BV 3773 .C28 1904 
 Candler, Warren A, 1857- 
 1941. 
 
 Great revivals and the grea 
 
GREAT REVIVALS 
 
 AND THE 
 
 GREAT REPUBLIC 
 
 BY WARREN A. CANDLER, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Scarcely can a more memorable exhibition of 
 God be found than that presented by a revival of re- 
 ligion. Historians seldom take note of so obscure 
 an event; yet if the secret connections of revivals 
 with the destiny of nations could be disclosed, they 
 would appear to be more critical evolutions of his- 
 tory than the Gothic invasions. A volume has been 
 compiled narrating the decisive battles of the world.- 
 But more significant than this, and probing deeper 
 the divine government of the world, would be the 
 history of revivals. — -'l//5//« PItclps. 
 
 Nashville, Fenn.; Dallas, Tex. 
 
 
 Publishing House of the M. E. Church, 
 
 South 
 
 Smith & Lam^r, Agents 
 
 
 1904 
 
 
Copyright, 1904, 
 By warren a. CANDLER. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 Preface 
 
 I. Religion and National Life . 
 II. A Nation Founded by Faith . 
 
 III. PvEVivals in the Old World Gave Rise 
 
 /TO Colonies in the New 
 
 IV. The Great Awakening . . 
 V. The Wesleyan Revival . 
 
 VI. The Great Revival of 1800 . 
 
 VII.^HE Revival of 1858 
 
 VIII. The Revival in the Days of Moody and 
 Sankey 
 
 IX. Evangelical Christianity the Security 
 OF THE Great Republic and the Hope 
 OF the World 
 
 X. The Next Great Awakening . 
 
 Index 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 25 
 
 41 
 
 101 
 
 161 
 203 
 
 281 
 
 281 
 309 
 329 
 
 (vii) 
 
PREFACE. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This volume is a study of American history 
 from a standpoint which has been generally 
 overlooked by writers upon both the secular 
 and the religious history of the United States. 
 
 It has been prepared with a view of doing 
 good to both Church and State by the promo- 
 tion of a pious patriotism and the stimulation of 
 a patriotic piety. In its pages, it is hoped, will 
 be found disclosed such a connection between 
 the religious history and the civil development 
 of the "Great Republic" as will inspire the 
 patriot with fresh devotion and move the Chris- 
 tian to renewed zeal. It is especially desired 
 that men of all classes and of all shades of 
 opinion may be led to a just appreciation of 
 that evangelical and evangelistic type of Chris- 
 tianity which must be the security of our insti- 
 tutions for the years to come, as it has been 
 their inspiration and preservation in the days 
 that are gone. It is believed that a careful and 
 unprejudiced consideration of the facts pre- 
 sented will lead to the conclusion that a revival- 
 istic religion— the prevalent form of Christian- 
 ity in American Churches— is at once the salva- 
 tion of our own country and the hope of other 
 lands. 
 
 (3) 
 
4 Authorities Belied On, 
 
 The authorities relied on to establish the 
 statements and confirm the inferences of the 
 book are sufficiently acknowledged in the cur- 
 rent of the discussion, but with a view to com- 
 mending the restudy of certain valuable works 
 — some of which, strangely enough, have been 
 permitted to drop out of print — the author makes 
 mention of his special indebtedness in the prep- 
 aration of this volume to "Religion in Amer- 
 ica," by Robert Baird; Tracy's "History of the 
 Great Awakening;" Jonathan Edwards's "On 
 Revivals;" Luke Tyerman's Biogi-aphies of 
 Whitefield and Wesley; "A Handbook of Re- 
 vivals," by Henry C. Fish, D.D.; "History of 
 American Christianity," by Leonard Woolsey 
 Bacon; "Christian Leaders of the Last Cen- 
 tury," by the Bishop of Liverpool; "Wesley 
 and Methodism," by Isaac Taylor; "Christian- 
 ity aid the Nation," by Bishop Charles B. 
 Galloway; "The Great Revival of 1800," by 
 William Speer, D.D.; "Christ in the Camp," 
 by Rev. J. William Jones, D.D. ; and the "Wes- 
 ley Memorial Volume," by J. O. A. Clark, 
 LL.D, Nothing outside the study of the Bible 
 itself could contribute more directly to the. pro- 
 motion of a national revival than a general and 
 prayerful perusal of these highly interesting 
 and exceedingly stimulating treatises. 
 
I. 
 
 RELIGION AND NATIONAL LIFE. 
 
To my miud the great epochs in the world's history 
 are marked not by the f oimdatiou or the destruction of 
 empires, by the migration of races, or by French rev- 
 ohitions. . . . The real history of man is the history 
 of religion. . . . This is the foundation that under- 
 lies all profane history; it is the light, the soul and life of 
 history; without it all history would be profane. — Max 
 Midler, ' 
 
 From history we learn that the great function of re- 
 ligion has been the founding and sustaining of States. 
 — Prof. Sceley. 
 
 Never was a State founded that did not have religion 
 as its basis. — Bousseau. 
 
 We know that religion is the basis of civil society 
 and the fruitful source of all blessing and comfort in 
 human intercourse. — Eclnnind Burke. 
 
 All political and social questions refer for their ulti- 
 mate solution to the religious principle. — Guizot. 
 (6) 
 
I. 
 
 RELIGION AND NATIONAL LIFE, 
 
 The forms and forces of national life take 
 their rise in the religion of the people. 
 
 National life is feeble or strong according as 
 the faith of the people is faint or vigorous. 
 The fruitful periods of a nation's history are 
 those during which religion is flourishing, and 
 periods of religious declension are marked by 
 the withering of all social and political vitality. 
 Literature and art have no such vital relation to 
 political institutions. They may flourish with- 
 out invigorating national life and fail without 
 enfeebling it. They have often attained to their 
 highest development during periods of national 
 decay, and some of their finest forms have 
 sprung up amid political ruins. But such is 
 not the case with religion. When it withers 
 the State wanes. When faith begins to perish, 
 all things else begin to die, as if the dew of 
 heaven had been denied, or the former and the 
 latter rain had been withheld. 
 
 This was manifest in the history of ancient 
 
 (7) 
 
8 Atheistic Governments Unsteady, 
 
 Israel, and not less so in the history of the 
 Grecian and Roman commonwealths. The book 
 of Judges in the Old Testament is a record of 
 backsliding and bondage, and of revivals and 
 restored prosperity. The annals of Greece and 
 Rome equally reveal the connection between a 
 loss of faith and a loss of power. Declension in 
 religion was followed by declension in morality, 
 and that, in turn, by the enfeebling of national 
 life and the loss of political freedom. 
 
 The history of modern France emphasizes the 
 lesson taught by the records of the world's 
 earlier governments. French governments have 
 lacked steadiness and stability because they were 
 not rooted in the depths of religion, from which 
 spring the conservative and inspiring powers of 
 national life. Lamartine lamented this fact in 
 the history of his people. He says: ''I know, 
 and I sigh when I think of it, that hitherto the 
 French people have been the least religious of 
 all the nations of Europe. . . . The repub- 
 lic of these men without a God was quickly 
 stranded. The liberty, won by so much hero- 
 ism and so much genius, did not find in France 
 a conscience to shelter it, a God to avenge it, a 
 people to defend it, against that atheism which 
 was called glory. " 
 
Faith of the Founders. 9 
 
 The founders of the American republic, which 
 has remained stable in spite of many shocks, 
 established it in a nobler spirit, and erected it 
 upon a more enduring basis. They recognized 
 the vital connection of national strength and 
 religious life, and cherished faith as the forma- 
 tive force of the nation. 
 
 At the outset of the War of Independence, 
 Congress, by formal action, expressed its desire 
 "to have the people of all ranks and degrees 
 duly impressed with a solemn sense of God's 
 superintending providence, and of their duty to 
 rely in all their lawful enterprises on his aid 
 and direction." Accordingly, a general fast 
 was proclaimed, that the people might, "with 
 united hearts, confess and bewail their manifold 
 sins and transgressions, and by a sincere re- 
 pentance and amendment of life appease God's 
 righteous displeasure, and through the merits 
 and mediation of Jesus Christ obtain his pardon 
 and forgiveness." 
 
 In the midst of the war General Washington 
 issued an order commanding a proper observ- 
 ance of the Sabbath by the army, and through- 
 out his illustrious career he gave the force of 
 both his precept and example to the mainte- 
 nance of Christian faith. 
 
10 FranJclin^s Speech, 
 
 In the Convention, assembled after the war to 
 frame the Federal Constitution, Benjamin Frank- 
 lin, then above eighty years of age, offered a 
 motion for daily prayers in the body, and, in 
 support of the Y)roposition, said: ''In the begin- 
 ning of the contest with Great Britain, when we 
 were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in 
 this room for divine protection. Our pra3^ers, 
 sir, were heard, and they were graciously an- 
 swered. All of us who were engaged in the 
 struggle must have observed the frequent in- 
 stances of a superintending Providence in our 
 favor. To that kind Providence we owe this 
 happy opportunity of consulting in peace on 
 the means of establishing our future national 
 felicity. And have we now forgotten this power- 
 ful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no 
 longer need his assistance? I have lived, sir, a 
 long time, and the longer I live the more con- 
 vincing proofs I see of this truth that God gov- 
 erns in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow 
 cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is 
 it possible that an empire can rise without his 
 aid? ^ye have been assured, sir, in the sacred 
 writings, that 'except the Lord build the house, 
 they labor in vain that build it.' 1 firmly be- 
 lieve this; and I also believe that without his 
 
Political Systems and Religious Faith, 11 
 
 concurring aid we shall succeed, in this po- 
 litical building, no better than the builders of 
 Babel." These were remarkable words, com- 
 ing from a man of liberalistic opinions. They 
 point to a prevalence of religious sentiment 
 which reached and affected the astutest among 
 the rationalists even. 3Ien who were descend- 
 ants of the first colonists could not rid themselves 
 of the convictions which had driven their ances- 
 tors to the New World, nor utterly renounce the 
 faith from which their colonial institutions had 
 sprung. They knew, as their forefathers had be- 
 lieved and taught, that commonwealths not 
 founded in religion rest precariously on shift- 
 ing sands. 
 
 It must be so. The deepest and most influ- 
 ential thing in the life of- any people is its re- 
 lio'ion, and its customs and codes must inevitably 
 be colored and controlled by its moral convictions. 
 Atheism breeds anarchy as like begets like, and 
 in all the gradations of civil government, from 
 the lowest absolutism to the highest types of 
 free institutions, the character of the political 
 system is exactly determined by the faith that 
 underlies it; 
 
 The governments of all heathen lands are 
 despotisms by the very law of their being. 
 
12 The Product and Propagcdor of Religion. 
 
 Civil freedom cannot live in an atmosphere of 
 pagan superstition. Nations that forget God 
 do thereby forge chains for their own hands. 
 
 And in the nominally Christian lands it will 
 be found that the power of political institutions 
 is in direct proportion to the purity of the 
 Christianity with which they coexist. Accord- 
 ing to the different degrees of religious intelli- 
 gence in the nations of Christendom will be 
 found the elevation or degradation of their po- 
 litical systems. Romanism has made South 
 America and Southern Europe what they are, 
 and Protestantism has made England, Germany, 
 Holland, and North America what they are. As 
 Romanism wanes in Italy, freedom waxes stron- 
 ger; but when a chill falls upon the Protestant 
 Churches of the United States, the moral vigor 
 of the nation is impaired. 
 
 From the widest observation of the political 
 systems of mankind, in all lands and in all times, 
 we derive, therefore, the generalization that 
 national life roots itself in religious conditions, 
 and that it is feeble or powerful according to 
 the religion from which it springs. Religion 
 makes and molds States; irreligion mars them. 
 With governments, as with individuals, godli- 
 ness with contentment is great gain. 
 
II. 
 
 A NATION FOUNDED BY FAITH. 
 
Religion gave birth to Anglo-American society. — M. 
 de Tocqueville. 
 
 They were driven forth from their fatherland, not by 
 earthly want or by the greed of gold or by the Inst of 
 adventure, but by the fear of God and the zeal for a 
 Godly worship. — From Green's ''Short History of the 
 English People.'" 
 
 It concerneth New England always to remember that 
 she is a religious plantation and not a plantation of 
 trade. The profession of purity of doctrine, worship, 
 and discipline is written upon her forehead. — From 
 Prijicc's ''Christian History.'"' 
 
 A work which may, by the Providence of Almighty 
 God, hereafter tend to the glory of His Divine Majesty 
 in the propagating of the Christian religion to such 
 people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance 
 of the true knowledge and worship of God. — One of the 
 reasons assigned for the grant m the first charter of the 
 Colony of Virginia. 
 
 It is remarkable that in every charter granted to the 
 
 Southeru Colonies the "propagation of the gospel" is 
 
 mentioned as one of the reasons for undertaking the 
 
 planting of them. — FromDaird's "Religion in America.^* 
 
 (U) 
 
11. 
 
 A NATION FOUNDED BY FAITH. 
 
 "The great migrations of mankind,'^ says 
 Golclwin Smith, "are the great epochs of his- 
 tory." To the same pm'pose speaks Whipple, 
 affirming that "there was never a great migra- 
 tion which did not give rise to a new form of 
 national life." These observations are abun- 
 dantly confirmed by the history of that migra- 
 tion which has resulted in the American Repub- 
 lic. It gave rise to a unique form of national 
 life, in exact conformity to its own moral char- 
 acter. 
 
 This migration, the greatest in the history of 
 mankind, was not begun under the obscuring 
 mists of a remote past; it began in the open, be- 
 fore the eyes of the nations of modern times, and 
 it is not clouded by the uncertain myths and 
 doubtful traditions of a prehistoric period. We 
 know with absolute certainty its origin and the 
 course it has run. We may analyze with accu- 
 racy the forces which gave rise to it and mark 
 with precision the flow of its current. And it 
 
 is beyond question that religion was the prime 
 
 (15) 
 
16 "Great in Their Unconsciousness,** 
 
 and moving cause that gave rise to the migra- 
 tion which, beginning with the Jamestown and 
 Plymouth settlements and continuing to the 
 present time, has created the republican nation 
 known as the United States. The call of Abra- 
 ham and his departure from Chaldea, and the 
 exodus from Eg^^pt, while attended by more 
 miraculous circumstances, were no more truly re • 
 ligious events than the founding of the American 
 colonies. The coming of the colonists was a 
 movement from religious impulses as devout 
 and far more intelligent than the inspiration 
 which produced the Crusades, and it can scarce- 
 ly be doubted that the religious results which 
 have followed their coming will affect the des- 
 tiny of mankind during the centuries to come, 
 when the influence of the Crusaders will be an 
 utterly spent force. 
 
 The colonists did not go to make a republic, 
 nor did they come with any preconceived plans 
 of political government. Following God, they 
 founded States almost unconsciously and builded 
 more wisely than they knew. In his noble ad- 
 dress entitled ''The Founders Great in Their Un- 
 consciousness" Horace Bushnell has stated the 
 case of all in describing that of the New En- 
 gland colonists. ''Their end," he says, "was re- 
 
''The Last Effort of Divine Providence" 17 
 
 ligion, simply and only religion. Out upon the 
 lone ocean, feeling their way cautiously, as it 
 were, through the unknown waves, exploring in 
 their busy fancies and their prayers the equally 
 unknown future before them, they as little con- 
 ceived that they had in their ship the germ of a 
 vast republic that in two centuries would com- 
 mand the respect and attract the longing desires 
 of the nations, as that they saw with their eyes 
 the lonely wastes about them whitening with the 
 sails and foaming under the swift ships of that 
 republic already become the first commercial 
 power of the world. ... No! they crossed 
 the sea in God's name only, sent by Him, as 
 they believed, to be the voice of one crying in 
 the wilderness, 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord, 
 make his paths straight.' But whither those 
 straightened paths will lead and in what shape 
 the new kingdom of the Lord will come, they 
 as little conceive as John the Baptist himself." 
 It is impossible to form an adequate concep- 
 tion of this far-reaching movement to the shores 
 of North America if the providential purpose of 
 God or the pious submission of the colonists to 
 the divine direction be left out of the account. 
 Emerson is not extravagant when he declares: 
 "Our whole history appears like a last effort 
 2 
 
18 Neither the Bich nor the Babble. 
 
 of Divine Providence in behalf of the human 
 race." In the colonization out of which came 
 the Great Republic, Providence selected the best 
 stocks of the Old World for the purpose of the 
 divine kingdom in the New World. By perse- 
 cutions and trials of faith, a process of election 
 was operated, whereby a chosen seed was secured 
 for a land prepared and reserved to be the home 
 of a type of evangelical religion such as had 
 not been in the earth for centuries. 
 
 With what precision that process worked to 
 its end is seen in the character of the emigrants 
 who constituted at the first the primal germ of 
 the nascent nation, whose aftergrow^th has been 
 conformed to the original type which they gave 
 to it. After a careful analysis of their colonial 
 charters, customs, and laws, Dr. Robert Baird, 
 in his monumental work entitled "Religion in 
 America," thus summarizes their case: 
 
 "1. They were not composed of the rich, the 
 voluptuous,the idle, the effeminate, and the prof- 
 ligate; neither were they, generally speaking, 
 composed of poor, spiritless, dependent, and 
 helpless persons. They rather came from that 
 middle class of society, which is placed in the 
 happy medium between sordid poverty and over- 
 grown wealth. They knew that whatever com- 
 
Virtuous and Religious, 19 
 
 fort or enjoyment they could look for in the 
 New World was only to be attained by the bless- 
 ing of God upon their industry, frugality, and 
 temperance. 
 
 "2. They were not an ignorant rabble, such 
 as many ancient and some modern States have 
 been obliged to expel from their borders. Taken 
 in the mass, they were well-informed — many of 
 them remarkably so for the age in which they 
 lived and which in the case of none of them was 
 an age of. darkness. . . . With few excep- 
 tions, they had acquired the elements of a good 
 education. There were few persons in any of 
 the colonies that could not read. 
 
 "3. They were a virtuous people; not a vicious 
 herd, such as used to be sent out by ancient 
 States and such as chiefly colonized South Amer- 
 ica and Mexico — men of unbridled passions and 
 ' slaves to the basest lusts. The morality of the 
 early colonists of the United States was unri- 
 valed in any connnunity of equal extent and has 
 been lauded by almost all who have written about 
 them, as well as by those who have governed 
 them. 
 
 "4. They were religious men. They believed 
 and felt that Christianity is no vain fancy — a 
 fact that holds true even as respects those of 
 
20 Bihh-Reading Protestants. 
 
 them with whom religious motives were not the 
 chief motive for expatriating themselves. The 
 overwhelming majority stood acquitted of the 
 slightest approach to infidelity. Neither were , 
 they what are called ' philosophers,' attempting 
 to propagate certain new theories respecting hu- 
 man society and suggesting new methods for 
 rendering it perfect. By far the greater num- 
 ber of them were simple Christians, who knew 
 of no way by which men can be good or happy 
 but that pointed out by God in his Word. 
 
 "5. AVith few exceptions, the first colonists 
 were Protestants; indeed, Lord Baltimore's was 
 the only Roman Catholic colony, and even in it 
 the Romanists formed but a small minority long 
 before the Revolution of 1775. The great mass 
 had sacrificed much — some their all — for the 
 Protestant faith. They were Protestants in the 
 sense of men who took the Bil^le for their guide 
 and who believed what it taught, not what hu- 
 man authority put in its place. 'What saith 
 the Lord?' This was what they desired to know 
 first of all and above all. And it was the 
 study of the Bible that opened their eyes to 
 truths that bore upon every possible relation of 
 life and upon every duty. And while they 
 learned from the Bible what were their duties. 
 
Asylums for the Persecuted, 21 
 
 so they learned also what were their rights. 
 This led them at once to practice the former and 
 to demand the latter. 
 
 "6. The great majority of them had suffered 
 much oppression and persecution, and in that se- 
 vere ])ut effectual school had learned lessons not 
 to be acquired in any other. It had led them to 
 question many things to which otherwise their 
 thoughts might never have been directed, and it 
 gave them irresistible power of argument in fa- 
 vor of the right of the human mind to freedom 
 of thought. Indeed it is remarkable how large 
 a proportion of the early colonists were driven 
 from Europe by oppression. Although Virginia 
 and the Carolinas were not expressly established 
 as asylums for the wronged, yet during the com- 
 monwealth in England they afforded a refuge 
 to the 'Cavalier' and the 'Churchman,' as they 
 did afterwards to the Huguenot and the German 
 Protestant. Georgia was colonized as an asylum 
 for the imprisoned and 'persecuted Protestants;' 
 Maryland as the home of persecuted Roman 
 Catholics; and the colony of Gustavus Adolphus 
 was to be a general blessing to the 'whole Prot- 
 estant world,' by offering a shelter to all who 
 stood in need of one. Even New York, though 
 founded by Dutch merchants, with an eye to 
 
22 Exiled for Freedom and Faith, 
 
 trade alonej^ opened its arms to the persecuted 
 Bohemian and to the inhabitants of the Italian 
 valleys. So that, in fact, all of these colonies 
 were originally peopled more or less, and some 
 of them exclusively, by the victims of oppres- 
 sion and persecution; hence the remark of one of 
 our historians (Bancroft) is no less just than 
 eloquent, that 'tyrann}^ and injustice peopled 
 America with men nurtured in suffering and ad- 
 versity. The history of our colonization is the 
 history of the crimes of Europe.' 
 
 " 7. Though incapable of emancipating them- 
 selves from all the prejudices and errors of past 
 ages, with respect to the rights of conscience, 
 they were at least in advance of the rest of the 
 world on these points, and founded an empire in 
 which religious liberty is at this day more fully 
 enjoyed than anywhere else — in short, is in every 
 respect perfect. 
 
 "8. Lastly, of the greater number of the 
 early colonists it may be said that they expatri- 
 ated themselves from the Old World, not mere- 
 ly to find liberty of conscience in the forests of 
 the New, but that they might extend the king- 
 dom of Christ by founding States where the 
 Truth should not be impeded by the hindrances 
 which opposed its progress elsewhere. This 
 
Pilgrims of Faith. 23 
 
 was remarkably the case of the Puritans of New 
 England; but a like spirit animated the pious 
 men who settled in other parts of the country. 
 They looked to futurity and caught glimpses of 
 the glorious progress which the gospel was to 
 make among their children and children's chil- 
 dren. This comforted them in sorrow and sus- 
 tained them under trials. They lived by faith, 
 and their hope was not disappointed." 
 
 It is thus evident how the Great Republic, in 
 the earliest stages of its history, was formed by 
 religion and conformed to the Word of God. 
 As no other of modern times, it is a nation 
 founded by faith. As soon as the first settlers 
 who came to the Western world had landed, pub- 
 lic worship was commenced and Churches were 
 organized. The place of religious service was 
 from the first center of life in the colonies. 
 Thither went the entire population every Sab- 
 bath, and in some of the colonies citizenship 
 was conditioned on Church membership. They 
 professed, as the controlling motive for their 
 coming into the wilderness, "a great hope and 
 inward zeal they had of laying some good foun- 
 dation (or at least to make some way thereunto) 
 for propagating and advancing the gospel of the 
 kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the 
 
24 Moses the Model. 
 
 world." The corner stones of their civilization 
 were liberty and law, education and religion. 
 The laws of Moses were the models of their 
 codes, and the doing of God's will was the aim 
 of their endeavor. They sought to fashion their 
 lives according to the pattern of the mount, and, 
 working by faith, builded more wisely than they 
 knew and attained to the greatness of 
 " Souls destined to o'erleap the vulgar lot 
 And mold the world unto the scheme of God." 
 
III. 
 
 REVIVALS IN THE OLD WORLD GAVE 
 . RISE TO COLONIES IN THE NEW. 
 
These meu came out from amid great awakenings; 
 and after the first plantations every arrival from the 
 old country brought them news of the revivals which 
 took place under the Bunyans and Baxters of England. 
 —Henry C. Fish, D.D. 
 
 The period of the settlement of this country was 
 singularly identical with that of the breaking up of the 
 old religious life of Europe. Indeed, since the Crusades, 
 the Old World had passed through no such convulsions 
 as shook her whole religious, political, intellectual, and 
 social framework at a time when every nation was 
 sending forth her sons — albeit, many exiles in the num- 
 ber — to establish themselves on the Atlantic coast of 
 this continent. It was not from any stagnant nations 
 that immigrants came to our wooded shores, but from, 
 stirred and aroused peoples. . . . Europe's best 
 blood was hot with aspirations — we might better call 
 them inspirations — at the very moment when this new 
 field was opened for the greatest fulfillment in modern 
 history. — Bisho]? Jolin F. Hurst. 
 
 When the colonies in America were planted, both 
 from England and the Continent, the people who con- 
 stituted them arrived at the moment of Europe's awak- 
 ening. They brought the best aspirations of the Old 
 World, and determined to realize them in the New. 
 The hour of American colonization was the fittest one 
 in all modern times for the New World to receive the 
 best which the Old World had to give.— Ibid. 
 (26) 
 
III. 
 
 REVIVALS IN THE OLD WORLD GAVE RISE TO 
 COLONIES IN THE NEW. 
 
 Whence came these founders to the shores 
 of North America ? 
 
 With reference to their former residence, 
 and speaking geographically, the most of them 
 came from the British Isles — in the main, from 
 England. So predominant were these English 
 elements that as late as 1775 four-fifths of the peo- 
 ple were of British origin and spoke the English 
 language. In the earlier days the proportion of 
 English to the whole population was even larger. 
 
 Having reference to their ecclesiastical ante- 
 cedents and their religious position, they were 
 cast on these shores by the expulsive forces of 
 the Reformation and the religious convulsions 
 in Europe consequent upon that mighty move- 
 ment. 'Most of them were Protestants, and 
 Protestants of the most evangelical type. In 
 this fact was found the main cause of their 
 coming to America. 
 
 The Reformation had set all Europe in a fer- 
 ment. Before it began Christianity had been 
 
 connected with the State in all European lands, 
 
 (27) 
 
28 Persecuting Popes and Princes, 
 
 and the papal throne was higher than that of 
 any secular prince or sovereign. The Pope as- 
 sumed to confer crowns and to exercise lord- 
 ship over kings. The supreme pontiff was a 
 sort of king of kings as well as the head of 
 the Church. Dissent from the dogmas of Ro- 
 manism was a civil offense as well as an ec- 
 clesiastical sin. Heresy was a crime. A dread- 
 ful absolutism extended its rule over the human 
 mind and soul, enforcing its decrees with the 
 power of the civil arm. Against this ecclesias- 
 tical monarchy by which the spirits of men were 
 enslaved, and to which crowned heads bowed, 
 the Reformation was a revolt. In the very 
 nature of things, such a movement was resisted 
 by the hand of persecution. The Pope and his 
 subservient allies were bound to join hands 
 against it. Princes who derived influence from 
 papal recognition took up arms to suppress it. 
 The superstitious multitudes, who knew nothing 
 of the faith that justifies, were aroused to fury 
 against it by the appeals of priests whose craft 
 and gains were endangered by it. The vicious 
 opposed it because of its purity. Its adherents 
 at first were found only among that class which 
 is always in the minority — the men who are 
 too intelligent to believe fables, too pure to in- 
 
The Beligioiis Element Dominant. 29 
 
 dalge vice, and too loyal to God to fear earthly 
 usurpers of divine authority. 
 
 Such men can no more fail in a work of faith 
 than they can escape the persecution of the faith- 
 less. Therefore, the movement speedily attained 
 to the magnitude of a moral revolution. Into it 
 at length were swept the masses and the classes. 
 Some princes, even, who had long been restive un- 
 der papal pretensions, availed themselves of the 
 opportunity to rid themselves of a galling yoke. 
 Political elements thus entered into what, in the 
 beginning, was a revival of spiritual religion, and 
 that alone. But the religious element was al- 
 ways dominant, and the heavenly fire within it 
 increased the heat of the earthly flames which 
 burned every where. It was an era of fierce con- 
 troversies and not of tepid religious convictions. 
 And it inaugurated an epoch during which 
 evangelical faith steadily advanced in clearness 
 of vision, and purity of life through a succession 
 of struggles and triumphs which may be justly 
 called revivals. This was especially true in 
 England and Scotland, where Eidley and Lati- 
 mer and Cranmer and Knox wrought righteous- 
 ness and subdued kingdoms, and where the Pu- 
 ritans and the Covenanters subsequently con- 
 tended earnestly for the faith once delivered to 
 
30 From Sires to Sons, 
 
 the saints. From these revival centers, and out 
 of these fights of faith, driven by persecution 
 and drawn by the hope of religious freedom, 
 came the first colonists to America. 
 
 Grandsires of the men who composed the 
 Jamestown settlement were contemporaries of 
 the Protestant martyrs of the British Isles. The 
 hearts of these settlers in the New World had 
 been stirred by stories of the stormy times 
 and the heroic deeds of their ancestors. Perhaps 
 from eyewitnesses of those martyrdoms some 
 of the first colonists had heard how, "without 
 Bocardo Gate," opposite Baliol College, on a 
 day in October, 1555, the dauntless and saintly 
 Latimer had died, exclaiming to his companion 
 in suffering and glory: "Be of good comfort, 
 Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this 
 day light such a candle, by God's grace, in 
 England, as, I trust, shall never be put out." 
 From the lips of saintly sires mayhap others 
 had heard the story of Rowland Taylor, the 
 good Vicar of Hadleigh, who went to his death, 
 by burning, amid the lamentations of his parish- 
 ioners, who burst out crying: "Ah, good Lord, 
 there goeth our shepherd from us! God save 
 thee, good Dr. Taylor; God strengthen thee 
 and help thee; the Holy Ghost comfort thee!" 
 
"The People of a Boohr 31 
 
 The colonists themselves had suffered persecu- 
 tions Avhich, though less fierce, were not less per- 
 sistent than the trials endured by their holy sires. 
 They had been hindered by bitter opposition 
 and helped by great revivals, as had their fore- 
 fathers been hindered and helped. Particularly 
 they had been affected by a revival, the iuilu- 
 ence of which is felt throughout the English- 
 speaking world to the present moment. They had 
 been inspired and enlightened by the great revival 
 which the extraordinary reading of the Bible had 
 produced in England during the last quarter of the 
 sixteenth century. Of that period, Green, in his 
 "Short History of the English People,'' says: 
 "Ko greater moral change ever passed over a 
 nation than passed over England during the 
 years which parted the reign of Elizabeth from 
 the meeting of the Long Parliament. England 
 became the people of a book, and that book was 
 the Bible. It was yet the one English book 
 which was familiar to every Englishman; it was 
 read at churches and read at home, and every- 
 where its words, as they fell on ears which cus- 
 tom had not deadened, kindled a startling en- 
 thusiasm. . . . The whole moral effect 
 which is produced nowadays by the religious 
 newspaper, the tract, the essay, the lecture, the ' 
 
32 Meu of Like Mold. 
 
 missionary report, the sermon, was then pro- 
 duced by the Bible alone; and its effect in this 
 way, hoAvever dispassionately Ave may examine 
 it, was simply amazing. One dominant influ- 
 ence told on human action; and all the activi- 
 ties that had been called into life by the age that 
 was passing away were seized, concentrated, and 
 steadied to a definite aim by the spirit of re- 
 ligion. The whole temper of the nation felt 
 the change. A new conception of life and of 
 man superseded the old. A new moral and re- 
 ligious impulse spread through every class." 
 
 With such memories, and from amid such 
 events and influences, came the first colonists to 
 Jamestown in 1607, and to Plymouth in 1620. 
 In the years that followed they drew after 
 them men of like mind and mold. From the 
 moment of their establisjhment in the New 
 World the eyes of the pious and persecuted 
 Protestants in every part of Northern Europe, 
 and especially the eyes of their kindred fellow- 
 Christians in England, were fixed upon. them. 
 Drawn by the bonds of a common faith and 
 natural affection, multitudes of congenial spirits 
 soon hastened to join them in their Western 
 home. Besides their friends and kinsmen from 
 Enofland, there flocked after them Huo^uenots 
 
The Reformation a Revival, 33 
 
 from France, pious Swedes, saintly Swiss, and 
 devout Dutch, together with sturdy Scotch 
 and ardent spirits from the north of Ireland. 
 The colonies which were the offspring of 
 evangelical religion were thereby strengthened 
 and replenished with a like precious faith. — n| 
 
 It thus appears that the founding of the 
 colonies at the first, and their subsequent 
 growth during the first century of their exist- 
 ence, were the results of great revivals of re- 
 ligion. As has been intimated, the Reforma- 
 tion itself was, strictly speaking, a revival, 
 and gave rise to a series of movements from 
 which have been developed the evangelical .type 
 of life and the evangelistic methods of propa- 
 gating Christianity which are to-day the hope 
 of the world. It is a great mistake to consider 
 that mighty revolution to have been only a 
 change of speculative tenets, or a secular strug- 
 gle, under the pretense of religion, for freedom 
 of thought only. True, purification of doctrine 
 and liberty of conscience were involved, but 
 only because of the deep spiritual struggle which 
 underlay them. It was the personal and intense 
 struggle of souls, hungering and thirsting after 
 righteousness, which, at the outset, raised the 
 
 great issues between the Romanists and the Re- 
 3 
 
34 The Bevival in Scotland, 
 
 formers. Not since the days of the apostles 
 were so many souls anxiously inquiring, " What 
 must we do to be saved '^ " and never before were 
 there so many genuine conversions. The cor- 
 respondence of the Reformers, especially that 
 of Luther and Calvin, shows that much of their 
 time was spent giving counsel to inquiring souls 
 and leading such souls to Christ. The subjects 
 uppermost in their discussions were just those 
 themes which to this day are considered of par- 
 amount importance in a revival season. 
 
 The Reformation in Scotland bore the same 
 marks. Kirkton says of it: ''The whole nation 
 was converted by lump. Lo! here a nation 
 born in one day; yea, molded into one congre- 
 gation, and sealed as a fountain with a solemn 
 oath and covenant." Fleming, in his "Fulfill- 
 ing of Scripture," says: "It is astonishing, and 
 should be matter of wonder and praise for after 
 ages, to consider that solemn time of the Refor- 
 mation (in Scotland) when the Lord began to 
 visit his Church. What a swift course the 
 spreading of the kingdom of Christ had; and 
 how professors of the truth thronged in amidst 
 the greatest threatenings of those on whose side 
 authority and power then was!" In Holland, 
 France, and Switzerland a similar spirit pre- 
 
Revival Centers and Preachers, 35 
 
 vailed among the reformers. We may be sm*e 
 that it was not for mere speculative dogmas, or 
 for motives of faction, that men endured torture 
 and gave themselves to death. Nothing less 
 than the personal experience of that 'Moving- 
 kindness of God" which "is better than life" 
 could have nerved them for the mighty struggles 
 through which they passed on behalf of the 
 freedom of the faith. If dogma was dear to 
 them, it was because it was the symbol of loyalty 
 to the Lord of life and salvation. 
 
 In the British Isles, whence most of the early 
 colonists came, the contest between evangelical 
 Christianity and its enemies was longest and 
 fiercest. There, also, were the triumphs of a 
 pure faith most signal and fruitful. In the cen- 
 tury in which the first colonies were founded 
 there were many revival centers from which the 
 ranks of the colonists were constantly recruited. 
 Such men as Richard Baxter, John Owen, John 
 Bunyan, John Howe, and John Flavei called sin- 
 ners to repentance and edified the Churches of 
 England in ministries of great power. Their 
 writings, which remain, reveal how evangelical 
 were their teachings, how fervent was their spirit, 
 and how abundant were their labors. The va- 
 rious acts of Parliament leveled aojainst such 
 
36 Fused in Revival Fires 
 
 pious endeavors show how bitterly they were op- 
 posed, and those statutes reveal also how great 
 was the influence of those flaming evangelists 
 and their followers. The Act of Uniformity, 
 passed in 1662 and strenuously enforced for 
 twenty-five years, the Conventicle Act, passed 
 in 166tl:, and the Five Mile Act, passed in 1665, 
 all show how persistent and how ineffectual was 
 the persecution of those mighty men who stood 
 for a pure faith in a corrupt age. This proscrip- 
 tive legislation did also send to the American 
 colonies some of the choicest spirits that the 
 world ever saw. They had been fused and fash- 
 ioned in revival fii-es, and they came to the New 
 World in the spirit of the evangelism by which 
 they had been encompassed from birth, and for 
 which they and their fathers had suffered so much. 
 Of how nearly the revivals of this period of 
 British history resemble the revivals of our day 
 we may judge by reading the accounts of a re- 
 vival which prevailed in the north of Ireland in 
 1625. It was from the labors of a company of 
 faithful men who went over from Scotland — 
 Brice, Glendenning, Ridge, Blair, and others. 
 They began in Ulster, and endeavored with apos- 
 tolic zeal to evangelize the whole island. The 
 work continued for a considerable time, and of 
 
Harvests and Harvesters 3? 
 
 it Stewart says: "The ministers were indefati- 
 gable in improving the favorable opportunity 
 thus offered for extending the knowledge and in- 
 fluence of the gospel. The people, awakened 
 and inquiring, many of them both desponding 
 and alarmed, both desired and needed guidance 
 and instruction. The judicious exhibition of 
 evangelical doctrine^ and promises by these 
 faithful men was in due time productive of those 
 happy and tranquilizing effects which were early 
 predicted as the characteristic of gospel times. 
 Adopting the beautiful imagery of the prophets, 
 the broken-hearted were bound up and comfort- 
 ed, the spirit of bondage and of fear gave way 
 to a spirit of freedom and of love, the oil of joy 
 was poured forth instead of mourning, and the 
 spirit of heaviness exchanged for the garments 
 of praise and thankfulness." 
 
 In the same year there was in Scotland a great 
 work of grace which, from the place of its be- 
 ginning — Stewarton — was named by the godless 
 as the "Stewarton Sickness." Of this move- 
 ment Fleming says: "Truly this great spring- 
 tide, as I may call it, of the gospel was not of a 
 short time, but of some years' continuance; yea, 
 .thus, like a spreading moor-burn, the power of 
 godliness did advance from one place to another, 
 
38 Stewarton and Kidderminster 
 
 which put a marvelous luster on those parts of 
 the country, the savor whereof brought many 
 from other parts of the land to see its truth." 
 
 Of the same sort was Baxter's work at Kidder- 
 minster. He himself gives us a glimpse of it in 
 these words: "The congregation was usually 
 full, so that we were led to build five galleries 
 after my coming hither, the church itself being 
 very capacious — the most commodious and con- 
 venient that ever I was in. Our private meet- 
 ings were also full. On the Lord's day there 
 was no disorder to be seen in the streets, but you 
 might hear a hundred families singing psalms 
 and repeating sermons as you passed through 
 the streets." Of the extent of his influence we 
 may draw some inference from the fact that in a 
 time when the population of England was not 
 nearly so dense as now, nor reading nearly so 
 general, his great work entitled "A Call to the 
 Unconverted" attained a circulation of twenty 
 thousand copies within the first twelvemonth 
 after its publication. What must have been the 
 popular interest in the subject to secure so great 
 and so speedy a circulation for a work of that 
 kind! How powerfully must his call have af- 
 fected the nation, and especially that class of the 
 people who were migrating to America! 
 
Bevivals at Northampton 39 
 
 These facts all go to show how true is the 
 statement that the first colonists, who gave to 
 the rising commonwealths in the New World 
 their initial type of life, which type has domi- 
 nated and assimilated to itself all subsequent im- 
 migration, "came out of great awakenings." 
 
 The colonists were not unaccustomed to reviv- 
 als when they came, nor were they startled when 
 similar works of grace appeared among them in 
 the New World. The "Venerable Stoddard," 
 grandfather of Jonathan Edwards and the pas- 
 tor of the Church at Northampton (where the 
 great awakening of 1740 began) from 1672 to 
 1729, had, daring the nearly sixty years of his 
 ministry, five sweeping revivals in his parish. 
 In his "Narrative of the Surprising Work of 
 God," Jonathan Edwards thus alludes to these 
 seasons of grace in the ministry of his grand- 
 father: "As he was eminent and renowned for 
 his gifts and graces, so he was blessed from the 
 beginning with extraordinary success in his min- 
 istry in the conversion of many souls. He had 
 five harvests, as he called them: the first was 
 about fifty-seven years ago, the second about 
 fifty-three years, the third about forty, the 
 fourth about twenty-four, and the fifth and last 
 about eighteen years ago. Some of these times 
 
40 Apostolic Succession of Revivals 
 
 were much more remarkable than others, and the 
 ingathering of souls more plentiful. Those that 
 were about fifty-three, forty, and twenty-four 
 years ago were much gi-eater than either the first 
 or the last; but in each of them, L have heard 
 my grandfather say, the greater part of the 
 young people in the town seemed to be mainly 
 concerned for their eternal salvation." Reckon- 
 ing, therefore, from the date of the "Narrative" 
 by Edwards, we find there were harvest times 
 at Northampton in 1679, 1683, 1696, 1712, and 
 1718. 
 
 These revivals were not novelties to the colo- 
 nists nor breaks in their religious history, but 
 they were fruits of the religious awakenings in 
 the Old World and forerunners of the great 
 awakening which presently came to the New. 
 They sprang up amid tender memories and holy 
 ancestral traditions, and they renewed in the 
 hearts of the colonists the fervent experiences 
 of their forefathers. They are links in that 
 apostolical succession of revivals which stretch- 
 es from the Reformation to the great awaken- 
 ings of the eighteenth century. 
 
lY. 
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 (41) 
 
The •work is very glorious if vre consider the extent 
 of it, being in tliis respect vastl}^ ]:>eyond an}' former 
 outpouring of tlie Spirit that ever was knoTv^n in New 
 England. There has formerly sometimes been a re- 
 markable awakening and success of the means of grace 
 in some particular congregation, and this used to be 
 much taken notice of and acknowledged to be glorious, 
 though the towns and congregations round about con- 
 tinued dead; but now God lias l)rought to pass a new 
 thing; he has wrought a great work of this nature, that 
 has extended from one end of the land to the other, be- 
 sides Avhat has been wrought in other British Colonies 
 in America. — JonatlLcin Edwards. 
 
 In the period before the awakening, the sole organ 
 of follov.'ship reaching through the whole chain of the 
 British Colonies was the correspondence of the Quaker 
 meetings and missionaries. In the glow of the revival 
 the continent awoke to the consciousness of a common 
 spiritual life. Ranging the continent literally, from 
 Georgia to Maine, with all his weaknesses and indiscre- 
 tions, and witli his incomparable eloquence, welcomed 
 by ever}'' sect, yet refusing an exclusive allegiance to 
 any, Whitefield exercised a true apostolate, bearing 
 daily the care of all the Churches, and becoming a mes- 
 senger of mutual fellowship, not only between the ends 
 of the continent, but between the Christians of two 
 hemispheres. Remote Churches exchanged offices of 
 service. Tennent came from New Jersey to labor in 
 New England; Dickinson and Burr and Edwards were 
 the gift of the Northern Colonies to the college at 
 Princeton. The quickened sense of a common religious 
 life and duty and destiny Avas no small part of the 
 preparation for the birth of the future n^iiion.— Leon- 
 ard Woolsey Bacon, in ''A History of American Chris- 
 tianity. '' 
 
 (42) • 
 
IV. 
 
 THE GREAT AWAKEN^ING. 
 
 Notwithstanding the revivals in the Old 
 World out of which the first colonists had come 
 to the New, notwithstanding the heroic and pious 
 purposes which had inspired their coming, and 
 notwithstanding the seasons of grace and the ex- 
 ercise of religion which they had enjoyed after 
 their arrival, in the second and third generations 
 following them w^as seen the most grievous 
 moral and religious deterioration. Their fa- 
 thers had fled to the wilderness to secure freedom 
 of faith, but their descendants had turned liberty 
 into license. 
 
 Migrations are periods of great peril to spirit- 
 ual life. The transplanting of the best human 
 stocks is attended with the greatest moral dan- 
 gers. An emigrant people in a new and strange 
 land are cut off from those vitalizing forces of 
 life which issue from a well-established social 
 system and which can be supplied from no other 
 source. Restraints that are wholesome are thrown 
 off and associations are contracted upon other 
 than moral bases. Dire necessity is invoked to 
 excuse misconduct, and friendships are estab- 
 
 (43) 
 
44: Peculiar t)angers and Difficulties 
 
 lished in bonds of desperate need rather than in 
 spiritual affinity. ''All the old roots of local 
 love and historic feeling, the joints and bands 
 that minister nourishment, are left behind, and' 
 nothing remains to organize a living growth but 
 the two unimportant incidents, proximity and a 
 common interest." 
 1 Besides these perils, which inhere in all mi- 
 / grations, the American colonists were beset by 
 \ difficulties peculiarly their own and arising from 
 the unprecedented conditions with which they 
 were surrounded. No colonists had ever before 
 removed so far from their original seats or been 
 so effectually separated from the lands that sent 
 them forth. They had no central government 
 to bind them together in anything akin to na- 
 tional unity, but, on the contrary, were divided 
 into separate and jealous colonies of divers ec- 
 clesiastical orders until their religious convic- 
 tions became, by reason of excessive intenseness, 
 a peril to their souls. They reached a point at 
 length where they would hate men for a dogma 
 and sin for a sect. The French and Indian wars 
 had fed all the fiercest passions of human nature 
 within them and relaxed all moral convictions 
 and restraints. Manners became coarse and 
 mental cultivation w^as sadly neglected. A wild 
 
Eagles Turning to Oivls 45 
 
 and adventurous spirit possessed the people as 
 morals declined and religion decayed. Secret 
 apostasies and flagrant sins corrupted and enfee- 
 bled the Churches. Intemperance,prof ane swear- 
 ing, licentiousness, and every form of vice pre- 
 vailed as never before in their history. The 
 first race was gone and its successors of the sec- 
 ond and third generation were of a distinctly 
 lower type. "We feel, in short, that we have 
 descended to an inferior race. It is somewhat 
 as if a nest of eagles had been filled with a brood 
 of owls." 
 
 Such were the moral conditions on the eve 
 of the great awakening. In seeking to 
 make religious commonwealths, citizenship had 
 been by the founders conditioned on Church 
 membership, and, as is always and inevitably 
 the result in such methods, citizenship had not 
 been elevated to a nobler level, but Church mem- 
 bership had been degraded to the low plane of 
 political expedient. Even the "Venerable Stod- 
 dard" had been corrupted in doctrine by 
 the pressure of such a situation, and had pub- 
 lished a sermon in which he maintained that 
 " sanctification is not a necessary qualification 
 to partaking of the Lord's Supper," and that 
 "the Lord's Supper is a converting ordinance." 
 
46 A^i Evil Leaven 
 
 Such teaching accorded well with the popular 
 desire to enjoy the credit and secure the advan- 
 tages of Church membership without the expe- 
 rience of personal piety or the inconveniences 
 imposed by a life of self-denial. The godless 
 spirit of the times, coupled with his command- 
 ing influence, spread the evil leaven far and wide, 
 and a subtle sacramentarianism, mingled with 
 a pervasive power, derived from the political 
 motives in which it was originated, filled the 
 Churches with an unconverted membership and 
 threatened the very life of religion wherever it 
 came. Men felt no need of any justification 
 or new birth beyond what submission to the 
 ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper 
 offered, and the vital experience of godliness 
 was lost in a conventional observance of reli- 
 gious ceremonials. The sense of sin was dead- 
 ened and the need of salvation was scarcely felt. 
 Dr. Increase Mather, in a book entitled "Tne 
 Glory Departing from New England," bewailed 
 the situation on this wise: ""We are the pos- 
 terity of the good old Puritan Nonconformists 
 in England, who were a strict and holy people. 
 Such were our fathers who followed the Lord 
 into the wilderness. O, New England, New 
 England, look to it that the glory be not re- 
 
Dawning of the Day, 47 
 
 moved from thee, for it begins to go! O, de- 
 generate New England, what art thou come to 
 at this day! How are those sins become so 
 common in thee that were not so much as heard 
 of in this land!" Of the state of religion in 
 New Jersey, Jonathan Dickinson reports: "Re- 
 ligion was in a very low state, professors gener- 
 ally dead and lifeless, and the body of our peo- 
 ple careless, carnal, and secure." The case in 
 Pennsylvania Rev. Samuel Blair thus sadly states: 
 "Religion lay, as it were, dying, and ready to 
 expire its last breath of life in this part of the 
 visible Church." The same conditions obtained 
 everywhere throughout all the colonies, from 
 New England to the far South. 
 
 But, despite the general deadness in the 
 Churches, here and there were not a few devout 
 men whose hearts God had touched. They be- 
 gan about the year 1730 to revive the all but 
 forgotten doctrine of justification by faith and 
 to call men to repentance. Most prominent 
 among these may be mentioned Jonathan Ed- 
 wards, the Tennents (Gilbert and William), 
 Bellamy, Griswold, Wheelock, Robinson, and 
 Blair. These were the American leaders of the 
 great awakening, and they were mightily 
 assisted in 1740 by that most remarkable man, 
 
48 Edwards at Northampton. 
 
 George Whitefield, who came over from En- 
 gland in 1739. 
 
 The movement began at Northampton, where 
 Edwards, after being the associate pastor with 
 his grandfather for two years, became his suc- 
 cessor on his death. It began in the latter part 
 of December, lT3i. "Then it was," says Ed- 
 wards, "that the Spirit of God began extraordi- 
 narily to set in, and wonderfully to w^ork among 
 us; and there were very suddenly, one after an- 
 other, five or six persons who were, to all ap- 
 pearance, savingly converted, and some of them 
 wrought upon in a very remarkable manner. 
 Particularly, I was surprised with the relation 
 of a young woman who had been one of the 
 greatest company-keepers in the whole town. 
 When she came to me I had never heard that 
 she was in any wise serious, but by the con- 
 versation I then had with her it appeared to 
 me that what she gave an account of was a 
 glorious work of God's infinite power and sov- 
 ereign grace, and that God had given her a 
 new heart, truly broken and sanctified. I could 
 not then doubt of it, and have seen much, in 
 my acquaintance with her since, to confirm 
 it. The news of it seemed to be almost like 
 a flash of lightning upon the hearts of the 
 
Noise Among the Dry Bones, 49 
 
 young people all over the town, and upon many 
 others. Those persons among us who used to 
 be farthest from seriousness, and that 1 most 
 feared would make an ill improvement of it, 
 seemed greatly to be awakened by it; many 
 went to talk with her concerning what she had 
 met with, and what appeared in her seemed to 
 be to the satisfaction of all w^ho did so. Pres- 
 ently, upon this, a great and earnest concern 
 about the great things of religion and the 
 eternal world became universal in all parts of 
 the town, and among persons of all degrees and 
 ages; the noise among the dry bones waxed 
 louder and louder; all other talk but about 
 spiritual and eternal things was soon thrown by; 
 all the conversation in all companies, and upon 
 all occasions, was upon these things only, unless 
 so much as was necessary for people carrying on 
 their ordinary secular business. Other dis- 
 course than of the things of religion would 
 scarcely be tolerated in any company. . . . 
 There was scarcely a single person in the town, 
 either old or young, that was left unconcerned 
 about the great things of the eternal world. 
 . . . And the work of conversion was car- 
 ried on in the most astonishing manner, and in- 
 creased more and more; souls did, as it were, 
 4 
 
60 Full of Love and Joy, 
 
 come by flocks to Jesus Christ. From day 
 to day, for many months together, might be 
 seen evident instances of sinners brought out of 
 drjL'kness into marvelous light, and delivered out 
 of a horrible pit and from the miry clay, and 
 set upon a rock with a new song of praise to 
 God in their mouths. This work of God as it 
 was carried on, and the number of true saints 
 multiplied, soon made a glorious alteration in 
 the town, so that in the spring and summer fol- 
 lowing, anno 1735, the town seemed to be full 
 of the presence of God — it never was so full of 
 love, nor so full of joy, and yet so full of dis- 
 tress as it was then. There were remarkable 
 tokens of God's presence in almost every house. 
 It was a time of joy in families on account of 
 salvation being brought to them — parents rejoi- 
 cing over their children as newborn, and hus- 
 bands over their wives, and wives over their 
 husbands. The doings of God were then seen 
 in his sanctuary, God's day was a delight and 
 his tabernacles were amiable." 
 
 Such is the account of the beginning of this 
 great work, given by a man the farthest pos- 
 sible removed from fanaticism— a man of phi- 
 losophic mind, a graduate of Yale College, and 
 of whom Robert Hall said; "1 consider him 
 
A Contagious Blessing, 51 
 
 the greatest of the sons of men." Many per- 
 sons from the neighboring towns came to see 
 the wonderful work. "Many," to use the 
 words of Edwards, "that came to town on one 
 occasion and another had their consciences 
 smitten and awakened, and went home with 
 wounded hearts and with impressions that never 
 wore off until they had hopefully a saving is- 
 sue; and those that before had serious thoughts 
 had their aw^akenings and convictions greatly in- 
 creased." Thus the work spread, reaching rap- 
 idly South Hadley, Suffield, Sunderland, Deer- 
 field, Hatfield, Northfield, and many other points 
 throughout New England. 
 
 At a little later time there was, quite inde- 
 pendently of the work at Northampton, an 
 awakening in New Jersey, principally in con- 
 nection with the labors of William and Gilbert 
 Tennent. 
 
 While it is true that in the latter part of May, 
 1735, the work at Northampton began to decline, 
 and continued to do so, with various fluctuations, 
 until the coming of Whitefield in 1710, it did 
 not utterly perish. Many of its best effects re- 
 mained. In the towns and Churches to which it 
 had been communicated there was a marked im- 
 provement in spirituality and a notable uplift in 
 
52 Tlie Leaven of a New Life, 
 
 morals. More clear and correct views of the re- 
 ligious life prevailed. Men began to realize the 
 wide difference between a real and a nominal 
 Christian, and of the great change by which that 
 difference is brought to pass. Revivals like that 
 at Northampton came again, as in former times, 
 to be regarded as very desirable; so that they 
 were prayed for and expected. And prayer 
 was answered in that after the decline of the 
 work at Northampton there were many awaken- 
 ings at various points in the colonies until, by 
 1739, such events had become numerous and 
 conspicuous. In August, 1739, there was a re- 
 markable revival at Newark, N. J., under the 
 ministry of Jonathan Dickinson, which, begin- 
 ning mainly among the young people, increased 
 in power and extent until, by November fol- 
 lowing, the whole town was brought under its 
 influence. At Harvard, Mass., under the min- 
 istry of Rev. John Seccomb, a similar work of 
 grace began in September of the same year. In 
 March of the next year, at New Londonderry, 
 Pa., under the ministry of Rev. Samuel Blair, 
 there was an awakening of considerable interest. 
 These, and other instances which might be men- 
 tioned, show how the leaven of a new life was 
 working in many places widely separated from 
 
A Great Evangelist Comes. 53 
 
 each other, })ut all disclosing remarkably similar 
 conditions and results. 
 
 But the great awakening did not reach its 
 culmination until Whitefield came. It was in 
 the spring of the year 1735, when the town of 
 Northampton Avas all ablaze with the first reviv- 
 al under Edwards, that this matchless evangelist 
 was converted at Oxford, England. In 1736 he 
 was ordained a deacon in the Church of England, 
 and in May, 1738, when the glow of the awak- 
 ening at Northampton had nearly vanished away, 
 he arrived at Savannah, Ga. After a three 
 months' stay in the new colony, he returned to 
 England to secure for himself priest's orders, 
 and to collect much-needed funds for the orphan- 
 age hie had projected. He secured both the or- 
 ders and the funds, and, being providentially de- 
 tained in the United Kingdom, he began that 
 wonderful career as an evangelist which he con- 
 tinued until his death. His amazing eloquence 
 and irresistible fervor drew hundreds to the 
 churches in which he first appeared. The mul- 
 titudes so thronged to his ministry that the 
 churches were eventually closed to him, and 
 the Bishop of London issued a pastoral letter 
 warning the people against him. Then he went 
 to the fields, whither thousands of every rank 
 
54 Whifefiekl in Philadelphia. 
 
 and station of life followed him to hear the won- 
 derful words of life which fell from his youth- 
 ful lips, touched with heavenly fire. As soon as 
 the embargo, whereby he had been detained in 
 England, was lifted, he sailed for America, tak- 
 ing passage for Philadelphia, but bound for 
 Georgia. His great and sudden fame had pre- 
 ceded him to the New World, notwithstanding 
 the slow methods of communication common in 
 those days. The party w^ith which he started 
 back to his work in Georgia consisted of seven- 
 teen persons, including himself and William 
 Seward. After a voyage of eleven weeks they 
 came to land, on October 30, 1739, at Lewistown, 
 
 about a hundred and fifty miles from Philadel- 
 phia. On the next day he preached by request, 
 and at five oclock in the afternoon, in company 
 with Seward and another friend, set out on horse- 
 back for Philadelphia, the rest of his party, 
 which he called his "family," proceeding thither 
 by water. By 11 p. m. , November 2, with his two 
 friends, he arrived at the "City of Brotherly 
 Love." Next morning he ''went aboard the 
 Elizabeth to see his family;" then visited the 
 officials of the town, and, after holding commun- 
 ion "with some precious souls," he "hired a 
 house at a very cheap rate and was quite settled 
 
"Much Comforted:' 55 
 
 in it before ni^ht." He was a man of swift 
 movements, and he began preaching at once in 
 the churches and on the "courthouse stairs," 
 preaching twice or thrice every day while he re- 
 mained in the city, and holding earnest conver- 
 sations with men and women, ministers and lay- 
 men of all the Churches, including Episcopalians, 
 Quakers, Baptists, and Presbyterians. Thou- 
 sands flocked to hear him. The population of the 
 city at that time did not exceed 12,000 souls, 
 yet his audiences when he preached from the 
 courthouse stairs numbered from 6,000 to 8,000. 
 It thus appears that he drew not only the peo- 
 ple of the city, but those also of neighboring 
 places. Among others who came to see and 
 hear him was the venerable William Tennent, 
 founder of the famous "Log College," and fa- 
 ther of Charles, John, William, and Gilbert 
 Tennent. He was now keeping an academy at 
 Neshaminy, and met Whitefield on November 10 
 in Philadelphia, and by his coming Whitefield 
 "was much comforted." On November 12 the 
 ofreat evanofelist set out overland for New York. 
 
 to to 
 
 On the way he preached at "Burlington in the 
 Jerseys." At Brunswick he preached in the 
 church of Gilbert Tennent, whom he describes 
 as a man of about forty years of age, and of 
 
56 Whitefield and Tennent in New York. 
 
 whom he says: "He and his associates are now 
 the burning and shining lights in this part of 
 America." Tennent joined his party in the visit 
 to New York, where they arrived at about four 
 o'clock in the afternoon of November 14, having 
 spent the time on the w^ay "most agreeably in 
 telling one another what God had done for their 
 souls. " They were hospitably received by a Mr. 
 Noble, and at night in the "meetinghouse" (not 
 "the church") Tennent preached. Of the ser- 
 mon Whitefield says: "I never before heard 
 such a searching sermon. He convinced me 
 more and more that we can preach the gospel of 
 Christ no further than we have experienced the 
 power of it in our own hearts. Being deeply 
 convicted of sin by God's Holy Spirit, at his 
 fii'st conversion, Mr. Tennent has learned ex- 
 perimentally to dissect the heart of the natural 
 man. Hypocrites must soon be converted or en- 
 raged at his preaching. He is a son of thunder 
 and does not fear the faces of men." The evan- 
 gelist tarried but four days in New York, preach- 
 ing in the open air and in the Presbyterian 
 "meetinghouse" in charge of Rev. Ebenezer 
 Pemberton, because the Episcopal Church and 
 the town hall were both denied him. Cf his 
 four days' ministry in New York a correspond- 
 
Personal Appearance of Wliitefield, 57 
 
 ent of Prince's Christian Eistorij (a period- 
 ical founded by the suggestion of Jonathan Ed- 
 wards to promote the gi'eat revival by publish- 
 ing the results of the work as it progressed) 
 wrote: "I never saw in my life such attentive 
 audiences as Mr. Whitefield's in New York. All 
 he said was demonstration, life, and power. The 
 people's eyes and ears hung upon his lips. They 
 greedily devoured every word. He preached 
 during four days, twice every day. He is a man 
 of middle stature, of a slender body, of a fair 
 complexion, and of a comely appearance. He is 
 of a sprightly, cheerful temper, and acts and 
 moves with great agility and life. The endow- 
 ments of his mind are uncommon; his wit is 
 quick and piercing: his imagination lively and 
 florid; and, as far as I can discern, both are un- 
 der the direction of a solid judgment. He has 
 a most ready memory and, I think, speaks en- 
 tirely without notes. He has a clear and music- 
 al voice, and a wonderful command of it. He 
 uses much gesture but with great propriety. 
 Every accent of his voice, every motion of his 
 body speaks; and both are natural and unaffect- 
 ed. If his delivery be the product of art, it is 
 certainly the perfection of it, for it is entirely 
 concealed. He has a gi-eat mastery of words, 
 
68 Whitefield in Xeiv Jersey. 
 
 but studies much plainness of speech. He spends 
 not his zeal in trifles. He breathes a most cath- 
 olic spirit, and prof esses that his whole design is 
 to bring men to Christ, and that if he can obtain 
 this end his converts may go to what Church 
 and worship God in what form they like best." 
 
 What a picture of a preacher just twenty-four 
 years of age ! Nobody thought of such a man as 
 a ''boy preacher," for his power was not in any 
 juvenile peculiarity of person, precocity of mind, 
 or eccentricity of manner, but in demonstration 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 From New York he proceeded to Elizabeth- 
 town, N. J. , in response to a letter from the Kev. 
 Jonathan Dickinson, the pastor of the Presbyte- 
 tian Church at that place. There he preached on 
 November 19, and then went on to New Bruns- 
 wick, w^here on November 20 he preached three 
 times in Gilbert Tennenfs church. In his con- 
 gregation was present that day Rev. Theodore 
 J. Frelinghuysen, wdio was pastor of the Dutch 
 Reformed Church at Raritan, N. J., and who 
 later was very efficient in the promotion of the 
 great evangelical movement. From New Bruns- 
 wick he went to jVIaidenhead, where he preached 
 from a wagon to about fifteen hundred people. 
 Rev. John Rowdand, an irregular but exceeding- 
 
One of the Old Prophets. 59 
 
 ly effective revivalist, who was very useful in 
 his day, having arranged for the service in the 
 open air. From Maidenhead he went to Tren- 
 ton, attended by a company of "above thirty 
 horse," where he preached in the courthouse. 
 
 Leaving Trenton on Thursday, November 22, 
 he set out for Neshaminy, twenty miles away, 
 where the venerable William Tennent, the keeper 
 of the academy, had made an appointment for 
 him to preach. He was delayed until a])Out 
 twelve o'clock in reaching the place, and when 
 he arrived he found the aged minister and teach- 
 er preaching to a congregation of above three 
 thousand people. When the belated evangelist 
 came up, the old man stopped his discourse. 
 After the singing of a Psalm, Whitefield began 
 to speak, and at the conclusion of his discourse 
 Gilbert Tennent, who had come with him from 
 New Brunswick, gave a word of exhortation. 
 The exercises being over, they went home with 
 "old Mr. Tennent, who entertained them like 
 one of the ancient prophets," says Whitefield in 
 his journal. Of this visit to the founder of the 
 "Log College," a visit of great importance in 
 the history of the great awakening, the 
 journal says: "His wife seemed to me like Eliz- 
 abeth and he like Zacharias; both, as far as I 
 
'60 The Log College. 
 
 can find, walk in all the ordinances and com- 
 mandments of the Lord, blameless. We had 
 sweet communion with each other and spent the 
 evening in concerting measures for promoting 
 our Lord's kingdom. It happens very provi- 
 dentially that Mr. Tennent and his brethren 
 are appointed to be a presbytery by the synod, 
 so that they intend breeding up gracious youths, 
 and sending them out into the Lord's vineyard. 
 The place where the young men study now is 
 in contempt called 'the College.' It is a log 
 house, about twenty feet long and nearly as 
 many broad; and to me it seemed to resemble 
 the school of the old prophets. From this de- 
 spised place seven or eight worthy ministers of 
 Jesus have lately been sent forth; more are al- 
 most ready to be sent; and a foundation is now 
 laying for the instruction of many others. The 
 devil will certainly rage against them; but the 
 work, I am persuaded, is of God and will not 
 come to naught. Carnal ministers oppose them 
 strongly, and because people, when awakened 
 by Mr. Tennent or his brethren, see through 
 them, and therefore leave their ministry, the 
 poor gentlemen are loaded with contempt, and 
 looked upon as persons who turn the world up- 
 side down." 
 
''The Log CoUege Mejir 61 
 
 And those "Log College men" were of the 
 company of them who were to bear a consider- 
 able part in turning the New World upside 
 down. The present-day graduates of Princeton 
 University do not affect more influentially the 
 republic of to-day than those men who then 
 went forth from the "Log College" affected the 
 colonies. Among them were the four sons of 
 William Tennent, and Rowland and Robinson 
 and Samuel Blair. Whitefield was touching one 
 of the very fountain heads of the great awaken- 
 ing when he preached on that bleak Novem- 
 ber morning at Neshaminy, and in the evening 
 conferred with the Tennents and concerted 
 "measures for promoting the Lord's kingdom." 
 
 From Neshaminy he rode to Abingdon, ten 
 miles distant, and preached "to above two thou- 
 sand people from a porch window belonging to 
 the meetinghouse." From Abingdon he has- 
 tened to Philadelphia, where he found his "fam- 
 ily" in good order and all things carried on ac- 
 cording to his desire. On the journey to and 
 from New York he was gone from Philadelphia 
 ten days — from November 13 to November 23. 
 But in that brief space he had stirred the young 
 metropolis of the coming nation, kindled reviv- 
 al fires all along the way he had passed over, 
 
62 In Philadelphia Again. 
 
 and contracted a lifetime friendship with the 
 Tenneuts. All this meant rouch to the progress 
 and power of the great awakening. 
 
 He remained in Philadelphia six days, and 
 then, after settling all the affairs of his "family" 
 to his satisfaction, he directed them to set sail 
 for Georgia immediately after his own departure 
 from Philadelphia by land. During those six 
 days, excepting November 27, when he went to 
 German town for a service, he preached twice a 
 day in the city. The church not being able to 
 hold the people who thronged to hear him, 
 on Wednesday, November 28, he went to the 
 fields' and ' ' preached for an hour and a half, from 
 a balcony, to upward of ten thousand hearers, 
 very attentive and much affected." 
 
 On the day he left Philadelphia, November 
 21), the people crowded around the door of the 
 house where he lodged, from seven o'clock in 
 the morning, weeping bitterly as they parted 
 from him. Nearly a score of men accompanied 
 him and William Seward out of town, and seven 
 miles out they were joined by another company 
 who were waiting to meet them, so that they 
 proceeded to Chester in a band of "nearly two 
 hundred horse. " They reached Chester by three 
 in the afternoon, and from a balcony he preached 
 
From Philadelphia SoiithivarcL 63 
 
 to ''about five thousand people," nearly a thou- 
 sand of whom had followed him from Philadel- 
 phia. Of the influence of Whitefield's ministry 
 upon the people of Pennsylvania, Benjamin 
 Franklin wrote in his journal: "From being 
 thoughtless and indifferent about religion, it 
 seemed as if all the world were growing reli- 
 gious, so that one could not walk through Phila- 
 delphia in the evening without hearing Psalms 
 sung in different families of every street." 
 
 From Chester he went to Wilmington, Del., 
 where he met another of the Tennents, William 
 the younger, whom he describes as "a faithful 
 minister of Jesus Christ." Thence he went on 
 to Newcastle, Christian Bridge, and Whiteclay 
 Creek, which last place he reached on December 
 2. There he preached to about ten thousand peo- 
 ple, assembled under a tent "erected by order 
 of Charles Tenuent, whose meetinghouse was 
 near the place." "The weather was rainy and 
 cold," but the people came together to hear him 
 despite all discomforts and inconveniences. 
 "Many souls were melted down," he says, at 
 the two services he held under the tent at White- 
 clay Creek. 
 
 From there he went into Maryland, preaching 
 at North East, Joppa, Newton, Ann apoli s, and 
 
64 Sermo7is and Subjects. 
 
 Upper Marlborough. He passed on through 
 Virginia and the Carolinas, preaching as he went, 
 and after a journey of five weeks' duration, 
 through primeval forests, uncultivated plains, 
 and miasmal swamps, he reached Savannah, 
 January, 1740. His ' ' family " he sent by water, 
 while he went by land, as ''the voice of one 
 crying in the wilderness." 
 
 Arrived at Savannah he busied himself with 
 the erection of his Orphan House, and with 
 preaching almost every day. His themes, ac- 
 cording to the "Journal of the Proceedings in 
 Georgia," by William Stephens, Esq., were 
 ''Justification by Faith" and "Regeneration," 
 which subjects, and the sermons of Whitefield 
 upon them, it should be remarked, the said 
 William Stephens, Esq., and his associates in 
 Georgia did not relish. 
 
 He remained in Savannah about a month, 
 when, on February 11, he started to Frederica 
 "to pay his respects to General Oglethorpe, 
 and to fetch the orphans in the southern part of 
 the colony" to his Orphan House at Savannah. 
 He was gone seventeen days on this journey, 
 and returned to the orphanage on February 28 
 with four orphans. A fortnight afterwards he 
 embarked for Charleston to see his brother, who 
 
Called Northward, 65 
 
 was *' lately arrived there from England/' On 
 March 21 he was back again in Savannah, hav- 
 ing spent from the loth to the 20th in Charles- 
 ton, where he preached daily in the Independent 
 and Baptist "meetinghouses," being denied ad- 
 mission to the pulpit of "the Church" by the 
 Rev. Alexander Garden, the pompous little 
 "commissary" of the Bishop of London in the 
 Colony of South Carolina. 
 
 After a stay of nine days in Savannah, on the 
 30th day of March he took affectionate leave of 
 his parishioners, "because it appeared that Prov- 
 idence called him toward the northward." In 
 their own sloop, the Savannah^ be and Wil- 
 liam Seward set oat on the journey which occu- 
 pied the next two months, touching at Charles- 
 ton, from which port they sailed on April 2. 
 After a voyage of ten days, they landed at 
 Newc astle, in Pennsylvania, on April 13, which 
 was Sunday. Whitefield preached in the Epis- 
 copal Church in the morning, and after the 
 service Seward rode to Christian Bridge and 
 Whiteclay Creek (where Charles Tennent was 
 pastor) to announce that the great evangelist 
 would preach again at Newcastle in the after- 
 noon. Quickly Tennent and others, to the 
 number of two hundred, mounted their horses 
 6 
 
66 At Newcastle aftd Wilmington, 
 
 and galloped away to Newcastle to hear him.' 
 From Newcastle he proceeded to Philadelphia, 
 stopping at Wilmington on the way, where, 
 from the balcony of the house in which he 
 lodged, he preached to about 3,000 people. By 
 this route he had gone southward, and now, re- 
 turning northward, he was met with many and 
 striking evidences of the effectiveness of his first 
 preaching in America. At Newcastle Charles 
 Tennent told him how that, as a result of his 
 former visit to that region, "a general outward 
 reformation was visible," and how "many min- 
 isters had been quickened and congregations in- 
 creased." At Wilmington many persons came 
 to see him, among them Mr. Jones, the Baptist 
 minister, who informed him of the progress of 
 the awakening, particularly mentioning the 
 cases of two other ministers who had been 
 awakened by Whitefield's preaching. One of 
 them, Mr. Morgan, on his conversion had at 
 once become active in the work, and "had gone 
 forth preaching toward the seacoast in the 
 Jerseys;" the other, Mr. Treat, "had told his 
 congregation that he had been hitherto deceiv- 
 ing himself and them, and that he could not 
 preach again at present, but desired them to 
 join in prayer with him." These accounts 
 
Back in Philadelphia, 67 
 
 deeply impressed and greatly encouraged White- 
 field, who, in a letter written on the day he 
 reached Philadelphia, says: "I find that God has 
 been pleased to do great things by what he en- 
 abled me to deliver when here last year. Two 
 ministers have been convinced of their formal 
 state, notwithstanding they held and preached 
 the doctrines of grace. One plainly told the 
 congregation that he had been deceiving himself 
 and them, and could not preach any more, but 
 desired the people to pray with him. The other 
 is now a flame of fire, and has been much owned 
 of God. Very many, I believe, of late have 
 been brought savingly to believe on the Lord 
 Jesus. The work much increases. A primitive 
 spirit revives." 
 
 He arrived in Philadelphia on April 14, and 
 remained until the 23d— nine days. The par- 
 ish church was now denied him, as had not been 
 the case on his previous visit. But this turned 
 out to the furtherance of the gospel through 
 him, for his friends erected a stage for him on 
 what was called Society Hill, around which, as 
 if drawn by magic, congregations, numbering 
 from five to fifteen thousand people, gathered 
 to hear him. During the nine days he preached 
 not only to multitudes in the city, but also to 
 
68 Meets Peter Bolder. 
 
 thousands at neighboring points, visiting Ab- 
 ingdon, Whitemarsh, German town, Greenwich, 
 and Gloucester. 
 
 Besides reviving the Churches ah'eady in ex- 
 istence in Philadelphia, Whitefield's ministry 
 led to the establishment of the Presbyterian 
 Church of which Gilbert Tennent some years 
 later became the pastor. It began in a build- 
 ing erected for the use of the Tennentsand their 
 associates. This building afterwards became 
 the first seat of the University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 From Philadelphia, he proceeded over his 
 former track to Neshaminy, Shippack, Amwell, 
 and New Brunswick. At Shippack he first met 
 the celebrated Moravian, Peter Bohler, who was 
 so intimately connected with John Wesley at a 
 critical moment in the history of that great man. 
 At Amwell, Gilbert Tennent and three other 
 Presbyterian preachers from New Brunswick 
 came to meet him, in whose company he went 
 to New Brunswick, and preached on Sunday, 
 April 27, to congregations of seven or eight 
 thousand souls. 
 
 From New Brunswick, he "dispatched" Wil- 
 liam Seward to England, to "bring over a fel- 
 low-laborer, and to transact several affairs of 
 importance," while he went on his itinerary, 
 
From Philadelphia to Kew York. 69 
 
 preaching at Woodbridge, Elizabethtown, and 
 other points. 
 
 On April 29 he arrived at New York, where 
 he "preached on the common to five or six thou- 
 sand." During the night the people erected for 
 him a scaffold from which on April 30 he 
 preached twice, to congregations which, it was 
 estimated, were composed of over eight thousand 
 people. He stayed at New York four days, 
 during which time, besides preaching eight 
 times in the city, he preached once in a church 
 which the Dutch ministers of Long Island 
 opened to him. Then, returning toward Philadel- 
 phia, he preached to multitudes at Freehold, 
 Allentown, Burlington, and Bristol. 
 
 On May 8 he preached in Philadelphia twice, 
 to larger congregations than ever before there. 
 There he remained till May 12, preaching daily, 
 as before, to immense assemblies. Then he set 
 his face southward, preaching at Derby, Ches- 
 ter, Wilmington, Whiteclay Creek, Nottingham, 
 Fagg's Manor, and Newcastle. At the last-men- 
 tioned place his sloop, the Savannah, awaited 
 him, which he boarded on May 15. In the brief 
 space of one month he had preached twice a day 
 at points all along the way from Newcastle to New 
 York, and back again, and thereby stirred the 
 
7Q Back in Georgia. 
 
 people in all the intervening region as they had 
 never been moved before. It is quite probable 
 that he came as near preaching to every person 
 in- the whole district thus traversed as did John 
 the Baptist in Palestine, when the excited multi- 
 tudes of Jerusalem and Judea and the region 
 around about Jordan went out to hear the gos- 
 pel of repentance preached with unearthly pow- 
 er by the fiery prophet of the wilderness. 
 
 After an absence of nine weeks, he was again 
 in Savannah on June 5. . He found revival fires 
 kindled in the Orphanage, and fanned them to a 
 flame. On June 13 he wrote to a minister at 
 New York: "Wonderful things have been done 
 since my arrival at Savannah. Such an awak- 
 ening among little children, I never saw before." 
 
 On June 23 he went up to Ebenezer to visit 
 the Saltzburghers, of which visit he says: "I 
 had sweet communion with their ministers." He 
 stayed with them two days and returned to Sa- 
 vannah, where he remained until June 30. Of 
 his preaching at this time, William Stephens, 
 Esq., in his "Journal of the Proceedings in 
 Georgia," says: "Mr. Whitefield always preaches 
 and prays extempore. For some time past he 
 has laid aside his surplice, and has managed to 
 get justification by faith and the new birth into 
 
Believing without Preaching Election, 71 
 
 every sermon." Robes and rituals had come to 
 be of small importance to this man whose fer- 
 vent soul was fixed on the great essentials of that 
 life which is by the living Spirit. Unpersua- 
 sive dogmas, without practical value in inducing 
 men to come to Christ, were also reckoned as of 
 secondary importance; for while it is beyond 
 doubt that he was an ardent Calvinist, he writes 
 John AYesley, on June 25: "For Christ's sake, 
 dear sir, if possible, never speak against elec- 
 tion in your sermons. No one can say that I 
 ever preached it in public discourse, whatever 
 my private sentiments may be." 
 
 On June 30 he left Savannah and went to 
 Charleston, S. C, where he remained three 
 weeks, from July 2 to July 2J:, the twenty-two 
 days being spent in preaching in the city and at 
 neighboring points, and in defending himself 
 against the persecutions and prosecutions of 
 ''Commissary Garden." Then he returned to 
 Savannah, where he tarried about two weeks. 
 On August 21 he was back in Charleston, preach- 
 ing during a brief sojourn there once every day 
 and twice on Sundays. The diverting ''Com- 
 missary Garden" was still frothing and fuming 
 against him. Some impression of the situation 
 in Charleston may be gr.thered from the follow- 
 
72 Catholicity of Spirit, 
 
 ing passage taken out of bis journal: ''The audi- 
 ences were more numerous than ever. It Avas 
 supposed that not less than four thousand were 
 in and about the meetinghouse when I preached 
 my farewell sermon. Being denied the sacra- 
 ment 'at church, I administered it thrice in a 
 private house — namely, yesterday, yesterday sev- 
 en-night, and this morning. Never did I see 
 anything more solemn. The room was large, 
 and most of the communicants were dissolved in 
 tears. Surely Jesus was evidentl}^ set forth be- 
 fore us. Baptists, Churchmen, and Presbyteri- 
 ans all joined together, and received according 
 to the Church of England, excepting two, who 
 desired to have it sitting. I willingly complied, 
 knowing that it was a thing quite indifferent." 
 What catholicity of spirit was this, and that, 
 too, in an age marked by theological contro- 
 versy! This scene showed a characteristic fea- 
 ture of Whitefield's ministry — he was not con- 
 cerned for things "indifferent," and the multi- 
 tudes whom his sermons influenced caught from 
 him the same spirit. It was well that such a 
 ministry came to America at this time, and that 
 it inspired such a spirit among the people. If 
 the colonists had been less tenacious of their 
 denominational tenets at an earlier day, re- 
 
Sails for Xeiv England. 73 
 
 li^ion would have been suffocated by indiffer- / 
 ence; if a more genial spirit of tolerance and 
 catholicity had not now begun to be prevalent, 
 Christianity would have perished in the throes 
 of faction, and national unity of action would 
 have been impossible thirty years later, when 
 the revolutionary contest with Great Britain 
 began. 
 
 A few days afterwards he sailed for New 
 England, and landed at Newport, R. I. , on Sun- 
 day evening, September 14, 1740. There he 
 remained until the morning of the ITth, preach- 
 ing, as was the case wherever he went, to vast 
 congregations. On the evening of the 18th he 
 arrived in Boston, which was at that time the 
 largest city in any of the colonies, having, as it 
 did, above 15,000 inhabitants. He went to 
 Boston on the invitation of the Rev. Dr. Col- 
 man, and was welcomed by all the Bostonians 
 "except a famous doctor of divinity, who met 
 him in the streets, and said, 'I am sorry to see 
 you here;' and to whom Whitefield quietly 
 remarked, 'So is the devil.'" 
 
 He spent ten days in Boston and its immedi- 
 ate neighborhood, preaching daily to immense 
 congregations. The next seven days were oc- 
 cupied with visiting several important towns at 
 
74 I^^ Boston. 
 
 a greater distance, including Ipswich, Marble- 
 head, Salem, and Newbury. In the four days 
 he rode one hundred and seventy-eight miles 
 and preached sixteen times. Returning, then, 
 to Boston, he tarried there and in the vicinity 
 seven other days, preaching during the week at 
 Charleston and Cambridge. On October 12th 
 he preached his farewell sermon to the Bosto- 
 nians, assembled in the open air on the com- 
 mons. The governor of the colony carried him 
 in his coach to the service, where ho was met 
 by a congregation of nearly 20,000 people, of 
 which occasion he writes in his journal: "I 
 preached ni}^ farewell sermon to nearly twenty 
 thousand people— a sight which I have not seen 
 since I left Blackheath." In the month which 
 had passed since he landed at Newport he had 
 preached twice a day, and had addressed more 
 people in New England than any public speaker 
 had ever addressed before. Departing, he 
 writes thus of this, his first visit to Boston and 
 the surrounding region: "God works by me 
 more than ever. I am quite well in bodily 
 health. Ministers, as well as people, are stirred 
 up, and the government is exceeding civil. 
 . . . God shows me that America must be 
 my place for action." 
 
WMfefield with Edwafds. \ 75 
 
 At his suggestion and request Gilbert Ten- 
 nent came to Boston, two months, afterwards, 
 to carry on the w^ork, and continued to labor 
 there nearly four months. This w^ondrous 
 movement, thus begun at Boston by Whitefield 
 and prosecuted by Gilbert Tennent, continued 
 for a year and a half. As a result of it thou- 
 sands united with the Churches, the zeal of 
 those who had been members of the Churches 
 previous to Whitefield's coming was kindled 
 into a flame, the ministers preached as never be- 
 fore, and thirty new religious societies were in- 
 stituted in the city. Similar results followed in 
 the neighboring towns. 
 
 Leaving Boston, Whitefield preached at Con- 
 cord, October 13, Sudbury and :Marlborough on 
 the 14:th, and reached Northampton, the home 
 of Jonathan Edwards, on the ITth. He tarried 
 with Edwards until the 20th, preaching daily in 
 the church of which that extraordinary man 
 was pastor. They had never met before. White- 
 field describes Edwards as ''a solid, excellent 
 Christian," and Edwards speaks of Whitefield's 
 work while in Northampton on this wise: 
 "The congregation was extraordinarily melted 
 by every sermon, almost the whole assembly be- 
 ing in tears. His sermons were suitable to the 
 
76 From Xorthampton to Xeir Yo7'l\ 
 
 circumstances of the town, containing just re- 
 proofs for cur backslidings, and, in a most 
 moving and affecting manner, making use of 
 GUI' great mercies as arguments with us to re- 
 turn to God, from whom we had departed. Irn^ 
 mediately after this the minds of the people in 
 general appeared more engaged in religion. 
 The revival was at first principally among pro- 
 fessors, to whom Mr. Whitefield had chiefly ad- 
 dressed himself, but in a short time there was 
 deep concern among young persons. By the 
 middle of December a very considerable w^ork of 
 God appeared, and the revival continued to in- 
 crease." 
 
 The work at Northampton and vicinity con- 
 tinued, with scarcely a perceptible interruption 
 or decline, for the next two years. Thus, in 
 1740, Whitefield revived Edwards's revival of 
 1735. 
 
 Leaving Northampton, Whitefield proceeded 
 to New York, preaching at Hatfield, Westfield, 
 Suffield, Hertford, Weathersfield, Middletown, 
 New Haven, Milford, Stratford, Fairfield, New- 
 ark, and Stanford during the ten days he was on 
 the way. The region thu« traversed had been 
 blessed in the awakening which began at 
 Northampton five years before, and AYhitefield 
 
Best-Known Man in America. 77 
 
 DOW rekindled the dying fires all along the 
 journey as he passed. 
 
 He remained four days in New York, and 
 preached seven times. "There was a o^reat and 
 gi-acious melting among the people," he says. 
 Thence he started to Philadelphia, and during • 
 the five days of his journey thither he preached 
 at Staten Island, Newark, Baskinridge, New 
 Brunswick, and Trenton. At New Brunswick 
 he met Gilbert and William Tennent, and, as 
 previously stated, arranged that the former 
 should go and help carry on the work in Boston 
 —an epochal step in the history of the great 
 awakening. About the first of November he 
 reached Philadelphia, and wrote to Howell Har- 
 ris: "Little did I think, when Mr. E J 
 
 wrote, that I should preach in all the chief 
 cities of America; but that is now done." And 
 it was even so, although he had been in the 
 country only a little more than a year. In that 
 time he had twice covered the distance between 
 New York and Savannah, had made repeated 
 visits to Charleston, S. C, had made the voy- 
 age to New England, stirred Boston and all 
 the surrounding country, had passed over 
 the track of the revival of 1735, revisited 
 New York, preached for the third time over 
 
 / 
 
78 Preachin(j in a Boofless Church. 
 
 the way between New York and Philadelphia, 
 and was now back at the latter place, where 
 a year before he had seen the first great tri- 
 umphs of his gospel in the New World. It is 
 certain that he was now known by sight to 
 more people in America than was any other 
 man in the colonies. 
 
 On Sunday morning, November 9, he preached 
 in the house that had been built since his last 
 visit, and which, as has been before mentioned, 
 became the home of Gilbert Tennent's Presby- 
 terian Church in Philadelphia, and eventually 
 the first seat of the University of Pennsylvania. 
 He describes it thus: *'It is a hundred feet long 
 and seventy feet broad. It was never preached 
 in before. The roof is not up yet, but the peo- 
 ple raised a convenient pulpit and boarded the 
 bottom." During the following week, spent so 
 happily among his friends in Philadelphia, he 
 preached in this roofless building twice every 
 day except one morning, when there was so 
 much snow within the walls that it became nec- 
 essary to repair to "the Presbyterian meeting- 
 house." 
 
 He left Philadelphia November 17, and 
 started for Savannah, preaching as he went to 
 assembled thousands at Gloucester, Greenwich, 
 
lietuDis to EyKjland, 79 
 
 Piles Grove, Cohansie, Salem, Newcastle, White- 
 clay Creek, Fago:'s jNIanor, Nottingham, Bo- 
 hemia, St. George's, Reedy Island, and Charles- 
 ton, S. C. He arrived at Savannah Saturday, 
 December 13, after an absence of eighteen 
 weeks, during which time he had preached near- 
 ly two hundred times, and had kindled great re- 
 vival fires throughout all the colonies. Thus he 
 closed the year 1740, and the "Great Awaken- 
 ing of 1740" was so called from the year in 
 which he completed for the first time his circuit 
 of the entire country. 
 
 He remained in Savannah until New Year's 
 Day, 1741. \yhile nominally incumbent of the 
 parish for the three preceding years, he had re- 
 ally spent less than four months during the 
 whole period in the Colony of Georgia. 
 
 Leaving Savannah January 1, 1741, he went 
 again to Charleston, where he arrived on Janu- 
 ary 4. He remained in Charleston twelve days, 
 during which time he was brought before the 
 civil magistrate in a proceeding for libel, which 
 was no doubt instigated by "Commissary Gar- 
 den." Nevertheless, he preached twice every 
 day to large congregations. On January 16 he 
 went aboard the lUnerva and took passage 
 for England, landing at Falmouth on March 11. 
 
80 WhitefielcVs Work in America, 
 
 Thus was ended his second visit to America. 
 This detailed account of his movements during 
 that eventful period of a year and a half is 
 given because, without such a particular narra- 
 tion, his part in the great awakening can- 
 not be justly measured, nor can that mighty 
 movement be fully comprehended. Moreover, 
 this first circuit of the colonies is typical of all 
 his five subsequent visits, except that his fourth 
 visit was cut suddenly short, when it had scarce- 
 ly begun, and that in his later visits he more 
 deeply affected Virginia and the other Southern 
 colonies, and extended his labors to the Bermu- 
 das. Having narrated so particularly the events 
 of this second visit to America, a minute history 
 of these subsequent visits is unnecessary. His 
 ministry to America may be expressed in this 
 statement: On behalf of this Western world 
 he crossed the Atlantic, in slow-sailing vessels, 
 thirteen times; evangelized the British Colonies 
 from Maine to Georgia; rekindled the expiring 
 fii-es of the revivals begun by Edwards and the 
 Tennents, fanning them to a flame which eventu- 
 ally swept as a general conflagration throughout 
 all the colonies; and, by repeated circuits of the 
 country, prolonged the revival movement in a 
 greater or less degree of vigor until his death, in 
 
Preparing the Way for Others, 81 
 
 1770, a few years before the outbreak of the War 
 for Independence, and a year after the arrival in 
 the New World of the first Wesleyan preachers, 
 by w^hom, and tlieir successors, mighty revivals 
 were brought to pass in later years. 
 
 Dr. Abel Stevens thus summarizes some of 
 the more striking results of AVhitetield's minis- 
 try in America: "The Congregational Churches 
 of New England, the Presbyterians and Bap- 
 tists of the Middle States, and the mixed colo- 
 nies of the South owe their religious life and 
 energy to the impulse given by Whitefield's 
 powerful ministration. The great awaken- 
 ing, under Edwards, had not only subsided be- 
 fore Whitefield's arrival, but had reacted. 
 Whitefield restored it, and the New England 
 Churches received, under his labors, an inspira- 
 tion of zeal and energy which has never died 
 out. He extended the revival from the Congre- 
 gational Churches of the Eastern to the Presby- 
 terian Churches of the Middle States. In Penn- 
 sylvania and New Jersey, where Frelinghuysen, 
 Blair, Rowland, and the two Tennents had 
 been laboring with evangelical zeal, he was re- 
 ceived as a prophet of God; and it was then that 
 the Presbyterian Church took that attitude of 
 evangelical power and aggression which has 
 6 
 
82 His Influence in the South, 
 
 ever since characterized it. AYhitefield's preach- 
 ing, and especially the reading of his printed 
 sermons in Virginia, led to the founding of the 
 Presbyterian Church in that State, whence it 
 has extended to the South and Southwest. The 
 stock from which the Baptists of Virginia and 
 those in all the South and Southwest have 
 sprung was also Whiteheklian. And, though 
 .Whitelield did not organize the results of his 
 labors, he prepared the way for Wesley's itiner- 
 ants. When he descended into his American 
 grave they were already on his track. They 
 came not only to labor, but to organize their la- 
 bors; to reproduce, amid the peculiar moral ne- 
 cessities of the Kew World, both the spirit 
 and method of the great movement as it had 
 been organized by Wesley in the Old." 
 
 Before passing from AVhitefield's part in the 
 great awakening, it is important to notice 
 several peculiarities of his work which wonder- 
 fully adapted it to exercise a controlling and be- 
 nign influence during that period of the nation's 
 history when the colonies were to come together 
 in a federal union. And first, let it be remarked 
 that his doctrines of evangelical and experimen- 
 tal Christianity, as opposed to sacrainentarianism 
 and formalism in religion, mightily contributed 
 
Faith and Freedom. 83 
 
 to the development of the spirit of freedom. A 
 man who, without the intervention of priestly 
 absolution or sacramentarian ceremony, feels 
 that he is justified by faith and born of the 
 Spirit, receiving directly from God the assur- 
 ance of his deliverance from the guilt and power 
 of sin, inevitably conceives that he must be free. 
 Priestcraft in religion and absolutism in govern- 
 ment go naturally together; but where the Spirit 
 of the Lord is, there is liberty, even political 
 liberty in the end. Puritan experience of that 
 liberty, wherewith Christ makes men free, de- 
 stroyed absolutism in England, and the same 
 spirit, aroused and invigorated by the revival 
 under Whitefield's ministry, prepared the way 
 in no small degree for constitutional freedom in 
 the United States. And this spirit of liberty, 
 it should be observed, differs from that mad 
 frenzy that made and marred the French 
 Revolution by so much as it is, by virtue 
 of the fervent love with which it coexists 
 in the divinely renewed heart, purged from 
 the dross of selfishness and the virus of vin- 
 dictiveness. One who is a son of God by the 
 adoption of the new birth not only conceives 
 respect for his own manhood, but reverence 
 for the manhood of all other men. He claims 
 
84 Whitefield^ s Calvinism and Catholicity, 
 
 freedom for himself and denies not liberty to 
 others. 
 
 Whitefield was a Calvinist of the Calvinists; 
 otherwise he could never have secured access to 
 the Churches which represented the organized 
 Christianity of the colonies at his coming. They 
 would with one consent have rejected Wesley as 
 a heretic and have closed their doors against 
 him. But Whitefield did not, as he wrote Wes- 
 ley, preach his Calvinism. He laid the empha- 
 sis of his ministry on the experimental doctrines 
 of justification by faith and the new birth, leav- 
 ing men to find their election by experiencing 
 saving grace. Had he come preaching and be- 
 lieving Arminianism as Wesley did, he would 
 have raised a continental controversy that would 
 have hindered all the forces of union and multi- 
 plied all the divisive tendencies of the times. 
 But coming with his gospel of saving grace, 
 omitting to preach election, in which he believed, 
 the revival which resulted from his ministry 
 fused the discordant elements of the heteroge- 
 neous peoples of the colonies into one family of 
 God. The Baptists even united with him in the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Thus the colo- 
 nists, being mainly of British ancestry and 
 who had some bond of unity by birth, came to 
 
X 
 
 Whitefiel'l, Not Wesley, Needed. 85 
 
 have a far nobler and more effective kinship by 
 the new Inrth, And the spirit of unity was the 
 more promoted because Whitefield organized no 
 new Church, as Wesley most certainly would 
 have done under similar circumstances. It was 
 Whitefield, not Wesley, that America needed 
 just at that moment. 
 
 But it would have been most unfortunate if 
 Whitefield's sermons, by which the hearts of 
 men were so strongly drawn and so firmly knit 
 to him, had been of a character to forestall the 
 Methodist itinerants of a little later day. This 
 most surely would have been the case had he 
 preached with his wonted zeal the Calvinism 
 which he sincerely believed. But this he did 
 not do, and the meetings of the Wesleyan preach- 
 ers, when they came, were more like Whitefield's 
 revival than Whitefield's meetings were like the 
 services of the Calvinists of the colonies when 
 he came. This meant much in the making of 
 the nation. 
 
 Having examined in detail the history of the 
 great awakening, from its local beginnings 
 under the ministry of Edwards and the Tennents, 
 to its culmination in a national revival under 
 the leadership of Whitefield, we arej)repare(Lta 
 sum up its effects' and to measure its influence 
 
86 Excesses and Exuherances, 
 
 on the British Oolonies, as they, moved toward 
 the unity of a single nation, during this event- 
 ful period of their history. 
 
 In estimating the force and appraising the 
 value of the great movement, it must be can- 
 didly conceded that it was not unattended with 
 some things which cannot be approved. There 
 were extravagances and irregularities wholly 
 foreign to the spirit of Christ, such, for example, 
 as the follies and foibles manifested by James 
 Davenport. There w^as also a spirit of censori- 
 ousness sometimes engendered, which even 
 Whitefield did not escape, and which he subse- 
 quently confessed most frankly and lamented 
 most sincerely. But all these things are almost 
 inevitable when such a work is done. A great 
 springtime cannot burst upon the world with 
 the precision and orderliness of a mechanically 
 directed movement. It will give rise,by its very 
 nature, to exuberances and excesses. Such was 
 the case in the Corinthian and Thessalonian 
 Churches in apostolic times. Similar conditions 
 attended the labors of Martin Luther and John 
 Knox and Wickliffe. The greatest danger to 
 religion at such a time, however, is not the un- 
 wise and excessive fervor of inexperienced souls, 
 but the cold, calculating criticism with which 
 
Fire and Smoke. 87 
 
 the worldly and phlegmatic members of the 
 Church seek to restrain and correct the irregu- 
 larities of the enthusiastic. A newly kindled 
 fire will smoke most inconveniently and uncom- 
 fortably at the first; but if we seek to get rid of 
 the smoke by smothering the blaze, we only 
 make the matter worse; It is far better to help 
 the fire to burn itself into a clear, smokeless 
 flame. Paul's remedy for the disorders at Thes- 
 salonica was indicated by the exhortation 
 "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophe- 
 syings." The critics of the great awakening 
 were not so wise. They vainly attempted to 
 clear away the smoke by putting out the fire. 
 Thereby they made more smoke around them- 
 selves, and so came very naturally to say that 
 the benign movement was all smoke. But the 
 ire of Heaven was in it, and when all subtrac- 
 tons are made on account of the mistakes and 
 siis of some who were identified with it, the fol- 
 lo\<ng blessed results remain: 
 
 1 The Churches were greatly multiplied and 
 the? membership was amazingly increased. 
 Fron 1740 to 1760 the Congregational Churches 
 of !Nw England were increased by 150 new 
 churchs. When it is remembered that the 
 populaion of New England at that time was 
 
88 Churches Increased. 
 
 only 250,000, such an increase in the churches 
 of a single denomination was phenomenal. The 
 Presbyterian, Baptist, and other Churches were 
 proportionately increased. 
 
 As to the number of converts, James Hammond 
 Trumbull estimates that in two or three years 
 there were in New England alone thirty or forty 
 thousand. If for the whole country we place 
 the figures at 50,000 — which is evidently far too 
 low — we have a most extraordinary harvest of 
 souls. The entire population of all the British 
 colonies was then less than 2,000,000. The pop- 
 ulation of the United States now, excepting 
 Porto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippine 
 Islands, is 75,994,575, or, in round num- 
 bers, 76,000,000. If now we should be 
 blessed with a continental revival by which as 
 great a proportion of the people were convertec 
 as was the case in the great awakening, tb 
 result would be expressed by the number 1,90^,- 
 000. How would not the country be stired 
 and revolutionized by the conversion of l,9p,- 
 000 souls now! 
 
 2. The piety of the Churches was as wo)/ler- 
 fully elevated as their numbers were inceased 
 by the great awakening. It was ^muta- 
 tive as well as quantitative in its powet We 
 
Churches Improved. 89 
 
 have seen how even the "Venerable Stoddard" 
 had fallen under the influence of the opinion, 
 prevalent before the revival, that a personal ex- 
 perience of grace was not requisite to Church 
 membership. And if such was his position, 
 what must have been the attitude of others 
 to the subject? The colleges of that time re- 
 ceived as candidates for the ministry young 
 men who were without even the semblance of 
 piety. If a candidate for ordination was not 
 heretical in doctrine, nor scandalous in life, he 
 was ordained without a question of his fitness. 
 The ministry was therefore crowded with un- 
 converted men. At the time of Whitefield's 
 third visit to America, 1744 to 1748, there were 
 not less than twenty ministers in the vicinity of 
 Boston who confessed that they had never been 
 converted until he came, in 1740 — and New En- 
 gland was then the home of the best type of 
 piety in all the land. If the sons of Levi were 
 thu4 without God, what must have been the 
 condition of the unofficial membership of the 
 Churches? 
 
 But the great awakening changed all that. 
 Members and ministers who had been the bane 
 of the Churches came by conversion to be bless- 
 ings to the land. Since that time no man has 
 
90 Catliolicitij Promoted. 
 
 dared to teach in the United States that an un- 
 converted ministry is tolerable in the Churches. 
 The evil leaven of that doctrine has been purged 
 away forever — an immeasurable blessing that 
 cannot be overstated! 
 
 3. The great awakening created and pro- 
 moted a new spirit of catholicity among the 
 Churches. It was no accident, but of pro^iden- 
 tial purpose, that the first colonists were not all 
 of one denomination, but were of diverse theo- 
 logical systems. For a long time it was well 
 that they were tenacious of their tenets even to 
 intolerance; otherwise a spirit of indifference 
 might have utterly overwhelmed their faith 
 during the first period of their temptation in the 
 wilderness. We may look with much forbear- 
 ance upon their occasional persecutions of each 
 other, when we consider that men less earnest 
 during such a period would probably have al- 
 lowed religion to perish. But the hour had now 
 come when their sharp sectarianism could no 
 longer continue without serious hurt to reli- 
 gion and permanent damage to the country. 
 Whitefield, with his broad, catholic spirit, and 
 mightily absorbed in the work of saving souls 
 without regard to denominational lines or secta- 
 rian systems, elevated to their proper position 
 
Apostolic Evangelism Restored. 91 
 
 the essentials of a pure Christianity and de- 
 pressed to a just subordination things nones- 
 sential and indifferent. Thereby in reviving the 
 life and power of primitive Christianity, he did 
 also restore its true symmetry and proportions. 
 This was great gain to godliness, and much ad- 
 vantage to the republic which was soon to be 
 established. Hereby the Americans were saved 
 from throwing away religion as did the French 
 in their revolution, and also from quarreling 
 over religion until purity perished in polemics. 
 4. A distinct and nobler manner of evangeli- 
 zing and regenerating the masses was begun — a 
 type more nearly a copy of the methods of the 
 primitive Church, set forth in the Acts of the 
 Apostles, than anything the world had seen for 
 over sixteen centuries before. It was an advance 
 on even the methods of such men as Bunyan 
 and Baxter. It was not ritualistic but emphat- 
 ically evangelistic. Some have called it con- 
 temptuously "revivalism." Let the name, giv- 
 en in derision, be accepted. Revivalism is the 
 characteristic American way of building up the 
 Churches — a way that began among the colonists 
 and their fathers before they came to America, 
 and which since the great awakening has 
 continued with increasing power to yield the 
 
 ■^ 
 
92 The American Way, 
 
 peaceable fruits of righteousness. It is essen- 
 tially a preaching type; its chief reliance is the 
 gospel "preached with the Holy Ghost sent 
 down from heaven." It expects supernatural 
 results from the Word, and it is not disappoint- 
 ed. It has produced the highest type of civili- 
 zation and the purest form of Christianity on 
 the planet. It can afford to endure with pa- 
 tience the jeers of the unthinking and uncon- 
 verted. 
 
 In this connection may be quoted to advan- 
 tage a striking passage from " The Americaniza- 
 tion of the World," by W. T. Stead. He says: 
 "Looking over the religious movements of the 
 last century in the English-speaking world, 
 there are five distinctly discernible. Of these 
 five, only one is of English origin. The Tracta- 
 rian movement of the middle century was dis- 
 tinctly Anglican, but, beyond a certain stimulus 
 given to the sensuous exercise of divine worship, 
 its influence was strictly confined within the 
 limits of its own sect. The other four move- 
 ments have been much wider in their sweep. 
 The first and most persistent has been Revival- 
 ism. This was distinctly American in its or- 
 igin. No doubt there have been revivals, or, 
 as the Catholics would say, missions, in all ages 
 
Known by Its Fruits. 93 
 
 of the Church; but the systematized revival, the 
 deliberate organization of religious services for 
 the express purpose of rousing the latent moral 
 enthusiasm of mankind, is a distinctly American 
 product of the last century. Wesley and White- 
 field may have sown its seeds, but it grew up 
 across the Atlantic. Revivalism flourished in 
 the United States long before it was acclima- 
 tized on this side of the water. . . It is easy 
 to sneer at Revivalism, but it has been the means 
 by which hundreds and thousands of men and 
 women have found their way to a higher and „ 
 purer life. The revivalist may often seem rude, 
 uncultured, even vulgar, Ijut in his untutored el- 
 oquence millions of men have heard for the first 
 time the echoes of the Divine voice that spoke 
 on Sinai, while the penitent form and the in- 
 quiry room have been to many a sin-stricken 
 soul the antechamber of heaven. In this practi- 
 cal, workyday world men affect great admira- 
 tion for those who do things, as opposed to the 
 men who talk about them. But Revivalism has 
 done things which the more cultured and refined 
 would not even have ventured to attempt." 
 
 5. The great awakening turned the hearts 
 of the fathers to the children and prepared the 
 way for the Sunday school work of later times. 
 
94 Sunday Schools and Missions, 
 
 Edwards says: "God has also made his hand 
 very visible and his work glorious in the multi- 
 tudes of little children that have been wrought 
 upon. I suppose there have been some hundreds 
 of instances of this nature of late, any one of 
 w^hich formerly would have been looked upon as 
 so remarkable as to be worthy to be recorded and 
 published through the land." It may be ob- 
 served in passing that the same characteristic 
 marked the Wesleyan movement in Great Brit- 
 ain. It is not accidental, nor mysterious that 
 the Sunday school work of the world to-day is 
 mainly confined to the map of evangelistic 
 Christianity, and that it scarcely goes beyond 
 the lands directly affected by these great reviv- 
 als of the eighteenth century. 
 
 6. The cause of missions was set forward by 
 the great awakening. Tracy, in his famous 
 book on the "Awakening," says: "The influence 
 of this revival on the cause of missions to the 
 heathen ought not to be overlooked. The New 
 England Pilgrims had set the Protestant world 
 the first example of such labors, and they and 
 their descendants had sustained the work for 
 more than a century. Societies had been formed 
 in Great Britain to aid them, and at a later day 
 some kindred movements had been commenced 
 
Saving the Indians, 95 
 
 on the continent of Europe. Within a few 
 years, several missions had been established 
 among the American Indians, but few conver- 
 sions had followed them. The most prosperous 
 was the Stockbrido^e Mission, under Sargent. 
 The revival gave an impulse to the work at near- 
 ly all the stations. On Long Island thirty-five 
 adults and forty-four children were baptized in 
 two years from 1741. Soon after, there were 
 numerous conversions among those near Ston- 
 injzton; and a visit from them was the means of 
 awakening those in Westerly, R. I. . . . 
 Heathenism seems to have been extirpated from 
 that whole region. In 1743 Brainerd began his 
 missionary career at Kaunaumeek. In 1745 he 
 removed to New Jersey, and commenced his la- 
 bors at the forks of the Delaware and Crosweek- 
 sung. His first visit to the latter place was at- 
 tended with the evident presence of the Holy 
 Spirit in the awakening and conviction of his 
 hearers. When, after two weeks, he left them 
 for a season, William Tennentwas sent for and 
 came to supply his place. The work went on 
 under Tennent's preaching, and received a new 
 impulse on Brainerd's return. All Christendom 
 knows the glorious scenes that followed. These 
 dates, the name of Tennent, and the history 
 
96 Saving Savages and Slaves, 
 
 of Brainerd while at New Haven, show that 
 Brainerd's triumphs were a part of this great 
 revival.*' Jonathan Edwards remarks: "The 
 work is very glorious in its influences and effects 
 On many that have been very ignorant and bar- 
 barous, as I before observed of the Indians and 
 Negroes." 
 
 In this great revival was the promise and po- 
 tency of all those subsequent efforts of Ameri- 
 can Churches to rescue the perishing Indian 
 from the destructive vices of a secular civiliza- 
 tion and the superstition of his own savage state. 
 It may be doubted if there would be any Indians 
 at all in the United States at the present day 
 but for the missionary enterprises of the 
 Churches. 
 
 Here also began those efforts on behalf of the 
 salvation of the negro which have been the pe- 
 culiar glory of the American Churches. Amer- 
 ican Christianity is the Philip among the na- 
 tional evangelists, for more Africans have been 
 brought to Christ by the American Churches — 
 especially by those laboring in the Southern 
 States — than by all the other Churches of the 
 world combined. 
 
 7. The cause of education w^as greatly pro- 
 moted by the great awakening. It improved 
 
The Bevival and Education. 97 
 
 the religious spirit and tone of existing institu- 
 tions of learning and gave rise to new ones. 
 
 This was not a novel or unnatural effect. In 
 the hundred years following the labors of Wick- 
 liffe, twenty-four universities sprang up. Ritu- 
 alistic Christianity may be able to get on with- 
 out producing or requiring for its propagation 
 men of learning. Evangelistic Christianity 
 comes preaching, and both makes and needs the 
 learning it inspires. 
 
 The necessity for evangelical preachers gave 
 birth to Princeton University. It was the child 
 of the revival, and Jonathan Edwards was car- 
 ried to its presidency, not because he was a 
 Presbyterian, but because he was an evangelic- 
 al scholar and preacher. He was received there, 
 Puritan though he was, as Gilbert Tennent, 
 the Presbyterian, was warmly welcomed to the 
 Congregational pulpits of New England. 
 
 Dartmouth College, the Alma Hater of the 
 great Daniel Webster, was also the direct prod- 
 uct of the great awakening. Its founding 
 was on this wise : Among the Mohegan Indians 
 converted in 1741 was Samson Occum, then 
 seventeen years of age. In December, 17-13, 
 Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, an active worker in the 
 revival, received him into his home at Lebanon j 
 7 
 
98 Moor and DartinoutJu 
 
 Conn., and taught him for several years. In 
 I'I'iS this godly preacher and teacher determined 
 to commence a school for the education of In- 
 dian preachers. Joshua Moor, a farmer in 
 Mansfield, who had been affected by the revival, 
 gave the first donation for the founding of the 
 school, and it was therefore at first called 
 "Moor's Charity School." The influence of 
 the revival brought many Indian pupils to the 
 school, and in 1766 Rev. Nathaniel Whittaker 
 and Samson Occum went to England to solicit 
 funds for the institution. Whitefield aided 
 them. Occum, the Indian preacher, attracted 
 unusual attention. A large sum of money was 
 obtained, Lord Dartmouth giving the most. 
 He was a convert of the Wesleyan revival, 
 and of him Cowper sang: 
 
 "We boast some rich ones whom the gospel message 
 sways, 
 And one who wears a coronet and prays." 
 
 His donation suggested the new name given to 
 the institution when it was removed to Hanover. 
 Founded by the influence of the revival, its 
 early history was marked by a series of re- 
 markable revivals extending through several 
 years. 
 The faculties of Harvard and Yale had sharp 
 
Uniting the English Nations. 99 
 
 controversies with Whitefield ; but for all that 
 they participated in the fruits of the continental 
 revival, and both instructors and pupils were 
 gi'eatly blessed by its benign influence. 
 
 8. The gi'eat awakening wove new bonds 
 of affection between the ^British Isles and the 
 American Colonies. Whitefield came to Amer- 
 ica from the *' Holy Club" of the Wesleys at 
 Oxford, and just after he had sounded in the 
 open air the first notes of the great revival in 
 England, which changed so greatly the whole 
 face of civilization in both the Old and the New 
 Worlds. In seven successive visits to the New 
 World he brought to the colonies revival in- 
 fluences and carried back stimulating accounts 
 of the work of grace in America which fired 
 afresh the zeal of the revivalists in the British 
 Isles. He was a century and more before Fin. 
 ney and Nettleton, and Moody and Sankey, the 
 creator of a line of religious communication 
 and fellowship between Great Britain and the 
 United States, which from that time until the 
 present has been an increasingly potential fac- 
 tor in unifying the Anglo-Saxon peoples of the 
 earth. This Avas highly important then when 
 the revolutionary influences which culminated 
 in the War of Independence were gathering 
 
100 A National Spirit Begotten, 
 
 force and taking form. It was necessary that 
 the colonies should be independent, but it was 
 equally necessary that they should not be 
 thrown off so far from the mother country as 
 to fall under the influences of atheistic and rev- 
 olutionary France — a dreadful peril that was 
 barely escaped, and which would not have been 
 escaped at all if the great awakening in 
 America and the Wesleyan revival in the Brit- 
 ish Isles had not intervened. Those seasons of 
 grace were godsends truly ! 
 
 9. This great revival of continental extent re» 
 generated and unified the colonies, thus prepar- 
 ing the way for a political union of Christian 
 States. The land was blessed with a moral rev- 
 olution of the most beneficent sort. The colonies 
 were, so to speak, born again. They respected 
 themselves and loved God and each other as 
 never before. And Whitefield, '' moving up and 
 down the Atlantic Coast as a shuttle, wove to- 
 gether the sentiments of the thirteen colonies, 
 and made union possible by creating a national 
 spirit. " 
 
Y. 
 THE WESLEYAN REYIYAL. 
 
The Methodist moYement is the starting point of 
 our modern religions polity, and the field preaching of 
 Wesley and Whitefield is the event wlience the religious 
 epoch now current must date its commencement. — 
 Isaac Taylor. 
 
 The Methodist movement has molded the spiritual 
 character of the English-speaking Protestantism of the 
 world. — Dean Stanley. 
 
 Although the career of the elder Pitt, and the 
 splendid victories by land and sea that were won dur- 
 ing his ministry, form unquestionaloly the most daz- 
 zling episodes in the reign of George II., they must 
 yield, I think, in real importance to that religious rev- 
 olution which shortly before had been begun in En- 
 gland by the preaching of the Wesleys and Whitefield. 
 The creation of a large, powerful, and active sect, ex- 
 tending over both hemispheres and numbering many 
 millions of souls, was but one of its consequences. It 
 also exercised a jDrofound and lasting influence upon 
 the spirit of the Established Church, upon the amount 
 and distribution of the moral forces of the nation, and 
 even upon the course of its political histor3\ — Lecky, in 
 ''England in the Eighteenth Centitry."' 
 
 No Church in the countr}^ [tlie United States] has 
 so successfully engaged in the cause of education as the 
 Methodist Church. — Edward Everett. 
 (102) 
 
y. 
 
 THE WESLEYAN REVIVAL. 
 
 Although the Wesleyan revival began in 
 England, its influence speedily reached America. 
 From amid its early fires came Whitefield at the 
 first, and it is a remarkable fact that when he 
 was on the sea, headed for Charleston, S. C, 
 making his last voyage to the Western world, 
 Eichard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor, the first 
 preachers sent by Wesley to America, were sail- 
 ino- over the same waves bound for the port of 
 Philadelphia, Pa. Other Methodists had pre- 
 ceded them years before, and many others were 
 destined to come after them. 
 
 As John Wesley w^as sailing away from Sa- 
 vannah, Ga., January 22, 1738, after his brief 
 and unsatisfactory career in the infant colony, 
 he wrote in his journal: ''I took leave of 
 America, though, if it please God, not forever." 
 He never returned in person, but in the coming 
 of his followers he was now returning in spirit, 
 and was beginning to affect the colonies as he 
 little dreamed when he departed. 
 
 Excepting Whitefield, the first fruits of the 
 
 (103) 
 
104 Pioneers f}'0}n Ireland. 
 
 Wesleyan revival which reached America were 
 from Ireland, and they illustrate how much re- 
 liirious o^ood came to the colonies from the re- 
 vivals and persecutions in Europe during the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
 
 The bigotry of Louis XIV. drove many Prot- 
 estants of the Lower Rhine — the Palatinate— 
 to take refuge in other lands. Over a hundred 
 families of the exiles settled in Limerick, Ire- 
 land. In 1752 John Wesley preached in one of 
 the villages occupied by these banished people. 
 A society was organized among them, and one 
 of the members of it was Philip Embury, a car- 
 penter, converted when Wesley preached there, 
 and who became a local preacher in it. From 
 that colony of the Palatines in Ireland came a 
 goodly company to New York in 1760, and 
 among them were this Philip Embury, Paul 
 Heck, and his wife, Barbara Heck, and other 
 Methodists. Through their labors, and the ef- 
 fective help of Captain Webb, of the British 
 army, w^ho was also a Wesleyan local preacher, 
 and who was now barrack-master at Albany, a 
 Methodist society was organized in New York 
 and a chapel erected. 
 
 In 1758 John Wesley preached at Drumsna, 
 County Leitrin\, Ireland, and among the con- 
 
The First Itinerant in America, 1Q5 
 
 verts was Robert Strawbridge, who also became 
 a local preacher and emigrated to America, 
 settling on Sam's Creek, in the backwoods of 
 Maryland, about the year 1760. He preached, 
 gathered a society of converts, and built a log 
 meetinghouse twenty-two feet square — the fii'st 
 Methodist church building in America. After 
 these L'ish emigrants Wesley sent his first 
 preachers to be shepherds of the flock in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 To the society of Embury and the other 
 Methodists in New York, Boardman and Pil- 
 moor were sent by the Methodist Conference, 
 assembled at Leeds August 3, 1769. But be- 
 fore they came, by at least two months, Hobert 
 Williams, the first itinerant Methodist preacher 
 in the New World, came at his own charges and 
 on his own motion. He came not by help of 
 the Conference, nor by its authority, but rather 
 by Wesley's permission. He had probably 
 known Strawbridge in Ireland, for he had 
 served a circuit in Ireland which included with- 
 in its bounds Sligo, where Strawbridge lived 
 and labored as a local preacher for a season. 
 He went southward, and became at a later date 
 the apostle of Methodism to Virginia and North 
 Carolina. He was also the spiritual father of 
 
lOG Early Methodists. 
 
 Jesse Lee, by whom Methodism was subse- 
 quently planted in New England. 
 
 During the same year (1760) came also John 
 King, another Methodist preacher who reached 
 America before Boardman and Pilmoor ar- 
 rived. He was a strong character and had 
 studied at Oxford and in the medical college at 
 London. He was converted under Wesley's 
 ministry, and, being disinherited by his father 
 on account of his embracing the evangelical 
 faith, he emigrated to America, and preached 
 his first sermon in the ' ' potter's field " at Phila- 
 delphia. He was a widely useful man, and by 
 his efforts Methodism was greatly promoted in 
 the colonies. 
 
 These were the pioneers of the Wesleyan 
 movement in America, and they increased rap- 
 idly in both numbers and influence, immigration 
 and evangelization augmenting their ranks. By 
 them the religious forces of America were 
 quickened and multiplied. They drew after 
 them devout souls from the Wesleyan centers 
 in the British Isles, and they made converts 
 among their ungodly neighbors around them. 
 Through them the Wesleyan revival was thus 
 replenishing the stock of pious souls in the 
 land daring the last half of the eighteenth cen- 
 
The Bevival and Our Katioml Domain, 107 
 
 tury when the waves of the great awakening 
 were receding, as it had also given Whitefield 
 to rekindle the dying flames of the revivals of 
 Edwards and the Tennents in lUO. By the 
 year 1773— foui' years after the landing of the 
 first preachers sent out by the Conference— the 
 Methodists had increased to 1,160 members. By 
 1784, notwithstanding the War of Independence 
 with all its hindrances, and in spite of ecclesias- 
 tical opposition to their Arminian creed, they 
 numbered in the colonies 14,983. 
 
 Great and valuable as was this direct contribu- 
 tion of the Wesleyan revival to the moral and 
 religious forces of America, it was bringing to 
 pass about this time social and political results 
 in the British Isles that have indirectly affected 
 the history of the Great Republic in a far more 
 influential manner. It was reinvigorating the 
 moral life of the masses in Great Britain, there- 
 by making possible political reformations and 
 national victories which determined the bound- 
 aries of the British colonies in America, and 
 foreordained the geographical limits of the 
 United States when as yet the nation was un- 
 born. All the great achievements of American 
 ISIethodism, wrought during the last century, 
 have not more powerfully influenced the destiny 
 
108 Many Bevivals in One. 
 
 of their country than the triumphs of faith 
 which their Wesleyan forefathers were winning 
 at this time in the United Kingdom. Humanly 
 speaking, it appears that but for' the Wesleyan 
 revival the Great Republic, such as it is, never 
 could have been at all. 
 
 In attributing to the Wesleyan revival so far- 
 reaching an influence, it is not to be understood 
 that religious movements outside the Wesleyan 
 body had no part in the regeneration of the 
 British nation at this time. The Presbyterians 
 in Scotland and the north of Ireland, Howell 
 Harris and others among the Welsh, together 
 with a noble company of the regular clergy in 
 the Church of England, rendered notable serv- 
 ice, and contributed much to the national re- 
 vival upon which the welfare of the Anglo-Sax- 
 on peoples and the future history of the world, 
 and especially the destiny of America, now 
 turned. But the Wesleyan revival so over- 
 shadowed all other similar movements of the 
 period, and contributed so immediately to their 
 birth and growth, that for the purposes of this 
 treatise all of them may bo discussed as one, 
 under the general name of the "Wesleyan Ee- 
 vival." The term is used to mark a religious 
 movement of national proportions and multi- 
 
Doubt, Deism, and Darkness. 109 
 
 form phases, rather than to glorify the deeds of 
 any particular party. 
 
 The British nation was saved from destruction 
 by this national revival, and its colonial depend- 
 encies shared in the same salvation, reaping 
 benefits in the end which were even greater 
 than those which accrued to the mother country. 
 
 We have seen how national greatness and 
 strength depend on religious faith and life. 
 These firmest supports of civil government and 
 national prosperity had fallen into decay 
 throughout the British dominions when the 
 Wesleyan revival began. English deism and 
 French infidelity had destroyed the faith and 
 corrupted the morals of the upper classes, and 
 the lower orders of society were sodden in vice 
 and ignorance. The ministry in both the Es- 
 tablished and the Dissenting bodies were lax in 
 doctrine, remiss in their duties, and irregular 
 in their lives. There was such a prostration of 
 the vital energies of the nation as invited dan- 
 gers from without and engendered disorders 
 within. 
 
 Bishop Gibson, in a pastoral letter issued in 
 1728, said : "They who live in these great cities 
 [London and Westminster], or have had fre- 
 quent recourse to them, and have had any con- 
 
110 Bishops Gibson and Seclcer, 
 
 cern for religion, must have observed, to their 
 grief, that profaneness and impiety are grown 
 bold and open; that a new sort of vice of a very- 
 horrible nature, and almost unknown before in 
 these parts of the world, was springing up and 
 gaining ground among us, if it had not been 
 checked by the seasonable care of the civil ad- 
 ministration; that in some late writings public 
 stews have been openly vindicated and public 
 vices recommended to the protection of the gov- 
 ernment as public benefits; that great pains 
 have been taken to make men easy in their 
 vices, and deliver them from the restraints of 
 conscience by undermining all religion and 
 promoting atheism and infidelity." 
 
 Archbishop Seeker declared in 1738 (ten years 
 after the foregoing deliverance of Bishop Gib- 
 son) that "an open and professed disregard to 
 religion is become, through a variety of unhappy 
 causes, the distinguishing character of the pres- 
 ent age; this evil has grown to a great height in 
 the metropolis of the nation; is daily spreading 
 through every part of it; and, bad in itself as 
 can be, must of necessity bring in all others 
 after it. Indeed, it hath already brought in 
 such dissoluteness and contempt of principle in 
 the higher part of the world, and such profligate 
 
Blackstone and Rijle. Ill 
 
 intemperance and fearlessness of committing 
 crimes in the lower, as must, if this torrent of 
 impiety stop not, become absolutely fatal." 
 
 The celebrated Blackstone had the curiosity 
 to go from church to church and hear every 
 notable clergyman in London, and he reported 
 that he did not hear a single discourse which 
 had more Christianity in it than the writings of 
 Cicero, and that it would have been impossible 
 for him to discover from what he heard whether 
 the preacher were a follower of Confucius, of 
 Mahomet, or of Christ. 
 
 Bishop Ryle, of Liverpool, says: "From the 
 year 1700 till about the era of the French Kev- 
 olution, England seemed barren of all that is 
 really good. How such a thing could have 
 arisen in a land of free Bibles and professing 
 Protestantism is almost past comprehension. 
 Christianity seemed to lie as one dead, insomuch 
 that you might have said: 'She is dead.' Mo- 
 rality, however much exalted in the pulpits, was 
 thoroughly trampled under foot in the streets. 
 There was darkness in high places and darkness 
 in low places— darkness in the court, the camp, 
 the Parliament, and the bar— darkness in coun- 
 try and darkness in town— darkness among rich 
 and darkness among poor— a gross, thick re- 
 
112 The Life of the Nation Threatened, 
 
 ligious and moral darkness — a darkness that 
 might be felt. " 
 
 Isaac Taylor affirms that "the people of En- 
 gland had lapsed into heathenism, or a state 
 scarcely tO be distinguished from it, when Wes- 
 ley appeared." 
 
 It is incredible that all these contemporary 
 witnesses and later students of that period in 
 British history have conspired to paint the pic- 
 ture in darker colors than "the facts justify; and 
 if half they say is true, the life of the nation 
 was threatened by the conditions which they 
 portray. And it was thus menaced from within 
 when its foreign perils were greatest. 
 
 Amid such conditions the ministry and meth- 
 ods of Horace Walpole were most natural and 
 inevitable. All the briberies and nameless cor- 
 ruptions of that ministry, its political cynicism 
 and sneering unbelief in all high sentiments, 
 were the exact exponents of the moral life of 
 the nation which called it into power and re- 
 tained it so long in office. Had such a ministry 
 continued to rule in England, the contest with 
 France would certainly have resulted very dif- 
 ferently, and it is equally certain that AYal- 
 pole's party would have continued in place if 
 the masses of the people had not been elevateci 
 
The Bevival Begun. 113 
 
 and inspired by the- national revival. The ap- 
 peals of Pitt would have fallen unheeded upon 
 the ears of such a constituency as f ollov^ed Wal- 
 pole, and his achievements during the period of 
 the Seven Years' War v^ould have been impos- 
 sible at such a time as Bishop Ryle describes, 
 "The Great Commoner" was made possible by 
 the redemption of the great common people. 
 John Richard Green, in his "History of the Eng- 
 lish People," truly remarks: "Rant about min- 
 isterial corruption would have fallen flat on the 
 public ear had not new moral forces, a new 
 sense of social virtue, a new sense of religion, 
 been stirring, however blindly, in the minds of 
 Englishmen." 
 
 After reciting the details of moral decay and 
 political corruption which marked the closing 
 years of Walpole's ministry, the philosophic 
 historian just mentioned tells how the new and 
 better era dawned on this wise; "In spite, how- 
 ever, of scenes such as this, England remained 
 at heart religious. In the middle class the old 
 Puritan spirit lived on unchanged, and it was 
 from this class that a religious revival burst 
 forth at the close of Walpole's administration, 
 which changed after a time the whole tone of 
 English society. The Church wds restored to 
 8 
 
114 *' The Neiv Apostles:' 
 
 life and activity. Religion carried to the hearts 
 of the people a fresh spirit of moral zeal, while 
 it purified our literature and our manners. A 
 new philanthropy reformed our prisons, infused 
 clemency and wisdom into our penal laws, abol- 
 ished the slave trade, and gave the first impulse 
 to popular education. The revival began in a 
 small knot of Oxford students, whose revolt 
 against the religious deadness of their times 
 showed itself in ascetic observances, an enthu- 
 siastic devotion, and a methodical regularity of 
 life which gained them the nickname of ' Meth- 
 odists.' Three figures detached themselves from 
 the group as soon as, on its transfer to London 
 in 1738, it attracted public attention by the fer- 
 vor and even extravagance of its piety; and 
 each found his special work in the task to which 
 the instinct of the new movement led it from 
 the first, that of carrying religion and morality 
 to the vast masses of population which lay con- 
 centrated in the towns, or around the mines and 
 collieries of Cornwall and the North. White- 
 field, a servitor of Pembroke College, was, above 
 all, the preacher of the revival. Speech was 
 governing English politics; and the religious 
 power of speech w^as shown when a dread of 
 ' enthusiasm ' closed against the new apostles the 
 
"The Embodiment:' 115 
 
 pulpits of the Established Church, aud forced 
 them to preach in the fields. Their voice was 
 soon heard in the wildest and most barbarous 
 corners of the land, among the bleak moors of 
 Northumberland, or in the dens of London, or 
 in the long galleries where in the pauses of his 
 labor the Cornish miner listens to the sobbino^ 
 of the sea. . . . All the phenomena of strong 
 spiritual excitement, so familiar now, but at 
 that time strange and unknown, followed on 
 their sermons; aud the terrible sense of a con- 
 viction of sin, a new dread of hell, a new hope 
 of heaven, took forms at once grotesque aud 
 sublime. Charles Wesley, a Christ Church stu- 
 dent, came to add sweetness to this sudden and 
 startling light. He was the sweet singer of the 
 movement. His hymns expressed the fiery* con- 
 viction of its converts in lines so chaste and 
 beautiful that its more extravagant features dis- 
 appeared. The wild throes of hysteric enthusi- 
 asm passed into a passion for hymn-singing, and 
 a new musical impulse was aroused in the peo- 
 ple which gradually changed the face of public 
 devotion throughout England. But it was his 
 elder brother, John Wesley, who embodied in 
 himself not this or that side of the new move- 
 ment, but the movement itself. ... In 
 
116 John Wesley, 
 
 power as a preacher he stood next to White- 
 field; as a hymn writer he stood second to his 
 brother Charles. But while combining in some 
 degree the excellence of either, he possessed 
 qualities in which both were utterly deficient: 
 an indefatigable industry, a cool judgment, a 
 command over others, a faculty of organization, 
 a singular union of patience and moderation with 
 an imperious ambition, which marked him as a 
 ruler of men. He had, besides, a learning and 
 skill in writing which no other of the Metho- 
 dists possessed; he was older than any of his col- 
 leagues at the start of the movement, and he out- 
 lived them all. His life, indeed, almost covers 
 the century, and the Methodist body had passed 
 through every phase of its history before he 
 sank into the grave at the age of eighty-eight. 
 His powers were bent to the building up of a 
 great religious society which might give to the 
 new enthusiasm a lasting and practical form. 
 The Methodists were grouped into classes, gath- 
 ered at love feasts, purified by the expulsion of 
 unworthy members, and furnished with an al- 
 ternation of settled ministers and wandering 
 preachers; while the whole body was placed un- 
 der the absolute government of a Conference of 
 ministers. But so long as he lived, the direction 
 
Testimonij of Dr, W, H. FHchetU 117 
 
 of the new religious society remained with Wes- 
 ley alone. 'If by arbitrary power,' he replied 
 with a charming simplicity to objectors, 'you- 
 mean a power which I exercise without any col- 
 league therein, this is certainly true, but I see no 
 hurt in it. ' The great body which he thus found- 
 ed numbered a hundred thousand members at his 
 death, and now counts its members in England 
 and America by millions." 
 
 No apology is necessary for the length of this 
 quotation from the able treatise of this scholar- 
 ly and impartial historian. His vivid presenta- 
 tion of the matter, the writer of these pages can- 
 not hope to excel, and the estimate thus placed 
 upon the Wesleyan revival by a priest of the 
 Church of England will be exempt from all 
 suspicion of bias or exaggeration. 
 
 But if any persist in considering this estimate 
 extravagant, let them hear what Dr. W. H.Fitch- 
 ett has to say upon the same subject in his in- 
 teresting treatise entitled "How England Saved 
 Europe." He says: "Great Britain was invigo- 
 rated by the great religious movement of which 
 Wesley and Whitefield were the leaders. That 
 movement was practically a new birth of Puri- 
 tanism, spiritualized and ennobled, purged of 
 its gloom, of its fierce political leaven, of its 
 
118 "Healthful Salt:' 
 
 narrowness. It is not easy to realize how it 
 might have affected English history, if in the 
 middle of the eighteenth century, with its 
 drowsy Church, its enervated morals, its laxity 
 of public life, there had arisen, instead of a re- 
 former like Wesley, an English Voltaire, dis- 
 tilling the gall of his skepticism, the acid of his 
 bitter wit into the life of England. In that case 
 the reign of terror in Paris might have been ri- 
 valed by one as' fierce and bloody in London. 
 Wesley, to the zeal of an apostle and the spirit- 
 ual ardor of a saint, added the patriotism of an 
 Englishman, and something at least of the intel- 
 lectual vision of a statesman. And he did some- 
 thing more than crystallize into happy and en- 
 during form the great religious body that bears 
 his name. He affected for good the whole tone 
 of English society. The religious revival of that 
 period had the office of the healthful salt in the 
 national blood. It purified domestic life. It wove 
 bonds of quick and generous sympathy betwixt 
 all classes. It put a more robust fiber into the 
 national character. It gave a new tenderness to 
 charity, a nobler daring to philanthropy, a loft- 
 ier authority to morals, as w^ell as a new grace 
 to religion. So it helped to cleanse the nation- 
 al life. Among the elements of strength to 
 
Shaping the Future, 119 
 
 Great Britain at the beginning of the struggle 
 with revolutionary France is surely to be reck- 
 oned the invigoration bred of a revived faith in 
 religion." 
 
 If the thesis that "England Saved Europe" 
 be sound, and if among the elements of strength 
 which enabled Great Britain to accomplish so 
 great a salvation must be reckoned the revival, 
 the importance of the Wesleyan movement is 
 not overstated when it is affirmed that it con- 
 tributed to the fixing of the geographical bound- 
 aries of the British Colonies in America, and 
 thus helped to shape in the most influential way 
 the future of the United States. 
 
 While the field of its operations was across the 
 sea, it really affected the American Colonies in 
 its ultimate effects more than did its coetaneous 
 movement, the great awakening, on this side 
 the water. It differed greatly from that 
 movement under Edwards, the Tennents, and 
 Whitefield, and by reason of those differences 
 it blessed the American Republic, at its birth and 
 during the formative period of its history as an 
 independent nation, as it could not have done 
 otherwise. This will appear upon consideration 
 of the points of difference between the two re- 
 vival movements, and such consideration will 
 
120 An Arminian Movement 
 
 also serve to set before iis more distinctly the ef- 
 fect of the Wesley an revival on the origin and 
 development of the Great Republic. 
 
 First, let it be observed that they differed in 
 their doctrinal basis. The great awakening 
 was born in Calvinistic Churches and was carried 
 on by Calvinistic preachers. The Wesleyan re- 
 vival, while embracing in its sweep many Cal- 
 vinistic influences and individuals, was over- 
 whelmingly Arminian. This was fortunate for 
 England at such a time, and therefore best for 
 America in the end. An all-embracing gospel 
 chased away despair from the hopeless lower 
 classes, and emphasized the equality of every 
 man before God. Only such a gospel could have 
 lifted the masses of Britain's common people to 
 the level of life and hope needed for the critical 
 period through which the nation was passing. 
 To the freedom and fullness of an Arminian 
 creed was added an emphasis on the doctrine of 
 the witness of the Spirit and Christian assur- 
 ance such as was never heard in England before, 
 nor found so clearly and fully set forth in the 
 sermons of Whitefield, Edwards, and the Ten- 
 nents even. This also, in the very nature of the 
 truth involved, inevitably gave a wholesome im- 
 pulse to the spirit of liberty which was then ris- 
 
'* The Perfect GospeV 121 
 
 ing in the nation. Ever since the 'Wesleyan re- 
 vival there has been a steady and remarkable 
 rise in the appraisement put on the value of 
 a man as a man throughout the English-speak- 
 ing world, and this rising valuation has been 
 made without serious shock to the social system. 
 The prevalence of the doctrines of experimental 
 religion has thus fed the spirit of freedom with- 
 out firing the heart of fanaticism. One who 
 knows by the assurance of the witnessing Spirit 
 that he is born of God knows he must be free, 
 and yet he asserts his freedom with the self- 
 respecting meekness of faith, and not with the 
 fiery vindictiveness of wounded pride. To these 
 doctrines of evangelical faith as held by his evan- 
 gelistic contemporaries, Wesley added the doc- 
 trine of Christian perfection— a ''glorious hope" 
 that stirred the noblest aspirations of the human 
 breast. He brought to the English nation the 
 perfect gospel for the "unprivileged." There 
 was no room for the intervention of a priestly 
 caste in a system that emphasized justification 
 by faith, the new birth, and the witness of the 
 Spirit. There was no place for even privileged 
 evangelicals when an unconditional election was 
 denied. And there was no occasion for the 
 most forlorn soul to despair when the way of 
 
122 Salvation Full and Free, 
 
 the highest holiness was thrown wide open to 
 every one. Wesley might have justly defined 
 his commission to his people in the language of 
 Paul to the Colossians: "Whereof 1 am made 
 a minister, according to the dispensation of God 
 which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word 
 of God; even the mystery which hath been hid 
 from ages and from generations, but now is 
 made manifest to his saints: to whom God would 
 make known what is the riches of the glory of 
 this mystery among the Gentiles; which is 
 Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we 
 preach, warning every man and teaching every 
 man in all wisdom; that we may present every 
 msin 2?e?ifect in Christ Jesus." This is the full- 
 ness of the gospel, which leaves nothing of grace 
 inexperienced, and which in the depths of its 
 earthly experience discovers foretastes of heav- 
 enly glory. It was the gospel exactly suited to 
 the needs of Great Britain and America then, 
 and it is the gospel which is ample for the 
 world's want for all time. It cannot be in- 
 creased by the addition of a dogma, for it leaves 
 nothing to be desired when it throws open the 
 gates of life to every soul, and promises the 
 fullness of life to all who will enter. From 
 it nothinof can be subtracted without diminish- 
 
New Life and New Songs. 123 
 
 ing the common salvation and dimming some 
 dear hope of mankind. Wesley, not Whitelield, 
 was the leader for such a movement. White- 
 field and the Calvinistic evangelicals did much 
 to help it on, but they could not direct it with- 
 out marring it. Wesley, as Green truly sa3^s, 
 was its very "embodiment.'' 
 
 A second point of difference between the W^s- 
 leyan revival and the great awakening arose from 
 the first. The Wesleyan doctrines required new 
 songs for their expression, and the joyous Chris- 
 tian expe^'ience to which they gave rise outran 
 the sad psalmody of the former days. The 
 great awakening demanded no such expres- 
 sion and brought forth no hymns, while the Wes- 
 leyan revival came with a burst of song such as 
 had not been heard for ages. In this particular 
 it marked a new era in Christian history. Hence- 
 forth a new type of music prevails in the evan- 
 gelical ' Churches. Robert Southey, the poet 
 laureate, said of the Wesleyan hymns: "No 
 poems have been so treasured in the memory, or 
 so frequently quoted on a deathbed." James 
 Martineau, the great Unitarian divine, said: 
 "After the Scriptures, the Wesleyan Hymn 
 Book appears to me the greatest instrument of 
 popular religious culture that Christendom has 
 
124 Hijmns of Watts and the Wesleys, 
 
 ever produced. " Handel found in the Wesleyan 
 hymns poetry worthy of his own lofty genius, 
 and he set to music those beginning, " Sinners, 
 obey the gospel word!" "O Love divine, how 
 sweet thou art I" and "Rejoice, the Lord is King." 
 The great composer Giardini also supplied tunes 
 for some of them. Such hymns could spring 
 from no doctrines or experiences less compre- 
 hensive and fervent than the Wesleyan faith. 
 The biographer of Watts acknowledges "the 
 faulty versification and inelegant construction of 
 some of his hymns, which have been pointed out 
 as their principal defects;" and adds, "They 
 would have never occurred had they been writ- 
 ten under the same circumstances as those of his 
 Arminian successor." 
 
 The revival made the hymns, and the hymns 
 in turn deepened" and widened the revival. Nor 
 could the masses of the people have been reached 
 and saved otherwise. If the writing of a na- 
 tion's songs outranks in influence the making 
 of its laws, it is impossible to overstate the ef- 
 fect of the Wesleyan hymns on the life of the 
 British nation at t^is time. 
 
 The music of the evangelical Churches hence- 
 forth passed out of the hands of privileged and 
 pretentious classes called choirs, and all the peo- 
 
A New Church, 125 
 
 pie fell to singing with rapturous melodies the 
 praise of God. Priestcraft and choral monopo- 
 lies belong to the same order of things, and the 
 farther Christianity gets away from both, the 
 farther it is from paganism, and the closer it is 
 to the common people and to the favor of Him 
 whom the ''common people heard gladly." It 
 was a great day for the religion of the masses 
 and the salvation of the world when the Wes- 
 leys set the Anglo-Saxon nations to singing the 
 gospel of a full salvation. 
 
 In the third place, the great awakening 
 produced no new organization. It was best that 
 it should not have done so. But it was not so 
 with the Wesleyan revival. It seems to be a 
 strange thing that Wesley, who never was in 
 America, except for a brief space before the 
 great revival began, should have organized an 
 American Church, which continues to this day; 
 while White held, who spent so much time and 
 toil in the New World, should have left no or- 
 ganized following in it. The great evangelist 
 seems to have felt it keenly. In one place he 
 says: ''My brother Wesley acted Avisely. The 
 souls that were awakened under his ministry, 
 he joined in a class, and thus preserved the fruits 
 of his labor. This I neglected, and my people 
 
126 New Wine and a New Bottle. 
 
 are as a rope of sand." But the explanation of 
 the case lies deeper than Wesley's organization 
 and Whitefield's neglect to organize. Such things 
 rest on deeper reasons than the foresight of one 
 man and the blundering of another. They arise 
 naturally under the operation of profound spirit- 
 ual laws of demand and supply. Whitefield's Cal- 
 vinistic converts could find comfortable Church 
 homes in any of several communions, but there 
 was no place for Wesley's Arminians that was 
 perfectly suited to their needs. The law of life 
 is ''to every seed its own body," and Wesley 
 himself was not able to forestall the operation 
 of this law, and thereby prevent his followers 
 from leaving the Established Church, which was 
 indeed the friendliest home for them, and yet 
 not friendly enough. While he lived, he was 
 able to postpone separation in England, although 
 he provided for the organization of a new Church 
 in America and ordained men to administer the 
 sacraments in Scotland. At last the societies in 
 England separated also— a result which was in- 
 evitable by the very nature of the life within 
 them. The new wine could not be long kept in 
 the old bottles. 
 
 Lastly, the Wesleyan revival continued lon- 
 ger, and its visible influence has been far more 
 
A Neiv Type. 127 
 
 enduring, than the great awakening. After 
 about 1750, the great awakening went on 
 with a greatly diminished current; but the Wes- 
 leyan revival continued, with scarcely an inter- 
 ruption or subtraction from its power, for above 
 fifty years, and in some sense it may be claimed 
 with justice that it is still going on. Martin 
 Luther said that for sixteen hundred years the 
 longest revival lasted only through a single gen- 
 eration, but the Wesleyan revival has never 
 ceased. It has done much to create an evangel- 
 istic type of Christian effort that has at length 
 become the dominant type among the Churches 
 of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, and by which there 
 have been almost continuous revivals in these 
 lands for above one hundred and fifty years. Its 
 effect has also been to shorten the intervals be- 
 tween those great general movements of revival 
 power which have from the first marked the 
 history of Christianity. 
 
 These consequences of the Wesleyan revival 
 are attri])utable in part to the long life and ac- 
 tivity of John Wesle}^, the 'embodiment" and 
 incarnation of the spirit of the movement. His 
 wisdom and foresight preserved its character and 
 directed its course under Divine Providence un- 
 til March, 1791, when he fell on sleep, whis- 
 
128 Changing Anglo-Saxon History, 
 
 pering: "The best of all is, God is with us." But 
 more than to the length of his life, the power 
 and persistence of the revival were due to the 
 doctrines preached, the songs sung, and the 
 organization which he fashioned and operated 
 with such skill. In these things was found the 
 stored force which revolutionized the British 
 nation, passed over the seas, penetrated the 
 American Colonies, and changed the current of 
 Anglo-Saxon history. With the rapidity of a 
 revolution and the renovating power of a celes- 
 tial springtime, it passed over the United King- 
 dom and its dependencies. Wesley himself was 
 amazed at the magnitude of the work. When 
 his followers numbered no more than 30,000 
 souls he sang: 
 
 " O the fathomless love that hath deigned to approve 
 And prosper the work of my hands! 
 With my pastoral crook I went over the brook, 
 And, behold, I am spread into bands. 
 
 Who, I ask in amaze, hath gotten me these? 
 
 And inquire from what quarter they came; 
 My full heart replies, 'They are born from the skies,' 
 
 And gives glory to God and the Lamb."" 
 
 In the moderation of carefully considered 
 prose he wrote later: "The revival of religion 
 has spread to such a degree as neither we nor 
 our fathers had known. How extensive has it 
 
Extent f Speed, and Depth of the WorJi. 129 
 
 been! There is scarce a considerable town in 
 the kingdom where some have not been made 
 witnesses of it. It has spread to every age and 
 sex, to most orders and degrees of men; and 
 even to abundance of those who, in time past, 
 were accounted monsters of wickedness. Con- 
 sider the sioiftness as well as the extent of it. 
 In what age has such a number of sinners been 
 recovered, in so short a time, from the error of 
 their ways? When has true religion, I will not 
 say since the Reformation, but since the time of 
 Constantine the Great, made so large a progress 
 in any nation, within so small a space? I be- 
 lieve hardly can ancient or modern history af- 
 ford a parallel instance. We may likewise ob- 
 serve the depth of the work so extensively and 
 swiftly wrought. Multitudes have been thor- 
 oughly convinced of sin; and shortly after, so 
 filled with joy and love, that whether they were 
 in the body, or out of the body, they could 
 hardly tell; and in the power of this love they 
 have trampled under foot whatever the world ac- 
 counts either terrible or desirable, having evi- 
 denced in the severest trials an invariable and 
 tender good will to mankind and all the fruits 
 of holiness. Now so deep a repentance, so 
 strong a faith, so fervent a love, so unblemished 
 9 
 
130 The M^fJwdists at Wesley's Death, 
 
 holiness wrought in so many persons in so short 
 a time the world has not seen for ages." Hav- 
 ing thus described the work, he proceeds in the 
 same passage to vindicate it (and he does it 
 with complete success) against any possible 
 charges of impurity in doctrine, superstition, 
 irrational enthusiasm, bigotry, or bitter zeal. 
 
 When he died his followers who were en- 
 rolled in the Wesleyan organization numbered 
 in England seventy-one thousand, and in Amer- 
 ica forty-eight thousand. And be it remem- 
 bered that the entire population on both sides 
 of the Atlantic did not exceed fifteen million 
 souls. The growth of the Wesleyan body had 
 been gathered from a comparatively sparse pop- 
 ulation, and during a period when the nation 
 was almost continuously engaged in war. But 
 the Wesleyan organization did not hold all the 
 fruits nor measure all the power of the Wesley- 
 an revival. As John Richard Green forcibly 
 says: "The Methodists themselves w^ere the 
 least result of the Methodist revival." He ex- 
 plains and amplifies his statement as follows: 
 "Its action upon the Church broke the lethargy 
 of the clergy; and the * Evangelical' movement, 
 which found representatives like Newton and 
 Cecil within the pale of the Establishment, 
 
Fruits of the Re v i va L 13 1 
 
 made the fox-hunting parson and the absentee 
 rector at last impossible. In Walpole's day the 
 Eno^lish clergy were the idlest and most lifeless 
 in the world. In our own time no body of reli- 
 gious ministers surpasses them in piety, in phil- 
 anthropic energy, or in popular regard. In the 
 nation at large appeared a new moral enthusiasm 
 which, rigid and pedantic as it often seemed, 
 was still healthy in its social tone, and whose 
 power was seen in the disappearance of the 
 profligacy which had disgraced the upper classes, 
 and the foulness which had infested literature, 
 ever since the Restoration. A yet nobler re- 
 sult of the religious revival was the steady at- 
 tempt, which has never ceased from that day to 
 this, to remedy the guilt, the ignorance, the 
 physical suffering, the social degradation of the 
 profligate and the poor. It was not till the 
 Wesleyan impulse had done its w^ork that this 
 philanthropic impulse began." 
 
 It affected all classes from highest to lowest, 
 the rich and poor, the learned and the unlet- 
 tered, the old and the young. While reaching 
 the peasant at the plow and the miner in the 
 cave, it made converts of such titled people as 
 Lady Huntingdon, Lady Mary Hastings, and 
 Lord Dartmouth. Even Chesterfield and Bol- 
 
132 All Classes Affected, 
 
 ingbroke were among the hearers of the re- 
 vivalists. It extended its influence to the liter- 
 ary classes, saving some and affecting many 
 whom it could not save. Cowper, the gi'eatest 
 English poet of the closing years of the eight- 
 eenth century, devoted his gentle spirit and 
 graceful style to its service. Robert Southey, 
 who was born while the revival was at its 
 height, who was influenced in his childhood by 
 Wesley, and who knew well the power of the 
 movement among men of letters, declared a 
 generation later: "I consider Wesley the most 
 influential mind of the last century — the man 
 who will have produced the greatest effect cen- 
 turies or perhaps millenniums hence, if the pres- 
 ent race of men should continue so long." 
 With this estimate of Wesley by Southey agrees 
 the thoughtful essayist, Birrell, w^ho affirms: 
 ''Wesley was himself the greatest force of the 
 eighteenth century in England. No man lived 
 nearer the center than John Wesley; neither 
 Pitt nor Clive, neither Mansfield nor Johnson. 
 No single figure influenced so many minds; no 
 single voice touched so many hearts; no other 
 man did such a life work for England." 
 
 Of course the widest and deepest influence of 
 the Wesleyan revival was exerted upon the 
 
Effect on the "Army, . . 135 
 
 middle and lower classes of the nation — the 
 classes who iu all lands and in all times give 
 distinctive character to a nation and who 
 are most accessible to spiritual things. Among 
 these classes two should have special mention, 
 because of the influential part they bore in 
 shaping the destiny of the nation just at that 
 time — viz. , the army, and the miners and arti- 
 sans. 
 
 No movement whatsoever can greatly affect 
 for any considerable time the ''common people" 
 of any country without soon manifesting itself 
 in the army, for the common people fight the 
 world's battles. Such was the case with the 
 work of "Wesley. The camp and the field, it is 
 true, are not favorable to devotion or piety, but, 
 despite all the hindrances to religion in military 
 life, the Wesley an revival quickly penetrated 
 the army and followed it to Flanders and to the 
 New World. W^hen the " Cape Breton Expedi- 
 tion" sailed away from Boston in 1745 to take 
 from the French Louisburg — ''the key to Can- 
 ada and the Gibraltar of America"— it went un- 
 der the command of Sir William Pepper ell, one 
 of Whitefield's converts, and on its banner were 
 the words, "A7Z desperandum; Christo duce " — a 
 motto given by Whitefield at the request of the 
 
134 Among the Troops in Flanders, 
 
 commander, to testify the great evangelist'^ fa- 
 vor and encouragement. Before its embarka- 
 tion the officers desired him to preach them a 
 sermon, which he did, and when news came of 
 the fall of Louisburg he preached in Boston a 
 thanksgiving sermon. Again in 1755 Sir Wil- 
 liam took up arms for his country against the 
 French, and Whitefield in a letter to Lady Pep- 
 perell said of him: ^^He is gone upon a good 
 cause, and under the conduct of the best general, 
 even the Captain of our salvation." Thus into 
 the army of America the influence of the reviv- 
 al through the preaching of Whitefield entered. 
 And it was an equally or more active influence 
 among the troops in Flanders. John Haime, 
 belonging to the Queen's Regiment of Dragoons, 
 having been converted under the ministry of 
 the Wesleys in England, was stirred up to 
 preach to his companions in arms, hundreds of 
 whom were converted. The work thus begun 
 Avas so conspicuous that Lecky has felt con- 
 strained to mention it in his great work, en- 
 titled, ''The History of England in the Eight- 
 eenth Century.*' He says: ''It [Wesleyanism] 
 may be first traced in the army of Flanders in 
 174i, the year of the battle of Dettingen, when 
 a small society, numbering at first three, then 
 
Christ in the Camp. 135 
 
 twelve, and soon after more than two tinndred 
 persons, was formed among the regiments at 
 Ghent, and Wesley has published several letters 
 from the soldiers which throw a novel and at- 
 tractive light over the campaign. One of the 
 soldiers Vs'as accustomed to preach in the open 
 air near the camp at Ask. His congregation 
 often numbered more than a thousand; many of 
 the officers attended, and he sometimes preached 
 thirty-five times in seven days. The society 
 had its stated hours of meeting, and commonly 
 two whole nights in every week were passed in 
 devotion; two small tabernacles were built in 
 the camp near Brussels, and rooms were hired 
 at Bruges and at Ghent. One of the leading 
 Methodists dated his conversion from the battle 
 of Dettingen, when the balls were raining 
 around him, and he ended his career at Fonte- 
 noy, where he was seen by one of his compan- 
 ions laid across a cannon, both his legs having 
 been taken ofi' by a chain shot, praising God and 
 exhorting those about him with his last breath." 
 John Haime himself has left an account of this 
 work even more vivid and interesting than that 
 of Lecky. He says: ''On the 1st of May, 1745, 
 we had a full trial of our faith at Fontenoy. 
 Some days before, one of our brethren, standing 
 
136 Mightij in Battle. ■ 
 
 in his tent door, broke out into raptures of Joy, 
 knowing bis departure was at band; and wben 
 be went into tbe fiekl of battle declared: ' I am 
 goins: to rest in tbe bosom of Jesus.' Indeed, 
 this day God was pleased to prove our little 
 flock, and to show them his mighty power. 
 They showed such courage and boldness in the 
 fight as made tbe officers as well as tbe soldiers 
 amazed. When wounded, some cried out, 'I 
 am going to my Beloved;' others, 'Come, 
 Lord Jesus, come quickly.' When William 
 Clements had bis arm broken by a musket ball 
 they would have carried him out of tbe battle, 
 but he said : ' No, I have an arm left to hold my 
 sword; I will not go yet.' When a second shot 
 broke his other arm he said: ' 1 am as happy as 
 1 can be out of paradise.' John Evans, having 
 both bis legs taken off by a cannon ball, was 
 laid across a cannon to die, where, as long as he 
 could speak, be was praising God with joyful 
 lips. For my own part, 1 stood tbe hottest fire 
 of tbe enemy for about seven hours. But I 
 told my comrades: 'The French have no ball 
 made that will kill me this day.'- After about 
 seven hours a cannon ball killed my horse un- 
 der me. An officer cried out: 'Haime, where 
 is your God now?' 1 answered: 'Sir, he is 
 
"They hied Welir 13V 
 
 here with me, and he will bring me out of this 
 battle.' As I was quitting the field I met one 
 of our brethren, with a little dish in his hand, 
 seeking water. I did not know him at first, be- 
 ing covered with blood. He smiled and said: 
 'Brother Haime, I have got a sore wound.' I 
 asked; 'Have you got Christ in your heart?' 
 He said: 'I have, and I have had him all this 
 day. I have seen many good and glorious days, 
 with much of God, but I never saw more of it 
 than this day. Glory be to God for all his mer- 
 cies!' Among the dead there was great plenty 
 of watches and gold and silver. One asked: ' Will 
 you not get something?' I answered: 'No; I 
 have got Christ, I will have no plunder.'" 
 
 It is no wonder that officers and men were 
 amazed by such exhibitions of faith and courage. 
 It was veritably a Gideon's band fighting by 
 faith. No such soldiers had been seen since 
 Cromwell's Ironsides. These dauntless spirits 
 were exemplifying the saying of Wesley: "The 
 world may not like our Methodists and evangel- 
 ical people, but the world cannot deny they die 
 well." By valor invincible in death they were 
 commanding the admiration and inspiring the 
 courage of all around them. Can any one who 
 knows the value of one such regiment in a cam- 
 
138 The Biding industrialism, 
 
 paign depreciate the worth of these men to the 
 whole army and to the cause it represented? 
 Without such troops, would the result have been 
 the same? Let him affirm it who dares the de- 
 rision of all thoughtful men. 
 
 But about this time England was threatened 
 by another peril more dangerous and menacing 
 than the armies of France. A new era dawned 
 when Brindley joined Manchester with Liver- 
 pool, in 1767, by a canal. The success of the 
 experiment led to the rapid introduction of wa- 
 ter carriage, and Great Britain was speedily 
 traversed in every direction by three thousand 
 miles of navigable canals. This meant much in 
 an almost roadless land where for lack of trans- 
 portation people might famish for bread in Lon- 
 don, while a hundred miles away farmers hoard- 
 ed or wasted a surplus of grain for which they 
 had no accessible market. Two years before 
 Brindley \s canal, Watt had transformed the 
 steam engine from a toy to a Titan, which in 
 the end revolutionized the industi'ial world. 
 About the same time a new importance was 
 given to the coal which underlaid the surface of 
 England. The immense stores of iron, which 
 in the northern counties lay side by side with 
 the coal, remained unworked because it was 
 
The Power and Peril of the HoKr. 139 
 
 thought that it could be Biuelted with wood 
 only, and that fuel was all too scarce. Now was 
 discovered a process to smelt iron with coal, 
 and the iron industry was changed as by magic. 
 This development of coal and iron made the in- 
 vention of AYatt a thousandfold more effective 
 in supplying the place of manual labor in the 
 manufactures- Then, in 1764, came the spin- 
 ning jenny of Hargreaves, the weaver, followed 
 quickly in 1768 by the spinning machine of 
 Arkwright, the barber. In 1776 was invented 
 the spinning mule of Crompton, the weaver, 
 and speedily after it came the power loom. It 
 was as if all the hidden forces of nature had 
 flocked to the aid of Great Britain during the 
 terrible years of her struggle with France, and 
 were lifting her into the commanding position 
 of the greatest commercial power of the world. 
 But the new power brought a fearful peril. 
 Great manufacturing centers sprang instantly 
 into being. Workingmen agglomerated in the 
 towns, and labor became nomadic in habit and 
 irritable in temper. Men unused to the fever- 
 ish excitement and the fearful temptations of 
 such a situation were massed together where all 
 the seductions to vice were multiplied and all the 
 inspirations of virtue were diminished. Wealth 
 
140 *^ Peculiarly Fortunate." 
 
 grew, but the inequalities of its distribution 
 were increased far more rapidly. The contrast 
 between extravagant luxury and abject want was 
 made more common and glaring than ever be- 
 fore. Wealthy employers lived at a distance, 
 geographically and socially, from their less for- 
 tunate employees, and all tbe bonds of sympathy 
 between class and class were weakened, while 
 across the English Channel were heard the mut- 
 terings of the popular discontent in France 
 which eventually burst out in the Reign of Ter- 
 ror. What would have been the result if these 
 conjunctions of events and inflammatory condi- 
 tions had rent the nation in twain when the des- 
 tinies of America — and the welfare of the world 
 — turned on the issue of the conflict with France ? 
 The French held all the territory of the Missis- 
 sippi and Ohio valleys in North America — all 
 west of the Alleghanies. The future of India 
 and Canada was also involved in the mighty con- 
 test. Adopting the language of Lecky, we may 
 say of this perilous period: "It is peculiarly for- 
 tunate that it should have been preceded by a 
 religious revival which opened a new spring of 
 moral and religious energy among the poor, and 
 at the same time gave a powerful impulse to the 
 philanthropy of the rich." That healed the 
 
Passing a Trijing Crisis, 141 
 
 breach, solidified the nation, and saved the day. 
 When penitential tears flowing from the eyes of 
 the Cornish miners made white farrows down 
 their grimy faces, while Whitefield and the Wes- 
 leys preached to them, England was being saved 
 from floods of grief and distress. Sydney Smith 
 sneeringly said of the early Methodists, "All 
 mines and subterranean places belong to them;" 
 and it is well that it was so, or soon there would 
 have been nothing above ground for anybody 
 else to care for. Other influences, of course, 
 conspired to save the nation, but without the 
 Wesleyan revival they would have been insuf- 
 ficient in themselves alone. The England of a 
 Wal pole's day could not have passed safely such 
 a trying crisis. 
 
 Closely akin to the danger from the rising 
 industrialism were the influences of French infi- 
 delity which were being imported into the land 
 along with the new and popular theories of lib- 
 erty with which France was then filled. Ed- 
 mund Burke profoundly observed that ''when- 
 ever a separation is made between liberty and 
 justice neither is safe," and this separation the 
 French were making. They clamored for a 
 liberty that neither feared God nor regarded 
 man., . Against this. danger all discerning men 
 
142 Restraining French Radicalism, 
 
 are now agreed that the Wesleyan revival inter- 
 posed an impassable barrier. Mr. Lecky, who 
 is notoriously free from any evangelical senti- 
 ments or sympathy, analyzes the situation in 
 his work previously quoted. Speaking of the 
 French Revolution, he says: "Its chief char- 
 acteristics were a hatred of all constituted 
 authority, an insatiable appetite for change, 
 a habit of regarding rebellion as the nor- 
 mal as well as the noblest form of political 
 self-sacrifice, a disdain for all compromise, a 
 contempt for all tradition, a desire to level all 
 ranks and subvert all establishments, a deter- 
 mination to seek progress not by the slow and 
 cautious amelioration of existing institutions, 
 but by sudden, violent, and revolutionary change. 
 Religion, property, civil authority, and domes- 
 tic life were all assailed, and doctrines incom- 
 patible with the very existence of government 
 w ere embraced by multitudes with the fervor of 
 a religion. England, on the whole, escaped the 
 contagion. Many causes conspired to save her, 
 but among them a prominent place must, I be- 
 lieve, be given to the new and vehement religious 
 enthusiasm which was at that very time passing 
 through the middle and lower classes of the 
 people, which had enlisted in its service a large 
 
An Era of Philanthrope/, 143 
 
 proportion of the wilder and more impetuous 
 reformers, and which recoiled with horror from 
 the antichristian tenets that were associated with 
 the Revolution in France." 
 
 Against this poisonous infidelity and perilous 
 radicalism, which were overcome by the Wes- 
 leyan revival, what effective opposition would 
 have been made by the religion which Arch- 
 bishop Seeker described and the preaching which 
 Blackstone heard? Would not -such Christian- 
 ity as they tell us existed in England before the 
 revival came have fallen in with the frenzy of 
 the French and have made in Great Britain a 
 deeper desolation and a more direful revolution 
 than befell her Gallic neighbor ? And if such a 
 revolution had occurred in England, what would 
 have been the fate of America ? 
 
 But the revival came, and instead of an era of 
 destructive revolution there was inaugurated by 
 it an era of productive philanthropy, during 
 which the worst wounds of the social system 
 have been soothed and the tenderest ministries 
 of brotherly kindness have been put forth. Men 
 found their brother, man, in finding again their 
 Father, God. The revival gave rise to all sorts 
 of benevolent efforts and enterprises, many of 
 which continue in increased power to this day. 
 
144 The Sunday School Movement. 
 
 To its inspiration may be traced the labors of 
 John Howard in his great work of prison re- 
 form. 
 
 The Sunday school movement, inaugurated by 
 Robert Raikes, was suggested to him by a Meth- 
 odist woman, Sophia Cook, who marched with 
 him at the head of his troop of ragged children 
 the fii'st Sunday they were taken to the parish 
 church. Another Methodist woman, Hannah 
 Ball, really had at High Wycombe a Sunday 
 school fourteen years in advance of Raikes's 
 fii'st school at Gloucester; and AVesley, in his 
 parish of Christ Church, Savannah, Ga., had 
 a Sunday school fifty years before the work of 
 Raikes began. Francis Asbury organized a 
 Sunday school in Hanover County, Va., in 1786. 
 The vital germ of the Sunday school was in the 
 very nature of the Wesl cyan revival, and from 
 the revival the Sunday school movement derived 
 its rapid success. In Wesley's Journal we find 
 this entry: *'We went on to Bolton, where I 
 preached in the evening in one of the most ele- 
 gant houses in the kingdom, and to me one of 
 th(3 liveliest congregations. And this 1 must 
 avow, there is not such a set of singers in any 
 one of the Methodist congregations in the three 
 kingdoms. There, cannot be, for we have near 
 
No Sunday Schools in Revivalless Lands. 145 
 
 a hundred such trebles, boys and girls, selected 
 out of our Sunday schools, and accurately 
 taught, as are not found together in any chapel, 
 cathedral, or music room within the four seas. 
 Besides the spirit with which they sing, the 
 beauty of many of them so suits the melody 
 that I defy any to exceed it, except the singing 
 of the angels in our Father's house. On Sunday, 
 at eight and at one, the house was thoroughly 
 filled. About three I met between nine hundred 
 and a thousand of the children belonging to our 
 Sunday schools. I never saw such a sight be- 
 fore." As early as February, 1790, the Metho- 
 dist Conference, held at Charleston, S. C, and 
 presided over by Bishop Francis Asbury, took 
 decided action and formed definite plans for the 
 organization of a Sunday school in connection 
 with every place of w^orship. By 1802 we find 
 the "Sunday School Committee" of the Wes^ 
 ley an s organized in London for the promotion 
 of the work in Great Britain. Soon all the great 
 Protestant Churches of England and America 
 took up the work, and the Sunday school of the 
 twentieth century is scarcely found beyond the 
 limits of those nations which the Wesleyan re- 
 vival touched and the mission stations estab- 
 lished by them among other nations. No such 
 10 
 
146 Popular Education Fostered. 
 
 work as that done by the modern Sunday school 
 could have originated or survived in the seven- 
 teenth century, or in the days of Walpole's min- 
 istry in the eighteenth century. 
 
 The Wesleyan revival founded day schools 
 and fostered popular education. We have seen 
 how universities followed the work of Wickliffe, 
 and how colleges came of the great awaken- 
 ing in America. The educational systems of 
 Germany and Scotland are likewise traceable to 
 the labors of Luther and Knox, and the begin- 
 ning of popular education in England is found 
 similarly in the Wesleyan era. When the re- 
 vival began, education was the luxury of the 
 rich. There were no common schools, and the 
 universities were closed to Nonconformists. The 
 secondary schools were all in the hands of the 
 clergy of the Establishment. The first Metho- 
 dists were forced, therefore, to let their children 
 grow up in ignorance, put their instruction in 
 the hands of opponents of Wesleyanism, or 
 found schools of their own. The last course 
 was difficult, but it was the only one they could 
 take, and it was the only one that could have 
 been expected reasonably of a movement which 
 began in the preaching of evangelists so highly 
 educated as were the Wesleys. Accordingly, 
 
Good Schools and Cheap Literature. 147 
 
 we find educational efforts put forth by them 
 from the first. On April 2, 1739, John AYesley 
 preached his first sermon in the open air; on 
 May 12, of the same year, he laid the founda- 
 tion of his first preaching house; and in June he 
 undertook the foundation of Kingswood School. 
 In the Foundry School in London, the Orphan 
 House in Newcastle, and in Mrs. Fletcher's Or- 
 phanage at Leytonstone, other educational en- 
 deavors were made. At a later date the Wood- 
 house Grove School was founded, confirming, as 
 does also all the educational work of the follow- 
 ers of Wesley for the past century, the declara- 
 tion of an eminent Methodist authority that "it 
 has always been understood that good schools 
 for the literary, scientific, and religious instruc- 
 tion of youth were a part of the original plans 
 of Methodism." 
 
 Cheap literature for the people was one of the 
 first cares of Wesley and his colaborers. He 
 wrote many books and abridged many more for 
 his people, and published these writings and 
 abridgments at a price which put them within 
 the reach of the poorest people. He and Thom- 
 as Coke formed the first tract society in 1782, 
 seventeen years l^efore the organization of the 
 great ' ' Religious Tract Society " of Great Britain. 
 
148 Benevolent Institutions. ^ 
 
 The first British Bible Society was the " Naval 
 and Military," "organized," says Lecky, "to 
 meet the wants of that class of converts" which 
 glorified with faith the field of Fontenoy. 
 
 Melville Home, who for some years was one 
 of AYesley's itinerant preachers, and then suc- 
 ceeded the saintly Fletcher as Vicar of Madeley, 
 originated the "London Missionary Society," 
 and John Venn, the son of Henry Venn, a 
 Methodist preacher, started the "Church Mis- 
 sionary Society." 
 
 It is probable that the first free dispensary 
 the world ever saw was that which was founded 
 by Wesley himself in connection with the old 
 Foundry in Moorfield. 
 
 Methodism in 1785 gave birth to the " Stran- 
 gers' Friend Society," an organization w^hich 
 pays annually from forty to fifty thousand vis- 
 its to the sick poor of London. 
 
 And so it appears the revival inspired every 
 form of philanthropic effort and religious enter- 
 prise. Nothing short of a moral revolution, 
 aroused by supernatural power and sustained by 
 divine aid, could have affected so universally all 
 the people of the nation, and have produced so 
 many institutions of benevolence. It is no won- 
 der w^e find the cold, cynical Walpole, in a letter 
 
Political Results. 149 
 
 to Sir Horace Mann, writin<^, "If you think of 
 returning to England, as I hope it will be long 
 first, you must prepare yourself with Methodism. 
 I really believe by that time it will be necessary; 
 this sect increases as fast almost as ever any 
 religious nonsense did." Of course a man of 
 his sort could not endure such a movement, and 
 such a movement could not tolerate politicians 
 of his corrupt class. The purified public opin- 
 ion of the revival period quickly retired him 
 once and for all, and made way for Pitt with 
 his world-saving achievements. 
 
 And it is thus manifest that, without aiming 
 at any political ends, the Wesleyan revival con- 
 tributed much to the accomplishment of politi- 
 cal results of the most beneficent and far-reach- 
 ing character. Sir Walter Raleigh has forcibly 
 remarked that " to change national customs and 
 habits we must change ideas." It were better 
 to say we must change hearts. The Wesleyan 
 revival changed both ideas and hearts, and 
 thereby brought to pass a political as well as a 
 spiritual revolution — a revolution which power- 
 fully affected the destiny of the Great Republic, 
 and in fact the history of all mankind. From 
 authorities which cannot be suspected of any 
 partisan bias toward Wesleyanism, it has been 
 
150 Savinfj the Home of the Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 shown that this revoUition, though the product 
 of many causes, would have been impossible 
 without the revival. The heavenly visitation, 
 by reinvigorating the moral and religious life of 
 the nation, by inspiring invention, quickening 
 industrialism and saving it from revolutionary 
 tendencies, by averting perils from within and 
 turning back dangers from without, by its hu- 
 mane and enlightening institutions, raised the 
 enfeebled England of Walpole's time to the 
 puissant power which eventually overcame the 
 French, thus giving North America to be the 
 home of an Anglo-Saxon civilization, and as- 
 suring the predominance of Anglo-Saxon influ- 
 ence in India and ''the far East." By the vic- 
 tory of Culloden Moor the pretensions of the 
 Catholic "Pretender" to the throne of England 
 were ended, and the Protestant dynasty assured 
 beyond the power of question or competitor. 
 By the apparently small, though really impor- 
 tant, victory of Dettingen, by "the peace of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle," and by the triumphs of Ascot 
 and Quebec, England saved herself, secured her 
 interests in India, and rescued from the posses- 
 sion of France Canada and the Northwest Ter- 
 ritory, west of the Alleghanies and east of the 
 Mississippi. This same England, growing con- 
 
Anglo-Saxon and Latin. 151 
 
 stantly more powerful, so excited the jealousy 
 and the fears of the first Napoleon a little later 
 that, rather than have the Louisiana territory 
 fall into the hands of Great Britain, he sold it 
 to the young republic for less than three cents 
 an acre. This imperial domain thus came into 
 the possession of the United States without the 
 firing of a gun or the loss of a life. Its pur- 
 chase eventually brought on the conflict of the 
 Anglo-Saxon and the Latin civilizations for the 
 possession of Texas — a conflict which resulted 
 in extending the American Republic from ocean 
 to ocean, and completing the evacuation of 
 North America by the Latin forces, antagonis- 
 tic to evangelical Christianity and Saxon civi- 
 lization. The events at Dettingen, Aix-la-Cha- 
 pelle, Quebec, and Ascot, in which this series 
 of achievements took their rise, were not con- 
 nected with the great revival by the mere as- 
 sociation of coetaneous events; between them 
 and it there was a causative connection found 
 in the ennobled national life without which they 
 would have been impossible. Even the skep- 
 tical Lecky perceivesand acknowledges this con- 
 nection when he says: "Although the career of 
 the elder Pitt, and the splendid victories by 
 land and sea that were won during his ministry, 
 
152 Lechfs Testimonij. 
 
 form unquestionably the most dazzling episodes 
 in the reign of George 11., they must yield, I 
 think, in real importance to that religious rev- 
 olution which shortly before had been begun in 
 England by the preaching of the Wesley s and 
 Whitefield. The creation of a large, powerful, 
 and active sect, extending over both hemi- 
 spheres, and numbering many millions of souls, 
 was but one of its consequences. It also exer- 
 cised a profound and lasting influence upon the 
 spirit of the Established Church, upon the 
 amount and distribution of the moral forces of 
 the nation, and even upon the course of its po- 
 litical history." 
 
 If the Wesleyan revival in its direct effects 
 had been confined to the United Kingdom, and 
 if none of its converts had migrated to the New 
 World, it could not be justly excluded from con- 
 sideration in any adequate treatment of the 
 forces which have shaped the history of the 
 United States. If it had not produced a 
 great Church which has borne a conspicuous 
 part in the moral life of the republic, it would 
 nevertheless deserve high rank among the be- 
 niofn influences which have made great the 
 American nation. But in addition to genera- 
 ting a saving influence in Great Britain at a mo- 
 
Early Methodists in America. 153 
 
 meut of vital importance to the New World, it 
 called into being American ]Methodism, which 
 has been among the foremost Christian bodies 
 of the land. As we have seen, as far back as 
 1766 converts of the Wesleyan revival began 
 coming to America, such as. Embury, Straw- 
 bridge, Williams, King, and Captain Webb, of 
 the British arm3^ It has been told, also how 
 speedily Wesley sent Boardman and Pilmoor 
 to be shepherds of these ''few sheep in the wil- 
 derness." They came in 1769, and were followed 
 in 1771 by Asbury and Wright, the former be- 
 coming Wesley's assistant in America in 1772. 
 In June, 1773, Thomas Rankin and George Shad- 
 ford came under convoy of Captain Webb, and 
 the former superseded Asbury for a time in the 
 office of ' ' assistant " to Wesley for the American 
 work. Then in 1774 came Martin Rodda and 
 James Dempster. Thus in less than six years 
 eight preachers had been sent over by the 
 mother Conference for the work in the col- 
 onies. They were abundant in labors and ex- 
 traordinarily successful until the outbreak of 
 the War of Independence. During that con- 
 flict all who did not return before it began 
 were exposed to suspicion, being Englishmen, 
 and so their success was hindered. By 1777 
 
154 Bapicl Groidh, ■ -- 
 
 Asbuiy and Sbadford were all that were left 
 of the preachers who came out from En- 
 gland b}^ appointment of the Wesleyan Confer- 
 ence, and in 1778 Sbadford also returned, leaving 
 Asbury alone with the preachers who had been 
 made in the American societies. Nevertheless, 
 by 1784, when, the war being ended, the Amer- 
 ican Church was organized with Asbury and 
 Coke as its first bishops, the membership of 
 the societies had increased to 14,983; 13,331 of 
 whom were in the Southern States, the section 
 of the country least affected by the great awaken- 
 ing. By the year 1800 the number had grown 
 to 63,958, and 45,282 of them were in the 
 Southern States. Thus in thirty years, eight of 
 which were years of war and consequent de- 
 moralization, the number of American Meth- 
 odists exceeded the whole number of converts 
 in all the Churches during the great awaken- 
 ins:, and most of them were in the Southern 
 States, which had shared less than the Northern 
 colonies in the blessings of the revival of 
 Whitefield, Edwards, and the Tennents. So 
 the Wesleyan revival was preserving and en- 
 larging the great work of 1740. 
 
 From the year 1800 until the present time 
 American Methodism has gone forward with 
 
"Firmest Pillars of Civil Institutions J' 155 
 
 amazing strides. Born in a great revival, it has 
 had a natural affinity for that evangelistic type 
 of Christianity which is the characteristic form 
 of religion in America, and has greatly pro- 
 moted it. Its generous and genial theology 
 and its itinerant system of Church government 
 have commended it to the people of the Great 
 Republic as, in freedom and force, they have 
 pushed over the Western World. Dr. Robert 
 Baird, the distinguished Presbyterian preacher, 
 and author of the justly celebrated work, "Re- 
 ligion in America," declares that in his day 
 Methodism was "the most powerful element in 
 the religious prosperity of the United States, as 
 well as one of the firmest pillars of our civil and 
 religious institutions." The Methodists were 
 first to present formal congratulations to Wash- 
 ington upon his election to the presidency, 
 pledging their loyalty and devotion to the new 
 republic; and Abraham Lincoln said Methodism 
 furnished more recruits to the Federal army 
 during the Civil War than came from any other 
 Church. Jefferson Davis might have said the 
 same of the armies of the Confederacy. And 
 the reason is plain: the Methodists were more 
 numerous than any other Protestant body, and 
 they were not behind any in patriotic devotion. 
 
166 The Strength of American Methodism. 
 
 They now (1904) Dumber 65^37,4:61 communi- 
 cants in the United States. The Methodist 
 Churches have evangelized the Indians, and of 
 the 8,000,000 negroes in the country, 1,729,597 
 are Methodists. They have German and Scan- 
 dinavian Conferences among the foreigners who 
 have emigrated to the South and the Northwest, 
 and they have Annual Conferences on the conti- 
 nents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, as offshoots 
 and parts of the work in the United States. 
 They have penetrated South America, the West 
 Indies, Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippine 
 Islands, China, Japan, Korea, and India with 
 their mission stations. 
 
 Like the Wesleyans of Great Britain, they un- 
 dertook educational work from the first, and 
 have carried it to a great degree of success. On 
 June 5, 1785, Bishop Asbury laid the corner 
 stone of Cokesbury College, at Abingdon, Md., 
 and he sought to plant • similar institutions in 
 every section of the country. Methodism was 
 the pioneer of higher education in the great 
 wilderness of the West, establishing a school in 
 Kentucky, near the Ohio River, before Asbury 
 died, and opening McKendree College, in Illi- 
 nois, in 1834. The last-mentioned was the first 
 college in all that vast prairie domain, and John 
 
Schools and Colleges. 157 
 
 Wesley Merrill, a man bearing the name of the 
 great Englishman, was its first president. Of 
 the four hundred and sixty-four colleges and 
 universities reporting to the United States Com- 
 missioner of Education in 1903, seventy-six are 
 Methodist institutions; and of nine hundred and 
 twenty-three secondary schools under denomi- 
 national control reporting, one hundred and 
 nine are Methodist schools. It is not the poli- 
 cy of American Methodism to establish parochi- 
 al schools, but to give ardent support to the 
 common schools supported by the several States 
 ^ — the best system of common schools in the 
 world. How just are the Avords of Hon. Ed- 
 ward Everett: "No Church in the country has 
 so successfully engaged in the cause of educa- 
 tion as the Methodist Church ! " 
 
 Following the example of Wesley and the 
 Wesleyans in Great Britain, the Methodist 
 Churches in the United States have done much 
 for the production of a popular religious litera- 
 ture. The greatest publishing house in the 
 world is the Methodist Book Concern, in New 
 York, and it is closely followed by the similar 
 establishments located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and 
 Nashville, Tenn. The two great branches of 
 Episcopal Methodism in the United States have 
 
158 As Effective as the Exodus. 
 
 recently united in establishing another house of 
 the same kind in Shanghai; China. These im- 
 mense plants had their beginnings and growth 
 in the bookselling of the early and later itin- 
 erants, who, in a zealous effort to enlighten the 
 people, builded more wisely and grandly than 
 they knew. 
 
 For all these things and more which have ben- 
 eficially affected the Great Republic, we are in- 
 debted to the Wesleyan revival in Great Britain 
 during the eighteenth century. While orig- 
 inating across the sea, it may be doubted if it 
 has influenced the land of its birth as much as it 
 has North America. The exodus from Egypt— 
 the religious movement under the leadership of 
 the great Hebrew lawgiver, Moses, in the days 
 of Menephthah — in the course of forty years 
 after its beginning, delivered itself upon the 
 Canaanitish shores of the Mediterranean, over- 
 throwing the tribal governments there, and on 
 their ruins erecting a new spiritual common- 
 wealth. Excepting that movement, and possi- 
 bly the Lutheran Reformation, no movement 
 has ever affected a distant land as did the Wes- 
 leyan revival the northern half of the Western 
 World. The extent of our national borders, 
 and many of the best things and noblest institu- 
 
Unifying the Anglo-Saxon Nations. 159 
 
 tions held within that imperial domain, we owe 
 to the national revival which came to Great 
 Britain during the eighteenth century under the 
 leadership of Whitefield and the Wesley s. 
 
 It remains also to be said that the Wesleyan 
 revival, like the great awakening, did much to 
 promote the unity of the English-speaking peo- 
 ples. It broke the shock of the Revolutionary 
 War, arrested the centrifugal tendencies which 
 were generated by that conflict, and by which 
 the Americans were in danger of flying away 
 from the center of Anglo-Saxon unity to follow 
 the movements of revolutionary France, and dur- 
 ing all subsequent time it has contributed might- 
 ily to the unification of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 Mr. W. T. Stead is not extravagant in a recent 
 utterance when he says: "From the standpoint 
 of those who, like ourselves, regard the unity 
 of the English-speaking people as one of the 
 supreme ends of modern politics, it is difficult 
 to exaggerate the importance of John Wesley 
 and his work. In the most energetic denomina- 
 tion in the United States he created a new tie 
 between the empire and the republic. Millions 
 upon millions of Americans regard Epworth 
 and Fetter Lane, the Foundry and City Road, as 
 the Mecca and Medina of their faith. Carlyle 
 
160 John Wesley in the First Rank, 
 
 said that Shakespeare by his s^enius had unified 
 the ED^lish-speaking world. We are all united, 
 he said, in allegiance to King Shakespeare. But 
 that which Shakespeare could not do, in that 
 millions never read or see his plays, John Wes- 
 ley has done much in effect. Among the influ- 
 ences which create a sense of unity among our 
 English folk, that of John Wesley stands very 
 nearly in the first rank. Neither Knox nor 
 Cromwell affects the lives of so many men and 
 women, who are toiling and working all around 
 us to-day, as does John Wesley. There are 
 nigh upon thirty millions of English-speaking 
 men who view the next life through Wesley's 
 spectacles, and whose round of daily duty is di- 
 rectly affected by the rules and regulations of 
 the great Methodist saint — the Ignatius Loyola 
 of the English Church." 
 
 This unification of the English-speaking 
 world, growing closer every day, is a tremen- 
 dous fact with which publicists and all mankind 
 will have to reckon more and more in the years 
 at hand. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800. 
 
 U 
 
It was the opening of a new revival epoch which has 
 lasted now more than half a century with but short and 
 partial interruptions — and blessed be God, the end is not 
 yet. — Dr. Eeman Humphrey, ex-Presidcnt AmJierst Col- 
 lege, in '' Revival Sketches/' 
 
 From the year 1800 down to the year 1825 there was 
 an uninterrupted series of these celestial visitations 
 spreading over different parts of the land. During the 
 whole of those twenty-five years there was scarcely a 
 time in which we could not point to some village, some 
 city, some seminary, and say: "Behold what God hath 
 wrought!" — Eev. Gardner Spring, D.D. 
 
 From the period we have now reached (the year 1800), 
 it is unnecessary and, indeed, impossible to trace dis- 
 tinctly the progress of our revivals. They have become, 
 if I may so speak, a constituent part of the religious sys« 
 tem of our country. ... So that he who should op- 
 pose himself to revivals, as such, would be regarded by 
 most of our evangelical Christians as ipso facto an enemy 
 to spiritual religion itself. — Br. Robert Baird, in ''Reli- 
 gion in A merica, ' ' 18oG. 
 
 -^ Calvinism, though more congenial than Episcopacy, 
 and infinitely more so than Catholicism, was too cold 
 for the fiery hearts of the borders; they were not stirred 
 to the/lepths of their natures till other creeds, and above 
 all Methodism, worked their way to the wilderness. — 
 Theodore Roosevelt, in ''Winning of the West.'" 
 (162) 
 
VI. 
 
 THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800. 
 
 History shows a high disregard of the calen- 
 dar, and great movements arise and proceed to 
 their culmination with little respect for the date 
 lines drawn by men. "In the fullness of time," 
 as seen by God, the forces of Providence and the 
 operations of the Spirit converge as allied pow- 
 ers on gi'eat elevations of life and advance to 
 victories of world-wide significance, taking small 
 notice of the turn of centuries as marked by hu- 
 man chronologists. Yet, for convenience of 
 thought and facility of treatment, we may asso- 
 ciate these triumphs of grace and faith with cer- 
 tain notable years and consider them within cer- 
 tain temporal limits. Thus we assign the great 
 awakening to the year 1740, although it began 
 at least five years before that date and continued 
 many years afterwards. It reached its flood 
 tide when Whitefield first visited New England, 
 in 1740, and hence it is designated by that date. 
 Similarly, the national revival which was going 
 on at the opening of the nineteenth century is 
 commonly called the great revival of 1800, al- 
 
 (163) 
 
164: Religious Declension and National Danger. 
 
 though it really began in 1792 and never ceased 
 at any point so definitely that one could say of 
 it, " Behold, here it ended." It reached its cli- 
 max in the West, where its effects were most 
 conspicuous, during the year 1800, and hence the 
 name by which it is called. 
 
 It was preceded by a period of great religious 
 declension. When it began, the state of both the 
 nation and the Churches was gloomy by reason of 
 faith deca^^ed and hearts grown ,cold. Iniquity 
 abounded and skepticism prevailed on all sides. 
 The War of Independence had ended in victory 
 for the colonies, but the young republic was 
 threatened by dangers worse than armed foes, 
 gaunt famine, or the noisome pestilence. 
 
 After the year 1750 there was a gradual sub- 
 sidence of the revival influences of the great 
 awakening. Many pious immigrants, it is true, 
 came into the country from the Wesleyan reviv- 
 al centers of England from that time until the 
 beginning of the war, twenty-five years later, 
 and many Churches kept the fires on their altars 
 burning brightly through all those trying days. 
 But the opponents of the great revival, taking 
 occasion from some of the excesses and disorders 
 incident to it, did much to quench the sacred 
 flame. The civil troubles arising from the 
 
French Influences, 165 
 
 French wars, from 1756 to 1763, and the politi- 
 cal agitations which led to the War of Independ- 
 ence also distracted the minds of men, and the 
 spiritual life of many was sadly affected. Then 
 came the war, with all the demoralization which 
 usually attends a conflict of arms, and with not 
 a little that was unusual and unprecedented. As 
 it progressed, France, not because she loved the 
 colonies so much, but because she hated England 
 more, gave her sympathy and influence on behalf 
 of the cause of independence. As a natural conse- 
 quence, when the war was over French theories 
 of government were vastly popular, and French 
 notions of religion were widely accepted. The 
 evil contagion was spread by the identification 
 of certain conspicuous men, like Jefferson and 
 Franklin, with the forces of liberalism. Charles 
 Lee was a reckless blasphemer, and even Edmund 
 Randolph came for a time under the influence of 
 deism. General Dearborn, who became Secre- 
 tary of "War when Jefferson was President, was 
 utterly impatient of all things religious, and on 
 one occasion, in alluding to the Churches, said: 
 "So long as these temples stand we cannot hope 
 for order and good government. " The grandson 
 of Jonathan Edwards, Aaron Burr, who was 
 then extremely popular, embraced French infi- 
 
166 Tlie Wo7xh of Washinrjton. 
 
 delity with all the ardor of a new convert and 
 lent the force of his brilliant personality to the 
 propagation of its tenets. The ribaldry of Paine 
 and the vitriolic teachings of Voltaire were uni- 
 versally prevalent. ' A passage in Washington's 
 farewell address was manifestly aimed at current 
 conditions and derived peculiar force from its 
 evident application to certain prominent per- 
 sons. It also reveals how the wisest and best 
 men of the times considered that these moral 
 distempers involved grave political perils. With 
 evident warmth the first President said: "Of all 
 the dispositions and habits which lead to political 
 prosperity, religion and morality are indispensa- 
 ble supports. In vain would that man claim the 
 tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert 
 these great pillars of human happiness, these 
 firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. 
 The mere politician, equally with the pious man, 
 ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume 
 could not trace all their connections Avith private 
 and public felicity. Let it be simply asked. 
 Where is the security for prosperity, for reputa- 
 tion, for life, if the sense of religious obligation 
 desert the oaths which are the instruments of in- 
 vestigation in courts of justice ? And let us with 
 caution indulge the supposition thaf morality can 
 
Liberalism Threatening Llhertij, 167 
 
 bfi tnaintained without religion. Whatever may 
 ' be conceded to the influence of refined education 
 on minds of peculiar structure, reason and ex- 
 perience both forbid us to expect that national 
 morality can prevail in exclusion of religious 
 liberty. " That addi-ess was given to the country 
 in September, 1796, and was as keenly felt by the 
 men of the time as its force is manifest to us who 
 read it now. Such men as Franklin with his 
 sordid and selfish morality, and Jefferson with 
 his cold Unitarianism and his frigid ethical theo- 
 ries, must have winced under it. 
 
 It is not strange that the ' ' Father of His Coun- 
 try '' felt constrained to include such a paragraph 
 among his parting counsels to his countrymen. 
 The hearts of the strongest failed them for fear. 
 Bishop IMeade declared: ''I can truly say that 
 then, and for some years after, in every educated 
 young man in Virginia whom I met I expected to 
 find a skeptic, if not an avowed unbeliever. " He 
 characterized the College of William and Mary, 
 which had been founded in religious motives for 
 Christian ends, as "the hotbed of French poli- 
 tics and religion." Harvard College had gone 
 far in the direction of liberalism, and was con- 
 siderably advanced in the policy which culmi- 
 nated, in 1805, with the election of Henry Ware, 
 
168' Corrupting the Collerjes, 
 
 an avowed and extreme Unitarian, to the divin- 
 ity professorship founded in 1722 by Thomas 
 Hollis, a devout Baptist of London. Yale had 
 succumbed to the evil influences of the hour, and 
 when Timothy Dwight, another grandson of 
 Jonathan Edwards and a cousin to Aaron Burr, 
 came to the presidency of the institution, in 1795, 
 it was honeycombed with atheistical clubs. Ly- 
 man Beecher, who entered the college as a stu- 
 dent about that time, says it "was in a most un- 
 godly state," and adds: ''Most of the class before 
 me were infidels, and called each other Voltaire, 
 Rousseau, D'AIembert," etc. Thomas Cooper, 
 a rank freethinker, was infecting ever}^ institu- 
 tion that he touched — Dickinson College, the 
 University of Pennsylvania, and South Carolina 
 College. Princeton had been closed for three 
 years during the war, thus intermitting its be- 
 neficent influence, and in 1792 had only two 
 among all its students who professed to be Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 The conditions existing in the educational in- 
 stitutions named indicated accurately the preva- 
 lent tendencies among the educated classes 
 throughout the land. And the uneducated 
 masses were equally alienated from God. Doubt 
 among the cultured classes is always attended 
 
Profanity and Profligacy, 169 
 
 with disorder among the uncultured, and the 
 case of the new nation proved no exception to 
 the rule. 
 
 The Presbyterian General Assembly, in a de- 
 liverance made in 1798, summed up the situation 
 in terms of gloomy foreboding not dispropor- 
 tioned to the darkness of the hour. That con- 
 servative and consecrated body declared: "For- 
 midable innovations and convulsions in Europe 
 threaten destruction to morals and religion. 
 Scenes of devastation and bloodshed, unexam- 
 pled in the history of modern nations, have con- 
 vulsed the world, and our country is threatened 
 with similar calamities. We perceive with pain 
 and fearful apprehension a general dereliction of 
 religious principles, and practice among our fel- 
 low-citizens, a visible and prevailing impiety 
 and contempt for the laws and institutions of re- 
 ligion, and an abounding infidelity which, in 
 many instances, tends to atheism itself. The 
 profligacy and corruption of the public morals 
 have advanced with a progress proportionate to 
 our declension in religion. Profaneness, pride, 
 luxury, injustice, intemperance, lewdness, and 
 every species of debauchery and loose indulgence 
 greatly abound.'' 
 
 The Methodist movement, which had but re- 
 
170 Even Methodism Declined, 
 
 centl J entered the New World, girded as a strong 
 man to run a race, and which had rapidly grown 
 during the stormy period of the war, so that, by 
 1791, it was able to report 250 preachers and 
 63,269 white members and 12,881 members 
 among the negroes, showed at the close of the 
 year 1792 a decrease of 11,160 white members 
 and an increase of only 987 to its colored mem- 
 bership. This decline continued through the year 
 1793. The tide turned a little in 1791, and there 
 was a small annual increase until 1796, when 
 the records show that the membership dropped 
 from 60,291 to 56,661 The total membership 
 of this young and enthusiastic Church at the close 
 of the year 1800 was larger than it had been ten 
 years before by only about 1,500 souls. Some 
 allowance must be made for inaccuracy of statis- 
 tics during that restless period, and also for the 
 dropping out of Nova Scotia's reports; but after 
 all deductions on these accounts are made, it re- 
 mains unquestionably true that from 1791 to 1800 
 American ]Methodism, in common with all the 
 other Churches of the country, was in a declin- 
 ing state. 
 
 Much of the loss, reflected in the Church sta- 
 tistics of the time, is explained by the vast mi- 
 gration which had begun from the East, west- 
 
Peculiar and Perilous Colonization, 171 
 
 Ward over the Alleghany Mountains into the 
 great Mississippi basin, and which constituted a 
 new' peril to the young republic. It was the 
 beginnino^ of a peculiar and far-reaching system 
 of colonization, which has continued from then 
 until now, and by which more than thirty fron- 
 tier colonies have grown into as many sovereign 
 States in the Federal Union of America. It has 
 been wholly unlike any scheme of colonization 
 in ancient or modern times, and at the outset it 
 brought with it religious and political dangers 
 even greater than those which beset the first 
 settlements of the British colonists in the New 
 World. The men from the Old World who set- 
 tled in the original thirteen Colonies came out 
 of great awakenings, but these emigrants from 
 the East to the West fled to the wilderness for 
 purposes of gain and adventure, leaving their 
 first homes in the East when the great awaken- 
 ing had been succeeded by a great declension 
 of faith, and before the great revival of 1800 
 had begun. They were not driven by the 
 Spirit into their wilderness temptation as their 
 fathers had been in the seventeenth century, but 
 they had hurried thither under the impulsion 
 of purely mundane motives. Thus wrenched 
 away from all those social and ecclesiastical 
 
172 Beyond the Bedim of Law, 
 
 roots which nourish and enrich the spiritual 
 life, they set- themselves out in a wild and 
 churchless region. Around them were the sav- 
 ages, cherishing many resentments against the 
 whites and availing themselves of every oppor- 
 tunity to get booty or wreak vengeance. The 
 warnings and inspirations of organized Chris- 
 tianity were left far behind, and the imperious 
 claims of the body for support and security si- 
 lenced all the voices of the famishing spirit. 
 Men justified the worst excesses by the plea of 
 necessity, and at length came to feel that they 
 had wandered beyond the realm of moral law, 
 and were inhabitants of a region in which virtue 
 was not feasible. Moral deterioration, with all 
 the social and political disorders which it both 
 makes and implies, quickly set in. The dread- 
 ful situation may be easily inferred from a re- 
 port made by a committee of Congress, in 1800, 
 with respect to the three States into which it 
 was proposed to divide the Northwest Territo- 
 ry. That report says that " in the three West- 
 ern countries there has been but one court hav- 
 ing cognizance of crimes in five years; and the 
 immunity which offenders experience attracts, 
 as to an asylum, the most vile and abandoned 
 criminals, and at the same time deters useful 
 
InsiuTedionary and Intemperate, 173 
 
 and virtuous persons from making settlements 
 in such society. This territory is exposed, as a 
 frontier, to foreign nations, whose agents can 
 find suflacient interest in exciting or fomenting 
 insurrection and discontent, as thereby they can 
 more easily divert a valuable trade in furs from 
 the United States." 
 
 Intemperance abounded to a horrible degree, 
 and the manufacture of distilled liquors was 
 speciously defended and widely carried on. "A 
 horse can carry only four bushels of rye, but 
 he can carry the whisky made from twenty- 
 four bushels," was the final argument of those 
 isolated and marketless settlements in defense of 
 their most lucrative form of commerce. The 
 '* Whisky Insurrection of 1794" was an outburst 
 of this interest, in rebellion against the internal 
 revenue laws of the Federal government, and it 
 is worthy of note that such a person as Albert 
 Gallatin bore a part in that agitation. It is also 
 significant that not a few towns in the "North- 
 west Territory" of that time were named for 
 him, and are still so called. 
 
 The autobiography of the celebrated pioneer 
 preacher of the Methodists, Peter Cartwright, 
 reveals the general state of things in Kentucky 
 in 1792, as he recalled it in his old age. He 
 
174 'TiOfjues" and ^'Regulators.'' 
 
 says: "Logan County, when my father moved 
 into it, was called 'Rogues' Harbor.' Here 
 many refugees from all parts of the Union fled 
 to escape punishment or justice; for although 
 there was law, yet it could not be executed, and 
 it was a desperate state of society. Murderers, 
 horse thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeit- 
 ers fled there, until they combined and actually 
 formed a majority. Those who favored a bet- 
 ter state of morals were called 'Regulators.' 
 But they encountered fierce opposition from the 
 'Rogues,' and a battle was fougJ|j^with guns, 
 pistols, dirks, knives, and clubs, in #hich the 
 'Regulators' were defeated." 
 
 Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge repcKled of por- 
 tions of the region on the Ohio: "Jstong the 
 people with whom I was most conversant there 
 was no other vestige of the Christian religion 
 than a faint observance of the Sunday, and that 
 merely as a day of rest for the aged and a play^ 
 day for the young." 
 
 Missionaries from the East who penetrated 
 the Western territory reported to the authori- 
 ties who sent them forth that from western 
 Pennsylvania, throughout what is now West 
 Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, 
 and Mississippi, they found extensive tracts of 
 
Populotis and Demoralized, 175 
 
 country, inhabited by from twenty to fifty thou- 
 sand people, without a church or a preacher of 
 any denomination. Nor was the region so thinly 
 inhabited as might be supposed. In ISOO there 
 were two hundred and twenty thousand people 
 in Kentucky and one hundred and five thousand 
 in Tennessee. 
 
 From forgetting their allegiance to God the 
 people were coming to hold lightly their alle- 
 giance to the new republic. They had strayed 
 almost beyond the reach of its protection and 
 benefits, and they were beginning to disregard 
 its authority and to despise its laws. Thus they 
 w^ere becoming the easy victims of agitators and 
 adventurers, like the unscrupulous and subtle 
 Aaron Burr, nursing his personal animosities 
 and disappointed ambitions. If the conditions 
 which beset them had continued much longer, an 
 early secession must surely have been fomented, 
 and civil war have followed. 
 
 At such a moment, to what source of de- 
 liverance could the nation look for the salva- 
 tion of these populous but demoralized col- 
 onies ? 
 
 To law ? The report to Congress shows how 
 infrequent and ineffective were the courts, and 
 Cartwrio^ht's statement shows that the disorder- 
 
176 Cleansing the Den of the Cockatrice, 
 
 ly elements outnumbered and overpowered the 
 orderly. 
 
 To education? The people had neither the 
 taste for it nor the means of supplying it. Be- 
 sides, the process of education would have been 
 too slow, if it had been adequate to remedy such 
 a condition. While a generation was training, 
 even if it could have been secured against con- 
 tamination Dj its predecessor, the forces of evil 
 would have outrun the forces of good by the 
 rapidity of the immoral immigration which was 
 flowing in upon them. 
 
 To a dainty, formal, and ritualistic or ra- 
 tionalistic Christianity? Spraying the den of 
 the cockatrice with rose water in order to subdue 
 its fierceness or neutralize its venom would have 
 been as effective as that type of religion to heal 
 the distempers of such a time and place. 
 
 Nothing but a great revival of religion, like 
 the saving tide of the great awakening w^hich 
 swept over the early colonies, and the redeem- 
 ing waves of the Wesleyan revival, which puri- 
 fied Great Britain, could cleanse the Western 
 territory of its foulness. And such a revival 
 came in the year 180Q, and so gave the name by 
 which the revival period which began in New 
 England as early as 1792 is now known. 
 
McGreadij and the McGees. 177 
 
 It came on this wise: Among those who had 
 gone out from Pennsylvania were some Scotch- 
 Irish Presbyterians. There were also among 
 them many Methodists and not a few Baptists, 
 with a small number of Episcopalians. These 
 were the saving salt. Pursuing these exiles, the 
 Methodists had sent "out itinerant preachers who 
 organized "circuits" within the territory as 
 early as 1786. Other preachers — a few only — 
 had also entered the field. The Scotch-Irish 
 Presb^^terians, who were conspicuous among the 
 early settlers of the West, called a few minis- 
 ters from the East. In 1796 a Presbyterian 
 preacher named James McGready, who had 
 seen pastoral service in Pennsylvania and North 
 Carolina, took charge of several Churches in 
 Logan County, Ky. As he moved around among 
 his small and scattered congregations, his ser- 
 mons were delivered with unwonted power, and 
 his preaching began ' ' to arouse false professors, 
 to awaken a dead Church, and to warn sinners 
 and lead them to seek the new spiritual life 
 which he himself had found." Three years 
 later two brothers, William and John McGee, 
 one a Presbyterian minister and the other a 
 Methodist — in combination the prototype of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which arose 
 12 
 
178 The First Camp Meetings, 
 
 from the great revival a little later — came 
 through the enchanting Cumberland country of 
 Kentucky and Tennessee, preaching with amaz- 
 ing effect to vast multitudes that hung upon 
 their words. On one occasion, in Logan Coun- 
 ty, July, 1800, thousands came together from 
 far and near and encamped in the woods for 
 several days to hear the long-neglected gospel 
 of Christ. This was the beginning of the camp 
 meetings which have been so effective in the ad- 
 vancement of Christianity in the United States, 
 and out of Avhich have grown the Chautauquas 
 and other kindred assemblies of recent years. 
 
 Such meetings quickly became common, and 
 an eyewitness of one of the scenes which were 
 usual to them has left a vivid account of them. 
 Rev. Barton Warren Stone, serving his two 
 congregations of Concord and Cane Ridge, in 
 Bourbon County, made the journey across the 
 State of Kentucky to see for himself the won- 
 derful things of which he and all the Northwest 
 country were daily hearing astonishing accounts. 
 He says: '^ There, on the edge of a prairie in 
 Logan County, Ky., the multitudes came 
 together and continued a number of days and 
 nights encamped on the ground, during which 
 time worship was carried on in some part of the 
 
A New and Stramje Scene. 179 
 
 encampment. The scene was new to me and 
 passing strange. It baffled description. Many, 
 very many, fell down as men slain in battle, and 
 continued for hours together in an apparently 
 breathless and motionless state, sometimes for a 
 few minutes reviving and exhibiting symptoms 
 of life by a deep groan or a piercing shriek, or 
 by a prayer for mercy fervently uttered. After 
 lying there for hours, they obtained deliverance. 
 The gloomy cloud that had covered their faces 
 seemed gradually and visibly to disappear, and 
 hope in smiles brightened into joy. They 
 would rise shouting deliverance, and then would 
 address the surrounding multitude in language 
 truly eloquent and impressive. With astonish- 
 ment did 1 hear men, women, and children de- 
 claring the wonderful works of God and the 
 glorious mysteries of the gospel." 
 
 Deeply impressed by all he had seen and 
 heard, this godly^ minister returned to his peo- 
 ple in Bourbon County and told them the story 
 of what he had witnessed. ''The congregation 
 was affected with awful solemnity, and many re- 
 turned home weeping." Not many months aft- 
 er — August, 1801 — the people saw for them- 
 selves similar scenes at Cane Eidge. "The 
 roads were crowded with wagons, carriages, 
 
180 Cane Bidge Camp Meeting, 
 
 horses, and footmen moving to the solemn 
 camp," says Stone. "It was judged," he con- 
 tinues, "by military men on the ground that 
 between twenty and thirty thousand persons 
 were asseml3led. Four or five preachers spoke 
 at the same time in different parts of the en- 
 campment without confusion. The INIethodist 
 and Baptist preachers aided in the work, and all 
 appeared cordially united in it. They were of 
 one mind and soul; the salvation of sinners was 
 the one object. We all engaged in singing the 
 same songs, all united in prayer, all preached 
 the same things. . . . The numbers con- 
 verted will be known only in eternity. Many 
 things transpired in the meeting which were so 
 much like miracles that they had the same effect 
 as miracles on unbelievers. By them many 
 were convinced that Jesus was the Christ and 
 were persuaded to submit to him. This meeting 
 continued six or seven days and nights, and 
 would have continued longer, but food for the 
 sustenance of such a multitude failed. To this 
 meeting many had come from Ohio and other 
 distant parts. These returned home and dif- 
 fused the same spirit in their respective neigh- 
 borhoods. Similar results followed. So low 
 had religion simk, and such carelessness had 
 
Uncommon Itemed y for Uncommo7i Need. 181 
 
 universally prevailed, that I had thought noth- 
 ing common could have arrested and held the 
 attention of the people." 
 
 This narrative reads like the accounts of White- 
 field's preaching on Boston Common, in the New 
 World, or on Blackheath, in England. It sounds 
 like the stories of the assemblies to whom the 
 Wesleys spoke. It depicts a marvelous and star- 
 tling awakening. And Mr. Stone is right. For 
 such an uncommon need there was required an 
 uncommon remedy. An effeminate preacher of 
 the academic sort in the present day, sitting 
 down to analyze such a work, is as incapable of 
 comprehending it as the dainty dandies of the 
 days of Rehoboam would have been unable to 
 understand the miraculous achievement of Gid- 
 eon's three hundred. 
 
 The good work ran rapidly through all the 
 Cumberland and Ohio country until every settle- 
 ment was full of faith and fervor. The Presby- 
 terians soon dropped the camp meetings, but the 
 Methodists took them up and turned them to 
 blessed account in 'Hhe winning of the West." 
 
 Fortunately for the Methodists and for the 
 movement, and happily for the country, William 
 McKendree, a very strong and judicious man, 
 who subsequently became a bishop, was appointed 
 
182 Peaceable Fruits of Righteousness, 
 
 presiding elder on the Kentucky District in 1801. 
 Under bis skillful administration camp meetings 
 were made of great service in the upbuilding of 
 his own Church and in the promotion of the re- 
 vival in the "West. 
 
 Of course the revival soon developed excesses 
 and irregularities, and again, as in the days of 
 "Wbitefield and Wesley, the futile and foolish ef- 
 fort was made to get rid of the smoke by smoth- 
 ering the flame. It failed, as it deserved to fail, 
 and the purifying fire burned on despite all of 
 its own defects and against all opposition. 
 
 And the movement vindicated its heavenly 
 origin by the peaceable fruits of righteousness 
 which it yielded. Dr. George A. Baxter, a man 
 of most sober mind and even temperament, 
 wrote in reply to a letter of inquiry from the 
 celebrated Archibald Alexander, of Princeton, 
 as follows: "On my way I was informed by set- 
 tlers on the road that the character of Kentucky 
 travelers was entirely changed, and that they 
 were as remarkable for sobriety as they had for- 
 merly been for dissoluteness and immorality. 
 And indeed I found Kentucky, to appearances, 
 the most moral place I had ever seen. A pro- 
 fane expression was hardly ever heard. A re- 
 ligious awe seemed to pervade the country. 
 
Confoundincj Infidelity. 183 
 
 Upon the wliole, 1 think the revival in Kentucky 
 the most extraordinary that has ever visited the 
 Church of Christ; and, all things considered, it 
 was peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of 
 the country into which it came. Infidelity was 
 triumphant and religion was on the point of ex- 
 piring. Something extraordinary seemed neces- 
 sary to arrest the attention of a giddy people 
 who were ready to conclude that Christianity 
 was a fable and futurity a delusion. The re- 
 vival has done it. It has confounded infidelity 
 and brought numbers beyond calculation under 
 serious impressions." 
 
 To the same effect is the sermon preached in 
 1803 to the Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky by 
 the ItGV. David Kice, who, in the course of his 
 discourse, declared: "Neighborhoods noted for 
 their vicious and profligate manners are now as 
 much noted for their piety and good order. 
 Drunkards, profane swearers, liars, quarrelsome 
 persons, etc., are remarkably reformed." 
 
 Most naturally reports of the wonderful work 
 went back to the older settlements of the coun- 
 try, whence the people of the Northwest Terri- 
 tory had come out, and these reports had the ef- 
 fect of intensifying the revival fires which had 
 been burnino: in various localities in the East 
 
184 East and West 
 
 since 1792, and to fan them into a national con- 
 flagration. It is especially interesting^ to mark 
 the effect which the great revival in the West 
 had on the Scotch-Irish communities in Penn- 
 sylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas, and to ob- 
 serve the results of it among the Methodists of 
 the same region as far south as Georgia. The 
 wave of religious enthusiasm that flowed east- 
 ward followed exactly the route over which the 
 people of the West had migrated, and proceed- 
 ed directly to the centers in the East from which 
 they came forth. At one camp meeting on the 
 eastern shore of Maryland one thousand persons 
 were converted— and the meeting lasted only five 
 days and nights. 
 
 The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church, in its annual review of the state of reli- 
 gion in the year 1800, adverted with satisfaction 
 to the work in the AVest, and declared that "the 
 state and prospects of vital religion in our coun- 
 try are more favorable and encouraging than at 
 any period within the last forty years." In 
 what marked contrast with this cheerful utter- 
 ance was the gloomy deliverance of 1798 — just 
 two years before! 
 
 At the close of the year the Methodists re- 
 ported 2,700 members in the region visited by 
 
The Cmnherland Preshijterians. 185 
 
 the revival, and by ISIO their numbers in that 
 section alone had risen to 22,899. The Baptists 
 also showed a large growth. No Church in all 
 the region was left unblessed and unchanged 
 by it. 
 
 Oat of the great revival in the West came a 
 new ecclesiastical organization, the very name of 
 which — Cumberland Presbyterian — marks the 
 date and place of its birth. In the course of the 
 great work some of the Presbyterians, probably 
 by association with the Methodists, experienced 
 a change of certain of their theological opinions, 
 notably with respect to the Calvinistic tenet of 
 unconditional election and reprobation. They 
 also observed the pulpit power of some of the 
 Baptist and Methodist preachers whose educa- 
 tional qualifications were below the standard re- 
 quired for admission into the Presbyterian min- 
 istry. Around them was a hungry and shep- 
 herdless multitude needing more preachers, by 
 hundreds, than the entire available supply of ed- 
 ucated ministers. They proposed, therefore, a 
 relaxation in both their Calvinistic creed and the 
 Presbyterian requirements for entrance into the 
 ministry. To all this most of the synods and pres- 
 byteries were opposed. The issues thus joined 
 led eventually to the separation of the Cumber- 
 
186 A Good /Record. 
 
 laud Presbytery from the rest of the Church 
 and its erection into another denomination, with 
 its revised creed and modified system of govern- 
 ment. At this time (1904) negotiations are 
 pending between the General Assembly of the 
 Presbyterian Church in the United States of 
 America and that of the Cumberland Presbyte- 
 rian Church looking toward the union of the 
 two Churches. If this union shall be brought 
 to pass — which seems probable — it will be be- 
 cause the "old school" Presbyterians have sof- 
 tened their creed and the Cumberland Presbyte- 
 rians no longer find it necessary to insist on their 
 view about the education of the ministry. The 
 progress of both religion and education in the 
 United States in a hundred years has modified 
 the original positions of both parties, and an ad- 
 justment of their difi'erences seems easy. When, 
 however, the name "Cumberland Presbyterian" 
 disappears from the list of American Churches 
 there will still be left the imperishable record of 
 a glorious fidelity and apostolic zeal in the work 
 of saving the West at a critical time in our na- 
 tional history. 
 
 In reviewing the Wesleyan movement atten- 
 tion was called to the connection of that nation- 
 al revival in England with the acquisition of the 
 
Political Effeds. 187 
 
 Northwest Territory from France; and we now 
 have seen how another great revival in Ameri- 
 ca rescued the same re<^ion from barbarism. 
 The Wesleyan revival helped to preserve the 
 vast tract for the possession of the Great Repub- 
 lic, and the revival of ISOO redeemed its first oc- 
 cupants from the sins which threatened them 
 with destruction and menaced the republic with 
 revolution and dismemberment. 
 
 In passing, however, from this phase of the 
 subject, it should be said that it is not claimed 
 for the revival of 1800 that it accomplished all 
 that was necessary for the evangelization of the 
 West at the moment, or that it finally assured 
 the security of that region through all the years 
 which have followed. But it averted the most 
 serious and menacing evils of that period and 
 set in motion influences and enterprises which 
 have never ceased to operate on behalf of the 
 Christian civilization of the Western country, as 
 the frontiers of the republic have moved steadily 
 toward the Pacific and as wave after wave of im- 
 migration has followed the ever moving bounda- 
 ry of the nation. Without it the West would 
 have been lost to the Union then, and but for the 
 effects of the revival which remain to this day the 
 West would not be secure now. No adequate 
 
188 Eastern Colleges and Western Seeds, 
 
 history of the Xo^th^Ye.st can omit or minimize 
 this factor in its development. 
 
 Up to this point we have confined our atten- 
 tion to the work in the West, but the revival and 
 its effects were not limited to the region west of 
 the Alleghanies. In the East it was less tumul- 
 tuous, but scarcely less influential and beneficial. 
 Indeed, but for the influence of the revival 
 movement in the colleges of the East, much of 
 its effects in the West would have been lost in 
 the first twenty-five years of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. Out of the Eastern colleges came the re- 
 ligious leaders of the Western Churches, and 
 without the revival in the colleges the supply of 
 such leaders would have been insufficient for 
 the demand. A revival of national extent was 
 thus required and came at this critical hour in 
 our country's history. An omnipresent and 
 omniscient Personality seemed to brood over 
 the whole land, reviving the work of grace si- 
 multaneously in widely separated centers, from 
 which it moved on until all the intervening 
 spaces were covered by the holy influence, thus 
 rescuing the young nation from prevalent infi- 
 delity and immorality, and providing moral safe- 
 guards for its future welfare. 
 
 Of the beginnino: of the revival in Connecti- 
 
TJie Revival and Ediicatio/ial Institutions. 189 
 
 cut in 1792, Dr. E. D. Griffin said; "From that 
 date I saw a continued succession of heavenly 
 sprinklings, until I could stand in my door in 
 New Hartford and number fifty or sixty congre- 
 gations laid down in one field of divine w^onders." 
 
 From East to West, from North to South, and 
 through all the Churches the movement swept 
 in resistless power and overwhelming mercy. 
 
 The educational institutions of the country, 
 in which, as we have seen, infidelity was previous- 
 ly so prevalent, were especially favored by the 
 heavenly visitation. In 1802 a revival in Yale 
 College shook the institution to its center, and 
 it seemed for a time that the "whole mass of 
 students would press into the kingdom," and 
 "nearly all the converts entered the ministry." 
 This was, doubtless, in a great measure the re- 
 sult of the efforts of Dr. Timothy Dwight, who, 
 from the moment he came to the presidency 
 (1795), had waged incessant w^arfare on the 
 skeptical tendencies and theories of the hour 
 until, according to Lyman Beecher, then a stu- 
 dent there, "all infidelity skulked and hid its 
 head." Four distinct revivals occurred during 
 his presidency, resulting in the conversion of 
 two hundred and ten young men, not a few of 
 whom subsequently bore distinguished parts in 
 
190 Revivals at Yale, 
 
 the evangelization of the AYest. So enduring 
 was his influence over the college that from 1812 
 to 1837 there were "thirteen special revivals, 
 or one every two years, besides several other 
 seasons of more than usual religious interest." 
 In that revival period of its history Yale influ- 
 enced the life of the republic as it never did 
 before or since. 
 
 During the same time all the existing institu- 
 tions of learning in the land, with the possible 
 exception of Harvard, were similarly blessed, 
 and out of the revival of 1800 a number of new 
 institutions were born. 
 
 Special mention should be made in this con- 
 nection of the work of Samuel John Mills, who 
 joined AYilliams College, Mass., in the spring 
 of 1806, and who ''had been prepared by the 
 revival of Torringford, Litchfield County, in 
 1798-90." He was a very remarkable man, and 
 his religious career was directly attributable to 
 the revival of 1800. As he and one of his fel- 
 lows were about to leave the seminary for ac- 
 tive service, he said: "You and I, brother, are 
 little men, but before we die our influence 
 must be felt on the other side of the world." 
 To him was granted only five years of activity 
 in public service, but the "little man" was felt 
 
Mills in Williams College, 191 
 
 round the world and will be felt to the end of 
 time. Through his efforts mainly, a revival 
 spread through Williams College soon after his 
 entrance into the institution, and by that reviv- 
 al gave the college its unique place in the re- 
 ligious and educational history of the United 
 States. Dr. Griffin says: ^' Mills had devoted 
 himself to the cause of missions from the com- 
 mencement of his new existence, and by the in- 
 fluence of that revival he was enabled to diffuse 
 his spirit through a choice circle who raised 
 this college to the distinction of being the birth- 
 place of American missions. In the spring of 
 
 1808 they formed a secret society to extend their 
 influence to other colleges and to distinguished 
 individuals in different parts of the country. 
 One of them first roused the missionary ener- 
 gies of Pliny Fisk, who afterwards died in Pal- 
 estine. In the autumn of that year, in a beau- 
 tiful meadow on the banks of the Hoosac, 
 these young Elijahs prayed into existence the 
 embryo of American missions. In the fall of 
 
 1809 Mills, Richards, and Robbins carried this so- 
 ciety to Andover, Avhere it roused the first mis- 
 sionary band that went out to India, in 1812, 
 where it is still exerting a mighty influence on 
 the interests of the world. In that band were 
 
192 American Bible Society. 
 
 Gordon liall and Luther Rice, of this college 
 [and Adoniram Judson, converted at Andover]. 
 Richards soon followed and laid his bones in In- 
 dia. Mills and his coadjutors were the means of 
 formins" the American Board of Commissioners 
 for Foreign Missions, the American Bible Soci- 
 ety, the United Foreign Missionary Society, and 
 the African School under the care of the Synod 
 of New York and New Jersey ; besides all the im- 
 petus given to domestic missions, to the Coloni- 
 zation Society, and to the general cause of benev- 
 olence in both hemispheres." 
 
 The part Mills bore in bringing to birth the 
 American Bible Society bears so immediately 
 upon the work in the West, and that great insti- 
 tution has told so mightily on the history of the 
 nation, that it demands special treatment at this 
 point in our narrative of the revival of 1800, in 
 which it took its rise. In 1813 he and John F. 
 Schermerhorn were sent out by the Massachu- 
 setts Missionary Society on a mission tour of the 
 West. They traversed the whole region from 
 Pittsburg, Pa., to New Orleans, La. They 
 found great spiritual destitution and undertook, 
 as far as they could, to relieve the need— espe- 
 cially by the distribution of the Bible. They 
 made a graphic report when they returned, 
 
The West and the Methodists, 193 
 
 which, in his ''History of the People of the 
 United States," McMaster summarizes and com- 
 ments on as follows; ' ' Wherever they went they 
 found great tracts of country inhabited by from 
 twenty to fifty thousand people, in which there 
 was not a preacher of any sect. Where there 
 were any they were almost invariably Metho- 
 dists. Occasionally they were Baptists, but 
 rarely Presbyterians. The Discipline of the 
 Methodists was especially well suited to the 
 state of the West. Population was scattered. 
 The people were poor, and not at all inclined to 
 form societies and incur the expense of main- 
 taining a settled minister. A sect, therefore, 
 which marked out the region into circuits, put a 
 rider on each and bade him cover it once a 
 month, preaching here to-day and there to-mor- 
 row, but returning at intervals to each commu- 
 nity, provided the largest amount of religious 
 teaching and preaching at the least expense. 
 This was precisely what the Methodists did, and 
 this was precisely what the people desired. Such 
 men and Avomen as made any profession of reli- 
 gion were, therefore, very generally Methodists; 
 but the West was too vast a region to be Chris- 
 tianized by any one sect, and the great body of 
 the people were in a state of indifference. The 
 13 
 
194 Mills and Schermerhorn. 
 
 sole coaipetitors of the Methodists in their good' 
 work were the Baptists. From the Presbyteri- 
 ans they had little to fear. The General Assem- 
 bly and the Cumberland Presbytery did, indeed, 
 send a few missionaries each year into certain 
 parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee; but 
 their labors ended in six or eight weeks, and the 
 good work they did was easily undone in the ten 
 months which elapsed before they came again or 
 its fruits w^ere gathered by other sects. . . . 
 Taking the country in general, Mills and Scher- 
 merhorn found it, in spite of all that had been 
 done, in a state of spiritual darkness." The re- 
 port of these heroic young men, being spread 
 broadcast among the Bible societies and mis- 
 sionary societies of the East, aroused Eastern 
 Churches to new zeal; and in the summer of 
 1814 Mills and Daniel Smith, "fairly loaded 
 down with religious literature," were sent on a 
 second missionary tour to the West. They car- 
 ried with them'' 700 English Bibles, 5,000 New 
 Testaments in French, 15,000 tracts, and great 
 bundles of sermons and pamphlets — all contrib- 
 uted by the Bible and tract societies of New En- 
 gland and the Middle States. " But the work was 
 found to be almost infinitely beyond their 
 strength and resources. Since the first visit con- 
 
The Greatest Enterprise in America. 195 
 
 ditions had grown worse by reason of the im- 
 mense volume of immigration which poured dai 
 ly into the great Mississippi basin. After going 
 over the field the second time. Mills expressed 
 the deliberate opinion that there were, in 1815, 
 76,000 families between the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains and the Mississippi River destitute of the 
 Bible. This appalling destitution led him, on 
 his return in the summer of 1815, to propose to 
 the societies of the East the organization of a 
 National Bible Society, with auxiliary societies 
 in every city and town. The proposal met with 
 general favor and resulted in the organization of 
 the American Bible Society by a convention of 
 delegates from twenty-eight Bible Societies, as- 
 sembled in the city of New York, May 8, 1816. 
 This greatest Christian enterprise of America 
 is, therefore, directly traceable to the great re- 
 vival of 1800. 
 
 Nor was this the only great philanthropic and 
 religious institution which it brought into being. 
 It was one of the conspicuous characteristics of 
 this revival that it produced almost all of those 
 great missionary and evangelistic organizations 
 which have since done so much good for our own 
 and other lands. To this period ])Ciong, besides 
 the great missionary societies, the American 
 
196 Religious Periodicals, 
 
 Tract Society and the American Sunday School 
 Union. 
 
 The revival of 1800 marks also the era of the 
 beginning of the religious periodicals of Amer- 
 ica, which hare a greater prominence and power 
 than has the religious press of any other land. 
 Thomas Prince published the first periodical of 
 this kind in the New World, It was called 
 The Christian History^ and was published 
 weekly in 1744-45, to give accounts of the re- 
 vival of religion in Great Britain and the colo- 
 nies at that time. Like John the Baptist, it 
 was a forerunner, but died without posterity 
 or a successor. But with the revival of 1800 
 came a great troop of religious papers, begin- 
 ning with the Evangelical Magazine^ at Hart- 
 ford in 1800, followed by many others in rapid 
 succession, until by January, 1828, there were 
 thirty-seven religious papers in the United 
 States. One of them, the Christian Advocate^ 
 the organ of the Methodists, published in New 
 York, had a weekly circulation of fifteen thou- 
 sand copies, which, according to a statement in 
 McMaster's '^ Ilistory of the People of the United 
 States,^' was the largest circulation which had 
 then been ''reached by any newspaper in the 
 world, the London Times excepted." 
 
Constituting a New Era, 19? 
 
 It was perhaps due in a ^reat measure to the 
 organizations and periodicals which sprang from 
 the revival that it continued longer than any of 
 the revivals which had preceded it in America, 
 and that it tended, more than did all previous 
 movements, to fix permanently the evangelistic 
 type of American Christianity. '*It was," as 
 Leonard AYoolsey Bacon has truly said, "the 
 beginning of a long period of vigorous and 
 'abundant life,' moving forward not, indeed, 
 with even and unvarying flow, yet with contin- 
 uous current, marked with those alternations of 
 exaltation and subsidence which seem, whether 
 for evil or for good, to have become a fixed 
 characteristic of American Church history." 
 Albert Barnes said: ''That day which shall 
 convince the great body of professing Chris- 
 tians of the reality and desirableness of revivals 
 will constitute a new era in the history of reli- 
 gion, and will precede manifestations of power 
 like that of Pentecost." The revival of 1800 
 did so convince the great majority of American 
 Churchgs, and it has been followed by a pente- 
 costal era. 
 
 Another characteristic of this revival was that, 
 unlike the great awakening and the Wesleyan 
 revival, it w^as directed by no great leader or 
 
198 Timothy Duight and Francis Ashury, 
 
 group of leaders. This was as might have 
 been expected. Notwithstanding the gloom of 
 the period in which it began, there were more 
 men in the United States prepared for service 
 in such a work than were in England and the 
 colonies in the days of the Wesleys, Whitefield, 
 Edwards, and the Tennents. It began in a tin;ie 
 of dearth, but not in a time of utter desolation. 
 There were, therefore, more eminent workers 
 and fewer preeminent leaders. Perhaps the 
 most nearly approaching leadership in the 
 movement were Timothy Dwight, the President 
 of Yale College, and Francis Asbury, the bach- 
 elor Bishop of the Methodists. The former 
 broke the back of French infidelity and drove 
 skepticism from the colleges, and the latter su- 
 perintended the Methodist movement, which set 
 in motion an army of itinerant evangelists from 
 the easternmost shores of New England to the 
 farthest western frontier. The former is justly 
 celebrated for his exalted worth and invaluable 
 services; the latter is little known or apprecia- 
 ted beyond the limits of the denomination which 
 he served so long and faithfully. When White- 
 field died, in 1770, he was probably known by 
 sight to more Americans than was any other 
 man, and the same might be said of Asbury in 
 
A Great It trie rem t. 199 
 
 1S16, "when he passed away at the home of his 
 old friend, George Arnold, of Spottsylvania, 
 Ya. He had covered the whole length of the 
 Atlantic coast more times than had Whitefield 
 at his death, and sixty times he had crossed the 
 Alleghany Mountains, visiting the great Missis- 
 sippi basin, a region into which Whitefield 
 never penetrated. He began his itinerant min- 
 istry at seventeen and ended it in his seventy- 
 first year, and during those fifty-four years it is- 
 estimated that he averaged a sermon or an ex- 
 hortation a day. He preached in the United 
 States forty-five years, and his journeyings 
 through the country during those years were 
 equal, upon an average, to the circuit of the 
 globe every five years — "and this by private 
 conveyance, mainly horseback." Of him, quite 
 as much as of Whitetield, it is but just to say that, 
 "moving up and down the Atlantic coast like a 
 shuttle, he wove together the sentiments of the 
 people and contributed much to the creation of 
 a national spirit." 
 
 With all these facts in mind, let us ask. Is it 
 possible to overestimate the value of the great 
 revival of 1800 to the Great Republic? In 
 its holy fires heterogeneous and discordant ele- 
 ments were melted and then molded by its or- 
 
200 Ufiiffjing the Nation. 
 
 ganizations to a common type. Thereby the 
 unity of the nation was preserved and pro- 
 moted. 
 
 If such a revival of religion had not come, 
 opportunity and temptation would have been 
 presented for any number of Aaron Burrs to 
 work schemes of disintegration and dismember- 
 ment in the West. But by the revival forces 
 of national unity were created, which operated 
 to the saving of the nation then and to its prog- 
 ress at a later time. 
 
 But for the national unity, thus secured, the 
 subsequent war with Mexico a half century 
 later, and the whole history of "the winning of 
 the West," would have had a different culmina- 
 tion. Instead, therefore, of an unbroken An- 
 glo-Saxon civilization, stretching from ocean to 
 ocean, we should have seen, doubtless, a Latin 
 type of life and government west of the Missis- 
 sippi, with all that such a type implies. The 
 great revival of 1800 was the menstruum by 
 which dissimilar and antagonistic elements were 
 made to run together as a sound composite. 
 
 Moreover, it carried the nation safely through 
 the period when the recent disestablishment of 
 all the Churches had deprived them of the sup- 
 port of the State, and had thrown them wholly 
 
A Blessed Divorce. 201 
 
 upon the maintenance supplied by voluntary be- 
 nevolence. Many supposed that with the utter 
 separation of Church and State religion would 
 be starved, and that, religion perishing, govern- 
 ment would fall beneath the assaults of univer- 
 sal godlessness. And such would have been the 
 fate of a godless republic. But the revival 
 opened the hidden fountains of benevolence, 
 and not only were the local Churches sustained* 
 but organized charities of far-reaching benevo- 
 lence were founded, and there v/as thus inaugu- 
 rated an era of princely giving unprecedented 
 for generosity in the annals of nations. Church 
 and State were thus happily put asunder, never 
 to be joined again in that unholy wedlock of a 
 State religion which always breeds persecution 
 and corruption, to the reproach of religion and 
 the dishonor of government. ~And the divorce 
 was accomplished without injury to Christianity 
 or shock to the civil organization; nay, rather 
 to the advantage of both. 
 
 Disestablishment, at the outset of colonial 
 history, woukl have endangered religion among 
 the colonists; but the continuance of a State 
 Church in any one of the States, after the Great 
 Republic was organized, would have been a ca- 
 lamity to both Church and State. And if it had 
 
202 A Transition Made Easy. 
 
 been proposed to establish any one Church for 
 the entire nation, the Federal Union would have 
 been forestalled by the mere proposal. It was 
 therefore of the last importance that disestab- 
 lishment should come, and that it should come 
 wdthout a jarring controversy or an alienating 
 contention. The transition was made easy by 
 the great revival of 1800. It is impossible to 
 see how the passage could have been made so 
 smoothly and successfully without the revival. 
 On the bosom of a gracious flood of brotherly 
 love and Christian benevolence it carried the na- 
 tion over this perilous period, when religion 
 might otherwise have been suffocated by State 
 support or killed by popular neglect. 
 
 And men now saw clearly demonstrated that 
 the Church, the Bride of the Lamb, finds in the 
 providence of the Bridegroom and in the devo- 
 tion of her children of faith a more generous 
 and reliable support than the coffers of kings 
 contain or the treasuries of States will supply. 
 The Church was now finally and successf ull}^ di- 
 vorced from the civil government, and scorned 
 to ask alimony of any sort. What God hath 
 put asunder, let no man join together. 
 
VIL 
 THE REVIVAL OF 1858. 
 
The lay element was prominent in this revival. The 
 workers, mostly, were laymen. From the beginning 
 ministers of the gospel cheerfully stood by and saw the 
 principal share of labor in the hands of their lay breth- 
 ren. — Henry C. Fish, in ^'Handbook of Revivals.'" 
 
 As the immediate result of the revival of 1857-58 it 
 has been estimated that one million members were 
 added to the fellowship of the Churches. But the ul- 
 terior result was greater. This revival was the intro- 
 duction to a new era of the nation's spiritual life. It 
 was the training school for a force of lay evangelists for 
 future work, eminent among whom is the name of 
 Dwight Moody; and, like the great awakening of 1740, 
 it was the providential preparation of the American 
 Church for an immediatel}'- impending peril, the gravity 
 of which there were none at the time far-sighted enough 
 to predict. Looking backward, it is instructive for us 
 to raise the question how the Church would have passed 
 through the decade of the sixties without the spiritual 
 reenforcement that came to it amid the pentecostal 
 scenes of 1857 and 1853, — Leonard Woolsey Bacon, in 
 ' 'History of A me rican Christian ity. ' ' 
 
 -The spirit of philanthropy more and more pervades 
 the Church. Sometimes this appears in corporate ac- 
 tion, and often in individual consecration. Wealth is 
 poured out in abundance in the founding of institutions 
 of healing and mercy. Men who make but little pro- 
 fession of Christianity are touched by the genius of the 
 gospel, and vie with each other in providing for them- 
 selves a monument better far than sculptured stone or 
 storied urn. — Bishop J. F. Hurst, in '^ Short History of the 
 Christian Chu rch . ' ' 
 
 Before and after an engagement our camp fires were 
 the x^lace of song and thanksgiving, and many were 
 converted who still attest that God was with us. — Bishop 
 John C. Keener, of the Methodist Fpisco'pal Church, South, 
 who was a Superintendent of Chaplains in the Confederate 
 Armies West of the Mississippi.' 
 
 (204) 
 
VII. 
 
 THE REVIVAL OF 1858. 
 
 As we have seen in the foregoing chapter, 
 the great revival of 1800 continued through 
 many years, and marked a distinct advance in the 
 revivalistic methods of the American Churches. 
 Henceforth such methods were almost univer- 
 sally accepted, and by them there was a con- 
 stant ingathering of souls. By consequence the 
 Churches enjoyed, from 1800 to 1810, an extraor- 
 dinary period of prosperity. For many years 
 during this period there were added as many 
 as forty thousand members annually. Each 
 year's increase was nearly equal to the entire 
 number of converts in the great awakening. 
 And this amazing annual increase was secured 
 from a comparatively small population, the to- 
 tal population of the United States being only 
 5,305,937 in 1800, and barely exceeding 17,000,- 
 000 souls in 1840. The growth of the Churches 
 rapidly outran the growth of the nation. 
 
 The growth of the Methodist Church during 
 those forty years reveals the progress of reli- 
 gion throughout the country as a whole. In 
 
 (205) 
 
206 Prosperous Churches, 
 
 ISOO the number of Methodists in the United 
 States was 64,89tl:, and their preachers num- 
 bered 287. In 1840 the membership had in- 
 creased to 7tl:9,216, and they had 3,557 itinerant 
 preachers and 5,856 local preachers. The growth 
 of this Church alone showed, therefore, an av- 
 erasre annual increase of above 17,000 members. 
 Some of this large and constant increase was 
 attributable to immigration from the British 
 Isles, where the Wesleyan revival was still af- 
 fecting for good the new republic by the con- 
 verts made and sent by it to the AVestern World. 
 But the greater part is explained by the contin- 
 uous revivals which were going on in every part 
 of the country. 
 
 The young organization of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterians also grew rapidly, and the Church 
 organized by Alexander Campbell, which came 
 to birth about the same time, developed at a 
 speedy rate. 
 
 The older denominations, of course, shared 
 largely in the fruits of the revivals which pre- 
 vailed during this prosperous period. 
 
 The disposition manifested by all the Churches 
 to organize benevolent enterprises and philan- 
 thropic institutions, for the advancement of 
 Christianity, took visible form in the multipli- 
 
^ Evangelical Organizations, 207 
 
 cation of missionary and tract societies, pub- 
 lishing plants, and educational establishments. 
 This period was an organizing as well as an 
 evangelizing era in the history of Anglo-Saxon 
 Christianity. 
 
 A little later there came to pass two organi- 
 zations, which had so much to do with the re- 
 vival of 1858 that they should receive special 
 mention at this point in our narrative. They 
 sprang from the spirit of Christian unity which, 
 from the beginning of the great awakening in 
 America and the Wesleyan revival in Great 
 Britain, had characterized the evangelistic 
 movement on both sides of the Atlantic — a 
 spirit that waxed stronger as the continuous re- 
 vivals of the first half of the nineteenth centu- 
 ry went on throughout the English-speaking 
 world. Both began in London, yet both were 
 destined to influence in a great measure Amer- 
 ica. One was the Young Men's Christian As- 
 sociation, organized in London in 18M, and the 
 other was the Evangelical Alliance, a sort of 
 ecumenical council of evangelical Christendom, 
 which held its first meeting in the same great 
 metropolis in 1846. 
 
 But, while Christian organizations multiplied 
 and local revivals prevailed at many points 
 
208 Notable Preachers, 
 
 throughout the country for many years after 
 the great revival of 1800^ there was no revival 
 of continental extent until the year 1858. Nor 
 were there any religious leaders whose efforts 
 and influence affected the whole nation as did 
 White field, Edwards, and the Wesley s. Here 
 and there were men of great power — such as 
 Edward N. Kirk, of Boston, Edward Payson, of 
 Portland, Me., John Summerfield, and Peter 
 Cartwright, the Methodist pioneer in the West. 
 Cartwright received over ten thousand persons 
 into the Church, and Summerfield, dm'ing his 
 brief and brilliant career, was justly celebrated 
 and widely useful. But none of these attained 
 to the height of national leadership. The two 
 men who perhaps during this period most near- 
 ly approached such leadership were Charles G. 
 Finney and Asahel Nettleton. The former lived 
 longer and was far more widely known than the 
 latter. The latter was a graduate of Yale Col- 
 lege when Timothy D wight was its President, 
 and was a man of earnest spirit and of great 
 power. 
 
 Finney began life as a lawyer, but abandoned 
 that profession for the ministry in 1824, and 
 labored with great success as an evangelist until 
 1835, when he accepted a professorship in Ober- 
 
Two Great Evangelists. 209 
 
 lin College, Ohio. He, however, continued to 
 evangelize, at intervals, in New York and else- 
 where. The three years from 1848 to 1851 he 
 spent in England, where he was warmly re- 
 ceived and Videly useful. In 1852 he became 
 President of Oberlin College, and there he 
 died, in 1875. Excepting his visit to the Brit- 
 ish Isles, his evangelistic tours w^ere confined, 
 in the main, to points in the States of New 
 York, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, 
 and Ohio. 
 
 Nettleton prepared himself for the work of a 
 foreign missionary, but this purpose was frus- 
 trated by the feebleness of his health. His 
 evangelistic efforts were put forth, for the most 
 part, in New England and New York, although 
 he spent the two years from 1827 to 1829 in Vir- 
 ginia, seeking health. In 1831 he visited En- 
 gland, Ireland, and Scotland. 
 
 These two men were truly great evangelists, 
 but no general movement of continental extent 
 followed from their ministry. They both ren- 
 dered service to the evangelical cause in Great 
 Britain — the first return of the sort that Amer- 
 ica made for the services of Whitefield in the 
 revival of 1740. They were products as well as 
 promoters of the religious prosperity which pre- 
 14 
 
210 Increasiufj Greed and Decreasing Piefi/. 
 
 vailed in the UDitecl States during the first half 
 of the nineteenth century, and occupied a con- 
 spicuous place on the plane of general spiritual 
 elevation around them — eminent, but not pre- 
 eminent. 
 
 During this period of religious prosperity the 
 young nation increased in wealth and power, 
 and as gains grew godliness declined. Men 
 forgot God in pursuit of gold. Political de- 
 bates became rancorous, and, after the adiinn- 
 istration of President Monroe, the subjects of 
 these controversies were mainly financial meas- 
 m-es and fiscal policies. The heart of the 
 young republic was set on wealth, and the zeal 
 of the people for religion became lukewarm. 
 It was during this period that President Jack- 
 son and the xSational Bank had their struggle, 
 and the financial panic of Martin Van Bur en's 
 day ensued. Then came the exciting times of 
 the "Harrison Freshet," followed by a period of 
 plenty and the first impulses of national ambi- 
 tion. The slavery question began to be agi- 
 tated, and the annexation of Texas became a 
 national issue. To this period belongs also the 
 Mexican War, whereby the area of the national 
 domain was gi*eatly extended — an extension 
 which drew after it negotiations which, bv iiur- 
 
A Financial Cvaah, 211 
 
 chase from Mexico and a treaty with Great Brit- 
 ain, completed the area of continental United 
 States as it stands to-daj. ]Mean while gold was 
 discovered in California, railroads, telegraph 
 and steamship lines multiplied, harvests were 
 plenteous, and commerce was prosperous. Rich- 
 es increased, and multitudes set their hearts 
 upon them. The nation was forgetting God, 
 fighting the battles of greed, and fanning the 
 fires of sectional animosity. Political strife 
 grew more bitter, and the great Civil War drew 
 on apace. In the midst of all its plenty and 
 pride, the nation woke one morning to find that 
 the glory was all a dream. While speculation 
 was at fever heat, and when men were wild 
 with a mania for money-making, there came a 
 financial crash unprecedented in the nation's his- 
 toIyT^In the twinkling of an eye the riches of 
 "many took wings and flew away. Bankrupt- 
 cies, failures, frauds, and defalcations were on 
 every hand, and the hearts of men failed them 
 for fear. It was the repetition of the old, sad 
 story of a people grown great by godliness, 
 then gradually departing from the true God in 
 the worship of Mammon, and finally prostrated 
 by its evil idolatry. 
 And now that the wheels of industry stood 
 
212 Backslidden J hut Not Apostate. 
 
 still, and the noisy cries of greed were hushed, 
 men stopped to hear the voice of the Spirit call- 
 ing them to repentance. And they heeded the 
 heavenly call. Another revival of national ex- 
 tent began. 
 
 It did not begin in the Churches, nor was it 
 brought to pass by the preaching of some long- 
 neglected doctrine of grace, as had been the 
 case in all the national revivals that had pre- 
 ceded it. From the Eeformation, in the days 
 of Martin Luther, each successive revival had 
 recovered some neglected truth which had been 
 overlaid by mediaeval superstition or metaphys- 
 ical scholasticism. But w^hen at length this 
 work of the rediscovery of evangelical Chris- 
 tianity had reached its climax in Wesley^s 
 preaching of a universal atonement, the witness 
 of the Spirit, and Christian perfection, there 
 was nothing of the long-lost treasure left to be 
 exhumed. X\\ that, was required was the faith- 
 ful preaching of the fully recovered gospel to 
 every creature. And it had been preached with 
 supernatural power in America, but men had 
 for a time neglected it that they might get gold 
 and live riotously. The nation was backslidden, 
 but not apostate from the faith. Men knew the 
 truth; even the layman of the countinghouse 
 
The Beghming in Fulton Street. 213 
 
 and the forum knew well enough the gospel of 
 Christ's salvation. 
 
 And hence the revival of 1858 began outside 
 the Churches, in the center of the nation's com- 
 merce. 
 
 A little room in the lower part of the city of 
 New York, in the very midst of tlie currents of 
 trade, on the third floor of the "Consistory" of 
 the old Dutch Reformed Church, in Fulton 
 Street, was thrown open for a weekly noonday 
 prayer meeting. At first the "downtown " mis- 
 sionary who made the appointment (Jeremiah 
 Lanphier) met there three persons, then six, 
 and then twenty. At the fourth meeting they 
 assembled on the floor below, and there the 
 Business Men's Prayer Meeting began at once 
 to attract attention. A daily meeting became 
 necessary presently, and then the room over- 
 flowed with attendants on the services, so that a 
 second and a third room in the same building 
 were required to accommodate the people who 
 flocked there. The seats in all the rooms were 
 filled, and even the entrances and passages soon 
 became so crowded that it was difilcult for any 
 one to pass in or out. The disappointed multi- 
 tudes who went away because they could not 
 secure room there demanded another place of 
 
214 Meetings MuUipUed. 
 
 prayer, and tbe old John Street Methodist 
 Church and lecture room were both opened 
 for noonday prayer meetings every day, the 
 services being imder the direction of a commit- 
 tee of the Young Men's Christian Association. 
 These rooms also overflowed. Meetings were 
 then multiplied in many other parts of the city. 
 The good work thus begun in New York quick- 
 ly spread to Philadelphia, Boston, and other 
 cities and towns, until there was scarcely a 
 place of any considerable importance in the 
 United States in which similar services were not 
 undertaken. The revival prevailed everywhere, 
 without human leadership or concert of action, 
 as if inspired and directed by the overshadow- 
 ing influence of a superhuman Personality. 
 
 A marked feature of the meetings was the 
 fact that in them men of all denominations 
 united. In the unity of the Spirit and the bonds 
 of peace strong men bowed together in earnest 
 supplication to God for the outpouring of the 
 Spirit, that the backsliding of the nation might 
 be healed. 
 
 These assemblies became so notable that the 
 secular newspapers felt constrained to print daily 
 reports of them. This was the beginning of the 
 use of the secular press for religious ends, which 
 
Pervasive and Persuasive. 215 
 
 ever since has been continued, to the elevation 
 of the newspapers and to the advantage of the 
 cause of Christ. 
 
 Even the new invention of the telegraph was 
 employed to spread the news of salvation. Fer- 
 vent and fraternal messages passed between the 
 assemblies of different cities. Wayward sons, 
 recovered from prodigal ways, telegraphed to 
 anxious parents of their newly found joy. 
 Brothers and sisters, long separated from each 
 other by the westward movements of that mi- 
 gi-atory generation, exchanged greetings of 
 gladness and renewed affection. 
 
 The pervasive and persuasive influence filled 
 the marts of trade, spread to the rural districts, 
 and penetrated the walls of schools and col- 
 leges. It went everywhere, and affected all 
 classes. 
 
 And the movement proceeded with marvelous 
 rapidity. The fire was scarcely kindled before 
 the country was all ablaze in the glorious flame 
 which burned away the dross of mammonism 
 and worldliness from thousands of lives. 
 
 It is estimated that one hundred thousand 
 conversions occurred within the short space of 
 four months, and that during the first year 
 which followed the beginning of the work four 
 
 K 
 
216 In the South. 
 
 hundred thousand souls were brought to Christ. 
 Before the great revival ended, it is said, one 
 million members were added to the Churches. 
 
 The work in the North was begun and con- 
 tinued in the cities after the manner already 
 described. In the South there were no large 
 cities, but a widely scattered rural population, 
 remote from both the perils and privileges of 
 urban life. The results in that part of the coun- 
 try, therefore, were not heralded in the press 
 nor flashed over the telegraph wires, as was the 
 case in the North. But they w^ere not less 
 abundant and blessed. Indeed, they were, in 
 proportion to the population, greater in the 
 South than in any other section, and they Avere 
 achieved in the main by the Churches andjn 
 the Churches. 
 
 The statistics of all the Churches of the South 
 are not accessible, but the figures of one which 
 are at hand may be taken as some measure of 
 the success of all the rest. In 1844 the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church had been divided, and 
 two ecclesiastical jurisdictions were set up — one 
 in the North and the other in the South. At 
 the close of the year 1858 the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church, South, had gathered in a twelve- 
 month 43,388 members and probationers, of 
 
Great Growth, 217 
 
 whom 10,117 were negroes and 110 were In- 
 dians. In 1859, 21,852 were added; and in 1860, 
 36,182 more. When the war between the States 
 began, this Church had on its rolls 629,155 mem- 
 bers in full connection, of whom 171,857 were 
 negroes and 3,395 were Indians. Its proba- 
 tioners numbered 119,613, among them being 
 35,909 negroes and 771 Indians. In fifteen 
 years (from 1815 to 1860) its membership in- 
 creased from 450,000 to 630,000 (using round 
 numbers), or 180,000 souls. That meant many 
 glorious revivals, especially during the years 
 1858, 1859, and 1860. Its sister Churches in the 
 same section were proportionately prosperous, 
 especially the great Baptist denomination, which 
 divides so nearly with the Methodists the rural 
 communities of the South. It may be reason- 
 ably doubted if, at the outbreak of the Civil 
 War, on any similar area in the English-speak- 
 ing world having a population no denser than 
 that of the South, there were as few infidels 
 and as many evangelical Christians. Of all the 
 sections of the Union, it is most solidly English 
 in its type and evangelical in its religion. 
 
 It has been something more than a coinci- 
 dence that for above one hundred and fifty years 
 the 2:reat revivals in the United States have been 
 
218 Across the Sea. 
 
 simultaneous with similar movements in the 
 British Isles. When the great awakening was 
 in progress, in 1740, the Wesleyan revival in 
 England had already begun. When the revival 
 of 1800 was stirring the West and saving the 
 nation, the revival of the Haldanes in Scotland 
 was in progress, and the Wesleyan revival, at 
 its second flood, was overflowing upon the New 
 World; and now, when the revival of 1858 was 
 burning from ocean to ocean, there was a ''great 
 year of grace" throughout Great Britain, and 
 the work continued daring the year 1859. It 
 is estimated that in Wales, with a population of 
 only a little more than a million, there were 
 30,000 to 35,000 conversions, and it is known 
 that the Welsh Calvinistic Church added 25,000 
 to the roll of its membership. In Belfast, Ire- 
 land, the inhabitants of which numbered 130,- 
 000 souls, there were 10,000 converts. In the 
 nine counties which compose the Province of 
 Ulster, the most northern district of Ireland, 
 there were 306 congregations that were visited 
 by the revival, and 10,630 new communicants 
 were added to the Churches. Rev. Dr. Baron 
 Stowe, of Boston, witnessed the revival in Ire- 
 land in 1859, and in a letter published in 1860 
 said of it: "Many hundreds, not only from the 
 
''Catching:' 219 
 
 unblessed districts of Ireland but also from En- 
 gland and Scotland, and even from the Conti- 
 nent, hastened to the scene of the Spirit's won- 
 der-working; and while many remained longer 
 than they intended, cooperating with the over- 
 tasked laborers, few returned without the con- 
 viction that Ulster was pervaded by the power 
 of the Highest." 
 
 Great meetings were held in Exeter Hall and 
 Surrey Gardens to reach the unchurched masses. 
 The Saturday Review^ profanely deriding the 
 work, testified to its extensiveness by declaring: 
 "Undoubtedly the thing is catching." 
 
 It means much for the Great Republic when 
 results like these are achieved in the British 
 Isles. When England, in the days of Pitt, was 
 contending with France for the possession of 
 America, the "Great Commoner" said he "would 
 conquer America in Germany." It has been the 
 way of an overruling Providence to make many 
 conquests for the heavenly kingdom in the. 
 United States by operations of grace in Great 
 Britain. It was so in 1858, when the great re- 
 vival throughout the English-speaking world 
 did so much for our perturbed country, then on 
 the verge of the greatest and most terrible civil 
 war that human history has ever recorded. 
 
220 ''In All Circles:' 
 
 But while indirect benefits of the highest 
 value to the republic came from the revival 
 across the sea, they were far less than the di- 
 rect and immediate results of the great meet- 
 ings within its own borders. In his "Hand- 
 book of Revivals'"* Rev. Henry C. Fish, D.D., 
 gives a pen picture of the work, wdiich he ex- 
 tracted from one of the religious journals of 
 March, 1858. It is so vivid and comprehensive 
 that no apology is needed for its incorporation 
 into this narrative. The writer says: " Such a 
 time as the present was never known since the 
 days of the apostles for revivals. The prostra- 
 tion of business, the downfall of Mammon — the 
 great god of worship to the multitudes in this 
 land, both in and out of the Church — the sin- 
 fulness and vanity of earthly treasures as the 
 supreme good, have come home to the hearts 
 and consciences of the millions in our land with 
 a power that seems irresistible. Revivals now 
 cover our very land, sweeping all before them 
 as on the day of Pentecost, exciting the earnest 
 and simultaneous cry from thousands, 'What 
 shall we do to be saved ? ' They have taken hold 
 of the community at large to such an extent that 
 now they are the engrossing theme of conver- 
 sation in all circles of society. Ministers seem 
 
From Maine to California. 221 
 
 baptized with the Holy Ghost, and preach with 
 new power and earnestness, bringing the truth 
 home to the conscience and life as rarely be- 
 fore. Meetings are held for prayer, for exhor- 
 tation, and for conversion, with the deepest in- 
 terest and the most astonishing results. Not 
 only are they held in the church and from house 
 to house, but in the great marts of trade and cen- 
 ters of business. Halls are selected, where men 
 may leave their worldly cares for an hour, and 
 by multitudes, without form or ceremony, drop 
 in, fall on their knees and pray, with a few 
 words of exhortation p.nd entreaty, and then 
 go about their usual business. In New York 
 there is a most astonishing interest in all the 
 Churches, seeming as if that great and popu- 
 lous and depraved city were enveloped in one 
 conflagi'ation of divine influence. Union prayer 
 meetings are held in the principal centers, and 
 here thousands on thousands gather daily. 
 Prayer and conference meetings are held in re- 
 tired rooms connected with large commercial 
 houses, and with the best effects. The large 
 cities and towns generally, from Maine to Cali- 
 fornia, are sharing in this great and glorious 
 work. There is hardly a village or town to be 
 found where a special divine power does not 
 
222 The Layman's Day Dawned, 
 
 appear to be displayed. It really seems as if 
 the millennium were upon us in its glory." 
 
 The great work so glowingly described in this 
 pen picture is not exaggerated by the writer. 
 A crisis was at hand, and a great revival was 
 the supreme need of the hour. It came, and 
 from it issued benefits of unspeakable value to 
 the republic. Religion was invigorated, and 
 the nation strengthened in advance of the per- 
 ilous shock to the whole civil system which was 
 so near at hand. 
 
 The working forces of the Churches were im- 
 measurably increased. The revival of 1858 in- 
 augurated in some sense the era of lay work in 
 American Christianity. Wesley's system of 
 class leaders, exhorters, and local preachers had 
 done much at an earlier date in the same direc- 
 tion, but now the layman's day fully dawned 
 on all the Churches. No nev/ doctrine was 
 brought forward, bat a new agency was brought 
 to bear in spreading the old truth through the 
 efforts of men who, if they could not interpret 
 the Scriptures with precision or train souls to 
 perfection, could at least help inquiring sinners 
 to find the Lord by relating how the}^ them- 
 selves had found him. Since Christianity is a 
 religion of experience, this lay element was a 
 
Christian Unity Promoted, 223 
 
 power in the Apostolic Charch, of whom were 
 St. Stephen and St. Luke. Bat it dropped out 
 of the Church when Christianity, ceasing to be 
 an experience, w^as practiced only as a pompous 
 system of priestcraft or taught as an abstruse 
 philosophy of religion. It now returned in the 
 regeneration of a nation. 
 
 And Christian unity w^as again promoted, as 
 it had been by the great awakening, by the 
 Wesleyan revival, and by the revival of 1800. 
 When men come to know what are the essen- 
 tial truths of Christianity, and to realize these 
 truths in personal experience, strife about non- 
 essentials perishes as if scorched by the breath 
 of the Almighty. 
 
 Furthermore, a heavy blow w^as delivered 
 against the spirit of mammon. The panic of 
 1857 revealed the vanity of earthly treasure, 
 mid the revival of 1858 emphasized the value of 
 the true riches. The demands made by the 
 claims of mercy and patriotism, during the war 
 that followed so soon, were an exercise in benev- 
 olence which, coupled with the saving lessons 
 of the revival that preceded it, did much to in- 
 augurate that era of princely giving which has 
 been current in the United States for the last 
 thirty years. The poor and middle classes were 
 
224 Philantliropj Inspired. 
 
 never so generous as Ibey have been during the 
 last forty years, and the opulent pour forth 
 millions on e^ery sort of benevolence. In the 
 impoverished South, where the brunt of the 
 conflict of arms fell, the post-bellum gifts of the 
 poor exceed the ante-bellum generosity of the 
 wealthy. In the opulent North, where the des- 
 olations of war scarcely went, the bestowment 
 of millions upon philanthropy has become too 
 commcm to excite surprise. The spirit of al- 
 truism is so all- pervasive that men who do not 
 formally yield themselves to the authority of 
 Christianity are unable to resist the constrain- 
 ing atmosphere which it has thrown around 
 them. In thirty-two years (from 1871 to 1902) 
 the benefactions to educational institutions 
 alone in the United States have amounted to 
 $291,059,209. 
 
 Again, the continuous revivals in the South- 
 ern States, from 1800 to 1860, culminating in 
 the great revival of 1858-59, affected the negi-o 
 population so benignly as to give security from 
 insurrection during the war and great help in 
 the solution of the "race problem'' since 1865. 
 Never in the history of the race were so many 
 Africans brought to Christ; and, after all sub- 
 tractions from this sum of good are made for the 
 
Prejxtrinr/for the War, 225 
 
 faults and sIds of the Afro- American people, it 
 remains true that the sons of Ham have attained 
 their highest elevation in the United States, and 
 that the Christian Churches of the country have 
 done the most and the best that has been done 
 for them. 
 
 Among the best results of the revival of 
 1858 must be reckoned the fact that thousands 
 of men of both the Federal and Confederate 
 armies, who were appointed to die, were con- 
 verted by it, as were also many thousands more 
 who were destined to live and bless the country 
 for many long years afterwards. 
 
 The piety which was illustrated in the lives of 
 many general officers, and the consecration com- 
 mon among the rank and file, made possible 
 those great revivals in the camps which so re- 
 lieved the gloom of the dark days of the sixties, 
 and all was in a great measure the outcome, or 
 perhaps we should say the continuation, of the 
 great revival, which some have supposed was 
 interrupted by the beginning of hostilities. In 
 that most interesting volume entitled "Christ 
 in the Camp" Rev. J. William Jones, D.D., a 
 chaplain in the Army of Northern Virginia, 
 gives a beautiful description of a typical scene 
 in the Confederate army of Virginia. "Let us 
 15 
 
226 Clrrinf in ihe Camj), 
 
 go,*' he says, "some ])riglit Sabbath morning, 
 to that cluster of tents in the grove across the 
 Massaponax, not far from Hamilton's Crossing. 
 Seated on the rude logs, or on the ground, may 
 be seen fifteen hundred or two thousand men, 
 with upturned faces, eagerl}^ drinking in the 
 truths of the gospel. That reverent worshiper 
 that kneels in the dust during prayer, or listens 
 with sharpened attention and moist eyes as the 
 preacher delivers his message, is our beloved 
 Commander -in Chief, General Robert E. Lee; 
 that devout worshiper who sits at his side, gives 
 his personal attention to the seating of the mul- 
 titude, looks so supremely happy as he sees the 
 soldiers thronging to hear the gospel, and listens 
 so attentively to the preaching, is 'Stonewall' 
 Jackson; those 'wreaths and stars' which clus- 
 ter around are w^orn by some of the most illus- 
 trious generals of that army; and all through 
 the c(mgregati(m the 'stars and bars' mingle 
 with the rough garb of the unknown heroes of 
 the rank and lile who never quail amid the lead 
 and iron hail of battle, l)ut who are not ashamed 
 to tremble under the power of God's truth. JL 
 need not say that this is Jackson's headquarters, 
 and the scene I have pictured one of frequent 
 occurrence." In the course of his narrative 
 
Songs hy the Catnp Fires, 227 
 
 Chaplain Jones shows how the most glorious 
 revivals swept through whole regiments, bri- 
 gades, divisions, corps, and the entire Army of 
 Northern Virginia. 
 
 The venerable Bishop John C. Keener, of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, South, testifies to 
 similar conditions among the Confederate forces 
 of the West. In a recent letter he writes: 
 "Having been appointed Superintendent of 
 Chaplains on the western side of the Mississip- 
 pi, 1 know whereof I speak. Before and after 
 an engagement our camp lires were the place of 
 song and thanksgiving, and many were convert- 
 ed who still attest that God was with us." 
 
 No competent hand has yet undertaken to do 
 for the history of the revivals in the Federal 
 armies what Dr. Jones has done in "Christ in 
 the Camp" for the history of "religion in Lee's 
 army;" but it is well known that great works of 
 grace were wrought among them also. The 
 Christian Commission was an organization cre- 
 ated to provide for the spiritual and temporal 
 care of the soldiers of the Union armies, and it 
 is a matter of record that it expended ^6, 264:, 607 
 on its work, above one million of this large sum 
 being spent for Bibles, Testaments, books, reli- 
 gious periodicals, and other publications. Who 
 
228 Softening the Era of Reconstruction, 
 
 will dare affirm that such great things would 
 have been possible if the revival of 1858 had not 
 preceded the war ? Who can imagine what good 
 was accomplished by them, and what evils were 
 averted? 
 
 Dreadful as was the shock of war to the re- 
 public, and sorrowful as were the conditions 
 which followed that bloody four years' con- 
 flict, it cannot be justly denied that the revival 
 which preceded it, and which was continued 
 on the tented fields of the South, did neverthe- 
 less break the force of the shock of the strife, 
 softened the rigors of the reconstruction era, 
 and hastened the day of national reconciliation 
 in which all sections now rejoice. Never in the 
 history of mankind was a civil war followed 
 so quickly by a reconciliation so genuine and 
 so perfect. The prostrate South and the pros- 
 perous North came speedily together, and the 
 federal Union was restored to its former su- 
 premacy. The liberated slaves set about the 
 tasks of freedom in peaceable and affectionate 
 relations to their former masters, while the op- 
 ulent treasures of Northern philanthropy and 
 the hardly earned taxes of Southern whites were 
 bestowed in abundance upon their education. 
 While here and there were found in both the 
 
The Bevival Sjririt of General Lee, 229 
 
 the North and the South irreconcilable Bour- 
 bons, the greatest leaders were quick to preach 
 the tenets of peace, and the uncorrapted mass- 
 es followed willingly the guidance of men of 
 srood will. The men of arms and the men of 
 prayer, who were generally identical, were 
 prompt to discern the obligations of brother- 
 hood and to set their hearts on nobler things 
 than strife and contention. 
 
 When the war was over, and General Robert 
 E. Lee went to take charge of Washington Uni- 
 versity, at Lexington, Va., he said to Rev. Dr. 
 White, the venerable pastor of the Presbyterian 
 Church: "I shall be disappointed, sir, 1 shall 
 fail in the leading object that brought me here, 
 unless these young men become real Christians." 
 To Dr. Jones, of the Baptist Church, he said: 
 "Our great want is a revival which shall bring 
 these young men to Christ." It is to such a 
 spirit of faith, in the North and in the South, 
 among the masses of the people and in the 
 hearts of most of their leaders— a spirit in- 
 spired and fostered by great revivals before, 
 during, and after the Civil War— that the Great 
 Republic owes much of its present prosperity 
 and peace. And upon the maintenance of this 
 spirit of evangelical faith it must rely for the 
 
230 The Hope for Years to Come, 
 
 more perfect reconciliation of alienated sections, 
 the unification of the heterogeneous elements 
 which compose its population, the subjugation 
 of an ever-present and dangerous mammonism, 
 the pacification of the discordant forces of in- 
 dustrialism, the correction of revolutionary 
 tendencies, and its security amid the entan- 
 glements and perplexities of the international 
 relations of a modern world power. This sav- 
 ing faith iu the hearts of the people is the 
 hope of the nation for the years to come, as it 
 was its deliverance in the perilous period from 
 1860 to 1875. 
 
vm. 
 
 THE REVIVAL IN THE DAYS OF 
 MOODY AND SANKEY. 
 
Moody in speech and Sankey in song exercised a 
 wider influence than any other two men upon the Brit- 
 ish people in the latter half of the last century. San- 
 key's hymns will hold first place in thousands of places 
 of worship throughout the British Empire. They are 
 sung much more constantly, and b}'^ a much greater 
 number of people, than any other songs, with the one 
 exception of the national anthem. — W. T. Stead, in 
 ''The Americanization of the World.'" 
 
 We suppose there is no question that Mr. Moody has 
 done a marvelous work, both in Great Britain and 
 America. There is a great deal of popular curiosity to 
 know exactly what it was and how it was done. The 
 remarkable thing about it seems to be that there was 
 no remarkable thing about it, save the results. Not a 
 revivalist, but an evangelist; not a stirrer up of excite- 
 ment, but a calm preacher of Jesus Christ, Mr. Moody 
 has talked, in his earnest, homely way, upon truths 
 which he deemed essential to spiritual welfare, in this 
 world and the next. Men went to hear him not only 
 by thousands, but by tens of thousands. Not only the 
 "common people heard him gladly," but very uncom- 
 mon people— prime ministers, earls, duchesses, mem- 
 bers of Parliament, members of Congress, doctors of 
 the law, doctors of divinity, and clergymen by the hun- 
 dred. All testified to the power of his preaching. The 
 doubters were convinced, tlie wicked were converted, 
 weary teachers of religion were filled with fresh cour- 
 age and hopefulness, and there was a great turning of 
 thoughts and hearts Godward.— /. G. Holland, in ''EV' 
 eryday Topics.'' 
 (232) 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE REVIVAL IN THE DAYS OF MOODY AND 
 SANKEY. 
 
 It has been frequently remarked that for 
 over one hundred and fifty years great revivals 
 in Great Britain and the United States have 
 prevailed simultaneously. While the English- 
 speaking nations have been rising to the com- 
 manding positions which they now occupy in 
 the world, they have been blessed with great 
 spiritual refreshings, as if Heaven were girding 
 them with peculiar power for the fulfillment of 
 a common mission and the achievement of a 
 common destiny. 
 
 This remarkable feature of their history was 
 repeated in a most striking manner by the re- 
 vival in the days of Moody and Sankey — a 
 movement which was, more than all that went 
 before it, international in its scope and charac- 
 teristics. . Moody, the lay preacher, and Sankey, 
 the gospel singer, were Americans, but their 
 first conspicuous triumphs were accomplished 
 in the British Isles, and their subsequent success 
 
 (233) 
 
234 At Urban Centers. 
 
 in their native land was made possible by their 
 victories across the sea. 
 
 While these men did not in person touch as 
 many points as did the leaders in the great re- 
 vivals of the eighteenth century, they operated 
 more effectively on great urban centers, and 
 tarried longer in the " cities visited by them. 
 The press carried from these centers their ser- 
 mons and their songs, until their evangelistic 
 productions speedily came to be the property of 
 the English-speaking world. The Atlantic ca- 
 ble, which had been laid since the close of the 
 revival of 1858, flashed from continent to conti- 
 nent the news of the great meetings in London, 
 Edinburgh, New York, and Brooklyn. All the 
 new and speedy methods by which thought and 
 events are in modern times so quickly commu- 
 nicated from point to point and from land to 
 land became auxiliaries of the work. While 
 all these powerful agents tended to extend with 
 unprecedented swiftness the revival, the rapidly 
 widening process through which it thus ran 
 made it, both then and now, difficult to deter- 
 mine with precision its limits, or trace with ac- 
 curacy its current. And this difficulty is en- 
 hanced by the fact that it followed so soon after 
 the revival of 1858, and reproduced so many of 
 
Continuing the Bevival of 1858. 235 
 
 its features, that the two movements can scarce- 
 ly be distinguished. Above a half century in- 
 tervened between the great awakening and the 
 great revival of 1800, and an equal interval 
 elapsed between the latter and the revival of 
 1858. Between those great movements there 
 was such a visible subsidence of spiritual life in 
 the land that it is comparatively easy to mark 
 their beginnings and their terminations; but, as 
 we have seen, the revival of 1858 did not disap- 
 pear, as did its predecessors. It did not cease 
 with the beginning of the war between the 
 States, but poured its flood into the armies, and 
 with almost imdiminished flow swept on through 
 the period of hostilities. Indeed, in one phase 
 of it, we may say it was absolutely promoted 
 by the war. The spirit of Christian unity be- 
 tween the various Churches, which became so 
 conspicuous at the beginning of the revival of 
 1858, was advanced by the labors of chaplains 
 on the tented field and l)y the results of their 
 ministry there. A minister in charge of the 
 religious work in a regiment composed of men 
 drawn from all denominations learned lessons 
 of catholicity and acquired habits of fraternity 
 which cannot be attained so readily in any other 
 situation. Moreover, the men under his care 
 
23G A Purifying I^iver. 
 
 imbibed a sense of brotherly comradeship not 
 otherwise possible. 
 
 When the cruel war was over, this spirit was 
 stronger in the Chm*ches than when the fratri- 
 cidal strife began. The common sorrows of all 
 the people, their common trials and struggles, 
 and, above all, the influences which sprang from 
 the revivals on the tented field, conspired to sup- 
 press the evils of sectarianism and to open the 
 way for denominational cooperation to a degree 
 never before possible in our country. From 
 these springs there issued a current of Chris- 
 tian unity which flowed with a resistless tide 
 through the meetings of Mood}^ and Sankey. 
 Perhaps it would be correct to say of the period 
 now under consideration that the revival of 
 1858 flowed into and through the Civil War like 
 a powerful and purifying river through the dark 
 waters of a turbid lake, and on the farther side 
 of the dreadful conflict issued in the revivalistic 
 current visible in the days of Moody and San- 
 key. It is quite certain that Moody's religious 
 work during the war led to much of his evan- 
 gelistic labors afterwards, and that the expe- 
 riences of the bloody struggle colored both his 
 sermons and Sankey's songs. The tenderness 
 of his appeals, which so mightily moved the 
 
Moody 's Early Days. 237 
 
 multitudes whom he addressed, is largely trace- 
 able to his compassionate ministries to the 
 wounded and the dying and the imprisoned 
 when he was engaged in the service of the 
 Christian Commission, and many of his most 
 effective illustrations were drawn from the 
 thrilling experiences of those days. 
 
 In order to get a clear view of his ministry 
 and of the great revival in which he was the 
 chief leader, it is necessary to glance at his ear- 
 lier history. He was born in Northlield, Mass., 
 February 5, 1837; but after spending a few 
 days of his youth in commercial engagements 
 in Boston, he was drawn into the great west- 
 ward current of the fifties, and landed in Chica- 
 go in September, 1855. He carried with him his 
 Church letter and a 'recommendation to an hon- 
 orable firm. He was bent on both diligence in 
 business and the service of the Lord, and threw 
 himself immediately into his secular tasks and 
 religious work with all the characteristic ear- 
 nestness of his nature. He made religion his 
 business and his business religious. 
 
 Soon he was found at the center of a zealous 
 group of fervent spirits carrying on a mission 
 in the North Market Hall. With no Church to 
 support the enterprise, he pushed it through 
 
238 "Going for Them," 
 
 countless obstacles to success. The ball was 
 used on Saturday nights for dancing; and after 
 the motley crowds who patronized the dancing 
 dispersed, he and his associates were accustomed 
 to spend the late hours of Saturday night and 
 the early hours of Sunday morning in removing 
 the sawdust, cleansing the floors, and putting 
 the room in order for their services the next 
 day. He was then, when he had barely attained 
 his majority, exemplifying his method for reach- 
 ing the masses, which in later years he tersely 
 expressed in the motto, ''Go for them." In 
 this hall he conducted a mission Sunday school 
 for six years, during which time it reached a 
 membership of over one thousand. Finding it 
 more and more difficult to hold prayer meetings 
 or Sunday evening services in the market hall, 
 he rented a room near by that had been used for 
 a saloon, in which about two hundred persons 
 could be seated, boarded up the side windows, 
 and furnished it with seats made of unpainted 
 pine boards. In that plain and ill-furnished 
 room he gathered the poor and the vicious, and 
 sought by melting appeals and fervent prayers 
 to win them from vice and godlessness to virtue 
 and piety. 
 
 He identified himself with the work of the 
 
Abundant in Labors, 239 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association also, and 
 soon became the president of the Association in 
 Chicago. Under his administration a hall was 
 built, which was named, from the chief contribu- 
 tor to the building fund, '' Farwell Hall." This 
 hall became through his zealous efforts a center 
 of religious attraction to the entire city. The 
 building was burned in the winter of 1868, but 
 under his leadership another was speedily erect- 
 ed in its place. Meanwhile he carried on his 
 mission and Church work with undiminished 
 zeal and with ever- in creasing success. Besides 
 all this, he gave much time to the work of re- 
 ligious conventions, to evangelistic work outside 
 the city of Chicago, and to the service of ihe 
 Christian Commission in the army. He was 
 the president of the Chicago branch of the Com- 
 mission, George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, 
 with whom in after years he labored in the 
 great meetings in the "City of Brotherly 
 Love," being the president of the general or- 
 ganization. Ten times he went to the front 
 with supplies for the wounded bodies of the 
 soldiers and with healing messages of the gos- 
 pel for their souls. He visited also the Confed- 
 erate soldiers who were prisoners at Camp 
 Douglas, showing them the tender love of a 
 
240 His Aim Not Gain, 
 
 brother and preaching to them sermons under 
 which not a few were converted. All this time 
 his support was guaranteed by no society nor 
 assured by any person. Railroad authorities 
 passed him free over their lines, generous mer- 
 chants quietly paid his board and provided for 
 his wardrobe, although he never then, or subse- 
 quently during the years of his celebrity, solic- 
 ited a dollar for himself. Nor did he ever show 
 an itching palm. After his marriage apprecia- 
 tive friends, who knew the value and the un- 
 selfishness of the work he had been doing, sur- 
 prised him and his devoted wife by leading them 
 one day into an elegant home near the scenes of 
 his early mission work^ and conveying to him a 
 perpetual lease to the property. But the great 
 fire of 1871 swept away the house and sent them 
 out again among the homeless. 
 
 Undismayed by his moneyless condition and 
 undiscouraged by the great disaster to the city, 
 he set about at once the erection of a humble 
 shed or tabernacle on the ruins of his mission, 
 and there gathered the scattered flock^ fed and 
 clothed and comforted them, and preached to 
 them the gospel that saves and soothes. And 
 Sankey, whom he had met at the International 
 Convention ol the Young Men's Christian As- 
 
Moody 's Partner in Toil. 241 
 
 sociation, held at Indianapolis in 1870, helped 
 him. 
 
 • Moody was a Congregationalist from North- 
 field, Mass., and Sankey was a Methodist from 
 Edenburg, Pa. ; but when they met at the con- 
 vention Moody felt that he had found the part- 
 ner in Christian work whom he had been wish- 
 ing and waiting for. Sankey yielded to his 
 call, dissolved the associations of years' stand- 
 ing, yoked himself to the great lay preacher, 
 and went forth to the peculiar work to which 
 they felt impelled by the Spirit. For six 
 months they labored together in Chicago, 
 carrying on and enlarging the mission work 
 which Moody had been doing for years 
 before Sankey joined him, in 1870. The 
 great fire came in 1871 and laid the city in 
 ruins. The fire began on Sunday evening, when 
 they were holding a great meeting in Farwell 
 Hall. When the alarm struck Sankey was sing- 
 ing the hymn, "To-Day the Saviour Calls," etc. 
 The next day, having lost all that he had, even 
 the opportunity of service in Chicago as it 
 seemed, the devoted musician started back to 
 his former home, in Pennsylvania, telling Moody, 
 however, that he was willing to return wJien 
 needed, and that he would hold' himself in read- 
 16 
 
242 Sankeij in the Tabernacle, 
 
 iness to come on call. In three months Moody 
 telegraphed him, "Come at once," and he came 
 without hesitation or delay. Together they then 
 entered on the work, philanthropic and religions, 
 which was done in the Ncav Tabernacle for the 
 homeless thousands who flocked around them. 
 In the autumn of that year Sankey removed his 
 family to Chicago, and Moody went on a short 
 visit to England. While the lay preacher was 
 abroad the gospel singer, alone and unaided, 
 carried on the Avork of the Tabernacle. During 
 the year 1872 they together continued the enter- 
 prise. 
 
 In the spring of 1873 they were invited by 
 three English gentlemen to visit their country 
 and hold meetings. They were promised no 
 compensation, and yet, being persuaded that it 
 was the will of God that they should go, they 
 accepted the invitation and went. They began 
 at Liverpool, Moody armed with his Bible and 
 Sankey equipped with his organ and song book. 
 They accomplished but little, and after a few 
 days they proceeded toward York, to find the 
 friends who invited them over. Two of the men 
 had died before their arrival ; but, with undaunt- 
 ed faith, the American evangelists secured a place 
 to hold their services and went to work. They 
 
Yorky SunderlcDid, and Newcasile, 243 
 
 remained there for a month, and two hundred 
 people were converted — the first fruits of their 
 toil in Britain. 
 
 From York they went to Sunderland, on the 
 invitation of a Baptist minister, the Rev. Arthur 
 Rees. The other ministers of the city generally 
 hesitated or opposed the work at its beginning 
 there. At length they were invited by a com- 
 mittee of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion to conduct a meeting in Victoria Hall. The 
 work in Sunderland was greater than that at 
 York, but it was not satisfactory to Moody, and 
 from there they proceeded to Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne, by invitation of the ministers who came 
 over to see the work at Sunderland. They were 
 cordially received by both the preachers and 
 the people of Newcastle, and at the outset of the 
 work Moody said: "Vv^e have not done much in 
 York and Sunderland, because the ministers op- 
 posed us; but we are going to stay in Newcastle 
 until w^e make an impression and live down the 
 prejudices of good people who do not understand 
 us." And they did. 
 
 They began in Newcastle at the Rye Hill Bap- 
 tist Church, but after three weeks the crowds 
 were larger than the building could contain, and 
 services were then begun in Music Hall also; 
 
244 Stockton-on-Tees and Carlisle. 
 
 Moody and Harry Moorhouse, a converted prize- 
 fighter, of Manchester, England, preaching, and 
 Sankey singing the ^'wonderful words of life." 
 Multitudes were converted and all the Churches 
 revived. Thence they went, in the early part of 
 November, to Stockton-on-Tees, and from there 
 they proceeded to the border town of Carlisle. At 
 that point, where Englishmen and Scotchmen 
 used to meet in deadly feuds, great victories for 
 the Prince of Peace were won by them. The 
 days of discouragement now gave place to con- 
 tinuous triumphs, as the fame of their meetings 
 spread on all sides. 
 
 Reports of the work reached Edinburgh, and 
 Rev. Mr. Kelman went twice from there to 
 Newcastle to see if the reports were true. He 
 saw the meetings, and, like the good Barnabas 
 when he "had seen the grace of God" at Anti- 
 och (Acts xi. 23), "was glad." The story that 
 Mr. Kelman told when he returned induced 
 ministers and laymen to unite in a petition to 
 the evangelists to come to Edinburgh. The in- 
 vitation thus extended was accepted, and they 
 began to work there in Music Hall on Novem- 
 ber 23, 1873. They met with success at the 
 outset, two thousand people attending the first 
 service, and other thousands going away because 
 
In Edinburgh, 245 
 
 there was not room for them in the hall. A 
 meeting for students was also appointed in the 
 Free Assembly Hall. That overflowed, and 
 Mr. Moody went out and addressed a multitude 
 in the open air, and then returned and spoke to 
 two thousand within, the most eminent pro- 
 fessors of the university sitting around him on 
 the platform. Special services for the poorest 
 and most abject classes were held. The daily 
 prayer meetings at noon were attended by more 
 than a thousand people every day for weeks to- 
 gether. Gathered around the pulpit at the 
 evening hour were ministers of all denomina- 
 tions and from all parts of the country, while 
 in the audience were persons of the nobility, 
 professors from the university, distinguished 
 lawyers, and members of Parliament. Meet- 
 ings were held in Broughton Place Church, Tol- 
 booth Church, the Established Church Assembly 
 Hall, the Free High Church, the Corn Exchange, 
 Free St. George's Church, and at many other 
 places in the city. On Sunday Moody spoke 
 seven times, and it was estimated that not less 
 than fifteen thousand people heard the gospel 
 from his lips that day. He addressed special 
 discourses to the students of Edinburgh Univer- 
 sity and the New College. 
 
246 At Berwick, Dundee, and Glasgow. 
 
 The evangelists remained in Edinburgh near- 
 ly two months, and during that time they won 
 over fifteen hundred souls to Christ and his 
 Church. 
 
 Then they visited Berwick-on-Tweed, and 
 then spent a few days in Dundee, where every 
 evening for a week ten thousand to sixteen thou- 
 sand persons assembled in the open air (though 
 it was midwinter) to hear the gospel of salva- 
 tion. 
 
 February 8, 1874, they opened their evangel- 
 istic campaign in Glasgow, where at '9 o'clock 
 Mr. Moody addressed three thousand Sunday 
 school teachers and other Christian workers, as- 
 sembled in the City Hall. As the meetings con- 
 tinued the crowds became so great that it was 
 necessary to hold separate services for men and 
 women, and even then no building could be 
 found in the city large enough to hold the di- 
 vided congregations. Again and again as many 
 as one thousand inquirers remained after the 
 sermon, desiring personal instruction in the way 
 of life. The Crystal Palace, the largest assem- 
 bly hall in Scotland, was eventually opened for 
 the services, and it too was found insufficient 
 to accommodate the multitudes. Whereupon 
 Moody left San key and several ministers to con- 
 
Finish the Campaign in Scotland. 247 
 
 duct the service inside the Palace, while he went 
 outside and addressed the crowd, that filled the 
 whole space between the Palace and the Bo- 
 tanic Gardens. The throng within and with- 
 out, it was estimated, exceeded twenty thou- 
 sand. After three months of toil and victory, 
 the evangelists turned their faces northward, 
 and, after revisiting Edinburgh and Dundee 
 for a few days, they proceeded to Elgin, Aber- 
 deen, and Craig Castle. At these points 
 scenes of the same triumphant sort were re- 
 enacted. 
 
 They spent six months laboring at all these 
 centers in Scotland — centers at which mighty re- 
 vivals had been witnessed during the eighteenth 
 century, and under the ministry of the Haldanes 
 in 1800— and then they went to Ireland, and be- 
 gan work in Belfast September 6, 1874. The 
 meetings had a good commencement, and from 
 the first the churches were so crowded that the 
 expedient was adopted of dividing the services 
 between the men and the women, the services 
 for the latter being held at 2 o'clock, and for 
 the former at 8 o'clock. The largest churches 
 were filled at these divided meetings, with con- 
 gregations varying from fifteen hundred to two 
 thousand. Open-air meetings were held, attend- 
 
248 In Catholic Ireland. 
 
 ed by numbers variously reckoned at from ten 
 thousand to twenty thousand people, the greatest 
 meeting being held in the Botanic Gardens on 
 October 8. Then they went to Derry for five 
 days, after which they returned to Belfast for a 
 final meeting before passing on to Dublin. The 
 number of those converted at Belfast was esti- 
 mated at more than three thousand, and the 
 meeting lasted only about five weeks. 
 
 They spent the month, from October 26 to 
 November 29, in Dublin. The meetings were 
 held in the Exhibition Palace, said to hold ten 
 thousand people, and every night it was filled. 
 Multitudes came from all over the island. The 
 whole city was moved, even the Roman Catholics 
 treating with the utmost respect the great work. 
 The newspaper called the Nation, an organ of 
 the Nationalists and the Romanists, said in an 
 editorial : ' ' The deadly danger of the age comes 
 upon us from the direction of Huxley and Dar- 
 w^in and Tyndall rather than from Moody and 
 Sankey. Irish Catholics desire to see Protes- 
 tants imbued with religious feeling rather than 
 tinged with rationalism and infidelit}^; and as 
 long as the religious services of our Protestant 
 neighbors are honestly directed to quickening 
 religious thought in their own bod}^, without of- 
 
At Manchester, England, 249 
 
 fering aggressive or intentional insult to us, it 
 is our duty to pay the homage of our respect to 
 their conscientious convictions; in a word, to do 
 as we would be done by." 
 
 In Catholic Da])lin, w^here there were only 
 about forty thousand Protestants (about one- 
 sixth of the total population), there were in 
 these meetings, which lasted no longer than one 
 month and three days, over two thousand con- 
 versions. 
 
 From Dublin they went to Manchester, En- 
 gland. They were now no longer the unknown 
 Americans who received at first so poor a hear- 
 ing in Liverpool and York, but "brethren be- 
 loved and longed for" by thousands who had 
 not yet seen their faces in the flesh, but who 
 had heard of the wonderful works of divine 
 grace wrought in them and through them dur- 
 ing the meetings in Scotland and Ireland. The 
 services began in the Free Trade Hall, and the 
 capacious building was densely crowded with 
 people from the first. Long before the hour 
 appointed hundreds found it impossible to get 
 so much as standing room within the hall. As 
 the good work proceeded, services were held in 
 Oxford Hall and Cavendish Chapel, which were 
 also too small for the numbers who sought to 
 
250 At Sheffield 
 
 enter them. The meetings continued nearly a 
 month, closing in the last days of the year 1874. 
 While the work was in progress every house in 
 [Manchester was visited and the invitation of 
 the gospel extended to all the people. 
 
 One of the results accomplished was the rais- 
 ing of ^150,000 for the purchase of a building 
 in Peter Street for the Young [Men's Christian ^ 
 Association. At a meeting held in furtherance 
 of this object Herbert Spencer presided, and, 
 after an inspiring address by Mr. [Moody, S9,000 
 was raised, the chairman of the meeting con- 
 tributing several thousands of the amount. 
 
 On the last day of the year 1874 the evangel- 
 ists made their appearance in Sheffield, England's 
 gi-eat iron and steel center, with its quarter of a 
 million inhabitants. The first meeting was held 
 in Temperance Hall, and there the work opened 
 most auspiciously. Subsequently Albert Hall 
 was called into use, and the recent victory of 
 [Manchester was repeated in the added triumph of 
 Sheffield. [Ministers of the Established Church 
 and those of the Free Churches sat together on 
 the same platform, followed each other in prayer, 
 and" united in the most harmonious support of 
 the great evangelical movement on behalf of the 
 salvation of all the people. 
 
At Binnuujham. 251 
 
 From there they went to Birmino^ham, the 
 constituency of John Bright and "the toy shop 
 of the world." In this city of four hundred 
 thousand people they remained from January IT 
 to January 29, preaching during their stay of 
 twelve days to not less than one hundred and 
 fifty thousand, according to the calculation made 
 and published by the Birmingham Morning 
 Ne%08. People came from London, from all 
 the surrounding towns and country, and from 
 Scotland and Ireland, to attend a convention of 
 Christian workers held one day during the two 
 weeks. 
 
 And in this connection it should be remarked 
 that in all the meetings held in Great Britain, 
 as well as in the meetings held subsequently in 
 the United States, Mr. Moody gave particular 
 and careful attention to the instruction and 
 preparation of lay workers to carry on the work 
 of evangelization through all the Churches. 
 Unlike Wesley, he organized no Church; and 
 unlike Whitefield, he made careful provision 
 for the preservation of the fruits of his toil. 
 
 The meetings in Birmingham were carried on 
 at three places— Town Hall, Carres Lane Chap- 
 el, and Bingley Hall. The number of conver- 
 sions was estimated at about two thousand. 
 
252 Again in Liver pool. 
 
 They stayed exactly one month in Liverpool, 
 the next city visited, beginning there on Feb- 
 ruary 7, and continuing until March 7. Before 
 they came a building sufficiently large to seat 
 eight thousand persons had been erected, and 
 named "Victoria Hall." But even it was not 
 enough for the needs of the occasion, and New- 
 some's Circus and the concert room of St. 
 George's Hall were used for a number of serv- 
 ices. At a meeting in Newsome's Circus, at- 
 tended by seven thousand young men, the 
 speaker was Henry Drummond, thereafter a 
 lifelong friend of Moody and a man of great 
 value to the cause of Christ in Great Britain 
 and America. Participating in the work of 
 evangelizing Liverpool at this time was another 
 man of great usefulness to the Churches on both 
 sides of the water— W. H. M. Aitkin, of the 
 Anglican Church, who did much to introduce 
 evangelistic methods in the Churches of the 
 Establishment. He was at this time assisting 
 the vicar of St. John's Church in the conduct 
 of a meeting after the model of the Moody and 
 Sankey services in Victoria Hall. 
 
 When the American evangelists came first to 
 Liverpool, in 1873, it is not known if, through 
 their labors, a single conversion was made; now, 
 
Pass On to London. 253 
 
 two years later, the whole city was ablaze with 
 revival fires, and thousands were ])rought to 
 Christ. They had gone forth weeping, bearing 
 precious seed; and now returned with joy, bring- 
 ing their sheaves with them. 
 
 Before leaving Liverpool the corner stone of 
 the new building for the Young Men's Christian 
 Association was laid l)y Mr. Moody, and on it 
 was this inscription: "This memorial stone was 
 laid by D. L. Moody, of Chicago, 2d of March, 
 1875." He used a silver trowel presented to 
 him for the occasion. During his stay in the 
 city he was honored with every sort of attention 
 and Christian courtesy. 
 
 What had brought so quickly this distin- 
 guished consideration to the lay preacher from 
 Chicago? Nothing more than the simple 
 preaching of the gospel in such an earnest, fer- 
 vent way as to bring many souls to the Sav- 
 iour. That was all, but that was quite enough 
 to justify the honor accorded to him. 
 
 From March 9 to July 11, 1875, the evangel- 
 ists were in London, where during those four 
 months $150,000 was expended by generous 
 men and women on the work of the revival. 
 
 During the first month the meetings were 
 held in Agricultural Hall, the largest building in 
 
254 The Meetings in London, 
 
 North London. The audience at the first night's 
 service numbered twenty thousand, and the doors 
 had to be closed in the face of ,niany hundreds 
 for whom there was no room in the hall. As 
 the work advanced, meetings were held in every 
 section of the great metropolis — at Agricultural 
 Hall, Sanger's Amphitheater, Exeter Hall, Con- 
 ference Hall at Mildmay Park, St. Mary's Hall, 
 Bow-road Hall, the Royal Opera House in the 
 Haymarket, and Cam))erwell Hall in South 
 London. During the campaign of four months 
 there were held at these places two hundred and 
 eighty-five services attended l^y more than a 
 million and a half persons. A\\ classes w^ere 
 reached, from the highest to the lowest. Lord 
 Radstock, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and Dean 
 Stanley often occupied seats on the platform, 
 and the two former took active part in the serv- 
 ices. Among those who attended were a great 
 number of the nobility, including members of 
 the royal family, in the persons of the Duke 
 and Duchess of Teck, and the Princess of Wales, 
 now the Queen of England. It was said that 
 the Royal Opera House was secured for the use 
 of the evangelists through the effort of Lord 
 Dudley, and that he was encouraged to make 
 the effort ])y no less a personage than the Prince 
 
The Results in London. 256 
 
 of Wales, the iDresent reigning sovereign. 
 Mooclj and Sankey divided their time and la- 
 bors about equally between the East and West 
 Ends, and for the services at other points they 
 were assisted by William Taylor (afterwards a 
 Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church), Henry Varley, Major Cole, Henry 
 Drummond, W. PI. M. Aitkin, and others of less 
 note. 
 
 At the end of the last service the Earl of 
 Shaftesbury made a brief address concerning 
 "what had occurred during the past four 
 months," declaring that he "did so with the 
 deepest sense of gratitude to God that he had 
 raised up a man with such a message and to be 
 delivered in such a manner." He warmly tes- 
 tified to the wide extent and great depth of the 
 work. 
 
 It is certain that London and all the region 
 round about had not been so profoundly affected 
 in the nineteenth century, if ever. 
 
 Leaving London, where they had triumphed 
 so gloriously, the American evangelists departed 
 for Liverpool wdth their faces set toward their 
 own country. At Liverpool they held several 
 services in Victoria Hall before their departure 
 for America. In the course of these services 
 
256 Effects of the Worl- on England. 
 
 frequent and grateful allusion by various per- 
 sons of note were made to the great and blessed 
 results of tlieir evangelistic campaign, of two 
 years' duration, in the cities and towns of Great 
 Britain. From such testimonies of the kind as 
 have been preserved we may get an idea of the 
 extent and excellence of the work done by the 
 evanofelists. The Rev. W. H. M. Aitkin said: 
 "The blessing which God has been pleased to 
 shower upon his work in various parts of the 
 land had put them on vantage (ground, for they 
 occupied a better x^osition now than ever before 
 in this land. He did not believe that the Church 
 of God had e^er occupied a better position in 
 this land than it did at the present moment." 
 Dr. Stalker, of Edinburgh, said that "he felt 
 the last two years had been years of great 
 importance to the whole country, and would be 
 remembered for many years to come as great 
 years. One thing that had made them interest- 
 ing and memorable was that religion had been 
 made respected among the young men of the 
 country. Young men had been apt to look 
 down upon evangelical religion; but in the part 
 he came from they dare not do that now, be- 
 cause in all classes of the community the very 
 strongest of these young men had been won to 
 
Savinfj the Young Men. 257 
 
 Christ, and they were bearing themselves so in 
 the ordinary business of life that it was impos- 
 sible for those around them not to respect them. 
 . . . At the University of Edinburgh last 
 April there were only six or seven men who 
 won first class honors, and three of these were 
 conspicuous in this work. Only one man got 
 what was called a ' double first,' and that man he 
 had heard addressing these revival meetings. 
 That was the kind of revival of religion they 
 were having now; and he thanked God for it 
 with all his heart." Mr. Alexander Balfoiu* 
 spoke at the final service, saying among other 
 things: "I do not know that lam the proper 
 person, on behalf of this audience, to say good- 
 by to our dear friends, but I feel that there 
 must be some mouthpiece to express to them 
 our real sentiments. We thank them from the 
 bottom of our hearts for what they have done 
 here. Unless Mr. Moody had been a man like 
 a cannon ball for hardness of material, direct- 
 ness of aim, and persistence of purpose, he could 
 never have accomplished what he has done. 
 His wisdom has been conspicuous in discover- 
 ing this — that our young men in Liverpool and 
 elsewhere in this country have been greatly 
 neglected. He has been wise also in choosing 
 17 
 
258 Beturniug to America. 
 
 them to be, for the future, not merely the re- 
 cipients of God's grace but the distributers of 
 it. I do feel that he has been very wise in be- 
 stowing so much attention upon our young 
 men. Many know that Liverpool has been a 
 curse to thousands of young men. They have 
 come here and have been led into all kinds of 
 evil courses of life. How many broken hearts 
 are in this country because of the mischief done 
 to young men in Liverpool! On behalf of the 
 mothers and sisters of this country, I wish to 
 give Mr. Moody the most heartfelt expression 
 of thanks that it is in my power to convey; and 
 on behalf of thousands who shall be influenced 
 by the j^oung men in Liverpool, I wish to ex- 
 press to him a tribute of gratitude for what he 
 has done." 
 
 The meetings over, the evangelists went 
 aboard the Sjxtln^ which steamed away for 
 America, while thousands stood upon the shore 
 singing *'Safe in the arms of Jesus" and 
 ''Work, for the night is coming," as the vessel 
 passed out of sight, bearing away the lay 
 preacher and the gospel singer to their native 
 land, where other great victories were shortly 
 to be achieved. 
 
 Thus ended the meetings in Great Britain. 
 
Work Begun in Brooklyn. 259 
 
 When it is remembered that during the decade 
 from 1875-85 there came to the United States 
 4,061,278 immigrants, most of whom were from 
 the British Isles, the value of the Moody-San- 
 key meetings in those lands to the Great Re- 
 public will be appreciated. How many of Liv- 
 erpool's homeless young men came to America 
 during that decade, no man can state. Many 
 were prepared to come by the services of the 
 American preacher and singer. 
 
 When the evangelists reached America they 
 took a few weeks for rest, after which they be- 
 gan a meeting in Brooklyn. It was arranged 
 that the services should be held in the Rink on 
 Clermont Avenue and in Talmage's Tabernacle. 
 There they began October 24, 1875. They were 
 met by the w^armest interest from the outset, and 
 their phenomenal work in Great Britain height- 
 ened public expectation of similar results in the 
 United States. 
 
 The morning services were begun at half past 
 eight o'clock, but before six people began to 
 gather at the doors. At eight over five thou- 
 sand persons were seated in the building, and 
 three thousand or more had been turned away 
 for lack of standing room. In the afternoon 
 twelve thousand souo-ht and could not find 
 
260 In Philadelphia. 
 
 room in the building, and meetings were ap- 
 pointed in neighboring churches to accommo- 
 date them. And so for nearly a month the 
 evangelists saw reenacted in their own land the 
 marvelous scenes which they had witnessed in 
 the British Isles. Multitudes flocked to hear 
 them and thousands were converted. 
 
 From Brooklyn they proceeded to Philadel- 
 phia, where they began their labors November 
 21, 1875, in a freight depot on the corner of 
 Thirteenth and Market Streets, which had been 
 arranged as the central place of service. Seats 
 for twelve thousand people were provided — as 
 many as it was supposed the voice of the 
 preacher could reach. But the Depot Taberna- 
 cle soon proved inadequate, and meetings were 
 appointed for other places. Ministers of all 
 denominations united in the work, and people 
 of all classes attended the services, drawn not 
 only from within the limits of the city but from 
 all the region of country accessible to Philadel- 
 phia. The President of the United States, Gen- 
 eral Grant, came over from Washington with a 
 distinguished party to inspect the preparations 
 for the approaching Centennial Exposition, and 
 while in the city the entire party attended the 
 meeting and occupied seats upon the platform. 
 
Notable Laymen and Singers. 261 
 
 The President was deeply impressed by Sankey's 
 singing, and ^Ir. Blaine pronounced Mr. Moody 
 a most wonderful man. 
 
 In the meeting Mr. Moody had the assistance 
 of some notable laymen — William E. Dodge, of 
 New York; George H. Stuart, whom he had 
 known in connection with the work of the 
 Christian Commission; John Wanamaker; and 
 his friend Hon. John V. Farwell, of Chicago. 
 Sankey was helped in the music by W. C. 
 Fischer, a composer and singer conspicuous 
 among that large group of musicians who dur- 
 ing the latter half of the nineteenth century de- 
 veloped a new type of devotional and Sunday 
 school songs, among whom may be mentioned 
 also P. P. Bliss, W. B. Bradl^ury, Philip 
 Phillips, H. R. Palmer, A. B. Everett, Rigdon 
 M. Mcintosh, W. H. Doane, William J. Kirk- 
 patrick, and John R. Sweney. 
 
 The evangelists tarried in Philadelphia nine 
 weeks, addressing audiences larger than had 
 ever been gathered there since A\^hitefield 
 preached on Society Hill and the courthouse 
 stairs. The harvest of souls was very great, 
 especially among the unchurched classes. Mr, 
 Moody was dissatisfied with the results of the 
 meetings in Brooklyn because professing Chris- 
 
262 A Great Sum Collected 
 
 tians crowded the places of worship, to the ex- 
 clusion of the unconverted. In Philadelphia he 
 took particular care that this mistake should 
 not be repeated, and the results were "more 
 than satisfactory," "positively surprising," as 
 he said. Before the meetings closed it was not 
 uncommon for the people to begin coming to 
 the Depot Tabernacle as early as five o'clock in 
 the morning, and the most wretched and forlorn 
 classes were savingly reached. 
 
 During the continuance of the meetings Mr. 
 iMood}^ made an appeal for funds for the com- 
 pletion of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion building, then in course of erection, and 
 secured one hundred thousand dollars in a very 
 few minutes. But he asked nothing for himself 
 and his associate in the revival work. In con- 
 nection with his appeal for the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, he said that he desired it 
 to be distinctly understood that they were re- 
 ceiving no money from the committee who ar- 
 ranged for the meetings, and that they declined 
 to have any collections taken up in their meet- 
 ings. As to the photographs of himself and 
 Sankey that had been sold in the city, they had 
 no interest in them, and for eight years he had 
 refused to have any taken. It was true, he said, 
 
At Princeton. 2Gi5 
 
 that there was a royalty on the hymn books 
 used in the services, but the money from that 
 source was paid over to a committee consisting 
 of Mr. George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, Mr. 
 William E. Dodge, of New York, and Mr. J. 
 V. Farwell, of Chicago. He did not know what 
 had been realized from the sale of the books in 
 Philadelphia, but in order to satisfy any one 
 that no money had been made out of the meet- 
 ings the committee would give one thousand 
 dollars to the building fund for which he was 
 then making appeal. 
 
 From Philadelphia th^y went to Princeton on 
 the invitation of President McCosh, extended at 
 the request of the students of the university. 
 And so they came into the place sanctified by 
 the labors of Jonathan Edwards and the Ten- 
 nents more than a century before. Their stay 
 in Princeton was brief, but fruitful of great 
 good. The work there had been undertaken 
 during the week of prayer before they came, 
 and when they left Princeton fully one-fifth of 
 the five hundred students in the university at 
 that time had been converted and the entire 
 body of students was seriously impressed on 
 the subject of personal salvation. From that 
 influential center, as had been the case more 
 
264 In New York, 
 
 than a hundred years before in the days of the 
 Tennents, a gracious influence went out over all 
 the land as students wrote of the work to friends 
 and kindred at various points. 
 
 Afterwards they proceeded to New York, 
 where the old depot of the Harlem Railroad 
 had been made ready for their use, at a cost of 
 $10,000. It had been divided into two great 
 halls, one seating six thousand five hundred and 
 the other four thousand. A wide space between 
 the two halls had been inclosed for inquiry 
 rooms, and a convenient passageway had been 
 arranged between these rooms and the larger 
 halls. The place occupied a block, bounded by 
 Fourth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Twenty-Sixth 
 Street, and Twenty-Seventh Street. It was the 
 scene of Barnum's great pageant, and subse- 
 quently of Gilmore's famous concerts. In this 
 ''hippodrome" they continued preaching and 
 singing until April 19, 1876, assisted by such 
 notable men and ministers as Dr. John Hall, 
 Dr. Charles F. Deems, Dr. Armitage, Dr. Wil- 
 liam M. Taylor, and the venerable Dr. Plum- 
 mer, of South Carolina. The meetings were 
 attended by people of every class and descrip- 
 tion — mechanics, merchants, professional men, 
 clerks, bankers, and men of science and litera- 
 
Great lie suits at fJie MeiropoUs. 265 
 
 ture. Among those who came were such men 
 as Samuel J. Tildeu, Cyrus Field, Thurlow 
 Weed, and Dr. J. G. Holland, at that time the 
 editor of Scrihner's Magazine. 
 
 Special attention was paid to the young men 
 of the city and to the neglected classes not usual- 
 ly found in the churches. 
 
 The number of converts made was estimated 
 at live thousand, of whom, at the close of the 
 meeting, over two thousand had already been 
 received into the various Churches of the city. 
 How many were received in Churches away 
 from New York, of course, could not be ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 Large sums were raised during the meetings 
 for the Young Men's Christian Association and 
 for other enterprises designed to rescue the 
 young from sin and to save the outcast nuilti- 
 tudes from despair. The commercial metropo- 
 lis of the nation was never so moved religiously, 
 and from it saving influences went forth through- 
 out the land. 
 
 Six days after the close of the work in New 
 York Moody joined his friend Whittle, of Chi- 
 cago, in a short but effective meeting at Augus- 
 ta, Ga. He was as warmly received in the 
 South as he had been in the North, and as he 
 
26G In the South and Chicago. 
 
 returned northward addressed great audiences 
 at Nashville, Tenn., Louisville, Ky., St. Louis 
 and Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 Thence he returned to Chicago, where he was 
 the guest of his true and tried friend John V. 
 Farwell, who had helped him from the days of 
 his first humble efforts at city mission work to 
 the time when he was moving with wondrous 
 power the largest congregations in both the Old 
 and the New World. He at once set about re- 
 moving the indebtedness on his old church in 
 Chicago Avenue, which being done, he sought 
 for a time rest and recuperation for his over- 
 worked mind and body. 
 
 AVe have thus followed the gi-eat evangelists 
 through all their work and wandering on both 
 sides of the Atlantic for three years. When 
 they began they were scarcely known beyond 
 the limits of Chicago and the acquaintance of a 
 small circle of friends in the Eastern States and 
 a few men in England. At the end of their 
 three years' tour they had addressed millions of 
 people assembled in churches, halls, and the 
 open air, and their songs and sermons had been 
 carried on the wings of the press all over the 
 world. In newspapers and cheap volumes 
 Moody's sermons w^ere now I)eiDg sold every- 
 
The Work of Later Years. 267 
 
 where — on the streets, on the railwjiy trains, 
 at the news depots — and to all classes of read- 
 ers. Sankey had also by this time brought 
 to pass a style of religious music second only 
 to the hymns of the Wesleys for popular- 
 ity and power. While not so elevated in 
 thought nor so finished in form as the hymns 
 of the Wesleys, ''the gospel hymns" of "the 
 Moody and Sankey period " have an adaptation 
 to the 3^oung and to the untrained masses that 
 gives them a transient if not a permanent place 
 of great importance and value to the work of 
 the evangelical Churches of the English-speak- 
 ing world. 
 
 In subsequent years, at various times and 
 places, these two mighty men labored together, 
 notably in a second visit to England in 1882, 
 when they held large meetings at the universi- 
 ties of Oxford and Cambridge, with the hearty 
 cooperation of many officials and dignitaries of 
 the Church of England. The services were very 
 remarkable. ]\Iany students were very deeply 
 impressed, and a number of them, including 
 some of the highest standing, devoted them- 
 selves to evangelistic and missionary work. 
 
 Mr. Moody directed also the evangelistic cam- 
 paign which was carried on in Chicago during 
 
268 At the World's Fair in 1893, 
 
 the World's Fair, in the year 1893. His first 
 meeting in Philadelphia preceded the great Cen- 
 tennial Exposition of 1876, and now his last 
 evangelistic effort was bestowed on his beloved 
 Chicago when it was crowded with visitors from 
 every land and clime. His chief care in his 
 later years was the prosecution of his work of 
 evangelical education at his old home in North- 
 field, Mass. The Moody Bible Institute in Chi- 
 cago, in which Christian workers receive train- 
 ing for the kind of work to which Mr. Moody 
 gave his life, is also an admirable and appropri- 
 ate monument to his memory. 
 
 But for the purposes of this discussion it is 
 not necessary to give further details of the la- 
 bors of the great lay preacher and the charming 
 gospel singer. When they began their first 
 tour they found a considerable revival influence 
 gone abroad before them, so that they went 
 forth in response to invitations extended by 
 men whose hearts were already aflame with 
 zeal. They had also the advantage of the most 
 careful and costly preparations made for their 
 coming to the great cities of the United King- 
 dom and America. They were welcomed and 
 assisted by the most influential classes on both 
 sides of the sea, as neither the Wesleys nor 
 
Providential Men for a Revival Era. 269 
 
 Whitefield nor any others of those who pre- 
 ceded had ever been. Herein is seen conclusive 
 proof of the permanent effect of the revivals of 
 former times despite all declensions and back- 
 slidin^s, and striking evidence of the hopeful 
 religious conditions that were already existing 
 when the American evangelists started on their 
 long campaign. The English-speaking world, 
 still affected by the revival of 1858, was on 
 the point of taking fire, and they were the prov- 
 idential men who struck the spark that started 
 the blaze which waited only the touch of such 
 hands to flame forth. They precipitated the re- 
 vival, and then carried it to so great a height 
 that eventually they were in the midst of a gen- 
 eral movement of such elevation that their pre- 
 eminence was scarcely perceptible above the 
 common level of contemporaneous labors and 
 laborers. A national revival would doubtless 
 have come without their efforts, but it is equal- 
 ly certain that without their coming it would 
 have been a far smaller and a very different 
 movement. 
 
 There were certain characteristics of their 
 work which imparted to all the evangelical 
 movements of the time new vigor, and by which 
 the religious life and social problems of America 
 
270 Intensely Biblical. 
 
 have been influenced so widely and so benignly 
 that we will do well to consider them. 
 
 Mr. ]Moody demonstrated the power of the 
 Bible over all classes when used by a man who 
 really believes it. He made by his own meth- 
 ods a careful study of the Holy Scriptures, and 
 in his preaching he was most emphatically ''a 
 man of one book." Whether addressing the 
 outcasts of London or New York, or the nobil- 
 ity and men of high estate; whether speaking to 
 the unlettered masses or the university com- 
 munities of Princeton, Edinburgh, and Oxford; 
 whether seeldng to comfort a penitent soul or 
 convince a skeptical scorner — he relied upon the 
 Bible for his arguments and his appeal, and he 
 won all classes. Dr. J. G. Holland said tersely 
 in an editorial in Scrilmcr^s Ilagazine: "Mr. 
 Tyndall and Mr. Huxley and Mr. Herbert Spen- 
 cer were not very much in men's minds while 
 Mr. Moody was around. One thing was very 
 certain — viz. , the people wanted something that 
 Mr. Moody had to bestow, and they ' went for 
 it.'" The something which the people wanted 
 and went for was the AVord of God, unmixed 
 with any philosophic theorizing or scientific di- 
 lutions, and preached without apology or mis- 
 giving, but with the authority of confident be- 
 
Not a Liberal, 271 
 
 lief. Like all the great revivalists, from Lu- 
 ther to the present time, Moody was intensely 
 biblical. 
 
 While preaching in an untechnical manner, 
 he was nevertheless a doctrinal preacher, and 
 his doctrines were those of the orthodox 
 Churches. He was not a liberal, nor did he 
 boast of "a progressive orthodoxy." Liberal- 
 ism has never produced a revival of religion, 
 nor does it promise to do so at any early day. 
 With the single exception of his views as to the 
 millennium, the teachings of Mr Moody were in 
 line with the essential tenets of all the evangel- 
 ical Churches. Ho never professed to bring to 
 the attention of his hearers so much even as a 
 rediscovered truth; he realized that Edwards, 
 Whitefield, the Tennents, and the Wesleys had 
 completed all that was required in that di- 
 rection. He preached not " advanced thought" 
 but the authoritative truths of an ancient reve- 
 lation. His position was clearly set forth in a 
 passage in one of his sermons, at Philadelphia, 
 in which he said: "I have been asked, 'What is 
 the use of these special meetings? Ai'e there 
 not churches enough ? Are there not ministers 
 enough and services enough and sermons 
 enough ? ' Yes, if sermons alone could save sin- 
 
272 Sensible, PlouSy and without Greed, 
 
 ners, there have been enough preached to con- 
 vert the whole of Christendom. We have only 
 come to help you. In the time of harvest extra 
 help is always needed, and, my friends, the har- 
 vest is here now." He had no mind to impeach 
 the fidelity of the faithful sowers who had in 
 tears gone forth bearing the precious seed; but 
 he wished to aid them as they came with re- 
 joicing, bringing their sheaves with them. He 
 was the farthest possible removed from that 
 style of "evangelism," so called, which goes 
 through the land pouring forth from the depths 
 of acidulated conceit all sorts of abusive accusa- 
 tions against the Churches and all manner of 
 unsupported indictments of the ministry. He 
 was a man of both common sense and piety. 
 
 Kot living upon an income derived from his 
 meetings (and greater or less according to the 
 apparent success that attended his efforts), he 
 was never tempted to lower the standard of reli- 
 gion to win the semblance of triumph, to cor- 
 rupt doctrine to obtain popular favor and funds, 
 nor to berate the Churches to secure the smiles 
 and remuneration of a cynical, vindictive, and 
 godless world, which stands ever ready to re- 
 ward a man who will denounce the Church of 
 God, against which it bears grudges of long 
 
Beaching the Masses, 273 
 
 standing because of the Church's faithful re- 
 buke of unrighteousness and iniquity. Bad 
 men will bless and pay any misguided preacher 
 who will help them to prove that the Church is 
 a band of hypocrites, but such men could not 
 engage Moody to prosecute this libelous indict- 
 ment. He laid no traps for their approval or 
 their purses. In short, he had none of the arts 
 of the demagogue, for he was neither greedy 
 of gain nor covetous of applause. 
 
 Moody answered the of t-repeated question how 
 to reach the masses by his crisp saying, "Go 
 for them." He reached the masses by going in 
 reach of them. He had ample precedents in 
 the methods of Jesus and the apostles, as well as 
 in those of Wesley, Whitefield, and Finney. He 
 applied the underlying principle of those prece- 
 dents to the particular conditions that confront- 
 ed him, and brought into prominence the halls 
 and tabernacles into which it is easier to as- 
 semble the unchurched masses of the great 
 cities than in the more stately and formal places 
 of worship. In this he has been followed by 
 such men as Hugh Price Hughes, Peter Thomp- 
 son, and many others on both sides of the At- 
 lantic. The method has been taken up by the 
 British Wesleyans and pushed to great success 
 18 
 
274 The Gospel of the Hall and the Street. 
 
 in large evangelistic establishments located in 
 the heart of London and elsewhere. In these 
 great, warm centers of vigorous evangelism 
 they have put their strongest men, and backed 
 those strong men with financial support running 
 into the millions. We owe, however, the de- 
 velopment of this method at the outset to 
 Moody more than to any other one man. And 
 with the growth of urban populations (a con- 
 spicuous feature of the present time) the evan- 
 gelical Churches will have to make full proof of 
 the ministry of the hall as well as of the gospel 
 of the open air. 
 
 Incidentally to the ministry of Moody and 
 Sankey, and growing out of it, were several 
 marked and timely effects on the welfare of the 
 Great Republic. 
 
 The influence of their sermons and songs, 
 which breathed a spirit of unearthly tenderness 
 and love, helped to heal the wounded spirits 
 all over the country after the Civil War, when 
 so many homes were bereaved. "What a 
 Friend Ave have in Jesus!" went ringing over 
 the land on the wings of every wind, and the 
 friendless and forsaken took heart again, and 
 the discouraged and despairing were cheered to 
 renewed zeal and hope. 
 
Healing Wounds and Sooth in<j Irritations. 275 
 
 In their meetings the poor and neglected 
 came in brotherly contact with the best among 
 the rich and successful classes, and thereby con- 
 fidence was inspired in the souls of the unfortu- 
 nate and compassion in the hearts of the opu- 
 lent, to the advantage of all parties. Their 
 work, therefore, not only tended to heal the 
 wounds of the war that Wi^s passed, but it did 
 also tend to avert and forestall the perilous con- 
 flict of the irritable industrialism of the days 
 that were to come. If in our country perfect 
 success has not been realized in this direction, 
 the partial failure is easily explained by the 
 fact that disturbances between labor and capital 
 have been most frequent in those industries in 
 which the laborers have been brought from the 
 unevangelized masses of Continental Europe, 
 and the capital has been supplied by men who. 
 f eared not God nor regarded man. There is peace 
 where evangelical Christianity prevails, and this 
 peace would extend to all classes and districts if 
 the Churches had sufliciently practiced in broth- 
 erly zeal Moody's maxim, ^'Go for them," which 
 is but the rough, Western translation of the 
 words of Jesus: "Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel to every creature." It is the 
 gospel for all lands and all times, but especial- 
 
276 No Paganism in Pulpit or Choir, 
 
 \y for an age of industrialism. It is another 
 form of John Wesley's enthusiastic declara- 
 tion, "The world is my parish," and it is the 
 antithesis of that effeminate, timid, and exclu- 
 sive Christianity that selfishly dreams that its 
 parish is the whole world. The gospel of Moody 
 and Sankey was the exemplification of the say- 
 ing of the Scripture: "The rich and the poor 
 meet together: the Lord is the maker of them 
 all." Their sermons and their songs were as 
 popular and democratic as .the gospel from 
 which they arose. No paganism, in pulpit or 
 choir, ever found for one moment a place in 
 their methods and plans. They had advanced 
 too far away from modish and maimed Chris- 
 tianity, too far from Buddhism and from all 
 other systems of caste and priestcraft, too far 
 from both foreign and domestic paganism, for 
 that sort of trifling when the people came to- 
 gether to worship God, and not to have them- 
 selves played on by an aesthetic combination of 
 declamation and Sunday opera, more or less re- 
 ligious in its nature. And the common people, 
 who always know the difference between a real 
 preacher and a mere performer, heard them 
 gladly. What they accomplished in the way 
 of soothing the irritations of the social sys- 
 
Unifying the Anglo-Saxon Nations, 277 
 
 tern, and of postponing if not preventing the 
 worst industrial disorder, can scarcely be over- 
 estimated. 
 
 Like Whitefield, Finney, and Nettle ton, who 
 came before him, and like not a few who have 
 come after him, Mr. Moody did much to bind to- 
 gether in the holiest and most potent bonds of 
 sympathy the people of the United Kingdom 
 and those of the Great Republic. And the songs 
 of Charles Wesley and Ira Sankey are the hymns 
 of evangelical Christendom. This unifying of 
 the English-speaking race had more than a sen- 
 timental value in the Spanish-American War, 
 and it is not improbable that it will have a still 
 more conspicuous place among the instrumen- 
 talities of Providence for the redemption of the 
 nations in the years at hand. 
 
 This treatment of "The Revival in the Days of 
 Moody and Sankey '*' would be incomplete if no 
 mention were made of those national and inter- 
 national conferences and councils which have 
 become so common in the English-speaking 
 world during the last fifty years, which have 
 done so much to unify the Anglo-Saxon peoples. 
 Besides the Evangelical Alliance (previously 
 mentioned), at whose bidding the evangelical 
 Churches of Christendom annually unite in a 
 
278 National Unifij, International Federation. 
 
 "week of prayer,-' there are many others of 
 scarcely less prominence and usefulness. There 
 is the Young Men's Christian Association, with 
 its national and international assemblies and 
 world-wide efforts and enterprises. There is 
 also that other undenominational organization, 
 the International Sunday School Association, 
 from which is derived the uniform system of 
 Scripture lessons in which the evangelical 
 Churches of the w^orld unite in weekly study. 
 And then there are the several denominational 
 organizations, such as the Ecumenical Confer- 
 ence of the Methodists, the Pan- Anglican Coun- 
 cil, and the Pan-Presbyterian Assembly, to- 
 gether with the meetings of the various socie- 
 ties of the young people of the Churches — all of 
 which must tell for national unity and interna- 
 tional federation. And, over and above all the 
 rest, must be mentioned the Ecumenical Con- 
 ference of Foreign Missions, of 1900, which 
 was composed of delegates from all the Churches 
 and societies engaged in such work throughout 
 the earth; was presided over by ex-President 
 Benjamin H. Harrison, a. devout Presbyterian; 
 was welcomed to the city and State of New 
 York by Governor Theodore Roosevelt, a stren- 
 uous member of the Dutch Reformed Church; 
 
A Striking Confnist. 279 
 
 and was greeted on behalf of the nation ])y Pres- 
 ident William McKinley, a fervent Methodist. 
 This assembly was in session in the city of New 
 York from April 21 to May 1, 1900— at the out- 
 set of the twentieth century— to concert plans 
 for the ev^angelization of the world. 
 
 How changed the conditions in our country 
 since the opening of the year 1800, when infi- 
 delity in the East and barbarism in the West 
 threatened the life of religion and menaced the 
 stability of the government! At the opening 
 of the nineteenth century the followers of Vol- 
 taire gleefully supposed that the prediction of 
 that high priest of doubt and prophet of de- 
 spair, to the effect that in the next generation 
 Christianity would be overthrown throughout 
 the civilized world, was about to be fulfilled. 
 Thomas Jefferson, the liberal, was the idol of 
 the masses, and the Church of McKinley, the 
 Methodist, had scarcely a foothold in the land. 
 Aaron Burr was honored with high political 
 station, and his cousin, the devout Timothy 
 D wight, was supposed to represent an expiring 
 minority of credulous saints. But now, at the 
 opening of the twentieth century, this conven- 
 tion of world-wide representation and world- 
 encompassing enthusiasm sat down in the me- 
 
280 Bevivcds in the Front Bank, 
 
 tropolis of the Western World to confer with 
 reference to the establishment of Christ's king- 
 dom in all * '"^ ^arth; and a Methodist President 
 bade them welcome to the shores of the most 
 evangelical nation on the planet, while a Pres- 
 byterian moderator kept the body in order as 
 its fervent proceedings went on. The names of 
 some of the greatest men of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race were enrolled among its members, and the 
 spirit which breathed in every breast was that 
 of a brotherhood of faith undisturbed by na- 
 tional jealousies or sectarian ambitions. They 
 represented the highest thought and the noblest 
 aspirations of the English-speaking nations, and 
 all felt at home under the protection of the best 
 government in the world. 
 
 What had brought the Great Republic to such 
 a position of peace and power over a century- 
 long journey beset with such fearful perils and 
 grievous trials ? Whatever else may have con- 
 tributed to the safeguarding forces which helped 
 to bring it triumphantly over the dangerous 
 way, revivals of religion must be placed in the 
 front rank. They magnified its securities, 
 strengthened its defenses, and averted its per- 
 ils. 
 
IX. 
 EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY THE SE- 
 CURITY OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC 
 AND THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 
 
The hope of the Church is in revivals of religion — 
 continueu. powerful, general revivals. — D7\ Koah Por- 
 ter. 
 
 This New Wo^-kl is probably now discovered, that 
 the new and most glorious state of God's Church on 
 earth might commence there; that God might in it be- 
 gin a new world in a spiritual respect, when he creates 
 the new heavens and the new earth. — From the "■Narra- 
 tive of the Great Awakening,"' by Jonathan Edivards. 
 
 Tliere never lias been good done in the world except- 
 ing by the faithful preaching of evangelical truth. From 
 the days of the apostles down to this time, there have 
 been no victories won, no spiritual successes obtained, 
 except by the doctrines which wrought deliverance a 
 hundred j^ears ago. Where are the conquests of Xeolo- 
 gianism and Tractarianism over heathenism, irreligion, 
 immorality? Where are the nations the}" have Chris- 
 tianized, the parishes the}' have evangelized, the towns 
 they have turned from darkness to light? You may 
 well ask, Where? You will get no answer. The good 
 that has been done in the world, however small, has 
 always been done by evangelical doctrines; and if men 
 who are not called "evangelical"' have had successes, 
 they have had them by using evangelical weapons. — J. 
 C. Ryle, D.D., Lord Bishojo of Liverpool. 
 
 y I make no doubt that Methodism, notwithstanding 
 all the wiles of Satan, is designed by Divine Providence 
 to introduce the approaching millennium. — Vincent Per- 
 ronet, Vicar of Shoreham. 
 (282) 
 
IX. 
 
 EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY THE SECURITY 
 
 OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC AND THE 
 
 HOPE OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The welfare of the Great Republic and the 
 religious condition of the world in the future 
 are so intimately related that what secures the 
 one vitally affects the other. In this age no na- 
 tion liveth unto itself, and no nation can die 
 alone — least of all the United States. All are 
 members one of another, and national isolation 
 is no longer possible. 
 
 Moreover, moral forces are always aggressive. 
 They are intolerant of opposition, and by their 
 very nature aspire to universal dominion. Hence 
 a religion which is content to be the faith of a 
 part only of the world confesses thereby its un- 
 fitness for the acceptance of any portion of 
 mankind, and is a doomed and dying system. 
 Wherefore as the nations, through the virtual 
 annulling of the effects of time and space by 
 the swift processes of modern communication, 
 come closer and closer together, the earth must 
 inevitably become more uniform in religion and 
 moral government. A generation ago one of 
 
 (283) 
 
284 Religious Bases of English-speaking Nations. 
 
 the gi'eat statesmen of America declared that 
 it was impossible for the United States to con- 
 tinue long with a part of them slaveholding 
 States and part of them free-soil States. His- 
 tory has vindicated the soundness of his judg- 
 ment. The ends of the earth are closer together 
 at the present hour than were the extremities of 
 our country in 1860, and the world must soon 
 be all Christian or all antichristian. Skepti- 
 cism and superstition must reign everywhere, or 
 the truth as it is in Jesus must be the religion 
 of the race of man. 
 
 "We have seen in a former chapter that civil 
 governments rest on religious bases, and that 
 they cannot rise higher nor remain longer than 
 the nature of their foundations allows. We have 
 seen also that the United States are a nation 
 founded by faith and sustained and developed 
 through the instrumentality of a series of na- 
 tional revivals of the faith of the founders, ex- 
 tending o^'er a period of more than one hundred 
 years. While thus blessed by these gi*eat re- 
 vivals, the nation has come to its present posi- 
 tion of prosperity and power. Advancing with 
 it, and by the inspiration of the same faith and 
 like revivals, the British nation has also risen 
 to international leadership. 
 
The Visions of Edwards and Perronet. 285 
 
 Can this nation, thus born and nourished by 
 faith, renounce now the source of its greatness 
 without losing its freedom and rushing to ruin ? 
 Can it fall without pulling down the govern- 
 ments of the English-speaking world and dis- 
 couraging the hope of constitutional liberty in 
 all lands ? Can it and its kindred Anglo-Saxon 
 peoples perish without extinguishing the light 
 by which all the nations are being led into the 
 perfect day, and ushering in the darkest age 
 our benighted planet has ever known ? 
 
 In his "Narrative" of the great awakening 
 Jonathan Edwards devoted one entire section 
 to the consideration of " the reasons for believ- 
 ing that the great work of God for the world's 
 conversion may begin in America." Like the 
 Hebrew prophets were wont to do, he found in 
 the spiritual force that was upon him and with- 
 in him the promise of world-wide glory. In 
 the same buoyant hopefulness spoke Vincent 
 Perronet, the devout Vicar of Shoreham, when 
 at a little later time he said of the contempora- 
 neous Wesleyan revival in England: "I make 
 no doubt that Methodism, notwithstanding all 
 the wiles of Satan, is designed by Divine Prov- 
 idence to introduce the approaching millen- 
 
286 The Hope of Mankind. 
 
 If the vision of Edwards is extended to in- 
 clude the English-speaking world, and that of 
 Perronet is widened to include all of the evan- 
 gelical or revivalistic Churches, the circles of 
 their faith and hope will be found exactly coin- 
 cident, and the circumference of their common 
 expectation will not include anything unreason- 
 able. 
 
 Perhaps, after all, neither was very wide of 
 the mark. The hope of mankind is in the keep- 
 ing of the Anglo-Saxon nations, led by the 
 United States; and evangelical Christianity, 
 with Methodism in the forefront, is the hope of 
 these nations. If these nations should perish, 
 and the evangelistic type of religion which they 
 hold should fail, the chill which would fall on 
 the race of man would be mortal. And they 
 cannot reasonably hope to endure merely be- 
 cause they are at present powerful. Before 
 them have been powerful nations which have 
 utterly ^mssed away, and they too may be over- 
 thrown by the same destructive influences which' 
 have overcome others. 
 
 The perils of nations are not without but 
 within themselves, and they are always moral 
 perils. No nation was ever destroyed by the 
 murderous attacks of its enemies; all that have 
 
Evangelical Christianity Perfect Defense, 287 
 
 gone down fell as suicides die^))y their OAvn 
 hands. 
 
 There is no real danger threatening the An- 
 glo-Saxon nations to-day that is not a moral 
 danger and a domestic danger. There is not a 
 peril besetting them against which evangelical 
 Christianity does not offer a perfect defense; 
 and this is especially true of the Great Re- 
 public. 
 
 Is the republic threatened by selfish wealth 
 and angry want, living near as neighbors while 
 fierce as foes? Did not the Wesleyan revival 
 meet and master similar conditions in England ? 
 What said the Hon. Carroll D. Wright very re- 
 cently upon this subject? In a signed article 
 on John Wesley, contributed to the Northiuest- 
 ern Christian Advocate^ of Chicago, he said: 
 '''A body W'ithout spirit is dead matter, and this 
 is quite true when we consider mechanical pow- 
 ers. There must be intellectual forces involved; 
 and, further, there must be the comprehension 
 of the spiritual forces of industry in order to 
 bring them to their fruitage. It is in this that 
 the influence of John Wesley in social and in- 
 dustrial matters, as well as in the religious life 
 of the world, has been felt; and herein he was a 
 power greater than industry, greater than the 
 
288 Miners and "a Democratic Church^ 
 
 new mechanical contrivances, greater than the 
 industrial pride and ambition of England." In 
 the same issue of the paper mentioned Mr. 
 Threlfell, Secretary of the Labor Association 
 of England, testifies to the persistence of the 
 saving and soothing influence of the Wesley an 
 revival to this day among the miners of Great 
 Britain. He says: "Methodism has undoubt- 
 edly played a very important part in organi- 
 zing miners. No one can read the detailed his- 
 tory of the great strikes in the mining world 
 without observing how many of the leaders are 
 connected with some branch of the Methodist 
 Church. . . . Methodism has become the 
 dominant faith of the miners. Such affinity of 
 the vanguard of labor for this particular Church 
 is not only eloquent for the past, but is signifi- 
 cant for the future. It is not based on local 
 peculiarities, upon conditions of employment, 
 upon tradition or material surroundings, but 
 springs from the fact that Methodism has most 
 nearly approached the miner's conception of a 
 democratic Church. Its spiritual zeal aroused 
 him. Its democratic instincts were in keeping 
 with his political aspirations, and its organizing 
 ability educated him in the principles of unity. 
 . . . Can there be any more striking tribute 
 
''Converting the Soul" 289 
 
 to the influence of Methodism upon the mining 
 community than the fact that five mining mem- 
 bers in the present House of Commons have all 
 been trained in the Methodist Church, four be- 
 ing local preachers? In the Parliament of 1858 
 there were six." 
 
 Principal A. M. Fairbairn, in his carefully 
 considered volume entitled ' ' Religion in Histo- 
 ry and Modern Life," bears similar testimony 
 in these words: "Methodism, in its several 
 branches, has done more for the conversion and 
 reconciliation of certain of the industrial classes 
 to religion than any other English Church. It 
 is but just to say that the enfranchisement of 
 our mining and agricultural populations made 
 this evident — that their regulative ideas were 
 religious rather than utilitarian and - secular. 
 The politician finds, when he addresses the peas- 
 antry, that he has to appeal to more distinctly 
 ethical and religious principles than when he 
 addresses the upper or middle classes. And we 
 may hope that even in a politician the princi- 
 ples he appeals to may ultimately afl'ect his pol- 
 icy. Meanwhile, we simply note that it is the 
 local preacher rather than the secularist lecturer 
 who has, while converting the soul, really formed 
 the mind of the miner and the laborer, and who 
 19 
 
290 A "Peculiarly Fortunate Bevival'^ 
 
 now so largely represents the ideas he seeks, in 
 his dim and inarticulate way, to see applied to 
 national policy and legislation." 
 
 If this combined testimony of a student of in- 
 dustrial statistics and conditions, a labor leader 
 and secretary of a labor organization, and a re- 
 ligious philosopher, be not sufficient, let us recur 
 to the words of the skeptical historian, Lecky, 
 who said that he conceived that it. was peculiarly 
 fortunate for England that the rise of indus- 
 trialism " should have been preceded by a reli- 
 gious revival which opened a new spring of 
 moral and religious energy among the poor, and 
 at the same time gave a powerful impulse to the 
 philanthropy of the rich." 
 
 The results thus attributed to the Wesleyan 
 revival in England in the eighteenth century 
 we have seen following also the revival in the 
 days of the Moody and Sankey meetings in 
 America in the nineteenth centuiy. Neither 
 time nor place forestalls the operation of the 
 fundamental principles of evangelical Christian- 
 ity. When they prevail they subdue the self- 
 ishness of wealth and the sensitiveness of pov- 
 erty, casting down the animosities of class 
 against class, and establishing the noblest broth- 
 erhood of souls. 
 
Revivals or Revolutions. 291 
 
 it is to be feared that neither capital nor labor 
 realizes its indebtedness to revivals in the past, 
 or comprehends how it must rely on evangelical 
 religion in the future. Nothing else can save 
 either. With both parties armed with imple- 
 ments of industrial warfare, practically irresist- 
 ible, they will destroy each other, unless selfish- 
 ness is exorcised from the hearts of both; and 
 this kind goeth not out but by the mighty 
 prayers and fastings of evangelical religion. 
 The dainty and impotent forms of ritualism or 
 the timid and equivocal utterances of rational- 
 ism are worse than useless in composing the 
 difficulties of these angered and able combatants. 
 They will dwell together as brothers as soon as 
 they really are brothers, and that will be when 
 they are born again. Great revivals, which 
 shall cause men to realize in the agonies of pen- 
 itence and the raptures of regenerating grace 
 the love of their Heavenly Father, will draw 
 them into the most affectionate relations of 
 brotherhood. This is the cure for congested 
 wealth and consuming poverty. This will ex- 
 tinguish the fires of socialism, as travelers es- 
 cape the perils of prairie fires by burning the 
 grass around their feet and standing on the 
 burned spot. This will establish a Christian 
 
292 The Peril of Immigration, 
 
 communism, which does not say, "We, shall 
 have all things equal by my taking from thee 
 what is thine;"" but which generously declares, 
 "We shall have all things equal by my giving 
 to thee what is mine." Against such socialism 
 there is no law, for love is the fulfilling of all 
 law. 
 
 But what, says some one, of the peril of im- 
 migration that threatens the Great Republic? 
 Well, the nation has been solving that problem 
 by revivals ever since the founding of the fii'st 
 <3olonies. That solution of the problem has be- 
 come the established method in America, and 
 there seems to be nothing better in sight. It 
 was entirely adequate in colonial times, and it 
 was found sufficient in the time of the great re- 
 vival of 1800. Mr. Moody found the same 
 prescription efficacious in the slums of Chicago, 
 and it worked well in the hands of Jerry Mc- 
 Auley on the Bowery and in the Water Street 
 Mission. Of course such a solution means noth- 
 ing to men who have no more than an academic 
 interest in the great problem presented by the 
 foreign settlements in the cities and the isolated 
 settler in -the far West. Ritualism and ration- 
 alism can do nothing for the foreigner in the 
 city; all that sort of influence has been tried on 
 
Tliat Gospel That Is Heard and Heeded. 293 
 
 him in the Old World to no purpose. And of 
 course the lonely frontiersman has no time for 
 such child's play. But the gospel of a dying 
 Saviour's love, spoken to either the foreigner in 
 the city or to the dweller of the plains, by lips 
 that quiver vrith the warm emotions of a broth- 
 erly heart, will be heard and heeded. This eK- 
 pedient was effective wherever applied to the 
 festering sores of the city life in the Roman 
 Empire and to the emigrant bands of the rest- 
 less first century of the Christian era, and it will 
 be potent for good in the remotest corners of 
 the great West and the darkest alleys of our 
 overcrowded cities in all the years to come. A 
 great revival saved the West in 1800: can a bet- 
 ter prescription be applied to it now ? A great 
 revival rescued the cities in 1858: can they be 
 otherwise redeemed yow? 
 
 But is there not a great menace in Romanism ? 
 Undoubtedly; but Romanism could not defeat 
 evangelical Christianity in the days of Martin 
 Luther in Germany and of Ridley and Latimer 
 in England, when the sword and the fagot were 
 in its hands, and when it wielded the civil power 
 for the extermination of the faithful. It sure- 
 ly cannot withstand evangelical religion in this 
 day and in this free land. It has no songs like 
 
294 " The Biggest Grace of Popery:' 
 
 those of Watts and AVesley and Sankey, with 
 which to cheer its benighted hosts. The spirit 
 of the age is against its incredible dogmas. Let 
 the Romanists come on to America; their com- 
 ing will save the trouble and expense of sending 
 the gospel to the lands where they live in pov- 
 erty, ignorance, and national decadence. We 
 can handle the hosts of Komanism better here 
 than in papal lands. Evangelical Christianity 
 has reached and saved millions of them already. 
 The total Romish population in the United 
 States does not equal the Roman Catholic im- 
 migrants who have come to our shores. It has 
 been truly said that "this country is the biggest 
 grave for i)opery ever dug on the earth." And 
 the evangelical Churches are preaching the gos- 
 pel of a spiritual Christianity in Roman Catho- 
 lic countries. There are more Methodists in the 
 city of Rome to-day, not to mention other evan- 
 gelical Christians there, than there were Chris- 
 tians in imperial Rome when Paul declared in 
 his letter to the Romans that he was not 
 ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it was the 
 power of God unto salvation. The.same power 
 still resides in the gospel, and it will be found 
 thus potential to redeem by all those evangelical 
 Churches who show themselves as ready as was 
 
TJncarnal hut Potcerfiil Weapons, 296 
 
 the great apostle to preach the gospel "to them 
 who are in Rome also." It goes without the 
 saying that an apish Romanizing Church can do 
 nothing to withstand the peril of Romanism. 
 As little can a disputatious ministry that can 
 find nothing better than a controversy with 
 which to reach a follower of the pope. 
 
 Intemperance, Mormonism, socialism, spirit- 
 ualism, "Christian Science," and every other 
 high, or low, thing that exalteth itself against 
 the knowledge of God may be easily overthrown 
 by the uncarnal but powerful weapons which the 
 Captain of our salvation has put at the disposal 
 of fervent faith and loving zeal. But these 
 strongholds will not yield to the assaults of a 
 paralytic preaching of theological uncertainty, 
 nor to the empt}^ parade of a religious tableau. 
 The walls of Jericho fell not at the mellifluous 
 notes of delicate minstrelsy, nor at the bidding 
 of a hesitant faith, but by the rude, loud blast 
 of the ram's horn, sounded by men who trusted 
 in the living God. 
 
 There is not a peril menacing the Great Re- 
 public to-day that, in some form or other, has 
 not been met and overcome by revivals — great, 
 general revivals— during the past. These perils 
 gather strength and reappear from time to time. 
 
296 Supremacy in the Family of Nation^* 
 
 So must the revivals of religion. The revival-, 
 istic spirit and methods of the fathers of the 
 republic will prevail in our generation if their 
 children and children's children walk and work 
 in the same way of faith. 
 
 But this evangelical Christianity is not only 
 the security of the republic; it is also the hope 
 of the world. That this claim may not appear 
 extravagant, let us consider several facts that are 
 known and read of all men. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon nations — by which term is 
 meant not only the people directly descended 
 from the Angles and the Saxons, but those also 
 who, by collateral descent or by political associ- 
 ation with them, have been conformed to their 
 type and identified with their destiny — occupy 
 the position of supremacy in the family of na- 
 tions to-day, and their rise to this elevation has 
 been coetaneous with the period of the great re- 
 vivals among them, which have passed in review 
 before us. In the year 1700, scarcely more than 
 thirty years before the beginning of the great 
 awakening in America and the rise of the Wes- 
 leyan revival in England, this race numbered 
 less than 6,000,000 souls. By the year 1800, 
 when another great revival began and a century 
 of revivals opened, they had increased to 20,- 
 
The Future of Mankind. 297 
 
 500,000. They now number more than 130,- 
 000,000; control above one-fourth of the land 
 surface of the earth; exercise authority over 
 one- third of the world's population; own half 
 of the wealth of the globe, including the richest 
 mines of gold, iron, and coal; occupy all the 
 strategic points on the planet; command the 
 highways on the sea and the railways on the 
 land; dominate the commerce of mankind, and 
 transmit its news. Their colonies are in every 
 continent and on the isles of the sea, and from 
 every colony their language, laws, and religion 
 are spread in all directions. It is, therefore, no 
 exaggeration to say that as these nations go so 
 will go the world. In view of the commanding 
 position of the United States in this family of 
 Anglo-Saxon peoples, some have ventured to 
 affirm that as goes the United States so will go 
 the world. But whether that thesis is or is not 
 tenable, there can be no reasonable doubt that 
 into the hands of the English-speaking nations 
 has been given the future of nmnkind for centu- 
 ries to come. 
 
 If civil liberty and a spiritual Christianity are 
 to become the possession of all the children of 
 men, they must be communicated by the Anglo- 
 Saxon peoples. Nowhere else is either the dis- 
 
298 Averting Perils and Enhancing Victories. 
 
 position or the resources required for so great 
 an achievement. Nor can any one of them do 
 the mighty work alone. They must stand to- 
 gether and labor together if the^^ accomplish the 
 ends of this high mission which is so manifestly 
 set before them. 
 
 Let us now recall what we have discovered 
 concerning their religious history during the 
 centuries in which they have been steadily ad- 
 vancing to their present eminence. AVe have 
 seen great revivals among them, elevating their 
 lives and purifying their laws, opening vast 
 tracts for their habitation and rescuing the 
 early settlers in those regions from the dangers 
 and deterioration of frontier life, quickening 
 industry and cleansing it from the forces of 
 self-destruction, overthrowing doubt and re- 
 storing faith, healing national alienations and 
 removing international antipathies — in short, 
 helping to avert every peril that has beset them, 
 and assisting to enhance every victory that has 
 come to them. 
 
 Can we, then, reasonably suppose that there is 
 any hope for these nations, or for the world de- 
 pendent upon them, outside of the evangelical re- 
 ligion which has been their inspiration and con- 
 stant attendant in all the way over which they 
 
iVb Pinched or Parahjtic Faith Will Do, 299 
 
 have come? This faith has brought them safe 
 thus far; can they go forward if they abandon it ? 
 
 It is as certain as any generalization in the 
 philosophy of history can be that these nations 
 are not going to renounce Christianity, nor ex- 
 change the type of Christianity under which they 
 have grown to greatness for any other. The 
 doctrines and life of evangelical Christianity 
 will hold the field against all comers, whether 
 they be the forces of doubt denying all faith, or 
 the companies of rationalism or ritualism with 
 their pinched and paralytic faiths. A robust 
 evangelism, having, like the angel of the Apoca- 
 lypse, the everlasting gospel to preach, and sing- 
 ing as a seraph as it files, is the form of religion 
 to which these nations will cling, and the religion 
 which they will impart to mankind if they suc- 
 ceed in evangelizing the globe. 
 
 Moreover, this is the only type of religion 
 which they could carry throughout the earth, 
 even if they were of a mind to try some other 
 sort. Evangelical Christianity only has in it 
 the elements of universality and permanence. 
 Doubt is transient, ritualism is local. All forms 
 of rationalism are the fieeting fashions with 
 which men of an indolent and curious culture 
 interest themselves for an hour, and ecclesias- 
 
300 As Broad as Bunian Need 
 
 tical forms at best are merely national. Sacra- 
 mentarianism is superstitious and cannot en- 
 dm-e the light of a scientific age. But evangel- 
 ical Christianity, incarnated in the experiences 
 of glowing souls, is at home in all lands, potent 
 in all times, and unembarrassed in any pres- 
 ence. It is as broad as human need, and as pen- 
 etrating as the Divine Spirit. It is unshaken 
 by the assaults of infidelity and unhindered by 
 the advance of knowledge. Its doctrines of sin, 
 repentance, justification by faith, the new birth, 
 the witness of the Spirit, Christian perfection, 
 and the life eternal after death are certified by 
 the deepest wants, the highest aspirations, and 
 the profoundest convictions of the race. No 
 discoveries of science can make them appear 
 either more or less true, and the attenuated the- 
 ories of a painful and changeful criticism of the 
 Holy Scriptures are but side issues of minor 
 importance when brought into comparison with 
 them. If all the conclusions of science, upon 
 which some rely to overthrow Christianity, 
 were demonstrably true, and all the hypoth- 
 eses of a microscopic criticism, upon which 
 others depend to overturn orthodoxy, were 
 absolutely established upon immovable bases of 
 fact, these great principles of evangelical Chris- 
 
Great and Far-Beaching Fads. 301 
 
 tianity would remain entirely undisturbed. 
 They speak ^ith authority to all classes, from 
 th€ highest to the lowest, and subdue the men 
 of all races with an unearthly imperialism. In 
 the hands and heart of an evangelist like AYes- 
 lej they scatter the writings of Voltaire like 
 ehaff before the blast of a tornado. Uttered 
 even by a plain lay preacher like Mr. Moody, 
 they so enthrall the hearts of the multitudes 
 that '^Mr. Tyndall and Mr. Herbert Spencer and 
 Mr. Huxley are not much in their minds while 
 the evangelist is around." 
 
 - These doctrines, when preached with the Holy 
 Ghost, sent down from heaven, produce ^reat re- 
 vivals, which are themselves the insoluble prob- 
 lem of the faithless and the despair of the ar- 
 mies of doubt. Mr. Lecky is constrained to 
 give a large space in his skeptically conceived 
 histories to the Wesleyan revival, and is forced 
 to acknowledge its benign. influence. Mr. Her- 
 bert Spencer feels impelled to preside over one 
 of Mr. .Moody's meetings to raise funds for the 
 Young Men's Christian Association, and con- 
 tributes largely to the collection. Now these 
 revivals of Wesley and Moody and the rest are 
 great and far-reaching facts, and as such they de- 
 mand adequate explanation. The voice of mod- 
 
302 A Reasonable Hypothesis Demanded. 
 
 ern science seconds the imperative demand that 
 they be accounted for by a reasonable hypoth- 
 esis. Was there in Mr. Moody's natural pow- 
 ers or Mr. Wesley's "environment" anything 
 adequate to account for the prodigious effects 
 which they accomplished? Pending Moody's 
 meetings in New York, Dr. J. G. Holland, in 
 an editorial in Scrihier'^s Magazine.^ put this 
 phase of the case well: "The great men of sci- 
 ence now engaged in uprooting the popular faith 
 in Christianity have a new problem in science. 
 Was there enough in Mr. Moody's eloquence, or 
 personal influence, to account for the effect pro- 
 duced ? AVould it not be very unscientific to re- 
 gard these little means suflScient to account for 
 these great results? It is a fair question, and it 
 deserv^es a candid answer. Until we get this 
 answer, people who have nothing but common 
 sense to guide them must repose upon the con- 
 viction that the power which Mr. Moody seemed 
 to wield was in the truth he promulgated, or 
 that it emanated from a source which he recog- 
 nized as the Spirit of God." 
 
 The nations which have come to power along 
 with this evangelical Christianity are also a 
 problem for objectors to solve. Confessedly 
 they are the most enlightened' and peaceful and 
 
The Answer of the Anf/lo^Saxon Nations. 303 
 
 prosperous nations on the globe. Why? Wen- 
 dell Phillips said: "The answer to the Shastas 
 is India; the answer to Confucianism is China; 
 the answer to the Koran is Turkey; the answer to 
 the Bible is the Christian civilization of Prot- 
 estant Europe and America." But more partic- 
 ularly let us inquire: To what are the puissant 
 nations of the Anglo-Saxons the answer, if not 
 to evangelical Christianity, with its doctrines of 
 experience, gospel hymns, and revivals of re- 
 ligion? Let the doubters answer this question 
 before they have talked any more about the an- 
 thropoid ape and the composition of the "poly- 
 chrome" Pentateuch. We are a trifle surfeited 
 with that sort of academic cant, and wish a 
 change for a rest, anyhow. We wish something 
 more serious and practical. We want to know 
 who shall save the world if these nations do not 
 save it, and what can save these and all other 
 nations if evangelical Christianity cannot? 
 
 Still further, the evangelization of the world 
 is a costly enterprise, and it will require nothing 
 less than the powerful influences of an evangel- 
 ical Christianity to command even the material 
 resources demanded for such a task. Outside 
 the nations in which this type of Christianity is 
 dominant there is neither the money nor the en- 
 
304 Xo Other Beligion Equal to This Task. 
 
 thusiasm necessary for so vast an undertaking. 
 Pagan faiths are too poor to pay their traveling 
 expenses, and Christianity of the rationalistic 
 or ritualistic type is too indolent and indifferent 
 to go into all the world and preach the gospel of 
 salvation. This was put beyond all question by 
 the reports and representatives of the Ecumen- 
 ical Conference of Missions in New York in 
 1900. We have seen how missionary boards 
 sprang up in England and America in the wake 
 of great revivals, and the facts gathered by the 
 Conference in New York demonstrated how 
 those enterprises have been sustained, from the 
 beginning until now, from the same sources of 
 faith and zeal. No religion but that of the 
 evangelical Churches commands the means or 
 cares for the work of world-encompassing 
 schemes of redemption. 
 
 Again, no one Church is equal to the task 
 of evangelizing the world; and if the various 
 Churches working in foreign fields do not coop- 
 erate with each other, but fall to fighting among 
 themselves in the presence of the heathen, all of 
 them together will do something worse than fail. 
 On the mission field only bodies pervaded by a 
 catholic spirit are of any avail. But the doctri- 
 nal basis of evangelical Christianity is the only 
 
The Oniij Plafform Wide Enough, 305 
 
 platform wide enough for all parties to stand 
 harmoniously upon. Strifes about forms of or- 
 dinances, doctrines of historic episcopates and 
 apostolic successions, and dogmas concerning 
 forms of governments and ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tions, appear ridiculous to intelligent pagans, 
 and it is worthy of remark that such worthless 
 things disappear from the home land, even, 
 whenever a great revival sweeps over the coun- 
 try. These minor matters cannot be of the es- 
 sence of Christianity, and no amount of verbal 
 jugglery or astute argumentation can make them 
 appear as of prime importance to any healthy 
 mind which is free from partisan bias, or to any 
 devout soul filled with the joy of the Spirit. 
 
 Moreover, it will take a glad, singing Chris- 
 tianity to persevere in the evangelization of the 
 world until the work is done. Any and all other 
 sorts will weary of the task and faint by the 
 way. Only the evangelical Churches have songs 
 and joy enough to keep going till 
 
 Every kindred, every tribe, 
 
 On this terrestrial ball, 
 All majesty to Christ ascribe, 
 
 And crown him Lord of all. 
 
 And this mighty enterprise cannot be carried 
 to such a culmination without the help of the 
 20 
 
306 Laymen Required. 
 
 lay element in the Churches. There are not 
 enough men in orders to do all the work if it 
 were wise to propagate Christianity by clerical 
 hands alone. The lay element must have a part 
 in the last century of Christian conquest, as it 
 did in the first century. D wight L. Moody and 
 John R. Mott are signs that point in the right 
 direction in this high matter. There are schools 
 to be conducted, prayer meetings to be held, and 
 other work to be done on foreign fields, which 
 will require the fervent service of thousands and 
 tens of thousands of laymen. It is not money 
 alone that the laymen of the Churches must sup- 
 ply. Their heads and hands and hearts are need-" 
 ed to penetrate and purify the dark places in 
 the crowded cities of our own and heathen lands. 
 And the multitude of laymen demanded for this 
 great service cannot be found in sufiicient num- 
 bers, or with the requisite training, outside the 
 Churches which have had their growth by reviv- 
 als of religion. In the other Churches the lay- 
 man bears a very inferior part. In truth, lay- 
 men are not suited to the work of operating an 
 elaborate ritualism or enforcing a complicated 
 system of speculative dogmas. Doctrines which 
 can be known experientially, and which can be 
 preached most effectively out of a living experi- 
 
When the Day of Becivcds Has Passed. 307 
 
 encc, are the weapons best adapted to the use of 
 this great infantry division of the Church of 
 God. Laymen can handle effectively the imple- 
 ments of warfare belonging to evangelical Chris- 
 tianity ; in the use of any other sort they are awk- 
 ward and incompetent. 
 
 For all these, and for other reasons that will 
 suggest themselves to a devout and thoughtful 
 mind, it is clear that evangelical Christianity is 
 "the security of the Great Republic and the 
 hope of the world." If the movement of Provi- 
 dence over the Anglo-Saxon nations is not to 
 terminate in a blind alley and end in a frustra- 
 ted plan, they must advance in the power of the 
 same divine grace which hath led them safe thus 
 far. They must continue to be lifted and 
 strengthened ])y greater and greater awakenings, 
 inspired and invigorated by greater and greater 
 revivals of religion, till their mission is fulfilled. 
 Some would have it believed that the days of re- 
 vivals have passed forever. If this be true, the 
 end of these revivalistic nations is drawing near. 
 If the springs of their greatness have run dry, 
 their leaves must soon wither and their fruit fail. 
 Revivals will cease when these nations fail, or 
 when their work is done and the crowns of their 
 eternal reward have been won. The day of re- 
 
308 When Bevkals Cease, What,? 
 
 vivals will have passed when the sun of these 
 evangelical people has set to rise no more, or 
 when the day has dawned upon the final gov- 
 ernment of the world — the New Jerusalem — not 
 built upon the suffrages of men, but established 
 by the power of God. Revivals will not cease 
 until sin has become invincible or salvation 
 universal. 
 
X. 
 
 THE NEXT GREAT A\yAKENING. 
 
Talk about the questions of the day; there is but one 
 question, and that is the gospel. It can and will cor- 
 rect everything needing correction. — WiUiavi E. Qlad- 
 stone. 
 
 The greatness of the Founder of Christianity is con- 
 spicuously shown in his passing by social institutions as 
 of minor and inconsiderable importance, and fastening 
 his claims upon the individual. The reform of personal 
 character was His one aim; with Him the man was 
 great and the institution small. There was but one way 
 with Him for making a good society, and that was by 
 the purification of its individual materials. . . . No 
 good society can possibly be made out of bad materials; 
 and when the materials are made good, society takes a 
 good form naturally, as a pure salt makes its perfect 
 crystal witliout superintendence. — Dr. J. G. Holland, in 
 * ^Everyday Topics. '' 
 
 If the hand of God should be acknowledged in tliat 
 work which Whitefield and Wesley effected, can we 
 think that that hand has been withdrawn from the 
 sphere of liuman affairs? or those high purposes which 
 then were moved forward rescinded or broken? Shall 
 the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and the Meth- 
 odism of the eighteenth, and the missionary impulses 
 which followed hard upon it — shall these movements 
 continue onward toward an issue proportionate, or 
 shall they stop short and be looked back upon, ages 
 hence, as a dawn that was followed by no day?— /saac 
 Taylor. 
 
 (310) 
 
X. 
 
 THE NEXT GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 Unless we deny that the hand of God was in 
 the revivals which have blessed the Anglo-Sax- 
 on nations so powerfully and so frequently, or 
 affirm that the divine hand has been withdrawn 
 from the sphere of their affairs, we must believe 
 there are yet other great awakenings to come. 
 We can no more believe that the day of revivals 
 has passed than we can accept the absurd notion 
 that the purposes of God concerning these na- 
 tions have been moving on mistaken lines, and 
 that those purposes are now to be stopped short 
 and turned back in order that a more enlight- 
 ened policy may take their place. God does 
 not thus abandon the work of his hands, nor 
 amend his own motions. Men of philosophic 
 mind, therefore, look for the continuance of 
 these heavenly visitations, and many devout souls 
 are yearning for the next great awakening. Holy 
 men pray for it and inquire what are the signs 
 of its coming. Many feel that it is not far off, 
 and eagerly advance to meet it. 
 
 (311) 
 
312 A Revival of llel'uj 10)1 y Not a Beligious Bevivat. 
 
 What will it be? And how will it come to 
 pass ? 
 
 It will be just what all the great revivals that 
 have preceded it have been — a revival of religion, 
 and not merely a religious revival. There is a 
 wide difference between the two things; a reviv- 
 al of religion brings dead things to life again, 
 while a religious revival decorates a corpse and 
 gilds a sepulcher. The former conquers death, 
 and the latter disguises the despair of the grave 
 with the pageantry of an imposing funeral. John 
 Henry Newman and his friends brought to pass 
 a religious revival, and in its dim, religious light 
 watched sorrowfully by the death couch of ex- 
 piring faith, chanting mournfully, ^'Lead, kind- 
 ly Light, amid the encircling gloom . " John Wes- 
 ley and his comrades under God produced a re- 
 vival of religion that brought again life and im- 
 mortality to light in the gospel, and in the buoy- 
 ant hope of the new life within them went on 
 their glorious course singing, 
 
 Faith lends its realizing light; 
 
 The clouds disperse, the shadows fly, 
 The Invisible appears in sight. 
 And God is seen by mortal eye. 
 
 The ''''Apologia pro Sua Vita^^ of Newman is 
 a volume devoted to a defense of the Jesuitic- 
 
Not a Social Beformation Merely. 313 
 
 al proceedings of one who betrayed one Church 
 while leaving it for another; the vindication of 
 Wesley is an innumerable company of newborn 
 souls. The influence of the Tractarian move- 
 ment, as W. T. Stead truly says, was no more 
 than ' ' a certain stimulus to the sensuous exer- 
 cise of divine worship; " to which may be added, 
 perhaps, a limited recrudescence of Romanism 
 in England. The effect of the Wesleyan reviv- 
 al of religion was a regenerated nation and the 
 inauguration of saving efforts and enterprises 
 which have reached to the uttermost parts of the 
 earth. 
 
 The next great awakening will be a revival of 
 religion — not a political reform nor a philan- 
 thropic scheme of social amelioration. It will 
 affect politics just as the preaching of apostolic 
 times finally revolutionized the Roman Empire, 
 and just as the Wesleyan revival made possible 
 the ministry of the elder Pitt and made another 
 Walpole forever impossible in England. But it 
 will serve the governments of earth by establish- 
 ing in the hearts of men the kingdom of heaven. 
 It will not come through the ministry of men 
 who periodically advertise themselves by pulpit 
 assaults on municipal authorities, and yet, like 
 the revival of 1858, it will do much to cleanse 
 
314 Kot a Cold Phihtnthropn, 
 
 our cities of corruption. It will do more than 
 all reform schemes whatsoever. 
 
 It will feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and 
 seek the outcast and forlorn, who have no help- 
 er. But it will do so, not by the cold calcula- 
 tions of men who have the processes of mental 
 arithmetic and the current prices of the oil 
 market at their fingers' end, but by the im- 
 pulsive and uncalculating ofierings of souls that 
 love nuich because they have been forgiven much. 
 It will make much of the physical needs of the 
 destitute because it will make more of their spir- 
 itual wants. It will treat the impoverished and 
 ignorant, not as animals requiring only food and 
 drink, but as human beings whose first and high- 
 est necessity is salvation. It will convert rich 
 men, and from turning to the Father in heav- 
 en they will be turned to their needy brothers 
 on earth. From conversions like that on the 
 Damascus road multitudes will rise to acknowl- 
 edge a boundless obligation to God that cannot 
 be met without assuming a limitless debt of serv- 
 ice to men. From such scenes of salvation a 
 daring philanthropy will rise, exclaiming: "I 
 am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Bar- 
 barians; both to the wise, and to the un- 
 wise." So have the srreat revivals of Wes- 
 
No Earth-Bom Altruism. 315 
 
 ley, Edwards, Finney, and Moody inspired 
 philanthropy. 
 
 But the next great awakening will not under- 
 take to save a lost world by trying to induce it 
 to throw around itself an environment of earth- 
 born altruism as a cloak to warm itself back to 
 life again. It will bring men to a new life by 
 showing them the Father, with all his pardon- 
 ing love, and that will reveal to them their 
 brothers and sisters, and open the fountains of 
 their brotherly compassion. The converts of 
 the next great aw^akening will not be good Abou 
 Ben Adhems, molded in the forms of Leigh 
 .Hunt's devising, but souls renewed in the im- 
 age of God, like the generous Joses of the Acts, 
 who, when he w^as born again, under the im- 
 pulses of his new and unearthly life, "having 
 land sold it and brought the money and laid it 
 at the apostles' feet," for the uses of the needy 
 members of the infant Church. This effect of 
 a pure Christianity at its birth, in the first cen- 
 tury, has been repeated at every subsequent re- 
 vival. Philanthropy is not a new thing in the 
 history of our holy religion. It springs spon- 
 taneously from the depths of faith and flows 
 with a diminished or increased flow according 
 to the fullness and force of the faith in which 
 
3l6 Doctrinal in Character. 
 
 it takes its rise. The next great awakening 
 will promote benevolence just because it will be 
 a revival of religion. 
 
 And the great revival will be doctrinal in 
 character, as all great awakenings have been and 
 must be. The Holy Spirit has no instrument 
 with which to regenerate human souls but in- 
 spired truth, and hence genuine revivals of re- 
 ligion are characterized by the potent presenta- 
 tion of the saving truths of the gospel. Limp 
 and hesitating preaching, which proceeds on 
 the assumption that anything may be true 
 (which is to say that everything may be false), 
 never results in a revival. A languid liberalism 
 bears no fruit. It is tolerant because it is tepid, 
 and lifeless because it is loveless. Its first care 
 is not the honor of God and the salvation of 
 men, but the vain maintenance at any cost of 
 its own reputation for broadness of view — even 
 though it be as barren as it is broad. Men like 
 Paul, who change the face of nations and turn 
 the currents of history into better channels, be- 
 lieve that the gospel of Christ has a fixed and 
 inviolable character, and they do not hesitate to 
 anathematize angels or men who preach another 
 gospel than that which has been revealed by 
 God. Such were Luther, Knox, Ridley, Ed- 
 
Not a Frigid Work, 317 
 
 wards, and Wesley. Such will be the leaders 
 of the next great awakening, and of all similar 
 movements to the end of time. They will be 
 mighty in doctrine, discarding all incoherent 
 appeals to a shallow emotionalism, whether 
 they be appeals to the sentimentality of a de- 
 clamatory liberalism or appeals to the easy-act- 
 ing sensibilities of a degenerate evangelism. 
 They will not burn strange fire upon God's 
 altar nor mimic the Holy Ghost in order to 
 produce an excitement which has no relation to 
 intelligent conviction nor power in conforming 
 the human will to the divine law. 
 
 By all this, however, it must not be under- 
 stood that the next great revival will be a 
 frigid, unfeeling performance of what some 
 call '^cold conviction." The race of man will 
 never outgrow its emotional nature unless it 
 shall become abnormal and be psychologically 
 deformed. And as long as there are sensibilities 
 in human bosoms the great transactions of the 
 soul in coming to God and walking with him 
 will betimes stir the heart to its deepest depths. 
 Nor will any degree of worthy culture intercept 
 or outgrow the action of the religious emotions. 
 All the great leaders of the general revivals of 
 the past were men of the most affluent culture; 
 
318 Men of Emotion. 
 
 but, one and all, they were men of emotion. 
 Paul was a man of many tears. So also were 
 Luther and the mighty men of the Reforma- 
 tion. The Wesleys and Whitefield were men 
 of the profoundest sensibility. When the 
 scholarly Charles Wesley sought to express 
 his joyous experience of the new birth he 
 
 sang: 
 
 " I rode on the sky, 
 
 Freely justified 1, 
 Nor did envy Elijali his seat; 
 
 My soul mounted higher 
 
 In a chariot of lire, 
 And the mooji it was under my feet." 
 
 Even the philosophic Edwards and his calm, 
 saintly wife often experienced and manifested 
 the most fervent states of religious feeling. 
 Whitefield records in his journal that w^hen he 
 preached at Northampton ''the good Mr. Ed- 
 wards wept all the time I was preaching. " It was 
 not depth of culture, but shallowness of piety, 
 which provoked the rebuke of the Laodicean 
 Church: "I know thy works, that thou art 
 neither cold nor hot: I would thou >vert cold or 
 hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and 
 neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my 
 mouth." A lukewarm Church is the disgust of 
 God. 
 
No New Dogmas to. Come. 319 
 
 Bat while the next great awakening will be 
 doctrinal and emotional, it will bring forward 
 no new dogmas. It can scarcely be expected to 
 recover even a neglected doctrine, or an over- 
 looked phase of any doctrine that may not have 
 been wholly neglected before. Whitefield, Ed- 
 wards, and the Tennents had to recover the lost 
 truth of the spirituality of the kingdom of God, 
 which had been overlaid by an all-prevalent 
 Erastianism, from which even the "Venerable 
 Stoddard" did not utterly escape. Wesley had 
 to bring to light the universality of the atone- 
 ment, the witness of the Spirit, and the doctrine 
 of human perfectibility under grace — truths 
 with the preaching of which his own devout 
 mother and his beloved Whitefield did not sym- 
 pathize at first, and for the proclamation of 
 which even the fervent Toplady lampooned him. 
 In the next generation after Wesley, when some 
 among the evangelicals had shown a tendency 
 to squint the doctrine of human freedom, it was 
 necessary for Finney to come emphasizing, al- 
 most to an extreme, the truth that was being let 
 slip, and so he says of the message he brought: 
 "Instead of telling sinners to use the means of 
 grace and pray for a new heart, we called on 
 them to make themselves a new heart and a new 
 
320 Final Truths. 
 
 spirit, and pressed the duty of instant surrender 
 to God." But it is very instructive to note that 
 in the subsequent revival of 1858, and in the still 
 later revival of the time of Moody and Sankey, 
 not one of the leaders in those mighty move- 
 ments pretended to offer a new or a recovered 
 doctrine. There were no such doctrines left to 
 discover or restore to their due position. When 
 men know the doctrines of justification by faith, 
 the new birth, the witness of the Spirit, and 
 Christian perfection, what other light this side 
 of heaven do they want? All those truths are 
 final truths. They only need to be really be- 
 lieved and fervently preached to renew the 
 world in righteousness and true holiness, and in 
 the next great awakening they will be believed 
 with an intenseness and preached with a powder 
 never before known since apostolic times. 
 
 Current hypotheses of science and prevalent 
 theories in philosophy, which have been pushed 
 illegitimately into the sphere of theology, and 
 which are irreconcilable with these fundamental 
 truths, will perish in the flame of the next great 
 awakening, as English deism and French infi- 
 delity were swept away by the Wesleyan re- 
 vival. Modern materialism has generated dur- 
 ing the last decade a fatalistic influence, which 
 
Fatal Fatalism. 321 
 
 must be overcome by the reassertion of the 
 scriptural doctrine of man's freedom and re- 
 sponsibility. The outworn terms of a fatalistic 
 theology have been substituted by the scientif- 
 ic terminology of '^heredity," '^environment," 
 and such like— terms from which fatalism ex- 
 udes like the inky fluid from the tail of the 
 cuttlefish. Of course such a philosophy cannot 
 produce a moral sentiment that rises higher 
 than self-pity. If it were universally accepted, 
 repentance would become a folly and regenera- 
 tion a dream. "Under such a system misconduct 
 is only misfortune; and the soul, if it allows 
 that there is such a thing as an immortal soul, 
 is justified in approaching the throne of grace, 
 entering fearlessly an exoneretur to the indict- 
 ments of conscience, and withdrawing from the 
 presence of enthroned Power and giving itself, 
 as best it may, to a complacent despair. If 
 such a philosophy be allowed, the pursuit of 
 truth ceases to be of any interest or importance, 
 for why should one seek light that cannot be 
 followed except along the predetermined Imes 
 of heredity and environment? It is not even of 
 consequence to discover that one is thus un- 
 changeably conditioned, since no good can come 
 of the discovery. If each life is only the prod- 
 2X 
 
322 Modern Materialism, 
 
 uct of the sum of environment and heredity 
 multiplied by the number of years and links 
 that intervene between it and the primitive 
 monera, what is the use of worrying to make 
 even the calculation, since all "will get to the 
 bottom all safe and sound," in any event? But 
 there is the rub; men do not wish to get to the 
 bottom. They wish to rise, and it is high time 
 that this doctrine of despair were rebuked in 
 the name of the Prince of Life, who makes men 
 free indeed, It is time to preach with new em- 
 phasis that no man is lost because he cannot do 
 right and come to God, but because he will not 
 do what he can and will not come to Christ 
 that he may have life. The doctrines of mod- 
 ern materialism must be overcome, or there is 
 an end of all preaching and all repenting and 
 all turning away from sin. They are hostile to 
 all moral instruction, discouraging to hope, and 
 paralyzing to zeal. They stretch above the 
 bowed head of prayer a firmament of brass, and 
 bind the compassion of God with strong cables 
 made of twists of his own laws. The spell of 
 this delusion has lasted long enough, and the 
 hour has come to arouse the people with the 
 cry, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from 
 the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." 
 
Free Sons of God. 323 
 
 One of the raptures of the next great awaken- 
 ing will be the fact that many will find, to their 
 unspeakable joy, that they are not made to be 
 slaves of physical law, but free sons of the 
 livino: God. The a^Q waits for a new and more 
 powerful manifestation than has ever been be- 
 fore seen of "the glorious liberty of the chil- 
 dren of God." The world needs to learn again 
 that it is not generation, but regeneration, that 
 determines life and destiny; that it is not an 
 earthly heredity that we need so much to fear 
 as it is a divine Fatherhood that we need to lay 
 hold of through the atoning mediation of the 
 only-begotten Son. This high truth will be 
 proclaimed anew in the next great awakening. 
 
 May we expect, then, great leaders such as ap- 
 peared in former awakenings? Yes, mightier 
 men than have ever appeared will come, and they 
 w^ill come in clusters or galaxies. Great men 
 have been growing a little scarce in recent times, 
 perhaps, and it is no great wonder that such 
 has been the case. Thomas Carlyle says: "This 
 is an age which, as it were, denies the existence 
 of great men; denies the desirableness of great 
 men. Show our critics a great man — a Luther, 
 for example — they begin to what they call 'ac- 
 count for him ;' not to worship him, but to take 
 
324 The Doctrine of ''Dead Sticks^ 
 
 the dimensions of him, and bring him out a very 
 little kind of a man. 'He was the creature of 
 the times,' thej say; the times called him forth; 
 the times did everything: he did nothing but 
 what we, the little critic, could have done too! 
 This seems to me but melancholy work. The 
 times call forth! Alas! we have known times to 
 call loudly enough for their great man, but they 
 did not find him when they called. He was not 
 there. Providence had not sent him. The times 
 called their loudest and had to go down to con- 
 fusion and wreck because he would not come 
 when called. I liken common, languid times 
 with their unbelief, distress, perplexity; their 
 languid, doubting character, im potently crum- 
 bling through ever worse distress into final ruin 
 — all this I liken to dry, dead fuel, waiting 
 for the lightning of heaven wdiich shall quicken 
 it. The great man, with his free, direct force 
 out of God's own hand, is the lightning. All 
 blazes now around him. The critic thinks the 
 dry, moldering sticks called him forth. They 
 w^anted him greatly, no doubt; but as to call- 
 ing him forth! They are critics of small vi- 
 sion who think that the dead sticks have cre- 
 ated the fire. To lose faith in God's divine 
 lightning, and to retain faith only in dead 
 
Light in the West, 325 
 
 sticks — this seems to me the last consummation 
 of unbelief." 
 
 The next great awakening will burn away this 
 doctrine of dead sticks, against which the sage 
 of Craigeuputtock fulminates so justly. It will 
 bring forth men, not out of the spirit of the 
 times, but out of the birthplace of the eternities. 
 The signs infallible will be upon them in all the 
 tokens of congruity between the operations of 
 grace within them and the movements of Provi- 
 dence around them; for all men, knowing that 
 there is only one God, will perceive that the power 
 that works above them and about them is none oth- 
 er than He who worketh in them, mighty to save. 
 
 These mighty men of God will do something 
 more than stir a local interest or excite a tran- 
 sient enthusiasm. Aided by all the modern de- 
 vices of transportation and communication, they 
 will be able to extend their influence as the re- 
 vivalists of former times could not project their 
 ministries. Through their efforts wonders of 
 grace will be wrought in heathen lands. In 
 America we may reasonably expect a great re- 
 vival, the center of which will bo in the West, 
 and the power of which will be felt all along 
 the Pacific Coast as the revival of 1800 filled with 
 new life the Mississippi basin. 
 
326 The Cloud about to More. 
 
 The time is approaching for a general move- 
 ment throughout the English-speaking world. 
 Great revivals have preceded all the revolution- 
 ary periods in the history of these Anglo-Saxon 
 nations. The God of providence, who is also 
 the God of grace, has moved upon them in simul- 
 taneous operations within and without. While 
 overruling wars and migi-atious around them, he 
 has revived faith and quickened zeal within them. 
 There are tokens now of another such combined 
 movement of Providence and the Spirit upon 
 them. He has been extending their borders 
 lately. Their marching orders are already pre- 
 pared for another great advance. The pillar of 
 cloud shows signs of lifting. The battle hymns 
 will be ringing loud and clear presently. And 
 when the mighty movement advances, it will not 
 be felt in the United Kingdom and the United 
 States alone, but, unlike any great revival which 
 has gone before, it will affect all Anglo-Saxon- 
 dom. Wherever the English-speaking nations 
 have colonies or their Churches have missions, 
 the power of this great awakening will extend. 
 Mammonism at home and paganism abroad will 
 be subdued by it, "trade expanding into com- 
 merce, and commerce rising into communion," 
 
Neio Songs. 327 
 
 and communion inspirin.^ that consecration 
 which shall make sure the Christian conquest 
 of the world. Changing the figure, it will be, 
 not lakelike in its limits, but oceanic in breadth 
 and depth and fullness, and its currents will be 
 as the tides of the irresistible sea. 
 
 And will the next great revival bring new 
 songs with it? Certainly. There are no new 
 hymns without revivals, and, equally, there are 
 no great revivals which do not inspire new hymns. 
 When the next revival comes there will be pro- 
 duced songs as tender as Sankey's softest strains 
 and as lofty as the sublimest notes of Charles 
 Wesley's pseans of triumphant grace. And with 
 each succeeding movement of evangelical Chris- 
 tianity the songs of Zion will grow sweeter and 
 more sublime, until at length the music within 
 the gates of pearl and that without the jasper 
 walls will be so nearly one that the sensitive ear 
 of an archangel will scarcely be able to detect 
 the difference in the notes. " Behold, the tab- 
 ernacle of God will be with men, and he will 
 dwell with them, and they shall be his people, 
 and God himself shall be with them and be their 
 God. And God shall wipe away all tears from 
 their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 
 
328 The Final Victory, 
 
 neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be 
 any more pain; for the former things are passed 
 away." 
 
 And all kingdoms and empires and republics 
 and dominions shall be lost in the kingdom of 
 Him "who is the blessed and only Potentate, 
 the King of kings, and Lord of lords."" Then 
 shall all men see how great a part has been 
 borne by great revivals and the Great Repub- 
 lic in establishing the kingdom of heaven on 
 earth. 
 
INDEX. 
 
I certainiy think that the best book in the world 
 would owe the most to a good index, and the worst 
 book, if it had but a single good thought in it, might be 
 kept alive by \t.— Horace Buincy. 
 
 So essential did 1 consider an index to every book 
 that I proposed to bring a bill into Parliament to de- 
 prive an author who publishes a book without an index 
 of the privilege of cop3'right, and, moreover, to subject 
 him for his offense to a pecuniary x^enalty. — Lord 
 Campbell. 
 
 (330) 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, The Peace of, 150. 
 
 Aitkin, Rev. W. H. M., 252, 255, 256. 
 
 Alliance, The Kvaugelical 207. 
 
 American Bible Society, 192-195. 
 
 American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, 
 
 192. 
 Anglo-Saxon Nations, the supremac}' of them, 296 298, 
 
 826. 
 Armitage, Dr. Thomas, 264. 
 
 Art and Religion, their effect on national life, 7. 
 Asbury, Bishop Francis. 144, 145, 153, 154, 156. 198, 199. 
 Atheism and Anarchy, 11. 
 Awakening, The Great, 41-100. 
 
 Bacon, Leonard Woolse3% his "History of American 
 
 Christianity" quoted, 4, 42, 197, 204. 
 Baird, Dr. Robert, his "Religion in America" quoted, 
 
 4, 18-23, 155. 162. 
 Balfour, Alexander, his estimate of Moody's \7ork m 
 
 Liverpool, 257. 
 Ball, Hannali. and her Sunday school before that of 
 
 Raikes, 144. 
 Baltimore, Lord, and the only Roman Catholic colony 
 
 in America, 20. 
 Bancroft, George, quoted, 22. 
 Baptists take sacrament of the Lord's Supper with 
 
 Whitefield, 72. 
 Barnes, Dr. Albert, on value of revivals. 197. 
 Baxter, Dr. George A., 182. 
 Baxter, Richard, 26. 88; his "Call to the Unconverted," 
 
 38. '"■■'■ ' 
 
 Beecher, Dr. Lyman, (pioted, 168, 189. 
 
 (331) 
 
332 Index. 
 
 "Bible ReYival," 31, 33. 
 
 Birrell, his estimate of John Wesley, 132. 
 
 Blackstone, quoted on great preachers in London in 
 
 eighteenth century. 111; 
 Blaine, James G., his estimate of Moody, 261. 
 Blair, Samuel, quoted, 47, 52. 
 Blair, the Scotch revivalist, 36. 
 Bliss, P. P., 261. 
 
 Boardman, Richard, 103, 105, 153. 
 Bohler, Peter, meets Whitefield, 68. 
 Bradbury, W. B., 261 
 Brainerd's missionary work, 95. 
 Brice, the Scotch revivalist, 36. 
 Brindley's Canal, 138. 
 Bunyan, John, 26, 35. 
 Burke, Edmund, quoted on religion the basis of society, 
 
 6; on liberty separated from justice, 141. 
 Burr, Aaron, 165, 175, 200, 279. 
 Bushnell, Horace, quoted, 16-17. 
 
 Calvin, John, 34. 
 
 Calvinism believed, but not preached, by Whitefield, 71. 
 
 Camj) meetings, the first, 178. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 323. 
 
 Cartwright, Rev. Peter, quoted on immorality in North- 
 west Territory, 173, 208. 
 
 Clark, Dr. J. O. A., his "Wesley Memorial Volume," 4. 
 
 Coke, Bishop Thomas, 154. 
 
 Pole, Major, with Moody in London, 255. 
 
 Colleges, infidelity in them before revival of 1800, 167- 
 168; blessed by the revival of 1800, 188, 190. 
 
 Colonists, The early American, their charters, laws, 
 and characters, 18-24; compared with the Crusaders, 
 16. 
 
 Congress, The Colonial, action ordaining a fast, 9. 
 
 Cook, Sophia, suggested the Sunday school to Robert 
 Raikes, 144. 
 
Index, 333 
 
 Cooper, Thomas, corrupted colleges with his skepticism, 
 
 168. 
 Covenanters, 29. 
 Cowper, William, 98. 
 Craumer, 29. 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 177, 185, 186, 206. 
 
 Dartmouth, Lord, 98. 
 
 Dartmouth College, founded, 97. 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 248. 
 
 Davis, an erratic evangelist in Whiteheld's day, 86. 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, 155. 
 
 Dearborn, General, foe of the Churches, 165. 
 
 Deems, Dr. Charles F. , 264. 
 
 Dempster, James, 153. 
 
 DeTocqueville, on birth of Anglo-American Society, 14. 
 
 Dettingen, the battle of, and Wesleyan converts, 134. 
 
 Dickinson, Rev. Jonathan, quoted, 47, 52; visited by 
 
 Whitefield, 58. 
 Disestablishment of Religion in America, 201, 202. 
 Doane, W. H., 261. 
 Doddridge, Rev. Joseph, quoted, 174. 
 Dodge, William E., 261, 263. 
 Drummond, Henry, 252. 
 Dudley, Lord, lends assistance to Moody in London, 
 
 254. 
 Dwight, Dr. Timothy, President of Yale College, 168, 
 
 189, 198, 279. 
 
 Ecumenical Conference of Foreign Missions in New 
 
 York in 1900, 278, 304. 
 Edwards, Jonathan, on "Revivals," 4; quoted on the 
 
 "harvests" of the "Venerable Stoddard," 39, 40; on 
 
 the great awakening, 42, 47, 96, 282, '285; visited by 
 
 Whitefield, 75. 
 Election, Doctrine of, not preached by Whitefield, 71. 
 Embury, Philip, 104, 105, 153. 
 
331 Index. 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, ou "last effort of the Divine 
 Providence," 17. 
 
 Enf^lish elements in colonial life in America, 25. 
 
 Evangelical Christianity the security of the Great Re- 
 public and the hope of the world, 281-308. 
 
 Evans, John, a Wesleyan convert and his remarkable 
 heroism at the battle of Fontenoy, 136. 
 
 Everett, A. B., 2G1. 
 
 Everett, Edward, on Methodism and education, 102, 157. 
 
 Fairbairn, Principal A. M., on Wesley and Methodism, 
 
 288. 
 Farwell, John V., 261, 263, 265. 
 Fatalism, Modern, 321, 322, 323. 
 Field, Cyrus, attends Moody's meetings in New York, 
 
 265. 
 Finney, Charles G., his ministry, 208, 209; at Oberlin, 
 
 209; his doctrine, 319. 
 Fischer, W. C, 261. 
 Fish, Henry C, his "Handbook of Revivals" quoted, 
 
 4, 26, 204, 220. 
 Fitchett, Dr. W. H., on how Methodism saved England, 
 
 117. 
 Flavel, John, 35. 
 
 Fleming, on the reformation in Scotland, 34, 37. 
 Franklin, Benjamin, his speech in the Constitutional 
 
 Convention, 9, 10; on the effect of the great awak- 
 ening in Philadelphia, 63, 165. 
 Frelinghuysen, Rev. Theodore J., 58. 
 French governments unstable, 8. 
 
 Galloway, Bishop Charles B., his "Christianity and the 
 
 Nation," 4. 
 "Garden Commissary," mistreats Whitefield, 65, 71. 
 Gibson, Bishop, quoted, 109. 
 Gladstone, William E., on Christianity the solution of 
 
 all problems, 310. 
 
Index, 335 
 
 Glendenning, the Scotch revivalist, 36. 
 
 Grant, President U. S., attends Moody's meeting in 
 Philadelphia, 260. 
 
 Green's "History of the English People " quoted, 14. IT). 
 31, 32, 113, 114, 116, 117, 130. 
 
 Griffin, Dr. E. D., 189, 191. 
 
 Griswold, 47. 
 
 Giiizot, on religion the solution of social and civil ques- 
 tions, 6. 
 
 Haime, John, Wesleyan preaelier in the army in Flan-- 
 ders, 134-137. 
 
 Hall, Dr. John, 264. 
 
 Hall, Robert, his estimate of Jonathan Edwards, 50. 
 
 Handel, writes music for Wesleyan hymns, 124. 
 
 Harris, Howell, 77, 108: 
 
 Harrison, President Benjamin H., presides over Ecu- 
 menicul Conference of Foreign Missions, 278. 
 
 "Harrison Freshet," 210. 
 
 Harvard College, faculty of, opposes Whiteheld, 98; 
 yields to Liberalism, 167. 
 
 Heck, Barbara, 104. 
 
 Heck, Paul, 104. 
 
 Holland, Dr. J. G., quoted concerniug Moody, 232, 265, 
 270, 302; on purifying power of Christianity, 310. 
 
 Home, Melville, 148. 
 
 Howard, John, and prison reform, 144. 
 
 Howe, John, 35. 
 
 Hughes, Hugh Price, 273. 
 
 Huguenots among American colonists, 32. 
 
 Humphrey, Dr. Heman, quoted, 162. 
 
 Hunt, Leigh, 315. 
 
 Hurst, Bishop John F., on settlement of North Ameri- 
 ca. 26, 204. 
 
 Huxley, Thomas H., 248, 270, 301. 
 
 Jackson, President Andrew, 210. 
 
336 Index, 
 
 Jackson, General '* Stonewall," his piety, 326. 
 Jefferson, President Thomas, his liberalism, 165, 279. 
 Jones, Dr. J. William, his "Christ in the Camp " quot- 
 ed, 4, 226, 227, 229. 
 
 Keener, Bishop John C, quoted concerning religion in 
 
 the Confederate army in the West, 204, 227. 
 Kidderminster, Baxter's work there, 38. 
 King, John, 106, 153. 
 Kirk, Edward N., 208. 
 Kirkpatrick, W. J., 261. 
 Kirkton on the Reformation in Scotland, 34. 
 Knox, John, 29, 81. 
 
 Lamartine on French atheism and anarchy, 8. 
 
 Lanphier, Jeremiah, in revival of 1858, 213. 
 
 Latimer, 29, 30. 
 
 Lecky, W. E. H., 102, 134, 140, 142, 151, 288, 301. 
 
 Lee, Charles, his blasphemy, 165. 
 
 Lee, General Robert E., 226, 229. 
 
 Lee, Jesse, 106. 
 
 Lincoln, President Abraham, 155. 
 
 "■ Log College," founded by Tennent, 60; compared with 
 
 Princeton University, 61. 
 Louis XIV., his bigotry and intolerance, 104. 
 "Louisiana Purchase," 151. 
 Luther, Martin, 34, 86, 127. 
 
 McAuley, Jerry, 292. 
 
 McCosh, Dr. James, 263. 
 
 McGee, Rev. John, 177, 178. 
 
 McGee, Rev. William, 177, 178. 
 
 McGready, Rev. James, 177. 
 
 Mcintosh, Rigdon M., 261. 
 
 McKendree, Bishop William, 181. 
 
 McKinley, President William, 279. 
 
 McMaster, "History of the United States" quoted, 193. 
 
Index, 337 
 
 Martineaii, Dr. James, quoted on Wesleyan hymns, 123. 
 
 Mather, Dr. Increase, on decay of morality in New En- 
 gland before the great awakening, 40, 47. 
 
 Meade, Bishop, on infidelity in Virginia before the re- 
 vival of 1800, 167. 
 
 Mexican War, 210. 
 
 Mills, Samuel John, 190, 192, 194. 
 
 Monroe, President James, 210. 
 
 Moody, Dwight L., his birth, 237; goes to Chicago, 237; 
 in North Market Hall, 238; Far well Hall, 239; meets 
 Sankey, 241; invited to England, 242; begins work 
 at York, England, 242; at Sunderland, 243; at New- 
 castle, 243; at Stockton-on-Tees, 244; at Carlisle, 
 244; in Scotland, at Edinburgh, Dundee, Elgin, Ab- 
 erdeen, Craig Castle, Berwick-on-Tweed, and Glas- 
 gow, 244-247; in Ireland, at Belfast and Dublin, 
 247-249; in England, at Manchester, Sheffield, Bir- 
 mingham, Liverpool, and London, 249-258; returns to 
 America and begins his work in Brooklyn, 258, 259; 
 goes to Philadelphia, Princeton, and New York, 260- 
 265; in the South, at Augusta, Ga., Louisville, Ky., 
 Nashville, Tenn., St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., 266; 
 visits England the second time, and conducts meetings 
 at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 367; in 
 Chicago, at World's Fair of 1893, 268; he was intense- 
 ly biblical, 270; not a liberal, 271; not greedy of gain 
 nor ambitious for applause, 240, 272, 273. 
 
 Moor, Joshua, founder of "Moor's Charity School," aft- 
 erwards called Dartmouth College, 98. 
 
 Moorhouse, Harr5% 244. 
 
 Mott, Johnll., 306. 
 
 Miiller, Max, quoted on history of man is history of re- 
 ligion, 6. 
 
 Nation Founded by Faith, 13-24. 
 Nettleton, Asahcl, 208, 209, 277. 
 Newman, John Henry, 312. 
 22 
 
338 Index. 
 
 Next Great Awakening, 309-327; probably in Far West. 
 325. 
 
 Northwest Territory, Congressional report concerning 
 lawlessness therein, 172; irreligion and immorality 
 of, 172-176; rescued by revival of 1800, 187. 
 
 Occum, Samuel, Indian convert and preacher, 97. 
 Owen, John, 35. 
 
 Paganism and despotism, 11. 
 
 Paine, Thomas, 100. 
 
 Palmer, H. R., 261. 
 
 Papal power before the Reformation, 28. 
 
 Payson, Edward, 208. 
 
 Pemberton, Rev. Ebenezer, 56. 
 
 Pepperell, Sir William, 134. 
 
 Perronet, Vincent, his vision of Methodism, 282, 285. 
 
 Phillips, Philip, 261. 
 
 Phillips, Wendell, quoted, 303. 
 
 Pilmoor, Joseph, 103, 105. 
 
 Pitt, William, 113, 132, 313. 
 
 Political systems and religious faith, 11, 12. 
 
 Porter, Dr. Noah, quoted on revivals as the hope of the 
 
 Church, 282. 
 Presbyterian General Assembly, deliverance of in 1798, 
 
 deliverance in 1^00, 181. 
 Prince's "Christian History" quoted, 14, 57. 
 Princeton University and the "Log College," 61, 97, 
 
 168; visited by Moody, 263. 
 Protestants settled American colonies, 20, 27, 32, 33. 
 Puritans, 27. 
 
 Quebec, the battle of, 151. 
 
 Radstock, Lord, aids Moody's work in London, 254. 
 Raikes, Robert, and his Sunday school, 144. 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, quoted, 144. 
 
Index: 339 
 
 Rankin, Thomas, 153. 
 
 Rees, Rev. Arthur, 248. 
 
 Reformation, The Lutheran, was a revival, 25, 26, 28, 
 29, 33, 34. 
 
 Reformation in Scotland, 34. 
 
 Religion and national life, 5-12. 
 
 Revival, The, of 1800, 161-202. 
 
 Revival, The, of 1858, 208-230. 
 
 Revival, The, in days of Moody and Sankey, 231-280. 
 
 Revival, The Wesleyan, 101-160. 
 
 Revivals in Old World Gave Rise to Colonies in the New, 
 25-40. 
 
 Rice, Rev. David, 183. 
 
 Ridge, the Scotch revivalist, 36. 
 
 Ridley, the English martyr, 29, 80. 
 
 Rodda, Martin, 153.' 
 
 Romanism and civil freedom, 12, 28. 
 
 Roosevelt, President Theodore, quoted, 162, 278. 
 
 Rowland, Rev. John, 58. 
 
 Rousseau, J. J., quoted on religion tlie basis of civil so- 
 ciety, 6. 
 
 Ryle, Bishop J. C, his "Christian Leaders of the Last 
 Century" quoted. 111, 282. 
 
 Sankey, Ira D., meets Moody, 241; invited with Moody 
 to England, 242; labors with Moody in England, 
 Scotland, Ireland, and America, 242-280; creates a 
 type of sacred song, 267. 
 
 Sargent's Stockbridge Mission, 95. 
 
 Schermerhorn, John F., labors with Samuel John Mills, 
 192, 194. 
 
 Seccomb, Rev. John, 52. 
 
 Seeker, Archbishop, 110. 
 
 Seeley, Prof., quoted on the function of religion to found 
 States, 6. 
 
 Seward, William, Whitefield's companion and colabor- 
 er in America, 54, 68, 
 
340 Index, 
 
 Shadford, George. 153. 
 
 Shaftesbury, the Earl of. assists Moody in London, 254, 
 255. 
 
 Smith, Gold win, on migration of mankind. 15. 
 
 Smith, Sydney, sneers at the Methodists, 141. 
 
 South ey, Robert, quoted on Wesleyan hymns, 123; his 
 estimate of John ^yesle3^ 132. 
 
 Speers, Dr. William, "The Great Revival of 1800." 4. 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, presides in a Moody meeting at Man- 
 chester, 250, 270, 801 
 
 Spring, Dr. Gardner, quoted, 162. 
 
 Stalker, Rev. Dr. J. B., 256. 
 
 Stanley, Dean Arthur Penrose, 254; quoted on Metho- 
 dism, 102. 
 
 Stead, W. T., quoted on revivalism, 92; on influence of 
 Methodism in unifying the English-speaking peoples, 
 159; on Moody and Sanke^^ 232; on John Henry 
 Newman's work, 313. 
 
 Stephens, William, his "Journal of the Proceedings in 
 Georgia" quoted, 64, 70. 
 
 Stewart quoted on revival in Ireland, 37. 
 
 "Stewarton Sickness," 37. 
 
 Stevens, Dr. Abel, on Whitefleld's work in America, 81, 
 82. 
 
 Stoddard, "The Venerable," 39, 45. 
 
 Stone, Rev Barton Warren, quoted on revival of 1800, 
 178-180. 
 
 Stowe, Baron, quoted, 218. 
 
 Strawbridge, Robert, 105, 153. 
 
 Stuart, George H., President of Christian Commission, 
 239, 261, 263. 
 
 Summerfield, Rev. John, 208. 
 
 Sweney, John R., 261. 
 
 Taylor, Isaac, on Wesley and Methodism, 4, 102, 112, 
 
 310. 
 Taylor. Rowland, his martvrdom, 30. 
 
Index, 341 
 
 Taylor, Bishop William, 255. 
 
 Taylor, Dr. William M., 264. 
 
 Tennents, The, 47. 
 
 Tennent, Charles, 55, 63. 
 
 Tennent, Gilbert, 51, 55, 56, 59, 68; goes to Boston at 
 
 Whitefield's suggestion, 75, 77. 
 Tennent, John, 55. 
 Tennent, William, Jr., 51, 55, 63, 95. 
 Tennent, William, Sr., meets Whitefield, 55; his "Log 
 
 College," 55, 59; visited by Whitefield, 59. 
 Thompson, Peter, 273. 
 Threlfell, Secretary of Labor Association of England, 
 
 his estimate of Methodism, 288. 
 Tilden, Samuel J., attends Moody's meetings in New 
 
 York, 265. 
 Toplady, lampoons Wesley, 319. 
 Tracy's "The Great Awakening" quoted, 4. 
 Trumbull, James Hammond, on effects of the great 
 
 awakening, 88. 
 Tyerman's biographies of Wesley and Whitefield, 4. 
 Tyndall, Prof. John, 248, 270, 301. 
 
 University of Pennsylvania, first seat in the house built 
 for Church of Gilbert Tennent, 68, 78. 
 
 Van Buren, President Martin, 210. 
 Varley, Henry, 255. 
 
 Virginia, charter of the colony quoted, 14. 
 Voltaire, 166, 301. 
 
 Walpole, Horace, 112, 113. 313. 
 
 Wanamaker, Hon. John, 261. 
 
 Ware, Henry, 167. 
 
 Washington, General George, his order requiring ob- 
 servance of the Sabbath in the army, 9; first congrat- 
 ulated l)y the Methodists, 104; extract from his " Fare- 
 well Address," 166, 167. 
 
312 Index. 
 
 Watts, Dr. Isaac, liis liyinns and tho hymns of Cliaiifts 
 Wesley compared, 124. 
 
 Watts, James, inventions of, 138, KJS). 
 
 Webb, Captain, of the British Army, and one of the 
 early ISIethodists, 104. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, graduate of Dartmouth College, 97. 
 
 Weed, Thurlow, attends Moody's meetings in New 
 York, 265. 
 
 Wesley, Charles, the sweet singer of Methodism, 115; 
 his hymns compared with the hymns of Watts, 124; 
 his song on conversion, 318. 
 
 Wesley, John, makes converts in Ireland who come to 
 America, 104; sends preachers to America, 103; words 
 on leaving America, 103; Birrell's estimate of him, 132, 
 W. H. Fitchett's estimate of him, 118; Southey's esti- 
 mate of him, 132; W. T. Stead's estimate of him, 159, 
 IGO; his doctrine of "perfection," 121, 122; theembod- 
 i'ment of the Methodist movement, 115, 116, 118, 127; 
 his own estimate of the Wesleyan moA^ement, 128; his 
 song on his success, 128; number of his followers at 
 his death, 130; his long life, and his death when eighty- 
 eight years of age, 116, 128; estimate of him b}^ Hon. 
 Carroll D. Wright, 287. 
 
 Wesleyan Revival, 101-160; length, 126, 127; great and 
 rapid growth, 128, 129; doctrinal basis, 119, 121; in- 
 spired the spirit of freedom, 120; its perfect gospel, 
 122; its songs, 123; gives a Church to America, 125; in- 
 fluence on army and artisans of Great Britain, 133; its 
 influence on industrialism, 138-140; checks French in- 
 fldelity, 141, 142, 320; introduced an era of philanthro- 
 py, 143; inspired the Sunday school movement, 144; 
 fostered popular education, 146, 150, 157; produced a 
 literature, 147; gave birth to various benevolent and 
 missionary enterprises, 148; gave North America to 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization, 150; promoted unity of Eng- 
 lish-speaking nations, 159. 
 
 Wheelock, Rev. Eleazar, 47, 97. 
 
Index-. 3^3 
 
 Whipple, E. P., on the effect of migrations on forms 
 
 of national life, 15. 
 Whitetield, George, his conversion, 53; his coming to 
 America, 48, 51, 53; his ordination, 53; preaches first 
 in open air, 53; "gospel roaming" in America, 54-79; 
 personal appearance, 57, 58; visits Jonathan Dickin- 
 son, 58; meets Gilbert Tennent, 58; visits Gen. James 
 Oglethorpe, G4; he is ill-treated by "Commissary Gar- 
 den," 65, 71; meets Peter Bohler, 68; visits the Saltz- 
 burgers at Ebenezer, 70; will not preach the doctrine 
 of election, although he accepts it, 71; " open commun- 
 ion " with the Baptists and others, 72; visits New 
 England first, 73; the devil and a doctor of divinity, 
 73; on Boston Commons, 74; sends Gilbert Tennent 
 to Boston, 75; visits Jonathan Edwards, 75; writes 
 Howell Harris of work in America, 77; preaches at 
 Philadelphia in a roofless house which was subse- 
 quently the first seat of the University of Pennsylva- 
 nia, 78; at the close of the year 1740, takes passage for 
 England, 79; second and subsequent visits to America, 
 80; estimate of his work by Abel Stevens, 81, 82; char- 
 acteristics of his work, 82-85; his Calvinism, 84, 85. 
 
 Whittaker, Nathaniel, 98. 
 
 Whittle, Major, 265. 
 
 Wickliffe, 86, 97. 
 
 Williams, Robert, early Methodist preacher, 105, 153. 
 
 Williams College, revival in, 190. 
 
 Wright, Hon. Carroll D., quoted on infiuence of Wesley 
 and Methodism, 287. 
 
 Yale College, Alma Mater of Jonathan Edwards, 50; op- 
 posed Whitetield, 98; succumbs to liberalism, 168; re- 
 vivals in the institution through the infiuence of Dr. 
 Timothy Dwight Alluring his presidency of the college, 
 
 189, 190. 
 Young Men's Christian Association, first organized, 207; 
 influence of, in the revival of 1858, 207; Moody's work 
 
344 Index. 
 
 in the organization, 239; invited Moody to Sunder- 
 land, England, 243; Moody makes collections to pro- 
 mote its work in various places, 250, 253, 202, 205; 
 Herbert Spencer presides in meeting for its benefit in 
 Manchester, England, 250. 
 
Ill I III I ll'lFin I «l' n;.";rr-5''«' L.brary 
 
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