expressed for any other means than the means of 
 God's own appointment, nor any other aid than the 
 aid of the Holy Spirit." Says another, "There 
 was indeed much conversation about a revival pre- 
 vious to this, and a solicitude was often expressed 
 to call in such foreign aid as some imagined would 
 secure the desired result. At one period the solici- 
 tude on this subject was considerable : but in all this 
 it could be distinctly seen that there was little or 
 nothing of that deep self abasement, that humility 
 and dependance upon God alone, which are ordi- 
 narily the first indications of a work of grace. 
 They did not go directly to the throne of God, and 
 
11 
 
 with the Psahiiist exclaim, ' Wilt thou not revive 
 us again that thy people may rejoice in thee V hut 
 there was manifestly an unwarrantable reliance up- 
 on an arm of flosli. It was goin^ ' down to Egypt 
 for help, staying upon horses and trusting in cha- 
 riots,' instead of looking Ho the Holy One of Is- 
 rael and trusting in the Lord.' And it was not un- 
 til all expectations of this description were cut oftj 
 and the church brought to realize that all their 
 strength was in God, and all their hope was in his 
 mercy, that tlie work of divine grace actually com- 
 menced." 
 
 In the same spirit the Committee say, *'• In some 
 instances the labour of itinerants was employed, 
 but, (with few exceptions,) with no very obvious 
 success. Seldom perhaps has the case been 
 known in which God "has so obviously honoured 
 the means of his own appointment, in distinction 
 from those of human invention, and the labours oi' 
 a stated ministry, in distinction from those of itine- 
 rant evangelists." In " a few" of the churches 
 tlie new measures were attempted. *■'• These 
 churches however were, with perhaps one excep- 
 tion, without pastors, and the innovations" were 
 " introduced by itinerant preachers who do not be- 
 long to this Presbytery. But few if any of these 
 innovations ar(^ now regarded as improvemeiils : 
 and facts have shown that generally, if not univer™ 
 sally, the revivals have been the most powerful, oi' 
 the longest continuance, and most desirable in their 
 results, in those places where there has been the 
 
12 
 
 least departure from the ordinary methods of con- 
 ducting revivals in the Presbyterian Church." In 
 one congregation where the new measures were 
 introduced^k " ^ince the revival the state of religion 
 — has beert on the decline, and there is much to be 
 deplored in the present state of things." 
 
 1 fear this will be the effect of those measures 
 in every place where ignorance prevails. I have 
 long hesitated to express this opinion lest I should 
 be found fighting against God. But events have 
 fixed my judgment, and pressed rtie with the obli- 
 gation to declare it openly, earnestly, and continu- 
 ally. My daily prayer is that I may not feel un- 
 charitably towards my brethren who differ from 
 me. I think I do net : and certainly nothing shall 
 extort from me railing or recriminating language ; 
 for there is no better evidence of a bad cause than 
 that it is supported by an unchristian and unman- 
 ■crly style. I am. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 With sincere regard. 
 
 Your friend and brother. 
 
 E. D. GRIFFIN. 
 Sev. ANSEL D. EDBT. 
 
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