THE
GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
BY THE
REv. WILLIAM SPEER, D.D.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
No. 1334 CHESTNUT STREET.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
TIE TRUSTEES OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
WESTCOTT & THOMSON,
Stereotypers and Electrotypers, Philada.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGU
METHOD OF THE ADVANCES OF CHRIST'S' KINGDOM —
PREVIOUS REVIVALS..............5....................  5
CHAPTER II.
PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS  CIVILIZATION - CHASTISEMENT........................................,. 10
CHAPTER III.
BEGINNINGS OF REVIVAL.......................................... 15
CHAPTER IV.
WONDERFUL COMl~MUNION SCENES................    24
CHAPTER V.
ASTONISHING OUTPOURINGS IN THE SOUTH.          38
CHAPTER VI.
GREAT RAINS OF GRACE IN THE EASTERN STATES......... 50
CHAPTER VII.
TESTIMONIES AS TO THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE
REVIVAL OF 1800......................... 56
3




4                     CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGI
THIS REVIVAL A PART OF A WORLD-WIDE ADVANCE OF
THE KINGDOAM OF CHRIST...................................... 69
CHAPTER IX.
POWERFUL EFFECTS OF THE GREAT REVIVAL UPON
OUR CHURCH-LIFE-ORGANIZATION OF THE SEVERAL
BOARDS................................................................    76
CHAPTER X.
THE SIGINS OF A NEW ORDER OF HUMAN AFFAIRS......... 90
CHAPTER XI.
THE LATTER PENTECOST......................................... 96




THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
CHAPTER I;
METHOD OF THE ADVANCES OF CHRIST'S KINGDO.11-PRE VIO US REVIVALS.
IT is most evident that the Christian Church is again upon
the eve of one of those great impulses in the growth of
the Kingdom of God on earth which we commonly entitle
a "reformation "'' or "revival."
The Lord Almighty does not carry forward the growth
of that Kingdom by an even and gradual expansion, which
would leave it to men to claim the glory of it. It advances
like a river, which rarely follows far a right line, which
may, for long distances, be troubled and turbid, but suddenly breaks out at intervals upon its course into broad,
peaceful expansions or lakes, surrounded by scenes of extraordinary fertility and beauty. It grows upon a principle
like that which the Creator has impressed upon many
genera of the vegetable kingdom-grasses, canes, trees-by
a succession of nodes, or axes, or joints; points where, at
considerable distances apart, the compressed life of the
stem breaks out into spreading branches, laden with foliage
and fruit. The ]Kingdom of God has thus ever increased




6         THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
by a succession of sudden and vigorous expansions, whose
intervals have not been without regularity or plan. It is
one of those great expansions of spiritual life which seems
now to be at hand.
From the earliest history of the world these periods of
revival have been distinguished by the visitation of our
race with such judgments as would compel men to think of
their fallen, sinful, helpless, perishing condition; of the infinite power and offended justice of God; of the necessity
of a propitiation and atonement for sin in such ways as He
might offer; and of the duties of repentance, submission,
obedience, and preparation for an account before Him.
They have been ages of wars, pestilence, earthquakes, sudden and vast changes in social order, signs or discoveries in
the heavens. Strange to tell, these judgments have irritated rather than humbled God's enemies, and produced
crimes more outrageous, unbelief more determined, and resistance and persecutions of God's most beloved and faithful messengers and servants.
These great expansions have been attended in the
arrangements of the Divine Ruler by various and munificent
gifts of those agencies of civilization which would facilitate
the spread and increase of the spiritual mercies, and enlarge
the enjoyment and multiply the benefits of them. They
have, therefore, been the world's conspicuous eras of
geographical discovery, of wide-spread commerce, of wealth
in the precious metals, of useful inventions, of social refinement and polish, of remunerative researches of science,
of liberation of thought, and of emancipation of oppressed
races.




ADVANCES OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.               7
The colonization of this republic was induced to a remarkable extent by a great quickening in Europe during
the seventeenth century, which moved multitudes from its
different nations and churches to seek here opportunities
for greater freedom and spirituality of faith and worship.
It was an age of vast commercial enterprise. It was the era
in Great Britain of bloody and protracted civil wars, of
dreadful licentiousness and corruption, of the Great Plague
and the Great Fire of London, in two consecutive years,
1665 and 1666. During it, sounded forth the seraphic
gospel trumpets of Richard Baxter, Philip and Matthew
Henry, John Flavel, Alexander Henderson, John Livingstone and others, whose preaching was accompanied by
amazing scenes of spiritual power. Such was the revival
of the Kirk of Shotts, in which under one sermon five
hundred persons were subdued to Christ.
The influence of this period of revival was felt in the
feeble colonies of America. Since then there have been
several periods specially marked by general revivals of religion. The two which are the most distinguished for the
power with which the Holy Spirit was poured out, for the
distinctness of the concurrent evidences that the work was
from God, and by the beneficent results which followed,
were those of 1730 and of 1800, and the years adjacent.
The first of these revivals was known in the religious
history of the century as "The Great Awakening." It
commenced during the age of Queen Anne, " The Augustan
age of English literature," and also that of Bolingbroke,
Hobbes and many of the bitterest enemies of Christianity,
whose planting bore its natural fruit in the general contempt




8        TIIE GREAT REVIVAL OF lS00.
for religion and morality. But so profound and so extensive was the impression communicated to Christianity by
this quickening from on high that one of our ablest writers
(Isaac Taylor: Wesley and Methodism) says: "In fact,
that great religious movement has, immediately or remotely, so given an impulse to Christian feeling and profession on all sides that it has come to present itself as the
starting-point of our modern religious history. "
And this " religious epoch," beyond any other time, was
that of the rise of modern missions to heathen nations.
The Dutch and Danes and Germans planted the gospel in
many Eastern lands. Schultz translated and printed the
New and parts of the Old Testament in Hindustani, and the
whole Bible and numerous tracts in the Telinga; Ziegenbalg and Grundler did the same for the people of Malabar.
King Frederick IV. of Denmark was thoroughly interested
in the spread of the gospel through the Danish East
Indies, and set apart large funds for this end. The evermemorable missions of the Moravians commenced then.
Christian David and Matthew and Christian Stack set out
for their heroic work in Greenland amidst the January
snows at Hernhut, in 1733, soon followed by the no less
devoted Dober and Nitsehman upon their way to preach
Christ to the degraded black slaves in the West Indies.
And within a few years (1739) Christian Henry Rauch
began to preach in their guttural tongue to the Mohegan
Indians in New York, and planted the town of Bethlehem,
which still remains, in Pennsylvania. The English Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge did much for India
and the East. The Scotch Society for Propagating Chris



ADVANCES OF CHRIST'S KIN'GDO3M.            9
tian Knowledge supported in this country David and John
Brainerd, and afterward aided Dr. E. Wheelock in the Indian school which was the foundation of Dartmouth College.
The population of the American colonies was harassed
at that time by wars with the Indians and with France.
"A remarkable succession of diseases traversed the provinces, or, confined to a few localities, bore off the children
and youth, yet those years were not more remarkable
for unexampled mortality than for unbridled merriment."
Thus God prepared the way for that revival in the New
World of which Jonathan Edwards, Whitfield, William
and Gilbert Tennant, David Brainerd, Samuel Davies and
others were the most remarkable instruments. Edwards
said of it: " It is evident that it is a very great and wonderful and exceedingly glorious work of God. This is certain, that it is a great and wonderful event, a strange
revolution, an unexpected, surprising overturning of things,
suddenly brought to pass, such as has never been seen in
New England, and scarce ever has been heard of in any
land."  It was estimated that this work, in its progress
through the colonies, brought to Christ about one in forty
of their whole population-a proportion which would be
equal to onze milion of the people at present within the
limits of our country.
The second general revival in America, which was the
first in the United States after their independence, was
that which is recognized as " The Great Revival of 1800."
To give some detailed and practical account of it is our
present object. Its beginnings date from the closing years
of the preceding century.




CHAPTER II.
PRO VIDENTIAL PREPARA TIONS —CIVILIZA TIONCHA STISEMEV TS.
THE period of the Great Revival of 1800 was a notable
one in respect to the advances of civilization. The three
voyages of Cook, those of Bougainville, Le Perouse, Krusenstern, Behring and others, had made the most distant
nations known to the people of Europe and America as
they never were before. In France, Germany, Italy, England and the United States, many wonderful discoveries
were made in chemistry, electricity, medicine, mathematics, mechanics and astronomy.  It was the period
when French infidelity, eagerly accepted over Europe,
fruited in the crops of the guillotine, in the abandoned
licentiousness and tiger-like cruelty of the people of France,
in the wars of Napoleon, which were carried on in three
continents and moved the interest of the whole world.
This country was prepared for a universal and profound
religious movement by the bloodshed, trials and bereavements of the eight years' war of the Revolution. The conflicting interests and ideas of the different colonies, even
after the adoption of the Constitution, made thinking men
feel that our republican system was a new and perilous experiment. West of the Allegheny Mountains war with the
10




PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS.               11
the Indian tribes, the frequent massacres of families and
burning of the new homes and hard-won harvests of the
adventurous settlers, the demoniac acts of barbarism committed by renegade white men living with but outdoing
the Indians in such acts, and the almost unrestrained
prevalence of crime, kept the inhabitants in a continual
state of apprehension. A committee of Congress reported
in 1800, in respect to the three States into which it was
proposed to divide the North-west Territory, that "in the
three western countries there has been but one court
having 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 and virtuous persons from
naking settlements in such society. This territory is exposed, as a frontier, to foreign nations, whose agents can
find sufficient interest in exciting or fomenting insurrection
and discontent, as thereby they can more easily divert a
valuable trade in furs from the United States."
Religion and morals were at the lowest ebb they have
ever reached in this country. Large numbers of men released from the army, where the religious influences of the
day were feebly exerted, carried home with them the vices
they had contracted and the infidelity which they imbibed
from their French allies. The leading statesmen were generally the disciples of the school of Voltaire and Count Vol
ney, and many of them proficients in its ribaldry and bawdy
habits. The " Father of his country" was a prominent object
of their intrigues and reproaches. The soul of Washington
was never so near despair for his country as when he was




12        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
then at times overburdened with the responsibilities and
fears arising from such a state of things. Intemperance,
was universal, and indulged in to so terrible a degree of
license as would now seem incredible. Whisky was almost
the sole production of extensive new regions. "A horse
could only carry four bushels of rye, but he could carry the
whisky made from twenty-four bushels." To defend it
from taxation was the cause of the Rebellion of 1794 against
the Federal authority.  "Whisky," said a distinguished
French officer, "is the best part of the American government."  Many of the pulpits of the country were filled by
a formal and worldly ministry, or by men who had fled from
the ecclesiastical censures of the lands across the sea. The
Church was, where it existed, generally conformed to the
gay society about it. The picture of portions of the region
bordering on the Ohio, by Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge, was
applicable to the principal part of the West and South.
He states: "Among the people with whom I was most
conversant there was no other vestige of the Christian religion than a faint observation of Sunday, and that merely as
a day of rest for the aged and a play-day for the young. "
Nor did God leave himself without witness of his displeasure. Some remarkable chastisements were inflicted
upon the nation. One of them was the yellow fever, which
ravaged extensively the Northern as well as the Southern
coasts. Philadelphia was visited five times by it between
1793 and 1802. Other epidemics spread elsewhere, among
the most terrible the small-pox. This strange, hideous and
fatal disease seems in its history almost like a messenger of
wrath sent from God to chastise the world and prepare the




PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATIONS.                13
way for great reformations. The Sandwich Islanders thus
class it with, and name it, "leprosy." It can be traced
back in Eastern Asia to the age corresponding to that of
the judges in Israel. It marched with Mohammedanism
over Asia and Europe-with the Spaniards into the New
World.*  It has been in later times the chief of " the four
great eruptive diseases" which are supposed to cause
" one-ninth of the total mortality" of mankind.  (Rayer:
Diseases of the Skin.) At the close of the last century so
prevalent did it become that the deaths from it as compared
with those from all other diseases increased twenty-five per
cent.  Sir Gilbert Blaine says that "in the year 1800 the
small-pox had broken out twenty times in the Channel fleet
alone." But God mercifully interposed: first, inoculation,
which was brought to England in 1772, and then the sovereign specific, vaccination, discovered by Dr. Edward
Jenner in 1796, set bounds to its fury.
The General Assembly in its pastoral letter of 1798
uses the language of great dejection, alarm and expostulation in addressing " the people in their communion."
They say "formidable innovations and convulsions in
Europe threaten destruction to morals and religion; scenes
of devastation and bloodshed, unexampled in the history
of modern nations, have convulsed the world, and our
country is threatened with similar calamities."  " We perceive, with pain and fearful apprehension, a general dereliction of religious principle and practice among our fellowcitizens, a visible and prevailing impiety and contempt for
* It was estimated that three and a half millions of the people of
Mexico were swept off by this awful scourge.




14       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
the laws and institutions of religion, 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 proportioned to our declension in
religion. Profaneness, pride, luxury, injustice, intemperance, lewdness and every species of debauchery and loose
indulgence greatly abound." They address to the churches
some most solemn exhortations, and appoint the last Thursday of August as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer,
upon which this letter is to be read from every pulpit, accompanied with suitable discourses from the ministers.




CHAPTER III.
BEGINNINGS OF RE VI VAL.
IT was by the permission of such general gloom, apostasy
and profligacy that the Holy Spirit was showing to the
sincere followers of God the evil and deadly nature of sin,
their own utter helplessness and their dependence upon
God alone for salvation, and was compelling ~them to cry
before him with abasement and importunity for the gifts
of his grace. And were prayers ever lifted before him in
such abasement, sense of need, confidence in his mercy and
reliance on the all-sufficient atonement and intercession of
Jesus Christ, to which abundant answers were not given?
It is "when the enemy comes in like a flood," and threatens
to overrun and sweep away all that is precious, that " the
Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard," causes the trumpet
to be sounded, rallies his followers, and bestows the most
sudden, overwhelming and glorious triumphs. So Israel of
old ever found; so we find it now.
It is to be remarked distinctly, for the comfort and encouragement of the portions of the Church whose circumstances are most trying, that the scenes which, during these
darkest years of our country's history, were visited by
marks of God's favor were chiefly amidst the new settlements, where the greatest hardships and dangers were ex15




16       THE  GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
perienced, and the scattered and tried families of his followers most needed, and most earnestly sought, his help.
The Great Revival of 1800 affected the whole country, but
was most powerfully felt in the region extending from the
Allegheny Mountains westward to the borders of civilization, and in the Southern States.
There were occasional revivals during the latter years of
the Revolution, and subsequently in several parts of the
country, but preparatory showers of the great rain may be
most distinctly traced in a succession of visitations of divine
grace upon the churches of the new settlements of Western
Pennsylvania. The people of that region were chiefly Presbyterians frQm the north of Ireland and from Scotland.
"They were (says Dr. E. H.. Gillett, in his History of the
Presbyterian Church) by no means the miscellaneous driftwood which emigration usually floats off from older communities to new settlements. Among them were men of
culture, and a large proportion of them were characterized by stern religious principle. They were men whose
energy and vigor were developed by the circumstances of
their lot, and who, in grappling with the forest and repelling or guarding against savage attacks, were made more
sagacious, fearless and self-reliant."  Their "hearts beat
as true to the cause of freedom, intelligence, morals and
religion as any in the world."
The following account of these first beginnings of the
wonderful work of grace is given by the late Rev. Joseph
Stevenson, of Ohio:
" It may almost be said that the Presbyterian Church in
Western Pennsylvania was born in a revival.  In 1778




BEGINNINGS OF REVIVAL.                17
Vance's Fort, into which the families living adjacent had
been driven by the Indians, was the scene of a remarkable
work. There was but one pious man in the fort, Joseph
Patterscn, a layman, an earnest and devoted Christian,
whose zeal had not waned even amid the storm and terrors
of war; and during the long days and nights of their besiegement he talked with his careless associates of an enemy
more to be dreaded than the Indian, and a death more terrible than by the scalping-knife. As they were shut up
within very narrow limits, his voice, though directed to one
or two, could easily be heard by the whole company, and
thus his personal exhortations became public addresses.
Deep seriousness filled every breast, and some twenty persons were there led to Christ. These were a short time
subsequently formed into the Cross Creek church, which
built its house of worship near the fort, and had as its
pastor for thirty-three years one of these converts, the Rev.
Thomas Marquis.
" From 1781 to 1787 a more extensive work of grace
was experienced in the churches of Cross Creek, Upper
Buffalo, Chartiers, Pigeon Creek, Bethel, Lebanon, Ten
Mile, Cross Roads and Mill Creek, during which more
than a thousand persons were brought into the kingdom
of Christ. Considering the unsettled state of the public
mind at the close of the Revolutionary war, the constant
anxiety and watchfulness against the incursions of hostile
Indians, the toils and hardships incident to new settlements, and the scarcity of ministers, this was a signal work
of the Spirit, greatly strengthening the feeble churches."
A fuller narrative of these more limited efftqsions of the
2




18      THE GREAT REVIVAl. OF 1800.
Holy Spirit was prepared by a committee of the Presbytery,
and published in the Western. Missionary.Magazine, which
was begun in the town of Washington, Pa., in 1803.
"In the latter part of the year 1781, the Lord began a
gracious work in the congregations of Cross Creek and
Upper Buffalo, under the ministry of the Rev. Joseph
Smith, about one year after he took the pastoral care of
these congregations. During the winter season, week-day
and night sermons and meetings for social worship were
frequent, the assemblies numerous and attentive, and a
considerable number under deep convictions, with fiequent
instances of new awakenings. The summer following was
remarkable for the increase of the number of the awakened,
although most labored long without relief. The few pious
persons who were in these infant congregations were at this
time earnestly engaged for additions to their number, and
felt something of the pangs of travailing in birth for souls;
much of the spirit of prayer was poured out. In the latter
part of this summer the work became more glorious and
comfortable; numbers of the distressed souls obtained sweet
deliverance; and at the tinle the Lord's Supper was administered in Buffalo, in the fall of 1783, about one hundred of
the subjects of this good work were admitted to communion, and many were awakened on that solemn occasion.
The awakening and hopeful conversion of sinners continued
and increased through three or four years; nor was there
much appearance of a decline for six or seven years after it
began.
"Within this gracious season there were many sweet,
solemn sacramental occasions. The most renarkai ble of




BEGINN'INGS OF REVIVAL.               19
these was at Cross Creek, in the spring of the year 1787.
It was a very refreshing season to the pious, a time of deliverance to a number of the distressed and of awakening
to many. The Monday evening was peculiarly and awfully
solemn; some hundreds were bowed down and silently
weeping, and a few crying out in anguish of soul. After
the solemn dismission of the assembly most of the people
remained on the ground; the scene was very remarkable;
the pious were generally joyful and lively, sinners greatly
alarmed, and many deeply distressed. The people, unwilling to part, did not leave the place till an hour or more in
the night, when they parted with an appointment to meet
there again the next morning.  Tuesday was indeed a solemn day; it was spent chiefly in exhortations and prayers
by the Rev. Mlessrs. Smith, Dod and Cornwell.  The
effects of this gracious visitation were very comnfortable,
producing a good harvest of souls. Upward of fifty in these
congregations were added to the church at the communion
the next fall.
"Nearly about the same time in which this gracious
work began in these congregations, the divine influences
were also poured out upon the congregations of Chartiers
and Pigeon Creek, under the ministry of the Rev. John
5MIcMillan; many were awakened, and the pious much revived and quickened. There were a goodly number of
judicious Christians in these congregations who actively
stepped forward in their proper places, and were very helpful in carrying on the good work. As many attended from
considerable distances, with a great thirst for ordinances, it
was thought expedient to have social meetings for prayer




20        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
and exhortation on the Sabbath nights; they generally continued all the night; many attended, and conviction and
conversion work went graciously on. Frequently the exercised could not suppress their feelings of joy or distress,
but gave them vent in groans and cries. There were also
frequently week-day and night sermons and societies in different parts of the congregations. Thus this good work
went on for several years, and it is believed that many were
brought savingly to close with Christ in these congregations; and it is evident, from a trial of near twenty years,
that the work is real and genuine with respect to some
hundreds in those two charges above stated, many of whom
are now faithful leaders, zealous and active Christians and
pillars in the church of Christ.
" In the same time whilst this gracious work was going
on in those places, the Lord also poured out his Spirit
on several other neighboring congregations, particularly
Bethel and Lebanon, under the ministry of the Rev. John
Clarke; Ten Mile, under the ministry of the Rev. Thaddeus Dod; and King's Creek and Mill Creek, then vacant
congregations. In all of these places the power of God
was graciously displayed, and many souls gathered in who
have since given evidence in their lives and conversation
that the work with them was a reality and of divine original.
" We are able to state, from particular acquaintance and
frequent conversation with some hundreds of those who
were exercised during this happy season of gracious visitation in all the above places, that in general their distress
arose fromn a deep sense of the contrariety of their hearts
and lives to the law of God, and the awful wages of sin,




BEGINNINGS OF REVIVAL.                21
which they saw they were in imminent danger of receiving,
of their utter indisposition to turn to God, to love his law,
or embrace Jesus Christ, by reason of the hardness of their
hearts, blindness of their minds and enmity against God.
The peace and consolations of those who obtained relief
did not arise from a view of either their hearts or lives
being less offensive to God, or from their having done any
thing recommending or entitling them to the divine notice
or favor, nor merely froln a persuasion of God's having
pardoned their sins, but from a scriptural discovery of the
plan of salvation by free, sovereign grace, through the
obedience, sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, the Godman, which they viewed suitable to their perishing condition, and to every valuable purpose; and they found
their wills gained over to the cordial choice of this plan,
and that their souls became delighted with the character
and holy law of God.
" In the year 1795 there was a gracious shower of the
divine influence in the congregation of Chartiers, which
occasioned a considerable reviving and ingathering of souls.
In this visitation the Academy at Canonsburg shared
largely. About forty-five were added to the Church.
"In the year 1799 refreshing showers of divine influence were poured on many congregations in the bounds of
our Presbytery, in which several hundreds were added to
the Church.
" Those congregations which had pastors very generally
shared in this gracious visit, and also some that were
vacant were refreshed and strengthened.
" In each of the above mentioned seasons of gracious vis



22        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
itation, and in the several places mentioned, numbers discountenanced and opposed the good work; but very few
publicly, or with such weight as to occasion any considerable disturbance or difficulty.
" This work throughout was generally carried on in the
more ordinary or mild and moderate manner. Although
convictions were deep and pungent, the sense of sin, guilt
and danger very affecting, and the apprehensions of divine
wrath distressing, yet they were not attended with any
extraordinary bodily affections, but in few, if any, instances.
The work was also remarkably free from enthusiasm, wild
imaginations, and disorderly, hurtful irregularities.  Although there have been some instances of apostasy, yet it
must be remarked, to the praise of free grace, that these
have been but few amongst those respecting whom their
pious friends and the officers of the Church entertained a
favorable opinion that they had  been the subjects of
saving grace, and who were admitted to the communion of
the Church.
" In the interims of the gracious visitations which have
been noticed there were some sad degrees of declension;
perhaps more especially and generally after the last mentioned season, in 1799, when the graceless became more
bold in sin and impiety, the floods of vanity and carnality
appeared likely to carry all before them; most of the pious
became very weak and feeble in the cause of Christ, much
buried in and carried away with the things and pursuits
of the world, and in some places a spirit of contention and
animosity crept in, which appeared to lead into a great
degree of contempt of ordinances and government in the




BEGINN'INGS OF REVIVAL.                23
church and in families. Here, however, we are again called
to remark, to the praise of free grace, that God still so kept
his hand about his Church, his cause and his people that
those means and ordinances which God had peculiarly
countenanced and made effectual in his work were still
generally maintained. The ministers in general were enabled faithfully to declare the counsel of God, and in plainness, with honesty and simplicity, to hold forth the doctrines of grace, and there was generally considerable soleimnity in the time of dispensing the word and ordinances,
but the effects appeared not to be abiding, save with a few.
MIeetings for social worship, which the Lord very specially
owned and blessed in the times of reviving, were, in the
darkest times, in most places kept up, though not so frequent nor so generally attended. The meeting for concert
prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit of revival of religion, on the first Tuesday in every quarter of the year, was
cordially entered into by the Ohio Presbytery, and practiced
generally throughout their bounds since the beginning of
the year 1796. Thus there was, for the most part, some attention to the means kept up, though, alas! too generally
they appeared as barren ordinances."




CHAPTER IV.
WONDERFUL COMM1UNION SCENES.
THE  committee of Presbytery, in the Jlagazaie pre
viously mentioned, describes some scenes at communions of the churches in Washington County, Pennsylvania,
which seemed like a renewal of the Day of Pentecost, and
have rarely had a parallel in any subsequent age.
"About the latter end of the year 1801, and beginning
of 1802, there was a remarkable attendance upon ordinances; meetings for the worship of God, both public and
social, were generally crowded, and there appeared an increasing attention to the word and great solemnity in the
assemblies. The people of God became more sensible of
and affected with the low state of religion, and the dangerous, perishing condition of sinners. It appeared that God
made use of the intelligence we had of the revival of religion in other places to excite a longing and praying for the
Lord's returning with power to our languishing churches,
that we might experience the displays of his power and
grace which he was making in other parts. Desire and
prayer for this great favor increased through the following
winter in many of our congregations, and in the spring
and first part of the summer of 1802 there was a considerable rising of expectation that the Lord would not alto24




WONDERFUL COMMUNION SCENES.               25
gether forsake or pass us by, but that he would yet favor
us with a gracious visitation; and indeed we were blest
with some tokens of his presence in his ordinances. Not
only the children of God were more quickened and aroused,
but also in many instances there appeared to be an alarm
and some concern amongst unregenerate sinners. These
appearances were considerably increased at the time of the
sacramental seasons, more especially perhaps at Cross
Creek and Lower Buffalo toward the last of June. On
both of these occasions the children of' God were much
quickened and revived, numbers of sinners brought under
serious concern, and some hopefully led to rest on Christ.
On the Monday in particular at Lower Buffalo there was
evidence of the presence and power of God. It was difficult
to part after two discourses were delivered. The preaching appeared to come home to the heart with power, and
singing a parting hymn at the conclusion greatly affected
mlany. The pious appeared to go away from this place with
lively expectations that the time to favor this part of our
Zion was drawing near. From this time it appeared that
almost every meeting, sermon or society, through the
divine blessing, produced new effects, particularly leading
to the work of examination and inquiry into the grounds
of controversy which prevented the gracious visitation of
the Lord, and exciting to more earnest wrestling and
pleading with God for the effusion of his Spirit and display of his power and grace; and it was evident that for
this purpose a spirit of prayer and supplication was given
to many. Thus it appears that the Lord was, through the
summer, preparing his way for his coming to this part of




26        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
his church, to make those displays of his power and grace
which we have since witnessed and experienced.
" In the month of September, 1802, the Lord began in a
glorious manner to show his stately steppings in the sanctuaries of his grace. At several sacramental occasions in
that month there were considerable evidences of the gracious presence of God, and of the operations of his Holy
Spirit. But the first extraordinary manifestations of the
Divine power were made in the congregation of the Three
Springs, part of the charge of the Rev. Elisha Macurdy,
at the time of the administration of the Lord's Supper, on
the fourth Sabbath of September, 1802. For some weeks
before, there had been in this congregation more appearance of solemnity and serious exercise than usual. There
had been also, among the pious in both congregations, for
some time, an uncommon engagedness in pleading for the
divine presence on that occasion. It is thought not improper to mention, for the encouragement of others in
future, that an agreement was made and attended to by
them  to spend a certain time, about sun-setting, on each
Thursday, in secret prayer, each by themselves, to plead
with God for his gracious presence and the outpouring of
his Spirit on that occasion. This was done for some weeks
before the Sacrament. On the Sabbath immediately preceding the communion there was considerable evidence of'
the powerful presence of God, particularly toward the close
of the afternoon sermon. When the congregation was disnlissed, about fifty persons continued upon the ground, appeared unwilling to go away, and spent the most of the
nighlt in social worship.




WONDERFUL COMMIUNION SCENES.             27
"On Thursday following, which was observed as a fast in
preparation for the Lord's Supper, the impressions still increased. Society was appointed in the evening; a considerable number attended, and before worship began two
young persons, who had retired to the woods to pray, fell
to the ground, unable to bear up any longer under the distressing anguish of a wounded spirit.  Their cries for
mercy were very affecting. After some time two persons
went to them and inquired the cause of their distress. Their
reply was, that they were exposed to the wrath of God.
When Christ was proposed to them as a remedy, their reply was, that their hearts were at enmity against God, and
they could not accept of him, although they were sure they
would be damned without an interest in him; besides, they
had so long rejected salvation, they were now afraid God
would not have mercy on them. Most of the time from
that until Saturday at one o'clock was spent in conversing
with the distressed. Their general complaint was a sense
of guilt, especially in rejecting Christ; hardness of heart
and inability to help themselves; and all acknowledged the
justice of God in their condemnation. As yet there were
no instances of deliverance.
"' Saturday was a time of gracious influences; many more
were brought under concern. Mlost of that night was spent
in social worship, and the work remarkably increased until
Monday morning. When the congregation was dismissed,
some hundreds remained; several attempts were made to
part, but all in vain. They remained all night on the
ground; and this night far exceeded any that had been before. About the break of day on Tuesday morning there




28       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
were six persons who gave evidence of obtaining hope in
Jesus. About eleven o'clock the assembly dispersed. On
the Thursday following the people of the Cross Road congregation, the other part of Mr. Macurdy's charge, met for
social worship, it being their monthly society day. This
was also a time of God's power. There were many instances of new awakening. They continued all the night
in religious exercises."
" On Tuesday, the 5th of October, 1802, the day of concerted prayer, the Lord appeared, by the powerful operation
of the Spirit, in the congregation of Cross Creek, the charge
of the Rev. Thomas Marquis.  The people were solemn
and attentive through the day, and in the evening, when
dismissed, they appeared backward to go away. After
part were gone and many standing about the doors, one
of the elders who was in the house went to the door and
spoke a few words respecting their situation, and in a few
minutes the young people were all in tears. They then
joined in singing a hymn and in prayer. By this time some
of those who had gone away returned. They went all again
into the house, candles were brought, and the night was
spent in prayer, conversation and praise, until two o'clock
in the morning. During this time many cried out in the
anguish of their souls, bitterly lamenting their misimprovement of time and abuse of mercies. They, in a very moving
manner, expressed their sense of sin and guilt, the hardness
of their hearts and the justice of God in passing them by
neglected in this their deep distress; they freely acknowledged their bitter malice and violent opposition which they
had felt and indulged in their hearts against God's work




WONDERFUL COMMUNION SCENES.              29
and people. Some confessed that they had come in the
most contemptuous manner to the house of God that day,
with a professed intention to get the people of God to pray
for them; but were then astonished that God had not
made them monuments of his divine vengeance, upon account of their rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, and other
heaven-daring wickedness.
"The next day there was a meeting on the outline of the
congregation, adjoining  Mr. Macurdy's congregation. The
people were silent in the time of divine service, with a few
exceptions; but when the congregation was dismissed the
effects of God's power more visibly appeared. Many then
cried out in great agony of soul; many more expressed their
concern by a desire of social worship that night, in which
they were gratified. The house, though of a middle size,
was not sufficient to contain the people, on which account
many went away after a short sermon. The exercises of
prayer and praise, with frequent exhortations, continued the
whole night, except two short intervals spent in conversation with the distressed. This was a very solemn season;
the people were almost universally bowed, while some appeared to be upon the brink of despair. Some few obtained
relief before day, who have since given evidence of serious
and comfortable exercise. A goodly number who since
that time have been admitted to the table of the Lord
have dated their first deep and abiding convictions from
that season. It was a night to be had in everlasting remembrance, for which it is hoped many will praise God
eternally. At this time some began to speak the language




30       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
of Canaan with solemn sweet serenity of mind, and in
heavenly heart-affecting accents.
" On the Sabbath following, which was the 10th day of
October, 1802, the Lord's Supper was administered at
Racoon congregation, the charge of the Rev. Joseph Patterson. As many as the house could contain attended to
social worship and preaching throughout the night. Divine
worship was also carried on a considerable part of the night
at the tent; many new awakenings took place through the
night, and the social exercises continued until the public
worship began on Monday. Through this day many more
were made to cry out in agony of soul, unable to sit or
stand; some of them, very notorious in vanity and profanity, were struck to the ground and constrained to cry out
aloud in bitter anguish of soul,'Undone! undone! for ever
undone!' Some who were considerably advanced in years
were in this situation, as well as many younger, who were
crying for mercy, some of whom had been ring-leaders in
wickedness and impiety, conducting with the greatest insolence and contempt. Toward evening the exercise was particularly solemn and powerful; several persons of Racoon
congregation were at this time awakened; few or none of
this congregation had appeared to be awakened before.
"The last Sabbath in October the Lord's Supper was
administered at Cross Roads. A great multitude of people
collected; many from a great distance, accommodated with
provisions to continue on the ground during the whole of
the solemnity. There were thirty-two wagons. On Sab-,lath day and night there was much rain and snow; yet the
1eoli'e imostly continued at the place night and day until




WONDERFUL COIMMUNION SC(ENES.            31
Tuesday morning. Nine ministers attended. The meeting-house, though large, being insufficient to contain half
the people, the Sacrament was administered at the tent
to about eight hundred communicants-of whom forty-one
were then admitted for the first time-of the Cross Roads
and Three Springs congregations. Though there was a
continual fall of rain this large assembly attended with.
undisturbed composure.  In order to accommodate the
multitude two action sermons were preached. The communicants then removed to the communion table at the
tent. A great many were affected, and some had to be
assisted to move out.
"Mlinisters still preached successively in the house
throughout the day. Prayers and exhortations were continued all night in the meeting-house, except at short
intervals, when a speaker's voice could not be heard for
the cries and groans of the distressed.
" On Monday three ministers preached at different places,
one in the house and two out in the encampments. This
was a very solemn day, particularly in the house. After
public worship was concluded and the people were preparing to remove, the scene was very affecting. The house was
thronged full, and when some of those without were about
to go away, they found that part of their families were in
the house, and some of them lying in distress, unable to
remove. This prevented a general removal; and though a
number went away, the greater part remained. About the
time of the departure of those who went away, the work
became more powerful than it had been at any time befbre,
and numbers who had prepared to go were constrained to




32        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
stay. It was a memorable time of the displays of Divine
power and grace through the whole night. Many of the
young people were remarkably exercised, and frequently
addressed others about the perishing condition they were
in —the glories of the Saviour —the excellency and suitableness of the plan of salvation —and warned, invited and
pressed sinners to come to Christ; all this in a manner
quite astonishing for their years. Numbers of old experienced Christians also were particularly exercised, were
much refreshed and comforted, and affectingly recommended the Lord Jesus and his religion to those around
them.  About sunrise, after a time of solemn, sweet
exercise, the congregation was dismissed, and soon after
dispersed.
" Shortly before this sacramental season, numbers of the
exercised in Cross Creek and other congregations obtained
somle relief to their troubled minds. Opportunities were
taken to converse with them, and a number were found to
have gotten ease and obtained hopes which did not appear
to be well founded. This excited some alarm among the
pious and discerning, and gave occasion to make the most
careful discrimination between conviction and conversiona true and a false peace-when treating the subject of soul
exercise, both in public administration and private conversation, and to guard against error, delusion and enthusiasm. And here we must acknowledge, to the glory of
sovereign grace, that God owned and blessed feeble attempts of this kind to rectify the mistakes of poor young
sinners caught in Satan's net.  In some instances three
or four persons have on Sabbath evenings and other occa



WONDERFUL COMMUNION SCENES.             33
sions acknowledged their deceptions, and blessed God for
discovering to them their error; and their convictions
returned and became more rational, deep and abiding,
and their exercises more scriptural.
" The gracious manifestations which the Lord made of
his presence on this precious season at the Cross Roads,
and his countenancing the appointment by awakening
many who came fiom distant congregations, induced the
making of an appointment for the administration of the
Lord's Supper again, at Upper Buffalo, on the second Sabbath of November.
"In the interim the work considerably increased where
it had been, and began in other places on the return of
those who had been to the Cross Roads, of whom many
had been made the subjects of the work while there. The
sweet savor and the power of the Holy Spirit continued
with them when they returned home, and they were made
the happy instruments of awakening and engaging others
in the congregations where they dwelt.
"On Saturday, the 13th day of November, 1802, a
greater concourse of people than had ever been seen before
at a meeting for divine worship in this country assembled
at Upper Buffalo meeting-house, in the congregation of
the IRev. John Anderson, and formed an encampment in a
semi-circle around the front of the tent, in a shady wood.
The greater part had by this time learned from experience
the necessity of coming prepared to encamp on the ground
during the solemnity, as so many persons in distress could
not be removed to lodgings in the evening; nor could such
a multitude be accommodated in a neighborhood of the
3




34        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
most hospitable inhabitants, taking all home to lodgings.
On this occasion it would lhave required one hundred
houses, with perhaps one hundred persons to each house.
But the people had been so engaged that they were not
disposed to separate in the evenings; therefore many
brought wagons (about fifty of them) with their families
and provisions, with a great number of tents, which they
pitched for their accommodation. The public exercises of
devotion commenced at two o'clock, with sermons both in
the meeting-house and at the tent, and were continued,
with but short intermissions, until Tuesday evening. Fifteen ministers were present, all members of the Synod
of Pittsburg, and with cordial harmony took part in the
various labors of the solemnn season. The administration
of the word and ordinances was accompanied with an extraordinary effusion of Divine influence on the hearts of the
hearers. Some hundreds were, during the season, convicted of their sin and misery. Preaching, exhortations,
prayers and praises, were continued alternately throughout
the whole night in the meeting-house, which was crowded
full, and also part of the night at the tent.
"On the Sabbath morning, action sermons were preached
in the meeting-house and at the tent; and after the way
was prepared at both places, the communicants fiom the
house repaired to the communion table at the tent, where
the holy ordinance was administered to about nine hundred
and sixty communicants. The solenin scene was conducted
with as much regularity as usual, and with much solemnity
and affection. The multitude of non-communicants who
could not hear at the tent were called to the meeting-house




WONDERFUL COIMMUNION SCENES.               35
and to a shady grove, where they were addressed by several
ministers during the administration of the ordinance.
"This night was spent as the former had been; perhaps
the only difference that appeared was in the numbers who
were visibly pierced to the heart, and made to cry out, What
shall we (o.? and in the degree of their exercise, both of
which greatly exceeded those of the preceding night.
"Between midnight and day-break, after a short intermission of public worship, an exhortation was given to the
distressed, directing them to Christ, and setting forth the
fulllness of his grace and suitableness to all their wants.
" On Monday the whole assembly was addressed by one
speaker from the tent. They were composed, solemn and
attentive during the time of public worship; but after the
blessing was pronounced, many were struck down in all
parts of the congregation, and many more sat still, silently
weeping over their miserable state as sinners exposed to
eternal wrath. Many of God's dear children were filled
with peace in believing. They saw the spiritual glory
which the gracious presence of God had given to the
solemnity; they rejoiced in hope, and waited to see and
feel more of the efficacy of free grace.  Others, sorrowful
and thirsting for the water of life, wished to stay a little
longer at the pool. The ministers, therefore, determined
not to leave them, but to labor with diligence while God
was making the word and ordinances effectual to the conviction and conversion of sinners. Not a few were awakened to a lively sense of their sin during the evening and
night, who have since, we hope, obtained pardon and
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  The ex.



36        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
crcises were continued until after sunrise on Tuesday
morning, when the assembly was solemnly dismissed, and
began with apparent reluctance to prepare to disperse.
Notwithstanding that they had continued so long and
rested little, it appeared to be very difficult to separate and
leave the place.  After some time the most removed,
except the people of the congregation, who still tarried,
lingering at the place where so much of God's power had
been manifested to their eyes and in their consciences.
Numbers, who had gone home to provide refreshments for
their friends, returned.  Still they could not part. All
again collected in the meeting-house, where this day also
was spent till evening in preaching, exhortation and prayer.
The exercise was very powerful, and numbers were affected
who appeared to be unmoved before."
One of the most powerful sermons on this Pentecostal
occasion was an exposition of the second Psalm, by Rev.
Elisha Macurdy, which was long known in the region
round as "Macurdy's war sermon."  "The scene," said
Rev. Thomas Hunt, who was in the wagon from which it
was preached, " appeared to me like the close of a battle
in which every tenth man had been fatally wounded. The
recollection thrills through my soul while I write." (Rev.
lDr. D. Elliott: Life of Macurdy.)
The churches from Lake Erie southward along the
western side of the Allegheny Mountains, and through the
few settled portions of the North-west Territory, which
about this time were formed into the State of Ohio, felt the
swelling of the river of the water of life. The first Presbyterian Church formed in E-tstern Oh'io was blessed, accord



WONDERFUL COMMUNION SCENES.   37
ing to this narrative of the Presbytery of Ohio, with a share
of the refreshing influences.  It says: " In the latter end
of the year 1798 the Lord poured out his Spirit on a new
settlement, on the north-west of the Ohio river, between
the Great and the Little Beavers, since formed into two
congregations under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas
E. Hughes, under whose first ministrations amongst them
this good work began. The operations of the Holy Spirit
in this place were very powerful, and in many instances
hopefully successful. In a short space of time a considerable number, we trust, were made the subjects of a saving
work of grace. In this work an English school in that
place shared very graciously. The youth or children who
attended it were generally exercised for a considerable
time, so much so that all play and diversions were stopped,
and the intervals were spent in reading, conversing about
their souls' concerns, singing hymns or retiring into the
woods to pray. It is believed that eighteen out of thirty
in this school were made the subjects of divine grace. In
the August following, the Sacrament of the Supper was
administered in that place, which was the first time on
that side of the Ohio river,* when about thirty of the subjects of this work were admitted to communion."
- This refers only to South-eastern Ohio. The Rev. Daniel Story
was preaching and no doubt administering the Sacraments of the
Church at Marietta and vicinity, in 1791; Rev. James Kemper, at
Cincinnati, in the same year; and Rev. William Speer, who had resigned prospects of much usefulness in Chambersburg and elsewhere,
and accepted of an invitation to erect the standard of the Cross at
Chillicothe, which was then the seat of government of the whole of
the North-west Territory, planted the first church there in 1798.




CHAPTER V.
ASTONISHING OUTPOURILVGS IN TIHE SOUTI.
I HE early settlers of Kentucky were a wild race, many
of them but little instructed in the word of God, and
paying little respect to the ordinances of the gospel. The
godly David Rice, who went there in 1783, says of them
(Menzoirs), "I found scarcely one man, and but few
women, who supported a credible profession of religion.
Some were grossly ignorant of the first principles of religion; some were given to quarreling and fighting, some
to intemperance, and perhaps most of them totally ignorant of the forms of religion in their own houses." And
yet " many of them produced certificates of having been in
full communion and in good standing in the churches from
which they had emigrated." Here was a material capable
of being kindled into the most violent excitement by a certain measure of the genuine influences of the Holy Spirit,
alarming their fears, or showing them their backslidden
state, and peculiarly liable, through ignorance, to plunge
into fanatical errors.
Some of the scenes witnessed in Kentucky are almost beyond our conception. An eyewitness of a vast meeting at
Cane Ridge, in August, 1801, to which people had come
from  all quarters of the State, even the distance of two
38




OUTPOURIN-GS IN THIE SOUTH.            39
hundred miles, and from the settlements north of the
Ohio, thus describes it: "We arrived upon the ground,
and here a scene presented itself to my mind, not only
novel and unaccountable, but awful beyond description. A
vast crowd, supposed by some to have amounted to twentyfive thousand, was collected together. The noise was like
the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed
to be agitated by a storm. I counted seven preachers,
all preaching at one time, some on stumps, others on
wagons."  (Rev. J. B. Finley, Aultobiography.)  The
shouting, shrieking, praying and nervous spasms of this
vast multitude produced an unearthly and almost terrible
spectacle. The religious exercises on the ground were continued from Friday morning until the ensuing Wednesday
evening, day and night, without intermission.  Heavy
rains fell during that time, apparently without being noticed by the people, though few were protected by any
covering.
From such a tempest of religious emotions much evil resulted.  Campbellism  and Universalismn have been cast
forith like a scum. The Presbyterian Church itself was
rent asunder, and the " Cumberland " branch of it, holding semi-Arminian doctrine, and licensing uneducated men
to preach, arose there. And these masses of people were
convulsed by inexplicable nervous affections of a spasmodic
nature. Still, from the inflammable chaff much wheat was
sifted, which has borne precious seed and been gathered
with rejoicing.
A fair conception of the meetings in the more sober
parts of the South-west may be obtained from the following




40        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
letter, written by Rev. Jamzes McGready, descriptive of
some held in Tennessee:
"The present summer (viz., 1800) has been the most
glorious time that our guilty eyes have ever beheld. All
the blessed displays of Almighty power and grace, all the
sweet gales of the divine Spirit and soul-reviving showers
of the blessings of heaven, which we enjoyed before, and
which we considered wonderful beyond conception, were
but like a few scattering drops before the mighty rain
which Jehovah has poured out like a mighty river upon
this our guilty, unworthy country. The Lord has indeed
showed himself a prayer-hearing God; he has given his
people a praying spirit and a lively faith, and then he has
answered their prayers far beyond their highest expectations. This wilderness and solitary place has been made
glad, this dreary desert now rejoices and blossoms like the
rose; yea, it blossoms abundantly, and rejoices even with
joy and singing.
"At Gasper river, on the fourth Sabbath of June, a surprising multitude of people collected, many from a very
great distance, even from the distance of thirty to sixty,
and one hundred miles. On Friday and Saturday there
was a very solemn attention. On Saturday evening, after
the congregation was dismissed, as a few serious, exercised
Christians were sitting conversing together, and appeared
to be more than commonly engaged, the flame started from
them and overspread the whole house until every person
appeared less or more engaged. The greater part of the
ministers and several hundreds of the people remained at
the meeting-house all night. Through every part of the




OUTPOURINGS IN THE SOUTH.             41
multitude there could be found some awakened souls struggling in the pangs of the new birth, ready to faint and die
for Christ, almost upon the brink of desperation. Others
again were just lifted from the horrible pit, and beginning to
lisp the first notes of the new song, and to tell the sweet
wonders which they saw in Christ. Ministers and experienced Christians were everywhere engaged praying, exhorting, conversing and trying to lead inquiring souls to the
Lord Jesus. In this exercise the night was spent till near
the break of day. The Sabbath was a blessed day in every
sense of the word. The groans of awakened sinners could
be heard all over the house during the morning sermon,
but by no means so as to disturb the assembly. It was a
comfortable time with many at the table. Mr. McGee
preached in the evening upon the account of Peter's
sinking in the waves. In the application of his sermon
the power of God seemed to shake the whole assembly.
Toward the close of the sermon the cries of the distressed
arose almost as loud as his voice. After the congregation
was dismissed the solemnity increased till the greater part
of the multitude seemed engaged in the most solemn manner. No person appeared to wish to go home; hunger and
sleep seemed to affect nobody.  Eternal things were the
vast concern. Here awakening and converting work was
to be found in every part of the multitude, and even some
things strangely and wonderfully new to me. Sober professors, who had been communicants for many years, now
lying prostrate on the ground, crying out in such language
as this:'I have been a sober professor, I have been a
communicant; 0, I have been deceived, I have no re



42        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
ligion.' The greater part of the multitude continued at
the meeting-house all night, and no person appeared uneasy for food or sleep.
"On Monday a vast concourse of people came together.
This was another day of the Son of' Man. With propriety
we could adopt the language of the patriarch, and say,'The Lord is here: how dreadful is this place! It is none
other but the house of God and the very gate of heaven!'
Two powerful sermons were preached by Messrs. McGee
and Hodge. The almighty power of God attended the
word to the hearts of many, and a universal solemnity
overspread the whole assembly. When the congregation
was dismissed, no person seemed to wish to leave the place.
The solemnity increased, and conviction seemed to spread
firom  heart to heart. Little children, young men and
women, and old gray-headed people, persons of every description, white and black, were to be found in every part
of the multitude, pricked to the heart with clear, rational,
scriptural convictions, crying out for mercy in the most extreme distress; whilst every now and then we could find
one and another delivered from their burden of sin and
guilt by sweet believing views of the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.  In such exercises the multitude continued at the meeting-house till Tuesday morning after
sunrise, when they broke up after they. were dismissed by
prayer, and indeed the circumstance of their parting added
to the solemnity of the occasion. The number that, we
hope, were savingly brought to Christ on this occasion were
forty-five persons."
The population of North Carolina was largely Presby



OUTPOURINGS IN THE SOUTH.               43
terian. The persecutions at the beginning of the last century drove many of the Scotch to take refuge in the two
Carolinas. There they cherished a love of freedom, made
the more ardent by the memory of their own sufferings.
There was a warm religious sympathy between them and
the Presbyterians of Pennsylvania.  Ministers often passed
firom the one section to the other.
In 1788, James McGready, a pupil of Dr. MIc3Iillan, of
Canonsburgh, was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of
Redstone. He possessed much of his teacher's strong and
energetic character and fervent zeal, kindled by the fire of
the earlier revivals. He soon afterward went to North Carolina, where he had spent some of his earlier years, and
commenced preaching with a power which earned him the
name of " Boanerges."  He went from there to Tennessee
and Kentucky in 1 796. His terrible denunciations of prevalent sins and plain expositions of the only way of salvation
prepared the way for a deep interest in the later revival in
the regions north and west, and for the rapid communication of its influences.
One of the most memorable scenes in its course in North
Carolina was witnessed at a communion in Orange County.
Rev. Dr. TV. H. Foote, in his Sketches of NTorth Carolina,
thus describes it:
"In August, 1801, a communion season was held at
Cross Roads in Orange County. The stated minister, Win.
Paisley, was assisted by Rev. Dr. Caldwell and Rev. Leonard Prather, and two young licentiates, Hugh Shaw and
Ebenezer B. Currie. Nothing of especial interest appeared
in the congregation during the days preceding the Sabbath,




44        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
or during the administration of the ordinance. Great solemnity prevailed, mingled with evident anxiety as well as
prayer, among Christians, that God would bless the congregation and revive his work. On Monday, the 28th, the
public services were conducted by Messrs. Prather and
Shaw, without any expression or appearance of emotion
among the people. The pastor arose to dismiss the people,
intending first to say a few words expressive of his sorrow
that apparently no advance had been made in bringing sinners to God. Overwhelnmed with his sensations of distress
that God had imparted no blessings to his people, he stood
silent a few moments and then sat down. A solemn stillness pervaded the congregation. In a few moments he
rose again; before he uttered a word; a young man from
Tennessee, who had been interested in the revival there,
and had been telling the people of Cross Roads during the
meeting much about the state of things in the West, raised
up his hands and cried out,'Stand still and see the salvation of God!' In a few moments the silence was broken
by sobs, groans and cries, rising commingled from all parts
of the house. All thoughts of dismissing the congregation
at once vanished. The remainder of the day was spent in
the exercises of prayer, exhortation, singing and personal
conversation, and midnight came before the congregation
could be persuaded to go to their respective homes. The
excitement continued for a length of time, and many were
hopefully converted to God. No irregularities appeared in
this commencement of the great excitement in North Carolina; the sobs and groans and cries for mercy were un



OUTPOURINGS IN THE SOUTII.              45
usual, but seemed justified by the deep feeling of individuals on account of the great interests concerned.
" In October following, the usual fall communion was
held in Hawfields, the other part of Mr. Paisley's charge.
The expression of feeling was great from the first; the people from Cross Roads were there in their fervency of excitement and hope, and multitudes, whom the report of
what had been done at the August meeting drew together,
were full of expectation, some wondering and some seeking
their salvation. People from a distance came in their
wagons and remained on the ground all night. The'meeting was continued for five days without intermission, the
various religious services of prayer, singing, sermons, exhortations and personal conversations succeeding each
other, with short intervals of refreshment, during the day,
and a few hours for sleep during the night. Impressions
of a religious nature were very general and very deep, and
in a great multitude of cases abiding. This was the first
camp-meeting in North Carolina. They soon became common all over the South and West. Log-cabins were built
at the accustomed or designed place of meeting in sufficient
numbers to accommodate a large assembly; and from an
occasional meeting they became regular appointments,
which are not yet entirely discontinued.
"The excitement spread rapidly over the congregations
in the upper part of Orange Presbytery, which then included all the State east of the Yadkin river; and in the
early part of 1802, the Presbytery of Concord, embracing
the section of the State west of the Yadkin, and the east



46        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
ern part of the State, now embraced by Fayetteville Presbytery, began to be visited.
" in all our charges were families who had been principally engaged in promoting and holding religious societies,
and were engaged in fervent prayer for a time of refreshing
from.the presence of the Lord; some of them for more
than eighteen months before that time. And should this
little narrative be thought worthy of the public eye, my
design in it is to encourage God's children to be fervent at
the throne of grace, not only in secret, but social prayer.
From. what I have known of the fervency and persevering
importunity of those families upon whom that remarkable
effusion of divine grace fell, I think I never saw a geometrical proposition demonstrated with more clear evidence
than I have seen an answer given to the prayers of those
pious parents.
" At all our meetings a considerable number professed to
obtain the comforts of religion, and, of those, I have not heard
of, one whose conduct has dishonored his or her profession.
Praying societies are formed in all our congregations, both
supplied and vacant. In those the work seems to be promoted as much, and often more than in our congregational
assemblies. The face Gf the public, in point of morals, is
evidently changed for the better, even in those places where
the good work has not reached. It is to me no inconsiderable proof that the work is carried on by the same Divine,
omnipresent Spirit, when I behold such a sameness of exercises in the different subjects."
The labors of the Rev. James Hall, who was Moderator
of the General Assembly in 1803, were greatly blessed.




OUTPOURINGS IN THE SOUTH.               47
His preaching was "clear, earnest and pungent."  In a
letter to the New York MJssionaryQ Magaz'1ne he narrated
some of the circumstances of several " general meetings
held in the Presbytery of Concord." At one of these, fourteen Presbyterian ministers were present, and eleven of
other denominations. He says, "This was by much the
most numerous and solemn assembly I ever beheld. There
were within the camp three places for public preaching,
and all occupied by vastly large assemblies. The number
present on that day could not be less than six or seven
thousand."
It is worthy of remark that some in these great crowds
of people came from great distances, in midwinter, and
that the exercises in the open air were uninterrupted,
though the days were " the most inclement of the winter."
On a Saturday morning a violent storm of rain fell upon
the worshipers, which " turned to sleet, succeeded by a
mixture of snow, and this followed again by rain," and
yet such was the intense anxiety to hear the words of
eternal life, that the multitude around the different speakers
"continued there until within half an hour of sunsetting,
when we requested them  to retire to their tents to take
some refreshment, promising that we would there wait
upon them in the night."
Many of the ministers from South Carolina, Georgia and
Virginia, hearing the amazing tidings of the revival in
Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, visited those
States to satisfy themselves as to their genuineness, and returned to start the flame of them among their own people.
The Rev. James lc Greaedy writes:




48        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1300.
"By the latest accounts we hear that the flame has
reached  South Carolina, and is going on with rapid
progress. I would' just mention, for the comfort of God's
people in your country, that I never knew a revival with
fewer instances of deceptions or delusive hopes. It is truly
astonishing to find those who are delivered from their burden of guilt and distress to be the subjects of such clear,
rational, scriptural views of the gospel scheme of salvation,
and the nature of Christ's satisfaction to the law and
justice, and his willingness to save guilty, lost sinners. It
is a common case for illiterate negroes and little children
of five, six, seven and eight years old, when they get their
first comforts, to speak of their views of the mediatorial
glories of Christ; his fullness, suitableness and sufficiency
to save to the uttermost; their views of the holiness of
God and the purity of the divine law, and such like subjects, with an eloquence and pathos that would not disgrace
a preacher of the gospel."
In Rev. Dr. Foote's Skcetches of Virginia it is said:
"The excitement, with some of its peculiarities, was felt
in Virginia, first in the Presbyterian settlements along the
head-waters of the Kanawha, in Greenbrier County. Here
were no stated ministers. Missionaries occasionally visited
them. The work began at a prayer-meeting of private
Christians.  Ministers from Kentucky recognized here the
power of spiritual truths over the minds of men, as they
had seen it in the West.
"In the latter part of the year 1801, the churches under
the care of Messrs. Mitchel and Turner were greatly revived. A meeting hild at the close of the year was noted




OUTPOURINGS IN THE SOUTH.             49
for the number of people impressed with a deep sense of
the value as well as truth of the gospel. Many made profession of their faith. In the succeeding spring the influence of Divine truth was felt with increased force. The
Presbytery of Hanover met at Bethel. Crowds attended
upon the ministrations of the gospel. About one hundred
had now professed conversion. The congregations in Albemarle, in Prince Edward and Charlotte, were greatly
awakened, and the happy influence was felt over a large
region of country east of the Blue Ridge.
"The awakening continued in different parts of the
Synod for some years. There were many hopeful converts
where there was no stated ministry or regular church organization. Many of these, looking in vain to the Presbyterian Church for the living ministry, turned their attention to other denominations prepared to supply their wants,
and are now lost to the Presbyterian Church. The demand
for educated ministers came pressing on the Synod. She
looked to her colleges and to the sons of the Church and
to her God for the supply."
4




CHAPTER VI.
GREAT RAINS OF GRACE IN THE EASTERN STATES.
THE  Holy Spirit descended in smaller measure upon
many places in the Middle States east of the mountains,
and along the Northern Lakes, at the same time in which the
rains of which we have been speaking came down so copiously throughout the West and South.
The preaching of Dr. Alexander MIcWhorter of Newark,
New Jersey, the Moderator of the General Assembly in
1794, was always powerful and affecting. Numerous revivals were granted to his church. But in 1802 there was
one of extraordinary extent and continuance —one hundred
and forty persons were brought in during two years, under the
pastoral labors of his successor; Dr. E. D. Griffin. Previous
to it Dr. Griffin was in much distress. He says: "As I
was walking in the streets of Newark, pondering upon my
sins, a flash of light came across my mind, sending home a
conviction of sin which instantly deprived me of hope.
The following dialogue then took place with myself:'Well,
go to Christ as you direct others to do.''But he is away
beyond the hills, and I cannot get to him.''Well, ask
him to bring you to him.''But the prayers of the unregenerate cannot ascend above the clouds. I have nothing
to stand upon to begin.' I felt then totally undone, helpless and hopeless. I did then as Paul did on the plains
50




GREAT RAINS OF GRACE.                 51
of Damascus. Instantly the scene changed. I was composed in a moment, and seemed to lie down at God's feet
and rest every issue on his will without a struggle." Then
he learned, as he says, to leave it at last to Christ, and his
preaching became " full of Christ."  (Stearns: History of
the First Church, Newark.)
The eminent Robert Finley, named by Dr. Archibald
Alexander " the father of the American Colonization Society" (History of African Colonization), was "an able,
evangelical and uncommonly successful preacher." It is
narrated (Sprague: Annals) that at Baskenridge, in 1803,
" a revival of great power took place among his people at
the same time that other churches in the neighborhood
were visited in a similar manner. The number admitted
to the communion as the fruits of this revival was about
one hundred and fifty."
The devoted laborers, Henry Kollock, James Richards,
and others, went forth among the destitute mountain regions of Northern New Jersey, "especially to the iron
mines and furnaces." " The tears flowed down the cheeks of
the hardy men " there under the power of the truth. There
were revivals in other parts of the State. Four years
later the former blessings were renewed in some of these
places, under the preaching of the celebrated Dr. Gideon
Blackburn, of Tennessee. Dr. Griffin said of it, "The
work, in point of stillness and power, exceeds all I have ever
seen."
The State of NXew  York during the last century was
gradually colonized westward by a bold and enterprising
class of people, some of whom, like the same class in the




52        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
new States of the West to-day, were speculators in land, or
those whose misfortunes, or vices, or roving character, disposed to regard with distaste the staid associations and
habits of older communities, and to cast off the obligations
of religion. It was long a common saying, "Religion has
not got west of the Genesee River." Some of the towns
were hotbeds of infidelity; and the books of Tom Paine,
Voltaire, and their tribe, were largely circulated through
the country.
In the eastern part of the State the labors of the godly
Seth Williston, whose name must ever be dear to many
through some ofhis writings, of Jedediah Bushnell, and other
faithful men, were the means of the conversion of large
numbers. The winter of 1798 was marked " by a wonderful display of divine power and grace in the conversion of
sinners " in Palmyra, Canandaigua and several of the larger
towns along the southern border of the State. But the
most memorable outpourings of the Holy Spirit were later.
"The year 1800, for a long period," says Dr. E. H. Gillett,
in his IIfstory of the Presbyterian Chturch7, " was destined to
be remembered throughout the region as the year of The
Great Revival."  "It commenced at Palmyra, and soon
extended to Bristol, Bloomfield, Canandaigua, Richmond
and Lima, and to other places in a less marked manner."
"The doctrines," said WVilliston, "which God makes use
of to awaken and convert sinners are those which are commuonly distinguished as'Calvinistic.' "The Rev. James
II. Hotchlkin (ttistory of WVestern New Yo7rk) says of the
revival of 1799-1800:
"' The counties of Delaware and Otsego were powerfully




GREAT RAINS OF GRACE.                 53
affected by it. So also was the county of Oneida, which
lay to the north. It was a general shaking of the valley of
dry bones. God manifested himself in his glory in building up Zion. The tide of infidelity, which was setting in
with so strong a current, was rolled back, and Western
New York was delivered fiom the moral desolation which
threatened it. The general prosperity, the religious order,
the benevolent and literary institutions, which constitute
the glory and happiness of this section of country, it cannot
be doubted, are in no inconsiderable degree attributable to
the change produced in the current of public sentiment, as
the consequence of this extended revival of religion. The
year 1798 is an era which should long be remembered in
Western New York, as giving a character to this part of
the State which laid a foundation for its large prosperity
and improvement in all things useful."
Amidst the sober population of New Englcand the fruits
of the previous labors of many able and godly servants of
Christ appeared in numerous places.  In some congregations, in which since the times of Jonathan Edwards
there had been little or no evidence of the special presence
of the Spirit of God, there were sudden effusions of extraordinary power. Then, indeed, said Dr. Porter, subsequently
professor at Andover, " the day dawned which was to succeed a night of more than sixty years. As in the valley of
Ezekiel's vision, there was a great shaking. Dry bones,
animated by the breath of the Almighty, stood up newborn believers. The children of Zion beheld with overflowing hearts, and with thankful hearts acknowledged,'this is. the finger of God.' The work was stamped con



54        TIHE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
spicuously with the impress of its Divine author, and its
joyful effects evinced no other than the agency of Omnipotence."  This was at Washington, Connecticut. At numerous places in Connecticut and Massachusetts there
were, as the Rev. Mloses HIallock said, displays of Divine
powers and grace which far exceeded what they " ever before
saw."'"The revival," remarks Dr. Sheplperd, of Lenox,
Mass., " began in the church, as I believe is almost always the
case when God pours out his Spirit.   " "The work has been
attended with remarkable regularity. God was emphatically in'the still small voice.' No dreams and visions, no
hearing unusual voices and seeing uncommon sights, no extravagance even in gestures or outcries, appeared. The
power of the Holy Spirit was not controlled by ordinary
rules, nor did it operate according to the expectations of
men. Some who had long sat under the teachings of the
house of God were left to hardness and impenitence; and
others were pierced with extraordinary views of the truths
of God's word or of nature."  "One instance, somewhat
singular, may be worthy of note. There was a respectable
man who remained an attentive observer till near the close
of the awakening, without any particular operation on his
own mind. Going one day out of town, on a law suit, it
turned in his mind that the Bible was the best law book,
the eternal rule of right between man and man. The same
thought occurred to his mind frequently when going home,
and when he retired for the night; but it gave him no particular alarm. When he awoke before day the same impression was running in his mind,'The Bible is the best
law book.' IHeIc rose, made a fire, and while he sat medita



GREAT RAINS OF GRACE.               55
ting upon this impression, all at once his soul was filled
with rapture, and ere he was aware, he was'like the chariots of Amminadib.' He beheld such glory and beauty in
the Divine character as he could not describe, and his mouth
was immediately filled with praise. He set up family duties,
and continued in this sweet and comfortable frame of mind
for a considerable time without thinking of its being a
change of heart; but finding his soul filled with love to
God, drawn forth with peculiar affection towards the brethren, and the most earnest desire for the salvation of souls
and a delight in the duties of religion, he was led to hope
he had become a new man, and was admitted to the church,
where he has adorned his profession."
The Great Revival reached out into the wildernesses of
Vermont and New Hampshire, and some of their hardy
inhabitants became bright trophies of the power of redeeming grace. In no part of the country were the best fruits of
it more abundant than in New England; not alone in souls
converted, but also in the organization of evangelistic and
charitable institutions which have proved a blessing to the
nation and to the world.




CHAPTER VII.
TESTIMONIES AS TO THE GENERAL CHAIR1ACTER   OF
THE RE VIVAL OF 1800.
IT will give us more confidence in the character and fruits
of this vast and mighty work to notice the judgments
which were formed of it at the time by capable witnesses,
omitting reference to the excesses or peculiarities which
appeared about its course in some regions.
The Rev. Dr. Ilemaa  fumphrey/, long President of
Amherst College, who was in the Freshman class at Yale
in 1802 when the college was visited with such a revival
as it had never before known, says in his Revival Sketches:
"In looking back fifty years and more, the great revival
of that period strikes me, in its thoroughness, in its depth,
in its freedom from animal, unhealthy excitement, and its
far-reaching influence on subsequent revivals, as having
been decidedly in advance of any that had preceded it. 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 the God, the end is not yet.
"Thus the glorious cause of religion and philanthropy
has advanced till it would require a space which cannot be
afforded in these sketches, so much as to name the Christian and humane societies which have sprung up all over
56




GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE REVIVAL. 57
the land within the last forty years. Exactly how much
we at home and the world abroad are indebted for these
organizations, so rich in blessing, to the revivals of 1800, it
is impossible to say, though much every way-more than
enough to magnify the grace of God in the instruments he
employed, in the immediate fruits of their labors, and the
subsequent harvests springing from the good seed which
was sown by the men whom God delighted thus to honor.
It cannot be denied that modern missions sprung out of
these revivals. The immediate connection between them,
as cause and effect, was remarkably clear in the organization of the first societies which have since accomplished so
much; and the impulse which they gave to the churches to
extend the blessings which they were diffusing, by forming
the later affiliated societies of like aims and character, is
scarcely less obvious. Taken altogether, the revival period
at the close of the last century and the beginning of the
present furnishes ample materials for a long and glorious
chapter in the History of Redemption."
The Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring, the venerable pastor of
the Brick Church, New York, was a convert in another
revival in the salne institution the next year. He thus
writes (Personal Reminiscences):
"Fromn 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
these twenty-five years there was not a month in which
we could not point to some village, some city, some seminary of learning, and say,'Behold what God hath
wrought!'




58       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
"I marvel not a little, that, after all our eyes have seen
and our ears have heard, there should be good men among
us who look with suspicion upon these days of mercy, and
who do not rather hail them, even in this midnight of our
national tribulations, as the harbinger of that predicted
period'when the light of the moon shall be as the light
of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven-fold, as
the light of seven days.' This is a ruined world; I should
give up all for lost, unless God thus appear in his glory,
and build up Zion. There is no other helper, there is no
other hope!"
The Rev. Dr. Samuel Ralston, of Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania, a laborer amidst the harvest scenes, in his
Letters showing, in opposition to certain enemies of the
work, that it was "agreeable to the Word of God," and
kindred with the great revivals in Scotland and in New
England, testifies that "this work was begun and carried
on in this country under the preaching and influence of the
doctrines contained in the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Churches." " That this work is a gracious work
of the Spirit of God is apparent to me from the effects it
has produced. It has reclaimed the wicked and the profligate, and transformed the lion into a lamb. It has brought
professed deists to become professed Christians, and turned
their cursings into blessings and their blasphemies into
praises. Many who could not relish any religious conversation are now only delighted when talking about the plan
of salvation and the wonders of redeeming love; and
many, very many, give evidence by their life and conversation that they are born of God. And to this I would add,




GENERAL CIIARACTER OF T-IE REVIVAL. e9
that it has had this effect on many of all ranks, ages, sexes
and colors; the African as well as the European and American. The combined hordes of deists, hypocrites and formalists are generally opposed to it. Some also have fallen
away, but this is no objection, but rather an evidence that
it is the work of the Spirit of God."
The Rev. Dr. Moses Hoge, of Virginia, when he had
witnessed and had an opportunity to judge of some of these
outpourings in 1802, in North Carolina, wrote to Dr.
Ashbel Green, of Philadelphia, "This work seems to lead
to a more clear and distinct view of the operations of the
Divine Spirit upon the heart of a sinner in his conversion
and in subsequent communications than can be obtained
from ordinary revivals. For, as a pious and sensible woman
of this country has well expressed it, Jesus Christ seems to
be there, exercising in a visible manner his offices as a
Mediator."
The Rev. Dr. George A. Baxter, of Washington Academy, Virginia, visited Kentucky in 1801, and thus describes
his conclusions as to the Revival in that section of the
country, in a letter to Dr. Archibald Alexander:
" I left the country about the 1st of November, at which
time this revival, in connection with the one on the Cumberland, had covered the whole State of Kentucky, excepting a small settlement which borders on the water of
Green River, in which no Presbyterian ministers are
settled, and I believe very few of any denomination.  The
power with which this revival has spread, and its influence
in moralizing the people, are difficult for you to conceive,
and more so for me to describe. I had heard many ac



60        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
counts, and seen many letters respecting it, before I went
into that country; but my expectations, though greatly
raised, were much below the reality of the work. Their
congregations, when engaged in worship, presented scenes
of solemnity superior to what I had ever seen before. And
in private houses it was no uncommon thing to hear
parents relate to strangers the wonderful things which
God had done in their neighborhoods, while a large family
of young people, collected around them, would be in tears.
On my way to Kentucky, I was informed by settlers on
the road that the character of Kentucky travelers was entirely changed, and that they were now as remarkable for
sobriety as they had formerly been for dissoluteness and
immorality. And indeed I found Kentucky, to appearance,
the most moral place I had ever seen. A profane expression was hardly ever heard. A religious awe seemed to
pervade the country. And some deistical characters had
confessed that, from whatever cause the revival might
proceed, it made the people better. Its influence was not
less visible in promoting a firiendly temper among the people. Nothing could appear more amicable than that undissembled benevolence which governs the subjects of this
work."  "As an eye-witness in the case, I may be permitted to declare that the professions of those under religious convictions were generally marked with such a degree
of engagedness and feeling as willful hypocrisy could hardly
assume."  "Upon the whole, I think the revival of Kentucky among the most extraordinary that have ever visited
the Church of Christ." " Extraordinary power is the leading characteristic of this revival. Both saints and sinners




GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE REVIVAL. 61
have more striking discoveries of the realities of another
world than I have ever known on any other occasion."
For the sake of its precious lessons we will quote the testimony of one more witness from the many who might be
brought forward. The Rev. David Rice preached a sermon
at the opening of the Synod of Kentucky, in 1803, in relation to the general beneficent character of the Revival in
that section of our country. His interesting and impressive
words should be deeply considered by those who desire a
return of the Holy Spirit to our churches now, and are
willing to use the means which a sovereign God has appointed to secure so unspeakably great and precious a favor
from Him.
1. "This revival has made its appearance in various
places, without any extraordinary means to produce it. The
preaching, the singing, the praying, have been the same
to which people had been long accustomed, and under
which they had hardened to a great degree; and the first
symptoms of the revival have been a praying spirit in the
few pious people found among us.  They somehow got
their minds impressed with a sense of their own backsliding; with a sense of the prevalence of vice, infidelity and
impiety; and an unusual compassionate concern for the salvation of precious souls who were perishing in their sins,
and for the prosperity of Zion.  They prayed; they endeavored to excite their fiiends and neighbors to pray;
they formed themselves into praying societies, that they
might mutually encourage and assist each other.  The revrial appears to be grante(- inn aonswer to prayer, and in confirmation of that gracious truth, that God has'not said to




62        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
the house of Jacob, seek ye me in vain,' when lie says he'will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.'
2. " As far as I can see, there appears to be in the subjects of this work a deep heart-humbling sense of the
great unreasonableness, abominable nature, pernicious ef'
fects and deadly consequences of sin; and the absolute unworthiness in the sinful creature of the smallest crumb of
mercy from the hand of a holy God. There appears to be
in them a deep mourning on account of their own sins, the
sins of their fellow professors, and the sins of the careless
and profane, and particularly for the base sin of ingratitude to God for his many mercies; and conviction of the
justice of God in condemning and punishing his offending
creatures.
3. " They appear to have a lively and very affecting view
of the infinite condescension and love of God the Father,
in giving his eternal and only-begotten Son for the redemption of mankind; and of the infinite love of the Redeemer, manifested in the great and gracious work of redemption; manifested in the labors and sorrows of his life
and of his death: an affecting view of the astonishing
goodness of the adorable Trinity, in providing and applying a complete atonement for the sin of fallen man, and a
perfect righteousness for his justification. And all this in a
way that not only secures, but advances, the honors of God's
law and government, and illustrates his justice, holiness,
truth and tender mercies. Jesus Christ, and him crucified,
appears to be the ALL IN ALL to the subjects of this revival, and the creature nothing and less than nothing.
4. " They seem to me to have a very deep and affecting




GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE REVIVAL. 63
sense of the worth of precious immortal souls, ardent love
to them, and an agonizing concern for their conviction, conversion and complete salvation. As far as I can judge,
they are pleading for this with strong, fervent desires, with
deep humility, with faith in God's promise and in the
merits and intercession of Jesus Christ. Perhaps the ardency of their love sometimes hurries them into some indiscretions which excite the prejudices of those for whose
salvation they are pleading. Men are imperfect creatures;
and these, if I may be allowed the expression, appear to be
the generous blunders of benevolence. This love, this compassion, this ardent desire, this agonizing, this fervent
pleading for the salvation of sinful men and for Zion's
prosperity, far exceed any thing I have ever seen. This
love, these fervent supplications, are not confined to a particular spot or a particular party. They extend to and include men of every description: Catholics and Protestants,
Jews, Mohammedans and Pagans. The most savage nations, who are sunk almost beneath the notice of others,
are embraced in the arms of their benevolence. Little children lie near their hearts; they take them in their arms
and put the hands of their benevolence upon them, and
plead with the Father of mercies to bless them. O thou
Fountain of mercy, give me, give to all, this spirit of love,
of grace and of supplication!
5. " A considerable number of individuals appear to me
to be greatly reformed in their morals. This is undoubtedly
the case within the sphere of my particular acquaintance.
Yea, some neighborhoods, noted for their vicious and profligate manners, are now as much noted for their piety and




64        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
good order. Drunkards, profane swearers, liars, quarrelsome persons, etc., are remarkably reformed. The songs
of the drunkard are exchanged for the songs of Zion; fervent prayer succeeds in the room of profane oaths and
curses; the lying tongue has learned to speak truth in the
fear of God, and the contentious firebrand is converted into
a lover of peace. A number of poor backsliders appear to
be sensible, that'it is an evil thing and a bitter that they
have forsaken the Lord their God,' and are returning to
him with penitent hearts, going and weeping, inquiring the
way to Zion with their faces thitherward, and we hope
are joining themselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant never to be forgotten.
6. "A number of families, who had lived apparently
without the fear of God, in folly and in vice, without any
religious instruction or any proper government, are now reduced to order, and are daily joining in the worship of God,
reading his word, singing his praises, and offering up their
supplications to a throne of grace. Parents who formerly
seemed to have little or no regard for the souls of their
children are now anxiously concerned for their salvation,
are pleading for them  and endeavoring to lead them to
Christ and train them up in the ways of piety and virtue.
Masters who formerly treated their servants as brutes are
now earnestly concerned for the salvation of their souls,
and using means to promote it.
7. " The subjects of this work appear to be very sensible
of the necessity of Sanctificatfon as well as Justification,
and that'without holiness no man can see the Lord;' to
be greatly desirous that they themselves and'all that name




GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE REVIVAL. 65
the name of Christ should depart from iniquity,' should
recommend the religion of Jesus to the consciences and
esteem of their fellow men, that the light of their holy conversation should so shine before men that they, seeing
their good works, might give glory to God. A heaven of
perfect purity and the full enjoyment of God appears to be
the chief and ultimate object of their desire and pursuit.
" Now I have given you my reasons for concluding the
morning is come, and that we are blessed with a real revival of the benign, the heaven-born religion of Jesus
Christ, which demands our grateful acknowledgments to
God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost."
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in
1803 appointed a committee, consisting of Rev. Messrs.
Samuel Miller, Archibald Alexander and James Welsh,
" to draw up a statement as the result of the free conversation on the state of religion." To favorable testimonies
which it had given in previous years it added the following:
"The Assembly heard at more than usual length, and
with more than common satisfaction, the accounts received
fiom their members of the state of religion within the
bounds of the Presbyterian Church. Since an inquiry of
this nature has become a part of the annual business of the
Assembly, it may be confidently asserted that no result was
ever presented to our body so favorable and so gratifying
to the friends of truth and piety.
" There is scarcely a Presbytery under the care of the
Assembly from which some pleasing intelligence has not
been announced, and from some of them communications
have been made which so illustriously display the tri5




66        THIE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
umphs of evangelical truth and the power of sovereign
grace as cannot but fill with joy the hearts of all who love
to hear of the prosperity of the Redeemer's kingdom.' In most of the Northern and Eastern Presbyteries, revivals of religion of a more or less general nature have
taken place. In these revivals the work of Divine grace
has proceeded, with a few exceptions, in the usual way.
Sinners have been convinced and converted by the still
small voice of the Holy Spirit, and have been brought out
of darkness into marvelous light, and from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Many hundreds have been added to the Church in the
course of the last year, and multitudes of those who had
before joined themselves to the Lord have experienced
times of refreshing and consolation from his presence.
"In many of the Southern and Western Presbyteries revivals more extensive and of a more extraordinary nature
have taken place.
"It would be easy for the Assembly to select some very
remarkable instances of the triumphs of Divine grace
which were exhibited before them in the course of the very
interesting narratives presented in the free conversationinstances of the most malignant opposers of vital piety
being convinced and reconciled; of some learned, active
and conspicuous infidels becoming the signal monuments of
that grace which once they despised, and various circumstances which  display the holy efficacy of the gospel.
But, forbearing to enter into minute details on this subject,
they would only in genaral declare that in the course of the
last year there is reason to believe that several thousands




GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE REVIVAL. 67
within the bounds of the Presbyterian Church have been
brought to embrace the gospel of Christ, and large accession of zeal and of strength as well as of members given to
his people.
"The Assembly consider it as worthy of particular attention, that most of the accounts of revivals communicated
to them stated that the institution of praying societies, or
seasons of special prayer to God for the outpouring of the
Spirit, generally preceded the remarkable displays of
Divine grace with which our land has been recently
favored. In most cases, preparatory to signal effusions of
the Holy Spirit, the pious have been stirred up to cry
fervently and importunately that God would appear to
vindicate his own cause. The Assembly see in this a confirnmation of the word of God, and an ample encouragement
of the prayers and hopes of the pious for future and more
extensive manifestations of Divine power. And they trust
that the churches under their care, while they see cause of
abundant thankfulness for this dispensation, will also perceive that it presents new motives to zeal and fervor in
application to that throne of grace from which every good
and peifect gift cometh.
"The Assembly also observed with great pleasure that
the desire for spreading the gospel among the destitute
inhabitants on our frontiers, among the blacks and among
the savage tribes on our borders has been rapidly increasing during the last year in various parts of our Church.
The Assembly take notice of this circumstance with the
more satisfaction, as it not only affords a pleasing presage
of the spread of the gospel, but also furnishes agreeable




68       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
evidence of the genuineness and the benign tendency of
that spirit which God has been pleased to pour out upon
his people.
"On the whole, the Assembly cannot but declare with
joy, and with most cordial congratulations to the churches
under their care, that the state and prospects of vital religion in our country are more favorable and encouraging
than at any period within the last forty years."




CHAPTER VIII.
THIS REVIVAL PART OF A WORLD-WIDE AD VANCE
OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.
T HE sketch which has been given of the Great Revival
of 1800, as related to the United States of America,
would fail to make a proper impression upon the minds of
Christians did I not remark that it was not simply an American movement. It was part of an immense advance of the
kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ which can be distinctly
traced amidst the populations and affairs of all the important nations of mankind.
In Eastern Asia this period was one of a new interest in
the intellectual and moral improvement of the native races.
The three Wellesleys, Richard, Henry and Arthur (the
latter afterward the famous Duke of Wellington), commenced a new era in the administration of the British East
India Company. Infanticide was prohibited by law in
1802. The conscience of the European conquerors was
roused by the Parliamentary investigation into the old
abuses of the servants of the Company. It was not long
before Lord Minto and the Marquis of Hastings were stimulqted to introduce European education. The Hindoo
College, the Calcutta School Society, the School Book
Society, and other excellent institutions, prepared the way
69




70       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
for the apostolic labors of British chaplains and teachers
like Claudius Buchanan, David Brown and Henry Martyn,
and for the eminent missionaries, Ward, Carey, Marshman,
Cran, Gordon, Lee and others like them.
China, then embraced within the influences of the same
European monopolies, shared in the sympathies, and in a
limited degree, especially among the colonists in the Indian
Archipelago, in the missionary efforts, of the period. The
Bible was translated, though imperfectly, into Chinese by
Lassar and Marshman in India, and by Dr. Robert Morrison, the pioneer Protestant missionary to China proper,
who went to Canton by way of America in 1807.
"The isles" of ancient prophecy, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and others of the Indian Archipelago, were brought
more widely and thoroughly under the influence of the
Dutch than ever before; and zealous missionaries were
sent to the native races, whose labors, though ignored or
contemptuously spoken of by British writers, were blessed
to the conversion of many of the people, and the establishment of Christian usages and schools among them.  "The
fifth continent," Australia, was colonized by being made a
penal settlement for English convicts. Capt. Cook introduced our domestic animals and vegetables into New Zealand and other islands. Thus these vast regions were prepared to see " upon the tops of the mountains " the glorious light of Christianity.
The Turkish Empire, already shaken by successive wars
with Venice, Hungary, Russia and Austria, was further
humbled by those with France and England, and sunk to
a position of inferiority and submission from which it has




PART OF A WORLD-WIDE ADVANCE.    71
never risen. From this time is dated its adoption of the
military system, the arts and the education of the Christian
powers of the West.
The condition of Palestine and the Jewish race awakened
efforts to restore to them the knowledge of the long-rejected
Messiah. In 1809 was organized the London Society for
Promoting Christianity among the Jews.
Africa was girded with new influences. The British in
1795 began to regenerate the regions about the Cape of
Good Hope. In 1799, the noble Vanderkemp commenced,
with his companions, his useful labors among the Kaffirs and
Hottentots.  In 1787, the British purchased Sierra Leone
as a refuge for liberated slaves, and in a few years made it
a crown colony. In 1796, the explorations of Bruce, and
in 1799 those of Mungo Park, for the head-waters of
the Nile. were given to the world. Egyptian lethargy and
superstition were effectually shaken by the French and
English invasions. The Moorish States were humbled by
the wars with France, England and the United States.
South America was moved, by the contagion of civil and
religious liberty in its twin continent of the North, to throw
off the galling yoke of Spanish despotism and superstition,
and a series of republics sprang forth which for a time aspired to be our rivals in the benefits offered to mankind.
All Europe was an arena in which ancient thrones were
hurled to the ground and the priestly chains about the
human intellect and conscience were violently broken and
cast away. Napoleon Bonaparte, in the name of an apostle
of social progress and the rights of man, swept from one
extreme to the other of the continent.  The first terrible




72        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
outbursts of infidel triumph and pride were succeeded by an
awakening of Christian Churches to reformation of abuses
and to the duty of publishing the gospel to all nations. The
Netherlands Missionary Society was formed in 1797, at
Rotterdam; the Berlin Missionary Society in 1800. The
Basle Missionary Society was reared in 1817, as a monument of the salvation of the city from the peril of a bombardment. In the first years of this century a score of
prominent societies of a missionary and educational character were established in Western Europe. Men of great
zeal and success, like Vanderkemp among the Kaffirs and
Gutzlaff on the coast of China, were sent forth by them, or
went abroad by the aid of funds furnished by British Societies. Republics were established in Northern Italy, and
Rome itself was made one in 1802. The Pope's power was
draggled in the dust as it had never been before. In Germany, the University of Berlin was made an institution
of the first rank; the Lutheran and Reformed Churches
were fused under the name of the "Evangelical Church."
Monarchs themselves seemed moved by a new spirit. After
the battle of Leipzic, the Protestant king of Prussia, the
Greek Catholic emperor of Russia, and the Roman Catholic emperor of Austria united together in what they
styled "The Holy Alliance," and called God to witness
that henceforth they would only reign for the happiness of
their subjects and the triumph of the Christian religion.
Great Britain was the scene of an equal onward movement in the kingdom of Immanuel. The success of the
American Revolution was in reality the success of the cause
of popular liberty, of the principles of Pitt and Burke, the




PART OF A WORLD-WIDE ADVANCE.   73
beginning of that recognition of the political and religious
rights of men of every rank and creed which has brought
Great Britain to-day to the verge of democracy. That of
France-a terrible rebound of society from the rule and
misrule of Popery-for a time spread wild and fanatical infidelity among the middle and lower classes. But this was
part of the stimulating cause of the more fervent preaching of the gospel by Rowland Hill, John Newton and many
other zealous men, and of the formation of several of those
great religious societies which have been the chief honor
of modern Britain. Of these the British and Foreign
Bible Society is the most important. "The formation of
this Society," says Anderson in the Annals of the English
Bible, " produced an effect altogether unprecedented; indeed, the mere announcement ran throughout every denomination in the kingdom, and conveyed an impulse at once
the most powerful and the most extensive under which the
Christians of this country had ever come." The Society
originated, in 1804, in the proposition of two Welsh ministers, Thomas Charles and Joseph Hughes, to furnish Bibles,
in their native tongue, to the people who spoke it, and to
other races. The Baptists formed their Missionary Society
in 1792. The London Society was organized in 1794; the
Religious Tract Society in 1799; the Episcopal Church
Missionary Society for Africa and the East in 1800. The
WTesleyan foreign missions, commenced in 1769 in North
America, in 1792 were extended to Sierra Leone; in 1796 to
the Foullahs in Africa; in 1799 to Gibraltar; in 1800 to
Madras, in India. Indeed, the Spirit of God communicated
a universal interest in the condition of the degraded and




74         TItE  GREAT REVIVAL  OF 1800.
vicious classes of society, and in the dark and helpless state
of the heathen and Mohammedan nations, so that the whole
Christian world started into efforts to translate into all languages, to circulate and to preach the word of the living
God. All branches of the Christian Church were powerfully quickened. So wonderful, indeed, was the life and
energy communicated to some of them that they have
assumed their influence to have been that which moved the
rest. *
But we must look far higher. The Great Revival of 1800
was an element in the beginning of the grandest advance
of Christianity since the Reformation of Martin Luther.
It was the impulse to the universal scattering abroad of the
seed which had been ripening since the time of Luther,
I-*t is sometimes claimed by Baptists that the establishment of
their Society in 1792 was the origin of the modern missionary efforts of other Churches. This is without foundation. The Rev. Dr.
F. A. Cox, in his History of the Baptist Missionary Society (Vol. I.
p. 4), though himself a Baptist, quotes one of its early addresses
which declares that "it was proposed at first, if no opening was
found for a Baptist mission, to have requested the Presbyterian and
Moravian brethren, who had been already employed in laboring
among the heathen, to accept some assistance from our subscriptions; for by the leave of the God of heaven, we were determined
to do something towards propagating his gospel in heathen lands."
There were missions, of long standing and considerable success,
sustained by Reformed, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Moravian
Churches, in numerous heathen fields, in various parts of the world.
The Great Revival, in the United States was mainly Calvinistie
in its character, but it gave a powerful impulse to Methodism in
some parts of the country.




PART OF A WORLD-WIDE ADVANCE.    75
Calvin and Zwingle. It was a most manifest introduction
of the Divine achievement which may eternally give lustre
to this nineteenth century-the commencement of those
grand, universal and final effusions of the Holy Ghost
which shall convert the whole of this lost world to God.




CHAPTER IX.
POWERFUL EFFECTS OF THE GREAT REVIVAL UPON
OUR CH URCH-LIFE-ORGAVN1ZATION OF THE SEVERAL BOARDS.
IT is most interesting to trace the influence of the Great
Revival in the development of the several departments
of labor and influence for good which we now denominate
the Boards of the Presbyterian Church.
First let us look at " Home Missions." The first thought
of an awakened soul is to do what Jesus commanded the
demoniac out of whom he cast the legion of devils: " Go
home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the
Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on
thee." It is most worthy of observation that ministers
were powerfully attracted even from other and distant
States to the scenes of the great outpourings of the Holy
Spirit. Thence they returned, publishing as they went the
glad tidings, and starting other communities to pray for the
same wondrous gifts of mercy. " As when the melting fire
burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make Thy
name known to Thine adversaries, that the nations may
tremble at Thy presence." Some of the letters written by
the ministry thus engaged narrate their manifold labors,
and mention the exhaustion of their physical strength by
76




ITS EFFECTS UPON OUR CHURCH-LIFE.  77
incessant preaching and conversation with the impenitent
and inquirers. The General Assembly had long maintained
systematic efforts " towards supplying the destitute portions
of our country with the preaching of the gospel." But at
this time the duty took a more enlarged and efficient form.
The Rev. Dr. Green (Ilistorical Sketch of Domestic and
Foreign Missions in the Presbyterian Church) says, "In
1802 an important alteration took place in the manner of
conducting the missionary business. It had now become
so extensive" as to require "a Standing Committee of
Missions to act throughout the year," "clothed with such
powers as were then deemed sufficient." This committee
made, in 1803, its First Annual Report "to the General
Assembly." The series thus instituted has been continued
till this time. The Standing Committee on Missions was
increased in the number of its members and in its powers
in 1816, and the name changed to "The Board of Missions."  The late New School branch of the Church,
which had carried on its Home Mission operations through
the agency of the American Home Missionary Society (another of the fruits of this great movement), established, in
1847, its own work under the designation of "The Standing Committee on Home Missions." " The Board of
Home Missions" of our reunited Presbyterian Church is
therefore a great and precious monument of that outpouring of God's Spirit which compelled the formation of a permanent organization, in behalf of the General Assembly,
to care for the multitude of destitute flocks, to send the
gospel to the frontiers, and to be the agency through which
the Church should do her part toward filling the whole




78       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
land with the means of grace through the preaching of the
word.
Our cause of " Foreign Missions" is also directly connected with the Great Revival of 1800. The deepest pity
is excited, in the breasts of those who know the joy of deliverance from the bondage of hell, for those fellow immortals who sit in the deepest darkness, and who are most
helpless beneath the ancient fetters of Satanic dominion.
It is wonderful to mark the instant reaching forth of tender
sympathy, in that Revival, toward the poor Indian tribes.
There are no people whose desolate wretchedness-plundered as they are, slaughtered, crushed by the weight of
vices which often white men have taught them, and
poisoned by diseases which white men have communicatedmore profoundly excites Christian sorrow and commiseration, and to whom the Church, when warmed afresh by
the Spirit of the merciful Redeemer, more anxiously desires to convey the balm of peace through his atoning blood.
The Presbyterian Church has for more than a century
carried on missionary operations with more system, continuousness and zeal than any other. In 1741 the Presbytery of New York sent forth Azariah Horton, and in 1744
David Brainerd, supported by the " Society in Scotland for
Propagating Christian Knowledge," to preach to the Indians in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania, and in
1776, Charles Beatty and George Duffield to preach to
those upon the Muskingum river in Ohio.
The revival period about 1800 gave new life to such missions.  The New York Missionary Society was formed in
1796, chiefly through the efforts of the Rev. Dr. John M.




ITS EFFECTS UPON OUR CHURCH-LIFE.  79
Mason, one of the great preachers of the age. It looked
beyond our continent, and across the Pacific. In an Annual Report, under Dr. Mason's signature as Corresponding
Secretary, in 1803, it speaks of the breaches now made " in
the once undisturbed strongholds of Satan," and says, "a
little more, and irruptions will be made in his securer possessions, not perhaps to be resisted till the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ shall beam on the waters of the
Pacific ocean, and his blessed name shall resound from her
shores."  He hoped some of the converted Indians might
be the means of carrying "westward into Asia the light
of life and immortality." He little dreamed that, when the
Chinese would be brought by God to seek here that light,
many of our own people would try to drive them back to
darkness again. The Synod of Pittsburg, at its first meeting, upon its organization by the act of the General Assembly, in September, 1802, solemnly resolved the body itself
into a society to be styled "The Western Missionary Society," whose object was " to diffuse the knowledge of the
gospel among the inhabitants of the new settlements, the
Indian tribes, and, if need be, among some of the interior
inhabitants where they are not able to support the gospel."
There was constituted at the same time a "Board of
Trust," consisting of seven members, to manage the missionary concerns of the Synod. This was the beginning of
the series of missionary efforts which terminated in the organization of the "Board of Foreign Missions" by the
General Assembly of 1837, which transferred the work begun in Pittsburg to the city of New York. The Secretary
of the Western Foreign Missionary Society, the Hlon. Wal



80        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
ter Lowrie, who had formerly been a Senator of the United
States from the State of Pennsylvania, and was elected
Secretary of the new Board, was one of the converts of the
Great Revival. Through a long and laborious life he infused the fervor of that Revival into all his correspondence,
toils and influence, and made its power felt in the Presbyterian foreign missions which sprang up in every continent.
We may next observe how the Great Revival was related
to "Ministerial Education. "
A powerful outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon a community or land necessarily compels many of the men converted to leave their nets and their seats at the receipt of
customs, and follow in the footsteps and labors of their
Master. It compels those who cannot go forth to preach,
to feel that a closely related duty to our perishing race lies
upon them, and cannot be avoided-that is, that if they
cannot go, they must send others in their place. Thus its
era is commemorated by permanent monuments in the form
of collegiate and theological institutions, and by the establishment of ecclesiastical organizations to multiply and educate candidates for the ministry.
The revival of 1730-50 was the means in God's hands of
rousing the Presbyterian Church to feel the necessity of a
college in the Middle States. Hence the origin of that at
Princeton in 1746. Its great object was, as the Synod of
New York in 1754 informed the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland, to endeavor to make " provisions for
many shepherdless flocks," and for those "that come hundreds of miles crying to them for some to break the bread
of life among them, and are often obliged to return in tears




ITS EFFECTS UPON OUR CHURCH-LIFE.  81
with little or no relief by reason of the scarcity of ministers."  "And were the poor Indian savages sensible of
their own case, they would join in the cry, and beg for
more missionaries to be sent to propagate the religion of
Jesus among them."
The Great Revival of 1800 created an immense demand
for ministers. The Synod of Virginia in 1798 enlarged
Liberty Hall into Washington Academy. In Kentucky
and Tennessee the rising interest gave existence to Washington College in the year 1796, and when a few years later
scores of new congregations demanded pastors, which could
not be at once supplied, it led, in the end, to the introduction of uneducated and incapable men into the pulpit,
and to the painful schism of the " Cumberland Presbyterian
Church" from the parent body.  In Western Pennsylvania it begat Jefferson and Washington Colleges, only a
few miles apart, and somewhat later, Allegheny College;
and in New York, in 1796, Union College, which has
always been essentially Presbyterian, and in 1812, Hamilton College.* But the most marked advance in Ministerial
Education was the determination of the General Assembly
in 1810, after much discussion for some years previously as
to the form and number of such institutions required, to
erect a Theological Seminary, and it was carefully announced " that, as filling the Church with a learned and
able ministry, without a corresponding portion of real piety,
would be a curse to the world and an offence to God and
*' In Ohio, Miami University, at Oxford, was established in 1803,
Ohio University, at Athens, in 1802, each aided by public grants of
land, but Presbyterian in their origin.
6




82        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
his people," the Seminary should endeavor " to train up
persons for the ministry who shall be lovers as well as defenders of the truth as it is in Jesus, friends of revivals of
religion, and a blessing to the Church of God." The institution in the year 1812 was located at Princeton, N. J.
One of the incitements to the establishment of the
Princeton Seminary was the success of that in a sister
Presbyterian body which had been conceived by Dr. John
M. Mason, in 1796, and put in operation in 1805. The
latter was the model also of the earliest Congregational
Seminary at Andover, Mass.  (Memoirs of Dr. Mason.)
It was but a short time until other seminaries, to train the
young men pressing toward the ministry and needed for the
fields everywhere ripe for the sickle, sprung up in other
portions of the country. Auburn, for Central and Western
New York; the Western Seminary, for the large Presbyterian population of which Pittsburg is the centre; Columbia, for the Synods of South Carolina and Georgia;
Lane, for the region centring at Cincinnati; Union Seminary, for the Synods of Virginia and North Carolina; Danville, for Kentucky and the country south of it; the Indiana Seminary, which after'various transmutations has
found a permanent home at Chicago; and the New York
Union Seminary,-all, with some others not aiming so
high, were planted successively within the seventeen years
beginning with 1818.
The increase of candidates for the ministry all over the
land compelled the adoption of a general system to collect
money to aid them and to superintend the cause of Education.




ITS EFFECTS UPON OUR CHURCH-LIFE.  83
In 1806, the Assembly, as it was said, in view of the
obvious and melancholy fact that the candidates for the gospel ministry within the bounds of the Presbyterian Church
at present fall very far short of the demand made for their
services, "adopted a plan for the general and harmonious
action of the Presbyteries in the employment of certain
means to increase their number, raise funds for their support, and inspect their education. This plan was followed
until 1819, when the Assembly established a "General
Board of Education." The principles of this Board are
essentially those which the Church has matured in the
present form, which was adopted at the reunion two years
ago, enriched with the suggestions of the experience of
each of the bodies.
In the formation of this Board those who twenty years
afterwards parted into the two temporary branches of the
Church were cordially agreed.  The godly and zealous
Drs. James Richards, William IIill, James P. Wilson, E.
S. Ely and Rev. James Patterson, all of them men eminently
blessed in their labors, worked to accomplish it with the
faithful and scholarly Drs. Ashbel Green, Archibald Alexander, Samuel Miller, J. J. Janeway, William Neill and
Rev. Francis Herron.
This more complete shape was a result of the secondary
revival impulse which about that period brought into action
the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society,
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American Colonization Society, the American
Education Society, and other beneficent institutions.
While the Great Revival of 1800 created a demand for




84       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
ministers, and excited the Church to organize means to increase the number of them, it completed what was necessary to supply them, by mightily affecting the young people
of the land. It led a great number of young men into the
ministry. It wrought wonders in some of the few acadomies and colleges then in existence. At Princeton its blessed influences were missed through the dispersion of the
students by a fire which burned the college building. The
youth of the institutions in the West and South were,bathed with its powerful influences. The ministers in those
regions labored with special zeal for the conversion of the
young. And they pressed into the ministry and made provisions to educate, for the supply of the gospel to the multitudes awakened by the Great Revival, the most fervent
and capable of the young men who were brought by it into
the Church. The Rev. Dr. McMillan alone, according to
Dr. Matthew Brown, of Jefferson College, was the instrument of fitting for the ministry, in his academy, one hundred men, many of whom were eminently useful. Speaking
of the fellow-laborers of McMillan, the Rev..Dr. Gillett
(History of the Presbyterian Church) says: "Rarely, if
ever, in the history of the Presbyterian Church in this
country has any of its missionary fields been occupied by a
more able and devoted band of pioneer laborers than that
which was covered by the Old Redstone Presbytery. Many
of them were rarely gifted, and would have done honor to
the most exalted station; and the influence which they exerted upon the great Western field, then opening with inviting promise to Eastern emigration, cannot be estimated.
They wanted, and made provision to secure, strong men,




ITS EFFECTS UPON OUR CHURCH-LIFE. 85
and all who joined them seemed to be made partakers of
their spirit."  Dr. H.I Hump7lrey thus describes the effects
of this wonderful work of grace at Yale College: In " the
spring and summer of 1802 the revival, in its triumphant
progress on the right hand and the left, reached Yale College; and there it came with such power as had never been
witnessed within those walls before. It was in the Freshman year of my own class. It was like a mighty rushing
wind. The whole college was shaken. It seemed for a
time as if the whole mass of the students would press into
the kingdom. It was the Lord's doing, and marvelous in
all eyes. Oh what a blessed change! As the fruit of this
revival, so memorable in the history of the institution, fiftyeight were added to the college church, and others, I know
not how many, joined the churches at home. It was a glorious reformation. It put a new face upon the college. It
sent a thrill of joy and thanksgiving far and wide into the
hearts of its friends who had been praying that the waters
of salvation might be poured into the fountain from which
so many streams were annually sent out. The triennial
catalogue shows that for many years there had been but
very few in the seminary preparing for the pulpit. In the
four preceding classes, only thirteen names of ministers
stand against sixty-nine in the next four years-nearly, if
not quite, all of them brought in by the Great Revival."
Such must be the logical effects of a genuine revival of
religion. Such they have been in the past-such they
must be now. Only the Holy Spirit can constrain parents
to give their sons to go they know not where, preaching the
gospel to mankind, or to take of the substance which they




86       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
are laying up for their heirs, and give it to educate the sons
of strangers for that end. No motives but those with
which the Holy Spirit moves the souls of men can draw
gifted and energetic young men from the overwhelming
attractions which the world has to offer, and lead them
heartily to consecrate themselves to the comparatively toilsome, ill-paid and anxious office of the ministry. He alone
can inspire them with patience and diligence in the tedious
prosecution of long years of needful preparatory study.
And only a general pervading influence of the Spirit of God
can enlist the membership of the Church in the proper
support of a department of her work which has so little
that is exciting or romantic in its details, to catch the imagination, and to stimulate pecuniary contributions. Thus
it is that the cause of Ministerial Education is one of the
first to feel the influences of a genuine outpouring of the
Holy Spirit; and these influences it soon sends streaming,
in an energized generation of ministers, through every
branch and fibre of the Church's outward life.
The principles of the work of our "Board of Publication" began to receive practical application during the
Great Revival.
A Jewish funeral, in a time of war with the heathen
Moab, carried out a dead man. Surprised by a band of
enemies, they cast the body into the tomb of a prophet by
whom God had long before wrought many mighty miracles.
When the corpse touched the bones of Elisha he revived
and stood upon his feet!
Centuries ago, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, were laid in
their tombs. Edwards, Baxter, Bunyan, have gone to




ITS EFFECTS UPOGN OUR CHURCH-LIFE.  87
dust. -But the mysterious seed of spiritual life remains,
and ever will remain, in the books which they have left.
Millions of dead souls have touched them, and straightway
revived and stood upon their feet.
Religious books had been purchased from time to time
by the General Assembly from its funds for the use of the
poor. But with the Great Revival this duty puts on a
form and activity of which we see little trace in its previous
history. In 1801 and'2, when reports are poured in of
extensive regions nearly or "wholly, destitute of the means
of religious instruction," the Assembly resolves that "religious books should be sent for gratuitous distribution
along the frontiers of these States, among the poorer classes
of people, to the blacks, or wherever it may be thought
useful; which books shall be given away, or lent, at the
discretion of the distributor."  Within a few years, the
need of more system in the publication and distribution of
religious books and tracts, and the collection of funds for
the gratuitous part of the work, led Dr. A. Alexander and
others to organize what was possibly " the primitive Tract
Society;" and the celebrated physician, Dr. Benjamin
Rush, in 1808, took the lead there in planting the "Philadelphia Bible Society," "the oldest in the hemisphere."
(Life of Dr. A. Alexander.)
The want of books, and the anxiety of the people to hear
of the wonderful tidings of the spread and power of the
gospel, produced several monthly religious magazines, such
as "The New York Missionary Magazine," "The Connecticut Missionary Magazine," "The Christian Remembrancer," at Philadelphia, and "The Western Mission



88        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
ary Magazine," at Washington, Penna., whence are drawn
most of the precious narratives of God's doings at this
period. These led the way to our Church periodicals.
The present form of the Board of Publication is the combination, since the reunion, of the organs which were established by the two branches of the Church subsequent to
their separation-the Board in 1838, the Permanent Committee in 1852. The body of Presbyterian literature which
it circulates, through its colporteurs, over all the land, is a
perpetual refreshment of the faith and zeal of the Church
by the teachings of the living and the record of what our
fathers have believed and wrought through God; thus its
work is a great preparation of the Church, and of tens of
thousands without her pale, for the more glorious days
which are coming.
The general organizations under the care of the General
Assembly, the "Board of Church Erection," and the
" Committee on Freedmen," are branches of work formerly included within the sphere of Home or Domestic
Missions, but which, from their great importance and the
distinctness of their objects, have now been appointed to
separate representative commissions. The "Relief Fund
for Disabled Ministers and the Widows and Orphans of
Deceased Ministers " is a newer outgrowth of our evangelistic spirit. The more active and widespread a war, the
greater necessity for hospitals and provision for the disabled
soldiers and those who suffer through them.
A general survey of the Revival of 1800 leaves the impression that, beyond the purpose of mercy to that generation, there may be traced in it a special design of the al



ITS EFFECTS UPON OUR CHURCH-LIFE.  89
mighty Head of the Church; that is, the organization of
Protestanltism for the evangelistic efforts of this age. We
have seen this in Great Britain, Germany, Holland and the
United States. The history of our Presbyterian Church in
this country, which we have been considering, remarkably
illustrates it.




CHAPTER X.
THE SIGNS OF A NEWI ORDER OF HUMAN AFFAIRS.
WE have taken a rapid glance at the Great Revival
epoch in which the Church of Christ was lifted,
with the beginning of the nineteenth century, to a much
higher plane of spiritual life and energy.
We would not attach a vital importance to the regularity
of the cycles in which the history of redemption often runs.
But an inspired writer has thought fit to introduce.the life
of Jesus Christ with the observation that " all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and
from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon
unto Christ are fourteen generations."
It pleased God to stamp seven as a symbolic number
upon many ordinances, divisions of time, and multiples of
things which are more or less related to the sanctifying
and peace-giving operations of the Holy Spirit. He appointed seventy as the definite and significant number of
the judges of his people; of the years of their chastisement
for disloyalty to their Sabbath duties; of the subsequent
weeks of years until the Messiah should come; and of
the messengers next the apostles in rank whom he sent to
proclaim the gospel of peace. We simply do not under90




A NEW  ORDER OF HUMAN AFFAIRS.   91
stand in this terrestrial state what this spiritual astronomy
means. It is too high for us. But we may notice that
there is a similar periodicity in the grand revivals of
modern Christianity, dating from Luther at Leipzic and
the Diet of Worms, in 1519 to 1521. The close of the century witnessed the prosperity of Protestantism  in France
under the Huguenot king, Henry IV., and the first colonization of this New World by Sir Walter Raleigh. Then
we have, in the series, the triumphs of spiritual religion
under the protectorates of the Cromwells, ending in 1660;
the " Great Awakening " of 1730; and the Great Revival of
1800. We seem to have reached another of these eras. We
behold another act of the testimony to alternate generations.
We appear to be entering upon another and higher and
swifter stage of the career of the gospel of salvation.
But in the cycles of the Sun of Righteousness, and at
least the earthly system which revolves about him, there
is another and far grander significance to be imputed to
the period in which we live. It is one of the most ancient
and firm beliefs of large sections of the human race, Christian, Jewish and Mohammedan,.indications of which may
be traced even among heathen nations, that, as a thousand
years with the Lord is as one day, so the history of the
world is marked by the sabbatic seal upon its greatest
cycles, that each thousand years is a day, the week of which
will be terminated by a glorious " rest," a "millennium "
of holiness and peace, an earthly " sabbatism " which will
breathe its spirit over the entire race of man, and bring the
world into a new and closer intercourse with God and
heaven. It has been the expectation that the later genera



92        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
tions of the present thousand years would behold the grand
preparations and renovations which would introduce that
happy period.
Could the twelve apostles of the Lord Jesus be sumrnoned back, as were the great lawgiver and the great
prophet, to the scene of the manifestation of the glory of
their Master, and lifted to take a general survey of the preparation of the nations of the world for the gospel at this
time, they would see that it finds nothing equal to it since
their own wonderful and culminating era. The empire of
Japan, abolishing the ancient idolatry of Buddhism by law
and bursting forth into a mighty entreating cry for intellectual and spiritual light; China, queen among nations,
hoary, humiliated, bruised with blows and draggled behind
the chariot of rude and avaricious foreign conquerors, ready
to yield any demand to save her life, and throwing open
the gates of a thousand cities to the preachers of a new and
dreaded doctrine; India, revolutionized since the terrible
Sepoy rebellion, penetrated with five thousand miles of
railroad, her deified Ganges compelled to scatter its waters
to irrigate and give life to once barren wastes, the revenues of her temples forfeited, hundreds of thousands of her
sons rejecting the decrepit wisdom and the complicated
creeds of their fathers; the shah and court of Persia putting off beard and turban and robes, wearing European
dress and conforming to Western ideas; Egypt spanned
by railroads; Ethiopia explored by Christian missionaries;
miracles of salvation wrought in Madagascar; Russia rising
through the peaceful and voluntary emancipation of her
serfs; Spain, Austria, Italy and France breaking, the heavy




A NEW  ORDER OF HUMAN AFFAIRS.   93
chains of a thousand years of despotic papal rule, and admitting freedom of conscience and of public worship, with
all the liberalizing influences of Protestantism in their train;
slavery abolished in America; civilization and the gospel
reaching the "going down of the sun" on its Western
shores, and the commingling there of the ancient races of
the East with ours; the globe netted over with railroads
and telegraphs and lines of steamers; the tens of millions
of books; the hundreds of millions of newspapers; the
Bible translated into every important language; Christian
hospitals, Christian schools, Christian printing presses,
Christian commercial and literary and social influences
penetrating and leavening all heathen, Mohammedan and
anti-Christian lands. Above all, the prophecies of God's
word fulfilled in the destruction of the temporal power of
the Roman anti-Christ; the hopeless abasement of the
Mohammedan false prophet; and the supremacy of the
nations which were the seat of the Great Reformation
three centuries ago, in positions whence they may control
the future destinies of mankind. We seem to be fairly
merging into the full sunrise of a new order of human
affairs. The state of the world reminds us of that when it
advanced from the planetary and prophetic but unsatisfying light of Judaism into the cloudy twilight of the past
two thousand years.  Now the clear sunlight begins to
dawn over the hills. What Christianity truly is, and what
it can do to bless mankind, now begins fully to appear before all the world.
It seems to be in accordance with truth for us to assert
that in the condition of mankind there has never been any



94        THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
thing to compare with what now exists since that " fullness
of times " when Jesus came to make atonement. Then he
came as Priest. Now he manifestly prepares to come as
King. The Father was glorified then by his obedience to
the law. The Father shall be glorified now by the success
of the word which he gave, and in that the disciples bear
much fruit. The Spirit was manifested then in a ministration of forms. The Spirit is to be manifested now in a
ministration of glory; he leads the sons of God into all
truth; he lavishes upon them the fullness and riches of his
heavenly gifts. Such is the resemblance, and the contrast,
of the beginning and the end of the present order of things
in the kingdom of God.
Thus we are irresistibly led to overlook all the intermediate advances and lapses of Christianity, and to connect
the glorious promise of its beginning with the prophecies of
what it shall be when it fairly girds up its loins and starts
upon its unrestrained career. The past revivals have been
but the troubled movements, the inarticulate sighs, of a
Church which now wakes up and puts on her beautiful
garments, and prepares, with all her queenly train, to meet
her Lord.
The interpreters of God's word point to many signs of
the approach of "the latter days."  "Many run to and
fro," the world is traversed by multitudes as it never was
before, who crowd the means of universal communication;
"and knowledge is increased," multiplied, popularized,
cheapened, and given to the poor and the laboring classes
by numerous forms of the publication of it, and by national
and other systems and methods of education of the young,.




A NEW  ORDER OF HUMAN AFFAIRS.   95
There do "come in the last days scoffers walking after their
own lusts." The prophetic term of the papal superstition
seems to have expired. The Waldensian witnesses have
come down from their wilderness, and again lifted up their
testimony. The angels of chastisement go forth again in
wars, conflagrations, pestilences, famines. The gospel of
the kingdom is preached to all the world. By such signs
this seems to be linked peculiarly with the apostolic era of
Christianity.
If this general sentiment of Christians, and indeed of
mankind, be correct, then the Church of Jesus Christ is
called to rouse herself to put on the spirit and meet the
duties of the occasion. And especially is she required to
go to the inspired account of the beginning of the course
of the gospel; to study the teachings, character, toils,
events, of that period of mighty evangelic success; and
to pray and labor with the expectation that all its wonders
will be tenfold multiplied in the world-wide closing scenes
of this Dispensation, preparatory to a holier and happier
state of the world.




CHAPTER XI.
THE LATTER PENTECOST.
T IE climate of Palestine supplies one of the most plain
and apposite illustrations of the method of the operations
of the Holy Spirit. After a long and torrid summer, in
which no rain falls from the unclouded sky, and vegetation
is lifeless through the extreme and unbroken heat, as
in our Atlantic regions in the winter from the opposite
cause, about November "the former rains" set in. For
some weeks, through the seed time, there are plentiful and
reviving showers. All nature puts on fresh beauty. Flowers, grasses and the whole vegetable world start with new
life. But after a time the periodic supply seems to be
effected, and the rains almost cease.  For two or three
months there descend but light and temporary showers.
But when spring sets fairly in, and nature feels a further
general necessity, when the swelling seed of a thousand
hills and valleys needs new and bountiful gifts of moisture
to enable it to fill, and multiply, and enrich the earth with
the final and useful products, then the heavens are again
opened; then descends the copious " latter rain;" it is the
grand preparation for the harvest.
" Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain;
so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them show96




THE LATTER PENTECOST.                 97
crs of rain, to every one grass in the field." The prophet
Zechariah takes the wonderful illustration from the laws of
the descent of rain in that climate, and uses it to tell us, in
" the latter day," our duty. Dr. E. Henderson (Commentary on the Minor Prophets) thus translates the verse:
"Ask ye from Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain:
Jehovah maketh the lightnings,
And giveth them the heavy rain,
To every one grass in the field."
Zechariah is the Isaiah of "the minor prophets;" full
of the most evangelical, distinct and far-reaching predictions. In a passage in the ninth and tenth chapters we
read first the cry: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy King cometh
unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly, and
riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass....
He shall speak peace unto the heathen; and his dominion
shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of
the earth." A little farther on is the promise before
quoted.
This most striking prophecy is kindred with a group
found in both the Old and New Testaments, which declare
that there shall be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
glorifying the third person of the Trinity by an overwhelming manifestation of his attributes at the close of this Dispensation, and before the millennium; just as the second
person of the Trinity was glorified by a manifestation of
himself at the close of the last Dispensation, and as the introduction to this one. The passage depicts the period of
this Divine manifestation; the reviving influence of it upon
7




98        THIE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
the world; the tempestuous and startling judgments which
shall be sent upon the nations, the lightnings which shall
precede and accompany the rains; and the great abundance
of the converts, which is often in Scripture compared to
that of the blades of grass in the fields.  On the other
hand, man's part, in the use of the ordained means, is
made prominent and essential: the Church must " ask" for
these wondrous gifts. In a similar prediction in the book
of Ezekiel it is written: "Thus saith the Lord GOD, I
will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do
it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock."
And it is a matter of the very first importance that we
shall study, ponder, pray over, this declaration of the
eternal and omnipotent God until we are deeply convinced
and affected with the sense that they relate to aus, that they
point to our age, that they define our duty. God, by his
Holy Spirit, will give unto us, if asked, this deep and realizing conviction. This will be to us the spring of confidence, of exertion, of patience, of supplication and of joy.
The word "ask" is not, in the Hebrew, simply to request. It is the reverential supplication of the queen of
Sheba when she asked counsel and instruction of King
Solomon; the passionate entreaty of Hannah when she
asked a son from the Lord; the anxious prayer of Solomon
when he asked wisdom as the highest gift God could bestow upon a youthful sovereign; the begging of a person
for bread to keep him from perishing, or the supreme
duty which God requires of man, Our duty is to ask, to
pray, to beg. Let us inquire how the primitive Christians
prayed, to receive such amazing gifts as those of Pentecost.




THE LATTER PENTECOST.                 99
The first impression which we receive from the study of
the closing scenes of the life of Jesus Christ, and that of
the spirit of the disciples, is that they were intensely affected with the dreadful and desperate state of men without Christ.
Jesus' tears over Jerusalem had moved their inmost
soul. " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this
thy day, the things which belong to thy peace! but now
they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come
upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about
thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every
side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy
children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one
stone upon another; because thou knowest not the time
of thy visitation." It is probably beyond our power to
conceive of the passionate love of the Jew for Jerusalem,
the seat of ten thousand wondrous records and legends of
God's favors to his race, from Abraham's day till Christ's;
of saintly characters which were to those of the rest of the
world what a planet is to an earthen lamp; of amazing
national deliverances by Divine and by angelic hands; of
promised glory to Israel by the incarnation, in their stock,
of the Son of God; of a looked-for kingdom which should
surpass any earthly dominion by as much as God is greater,
mightier, wiser, richer, than man. Now, with the terrific
denunciations of Jesus upon the people, the awful woes
which hung over the city and land, so painfully described,
as to their fulfillment, by Josephus-the fatal hemming in
by the implacable Roman hosts, the eating of their own
babes in the extremities of famine, the ferocious feuds and




100       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
bloodshed within the walls, the rivers of blood poured
down the declivities and into the brooks when the city was
taken, the burning and complete destruction of the city
and temple, the pitiless sweeping away of all classes and
ranks into distant and hopeless slavery-all before the eyes,
the ears, the imaginations, the hearts, of these fervent
preachers of salvation, who can realize the anguish of
their prayers for themselves, their kindred and their
countrymen? Who can feel as they did the crushing
force of that damning charge, the murder of their own
MESSIAH, which they hurled at the people of Jerusalem?
"HIM ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified
and slain. " " Ye denied the HOLY ONE AND THE JUST, and
desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the
PRINCE OF LIFE, whom God hath raised from the dead."
A look of Jesus sent the conscience-stricken Peter out to
"' weep bitterly."  What must have been the bitterness of
the weeping, the agony of the acknowledgments, the intensity of the entreaties for mercy upon those who had
"pierced him," which filled that upper chamber during
the days which intervened between the distressing scene
when the disciples stood "gazing up into heaven" after
their departed Lord, and that when the Holy Ghost was
given in fulfillment of his last promise, and they were
clothed with unknown power as preachers of the new doctrines!
To conceive and to feel something of the present and
the eternal woes of those who reject the Son of God, who
"pierce him," who "crucify him  afresh," to pray with
genuine sincerity of desire and entreaty for their deliver



THE LATTER PENTECOST.                101
ance and pardon,-this is the first step towards our moving
Jesus to send down the gifts of the first Pentecost. We
can scarcely hope for "the heavy rains " of the time of the
"latter rain " until Christians are affected to pray for the
pardon of their own guilt, and for the rescue from eternal
damnation of their ungodly kindred, their unconverted fellow-citizens, and the countless millions of the world lying
in sin, with somewhat of the depth of emotion and
urgency of supplication which at the first Pentecost so
mightily moved the heart of God, and opened so wide the
windows of heaven.
It was the deep conviction of these things which gave
power to the preaching of the Great Revival of 1800. The
reader of this account of it must have felt it in the words
which the preachers have left on record; and their daily
labors "from house to house," like the primitive Christians, were in the same spirit. The Rev. Samuel Andrews
(Historical Collections) says of Rev. S. C. Caldwell, of
North Carolina, "He pungently presented the truths of
the gospel and delineated the character of saints and sinners with close application to every man's conscience, and
before he dismissed the congregation he besought them
again to attend to the things which belonged to their everlasting peace. While he spoke the tears frequently rolled
down his cheeks. He also exhorted families and conversed
with individuals about their eternal interests."
The second strong impression which we receive from a
study of the scenes at and after Pentecost is, the adoring
honor, the implicit faith, the joyful love of those Christians
toward Jesus Christ. "They worshiped him, and were




102       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
continually in the tempre praising and blessing God."
Study this wonderful picture: "They lifted up their
voice with one accord, and said,'Lord, Thou art God,
which hast made heaven and earth and the sea and all
that in them is. Of a truth, against Thy holy child Jesus,
whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate
and the people of Israel were gathered together, for to do
whatever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to
be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and
grant unto Thy servants that with all boldness they may
speak Thy word, by stretching out Thy hand to heal, and
that signs and wonders may be done by the name of Thy
holy child Jesus.' And when they had prayed, the place
was shaken where they were assembled together, and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost."
What a linking together, in their faith, of the divinity
of Jesus with all its attributes and the humanity with all
its sympathies! What reliance on Him who was made a
little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, that
he might lead many sons into glory, but is now crowned
with all glory and honor, and all things put in subjection
under him!
"Adoring angels round him fall,
In all their shining forms;
His sovereign eye looks through them all,
And pities mortal worms."
"JESUS " was the great theme of their talk, their
thoughts, their preaching, their joy! " With great power
gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of JESUS, and
great grace was upon them all." "Daily in the temple,




THE LATTER PENTECOST.               103
and in every house, they ceased not to teach and to preach
JESUS CHRIST," and "rejoiced that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for his name." "And the Lord
added daily to the Church such as should be saved."
The theme of the great day of wonders, the special
Pentecost, was, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of JESUS CHRIST, for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the HOLY GHOST. Save
yourselves from this untoward generation." "And the
same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."
O brethren, this is the power that " shakes the place"
where we assemble for prayer; that shakes the strongest
fortification which human pride or hatred, or Satan's
power, can rear about the souls of men; that can shake
the whole world with fear and into submission!
When Justin Martyr was summoned before the Roman
prefect and asked what was the creed of himself and his
associates, he replied, "That we should worship the GOD
of the Christians, whom we believe to have been from the
beginning One, the Creator and Maker of all things, even
of all things seen and unseen, and the LORD JESUS CHRIST
who was predicted by the prophets as the future Saviour
of mankind."  When Polycarp was condemned to be
burned at the stake, he cried, "0 true and faithful
GOD, I bless Thee! I glorify Thee, with the eternal and
heavenly JEsus CHRIST, Thy beloved Son, to whom, with
Thee and the HOLY SPIRIT, be glory now and for ever."
This faith was the power that overwhelmed the Roman
empire, that converted millions over the whole world.




104      THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
It was the name of JESUS that shook all the world at the
Great Reformation.  " In my heart," said Martin Luther,
"this article reigns alone, and shall reign, namely, faith in
my dear LORD CHRIST, who is the only Beginning, Middle
and End of all my spiritual and divine thoughts which I
have by day or night."  And again: "Ah, how truly
grand is the honest prayer of a true Christian! How
mighty it is with God, that a poor human creature can so
speak with the High Majesty in heaven, and not dread
Him, but know that God is kindly smiling on him, for
JESUS CHRIST'S sake, His dear Son, our Lord and Saviour!"  This was also the spirit of Zwingle and Calvin.
Would we again shake the world, it must be by the
power of JESUS CHRIST; by preaching JESUS CHRIST, his
complete and finished atonement, his all-sufficient intercession, the efficacy of his word, the honor of his kingdom on
earth, the joys of his kingdom on high; and by praying to
JESUS CHRIST that he would send the HOLY SPIRIT to
convince all the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, according to the eternal covenants of mercy.
Where shall we find help? Not from any arm of flesh.
Among the African races, as indeed among most of the
heathen, there is a class of "rain-doctors" who, in a protracted drought, are employed to excite the heavens and
bring down the precious showers. They erect a stage and
make incantations, howlings, drummings, hideous contortions. They burn clouds of incense and offer sacrifices.
And they and their followers believe that their efforts possess some efficacy.  Just such there were among the
heathen nations about Palestine. The Scriptures often al



THE LATTER PENTECOST.                105
lude to them. But who alone can send rain? " Let us now
fear the LORD our God that giveth rain, both the former
and the latter, in his season." How are we to obtain it
fiom God?  Not by our own efforts. Not by the juggling
of professional revivalists. "Askc of the LORD rain, in the
time of the latter rain, so the Lord shall send lightnings
and give them [heavy] showers of rain, to every one grass
in the field." " Elijah was a man subject to like passions
as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain,
and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years
and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven
gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."
Prayer is the only power that can rend the heavens!
Secret prayer-with a shut closet door, to him who has
covenanted to reward us openly. Family prayer-" every
family apart, and their wives apart," as Zechariah instructs us; and how God is waking up our wives and sisters
and daughters to pray now, as if an earnest of his blessing!
General prayer-that "the land shall mourn;" prayer in
the house of God, prayer in our presbyteries, synods and assemblies, conventions of ministers and of elders for prayer,
general days of fasting and prayer, weeks of prayer.
Will not the LORD JESUS, the same almighty Head of
the body, the Church, who is before all things, and by
whom all things consist, answer sincere, believing prayer?
-He who says reproachfully to us, "hitherto ye have
asked nothing in my name; ask and ye shall receive,
that your joy may be full-that the Father may be glorified
in the Son." Once the disciples were in peril, their ship
seemed about to sink with the roaring and dashing waves.




106       THIE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save
us, we perish! And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the
winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the
Inen marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that
even the winds and the sea obey him! Let us, fellow disciples, set ourselves to wake him. The winds, the clouds,
shall obey him!
A third leading feature of the Pentecostal epoch was
that the converts seemed so wholly filled with the temnper
and spirit which might be expected to possess " children of
God."
When we read the history of a great sovereign we expect
to find that his virtues have been transmitted by nature,
by his precepts and by his illustrious example, to his sons
and daughters. We are greatly disappointed if we learn
that the family of such a king were self-indulgent, sensual,
cowardly, avaricious, and that their conduct dimmed the
glory of their paternal name.
In the revelations which God has made of himself in his
word we learn of the infinite excellence of all his moral
attributes. It is in accordance with reason to expect that
when he adopts " children " they shall catch from his word
and by the promised influences of his Holy Spirit upon the
soul such goodness, benevolence, purity, justice and other
heavenly traits as shall make them shine in this world of
sin like a different order of beings, almost as it were angels
in disguise.
Such were the first converts of Christianity. They were
all sinful by nature and imperfect; some of them fell into




THE LATTER PENTECOST.                107
gross offences. But if any one will endeavor to picture to
his mind a man moving among ourselves possessed of the
virtues of one of those primitive Christians best known to
us-for instance, Paul-his love, patience, generosity, courage, devotion to his Master's work, elevation above the
motives and spirit of the people around us with whom we
are acquainted,-we will realize something of how greatly
they differed from us. Few, it is true, equaled him. But
still in him we see much of the prevailing character of the
first disciples of Christ.
Let us select one high characteristic of those men and
women. There is no sin which should more clearly distinguish the world from the church than the love of
money. Jesus Christ thus marked it: "Ye cannot serve
God and mammon." The apostles held up its dangerous,
subtle, mighty power over the soul and over the conduct
in such warnings as this: "The love of money is the root
of all evil." It is a sin which cuts the cords of dependence
on our Father's providence; the ties of association with
heaven and its inhabitants, and superiority to the world;
and the strong obligations of generosity and hospitality to
our brethren in Christ, and of gospel liberality in publishing the knowledge of salvation to all the world.
How were the first converts in respect to this sin? It is
remarkable that the inspired historian, in the Acts, at once
proceeds from the description of the outpouring of the
Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost to say: "And all
that believed were together and had all things common,
and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to
all men as every man had need. And they continued daily




108       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from
house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and
singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all
the people. And the Lord added daily to the church such
as should be saved."  And the narrative of another Divine
effusion very soon afterwards says at once: " Neither was
there any among them that lacked; for as many as were
possessors of houses or lands sold them, and brought the
prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at
the apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every
man according as he had need." Then we read the good
example of the liberality of Barnabas, and the bad one of
the covetousness of Ananias and Sapphira, and their destruction, first for covetousness, then for lying.
Now, if money be, as it is, the equivalent, the representative, the means of power-the stimulus, present compensation and support of all forms of mechanical, commercial
and other material and intellectual employments for the
ends to which they are directed-it is seen in a moment
why its consecrated use is a supreme duty; and why its
abuse, by wasting it, by consuming it upon our appetites,
or by laying it up in a napkin, and burying it in land or
investments, where it cannot germinate in good, is a sin
which stands near that which is unpardonable.
When heathen, who are accustomed to large outlays for
religious purposes, and do not dream that they " cannot
give" for such objects, are converted —when they take
their tone, not from us American and European Christians,
but from the word of God, its teaching and its examplestheir liberality seems to the people of our day extravagant.




THE LATTER PENTECOST.                109
Thus I have seen poor converts bring in loads of fruit, vegetables and articles of their own manufacture, on a missionary
occasion.  A ministerial brother in China mentioned the
case of a man, who earned about six dollars in a month,
that usually managed to bring savings to the amount of
one dollar, to help to send the word of God to his perishing
fellow-countrymen. The sons and daughters of affliction
are at times chastened to something like the primitive
liberality. A poor blind girl once brought to her pastor
several dollars in money. He expressed his surprise. She
replied that she had saved it by laying away as much
money as persons who see would have spent for candles.
Thus her sorrow and darkness were lighted with the light
of the smiles of her Saviour. Our little children, too, how
their simple faith in God, their readiness to give freely and
thankfully the money or the other treasures which they possess, when their hearts are touched with some narrative of
woe, humbles our spiritual self-satisfaction, and rebukes our
oversight of that model which our Master placed before us!
"Jesus called a little child, and set him in the midst of
them, and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into
the kingdom of heaven."  Millions of professing Christians
probably have discovered the truth of this declaration
when, dying aniidst mourning families, who had enjoyed
with them the abundance of the things of this life, they
found to their eternal horror the gates of the kingdom of
heaven shut. They had called themselves "children of
God;" he says, " I never knew you.'"
But "with what measure" do we mete?  Look at the




110       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
contributions of many a congregation in a substantial farming community. The annual aggregate of the gifts of some
churches for the spread of the gospel over our nation or
abroad, or to educate men for the ministry, or for the increase of religious literature, or to any of the other great
avenues of evangelization which God has opened before us,
may be as much as the price of an ox, or a sheep, which
any one of a hundred members might give away, or lose,
and be none the poorer. Indeed, many give, to save their
fellow-men, nothing at all. Look at those from churches
in cities or towns-a yearly consecration to some work of
Christ, from the whole body, of what one of many members
would spend for an evening's entertainment and mirth.
When we consider the torpor of the Church to this and
other sins of omission as well as transgression, we may well
ask, Is it a wonder that God's Spirit is withheld? That
our children grow up unblessed? That dissipation and
folly prevail in society? That scoffers deride the precious
name of Christ? That tens of thousands of thinking and
moral people stand aloof from the Church? That the
wheels of the chariot of salvation are clogged? That the
world is trenched in its superstition and unbelief?  We
must warn men to repent of the robbery of God, and bring
the offerings which they owe, before he can " open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing."
What a power the American Church would have for the
spread of the gospel if its members employed the vast,
varied, inexhaustible resources of this wonderful continent
in the service of Christ, as they do to maintain armies and
navies and the fleets of commerce, to carry railroads to the




THE LATTER PENTECOST.                111
extremes of civilization, to multiply manufactures, to increase the products of the soil, to rear edifices for the multifarious uses and desires of our luxurious and extravagant
state of society, to get riches that "bereave the soul of
good," and that are kept for children " to their hurt "!
Was there ever an age in which such opportunities and
means were given to the Church of Christ to reach and
benefit and bless mankind? Was there ever a generation
so guilty as ours in closing its eyes and ears to the despair
of the perishing immortal beings around us? Was there
ever one to whom, by all the grand vehicles of a high civilization, their woes, their ruin, their terrors, their blind helplessness while they are falling over the precipices of eternal
perdition, were so brought before the eyes, the ears, the
imagination? Oh, did we consecrate thought, time, property, sons and daughters, all the numerous and potent
influences of our day and land, to publishing that joyful,
wonderful, glorious news, with anything like the same devotedness to him which glowed in the first Christians, how
quickly all our continent, all Asia, all Africa, all Europe,
would be filled with the praises of his redemption!
When we compare the three great revivals of American
history, we may observe a progression in their character.
The first was one of colonization. It made the dead
formalism of Europe intolerable, and placed a renovated
and free people upon a new, unoccupied and suitable continent. This was the digging up and the transfer of the ore.
The second was one of "awakening," as it was well
termed at the time. It was one of doctrinal instruction,
of spiritual quickening; and it is wonderful how the holy




112       THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1800.
influence of Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd and others
of that day is to be traced at the root of the revival and
missionary efforts of all sects and lands. This was the
melting and fining of the metal.
The third was one of evangelic organization.  It girded
and arrayed the followers of Christ, some of them in general societies, some of them in the establishment of separate
ecclesiastical agencies, for the great work of giving the gospel to mankind. I have shown how the Boards of the
Presbyterian Church can be traced back to it. This was
the advancement to the building of engines and machinery.
The fourth must be one of dissemination.  It must employ the numerous membership and the vast resources of
the Church in conveying the knowledge of salvation "to
every creature." This must supply fuel, kindle the fires,
man and load the trains and vessels, and send the freights
of mercy over land and sea, to every inhabitant of this land,
and to every mortal and immortal descendant of those who
were driven from Eden for their sin.  " They shall obtain
joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
Now again, " the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" Shall
we mumble over our phylacteries, cleanse our cups and
platters, and garnish the tombs of dead prophets? Shall
we hold our peace?  Or shall we haste with our best gifts
to the KING; wake our sons and daughters to proclaim
his approach; and sound the glad tidings to the meek,
the broken-hearted, the captives? Is the PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH-are we —"come to the kingdom for such a time
as this"? Or shall God destroy us, and raise up help from
another quarter"?