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 SERMONS ON REVIVALS.
 
 SERMONS ON REVIVALS. 
 
 REV. ALBERT BARNES, 
 
 WITH AN 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JOEL PARKER, D. D. 
 
 President of the New York Union Theological Seminary. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 JOHN S. TAYLOR, AND CO, 
 {Brick Church Ckapel, 145 Nassau St.) 
 
 1841.
 
 F.ntered according to the Act of Cjnsfrcss, in the year 
 
 1841, by 
 
 J o ri N S . T A Y r, O R & c o . 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of liic Dii«lrict Court for tlie South- 
 
 cm District of New Yi^'':.
 
 BY 
 
 3110 
 333 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The Publishers of these Permons, believmg" 
 them eminently calculated to do good — will 
 make a very liberal discount, from the regular 
 price, to Superintendants and Teachers of Sab- 
 bath Schools, and to the benevolent, who may 
 wish to purchase for gratuitous distribution. 
 
 It is believed that the friends of revivals, 
 will perform an important service to the church 
 and to the world, by giving to this work an 
 <;xtensive circulation.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 There is not upon the earth a more interest- 
 ing phenomenon than a revival of religion. 
 When God visits a people with his grace, the 
 whole commimity participates in the blessing, 
 though none but those who wisely improve 
 the heavenly influence, are ultimately and 
 eternally benefited. Yet, in an important re- 
 spect it resembles the sun-light and the rain 
 that are shed forth alike upon the good and 
 the unthankful. Many of those who are en- 
 tirely unthoughtful in respect to the source of 
 their enjoyments, are sharing largely in the 
 benefits derived through a revival of religion 
 from purified domestic affections, and the re- 
 straints of passion, and a quickened sense of 
 right pervading the public mind. Nor do 
 they merely derive benefit, incidentally from 
 the good influence exerted upon others. Their
 
 X I'HEl'ACE. 
 
 own tone of feclinfr, and their moral habi- 
 tudes, are often vastly improved, and many 
 such, even while unconverted, seem to stand 
 forth like unconscious plants that show by their 
 erect position and bright verdure that they 
 have felt the invigorating power of light and 
 the genial warmth of the sun, and the re- 
 freshment of the dews. When one of these 
 delightful seasons has for the most part pas- 
 sed away, many that are unconverted are left 
 with kinder feelings towards the Gospel, and 
 are ever after more susceptible to the iiifluencc 
 of the ordinary means of grace. 
 
 It is obvious, however, that a revival of re- 
 ligion has seemed, at times, to exert upon 
 worldly minds an influence of an opposite 
 character. For this, two reasons may be as- 
 signed. There are some minds, which, in 
 consequence of former prejiidice, or from a 
 peculiarly malignant cast of depravity, have 
 caused the most softening and subduing in- 
 fluences only to aggravate their disease and 
 enhance all the difficulties of their conver- 
 sion. In such cases it is manifest that the 
 revival is, like any other perverted blessing, 
 only the innocent occasion by which those re-
 
 PREFACE 
 
 fered to, inflict injury upon themselves. Then 
 again, in genuine revivals of religion, where 
 the blessed Spirit has seen fit greatly to exert 
 his power, ^^there has often been, it must be 
 confessed, a want of wisdom in the instru- 
 ments which has, iii no small degree, marred 
 the work. Indiscretions of language have oc- 
 curred, and unhappy methods of acting on the 
 public mind have been adopted. Hence, though 
 a revival of religion, which is nothing else 
 than an increase of piety in a community, is 
 itself unmingled good, yet, if the phrase be 
 applied to the whole complex state of the 
 public mind during such a season, good and 
 evil will be found to be mingled in various 
 proportions. It has been supposed by some 
 theorists upon this subject that if a revival of 
 religion be a genuine product of Divine influ- 
 ence it must be free from extravagance, and se- 
 rious error. But observation and experience, 
 and the word of God plainly evince that the 
 Holy Spirit often operates through what is 
 good in a course of means where many things 
 in that course are marked by the most serious 
 misjudgment. Revivals of religion, then, 
 hold a relation to our investigations not dis- 
 2*
 
 similar to tliat u[ a branch of science. The 
 phrase, science of revivals, would doubtless 
 be regarded by many as an improper expres- 
 sion, and the art of producing ti revival would 
 shock serious minds. And yet there are prin- 
 ciples involved in these interesting phenoraeua 
 that may be discussed with as much advan- 
 tage as the principles of any branch of men- 
 tal and moral science ; and there are specific 
 adaptations of means for the production of any 
 given spiritual phasis of the public blind which 
 may be as well nnderstood and as skilfully ap- 
 plied as any other means that can be brought 
 to»bear upon mingled masses of human be- 
 ings. So far as means are concerned, it may 
 be said that they accomplish nothing only as 
 instruments ; but, beyond a doubt, God works 
 by means in such a sense that the peculiar 
 character of the instrumentality is impressed 
 upon the result. 
 
 You shall see some ministers of the Gospel 
 whose style of effort resembles that of a hus- 
 bandman that carries forward the planting and 
 various culture and harvesting of a given pro- 
 duction at the same time. He sows a few 
 seeds, cherishes some plants whose progress he
 
 PREFACE. XUl 
 
 IS watching, and gathers daily others as they 
 successively ripen for the harvest. Under 
 such an instrumentality religion has gradually 
 gained influence, till, like a little concealed 
 ^eaven, it has wrought a mighty change in the 
 whole community. One who chooses to di- 
 rect his endeavors in such a manner, may be 
 thought by some to be very cold in his re- 
 gards for a revival of religion, and yet such a 
 method of procedure may be prosecuted with 
 great fidelity, and self-denial, and spirituality, 
 and success. It is also attended with fewer 
 hazards in the hands of most men, and will 
 commonly result sooner or later in an in- 
 crease of religion of so rapid and powerful a 
 character, that all will acknowledge it as a re- 
 vival. Such was the course of the devoted 
 and successful Leigh Richmond. His zeal 
 was a pure and steady flame. The influence 
 of his labors was seen in a constant present 
 success, and the ultimate result was a power- 
 ful and extensive work of grace. 
 
 There is another mode of action, which 
 more resembles the labors of a husbandman 
 who first prepares large fields by sowing, and 
 then brings them forward by irrigation and
 
 )C1V TREFACK. 
 
 various culture, and afterwards devotes a sea- 
 son entirely to the work of harvesting. If the 
 instrumentality be put forth after this impul- 
 sivc manner, the Holy Spirit will operate by 
 a method corresponding to the means em- 
 ployed. Nor does the fact that a revival of 
 religion is conforrAed to one of these methods 
 or the other, create any presumption for or 
 against the genuineness or the degree of 
 purity of the work. In either case, other 
 things being equal, he that pours the greatest 
 amount of pure gospel instruction into the 
 minds of his hearers, and deals most faitlifully 
 with them in discriminating between true and 
 false religion, will be the safest spiritual guide. 
 The impulsive method is doubtless more pow- 
 erful, as it employs more largely the social 
 sympathies, and uses the influence of numer- 
 ous contemporaneous examples in eliciting 
 attention to the subject, and in removing pre- 
 judices. It tends also to unite the church 
 more closely in supplication. United prayer 
 is a means of such indispensable necessity' and 
 power in a revival, that every thing which 
 tends to bring the greatest number of chris- 
 tians to be ' of one accord in one place,' tends
 
 PREFACli. XV 
 
 most surely to secure a large communication 
 of Divine influei\ce. The work of grace which 
 occurred under the ministration of President 
 Edwards, at Northampton, was of this charac- 
 ter; and it is very easy to perceive that his 
 labors at that time, and his tl'eatise on the 
 subject, which is so deservedly exerting a 
 great influence, tend to this peculiar charac- 
 ter of religious revivals. 
 
 Mr. Barnes has exhibited in his discourses, 
 in a very happy manner, the philosophy of 
 this subject. He has emplo^/ed his rich re- 
 sources and various learning in illustrating 
 his topics and in overcoming those prejudices 
 which spring up from apprehensions of disor- 
 der and extravagance and fanaticism in con- 
 nexion with everything like a revival of reli- 
 gion. 
 
 It is encouraging to perceive such a demand 
 for works of this character that a Publisher in 
 the prosecution of his ordinary business finds 
 it for his advantage to gather up these dis- 
 courses, which were reposing in the dust of 
 an old periodica], and send them forth in the 
 form of an inviting volume. 
 
 The reflecting part of the ministry, in all
 
 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 our evangelical denominations, lias come to 
 feel that revivals of religion open a broad field 
 of observation, and demand the best exercise 
 of their judgment and the closest application 
 of practical skill. If revivals of Pentecostal 
 power should now be granted we hope there 
 are not a few who would recognize in them 
 the operation of familiar principles, and whose 
 'joy of faith' would be in no degree abated by 
 the apprehension that every thing extraordina- 
 ry must result in extravagance. 
 
 The subject derives great interest also from 
 the advanced position of this country in res- 
 pect to revivals ; and, if we except now the 
 Sandwich Islands, there is no country on the 
 globe that has enjoyed such seasons of spirit- 
 ual refreshing. This is of the greater conse- 
 quence because an advance upon former modes 
 of action is more likely to spring up among a 
 young people where the national character 
 like that of a youthful individual is still flexi- 
 ble and generous. Our country is acting with 
 greater power than any other in modifying the 
 character of the civilized world. 
 
 The age in which we live is characterized 
 by two thin.c[s that are sometimes regarded as
 
 incompatible Avith one another. It is highly- 
 impulsive in its movements, and yet men are 
 acting in masses of continually augmented 
 magnitude. The facilities of intercommuni- 
 cation between all those portions of the Avorld 
 where the English tongue is spoken, have be- 
 come so great, and so numerous ; commerce 
 is so rapid in its movements ; travel is so in- 
 creased both in its amount and in its speed ; 
 and the press is so fluent that whenever a great 
 impulse is produced it moves like a rapid 
 mountain wave, and ceases not in its progress 
 till it strikes on every side of Christendom, 
 against the rocky barriers of barbarism. 
 
 Thus our temperance movement has sent 
 its mighty impulse all over the British empire 
 and the continent of Europe. Our revivals of 
 religion, we are well assured, are not without 
 their influence ; and we hail every increase 
 of their power and purity, and every discus- 
 sion like that contained in the following pages 
 as a harbinger of that great work of revival, 
 when 
 
 ' One song employs all nations ; and all cry 
 Worthy the Lamb, for lie was slain for us : 
 The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
 
 Sliiut to •' 'cii nilif r, a»ifl flu: moi 
 Fr.iiti (iis'uiit nioiiiilaiiis calrh tiiu Uj. .i: : ji.'V ; 
 'l'i!l na1i»ii alter iialiuti taii^riit the Ktrain, 
 P'artl) rnl!:j the rapturous Ilosanna roun I.' 
 
 JOEL PARKEK. 
 
 .Acw York, May 1, 1841.
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE THEORY OF REVIVALS. 
 
 '" Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and lei 
 the skies pour down righteousness : let the 
 earth open, and let them bring forth salva- 
 tion, and let righteousness spring up to- 
 gether y — isa. xlv : 8. 
 
 This beautiful passage of scripture may be 
 regarded partly as the expression of pious 
 feeling, and partly as a prophetic description. 
 It is the language of one who greatly desired 
 an increase of piety, and who was accustom- 
 ed to look forward to times Avhen pure reli- 
 gion would shed abroad its influence on earth 
 like descending showers from heaven. This 
 prophet, more than any other one, fixed his 
 3
 
 20 THEORY OF REVIVALS, 
 
 eye on the times of the Redeemer, and fie 
 delighted to describe scenes which would oc- 
 cur when he should appear. With deep 
 interest he threw himself amidst those future 
 scenes, and with a heart full of faith he ut^ 
 tered the language of our text, ' Pour down, 
 ye heavens, from above like descending show- 
 ers, and ye skies distil righteousness like fer- 
 tilizing rains ; let the earth open her bosom, 
 and let salvation spring forth as an abundant 
 harvest.' 
 
 From these words 1 propose to commence 
 a series of discourses on revivals of reli- 
 gion. Several considerations have induced 
 me to enter on the discussion of this subject. 
 One is, that they are the most remarkable 
 phenomena of our times, and that they have 
 done more than any other single cause to form 
 the public mind in this countrj'. Large por- 
 tions of the community have been shaken to 
 their centre by these religious movements : 
 and society has received some of its most 
 decided directions from these deep and far 
 pervading revolutions. 
 
 Another reason is, that every christian has 
 the deepest interest in the question about re'
 
 THEOUY OF UEVIVALS. Bl 
 
 vh^als of religion. If they are the Gfenuine 
 work of God ; if they accord with the state- 
 ments in the Bible ; if they are such results 
 as he has a right to expect under the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel, he is bound, by all the love 
 which he hears to his Saviour and to the souls 
 of men, to desire and pray for their increase 
 and extension. 
 
 Another reason is, that there are many 
 various and contradictory opinions in regard 
 to these religious movements. It is not won- 
 derful that, in a community where every thing 
 is subjected to free discussion, and every man 
 IS at liberty to form his own judgment, they 
 should haA'^e given rise to great variety of 
 opinion. By some they are regarded as the 
 mere work of enthusiasm. By some they are 
 supposed to be originated by a strain of 
 preaching, and an array of measures adapted 
 to operate on easily excited feelings, and fit- 
 ted to influence only the weaker portions of 
 the community, and to be imworthy the at- 
 tention of the more refined and intelligent 
 Tanks of society. By others they are con- 
 sidered to be in accordance with all the laws 
 of mind ; regarded as having a foundation in
 
 22" TiriiORY OF REVIVALS. 
 
 the very nature of Christianity in its adapted"- 
 ness to the world ; na produced by the agency 
 of the Holy Spirit, and as connected with the 
 best hopes of mankind. Even among profes-^ 
 sed christians it canuot be denied that some 
 look upon them with distrust and alarm ; oth- 
 ers regard them as the glory of the age, and 
 as identified with alt that is cheerinr: in the 
 prospect of the conversion of the world to 
 God. Some see in them the last hope of this 
 republic against a tide of ills that is rolling 
 in with rapid and desolating surges upon us ; 
 and some regard them as amo-ng the ills which 
 religion, unsupported by the state, has pro- 
 duced in a country w^here all is wild, asttd free 
 even to licentiousness. Perhaps there is 
 scarcely any excitement of the public mind 
 that has produced a deeper attention ; none- 
 that can by a christian or a patriot be regard- 
 ed as of higher moment, or as more likely to 
 affect the best interests of man. The friend 
 of revivals regards it as a fact of deep inte- 
 rest, that scarcely a village iqniles upon the 
 American landscape that has not been conse- 
 crated in early history bj'^ the presence and 
 power of the Holy Ghost in a revival of reli-
 
 THEORY OF REVIVALS. 23 
 
 gion. He discerns in the spire that points to 
 heaven, proof that that is a place perhaps 
 more than once honored by the presence of 
 Israel's God. He sees in the reigning order, 
 peace, and prosperity, proofs that the power 
 of God has been felt there. He finds in its 
 schools, its industry, its morals, its benevo- 
 lence, demonstration that Christianity there has 
 struck its roots deep in some mighty work 
 of God's Spirit, and, as the result is sending 
 out branches bending Avith rich and mellow 
 fruits. He can recall there some thrilling pe- 
 riod in its history when a spirit of prayer and 
 seriousness gave its character to the growing 
 village, and when, under the influence of such 
 a revival, a moulding hand was extended over 
 nil the social habits of the place. If such is 
 their influence, it is an act of mere justice 
 that Christianity should not be deprived of the 
 claims which it has on the gratitude of the 
 nation ; it is a duty which we owe to ourselves 
 and our country to understand and to ap- 
 preciate causes so deeply affecting our wel- 
 fare. 
 
 There is one other reason why I propose 
 to bring this subject before you, and indeed 
 3*
 
 24 TfinoRV OF REVrVALS- 
 
 thc main reason which has opcralcd on my 
 mmd in doing it. It is whether it is to be ex- 
 pected that such scenes will be witnessed in 
 large cities and towns, or whether there are 
 in the very nature of a city population insu- 
 perable obstacles to the existence of revivals 
 of religion there, it is certain that in our 
 own land they have occurred mtieh njore fre- 
 quently in the comparatively quiet retreats 
 of the country ; and that such scenes as are 
 characteristically known as revivals of reli- 
 gion are scarcely known in large cities like 
 the one where wc dwell. Knowing as we do 
 the effect which cities must have, and do have 
 on religion, the chastity, the temperance, the 
 intelligence, and the liberty of a nation ; and 
 knoAving as we do the ten thousand obstacles 
 Avhich exist there to the promotion of true re- 
 ligion, it is a question of deep interest whe- 
 ther christians are to expect now, in such pla- 
 ces, scenes like that on the day of Pentecost 
 in Jerusalem. It is with main reference to 
 this inquiry that I have commenced this course 
 of lectures ; and my general plan will be, to 
 
 STATE THE NATURE OF A REVIVAL OF RELIGION J 
 TO CO.NSIDER THE RELATIO.N OF REVIVALS TO
 
 THEORY OF REVIVALS. 25 
 
 THIS COUNTRY ; TO SHOW THE IMPORTANCE OF 
 PROMOTING RELIGION IN CITIES ; TO SHOW WHAT 
 IS THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF CITIES WITH 
 PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THIS INQUIRY ; TO 
 CONSIDER WHETHER REVIVALS MAY BE EXPECTED 
 TO OCCUR IN CITIES : AND TO SHOW THE DESIRA- 
 BLENESS OF SUCH WORKS OF GRACE THERE. 
 
 The following things will express what is 
 meant by a revival of religion ; or the follow- 
 ing truths are essential elements in the theory 
 of such a revival : 
 
 I. There may be a radical and permanent 
 change in a man's mind on the subject of re- 
 ligion. This change it is customary to ex- 
 press by the word regeneration, or the new 
 birth. It supposes that, before this, man is 
 entirely alienated from God, and that he first 
 begins to love him when he experiences 
 this change. The previous state is one of sin. 
 The subsequent is a state of holiness. The 
 former is death ; the latter is life. The for- 
 mer is the agitation of a troubled sea, which 
 cannot rest ; the latter calmness, peace, joy. 
 This change is the most thorough through 
 which the human mind ever passes. It effects 
 a complete revolution in the man, and his op-
 
 26 theohy of revivals. 
 
 positc states are characteTized by words that 
 express no other states in the human mind. 
 This change is instantaneous. The exact mo- 
 ment may not be known ; and the previous se- 
 riousness and anxiety may be of longer or 
 sliorter continuance ; but there is a moment 
 when the heart is changed, and when the man 
 that was characteristically a sinner becomes 
 characteristically a christian. This change 
 is always attended with feeling. The man 
 is awakened to a sense of his danger ; feels 
 with more or less intensity that he is a 
 sinner ; resolves to abandon his sins and seek 
 for pardon ; is agitated with conflicts of 
 greater or less intensity on giving xnp his sins ; 
 finds greater or feebler obstacles in his way ; 
 and at last resolves to cast himself on the 
 mercj'^ of God in the Redeemer, and to be- 
 come a christian. The result is, in all cases, 
 permanent peace and joy. It is the peace 
 of the soul when pardon is pronounced on 
 the guilty, and Avhen the hope of immortal 
 glory first dawns on a benighted mind. It 
 may be beautifully illustrated by the loveliness 
 of the landscape when the sun at evening 
 breaks out after a tempest ; or by the calm- 
 ness of the ocean as it subsii^'^'^ ^r,^~. <u^
 
 THEORY OF REVIVALS. 27 
 
 storm. In the fact that such a change may 
 occur all christians agree ; in such a change 
 is laid the whole theory of a revival of reli- 
 gion. Let many sinners simultaneously turn 
 to God. Let conversions to Christ, instead 
 of being few and far between, become nu- 
 merous, rapidly occurring, and decided in 
 their character, and you have all that is usu- 
 ally meant when we speak of revivals, so far 
 as conversions are concerned. Still these are 
 all individual conversions, accomplished in 
 each case by the Holy Spirit, and in exact ac- 
 cordance with the design of the Gospel, and 
 evincing its glory. Each one is converted in 
 the same way, by the same truth, by the same 
 great agent, the Holy Spirit, as though he 
 were alone, and not another mind had been 
 awakened or converted. It is the conversion 
 of a number of individuals from sin to holi- 
 ness, and from Satan unto God. Look on the 
 heavens in a clear night, and you will have an 
 illustration of what we mean. The stars that 
 are set in that broad zone of light which 
 stretches over the firmanent — the milky way 
 — arc single stars, each subject to its own 
 laws, moving in its sphere, glorious, probably,
 
 28 THROnV OF nKVIVAT-S. 
 
 in its own array of satellitos ; but their raj's 
 meet and mingle — not less beautiful because 
 the light of millions is blended together. 
 Alone, they all show God's power and wis- 
 dom ; blended, they evince the same power 
 and wisdom when he groups all their beauties 
 and wonders into one. So in conversion 
 from sin to God. Take the case of a single 
 true conversion to God, and extend to a com- 
 munity — to many indivilnals passing through 
 that change, and you have all the theory of a 
 revival of religion. It is bringing together 
 many conversions ; arresting simultaneously 
 many minds ; perhaps condensing into a sin- 
 gle place, and into a few weeks, the ordinary 
 work of many distant places and many years. 
 The essential fact is, that a sinner may be 
 converted by the agency of the Spirit of God 
 from his sins. The same power which chan- 
 ges him, may change others also. Let sub- 
 stantially the same views, and feelings, and 
 changes which exist in the case of the indi- 
 vidual, exist in the case of others ; let a deep 
 seriousness pervade a community, and a spirit 
 of prayer be diffused there ; let the ordinary 
 haunts of pleasure and vice be forsaken for
 
 THEORY OF KEVIAALS. 0,9 
 
 the places of devotion, and you have the 
 theory, so far as I know, of a revival of reli- 
 gion. 
 
 2. The second fact is, that there may be 
 times in the life of a Christian of unusual peace 
 and joy. To whatever it may be owing, it 
 will be assumed as a fact — for the truth oC 
 which I now depend on an appeal to the Chris- 
 tian's own feelings — that there are times in his 
 life of far more than usual elevation in piety ; 
 tiines, when his ' peace is like a river,' and his 
 love to God and man 'like the waves of the 
 sea.' There are times when he feels an irri- 
 sistible longing for communion with God j 
 when the breath of praise is sweet ; when ev- 
 ery thing seems to be full of God ; when all 
 his feelings prompt him to devotion ; and 
 when he becomes so impressed with the 
 great truths of Christianity, and filled with tlie 
 hope of heaven, that he desires to live only 
 for God and for the skies. Earthly objects 
 lose their lustre in his view ; their brightest, 
 gayest colors fade away ; and an insatiable 
 panting of soul leads him away from these to 
 hold communion with the Redeemer. A light, 
 pure, tranquil, constant, is shed on all the
 
 30 TIIEORV OF RKVIVALS. 
 
 truths of rclijrion, and the desire of the salva- 
 tion of children, partners, parents, friends, of 
 the church and of the world, enchains all the 
 affections. Then to pray is easy, and to con- 
 Verse with christians and with sinners is easy, 
 iand the prospect of boundless wealth and of 
 the brightest honors would be gladly exchang- 
 ed for the privilege of converting and saving 
 a single soul. 
 
 When this occurs in a church, and these 
 feelings pervade any considerable portion of 
 the people of God, there is a revival of reli- 
 gion so far as the church is concerned. Let 
 christians, as a body, live manifestly under 
 the influence of their religion ; let a feeling of 
 devotion pervade a whole church, such as you 
 have felt in the favored times of your piety, 
 tmd there would be a revival of religion — a 
 work of ffrace that would soon extend to other 
 Ininds, and catch, like spreading fires, on the 
 altars of other hearts. Let a christian com- 
 munity feel on the great subject of religion 
 what Individual christians sometimes feel, and 
 should always feel, and, so far as the church 
 is concerned, there would be all the pheno- 
 tnena that exist in a revival of religion. A
 
 THEOfty OF REVIVALS. 31 
 
 revival in the church is a revival in individual 
 hearts — -and nothing more. It is when each 
 individual christian becomes more sensible of 
 his oblig-ations, more prayerful, more holy, 
 and more anxious for the salvation of men. 
 Let every professing christian awake to what 
 he should be, and come under the full influ- 
 ence of his religion, and in such a church 
 there would be a revival. Such a sense of 
 obligation, and such joy, and peace, and love, 
 and zeal in the individual members of a church 
 loould be a revival. But in the most earnest 
 desires for your own salvation there is no 
 violation of any of the proper laws of christian 
 action. In great, strenuous, and combined 
 efforts for the salvation of others, in unceas- 
 ing prayer for the redemption of all the Avorld, 
 there is no departure from the precepts of 
 Christ, nor from the Spirit which he manifest- 
 ed on earth. 
 
 3. The third feature that occurs in a revi-" 
 val of religion to which it is proper to direct 
 your attention is, that an extensive influence 
 goes over a community, and effects with seri* 
 ousness many who are ultimately converted 
 to God. Many individuals are usually mad^- 
 4
 
 32 THEORY OF REVIVALS. 
 
 serious ; many gay and worldly amusements 
 are suspended ; many persons, not accustomed 
 to go to the place of prayer, are led to the 
 sanctuary 5 many formerly indifferent to reli- 
 gion, or opposed to it, are now willing to 
 converse on it ; many perhaps are led to pray 
 in secret and to read the Bible, who before 
 had wholly neglected the means of grace. 
 Many who never enter into the kingdom of 
 God seem to be just on its borders, and hesi- 
 tate long whether they shall give up the world 
 and become christians, or whether they shall 
 give up their serious impressions and return 
 to their former indifference and sins. The 
 subsiding of a revival, or the dying zeal of 
 christians, or some powerful temptation, or 
 a strong returning tide of worldlincss and 
 vanity, leave many such persons still Avith the 
 world, and their serious impressions vanish — ■ 
 perhaps to return no more. 
 
 4. It remains only to be added as an essen- 
 tial feature in a revival, that it is produced by 
 the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not the 
 work of man, however human agency may be 
 employed. Imperfections there may be, and 
 things to regret there may be, as in all that man
 
 THEORY OF REVIVALS. 33 
 
 touches there is — but the phenomenon itself we 
 regard as the work of the Holy Ghost, alike 
 beyond human power to produce it and to 
 control it. ' The wind bloweth where it list- 
 eth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, and 
 canst not tell whence it cometh or whither 
 it goeth ;' and such is the work of the Spirit, 
 alike in an individual conversion or in a revi- 
 val of religion. The wind, sometimes gentle, 
 sometimes terrific, sometimes sufficient only 
 to bend the heads of the field of wheat, or to 
 shake the leaf of the aspen, sometimes sweep- 
 ing in the fury of the storm over hills and 
 vales, illustrates the way in which God's 
 Spirit influences human hearts. You have 
 seen the pliant osier bend gently before the 
 zephyr, and the flowers and the fields of grain 
 gently wave in a summer's eve. So gently 
 does the Spirit of God breathe upon a church 
 and a people. So calm, so lovely, so pure> 
 are those influences which incline the mind 
 to prayer, to thought, to Christ, to heaven. 
 You have seen the clouds grow dark in the 
 western sky. They roll upward and onward, 
 infolding on themselves, and throwing their 
 ample volumes over the heavens. The light-
 
 v?4 TTIF.ORV OF r.F.VIVAT,?. 
 
 nings play, and the tliunder rolls, and the tor- 
 nado sweeps over hills and vales, and the 
 proud oak crashes on the mountains. ' The 
 wind blows where it pleases;' and thus, too, 
 the Spirit of God passes with more than hu- 
 man power over a community, and many a 
 stout-hearted sinner, like the quivering elm or 
 oak, trembles under the influences of truth. 
 They see a dark cloud gathering in the sky ; 
 they hear the thunder of justice ; they see 
 the heavens flash along their guilty path ; and 
 they are prostrated before God, like the forest 
 before the mighty tempest. The storm passes 
 by, and the sun rides serene again in the 
 heavens, and universal nature smiles — beauti- 
 ful emblem of the effect of a revival of reli- 
 gion. 
 
 Such is a brief description of what actually 
 occurs. 1 shall now proceed to show that 
 these phenomena are such as we have reason 
 to expect from the manner in which the hu- 
 man mind is constituted, and society organ- 
 ized. 
 
 I first call your attention to the manner in 
 Avhich society is constituted, and to the in- 
 quiry wliether such a work of grace is in any
 
 THEORY OF REVIVALS. 35 
 
 way adapted to its original laws and propen- 
 sities. The idea which I wish to illustrate is, 
 that God has adapted society to be moved sim- 
 ultaneously by common interests. He might 
 have made the world differently. He might 
 have peopled it with independent individuals 
 — bound together by no common sympathies, 
 cheered by no common joys, impelled to ef- 
 fort by no common wants. All that is tender 
 in parental and iilial atiection ; all that is mild, 
 bland, purifying in mutual love ; all that is ele- 
 vating in sympathetic sorrow^ and joy ; all that 
 is great and ennobling in the love of the species, 
 might have been unknown Isolated indivi- 
 duals, though surrounded by thousands, there 
 might have been no cord to bind us to the 
 living world, and w-e might have wept alone, 
 rejoiced alone, died alone. The sun might 
 have shed his beams on us in our solitary 
 rambles, and not a mortal have felt an interest 
 in our bliss or wo. Each melancholy indi- 
 vidual might have lived 'unbenefitted by the 
 existence of any other, and with no one to 
 shed a tear on the bed of moss, when in dis- 
 ease he would lie down, and when he would die. 
 But this is not the way in which God has 
 4*
 
 36 TIIF.ORV OF nEVIVAL<?. 
 
 chosen to fit up the world. He has made the 
 race one great brotlicrhood, and each one has 
 some interest in the obscurest man that lives, 
 in the wildest barbarian that seeks a shelter 
 beneath a rock, or that finds a home in a cave. 
 Pierce their veins. The same purple fluid 
 meanders there. Analyse their feelings. Un- 
 known to each other, they weep over the same 
 distress ; strangers in other things, they min- 
 gle their efforts to save the same fellow-mortal 
 from death. This great common brotherhood 
 God has broken up into communities of na- 
 tions, tribes, clans, families — each with its 
 own sets of sympathies, with peculiar inte- 
 rests, with peculiar sorrows and joys. One 
 design of this is to divide our sorrows ; an- 
 other to double our joys ; another to pepetu- 
 ate and to spread just sentiments — to diffuse 
 rapidly all that Avill meliorate the condition of 
 the race. Sorrow hath not half its pangs 
 when you can mingle your tears with those of 
 a sister or a wife ; and joy has not diffused 
 half its blessings until yoxir joy has lighted up 
 the countenance of another — be it a son, a 
 father, or even a stranger. 
 
 Now there was no way conceivable in which
 
 THEOrLY OF REVIVALS. 37 
 
 just sentiments and feelings could be so rapidly- 
 spread as by this very organization. Suscep- 
 tible as it is, like every thing else, of being 
 perverted to evil purposes, yet still it is strong- 
 er in favor of virtue than of vice, of religion 
 than of irreligion. We appeal, then, to this 
 organization, and maintain that the way to 
 propagate and secure just sentiments in a 
 community is to appeal to common sympa- 
 thies and common feelings. If you wish to 
 spread any opinions and principles, you will 
 not do it by appealing to individuals as such, 
 you will call to your aid the pov/er of the so- 
 cial organization. You will rouse men by 
 their common attachment to country ; you 
 will remind them of dear-bought liberty ; you 
 will lay before them their common dangers ; 
 you will awaken a common feeling, and endea- 
 vor to lead them forth to the martial field to- 
 gether. When danger presses, you will strike 
 a cord that shall vibrate in every heart, and 
 you will expect sympathy, concert, united 
 action. I have seen during the last few years 
 a common sympathy extend through all the 
 commercial world. I have seen the merchants 
 of our citties and towns agitated by a common
 
 38 TULORY OF REVIVALS. 
 
 apprehension of danger, and their hearts vi- 
 brating with a common emotion, from Bangor 
 to New Orleans. I ask why there may not 
 be as deep common feeling on the cubject of 
 religion 1 1 have seen, during the past few 
 tnonths, this whole community agitated on 
 the eve of a pending election. Two great 
 parties, vigilant, active, energetic, fired with 
 the hopes of victory, and each feeling that 
 the destiny of the nation depended on the re- 
 sult, were arrayed against each other. Com- 
 mittees were appointed to make arrangements ; 
 public meetings were held, and the flagging 
 faith and zeal of vast assemblies were roused 
 by appeals to patriotism and the love of coun- 
 try or of party ; names were registered, and 
 the sentiments of every man were ascertained, 
 and the whole community was roused in the 
 exciting struggle. Every man felt himself at 
 liberty, or called on in duty, to speak to his 
 neighbor, to soimd his sentiments, and to en- 
 deavor to bring him to the polls. I blame not 
 this zeal, — but I refer to it to ask why the 
 same zeal and interest should be deemed im- 
 proper on the subject of religin ] Assuredly 
 not because it is less important, or because it
 
 THEORY OF REVIVALS. 39 
 
 is less proper to propagate great and noble 
 sentiments by an appeal to the common feel- 
 ings of men. Let the same zeal and ardor be 
 manifest in religion ; let the churches evince 
 the same anxiety for the honor of their Lord 
 and Redeemer, and for his ascendency in the 
 hearts of men, which political organizations 
 have done ; or even let the members of the 
 churches in this land be v/armed with the 
 same solicitude for the prevalence of religion 
 which they have shown for the triumph of 
 their party, and, I was about to say, it would 
 be all that we could pray for in a revival of 
 religion. 
 
 Certainly, after Avhat our eyes have seen 
 during the last year, no one should ever blame 
 the ardor and zeal of the friends of Christ, or 
 object against men's being simultaneously ex 
 cited and moved on the subject of religion. 
 Not till the zeal of christians approaches in 
 some measure this political zeal, and not till 
 the anxiety of men to save their souls be- 
 comes something like the anxiety to secure 
 the election of a favorite candidate, should 
 the note of opposition be heard against revi- 
 vals of religion. — So I see, in the history of
 
 40 THEORY OF RHVIVALS. 
 
 the past, tlie dying spark of freedom often 
 kindled to a flame, and liberty come out of 
 great common public excitement. Thought 
 rouses thought, and mind acts on mind, and 
 truth presses on truth, till a country is roused 
 and its great interests are safe. In time of 
 danger, I see men with common feelings rush 
 to the standard of freedom. The plough is 
 left in the furrow ; and the counting-house is 
 forsaken ; and the ship is moored to the 
 wharf; and the tools of the mechanic are 
 dropped; and the places of amusement are 
 closed ; and home is abandoned ; and the hold 
 on gold is loosed ; and men of affluence seize 
 the sword ; and the professions yield up their 
 men of talents to take the place at the head 
 of armies ; and the earth trembles under the 
 mighty tread of the advancing legions — for 
 the great common interests of a nation are in 
 danger. Then deeds of self-denial become 
 the theme of the eloquent, and the names of 
 these men are given in charge to history, to 
 be transmitted to future times. 
 
 I speak not of this to blame it. I ask only, 
 why should not religion he expected to bo 
 extended and perpetuated by some such ap-
 
 THEORY OF REVIVALS. 41 
 
 peals to the common feelings and sympathies 
 of menl But if so, there would be a revival 
 of religion. 
 
 In further illustration of this, I observe, 
 that however solitary and dissocial infidelity" 
 may be, this is not the nature of Christianity. 
 Infidelity may appeal to no sympathies and no 
 common hopes, but this is not the nature of 
 the christian religion. Infidelity may have 
 no power to increase the tenderness of at- 
 tachment, to purify friendship, to bind the 
 cords of love more closely ; but it is not so 
 with Christianity. Infidelity has always loved 
 to snap the cords of social life rudely asun-' 
 der, but Christianity has loved to make strong* 
 er those silken ties, and to deepen all the ten* 
 der sympathies of the heart. There is not 
 one of the sympathies of our nature that 
 Christianity does not make more tender, not 
 one of the social affections that it does not 
 design to strengthen and to purify. It aims 
 to sanctify all that is social, kind, and tender 
 in men. 
 
 I know the objection that is brought against 
 revivals, that they are the work of sympathy 
 alone. But I am yet to understand why re*
 
 4-2 THEORY OF UEVIVALS. 
 
 ligion is to be spread through the world by 
 denying it the aid of the social sympathies, 
 and of those tender feelings which facilitate 
 ihe propagation of other just opinions and 
 feelings. I am yet to learn, when the flame 
 of patriotism is made to burn more pure and 
 bright by appealing to all that is tender and 
 sympathetic in our nature, why religion is to 
 be regarded as suspicious and tarnished 
 because the pleadings of a father or mother, 
 or the tears of a sister have been the occa- 
 sion, though amidst deep excitement, of di- 
 recting the thoughts to eternity. To me it 
 seems there is a peculiar loveliness in the 
 spread of religion in this way ; and I love to 
 contemplate christianitj'- calling to its aid 
 whatever of tenderness, kindness, and love 
 there may be existing in the bosom of fallen 
 and erring man. These sympathies are the 
 precious remains of the joys of paradise lost ; 
 they may be made invaluable aids in the work 
 of securing paradise again. They serve to 
 distinguish man, though fallen, from the dis- 
 social and unsympathising apostacy of beings 
 of pure malignancy in hell, and their exist- 
 ence in man 7nay have been one of the rea-
 
 THEORY or REAaVALS, 43 
 
 sons why he was selected for redemption^ 
 while fallen angels were passed by in their 
 sins. On no subject have we so many com' 
 mon interests at stake as in religion. I look 
 upon a family circle. What tender feelings I 
 What mutual love ! What common joys ! 
 What united sorrows ! The blow that strikes 
 one member strikes all. The joy that lights 
 up one countenance, diffuses its smiles ov^er 
 all Togther they kneel by the side of the 
 one that is sick ; together they rejoice at his 
 recovery 5 or they bow their heads and weep 
 when he dies, and put on the same sad habili- 
 ments of grief and walk to his grave. Nor 
 are these all their common joys and woes. 
 They are plunged into the same guilt and 
 danger. They are together under the fearful 
 visitations of that curse which has travelled 
 down from the first apostacy of man. They 
 are going to a common abode beneath the 
 ground. And that guilty and suffering circle, 
 too, may 6e, irradiated with the same beam of 
 hope, and the same balm of Gilead, and the 
 same great Physician, may impart healing 
 there. Now we ask why they may not be- 
 eome christians together 1 Sunk in the same 
 5
 
 44 TiTF.oRv or PirvrvAr.?. 
 
 woes, why may they not rise to thf same im* 
 mortal hope 1 When one member is awa^ 
 kencd, why should not the same feeling run 
 through the united group "? When one is 
 impressed with the great thoughts of immor- 
 tality, why should not the same thoughts 
 weigh on each spirit 1 And when the eyes of 
 one kindle with the hope of eternal life, why 
 should not every eye catch the immortal ra- 
 diance, and every heart be filled with the hope 
 of heaven 1 And why may we not appeal to 
 them by all the hopes of sitting down toge- 
 ther in a world of bliss, and by all the fears 
 of being separated to different destinies in an 
 eternal heaven or hell 1 And yet let this feel- 
 ing go through this family, and produce its 
 appropriate results, and there would be a re- 
 vival of religion. 
 
 The truth is, there are no sympathies so 
 deep on any other subject as on the subject 
 of religion. The sympathies of the human 
 heart are never met and satisfied, till they are 
 met by religion. The hopes, the fears, the 
 joys of man never find a corresponding object 
 till he looks away from time and is filled with 
 the hope of heaven. That aged man once
 
 THEORY OF REVIVALS. 45 
 
 full of hope in the cheerful visions of early- 
 life, now sits down and weeps, that in all life's 
 ambition, its honors, aiad its joys, he has ne- 
 ver realized what he anticipated. The big 
 tear rolls down his cheek, worn with age and 
 care, when he remembers how the world has 
 flattered and betrayed him; and there he sits 
 at the close of life on the borders of abound- 
 less ocean, Avaiting to be borne to some land 
 of bliss which he has never yet found. He 
 has had sympathies, hopes, fears, anticipations, 
 w^hich have never been satisfied by this world, 
 which nothing now can satisfy, until the eye 
 is fixed on immortality, and he can look to a 
 heaven of boundless glory as his home. That 
 family so tender, so amiable, so lovely, so 
 united in sorrows and in joys, has sympa- 
 thetic emotions which can never be met but by 
 the united hope of heaven. Never will they 
 know the richness of pure attachment to each 
 other until they are united in the service of 
 God, and can look forward to the same hea- 
 ven as their home. Never will their sorrows 
 produce what they should produce, or their 
 joys be folIoAved with the blessings which they 
 should convey, until all their sympathies are
 
 46 THEORY 01' KKVIV.\LS. 
 
 sanctified by the Gospel of peace, and parents 
 and children alike hope to strike together the 
 harp of praise in heaven. Society every 
 where is full of anticipations, sympathies, and 
 hopes, that are never fully met until a tide of 
 religious feeling flows over the community, 
 uniting many hearts simultaneously in the 
 hope of heaven. 
 
 In conclusion 1 would observe, that if the 
 views which have now l;<»en presented are cor- 
 rect, you will accord with me in the senti- 
 ment, that such a work should be an object of 
 the fervent prayer of every friend of the Sa- 
 viour. If, then you have ever felt in your 
 own hearts the power of divine grace ; if 
 you have ever felt the worth of the soul ; if 
 you have felt that you are soon to meet your 
 felloAV-mortals at the judgment-seat ; if you 
 have any love for your children and friends, 
 for the church and the world, for the thought- 
 less multitudes amidst whom we dwell, let me 
 entreat you to cry unto God without ceasing 
 
 FOE A KEVIVAL OF PUKE EELIGIO^•.
 
 SERMON n . 
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS, AND THEIR INFLUENCE 
 ■ ON THIS COUNTRY. 
 
 " Drop down ye heavens, fi-o?7i above, and lei 
 the skies pour down righteousness : let the. 
 earth open, and let them bring forth salvu' 
 tion, and let righteousness spritig tip toge^ 
 ther.^^ — Isaiah, xlv : S. 
 
 In resuming the subject discussed in my last 
 discourse, I propose to submit some additional 
 considerations, adapted to show the nature of 
 revivals of religion, and to vindicate them 
 from objections. My general aim v.dll be to 
 show that they are the regular and proper re- 
 sult of the means which God is employing 5 
 that they are promised in the Bible as invalu' 
 5*
 
 48 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS 
 
 able blessings ; ^ind that their value has been 
 evinced by their cfTects in the history of the 
 church, and especially by the history of our own 
 country. This will be attempted in a series 
 of propositions, which will be intended as a 
 continuance of those which ^\'x?re oflered in 
 my last discourse. 
 
 I. My first remark is, that the dealings of 
 God in his providence are fitted to produce 
 revivals of religion. The phenomenon which 
 I am endeavoring to describe, you will recoh 
 lect, is the simultaneous conversion of many 
 souls to Christ, and a rapid advance in promo* 
 ting the purity and zeal of christians. The 
 question now is, whether there is any thing 
 in the dealing of Providence which is fitted, 
 if a proper impression Avere made, to produce 
 this result. 
 
 Let me for one moment refer yon to facts 
 which are constantly passing before your 
 eyes. Here falls, struck down by the hand of 
 an unseen God, soma endeared member of a 
 family — a father, a brother, a sister, or a 
 mother. What is the effect \ There is a 
 common lamentation around the dying bed 
 of the friend, and a united, sad, and slow pro'
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 49 
 
 'tfession to the tomb. There is a sundering at 
 ■once of many ties ; a common feeling in view 
 of a common loss ; and together they bow 
 the head and weep. The attention of the 
 whole group is turned away from scenes of 
 vanity, gain, and ambition 5 a palsying blow 
 is laid on half the comforts of life, and the 
 weeping group sit down in sackcloth and ash- 
 es. The theatre, th-e ball-room, and the splen- 
 did party are forsaken ; and gloom is spread 
 over the counting-room, and the man leaves 
 the scene of his domestic grief reluctantly to 
 go there. He has no heart now for amuse- 
 ment or pleasure, or even for the usual much-- 
 loved scenes of his business and ambition. 
 God has for a time sundered the tie which 
 bound the united group to the living world, 
 •and has made an awful chasnl in their cir- 
 cle. 
 
 Does this affect a solitary individual "? No. 
 It affects a community. Is it designed to be 
 the whole effect of this affliction to produce 
 grief 1 Too well we know the purposes of 
 that benevolent Father who has caused these 
 tears, to believe this. It is to arrest the at- 
 tention, and direct it to better things — to
 
 Sfl VINUICATIO?; OF REVIVALS. 
 
 God, to Christ, to heaven. It is to lead t-y 
 reflection on sin, and death, and the judgment, 
 and eternity. It is to admonish all the weep- 
 ing group to prepare to die. The scene is 
 fitted to lead to a serious life, to religion, to 
 God. But is it fitted, to inalce one only a 
 christian — is it an appeal to solitary, inde- 
 pendent emotions 1 No. It extends lo the 
 total group. And if a suitable impression 
 were made by it on all, it would lead them 
 together to the Saviour. Yet here would 
 be all the elements of a revival of reigion ', 
 and here is an event fitted to lead a commu' 
 nity up to God. 
 
 So, when pestilence spreads among a peo- 
 ple, and thousands die ; so when famine is 
 abroad on the earth, there is an appeal made 
 to communities ; and the thoughts of men, if« 
 any suitable impression were made, would be 
 directed to God and to a better world. So — 
 to change the theme — the earth renewed in 
 spring-time ; the fresh proofs of the goodness 
 of God ; the bounties of his hand — new every 
 morning, repeated every evening — all are fit- 
 ted to lead men to God, and are an appeal to 
 them as comrminities. And there is neither »
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. O'l 
 
 judgment of the Almighty, nor a blessing 
 that comes from our great Father's hand, that 
 is not fitted to impress communities with the 
 importance of religion, and to lead alienated, 
 social man, back to God. Thus, threatened 
 ruin roused Ninevah to repentance ; and thus 
 Ood visits the earth alike with judgment and 
 mercy, to rouse the attention of comimunities, 
 and direct their thoughts to eternity and to 
 heaven- 
 
 11. But whatever may be said of providen- 
 tial dealings, one thing is clear — the truth of 
 God is adapted to promote revivals of reli- 
 gion. That great system of glorious doc- 
 trines which constitutes " the everlasting 
 Gospel,' is adapted to produce every where 
 such works of grace among men. It began 
 •its career in a glorious revival of religion on 
 the day of Pentecost. It showed its power 
 moving communities, and especially the com- 
 imunities made tip of cities and large towns, 
 in Jerusalem, in Samaria, inAntioch, inEphe- 
 sus, in Corinth, in Rome. The Gospel was 
 propagated at first by a succession of most 
 signal works of grace, carried on alike among 
 ••"he most degraded and the most refined poi'-
 
 52 VLNDICATION OI' REV IV/.LS. 
 
 tions of mankind ; and it has continued, as we 
 shall yet see, to extend its power and influ- 
 ence mainly in this manner. 
 
 Even now, if the truths of the Bible were 
 applied by the Spirit of God to the hearts of 
 the people in this house, the scenes of the 
 day of Pentecost would be renewed here. If 
 that same truth were applied, as it might be, 
 to the inaabitants of our great cities, the in- 
 teresting, though deeply agitating scenes 
 which occurred in Jerusalem and in Ephesus, 
 would be renewed in Philadelphia, in New 
 York, iii Boston, in New Orleans. Should 
 the great truths affecting your welfare, my 
 hearers, now put forth their power j should 
 every one here feel as he should feel in view 
 of the reality of his situation, a deep solem- 
 nity would come over this house,, and there, 
 would be a simultaneous rushing to the cross ; 
 a burst of feeling in every part of this house, 
 like that which agitated the bosom of the 
 jailer at Philippi, Avhen he said, ' What musi 
 I do to be saved 1' Kecall a fevv' of those 
 truths. You are sinners — sinners deeply de- 
 praved, and under the condemning sentence 
 of a most holy but violated luw. What if ev-
 
 VIXBICAtlOX OF HEVIVALS. ^3 
 
 •ery iiiaii, and woman and child here should 
 feel this. What deep emotion would agitate 
 their bosoms ! What anxiety w^ould be de- 
 picted on every countenance ! . How would 
 the now roving eye be fixed in solemn 
 thought, and the now gay and thoughtless 
 heart prompt the deep inquiry, What is to be 
 my dooml Yet this is just such a scene as 
 occurs in a revival of religion. 
 
 Again : You will die— all, all die. You 
 will die soon. You have but few more plans 
 to form and execute, or more probably to 
 leave half-executed or but just commenced — 
 before you will die — inevitably die. Were 
 this truth felt by all, what emotion would 
 there be in this rooln ! What bosom but 
 would swell with the anxious inquiry, what is 
 it to die ; and Avhat must 1 do to be prepared 
 for death 1 Yet here Avould be such a scene 
 as occurs in a revival of religion. Another 
 truth. You will go to another world. You 
 will stand at the bar of God. You will give 
 a solemn account for all the deeds done in 
 the body. You will bow with willing or con- 
 strained submission to the eternal doom pro- 
 nounced on men by Jesus Christ. You will
 
 6^ vrNDICATION OF KKVIVALS. 
 
 go from that tribunal to heaven or to hell. 
 Perhaps in a week, a day, an hour, you may 
 know fully Avhat is meant by those mysterious 
 and awful words, death, judgment, eternity — 
 what it is to die, and to stand before God. 
 And can any one doubt that if all here felt 
 the force of these truths, there would be a 
 simultaneous impression on the subject of re- 
 ligion, and hundreds of voices here crying 
 out, ' What must we do to be saved V These 
 truths are in their nature fitted not to impress 
 one, but all ; not to lead one only to prepare 
 to meet God, but to conduct all at the same 
 time to the throne of mercy. Yet here would 
 be a revival of religion. — And why should it 
 not be so 1 What law of our nature, or of 
 Christianity, is violated whcxi such scenes oc- 
 cur % We have sinned together ; and why 
 should we not arise together and seek for- 
 giveness 1 We are travelling together to the 
 grave and to the judgment-bar ; why should we 
 not resolve to go together to heaven \ The 
 Redeemer has died for us all, and Avhy should 
 we not together seek for pardon through his 
 blood'? We shall lie in a common grave, 
 mingle with the same dust of the valley, hear
 
 Vindication of revivals. 55 
 
 ihe sound of the same trumpet of the arch'' 
 angel in the day of judgment ; and why should 
 we not feel a common interest in such scenes 
 now, And gather around the same cross, and 
 lay hold together on eternal life 1 If it be 
 reasonable for an individual to do it, why not 
 for many — for all 1 Why should not the 
 common feeling go from heart to heart, and 
 all resolve by the grace of God to secure the 
 salvation of the souil What law of our na- 
 ture would be violated should this be done 1 
 Yet here would be all the phenomena of a re- 
 vival of religion. 
 
 III. In the third place, there are evils of 
 sin in all communities which can be overcome 
 only by such influences as attend a revival of 
 religion. I refer to evils of alliance ; of com- 
 ,pact ; of confederation ; the sins of associa- 
 tion and of common pursuit, where one man 
 keeps another in countenance, or one man 
 leads on the many to transgression. Sin is 
 never, perhaps, solitary. One sin is inter- 
 locked with others, and is sustained by others. 
 This is especially the case when the world 
 becomes gay and giddy ; Avhen the ordinary 
 ■means of grace fail to make an impression ,
 
 56 VINDICy\TI<>.N ()]■ liKVIV .\l.^^ 
 
 when luxury spreads its temptations over a 
 community ; when the public mind becomes 
 intent on gain ; when political strife rages 
 throughout a community ; or when some bold 
 and daring allurement of vice engrosses the 
 public mind, and the laws of God and man 
 are alike set at defiance. Such scenes occur 
 peculiarly in cities and large towns. Rarely 
 is it here that one form of iniquity stands by 
 itself: it is interlocked with others. Such 
 combinations of evil can be met only by the 
 power that goes forth in a revival of religion. 
 To meet it and overcome it is beyond the 
 power of man, and beyond the ordinary influ- 
 ences even of the Spirit of God. The only 
 resource of the church, then, is in the right 
 arm of the Most High, and in the power 
 which God displays when hundreds are made 
 to bow simultaneously to the Son of God. 
 
 Thus it has usually been in the world. 
 When some chieftain of wickedness has col- 
 lected a clan of evil-doers ; when infidelity 
 has marshaled its forces ; when vice and 
 crime triumph in a community, then the 
 church has lifted its voice of prayer, and God 
 has heard its supplications, and has poured
 
 TINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 57 
 
 down righteousness like the rain, and the des- 
 olate world has been made to smile under the 
 influence of truth and salvation. The Gospel 
 of Christ is fitted to meet all those combined 
 evils ; and is invested with a power that can 
 disarm every chieftain of wickedness, and 
 break up every combination of evil, and con- 
 vert the gay and thoughtless multitudes to 
 God. But it is the Gospel only when it puts 
 forth its most mighty energies. It is the 
 power of God evmced when the church is 
 yoused, and when combined efforts to save 
 souls are opposed to combined energies of 
 evil ; when the church rises in its strength, 
 and with one voice calls upon God, and with 
 one heart engages in the work of the salva- 
 tion of men. And it is a truth which cannot 
 be too deeply impressed on the heart of each 
 christian — a truth, alas I too often forgotten 
 — that the only power in the wide universe 
 which can meet and overcome such combined 
 evil, is the power of the Spirit of God. There 
 are evils of alliance and confederation in 
 every city, which can never be met but by a 
 general revival of religion. There are evils 
 in all our churches which can never be remov-
 
 58 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 
 
 ed but by such a work of grace. There arc 
 thousands of the young of both sexes to 
 whom we have no access, and who can never 
 be reached but by the Spirit of God descend- 
 ing on them with almighty power — a power 
 that goes forth only when the church is great- 
 ly impressed with a sense of existing evils, 
 and when it comes with fervent entreaty to a 
 throne of grace to ask the interposition of 
 the Almighty arm. In ordinary times, the 
 world, especially in cities, presents such 
 scenes as these. None pursues a solitary, 
 scarcely any one an independent course of 
 evil. One form of sia is interwoven with 
 another ; one countenances another ; one 
 leads on another ; and all stand opposed with 
 solid front to the Gospel of Christ. The 
 world is arrayed in hostility against God : and 
 not even on the flanks of the inamense army 
 can an impression be made ; scarce a strag- 
 gler can be found who can be brought under 
 the influence of the Gospel. Meantime the 
 church slumbers ; the mass of professing 
 christians feel no concern ; and if here and 
 there an active christian is seen, his efforts 
 are solitary and unaided ; he is without couu-
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 59 
 
 sel or concert with others ; and he makes no 
 impression on the combined evil around him. 
 In such scenes we are not to wonder that sin 
 triumphs, and that the world moves on undis- 
 turbed to death. 
 
 Thus far the argument has been to show 
 that revivals of religion are not inconsistent 
 with the laws of the social organization and 
 of the human mind. I shall now change the 
 course of the argument, and adduce illustra- 
 tions from other sources. 
 
 IV. I make my appeal, in the fourth place, 
 to that argument with which, perhaps, I should 
 have commenced — the testimony of the Bible. 
 The question i&, whether the Scriptures speak 
 of such scenes as are known in modern revi- 
 vals of religion as to he expected under the 
 influence of the Gospel of Christ. I cannot 
 go at length into this part of the argument ; 
 but I will group together, first, a collection of 
 passages of Scripture chiefly from one proph- 
 et, to show how he felt on the subject, and 
 what were the views which he entertained of 
 the effects of the true religion when the Mes- 
 siah should have come. I refer to Isaiah. 
 ^ Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let 
 6*
 
 €0 VINDICATION OF REVrVALS. 
 
 the skies pour doAvn rig-hteousncss ; let the 
 earth open, and let them bring forth salvation^ 
 and let righteousness spring up together.' So 
 the effeci of such a work of grace is described 
 in a song of praise in the mouth of the church.- 
 ' I will greatly rejoice in the Lord^ my soul 
 shall be joyful in my God ; for he hath cloth- 
 ed me with the garments of salvation, he hath 
 covered rae with a robe of righteousness, as 
 a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, 
 and as a bride adorneth herself with her jew- 
 els. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, 
 and as the garden causeth the things that are 
 sown in it to spring forth ; so the Lord God 
 will cause righteousness and praise to spring 
 forth before all the nations.' Ch. 61 : 10,11, 
 Who hath not seen the beautiful efiect on the 
 dry and parched earth of refreshing summer 
 showers 1 Such effects, the prophet said, 
 w^ould be witnessed under the Gospel ; such 
 effects have been witnessed in hundreds of 
 the towns and villages of our own land. Lis- 
 ten to another description of such a work of 
 grace — a description Avhich seems to be a 
 beautiful prophetic record of what has occur- 
 red often even in our own times. It is the
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 61 
 
 language of God himself. ' I will pour water 
 upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the 
 dry ground : I will pour my Spirit upon thy 
 seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring : 
 and they shall spring up as among the grass, 
 as willows by the Avater courses. One shall 
 say, I am the Lord's 5 and another shall call 
 himself by the name of Jacob ; and another 
 shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, 
 and surname himself by the name of Israel.' 
 Ch. 44 : 3-5. ' For as the rain cometh down, 
 and the snow from heaven, and returneth not 
 thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it 
 bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to 
 the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my 
 word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.' 
 Ch. 55: 10, 11. Such descriptions were the 
 prophetic visions of future times ; descriptions 
 of what has since occurred, as unerring 
 as were those which foretold the doom of 
 Babylon, of Tyre, of Idumea, from the lips of 
 the same prophet. And as the words of that 
 singularly endowed and favored prophet are 
 now the best possible to describe the condition 
 of Babylon and Idumea, so they are still the
 
 62 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 
 
 best which can be selected to describe a revi- 
 val of religion. 
 
 But it was not in general language, or by 
 one prophet only that such scenes Avere fore- 
 told. There was one prophet, in general 
 much less favored with a view of future times 
 than Isaiah, that was signally favored in re- 
 gard to the scenes evinced in a revival of re- 
 ligion. I allude to the prophet Joel. In the 
 following glowing language he describes what 
 we know on the best authority was designed 
 to be a description of the v»-ork of the Holy 
 Ghost simultaneously affecting tlie hearts of 
 many sinners. 'And it shall come to pass 
 afterward, that I will pour out of my Spirit up- 
 on all flesh J and your sons and your daugh- 
 ters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream 
 dreams, your young men shall see visions : 
 and also upon the servants and upon the hand- 
 maids in those days w'ill I pour out my Spirit. 
 And I will show wonders in the heavens and 
 in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of 
 smoke. The sun shall be turned into dark- 
 ness, and the moon into blood, before the 
 great and the terrible day of the Lord come. 
 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 63 
 
 shall call on the name of the Lord shall be 
 delivered : for in mount Zion and in Jerusa- 
 lem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath 
 said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall 
 call.' Joel, 2: 28-32. This description is 
 expressly applied by an apostle to the first 
 great revival of religion that occurred after 
 the ascension of the Saviour on the day of 
 Pentecost. Acts, 2. On that memorable day, 
 and in that memorable place, was the proto- 
 type and the exemplar of all true revivals of 
 religion. I am aware that some have suppos- 
 ed that that whole scene was miraculous, and 
 that it cannot be expected again to occur, 
 since the days of miracles have ceased. But 
 I am ignorant of the arguments which dem- 
 onstrate that there was aught of miracle in 
 this, except in the power of speaking in for- 
 eign languages, conferred on the apostles — a 
 power which of itself converted no one of 
 the three thousand who on that day gave their 
 hearts to the Saviour. The power of speak- 
 ing foreign languages had but two effects, one 
 was, to furnish evidence that the religion Avas 
 from G od ; the other to enable them to make 
 known its truths in the ears of the multitude
 
 64 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 
 
 assembled from different parts of the world. 
 It was by the proper influence of truth that 
 the multitudes were alarmed and awakened ; 
 and why should not the same truth produce 
 the same effect now 1 It was indeed by the 
 power of God. But that same power is exer- 
 ted in the conversion of every sinner; and 
 why may it not now be employed in convert- 
 ing many simultaneously % It was indeed by 
 the Holy Ghost ; but no sinner is awakened 
 or converted now wdtliout his power ; and 
 why may not that be exerted still on many as 
 well as on one 1 The great fact in the case 
 was, that several thousands were converted 
 under the preaching of the truth by the influ- 
 ence of the Holy Ghost. Miracles changed 
 no one. The laws of mind were violated in 
 the case of no one. No effect was produced 
 which the truth was not adapted to produce. 
 And why should not the same effect be again 
 produced by the preaching of the same truth, 
 and by the power of the same sacred Spirit 1 
 Remember, also, that on scenes like this 
 the heart of the Saviour was intently fixed. 
 To prepare the way for this ; to furnish truth 
 that might be presented in times like this, he
 
 VINDICATION 01' REVIVALS. 65 
 
 preached and toiled ; to make it possible that 
 scenes like this should be witnessed among 
 men, he died ; to secure the presence of the 
 Holy Ghost in this manner, he ascended to 
 heaven. ' It is expedient for you,' said he, 
 ' that I go away : for if I go not away, the 
 Comforter will not come unto you 5 but if I 
 depart, I will send him unto you. And when 
 he is come, he will reprove, i. e. convince, the 
 world of sin, and of righteousness, and of 
 judgment.' John, 16 : 7, 8. The Saviour did 
 depart. He ascended to his native skies. 
 His disciples Avaited for the promised bless- 
 ing, at once the source of comfort to their 
 disconsolate hearts, and the pledge that their 
 Lord and Master had reached the courts of 
 heaven. Fifty days after his resurrection- 
 ten days only after his ascension, lo ! the 
 promised Spirit descended, and the conver- 
 sion of three thousand in a single day, on the 
 very spot where the hands of men had been 
 just imbrued in the blood of the Lamb of God, 
 and a part of whom had been concerned, 
 doubtless, in enacting that horrid tragedy, 
 showed that the human heart was under his 
 control, and that the most wicked men, in one
 
 66 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 
 
 of the m03t guilty cities on the earth, might 
 be simultaneously swayed and changed in a 
 revival of religion. 
 
 Were there time, wc might follow the apos- 
 tles as they went forth from that place fresh 
 from the presence of God, after having thus 
 had a living demonstration of what the truth 
 was fitted to effect on masses of mind. Let 
 any one look at the record made respecting 
 Samaria, Antioch, Ephcsus, Corinth, Philippi, 
 and he will see that the Gospel was propaga- 
 ted there amidst scenes that resemble, in all 
 their essential features, modern revivals of 
 religion. Indeed, there was no other way in 
 which it could be done. The apostles never 
 contemplated the conversion of solitary, iso- 
 lated individuals. They expected to move 
 masses of mind, interlocked and confederated 
 communities of sin; and it was done. 
 
 V. I have reserved for a fifth argument or 
 illustration, the state of things in our own 
 countryj to show by an appeal to facts here, 
 the desirableness and the genuineness of such 
 n work as I am endeavoring to describe. The 
 question is, has the history of religion in our 
 own land shed any light on the inquiry wheth-
 
 VmOlCATION OV REVIVALS* GTf 
 
 er such effects are to be expected to attend 
 the preaching of the Gospel, or whether it is 
 desirable that christians should labor and pray 
 that revivals may be witnessed in the cities, 
 towns, villages, and hamlets of our republic 1 
 To us, and to the Avorld at large, this is a 
 deeply interesting question ; for the fame of 
 American revivals has crossed the ocean and 
 reached the ears of our christian brethren be- 
 yond the waters, and their plans and labors 
 are receiving direction from what their own 
 travellers and our books report to them as the 
 mode of maintaining religion here. And it is 
 not too much to say, that on the purity of re- 
 vivals here will depend the efforts of no small 
 part of the protestant world, and that their 
 influence will be felt at every missionary sta- 
 tion on the globe. No one, therefore, can 
 over-estimate the importance of just senti-' 
 ments on this subject here. 
 
 For another reason it is important to know 
 what is taught about the value of revivals in 
 the history of our own country. In every 
 thing pertaining to the welfare of man, other 
 nations are looking with deep interest to our 
 institutions. Statesmen are taking lessons 
 7
 
 68 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 
 
 from our liistory; the friends of freedom are 
 exchanginof congratulations on our prosperity ; 
 and the world stands in admiration of the vi- 
 gor of our movements. Religion, too, has 
 assumed new relations to the state. It is dis- 
 severed from civil institutions, and suffered to 
 move by itself. On this our greatest, and in 
 the eyes of other nations, our most hazardous 
 experiment, that of committing religion to 
 the blessing and patronage of its God and Sa- 
 viour, the eye of the world is intently fixed. 
 Hence foreigners speak with great interest of 
 all things connected with religion here ; and 
 they speak of revivals as almost peculiar to 
 our republic, k'ome have thought and spoken 
 candidly of these scenes ; but the great mass 
 have ridiculed and caricatured them — " under- 
 standing neither what they say, nor whereof 
 they affirm." Most foreign travellers have 
 been as little qualified to speak of our reli- 
 gion as they have of our civil institutions. 
 Most of them have never witnessed a revival 
 of religion. Almost all have received their 
 impressions from the enemies of revivals, and 
 have characterized them as gross fanaticism 
 and wildfire. They have gone and reported
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 69 
 
 to the world abuses and disorders as the ordi- 
 nary characteristics of such scenes ; and the 
 M^orld has received its impressions from such 
 reports. Unhappily it is one of the charac- 
 teristics of our people to look to foreigners 
 for an account of our own institutions ; and 
 many an American deems the record of such 
 impartial foreigners of much more value than 
 the testimony of his own eyes about what is 
 occcurring at his very door. Books distin- 
 guished for gross abuse of our religion and 
 our country at large ; books made to produce 
 an impression across the ocean, and designedly 
 filled with calumny, are here caught up, re- 
 published, placed in Athenaeums, and on cen- 
 tre-tables, and become the authority for what 
 exists in our own land and under our own eye. 
 And I should not be surprised if a large part 
 of the fashionable reading world — and in that 
 appellation I include the fashionable reading 
 christians of our cities and large towns — had 
 formed their opinions of revivals in their own 
 country from the testimony of such impartial 
 and candid witnesses as the TroUopes, and 
 the Fidlers, and the Martineaus of the old 
 world ; persons having as few qualifications
 
 70 VINDICATION OF HF.VTVAT.P. 
 
 for being correct reporters of revivals of reli- 
 gion as could be found in the wide world. 
 Perhaps many christians have yet to learn 
 that such a historian of revivals as President 
 Edwards ever lived. It is of great impor- 
 tance, therefore to know exactly what place 
 revivals have occupied in this land, and what 
 has been their general character. 
 
 The history of religion in this country may 
 be divided into four great periods, during 
 which the influence of revivals would be seen 
 to have exerted a moulding power on our in- 
 stitutions and our habits as a people. 
 
 I. The first period, of course, is that when 
 our fathers came to these western shores. I 
 speak here more particularly of those whose 
 opinions have had so important an influence 
 in forming the habits of the people of this 
 land on religious subjects — the pilgrims of 
 New England. The pilgrim was a wonderful 
 man ; and remarkable, among other things, for 
 the place which religion, as well as science, 
 occupied in his afiections. In his eye religion 
 was the primary consideration. One of the 
 first edifices that rose in the wilderness where 
 he stationed himself was the house of God ;
 
 VIXBICATION OF REVIVALS. 71 
 
 near to it the school-house, the academy and 
 the college. Around the house of God, as a 
 nucleus, the village was gathered ; and from 
 that, as a radiating point extended itself into the 
 surrounding wastes. From that point the 
 forests disappeared : around that point the 
 light of the sun was let down to the earth that 
 had not for centuries felt his heams, so dense 
 had been the shades of the interminable wil- 
 derness. Religion was the primary thing — • 
 primary in each house, each school, each set- 
 tlement, each city, each civil institution. The 
 pilgrim had no higher aim than to promote it ; 
 he had no plan which did not contemplate its 
 perpetuity and extension as far as his descen- 
 dants might go. Such was the feeling when, 
 more than two hundred years since, the greiat 
 forest trembled first under the axe of the 
 foreiofner, and new laws and new institutions > 
 began in the Avestern Avorld. 
 
 That this should continue to be always the 
 leading feature among a people situated as 
 they were, was not perhaps to be expected. 
 He knows little of the propensities of our na- 
 ture who would be surprised to learn that re- 
 ligion began before long to occupy a secon-
 
 72 VINDICATION OF TIEVIVALS. 
 
 dary place in the public miiul. Doomed to 
 the hard toil of felling the forests, and reduc- 
 ing a most perverse and intractable soil to a 
 fit state for cultivation ; feeling soon the in- 
 fluence of that then infant passion which has 
 since in this country expanded to such giant 
 proportions — the love of gain ; engaged in 
 conflicts with savages, and subject to the ra- 
 vages of war — of that species of war which 
 showed mercy neither to age nor sex — it was 
 not wonderful that their early zeal should die 
 away, and that iniquity should come in like a 
 flood. Such was the fact. Within less than 
 a hundred years a most sad change had oc- 
 curred in this country on the subject of reli- 
 gion. Extensively in the churches of New 
 England, and in all the churches, there was a 
 most mclancholly decline. From this state of 
 apathy nothing could rouse them but a series 
 of mighty movements like that on the day of 
 pentecost ; and it was then — now just a hun- 
 dred years ago — that those wonderful dis- 
 plays of divine power in revivals of religion, 
 which have so eminently characterized our 
 own country, and which were the pledge that 
 God meant to perpetuate the religious institu- 
 tions of our land, commenced.
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 73 
 
 II. This was the second period in our reli- 
 gions history. It began under the ministry of 
 AVhitefield, Edwards, the Tennants, and their 
 fellow-laborers, and continued from about the 
 year 1730 to 1750. Of this great religious 
 excitement, which extended from Maine to 
 Georgia, and which created the deepest inter- 
 est in Britain and America, I need now to say 
 little. The history has been written by that great 
 man who was a principal actor in those scenes 
 — 1 mean President Edwards. I will just add, 
 that the character and talents of the men en- 
 gaged in those religious movements Avere 
 such as to place them above the suspicion of 
 their being the work of feeble minds, or the 
 productions of fanaticism. The Tennants 
 were among the most able ministers of the 
 land. Davies, afterwards the successor of 
 Edwards in Princeton College, was one of 
 the most eloquent and holy men that this coun- 
 try has produced. Edwards, as a man of 
 profound thought, as an acute and close rea- 
 soner, has taken his place by the side of 
 Locke, and Reid, and Dugald Stewart, if he 
 has not surpassed them all : and his name 
 is destined to be as immortal as theirs.
 
 74 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 
 
 Probably no man in any country or age has 
 possessed the reasoning faculty in such per- 
 fection as Jonathan Edwards ; a man raised 
 up, among other purposes, to rebuke the 
 sneer of the foreigner, when he charges Ameri- 
 ca with the want of talent, and to show that 
 the most profound intellect is well employed 
 Avhen it is engaged in promoting revivals of 
 religion. From those profound disquisitions, 
 those abstruse and subtle inquiries which have 
 given immortality to his name, he turned with 
 ease and pleasure to the interesting scenes 
 when God's Spirit descended on the hearts of 
 men. The name of Whitefield is one that is 
 to go down, as an orator, as far as the name 
 of Demosthenes or Cicero. Garrick, first of 
 dramatic actors, rejoiced that he had not cho- 
 sen the stage, confessing that if he had, his 
 oAATi fame would have been eclipsed ; and 
 Franklin — that great philosopher — sought eve- 
 ry opportunity to listen to the eloquence of 
 that wonderful man. He influenced more 
 minds than have ever before or since been 
 swayed by any public speaker ; and diffused 
 his sentiments through more hearts than anj- 
 other orator that has lived. It pleased God
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 75 
 
 that these revivals should be produced and 
 carried on under the ministry of the most pro- 
 found reasoner and the most eloquent man of 
 the age, that scepticism itself might be dis- 
 armed, and that the world might have a pledge 
 that they were not the Avork of enthusiasm. 
 
 The effect of those revivals was long felt 
 in the American churches. Yet other scenes 
 Avere drawing near of great interest in this 
 land, and deeply affecting the vitality of reli- 
 gion. Soon the colonies Avere agitated with 
 the calamities incident to the Avar with France, 
 and then soon again Avith the absorbing CA^ents 
 of our OAAai revolution. Throughout the land 
 the effects of those scenes Avere felt in the 
 churches and on religion. In not a few in- 
 stances churches Avere disorganized ; their 
 members Avere led to the battle-field; their 
 ministers Avere compelled to leave their char- 
 ges ; the houses of God Avere converted into 
 hospitals ; the public mind AA-as engrossed with 
 the CA'ents of AV'ar ; the public strength was 
 consecrated to the defence of violated rights; 
 and time, and influence and property Avere 
 demanded to achieve our independence. As 
 in all Avars, the institutions of religion were
 
 76 VINDICATION OF KEVIVAT.S. 
 
 neglected : the Sabbath ceased extensively to 
 be a day of holy rest ; and profaneness, and in- 
 temperance, and licentiousness — every where 
 the attendants of war — spread over the land. 
 In the scenes which characterized the Ameri- 
 can revolution, revivals of religion could not 
 be expected to occur, nor could it be other- 
 wise than that a state of apathy on the subject 
 should characterize the American people. 
 
 There was another cause immediately suc- 
 ceeding this, that tended still more to shake 
 the firmness of our religious institutions. I 
 allude to the French revolution. From the 
 first, the American people deeply sympathi- 
 zed with that nation in their struggles for 
 freedom. To them we had been bound by 
 ties of gratitude for valuable services, no less 
 than by the sympathies which in this land we 
 always must feel for those who pant for liberty. 
 The consequence was obvious ; and though 
 alarming, inevitable. The opinions of their 
 philosophers became popular : their books 
 were kindly entertained, and their doctrines 
 embraced. The revolution in France was 
 conducted on infidel principles, and with inn- 
 dels and atheists as the sruides of the nation.
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 77 
 
 In our love for liberty we forgot our hatred of 
 infidelity ; and in our ardent wishes for sue* 
 cess in the cause of freedom, we forgot that 
 our own freedom had been achieved under 
 the guidance of other men than Voltaire, Di* 
 derot, and D'Alembert ; and that we had ac- 
 knowledged another Divinity than the " god- 
 dess of reason." And the result was what 
 might have been foreseen. In the years that 
 succeeded our revolution, the nation was fast 
 sinking into infidelity ; and Paine's " Age of 
 Reason" was fast supplanting the Bible in the 
 minds of thousands of our countrymen. A 
 conflict arose between Christianity and infi- 
 delity. The argument Avas close and long, 
 and infidelity Avas driven from the field, and a 
 victory was achieved not less important than 
 the victories in our revolution. That intel- 
 lectual warfare saved the churches in this 
 land J and the result furnished a pledge that 
 infidelity is not to triumph in this western 
 world. 
 
 III. Yet it was not by argument only that 
 this speculative infidelity was met. And this 
 leads me to the third period in our religious 
 history. The Holy Spirit sealed that argu-
 
 78 VLNDICATION OV KKVIVALS. 
 
 ment, and engraved that truth on the heart in 
 the revivals of religion that characterized the 
 close of the last and the beginning of the pre- 
 sent century. Of the favored agents in that 
 time, it is necessary only to mention the 
 name of Dwight — a name that was a pledge 
 that solid piety, sober views, elevated char- 
 acter, a brilliant fancy, high integrity and 
 moral worth, might deem itself honored to 
 be engaged in a revival of religion. Under 
 a single sermon of his, it is recorded that no 
 less than three revivals of religion commenced ; 
 and in Yale college — a place where least of 
 all we should look for enthusiasm and fanati- 
 cism, no less than four revivals occurred un- 
 der his presidency, resulting in the conversion 
 of two hundred and ten young men, who, in 
 their turn, have been the instruments of the 
 salvation of thousands of souls. It was in 
 such scenes that God interposed to save the 
 churches and our country. And but for such 
 works of grace at the fountains of intelligence 
 and power, infidelity would have diffused its 
 rank and poisonous weeds over the land. 
 
 IV. The other period in our religious history 
 is more directly our own times — times that
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 79 
 
 have been eminently characterized for revivals 
 of religion. I cannot go at length into a 
 statement of the features of those revivals, 
 nor of their influence. I can only say, that in 
 one part of our land, and in the oldest semi- 
 nary of learning in our nation, there had been 
 a deplorable apostacy from the sentiments of 
 our fathers ; that the deity and atonement of 
 the Son of God was denied ; that this form of 
 pretended christian doctrine advanced with 
 great pretensions to learning, to exclusive 
 liberality, to critical skill, to refinement, to 
 courtesy — that it appealed to the great and 
 the gay, and sought its proselytes in the man- 
 sions of the rich and the homes of the refined ; 
 and that it stood up against revivals of religion, 
 and all the forms of expanded christian bene- 
 ficence. This scheme was met by argument, 
 and learning, and critical power equal to its 
 own. But not by that alone. It has been 
 met by revivals of religion, and its progress 
 checked by the work of the Holy Ghost on 
 the hearts of men. 
 
 Another feature of our times. We were fast 
 becoming a nation of drunkards. We could 
 ascertain that there were three hundred thou- 
 8
 
 80 VINDICATTON DF REVIVALS. 
 
 sand drunkards in our land, and that from ten 
 to twenty thousand were annually consigned 
 to drunkards' graves. And this mighty evil 
 has also been met by revivals of religion. 
 Hundreds of churches have been visited by 
 the Spirit of God as the result of their effbrts 
 in the temperance reformation ; and hundreds 
 of thousands of our young men have been 
 saved from the evils and disgraces of intem- 
 perance because God has visited the churches 
 with the influences of his Spirit. 
 
 There was another dark feature in our reli- 
 gious prospects. The love of gain had be- 
 come, and is still our besetting sin. This 
 passion goads on our countrymen, and they 
 forget all other things. They forsake the 
 homes of their fathers ; they wander away 
 from the place of schools and churches to the 
 wilderness of the west ; they go from the 
 sound of the Sabbath-bell, and they forget the 
 Sabbath and the Bible, and the place of prayer ; 
 they leave the places where their fathers sleep 
 in their graves, and they forget the religion 
 which sustained and comforted them. They 
 go for gold, and they Avander over the prairiej 
 they fell the forest, they ascend the stream in
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS. 8! 
 
 pursuit of it, and they trample clown the law 
 of the Sabbath, and soon, too, forget the laws of 
 honesty and fair-dealing in the insatiable love 
 of gain. Meantime every man, such is our 
 freedom, may advance any sentiments he 
 pleases. He may defend them by all the pow- 
 er of argument, and enforce them by all the 
 eloquence of persuasion. He may clothe his 
 corrupt sentiments in the charms of verse, and 
 he may make a thousand cottages beyond the 
 mountains re-echo with the corrupt and the 
 corrupting strain. He may call to his aid the 
 power of the press, and may secure a lodg- 
 ment for his infidel sentiments in the most 
 distant habitation in the republic. What can 
 meet this state of things, and arrest the evils 
 that spread with the fleetness of the courser 
 or the wind 1 What can pursue and overtake 
 these wanderers but revivals of religion — but 
 that Spirit which, like the wind, acts where it 
 pleases % Yet they must be pursued. If our 
 sons go thus, they are to be followed and re- 
 minded of the commands of God. None of 
 them are to be suffered to go to any fertile 
 vale or prairie in the west without the institu- 
 tions of the Gospel ; nor are they to be suf-
 
 82 VINDICATION OF REVIWLS. 
 
 fered to construct fv hamlet, or to establish a 
 village, or to build a city that shall be devoted 
 to any other God than the God of their fath- 
 ers. By all the self-denials of benevolence ; 
 by all the power of argument ; by all the im- 
 plored influences of the Holy Ghost, they are 
 to be persuaded to plant there the rose of 
 Sharon, and to make the wilderness and the 
 solitary place to be glad, and the desert to bud 
 and blossom as the rose. In such circum- 
 stances God HAS interposed; and he has thus 
 blessed our own land and times with signal 
 revivals of religion. 
 
 The remarks thus far made conduct us to 
 this conclusion, that we owe most of our re- 
 ligion in this land to revivals ; that the great 
 and appalling evils which have threatened us 
 as a people have been met and turned back by 
 revivals ; that every part of our country has 
 thus, either directly or indirectly, felt the in- 
 fluence of revivals. Scarce a village or a city 
 smiles on all our vast landscape that has not 
 been hallowed in some parts of its history by 
 the deep-felt presence of Israel's God. And 
 he Avho loves his countrj'^, who looks back 
 with gratitude to those periods when the God
 
 VINDICATION OF REVIVALS, 83 
 
 of salvation has conducted us through appal' 
 ling dangers j or who looks abroad upon our 
 vast land and contemplates the mighty move- 
 ments in the pursuit of gold, and pleasure, 
 and ambition ; who sees here how inefficacious 
 are all ordinary means to arrest the evils which 
 threaten us, will feel the necessity of crying 
 unto God unceasingly for the continuance and 
 extension of revivals of pure religion. 
 8*
 
 S E R iM N 111. 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 
 
 " ^nd that repentance and remission of sim 
 should be j)reached in his name among all 
 nations^ beginning at Jerusalem. — Luke, 
 xxiv : 47. 
 
 In two previous discourses I have endeavored 
 to explain the nature of revivals of religion t 
 to show that they arc in accordance with the 
 laws of the human mind and the mode in 
 which society is organized ; that th ey are de- 
 scribed in the Scriptures as inestimable bless- 
 ings ; and that their value has been shown in 
 a special manner in the history of religion in 
 our own country. My particular object in 
 this course of Lectures, however, was not so
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 85 
 
 "much to vindicate revivals in general, as to 
 •consider their relation to cities and large 
 towns ; and I propose now to enter on this, 
 the main part of our subject. The point 
 which will be before us at this time will be 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS OF RELIGION IN 
 
 •CITIES AND LARGE TOAVNS. On a subject so 
 copious, I scarcely know where to begin, or 
 what topics of illustration to select out of 
 the numbers which at once present themselves 
 to the mind. But passing by a great variety 
 of considerations which cannot be urged in 
 the short time allotted to a single public ser- 
 vice, or reserving them to illustrate other 
 parts of our main subject, I shall select a few 
 designed to ascertain the Redeemer's view of 
 the im.portance of cities ; the view of the 
 apostles on the same subject 5 and the bearing 
 which the state of religion in cities must have 
 on the world at large. 
 
 I. I begin with the view which the Saviour 
 had of the importance of special efforts for 
 the conversion of cities. 
 
 Our text contains an expression of his views 
 about the importance of revivals in cities. 
 When it was uttered, he was about to finish
 
 86 iAn»0RTAXCE or p.F.vrvAr.s. 
 
 his work on earth. He had made an atone- 
 ment for sin : ho had risen from- the dead ; he 
 was soon to ascend to heaven ; and he was 
 about giving to his disciples his parting charge 
 and directing them in regard to thoir plans 
 and labors for the conversion of the world. 
 It is natural to suppose that he would suggest 
 to them the most feasible and economical 
 itiode of expending their stren-gtU and farm- 
 ing their plans ; and that he would direct 
 them how to act in the most ejfficient manner 
 on the strong points of influence in the world. 
 Our text contains the sum of his kislructions. 
 Repentance and remission of sins were to be 
 preached among all nsttions, beginning *t Je- 
 rusalem. That was the capital of the nation : 
 that the place where he had been put to death j 
 that a city pre-eminent in wickedness and in 
 influence ; and that, therfore,. was the place to 
 which their attention was to be first directed^ 
 It is worthy of remark also,, as an illustration 
 of our subject, that he designed that they 
 should labor there, with special reference tO' 
 a revival of religion in that city. There they 
 were to tarry " until they were endued with 
 power from on high," (verse 49,) and there to
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 87 
 
 ■" wait for the promise of the Father." Acts, 
 1 : 4. In that great and guilty metropolis 
 they M'^ere to remain mitil the great move- 
 ment for the conversion of the world to God 
 was to be commenced in a glorious revival 
 of religion. 
 
 The Redeemer's views of the importance 
 of religion in cities were further illustrated 
 by his own personal labors when on earth. 
 He had designed a personal ministry that was 
 to continue but three or four years ; and it 
 was manifestly a question with him where 
 that period could be most advantageously 
 spent for the great objects which he had in 
 view. Thirty years he had spent, before he 
 entered on his public work, in the quiet re- 
 treats of an obscure and hmiible country vil- 
 lage ; far from the noise and bustle of a large 
 tOAvn ; far from the excitements of the capi- 
 tal ; far from the distractions and anxieties of 
 a populous city. He had loved — we may 
 suppose without much danger of indulging in 
 mere fancy — the hills and vales, the fields and 
 groves, the shady retreats, the stillness and 
 quiet of the region around Nazareth — a love 
 in which all those who desire to cultivate
 
 '88 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 
 
 meek, and humble, and pure relifrion li)ie hi'y 
 will participate — for such scenes are niosrt fa- 
 vorable to communion with God. Is it im- 
 proper to suppose that the feelings which 
 made the Redeemer delight in a place like 
 Nazareth were such as prompted the follow^ 
 ing lines from the sweet christian poet Cow- 
 per : 
 
 " Far from, tljc world, O hand, I flee ;. 
 
 " From strife and tumult far ; 
 " From Fceries where Satan wages still 
 
 " His most successful war. 
 
 " Tiie calm retreat, the silent shatle, 
 
 " With prayer and praise agree ; 
 " And seem by thy sweet bounty made 
 
 " For those who follow ihce." 
 
 But when he entered on his public work, he 
 emerged {vovci this obscure and humble life. 
 He made his permanent home in Capernaum, 
 a central city in Galilee, at tlie head of the 
 sea of Tiberias. He preached in all the 
 cities which skirted the lake of Genne- 
 sareth ; in the large towns which were be- 
 tween them and the capital ; and he preached
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 89 
 
 Vnuch amidst assembled thousands on the 
 great festivals in Jerusalem itself. His mighty 
 works were in the vicinity of these large 
 towns, where thousands could easily be as- 
 sembled to hear him. He Avas found in the 
 busy haunts of men ; his walks were along the 
 shores of that lake where stood Capernaum 
 Chorazin, Bethsaida ; and his aim was to car- 
 ry at once the influence of his Gospel to the 
 centres of influence and power. The sum of 
 his views on this subject are expressed in the 
 following passages of the New Testament : 
 ■ And it came tt> pass," says Matthew, ' when 
 Jesus had made an end of comnaanding his 
 twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach 
 and to preach in their cities.' Chapter xi : 1. 
 '-• 1 must preach the kingdom of God,' said he, 
 * to other cities also, for therefore am I sent.' 
 Luke, iv : 43. ' How often,' said he of Jeru- 
 salem, ' how efteti would 1 have gathered thy 
 CHILDREN together, even as a hen gathereth 
 her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
 not.' Matthew xxiii 37, Luke, xiii. : 34. So 
 it is said respecting most of the works of 
 his public ministry. ' Then began he to up- 
 braid the cities wherein m-ost of his mighty
 
 §0 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS, 
 
 works were done, because they repented not/ 
 Matthew xi : 20. It is a circumstance also 
 which may throw some light on the divine es- 
 timate of the importance of cities, that it was 
 predicted that the announcements of the Gos- 
 pel would be first made to them. ' O thou 
 that bringest good tidings to Zion, get thee 
 up into the high mountain ; O thou that tel- 
 lest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy 
 voice with strength ; lift it up, be not afraid : 
 say UNTO THE CITIES OF JUDAH, Behold your 
 God !' Isaiah, xi : 9. 
 
 The same thing in regard to the views of 
 the Redeemer is every where evinced in his 
 instructions to his disciples. It is manifest 
 that he anticipated that the principal sphere 
 of their labors would be in cities and large 
 tOAvns. ' Into whatsoever city or town ye 
 shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy." Matt. 
 10: 11. "After these things the Lord ap- 
 pointed other seventy also, and sent them two 
 and two before his face into every city and 
 place wither he himself would come." John. 
 10 : 1. " When they persecute you in one 
 city, flee ye into another ; for verily I say 
 unto you, ye shall not have gone over the
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 91 
 
 ■^ities of Israel till the Son of man be come." 
 Matthew. 10 5 23. From these and numerous 
 similar passages of Scripture it is evident 
 that the Saviour felt that it was of special im- 
 portance that great efforts should be made 
 for the conversion of cities, and that he no^ 
 only spent a large portion of his own public 
 ministry there, but anticipated that his apos- 
 tles would also. We shall not err, therefore, in 
 the conclusion, that he felt that it was of spe- 
 cial importance that <iities and large towns 
 should be pervaded with his Oospel, and that 
 ■in those places were to be witnessed signa] 
 displays of his saving power. 
 
 11. The same conclusion will be reached, 
 if we examine the views which the apostles 
 had of the importance of these fields of labor. 
 I need not say that a large part of the labors 
 of the apostles, so far as the Scripture record 
 informs us, was devoted to cities and large 
 towns, and that the most signal success of the 
 Gospel was there. All that is needful for the 
 illustration of his part of our subject, is the 
 most summary reference to the labors of the 
 apostles and to the character of the large 
 cities where they labored. 1 by no means 
 9
 
 92 fMPORTANCE OF REVrvXL9 
 
 mean to say that the apostles did not feel k 
 important to preach the Gospel in country- 
 villages and neighborhoods. Their commis- 
 sion extended to all the world, and we know 
 that Paul preached the Gospel in all the pla- 
 ces where he travelled. But the idea is, that 
 they felt that cities were central places of 
 power and influence ; that they were the 
 strong holds of the enemy of man ; that 
 wickedness was concentrated there ; and that 
 their object was to go from city to city until 
 they reached the capital of the world, the 
 very seat of imperial power, and formed their 
 plan with a des-ign that the banners of the 
 faith should, if possible before they died, be 
 seen streaming from the palaces of the Cesars. 
 They acted on the principle on which Alex- 
 ander and Cesar, and all the great conquerors 
 of all times act, that of seizing upon the 
 strong places of power and holding thiem in 
 subjection, with the assurance that all other 
 places will then become an easy conquest. 
 
 A slight glance at the labors of the apos- 
 tles and at the principal places where the Gos- 
 pel triumphed at first, will show the estimate 
 which they affixed to cities and large towns.
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. *M 
 
 and their views of the proper places where 
 special efforts for the spread of the Gospel 
 should be made. The Gospel was first preach- 
 ed, after the ascension of the Redeemer, in 
 Jerusalem, a city ten miles in circumference, 
 and esteemed the thdrd city of the age, the 
 largest city of the land in which he lived, and 
 the capital of the nation. The apostles went 
 to Antioch, on the Orontes, the capital of 
 Syria, and made that a centre of christian in- 
 fluence. They preached in Ephesus, regarded 
 as the ornament, and in fact the most proud 
 and splendid city in Asia Minor, and estab- 
 lished a church there. There stood one of 
 the seven wonders of the world, and there 
 idolatry was intrenched with a power and sus- 
 tained with a magnificence not surpassed in 
 any part of the earth. They preached in 
 Derbe, in Lystra, and in Iconium — cities in 
 the same region. They founded churches in 
 Smyrna, the commercial capital of Asia Mi- 
 nor ; in Pergamos, the literary capital of Asia 
 Minor ; in Thyatira ; in Sardis, the once 
 splendid capital of Croesus; in Philadelphia; 
 and in Laodicea. They preached in Philippi 
 ;and Thessalonica, and founded churches there.
 
 94 IMfORTANCfi OK REVIVALS. 
 
 They preached in Athens, the distinguishetf 
 seat of philosophy, science and art, and where 
 the Gospel would be opposed hy the most 
 subtle and refined philosophy of the world ; 
 in Corinth, the splendid capital of Achaia, and 
 the very centre of refinement, of luxury, and 
 of licentiousness — the Paris of antiquity ; and 
 they carried the Gospel to the very capital of 
 the world, and established a church in Rome 
 itself. Now in the records which we have in 
 the Acts of the Apostles, it is remarkable that 
 a large part of the narrative is occupied in 
 detailing the labors of the apostles in these 
 and in other cities ; and it is as remarkable that 
 notwithstanding all the difficulties in the case^ 
 and all the obstacles to the Gospel in cities 
 and lage tOA\Tis, its most signal triumphs were 
 there. 
 
 From this allusion to the labors of the apos- 
 tles the following things are demonstrated r 
 (1.) That they deemed cities and large towns 
 to be worthy of their special attention and 
 their special efforts. (2.) That they had- the 
 utmost confidence in the truth of the religion 
 which they preached. They had no conceal- 
 ment ; they had no fear of submitting the cvi -
 
 IMrORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 95 
 
 dences of their religion to the most learned, 
 acute, and philosophic portions of mankind, 
 They sought to submit the proofs of Christi- 
 anity to the philosophers in Athens, in Corinth, 
 and in Rome ; they desired to exhibit them to 
 the priests of pagan idolatry, to the literati of 
 the world, and to princes, nobles, and mon^ 
 archs ; they performed their miracles in the 
 most open manner, and adduced the evidence 
 of the resurection of their Master on Mars' 
 Hill and in the Roman forum, as well as in 
 Jerusalem : and they confidently expected that 
 if they could gei a hearing, they could con- 
 vince the most learned and philosophic por- 
 tions of mankind of the truth of the christian 
 religion. Such was not a work of impostors; 
 it was a course pursued only by men who 
 were honest, and who had the most unwaver^ 
 ing conviction of the truth of the system which 
 they preached, (3.) Their course demon- 
 strates that the Gospel has power to meet all 
 forms of sins and corruption, and that there 
 is nothing in cities and large towns that con- 
 stitutes an insuperable obstacle to a revival 
 of religion. That Gospel which had power 
 to overcome the pride and deep corruption of 
 9*
 
 96 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 
 
 the Jewish capital, when the Redeemer had 
 just been put to death, which could triumph 
 in gay and voluptuous Corinth, in the splendid 
 capital of Asia Minor, and in Rome itself, has 
 power to meet any form of gayety, licentious- 
 ness, corruption, fashion, idolatry, and com- 
 bined sin of any city in nominally christian 
 lands, and in the heathen world. They who 
 doubt that mighty revivals of religion may 
 exist in large cities and towns, doubt in the 
 face of all history, and belie all the records of 
 the early propagation of their religion, 
 
 III. Having thus endeavored ta ascertain 
 the sense of the Redeemer and of the apostles 
 in regard to the importance of special efforts 
 for the conversion of cities and large towns, 
 I proceed, in the third place, to remark that 
 that importance is seen from the fact that vast 
 wealth is concentrated in those places, and 
 that the purposes of Christianity require that 
 that wealth should be consecrated to the Re-- 
 deemer. When I speak of this. I do not mean,, 
 of course, that the principal wealth of any com- 
 munity is in such places. That must lie scat- 
 tered over vast surfaces, and be in many handf- 
 jn order to maintain cities and larafe towns.
 
 IMPOKTANCE OF REVIVALS. 97 
 
 But I speak of that wealth which is concentrated 
 in the hands of the comparatively few ; of the 
 wealth which is available for the purposes of 
 christian benevolence ; of the wealth which 
 has the principal power of corrupting or sav- 
 ing, of destroying or blessing the world. This 
 world is to be converted to God, and it is in 
 vain to attempt this without large and liberal 
 benefactions. To a great extent, the large 
 sums needed for that object must and will be 
 derived from the dwellers in cities. It is 
 there that we expect that money will be freely 
 given ; whether it be for christian charity ; 
 for schools, and colleges, and seminaries of 
 learning ; or whether it be for political pur- 
 poses, for the patronage of fashion and vice, 
 for the maintenance of the theatre, or for the 
 support of profligacy and atheism. The effect 
 of true religion is to lead men to consecrate 
 their property honestly and wholly to God j 
 nor can there be any true religion where 
 this is not done. Now one has only to cast 
 an eye over the large cities and to\vns of this 
 land, to see hov/ important it is that the mighty 
 power of the Gospel should be felt there in 
 constraining the rich to devote their property
 
 98 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 
 
 to God. Let him a moment reflect on the 
 abuses of that property; on the immense sums 
 which are expended in luxury of living ; in 
 splendor of dwellings, equippage, and apparel ; 
 in intoxicating drinks ; in the patronage of 
 the theatre and various corrupting forms of 
 amusement ; and it will be no difTicult matter 
 to see how important it is that the influence 
 of religion should be felt in the cities of our 
 land. It may seem startling, but it is probably 
 true, to say, that all expenses of the various 
 benevolent societies in this land for the propa- 
 gation of the Gospel in the heathen world, 
 Avould be more than met by the annual ex- 
 penses in one of our large cities for the single 
 article of intoxicating drinks. In the city of 
 New- York, during the last year but two, it is 
 ascertained that the amount paid to support 
 its four theatres was more than was contri- 
 buted by all the benevolent societies in this 
 country for the spread of the Gospel. That 
 wealth now all goes to corrupt and destroj' 
 the morals, the peace, and the souls of men. 
 It is in citties eminently that its debasing 
 power is felt. It is there that it alienates the 
 soul from God, and opens fountains of corrup-
 
 iMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS, 99 
 
 tion before the unwary and the young. It is 
 there on every hand that we see its abuse to 
 purposes of infamy ; there that it eminently 
 resists the Gospel ; and there that it sustains 
 the empire of Satan on earth. It is there that 
 foreigners — dancers and actors — who come to 
 debase and corrupt the young with the lax 
 notions of morals which prevail in the licen- 
 tious capitals of Europe, are chiefly found. 
 And while I speak of this, it is not less impor- 
 tant to make another remark on the necessity 
 of revivals of religion in cities. A large por- 
 tion of that wealth is held by the members of 
 the christian church, and it is a fact, that the 
 constantly recurring objects of christian be- 
 nevolence are sustained by a very few men 
 out of the many hundreds who are members 
 of the churches. To re-convert those who are 
 in the church ; to teach them the true value of 
 property, and the true intent of the Giver in 
 bestowing it on them ; to show them " a more 
 excellent way" than to hoard it or to expend 
 it for luxury and magnificence j and to impress 
 on their hearts, as a great vital principle, that 
 all they have belongs to God, and to him alone, 
 is now one of the most desirable objects of
 
 100 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 
 
 christian benevolence, and one of the chief 
 things to be accomplished by the agency of 
 the Holy Spirit in our land. O if all the wealth 
 in these cities were truly consecrated to God, 
 what desolate fields of heathenism are there 
 in the wide world which would not soon smile 
 under the blessings of the Gospel 1 what de- 
 sert and solitary place is there that would not 
 bud and blossom as the rose 1 
 
 IV. The talent concentrated in cities and 
 large towns is a fourth reason why special 
 efforts should be made for their conversion. 
 Before I am through with what I wish to say 
 on this head, I shall not be suspected of a de- 
 sign to flatter the inhabitants of such places 
 as being in general superior to all the rest of 
 mankind in intellectual strength or in solid at- 
 tainments. I have passed three-fourths of my 
 life and one-third of my ministry in the coun- 
 try ; and I have endeavored to observe the 
 comparative amount of intellect and good 
 sense in the two situations. When I speak, 
 therefore, of the talent in cities as a reason 
 for special effort for their conversion, or to 
 show their importance, I by no means wish to 
 be understood as affirming that the inhabitants
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 101 
 
 of cities are pre-eminently clistinguished for 
 what Mr. Locke calls " large, sound, round- 
 about sense." I do not mean that there is, in 
 general, more power to appreciate a solid ar- 
 gument or close reasoning ; or that there is 
 •a better acquaintance with the Bible ; or a 
 higher appreciatioix of the maxims of sound 
 morals ; or more patient reflection on the du- 
 ties of life ; or a more attentive contemplation 
 of the relations which men sustain to their 
 Maker ; or a higher power of detecting so- 
 phistry, or of pronouncing on that which is 
 characterized in public discourses by mere 
 sound, or by false and shallow attempts at 
 reasoning. And to apply my remarks to the 
 immediate subject before us, I by no means 
 mean to say that the mass of people in this 
 land in the country are not as fully able to 
 appreciate good preaching as their more fa- 
 vored and perhaps envied city brethren. Nor 
 do I mean to say that the hurry and bustle of 
 a city life is well adapted to train men for pa- 
 tient thought ; or that the kind of education 
 which the mass of those in the so-called more 
 elevated ranks in cities receive, peculiarly 
 qualifies them for the office of judging of the
 
 i02 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 
 
 truths of religion, in comparison with tlios^ 
 who have been trained in what are esteemed 
 the hmnbler walks of a country life. The 
 truth is, neither situation in itself makes men 
 qualified for patient and sound reflection, nei- 
 ther situation makes them of course fools. 
 Alike in city and in eountry in this land, there 
 are multitudes — it is the condition of the mass 
 of the people — who are endowed with good 
 sense, with sober views, with patient thought, 
 and with appropriate education, to fit them to 
 understand the truths of religion, to weigh 
 well its evidences, and to appreciate a sensi- 
 ble argument when a sensible argument is 
 urged ; nor do I know that one situatioji can 
 claim priority over the other. 
 
 It is true, moreover, that the talent in a city 
 is often greatly over-rated ; and I do not mean 
 to say that the Saviour or the apostles ever 
 sought a city because they supposed the mass 
 of intellect there was more elevated or culti- 
 vated than elsewhere. It is true that minis- 
 ters often over-rate the amount of talent in a 
 city, and that they sometimes evince an anxi' 
 ety to be city pastors — which is anything but 
 a commendation of their own discernment, or 
 their qualifications for the office, or of their
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 103 
 
 power of judging of the place where true 
 happiness is to be found — for, I take it, the 
 brightest picture of happiness in this world 
 is in the image of a much loved and venerated 
 pastor in the quiet retreats of a country par- 
 ish. It is true, also, that there is sometimes a 
 fear of a city congregation and of a city 
 dwelling — which operates much to prevent a 
 faithful application of the truth — as if splen- 
 did apparel was necessarily connected with 
 profound intellect ; or sofas, and ottomans, 
 and marble mantels, and well ladened centre- 
 tables necessarily implied cultivated minds ; 
 or gay and gorgeous equippage conferred the 
 power of criticising profoundly and judging 
 correctly of moral subjects. The truth is 
 that patient thinking, long-cherished recollec- 
 tions of an apt illustration or a solid argu- 
 ment, and just appreciation of a sound dis- 
 course, are often found most perfectly in the 
 farmer who is all the week at his plough, and 
 not in the whirl of fashion and business of a 
 city life ; a life where with the scenes of busi- 
 ness of Monday morning are obliterated all 
 the arguments, and illustrations, and impres- 
 sions of the previous day. 
 10
 
 104< IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 
 
 But while this is true, it is true, also, that 
 in this land and in all others the talent that 
 most decidedly directs public opinion, and 
 that acts with most power on the public 
 mind, is found concentrated usually in cities 
 and large towns. The most decided and in- 
 fluential talent in Judeawas undoubtedly found 
 in Jerusalem ; the most profound intellect in 
 Greece was in Athens and in Corinth ; the 
 most mighty minds in the Roman empire were 
 concentrated in Rome itself and in the sur- 
 rounding towns and villas. It was from these 
 centres that the power of talent — more then 
 than now — at the bar, in the forum, in the 
 senate-chamber; the power of talent in phil- 
 osophy, in the drama, in eloqence, and in 
 song was diffused throughout the world. Such, 
 though to a less extent comparatively, is the 
 case now. The principal talent in the medical 
 and legal professions will seek cities and large 
 towns as the places where it may be exercised 
 to advantage — whether the purpose be gold 
 or fame. Science and literature, for obvious 
 reasons, Avill be found there ; and the talent 
 which seeks to influence great masses of 
 mind ; to direct public opinion ; or to rise to
 
 IMPORfANCE OF REVIVALS. 105 
 
 sudden affluence and fame, will flow to such 
 centres. All this is obvious and indisputable ; 
 and it is as obvious and indisputable, that it is 
 desirable that special efforts should be made 
 that that talent should be converted to God. 
 It is not that the soul of a profound philoso- 
 pher, or of a man of eminent legal attain- 
 ments, or of a man distinguished in the medi- 
 cal profession, or of a man distinguished for 
 science or eloquence, is of more value, or 
 cost the Saviour more pangs to redeem it, 
 than their humblest client or patient, or the 
 most unlettered man in the cottage of pover- 
 ty ; but it is that that talent is endowed with 
 higher power for good or evil, and that its in- 
 fluence must be wider spread in promoting or 
 retarding true religion. 
 
 V. I add, as a fifth consideration, the fact 
 that cities and large towns are places where 
 strangers resort in great multitudes, and that 
 revivals of religion are especially needed 
 there for their conversion and for a healthful 
 moral influence on their minds. It will be 
 recollected that in our text the Saviour directs 
 his apostles to begin the work of preaching 
 the Gospel " at Jerusalem." Turn now to
 
 106 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 
 
 the second chapter of the Acts of the Apos- 
 tles, and you will see at least one reason why 
 this direction was given. The feast of Pen- 
 tecost was near, and on that occasion it was 
 arranged by the Redeemer, that the Holy 
 Ghost should descend in the first great and 
 glorious revival of religion. Yet on that oc- 
 casion we are told " there were dwelling 
 (or sojourning,) at Jerusalem Jews, devout 
 men, out of every nation under heaven." 
 Acts, 2:5. " Parthians, and Medes, and 
 Elamites," we are told were there ; " and the 
 dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and 
 Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and 
 Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya 
 about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews 
 and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians." Acts, 
 2: 9-11. It was not without design that the 
 Gospel was to be first proclaimed with power, 
 and that the Holy Ghost was to descend when 
 these strangers were there. What Avould be 
 the obvious effect of their conversion 1 The 
 Gospel would soon be borne by them to the 
 farthest part of the then known world. Those 
 strangers were soon to disperse and return to 
 their homes — ^just as the flitting multitudes do
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 107 
 
 that sojourn in this city for a little while for 
 business or for pleasure. But the Saviour 
 saw that if those multitudes were brought un- 
 der the influence of a revival of religion ; if 
 while they were in Jerusalem they were led 
 to embrace the true Messiah ; if while there 
 their minds were directed to the eternal wel- 
 fare of the soul, and they should return to 
 their homes imbued with the spirit of the 
 Gospel, the effect would be immediate almost 
 on the remotest portions of the world. How 
 different would be the influence on the destiny 
 of mankind from what it would have been 
 had those " strangers" been invited by the 
 professing christians to splendid entertain- 
 ments and parties of pleasure ; or had they 
 been introduced as distinguished strangers of- 
 ten are in our cities now — and 1 fear some- 
 times by professing christians too — to thea- 
 tres, or invited and tempted, as they are now, 
 to drink deep of the intoxicating bowl ! 
 
 What would be the effect on the strangers 
 that crowd this city of a continual revival of 
 religion here 1 What would be the effect on 
 their minds and hearts if they should be con- 
 strained to feel when they enter our houses 
 10*
 
 108 IMrORTAiN'CE OF REVIVALS. 
 
 of worship, that the Spirit of God was there 
 as he was in Jerusalem on the day. of Pente- 
 cost 1 What would be the effect if in their 
 transactions of business here they should find 
 all our merchants — or even all our professedly 
 christian merchants — governed only by the 
 pure and holy principles of the Gospel \ 
 What would be the effect,, if, when they arc 
 invited to our dwellings, they should see the 
 decanter banished from every side-board and 
 every table, and the style of living regulated 
 by a conscientious regard to the will of Christ ; 
 and the Gospel, the whole Gospel, and noth- 
 ing but the Gospel controling us in our dwel- 
 lings \ What would be the effect if one 
 mighty and far-pervading revival of religion 
 here, like that on the day of Pentecost, should 
 make the visiters to the theatres so few that 
 they would be closed, and should make it dis- 
 reputable for a stranger or a citizen to patron- 
 ize a place of corruption and infamy ? How 
 soon would the effect be visible in the extrem- 
 ity of the land and the world ! To see this, 
 let these facts be borne in mind: (1.) Great 
 numbers of strangers are in all our large ci- 
 ties, at all times, from every part of our land
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. 109 
 
 and the world. I preach the Gospel every 
 year to many hundreds of such persons ; and 
 probably I am not exceeding the truth when I 
 say that the aggregate of such persons is con- 
 siderably more than the number of my regu- 
 lar hearers. To a great extent this is true of 
 all other pastors in this city and in other ci- 
 ties. I trust and believe that the eflect of 
 their worshipping with us has not had an un- 
 happy influence on their minds (if I may use 
 the language of Paul as descriptive of what 
 I mean) while they have been " beholding 
 your order, and the steadfastness of your faith 
 in Christ ;" (Col. 2:5;) and I have been per- 
 mitted to know of some most happy, and I 
 trust saving influences on the minds of stran- 
 gers resulting from their worshipping with us. 
 But it is not unkindness to ask what v:ould 
 have been the effect on the multitudes which 
 have been with us, had they witnessed here 
 scenes like those on the day of Pentecost 1 
 (2.) Again, those strangers are usually men 
 of influence, wealth, und power at home. 
 They are the centres of opinion to large cir- 
 cles there. They control the habits, or the 
 fashions, or the religieus opinions of those by
 
 no IMPORTANCE OF REVIVy\LS. 
 
 whom thgy are surrounded. A large portion 
 of those to whom / preach in this manner are 
 the respectable and influential merchants of 
 the west ; men who are doing- as much as any 
 others to form the habits of the mighty em- 
 pire that is rising up beyond the mountains ; 
 men who are moulding that vast population 
 that is soon to give to this nation its presi- 
 dent, its great officers of government, and its 
 laws ; and men who in that vast region are 
 either to stay the tide of infidelity and sin, or 
 to urge it onward ; for if we are ever to be a 
 nation of slaves, the chain that is to bind us 
 is to be forged beyond the mountains. They 
 are the men who are to be the patrons of or- 
 der and education, of common schools, of 
 colleges, and of the institutions of religion ; 
 — many of them are men who are pillars in 
 those churches, and whose piety is to receive 
 an impression that shall be lasting, even du- 
 ring a temporary sojourning with us. It is 
 needless to ask what would be the influence 
 on such men if they found this city and all 
 these churches blessed with revivals of reli- 
 gion like rains and dews of heaven. 
 
 III. Again. If I address one such stran-
 
 IMPORTANCE OF REVIVALS. Ill 
 
 ger now, he will pardon me if I make a re- 
 mark particularly applicable to himself, if I 
 do not address such an one, the remark will 
 be useful to others, as reminding them of 
 what is the fact in regard to such strangers, 
 and of the need of a pure, heavenly, christian 
 influence in all our churches here. The re- 
 mark is, that even christians are not always as 
 consistent and circumspect when they are 
 abroad as when they are at home. They are, 
 or suppose they are, unobserved. They are 
 away from the vigilant eye of a wife, a neigh- 
 bor, a child. They feel that there is less de- 
 pending on their example than when they are 
 under the well known eye of a vigilant pub- 
 lic opinion. Members of the churches some- 
 times travel on the Sabbath when away from 
 home, and when they suppose it possible they 
 will not be known as professing christians. 
 They sometimes attend church but a part of 
 the day when in cities, and the remainder of 
 the day is devoted to sight-seeing. It is an 
 obvious plea with them that they are engaged 
 in business during the week, and that it cannot 
 be very improper for them to visit public places 
 once on the Sabbath when they are unknown.
 
 112 IMPORTANCE OF IlEVIVALS. 
 
 And it is not improbable that of a Sabbath af- 
 ternoon, in the spring or summer, enough such 
 professors might usually be found at the pla- 
 ces of public resort to constitute a church 
 respectable enough in numbers to celebrate 
 the Lord's supper. They sometimes also vi- 
 sit places of somewhat doubtful morality, and 
 where, if at home, they never would be found. 
 It is not impossible that christian ministers 
 and other members of the churches sometimes 
 visit the opera in Paris or in Italy, who would 
 have many misgivings about recommending 
 such a course to the more spiritual part of 
 their flo ck or their brother christians at home, 
 and Avho themselves, when there, are most 
 conscientious in abstaining from such amuse- 
 ments. And I may ask, are professors of re- 
 ligion and officers of the churches from other 
 parts of our land never found in the theatres 
 of our cities 1 It is very doubtful whether 
 a single theatre could be sustained for a month 
 in this city if it were not for the patronage of 
 strangers. But if this be the fact, then the 
 importance of revivals here, of a healthful, con- 
 stant, unceasing heavenly influence in all our 
 churches, is apparent. To influence the stran-
 
 IMPORTANCa OF REVIVALS. 113 
 
 ger christian ; to incline his heart more and more 
 to the ways of God ; to keep him from temp- 
 tation when here ; and to send him back to 
 his home, blessed not only by our hospitality 
 but with more of the Spirit of his Master, 
 we should pray unceasingly for the descend- 
 ing influences of the grace of God on all our 
 churches and on all the population of this 
 city. To save the stranger that comes among 
 us from the dram-shop, the theatre, the house 
 of infamy, we should beseech the God of 
 heaven that he may be greeted when he comes 
 here with the influence of religion ; that every 
 christian whom he may meet may show that 
 his heart is deeply engaged in the work of the 
 Lord, and feels a deep interest in the salvation 
 of souls ; and that throughout all our cities 
 and towns there may be felt the power of the 
 presence of the God of revivals.
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 The desirableness ol revivals. 
 
 " Lord, revive thy work in (he midst of the 
 years, in the midst of the years make known; 
 in wrath remember mercy.'' — Hab. iii : 2. 
 
 The sentiment of this text, in the connec- 
 tion in which it stands, is, that a revival of 
 pure religion was desirable ; and particularly 
 in view of tiie awful judgments of God, and 
 the manifestations of his majesty and justice 
 which the prophet saw in vision. God is seen 
 by the prophet approaching amidst many ter- 
 rors to take vengeance on the wicked. His 
 glory covers the heavens, and the earth is full 
 of his praise. His brightness is as the light ;
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. llS 
 
 and there are bright beams (marg.) like play^ 
 ing lightnings at his side. Before him goes 
 the pestilence, and burning coals at his feet. 
 The nations are driven asunder ; and the ever- 
 lasting mountains are scattered ; the perpetual 
 hills bow ; and the deep lifts up its voice* 
 The sun and the moon stand still in their hab-- 
 itation ; and the universe is in consternation 
 at the awful presence of Jehovah. In view 
 of these sublime and awful manifestations, 
 the prophet pleads with God to revive his 
 work, and to remember mercy in the midst 
 of wrath. It was only by a revival of religion 
 that his wrath could be averted j or that his 
 people could be prepared for these sublime 
 exhibitions of their God. 
 
 I shall take occasion from these words to 
 address you on the desirableness of revivals 
 of religion, particularly in cities ; and shall 
 endeavor to adhere so far, at least, to the sen- 
 timent of the text, as to keep before the eye 
 the desirableness of such works of grace from 
 the awful displays of Divine justice which the 
 inhabitants of guilty cities have reason to 
 apprehend. My last lecture on this general 
 subject was on the importance of cities and 
 11
 
 116 UESIKAHLENKSS OF llEVIVALS. 
 
 large towns, particularly witli reference to re- 
 ligion. My design in this discourse is to 
 state some reasons why such works of grace 
 as I have endeavored to describe as inclu- 
 ded under the word revivals, are desirable 
 in such places. 
 
 Who doubts this 1 it may at once be asked ; 
 And what is the necessity of discoursing on 
 so plain a topic to a christian people 1 Are 
 there any christians who doubt that a revival 
 of pure religion in a city is desirable 1 And 
 can there be a necessity to occupy the time 
 of an entire service on a point w'here there 
 can be but one opinion ] These questions, I 
 doubt not, would be asked by many, in a can- 
 did and not a captious spirit ; and they demand 
 an answer in the same spirit. In a word, then, 
 1 would reply, (1.) That men often admit 
 that to be true in relation to which they have 
 little feeling or emotion ; and my w'ish in re- 
 gard to a large portion of my hearers, is not 
 so much to convince their understandings on 
 so plain a pointy as to enkindle in the heart an 
 earnest desire for such works of mercy. It 
 may be that the main point of my discourse 
 would be at once admitted to be true without
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 117 
 
 argument ; but it may be, also, that its force 
 may be more deeply felt by the contemplation 
 of the views which I shall exhibit. (2.) To 
 the candid questions Avhich I have snpposed 
 to be submitted to me at the outset of my 
 argument, I wish also to propose one or two 
 in reply, in a spirit and manner as candid and 
 as free from captiousness. Is it true, then, 
 that all professed christians really desire a 
 revival of religion of the kind which I have de- 
 scribed \ Are there none who start back at the 
 word REVIVAL, and who feel an instinctive dis- 
 like to the name % Are there none in Avhose 
 minds the word suggests the idea of mere 
 excitement ; of scenes of enthusiams and dis- 
 order ; of irregularity and wildfire % Are there 
 none who, when they pray, and with very 
 honest intentions in the main, for a revival, 
 do it with many qualifications and mental re- 
 servations, and Avith an apprehension or fear 
 that the prayer may be answered ; — who pray 
 from the custom of using such language, ra- 
 ther than from any intelligent and sincere wish 
 that such scenes as that on the day of Pente- 
 cost may be witnessed \ And I cannot but 
 ask one more question. When prayers are
 
 118 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 
 
 offered for revivals, are there no prayers 
 against them 1 While the fervent petitions of 
 a portion of an assembled church ascend to 
 heaven for the descent of the Holy Spirit like 
 floods and showers, are there no prayers as- 
 cending to heaven, or no secret desires, that 
 such influences may be restained 1 no counter 
 petitions that cross and recross the prayers of 
 those who love revival ;, as they ascend up to 
 God \ It is not given to men to know the 
 hearts, nor the real feelings and desires of the 
 professed people of God ; but if it could be 
 ascertained, it would not be uninteresting to 
 know what portion of professed christians, in 
 deep and fervent sincerity, daily pray, " O 
 Lord, revive thy work !" 
 
 I do not consider it, therefore, superfluous 
 to state some reasons why revivals of religion 
 are desirable. 
 
 But what would be the scene, should there 
 be a revival of religion in a city like this \ I 
 have, on a former occasion explained at length 
 my views of the nature of a revival. To the 
 success of my argument at this time, it is 
 quite material that we have some distinct
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 119 
 
 idea of what would actually occur in such a 
 case. 
 
 It would not be mere excitement. I have 
 no fondness for mere excitement. 1 do not 
 advocate it. Indeed a very large part of my 
 ministerial labors is directed against excite- 
 ment, and intended to allay and restrain its 
 feverishness. I refer to the agitations pro- 
 duced by the love of gain, and those which 
 are exhibited in the political world, and in the 
 excited and excitable world of gayety and 
 fashion. I have never uttered a word in fa- 
 vor of disorder, lawlessness, irregularity, ec- 
 centricity, or of any religious movement which 
 would be a violation of decency and order. I 
 am no advocate for suspending the proper 
 business of life, or of breaking in upon regular 
 employment in honest and honorable industry. 
 I have no views of religion or of revivals 
 which would not make men more sober, and 
 honest, and industrious, and chastened in their 
 lives. I have not one word to say in disregard 
 of the urbanities and civilities of social life ; 
 of the respect due to rank and office ; not one 
 word to say in favor of what has sometimes 
 been charged on the promoters of revivals — 
 11*
 
 120 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 
 
 falsely in general — a contempt for the courte- 
 sies of life, and an outrage on the feelings of 
 others. I hold no views of religion which 
 would not make men more courteous, refined, 
 and truly polite and respectful in revivals and 
 at all times. I advocate no excitement but 
 that which truth produces — and not half as 
 much as prevails in the gay world ; I advocate 
 the necessity for no new doctrines to carry on 
 such a Avork — no doctrines but such as were 
 preached by the Redeemer and his apostles ; 
 I advocate no means and measures but such 
 as are best adapted to secure to the Gospel — 
 the pure Gospel — access to the human heart, 
 and such as are in accordance with all the 
 settled institutions of Christianity j and I ad- 
 vocate no style of preaching that is vulgar in 
 diction or action ; that is offensive to good 
 taste in tone and manner ; that is not the result 
 of careful preparation ; that is not character- 
 ized by the condensation of as much truth as 
 can be made, to reach the hearts of men ; no 
 preaching where the preacher is not much 
 impressed, as conscious of his awful charge, 
 and anxious mainly that the flock he feeds 
 should feel it too.
 
 DESIRABLENESS OP REVIVALS. 121 
 
 What effects, then, should we anticipate 
 from a general revival of religion in a city 1 
 There are in this city, for illtistration, and its 
 surrounding districts and liberties, somewhere 
 about twenty-six thousand families. What is 
 the character of a large portion of them, I 
 need not now pause to say. Now the effect 
 of a revival of religion that should pervade 
 the whole population, would be seen at once 
 m those families, and inallthe influences that 
 go from the family hearth and altar, and would 
 be diffused from those centres over all the 
 walks of life. Every family, if religion were 
 to diffuse its influence there, would be a fa- 
 mily of prayer. The morning and the evening 
 sacrifice would ascend to God. Grateful 
 praise would be poured on the ear of Jehovah 
 in all these dwellings, as the beams of the 
 new morning sun diffused their radiance over 
 the world ; and in the stillness of the evening, 
 the works and duties of the day again per- 
 formed, the interesting group would come 
 around the altar again to render praise, and to 
 commend themselves to the protecting care of 
 Him who never slumbers nor sleeps. Each 
 day they would go forth to its duties and
 
 122 DESIRABLENESS OF KEVIVALS.- 
 
 trials consecrated by the morning offering of 
 praise and prayer under the protection of the 
 unslumbering eye of God, in each scene of 
 sorrow or night of calamity they would bow 
 submissively to his will. Children would be 
 taught 'y taught in proper human learning ;. 
 taught the Bible ; taught the ways of virtue^ 
 religion, temperance, purity, and industry j 
 taught to fear the name of God, to hate a lie^ 
 to prepare for an hor^prable career in the va- 
 rious walks of life. The Sabbath would re- 
 turn to bless each house hold with its influences 
 of mercy ; and the sanctuary would deepen 
 the lessons of family instruction ; and the 
 universal rest from toil would be a sweet type 
 of the heaAenly world. Temperance would 
 be promoted ; and the fountains of poison that 
 now flow every where to corrupt and destroy, 
 would be closed for ever. The houses of pol- 
 lution and infamy would no more open to 
 allure and decoy the young to death ; and 
 their inmates, made living and pure members 
 of the body of Christ, would be preparing to 
 walk before him in white robes in heaven. 
 The theatre would no more open its doors to 
 invite the young, the stranger, and the de-
 
 I»ESIRABLEN£SS OF REVIVALS. 123 
 
 fenceless to forget a father's prayers and a 
 mother's counsels, and to become the com- 
 panion of the unprmcipled and the vile. So- 
 ber industry Avould take the place of idleness ; 
 chastity the place of impurity ; hope would 
 irradiate the countenance where now sits va- 
 cancy or despair ; intelligence would take the 
 place of ignorance ; plenty and comfort would 
 succeed to want ; decency of apparel to 
 penury and rags ; beauty and health would re- 
 visit the countenance now bloated and hag- 
 gard ; and peace, the heart that now hath wo 
 and sorrow from intemperance ; thought — 
 sober, rich, pure, heavenly thought, — would 
 succeed to gayety ; honesty to fraud ; integ- 
 rity to baseness ; universal charity to suspi- 
 cion, inuendo, and slander ; and a disposition 
 to do good to all, and to spread the Gospel 
 around the world with all its healing influen- 
 ces, would succeed the disposition to spend 
 the wealth which God gives in the scenes of 
 dissipation, revelry and sin. Talent that now 
 is wasted and blasted by sensuality, or per- 
 verted by ambition ; genius whose fires are 
 now kindled, and which now burn for nought, 
 .would be converted to noble purposes. That
 
 124" DSSIRABLENESS OF REVrVALS. 
 
 vi^or of frame which is now wasted in scenes 
 of dissipation, would prepare itself to brave 
 the snows of the north or the j-ands of the 
 equator, in making known a Saviour's love j 
 and from- lips whexe now heavy curses roll, the 
 Gospel would soon whisper peace. 
 
 Meantime a revival of religion would de- 
 stroy or injure nothing that is truly valuable, 
 It would not interfere with one rational enjoy- 
 ment. It would not close one school. It 
 would not diiuinish the interest in an orphan 
 asylum, a hospital, a college, a charitable en- 
 dowment, but would augment the interest in 
 all. It Avould moor no ship to the wharf; ar- 
 rest no car, and no steam-boat, — except on the 
 Sabbath ; and stay none of the wheels of com- 
 merce or of honorable and honest enterprise, 
 
 In one word, ' a reformation extending ta 
 every house in the city would be the noblest 
 sight the lover of humanity ever saw. The 
 reign of vice which now regards no limit, but 
 throws its malign influence within every en- 
 closure, would on all sides be curtailed. The 
 liorrid clang of profaneness, the bloated fea- 
 tures of dissipation, the haggard spectacle of 
 prostitution, the inanity of vicious idleness.
 
 Di:siRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 1'25 
 
 ^he menace of unbridled passion, of delibe- 
 rate revenge, curtained behind human features, 
 and heard remote, sometimes lik« thunders on 
 the bosom of darkness — in short, the conflicts 
 of interest, the wiles of dishonesty, the deep- 
 laid snares of covetousness,' Avhich now meet 
 us on every hand, would disappear. Two 
 hundred thousand immortal beings, a large 
 portion of whom are now pressing hard on 
 each other in the broad and much'trodden 
 way to death, now with conflicting interests 
 and agitated passions, would at once com- 
 mence the march to immortality. Hand in 
 hand, with peaceful step and tranquil heart, — 
 with many songs of praise and many players, 
 — they would tread along the banks of the 
 river of life, calm in view of the shadoAvy vale 
 of death ; elevated witli the hope of immortal 
 peace. 
 
 Our main inquiry now returns. Would 
 such a work of grace be desirable in a city 
 like this, or in any or all of the cities of our 
 land V In answer to this inquiry, 
 
 (1.) I suggest, first, the influence on a 
 city or the country at large. I need not at- 
 tempt* to prove that that influence is vast. In
 
 126 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 
 
 all that pertains to fashion, to literature, to 
 morals, to religion, the influence of a city is 
 incalculable. A large part of the fashions of 
 the land, embracing a great many questions 
 about economy and the proper modes and ob- 
 jects of life, and about honesty^ too, in con- 
 tracting and paying debts, are controlled by 
 cities. Paris, on one subject, has given law 
 to the most of Europe and of the world ; and 
 this city influences hundreds of thousands of 
 immortal beings, either direcsly or indirectly, 
 in the same manner. Say what we will, a 
 large portion of mankind is guided by what 
 is implied by the wovdfashion. Who can es- 
 timate the importance, therefore, of such an 
 influence of religion as shall eiTectually check 
 extravagauGe of life, and turn the thoughts of 
 men to the sober objects for which they should 
 live 1 On the literature of a people, no less 
 than on its fashions, cities give law exten- 
 sively. A large portion of the light reading 
 of the world is formed, first, for the inhabi- 
 tants of cities, and then for those portions of 
 the country that can be made to imitate them. 
 From cities, as from centres goes forth that 
 vast amount of romance and poetry which is
 
 DESIRABLKNESS OF REVIVALS. 1^27 
 
 doing so much to undermine all just morality 
 in this nation, and to destroy the souls of 
 men. The prevalence of pure Christianity in 
 our cities, pervading all hearts, V\'oulcI arrest 
 to a great extent this influence, and turn the 
 attention of men to subjects more worthy of 
 their immotal nature^ The power of the 
 newspaper press in cities is felt also through' 
 out the land. It gives tone and character to 
 thousands of presses in the smaller towns and 
 villages. Who can estimate the effect that 
 would be produced, if there was such a reli- 
 gious influence in cities as should make those 
 fountains always pure I Such it would be, if 
 the sentiments of the community were right ; 
 and one general revival of religion in our cities 
 that should secure such an influence on the 
 press as should close every newspaper estab- 
 lishment on the Sabbath ; as should exclude 
 all commendation of the theatre, and as 
 should banish every advertisement and senti- 
 ment, such as a christian father would be un- 
 willing his sons or daughters should read, 
 would send an influence throughout the land. 
 I need not say that the influence of a city 
 is direct, and almost omnipotent on a large 
 "■ 12
 
 128 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 
 
 circle of surrounding villages. Could the 
 mighty population, which, in the summer 
 months, is poured out from our cities on the 
 Sabbath by steam-boats, and cars, and other 
 vehicles, be restrained by the influence of re- 
 ligion ; could they be induced to enter the 
 sanctuary themselves, and spend the day in 
 the worship of God, what a change would be 
 produced at once in a wide circle of towns 
 around us ! How peaceful to them would 
 the Sabbath become 1 What a corrupting in- 
 fluence would be at once withdrawn ! Then, 
 indeed, a village near a city would not be re- 
 garded as necessarily accursed. Then it 
 would not have occasion to complain of the 
 obvious injustice done by its overgrown neigh- 
 bor, in pouring forth its legions of the profane, 
 the unprincipled and the intemperate, to dis- 
 turb the peace and corrupt the morals of 
 others. 
 
 I observed, also, before, that in a large city 
 almost every portion of the land has its repre- 
 sentatives. From all parts of the couutry and 
 the world they come for business or for plea- 
 sure. Who can calculate what would be the 
 influence of a general revival of religion in
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 129 
 
 those minds, and on the portions of the land 
 from whence they came 1 The revival in Je- 
 rusalem on the day of Pentecost was felt al- 
 most immediately in all parts of the then known 
 world, by the return of the " strangers" who 
 were converted there. There is scarcely one 
 nook or corner of our vast republic that would 
 not be influenced by such a work of grace. 
 Cities in a nation are like the heart in man. 
 Each stroke at the centre of life sends out 
 influences for good or evil to the extremities, 
 and is felt with healthful or dstructive influ- 
 ence there. I need not add, if this be so, 
 how responsible is the work of christian min- 
 istry here ! how solemn the obligations of 
 every member of the church of Christ ! 
 
 II. A second consideration to which I refer, 
 is the worth of the souls of the multitudes 
 congregated in cities. I by no means mean 
 to be understood as saying that a soul is of 
 more value here than elsewhere ; of any more 
 worth in the most splendid mansion than in 
 the humblest abode of the poor. But what 1 
 wish to say is, that we may be more deep- 
 ly affected with their value : we may be-
 
 130 DESIRABLENESS OF RFV'n'ALS. 
 
 come more deeply impressed with a sense of 
 their danger. The scene itself is more im- 
 pressive : the events that are passing daily 
 before the eyes arc better adapted to affect 
 the heart. Immortal beings are crowded to- 
 gether ; the busjr, thoughtless multitude is 
 constantly moving on before the eyes. The 
 dense throng is passing by, regardless of ad- 
 monition, and deaf to entreaty and to warn- 
 ing. A man travelling over an uncultivated 
 prairie, or a waste of sands, might meet here 
 and there, at far distant intervals, a stranger — 
 and then pass on again amidst the lonely 
 wastes. There would be little to rouse the 
 mind in regard to the necessity of a mighty 
 heavenly influence on the soul of the solitary 
 man ; and if he Avere disposed to present to 
 him the subject of religion, there would be 
 nothing in the circumstances to crowd it from 
 the mind. But when a city is entered, how 
 different is the scene ! I look out of mj' win- 
 dow, and the dense throng of rJl ages and 
 conditions rashes on. Strangers to me and 
 to each other, they are moving on, an unbro- 
 ken procession all the day to eternity. I pass 
 by the door of a theatre, and hundreds of
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 131 
 
 immortal beings, thoughtless and unconcerned 
 about the future, are leaving the place of 
 amusement and corruption. I go into the 
 marts of business, and there is a dense and 
 jostling crowd anxious only for gain. I think 
 of the brilliant party, and of the assembly- 
 room, and there is another throng " with steps 
 light and airy as the footsteps of Aurora," 
 not less regardless of their immortal destiny. 
 I think of the glitter of dress there, and the 
 splendor of apartments, and the charms of 
 music, and the brilliancy of wit, and the grace 
 fulness of the dance, and all these are uncon- 
 cerned about their undying doom. I think of 
 the low places of sensuality and wretched- 
 ness ; of beastly intemperance, and of degra- 
 ding vice, and there is another group equally 
 regardless of their immortal destiny. Wherev- 
 er you go, a dense throng surrounds you — a 
 busy, active, restless, unhappy, dissatisfied 
 multitude ; a vast procession going to the 
 grave — all under sentence of death — all sin- 
 ners — all exposed to the eternal wrath of God. 
 Each one of them has a soul whose value no 
 numbers can compute ; a soul of more worth 
 than all the riches which commercial talent, 
 12*
 
 132 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 
 
 all combined, lias ever gtiiacd or ever can gain 
 in this city, and which shall live in bliss or 
 in woe when all that wealth shall be forgot- 
 ten. Of their high powers, of their immortal 
 destiny, of what God the Saviour has done 
 for them, they are unconscious ; or if they 
 are conscious, they disregard it all. They 
 are living for other objects ; and their atten- 
 tion can by no human means be turned to the 
 subject of their own soul's salvation. 
 
 Now it is not madness to ask where they 
 will be a thousand years hence ; nor to in- 
 quire what is probably to be their doom \ In- 
 fidelity may sneer at such a suggestion 5 and 
 stupidity may laugh ; but a heathen monarch 
 wept at the thought that his army, the great- 
 est that had been ever raised, would be dead 
 in a hundred years; and a greater than any 
 heathen monarch wept over the destiny of a 
 great and guilty population passing on like 
 this to the bar of God. All the great inter- 
 ests of this thoughtless throng lie beyond the 
 tomb. If they have none there, their life is a 
 bubble, a vapor, a gorgeous illusion, a chang- 
 ing cloud, a mist on the mountain side. All 
 in which they are now so busy is soon to van-
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF KEVIVALS. 133 
 
 isli away. Whether they are rich or poor, 
 honored or despised, bond or free, caressed 
 or hatred, can make no difference with them, 
 in a few years, Wliether there is an eternity 
 or not, these things are of trifling importance. 
 How soon is the most exquisite earthly pleas- 
 ure passed ! The charm of the sweetest mel- 
 ody, how soon it dies away on the ear ! The 
 tenderest ties of friendship, how soon are 
 they severed! The most princely wealth, 
 how soon must it be left! The widest repu- 
 tation, how soon must we cease to enjoy it ! 
 And so with the bitterest grief, the keenest 
 sorrow, the most agonizing pain, how soon is 
 it gone ! And of what real importance are 
 all these to the throng that is seeking them as 
 the grand business of life 1 The vapor that 
 you see in tiie morning as it lies on the moun- 
 tain side, of what importance can it be whether 
 it be admired by a few more or a few less mor- 
 tals, or whether it roll a little higher or a little 
 lower, since it will soon vanish in the beams of 
 the morning sun 1 So of the vapor of life. Soon 
 is it gone ; and another generation shall suc- 
 ceed ; as to-morrow another short-lived mist 
 shall be seen, where to-day that vanished
 
 134 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 
 
 away. The cloud that you see lie along the 
 western sky as the sun sinks behind the hills 
 in a summer's eve, so gorgeous, so changing, 
 so beautiful, so lighted up witli ever-varying 
 richness of hue by the lightning of the sum- 
 mer eve, of what importance is it whether a 
 few more or less tints be painted on it, or 
 whether a few more or a few less eyes gaze 
 upon it, for the darkness of midnight will 
 soon conceal it all. The insects that you see 
 flutter in the evening rays, so happy, so calm, 
 so still, so graceful in their motions, are mo- 
 ving with the shades of night to be seen no 
 more. So move on the dense, the busy mul- 
 titudes of this city ! And I was about to say, 
 O that they were, like that vapor, to vanish 
 for ever ; or that gorgeous cloud, to sink un- 
 consciously into night ; or the insects of the 
 evening, to live no more ! But it is not so. 
 That vapor vanishes, and is not seen again. 
 That changing cloud is dissipated, and the 
 tiny nations die, not to live again. But not 
 so with the multitudes here. To the shades 
 of the night of death they move on, but they 
 emerge in an immortal existence beyond ; 
 and all their srreat interests are there. There
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 135 
 
 they begin to live. There they will live on 
 when stars and suns cease to shine, and when 
 rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away ; 
 when the heavens shall be rolled together as a 
 scroll, and when the throne of God occupied 
 by the dread Eternal King, shall be revealed. 
 Yes, thoughtless trifler, yes, as long as God is 
 to endure you are to live ; and as sure as it is 
 that God himself shall never die, so sure it is 
 that your soul shall never cease to exist. 
 
 Now who can say that it would be irration- 
 al or undesirable that all this multitude should 
 be simultaneously impressed with the impor- 
 tance of religion and the worth of the soul % 
 Suppose it should be attended with a tempo- 
 rary suspension of the business, or with a 
 permanent suspension of what now consti- 
 tutes the main pleasures of this life. Is it to 
 be deemed fanatical that the affairs of this 
 life should be allowed to give way, for a little 
 Avhile, for the more important things of anoth- 
 er world % Is this world of darkness and of 
 sin so vastly important that none of its affairs 
 are ever to be suspended for the purposes of 
 another world 1 Is the struggle for place, 
 and pojver, and wealth never to be arrested to
 
 13G DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 
 
 attend to more important interests'? I do not 
 believe that a general revival of religion in 
 our cities -would interfere really with any- 
 thing necessary to their prosperity, or would 
 cause even a temporary suspension of any 
 thing truly valuable to the welfare of society. 
 But if it did, shall man say that these things 
 are never to be suspended to attend to more 
 important concerns '? Not thus determines the 
 great Law-giver of men, and the best judge of 
 what is needful for human welfare. If his 
 judgment were followed, and his counsel and 
 command obeyed, all labor would be suspen- 
 ded for one day in seven. The counting- 
 room, the assemblj^-room, the places of amuse- 
 ment every where would be closed ; the 
 steam-boat, the car, the stage-coach, would 
 stand still ; the axe, the hammer, and the 
 chisel would be laid aside ; and the world, 
 calm and peaceful like Eden, would give itself 
 to the labors of charity, and to a preparation 
 for heaven. Does God never arrest the ac- 
 tive movements of the world in any other 
 way 1 What does he when the stout man is 
 laid on a bed of pain"? "What means the 
 scene when all his worldly plans are arrested,
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 137 
 
 and he is pale in deaths The truth is, if 
 man's great interests are beyond the tomb, 
 no law of propriety is violated if these great 
 interests are allowed to press upon the soul, 
 and even to arrest, if need be, his incessant 
 care for worldly gain and for fame. 
 
 But there would be excitement, it may be 
 said, if this great multitude were to attend to 
 the subject of 'religion, and if there were a 
 a general revival. There are excitements, it 
 is said, in all revivals. But, I pray you, is 
 there no excitement in these cities now 1 
 From whence comes the objection that revi- 
 vals are mere scenes of excitement? From 
 that man excited throughout the whole week 
 in pursuit of gain— feverish and restless, and 
 unacquainted for one whole hour at a time 
 with calm thought and repose ; from that man 
 whose life is spent in the whirlwind of politi- 
 cal controversy or in the career of ambition ; 
 from that calm and interesting group prepar- 
 ing for the splendid party and the dance. O 
 thei'e all is calm and serene ; but in religion 
 all is excitement and commotion ! Well may 
 this objection be heard from the excited, agi- 
 tated, tumultuoiis population of a city ; a po-
 
 138 DESIRABLENESS OF REUIVALS. 
 
 pulation more than any other on earth living 
 in scenes of excitement ; unhappy when they 
 are not excited; fostering every where the 
 means of excitement ; and resisting all the 
 means which the friends of religion can use 
 to bring them to sober thought and calm re- 
 flection. What we aim at is that this excite- 
 ment may be laid aside, and that the now busy 
 multitude may be brought to think soberly 
 about the immortal destiny beyond the tomb. 
 We aim that they may lay down the exciting 
 romance or novel, and take up the Bible— full 
 of sober truth ; that they may forsake the 
 theatre — a place of mere excitement, and find 
 happiness in the calmness of the closet, and 
 the sober employments of the fire-side ; that 
 may turn away from the agitating scenes of 
 political strife, and from the exciting of envy, 
 and malice, and green-eyed jealousy, and am- 
 bition, and from the intoxicating bowl and the 
 dance of pleasure, and devote themselves to 
 the sober business of religion. Excitement, 
 say j'ou, in a revival ! O, if Clirist required 
 me to endeavor to produce such an excite- 
 ment in a revival as I see every day in this 
 city J if he required that men ehould give
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. ISSf 
 
 themselves up to the mere influence of feelmg, 
 and day-dreams, and agitating passions, and 
 unfounded hopes, as they are required to by 
 the world ; I should expect to hear the objec- 
 tion that it was all mere excitement, and that 
 such a work could not be the woi'k of God. 
 But no. I plead for soberness of thought ; 
 for calm investigation ; for a state of mind 
 where every improper emotion may be allayed, 
 and where the soul may be brought to look 
 calmly and soberly at the great realities of 
 eternity. Do I address one here who does not 
 know that such sober feeling would become 
 the condition of man, and that it is desirable 
 that such deep emotion should take the place 
 of the agitated and tumultuous feelings which 
 reign in a great community like this ] 
 
 III. A revival of religion is desirable in cities 
 in order to avert the wrath of God and save 
 them from the judgments of heaven. Evils 
 pour into our great cities like floods from all 
 quarters of the world ; and who can be igno- 
 rant of the doom of cities in times past 1 It 
 has been on cities that the most fearful of all 
 the plagues of heaven have fallen ; and not a 
 few dilapidated walls, or half ruined temples 
 IS
 
 140 DESIRABtENfiSS -OF RKVIVAL9. 
 
 stand now amidst far extended ruins as monu- 
 ments of the wrath of heaven. Not a few 
 have been blotted out, and the places where 
 they stood mnde pools of water m- iminhabi- 
 table deserts, by the vengeance of heaven. 
 Who can forget Sodom and Gomorrah, or 
 Babylon, or Tyre, or Thebes, or Memphis, or 
 Petra 1 And who can be ignorant of the de- 
 solations by plague and the pestilence that 
 have s\\'ept through these abodes of congre- 
 gated human guilt 1 The reason has been that 
 God could smite many guilty there while few 
 of the innocent would sufler. All over the 
 world the principal monuments of the divine 
 vengeance have been cities and large towns. 
 Long may the walls of a city stand, but death 
 shall have done its last work within ; long 
 may temples, like that at Baalbec, stand, while 
 all the worshippers, long since smitten by the 
 wrath of God, may sleep with the dead ; long 
 may a city be marked out and distinguished 
 hy its ruins and its sepulchres, like Petra, 
 "without a solitary living inhabitant, a city of 
 the dead. All over the ancient world the 
 plains are strewed Avith the ruins of cities, the 
 monuments of indignant heaven against their
 
 DESIK.ABLENE.SS OF KEVIVALS. 14*1 
 
 follies, their pride, their luxiuy, and their 
 sensuality. 
 
 We know what would have saved them. 
 Ten righteous men would have saved one of 
 the v/orst of them. Ninevah was saved by- 
 repentance ; Babylon might have been spared 
 if she had humbled herself; and Jerusalem 
 would have been saved if she had not cruci- 
 fied the Son of God. Religion promoting to 
 temperance, and industry, and chastity, and 
 honesty and prayer, would have saved' Baby- 
 lon, and Tadmor, and Tyre, and Ephesus, and 
 Alexandria, and Athens ; and, occupying as 
 they did the most elligible situations on earth 
 for commerce, they might to-day have been 
 splendid cities smiling- under the favor of the 
 Almighty. 
 
 And what can save the cities of our land 1 
 The same thing only that would have saved 
 Gomorrah and Babylon. Let us not dream 
 that they are beyond the wrath of God. Let 
 us not suppose that the eyes of God are closed 
 on the enormous masses of guilt in these 
 abodes of congregated sinners. Babylon was 
 once as secure as we are, and as confident of 
 her future glory as we can. be of the pros- 
 perity of this beautiful city.
 
 142 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 
 
 The iiihabilanls of Rome once breathed as 
 pure an air as we do, and Tyre commanded 
 as wide a commerce as any se;i-port in our 
 land. The God who turned Babylon into 
 standing pools and made wild beasts cry in 
 her desolate houses, and satyrs dance tliere, 
 (Isa. xiii: 21, 22,) and who has caused the 
 malaria to settle around Rome, spreading 
 death on the once healthful plains of Italy, 
 and has made Tyre a barren rock where the 
 solitary fisherman dries his net, can as easily 
 destroy our commerce, or fill our streets with 
 pestilential air. Have our aged men forgot- 
 ten the sad desolations of 1793, when the 
 angel of death walked through tliese streets 
 as he did once in the camp of Sennacherib ? 
 Have we ceased to remember the scenes iu 
 1832, when tho pestilence that walketh in 
 darkness and the destruction that wasteth at 
 noon-day spread a universal gloom over this 
 city % How easy for that God to visit us 
 again ! 
 
 IV. I refer to one other consideration, show- 
 ing the desirableness of revi^^als of religion in 
 the cities of our land. 1 refer to their in- 
 fluence on future times. The question whether
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 14^3 
 
 revivals of religion may exist there, and in 
 what way they may be promoted, is of not less 
 importance than any other which pertains to 
 the welfare of our nation. Look over the 
 map of our country. Only about two hundred 
 years have elapsed since the foot of the pil- 
 grim first trod these western shores. Then a 
 vast interminable forest spread its shades all 
 over this land — broken in upon only by the 
 prairies or the lakes that opened their bosom 
 to the sun, or by the floods that rolled on to the 
 ocean. There the sound of the woodman's 
 axe had not been heard. The vast solitude 
 had been disturbed only by the savage war- 
 cry. Not a bridge was thrown over the 
 streams ; not a road penetrated the deep 
 forest ; not a sail whitened these bays and 
 seas ; not a boat save the fragile bark of birch, 
 was upon the waters ; not a city sent its hum 
 up to heaven; not a village, save the tempo- 
 rary abodes of wandering savages, was on the 
 vast landscape. Two centuries have gone, 
 and how changed the scene ! Our cities al- 
 ready rival those of the old world ; and when 
 some half a dozen on other continents are 
 named, ours come next in the numbers of 
 *13
 
 144 DESIRABLENESS OF KEVIVALS. 
 
 their population, and are already amoug tlie 
 first ill commercial importance. As if by ma- 
 gic they start up all over the land ; and even 
 while the remains of the forest stand around 
 them palaces rise, and wealth flows there as 
 to a centre, and the din of commerce is heard 
 afar. 
 
 Can any one fail to see in this fact the ne- 
 cessity of revivals of religion in those cities \ 
 How else shall it be propagated, but by that 
 rapid mode where the Spirt of God bears the 
 truth to the hearts of multitudes, and turns 
 them simultaneously to God \ They are adapt- 
 ed to the excited and ardent movement every 
 where manifested in our land. All in those cities 
 is free, and generous, and active, and mighty. 
 There is an energy and zeal in the afTairs of 
 the world, which is fitted to make men great 
 and glorious in religion as in commerce. 
 There is an ardor that needs only to be di- 
 rected to the concerns of the soul, to be 
 adapted to the times in which we live, and to 
 the great enterprise of the conversion of the 
 world. 
 
 What vast multitudes are yet to swarm in 
 those cities! What countless numbers are
 
 DESIEABLENESS OF REVIVALS, 145' 
 
 there to live and to die ! How soon will the 
 present busy generation be gone, to give place 
 to another as busy, as active, as immortal ! 
 What is be the doom of the advancing mil- 
 lions 1 That inquiry is to be answered in part 
 by the character of the present generation, 
 and by the answer to the question, whether 
 the Spirit of God shall descend in glorious re- 
 vivals of religion. In these streets other ge- 
 nerations are to tread — as busy as we are. 
 They will occupy the stores which you now 
 occupy; dwell in the houses where you now 
 dwell — until the time shall come for them to 
 pull down those houses and stores, and to 
 build new ones for other generations to come. 
 They will moor their vessels to the same 
 wharfs — until those vessels shall be useless, 
 and shall give place to others. They will go 
 forth and look upon our graves ; read the let- 
 fers on our tombs until they become illegible : 
 and then they will lie down in the grave, to be 
 superseded, and in their turn, too, to be for- 
 gotten. Unless some judgment is stirred up 
 in heaven, ' red with vmcommon wrath,' that 
 shall sweep this city Avith the besom of de- 
 struction, more millions by far may yet live
 
 14(3 DESIRABLENESS OK KKVIVALS. 
 
 here than now comprise the whole iiihabitaDts 
 of our country. We are just beginning our 
 career. The cities of our land arc just start- 
 ing into being. In the far distant future 1 see 
 the shadowy fornas of advancing millions of 
 men. They are coming to enter into our 
 houses, and churches, and stores, and to re- 
 ceive their impressions from what they shall 
 find tliere Avhcn they arrive. 
 
 Now Avhat I wish to say is, that these cities 
 can be saved from being corrupting spots ; 
 concentrated pests in our land, only by the 
 influence of religion ; and religion now. Tell 
 me, ye who doubt this, whether pow6r and 
 wealth saved Babylon and Rome. Tell me, 
 whether the ship laden with gold and the mer- 
 chandise of the East saved Tyre. Tell me 
 whether philosophy and learning saved the 
 cities of Greece and Egypt. Tell me whether 
 the chisel of Phidias and Praxiteles saved 
 Athens. Tell me whether the Colisaeum saved 
 Rome, or its splendid marble structures saved 
 Corinth. O no, — not one of them: nor will 
 colleges, or schools, or marble palaces, or 
 fountains or luxury, or wealth save one of the 
 cities of our land. Without religion they will
 
 DESIRABLENESS OF REVIVALS. 147 
 
 lie as corrupt and corrupting masses on the 
 bosom of the nation, till heaven can bear it no 
 longer ; and then they will be swept with the 
 vengeance of an offended God. Religion, re- 
 ligion only — the pure religion of the cross — 
 descending like floods, and flovvring like rivers, 
 only can save these cities from destruction.. 
 When we think of these things ; when we 
 look over the numbers of the cities of our 
 land j^ when we remember their accumulating 
 guilt ; when we look onward to future times, 
 and see what they are destined yet to be, and 
 backward and see the memorials of wrath 
 standing thick where cities once stood on the 
 plains of the old world, how appropriate the 
 petition of our text, ' O Lord, revive thy work, 
 
 IN THE MIDST OF THE YEARS, IN THE MIDST 
 OF THE YEARS MAKE KNOWN ; IN WRATH RE- 
 MEMBER MERCY !'
 
 SERMON V . 
 
 THE IlINDERANCES TO REVIVALS THERE. 
 
 "^ And when he was come near, he beheld the 
 city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst 
 known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the 
 things which belong to thy peace.'' Luke, 
 xix : 41, 42. 
 
 * Jerusalem ! Jerusalem I thou that killest 
 the prophets, and stonest them which are sent 
 unto thee, how often would I have gathered 
 thy children together, even as a hen gathereth 
 her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
 
 not .'' Matt, xxiii : 37. 
 
 What tender and affectionate language is 
 tliis! What love and compassion are here 
 evinced ! What a scene is here presented ! The
 
 {flNDERANCES TO REVfVALS. 1451 
 
 Son of God in tears ! The Eedemer weeping 
 in view of the impending doom of a great 
 and guilty city ! Why were those tears % And 
 why these expressions of love and tender- 
 ness 1 It is not difficult to answer the ques- 
 tions. In no situation can we well conceive 
 of more emotions crowding into a human 
 bosom than struggled in the heart of the Son 
 of God, and that constrained him to weep. 
 Before him was the capital of the nation ; the 
 temple was standing with rich magificence ; 
 the altar of sacrifice; the place were the 
 praises of Jehovah had been celebrated for 
 ages. In that city he had preached the Gos- 
 pel, and called the inhabitants to embrace- him 
 as the Messiah — but in vain. There he 
 sought to turn them to God, and thus to avert 
 the heavy doom impending ov6r them for 
 their sins. But all in vain. He had been 
 there rejected, his ministry despised, and 
 his claims set at nought ; and he saw that 
 there the great act of national ci'ime, which 
 outpeers all other deeds of guilt, Avas about 
 to be perpetrated — by his own murder ; and 
 that for these things the city was to be filled 
 soon with wo, and blood, and horror ; the
 
 150 1IINDERANCE6 TO REVIVALS. 
 
 temple fired and razed to its foundations ; the 
 impohing rites of religion to cease ; and the 
 inhabitants of the city and the land that should 
 survive the siege to be borne into captivity, or 
 scattered to the ends of the wor'd, to be re- 
 gathered to the land of their farthers no 
 more. Ivlore than this, he saw heavy judg- 
 ments impending over them as sinners ; and 
 the fearful doom awaiting the rejecters of the 
 Son of God in the future world. For these 
 things his eyes run down with tears ; and of 
 all the scenes of moral grandeur ever wit- 
 nessed in this world, none have equalled that 
 when the Son of God, seated on the Mount 
 of Olives, cast his eyes over the city spread 
 out before him, and gave vent to his feeling 
 in a flood of tears. 
 
 1 see no reason to doubt that, if he were 
 again on earth he would evince the same feel- 
 ings in surveying the great cities that now 
 exist. I doubt not that in Paris, in London, 
 in Canton, in New York, in Philadelphia, in 
 Baltimore, in Cincinnati, he would see much 
 that would peculiarly excite to tears. I do 
 not see why Jerusalem was so pre-eminent 
 -either in numbers, in wickedness, or in the
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 151 
 
 approaching doom of its inhabitants, as to 
 claim exclusively the compassion and call forth 
 the tears of the Son of God. The same thing 
 substantially will be found to exist in all these 
 cities as in Jerusalem ; the same combined 
 resistance of himself and his Gospel ; the 
 same concentrated wickedness; the same ac- 
 cumulation of vice, licentiousness, pride, and 
 sensuality : and the same awful doom impen- 
 ding over the congregated masses of guilt. 
 07ie reason of his weeping then was, that 
 his Gospel had been there so unsuccessful. 
 He had preached in Galilee ; he had trod the 
 shore of the lake of Gennesareth; he had 
 proclaimed his message in numerous country 
 villages^ and among the hamlets of the poor, 
 with eminent success. But in the great tOAvns, 
 in Capernaum, in Berthsaida, in Chorazin, and 
 pre-eminently in Jerusalem, he had met with 
 peculiar obstacles to the success of the Gos- 
 pel ; and which in one case called forth the 
 heaviest denunciations which ever fell from 
 his lips : ' Wo unto thee, Chorazin ; Wo unto 
 thee, Bethsaida ;' and which in the other ex- 
 cited him now to tears ! 
 
 I derive from the text the sentiment that 
 14
 
 152 HINDEKANCES TO BEVIVALS. 
 
 Christ found peculiar obstacles to the recep- 
 tion of his Gospel in cities and large towns ; 
 and my object al this time is to show what 
 some of those obstacles arc. My last Lecture 
 was on the importance of revivals of religion 
 in cities and large towns. The present Lec- 
 ture will be a continuation of the same sub- 
 ject in general, or another aspect of it, by 
 showing the peculiar hinderances to religion 
 existing there, and hence the importance and 
 necessity of kevivals to meet and overcome 
 those hinderances. 
 
 I. I invite your attention, in the first place, 
 to the obstacles to revivals arising from the 
 very constitution or organization of cities and 
 large towns. The idea which I wish to pre- 
 sent is, that there is a large portion of the 
 population that is almost entirely inaccessible 
 by the Gospel, or designedly beyond the reach 
 of the ordinary means of grace. 
 
 ' God made the country, and man made the 
 towni,' said the sweetest of British bards, 
 though in this case with perhaps rather more 
 truth than poetic beautj'. Christ found, as 
 has already been observed, a coimtry and a 
 village population accessible to the Gospel,
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS, 153 
 
 and the triumphs of his personal ministry were 
 mainly there. There are few, comparatively, 
 of very elevated rank there; few in affluence. 
 There are fewer low and debasing vices ; few 
 comparatively of the more fascinating allure- 
 ments; few extended and compacted combin- 
 ations of guilt ; few to whom and to whose 
 dwellings those who are disposed to do good 
 may not find a welcome and ready access. 
 
 But the moment you enter a city, with all 
 its external beauty and splendor ; with all its 
 courtesy and refinement ; with all its science 
 and art ; nay, with all its healthful institutions 
 of morality and religion, you are struck with 
 the almost entire exclusion of the extremes of 
 the population from all access by the Gospel 
 and the means of grace. On the one hand 
 there is that vast portion of a city population 
 which may be regarded as the lower stratum 
 of society — I mean that dense and dark mass, 
 the population of alleys, and cellars, and gar- 
 rets — the ignorant, the degraded, the grossly 
 sensual, the idle, the worthless — the refuse 
 of society, and ' the ofFscouring of the world,' 
 always existing in a city, though often con- 
 cealed from the stranger, and whose existence
 
 IS^ IIINDERANCES TO KEVIVALS. 
 
 is disregarded, or whose condition is un- 
 known, by that half of the race who ' know 
 not how the other half lives,' Could the veil 
 be suddenly lifted from the crime and abom- 
 ination, the degraded vices and the low scenes 
 of guilt and profligacy with which even a city 
 like this abounds, and could we see it as the 
 All seeing Eye sees it, we should start back 
 with horror, familiar as we in some degree be- 
 come with it. Let an individual go at leisure 
 through our streets, and lanes, and alleys ; let 
 him go to the foul retreats of drunkenness, 
 gluttony, and pollution ; let him look on the 
 wretches burrowed in these foul recesses j let 
 him look at the houses of infamy, and see the 
 thousands that visit those houses — they alike 
 with their inmates inaccessible to all the 
 means of salvation, and with consciences 
 ' seared as with a hot iron,' — and he will have 
 some idea of the obstacles which stand in the 
 way of revivals of religion in cities. Let 
 him think of the criminals which throng our 
 courts and crowd our prisons ; the paupers in 
 our alms-houses, most of them made such by 
 intemperance ; the beggars patrolling our 
 streets, whose story is, in general, but a veil
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 155 
 
 to their faults ; but most of all, of that numer- 
 ous banditti of thieves, robbers, swindlers, 
 pilferers, incendiaries, burglars, and ruffians, 
 whose concealment from the public eye alone 
 prevents alarm — the thousands, and perhaps 
 tens of thousands, who arc here congregated 
 and and affiliated in various Avays in infamy 
 and crime, and he will be at no loss to under- 
 stand some of the obstacles which exist here 
 to the spread of all religion, and especially to 
 revivals. 
 
 A very large portion of this class is inac- 
 cessible by any means which are used, or 
 which can be at present used, to spread 
 among them the gospel. They enter no 
 church from year to year. Many an individ- 
 ual has lived more than twenty years in this 
 city and never entered a place of public w^or- 
 ship. Multitudes of them have no Bible ; or 
 if they had, they could not read it, or v/ould 
 immediately pawn it to procure the means of 
 intoxication. Multitudes of them spurn a 
 tract, or if they did not, it would be useless 
 to them. Multitudes of them study conceal- 
 ment ; practise crimes which cannot be ex- 
 posed to the light of day ; and alike shrink 
 14*
 
 156 inNDERA>'CKS TO REVIVALS. 
 
 away from a police-officer and from a minister 
 of religion. 
 
 But I wish especially to remark, not on 
 their inaccessibility, but on the fact that they 
 are not in a condition where revivals of reli- 
 gion can be expected, such as I am advoca- 
 ting, and such as have hitherto, in general, 
 blessed this land. The most powerful revi- 
 vals of religion in this country have occurred 
 in those places where the mass of the people 
 are the best educated, and where they are 
 most sober in their lives, most virtuous and 
 industrious, and regular in their attendance 
 on the house of God. But this has not been 
 the general character of revivals in this land. 
 They have been the fruits of sound instruc- 
 tion, and of a careful training in common- 
 schools and in Sabbath-schools ; they have 
 occurred where the Gospel has been long and 
 faithfully preached, and those who have been 
 converted have been usually those whose 
 minds have been most sedulously taught by 
 the labors of the ministry ; they have occur- 
 red eminently in our colleges and higher fe- 
 male sminaries — places far removed from 
 mere enthusiasm, and places where God has
 
 HIA'DERANCES TO REVIVALS- 157 
 
 made intellectual culture contribute to the 
 purity and power of revivals. But how dif- 
 ferent all this from the wretched, untaught, 
 and degraded population of our cities ! Even, 
 therefore, if we had access to this immense 
 mass 5 if we had ministers enough to go to 
 them and preach ; or if every christian should 
 become a missionary to them, and bear the 
 tidings of salvation, their very ignorance and 
 degradation would oppose a most formidable 
 barrier to pure revivals of religion. That 
 dark mass must be elevated 5 these hordes of 
 wandering and wretched children must be 
 gathered into schools and taught ; these foun- 
 tains of poison, now pouring desolation and 
 wo into so many dwellings, must be closed ; 
 the Bible must be placed in these houses, and 
 the inmates taught to read it ; and a long pro- 
 cess of most self denying instruction must be 
 gone into, before, in our cities, there will be 
 witnessed the revivals of purity and power 
 which have so abundantly blessed the smaller 
 towns and the villages of our land. 
 
 I have spoken of the low and degraded part 
 of our population as opposing one obstacle to 
 revivals. This is one extreine. And here is
 
 158 iriNDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 
 
 one great department of christian effort where 
 all our prayers and all our self-denials are de- 
 manded. 
 
 But there is another class at the other ex- 
 treme of society, in our cities, that is not less 
 inaccessible by the Gospel of Christ. It is 
 that great department ' far above these auge- 
 an stables of sin and pain, which no Hercule- 
 an labor can cleanse, but connected with it by 
 innumerable doors and headlong steps. This 
 region appears brilliant and fair ; its precincts 
 resound with hilarity, music, and songs ; and 
 it contains thousands of the opulent, the fash- 
 ionable, and the gay ; vice is clad in splendor 
 here and a spirit reigns which knows no mor- 
 al law but inclination and recognizes no god 
 but pleasure.' For guilt often treads flowery 
 paths, and goes up the heights of honor and 
 ambition. It reclines on a couch of ease ; 
 rests on a bed of down ; puts on robes of 
 adorning; is seen in the joj'ousness of the 
 mazy dance ; and moves amidst the civilities 
 and courtesies of refined life. For this class 
 distant climes pour in their luxuries ; the 
 theatre opens its doors ; splendid mansions 
 rise — the cost of tens of thousands of dollars
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 159 
 
 — with gorgeous decorations, to furnish pla- 
 ces for dances and revelry ; for this class art 
 is exhausted ; night becomes more brilliant 
 than day: and the cup of pleasure is drunk 
 deep and long, and music lavishes her charms 
 to give pleasure to the ear and joy to the 
 heart. In such circles we look in vain for 
 prayer ; for the serious reading of the Bible ; 
 for an anxious concern for the soul ; for a 
 humble and penitent sitting at the feet of the 
 Redeemer. And we look as really in vain 
 there for solid happiness. What are often the 
 characteristics of such circles 1 It is a world 
 of splendor without enjoyment ; of profess- 
 ions without sincerity ; of flattery wdthout 
 heart ; of gayety which mocks the real feel- 
 ings of the soul ; and of smiles when the 
 heart is full of envy and chagrin ; a cup of 
 hilarity whose dregs are wormwood and gall ; 
 scenes of momentary pleasure to be succeed- 
 ed by long nights of painful reminiscenes and 
 by despair. There is ' restless pride without 
 gratification ; ostentation without motive or 
 reward ; ceremony Avithout comfort ; laugh- 
 ter without joy ; smiles which conceal ran- 
 cor ; vociferous praise alloyed with envy, and
 
 160 hindera: cEs oi revivals. 
 
 dying away with the wliispers of calumny ;' 
 and compliance with the laws of fashion 
 which are hated ; and a servitude to customs 
 where the chains cat deep into the flesh. 
 Think you that these people, ' whose every 
 step appears light and airy as the radiant 
 footstep of Aurora, — whose very form and 
 features are luminous Avith contentment and 
 hope,' are happy ^ Do they live on in a con- 
 tinual round of unmingled enjoyment 1 No. 
 The immortal mind is not thus made. The 
 brilliance of these things strikes the eye, but 
 conveys no pleasure to the heart ; and in the 
 very midst of all this external show and glit- 
 ter, the conscience, true to itself and to God, 
 may be uttering the language of rebuke, and 
 the recollection of all this folly may bathe 
 the cheek and the pillow in tears. 
 
 But my principal object is not to remark on 
 the folly of these scenes : for, so far as their 
 fellow-mortals are concerned, men and wo- 
 men have a right to spend their money and 
 be as foolish as they please ; nor do I wish to 
 remark on the hollowness of all this, and its 
 destitution of happiness, but on the fact that 
 it stands in the way of revivals, and of reli-
 
 HIINDERAKCES TO REVIVALS. 161 
 
 gion, in all forms. Unlike the other descrip- 
 tion of the population of a city already ad- 
 verted to, in most respects they are like them 
 in this. Thousands of them aro as ignorant 
 of the Gospel-as they are. The Bible is in- 
 deed in their habitations, but it is not read ; not 
 because they cannot read it, but because they 
 will not. They enter no sanctuary ; and no 
 one bears the Gospel to them. 
 
 A nominal connection may be held with 
 some christian congregation to secure some 
 right of burial — for there is some thinking 
 about death as a matter in which property is 
 involved — but they are strangers to the house 
 of God. Many a splendid mansion in this 
 city is tenanted by those who enter no house 
 of worship. And Avho carries the Gospel to 
 them % Who tells them that they have a soul '? 
 Who reminds them that they are going to the 
 judgment-bar, or to hell 1 Alas ! the messen- 
 ger that bears the Tract to the humble man- 
 sion of the poor, is often turned rudely away 
 from the splendid abode of the rich. The 
 minister of religion goes not there ; for to do 
 it would be to violate a law of etiquette, Avhich, 
 as a stranger, he may not disregaird ; or, if he
 
 162 IIINDERANCES OF REVTVALS. 
 
 goes, daunted, it may be, by wealth, and 
 splendid furniture, and rank, and perhaps by 
 high intellectual endowment, he seeks to re- 
 lieve his conscience: by some time-serving 
 message ; speaks, if at all, in flattering ac- 
 cents of the cross, and would quail before an 
 anticpated frown or rebuke, should he faith- 
 fully speak of sin and of the judgement to 
 come. In scenes like these, too, who looks 
 for friendship for revivals of religion 1 Who 
 is disappointed to find them regarded there as 
 wildfire, fanaticism, and disorder 1. In the 
 character, therefore, the habits, the manners, 
 the inaccessibility of these large classes of a 
 city population, is found the first obstacle to 
 revivals of religion in a city, and is an obsta- 
 cle which nothing but the mighty power of 
 God can overcome. 
 
 11. A second great hinderance to revivals, 
 growing out of the nature of a city organiza- 
 tion, arises from what may properly be cal- 
 led the want of sympathy, or common ties in 
 such a community. It strikes a stranger as 
 singular, that people separated only by the 
 wall of a dwelling should be strangers to each 
 other ; and that in a dense and crowded popu-
 
 IIINDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 163 
 
 .ation there should not be the strongest con- 
 ceivable ties binding together man and man. 
 Yet the estrangement and want of acquain- 
 tance are familiar; and it would not be diffi- 
 cult to explain it ; but the fact itself is all that 
 is needful to our purpose now. All know that 
 neicrhbors are often strangers ; and that the 
 mere fact of worshipping in the same church 
 edifice, or of sitting down at the table of the 
 same Master, does not of necessity produce 
 acquaintanceship, and create bonds of sympa- 
 thy and love. Almost unavoidably, diflerent 
 ranks of life, even in the church, keep sepa- 
 rate from each other ; often there is a melan- 
 choly coldness and distance that is chilling to 
 a stranger, or to a warm-hearted christian ; 
 and while there may be, and usually is no 
 bad feeling, and no root of bitterness, yet 
 there is the want of that intimate acquain- 
 tanceship, and that strong common sympathy 
 which Christ contemplated when he prayed 
 for his disciples ' that they all might be one,' 
 and of that actual and active love which he 
 contemplated when he commanded them to 
 ' love one another, as the Father had loved 
 him,' and which was so striking among the 
 15
 
 164 HINDERANCES TO HEVIVALS, 
 
 early christians when the hcathfii persecutors 
 were constrained to say, ' IJehold how these 
 christians love one another !' 
 
 Now revivals of religion are not caused by 
 mere sympathy ; but, as 1 have endeavored in 
 a former Lecture to sho\v, they call into ac- 
 tion some of the most powerful and pervading 
 sympathies of our nature. They are closely 
 connected with the fact that God has grouped 
 men together into families, circles of friend- 
 ship, neighborhoods, and churches. They are 
 intimately connected with the fact, that when 
 one part of the social circle is afTected, either 
 by joy or grief, the emotion kindles from heart 
 to heart, and family to family, and circle to 
 circle, until the whole community is pervaded 
 by a common feeling. And where in a com- 
 munity there are, if 1 may so speak, indepen- 
 dent strata of society., it often happens in a 
 revival that one is aflected and not another ; 
 Avhere all have common sympathies and feel- 
 ings, all partake of the common emotion. 
 That this should be found in a country popu- 
 lation Avhere men are, in general, on the same 
 level ; where every man knows his neighbor, 
 and is accustomed to sympathize in all his
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS, 165 
 
 Avants, and Avoes, and joys ; where difference 
 of rank never separates them ; and where the 
 joy of conversion will strike a responsive 
 cord throughout the community, is not to be 
 Avondered at. That such might not be the 
 case in the population of a city, and especially 
 in a city church, I shall not deny. I speak 
 only of the fact as it actually exists. 
 
 I can never, AA'hile ' life, and breath, and be- 
 ing last, or immortality endures,' forget the 
 time Avhen God Avas pleased to bless my labors 
 in a most remarkable and extensive revival of 
 religion in a large country congregation. 1 
 had at its commencement some five hundred 
 members of the church, and near five hundred 
 families that Avere nominally connected Avith 
 my charge, coveringaregionof country nearly 
 texi miles in diameter. For more than a hun- 
 dred years the Gospel had been faithfully 
 preached there, and Avdth eminent success. 
 Revival after revival had croA\med those la- 
 bors ; and since the days Avhen God so bles- 
 sed this land under the ministry of Whitefield 
 EdAA'ards, and the Tennants, scarce ten years 
 had elapsed in Avhich there had not been a 
 revival there. At the time I speak of, a simul-
 
 1G6 III.NDI-KANCES TO KEVIVALS. 
 
 tancous impression was produced, under tho 
 ordinary preaching of the Gospel. There 
 was an unusual spirit of prayer ; a deep 
 anxicly on the part alike of the pastor and of 
 the church members for the salvation of souls. 
 
 The emotions deepened, until the heart be- 
 came full ; and all in the community were 
 willing to converse on the subject of religion. 
 Scenes of amusement and pastime gradually 
 gave way to the deep business of religion; no 
 voice was raised in opposition ; no noise, no 
 disorder characterized the places where men 
 had assembled to ponder ihe great question of 
 their salvation. On all the community an 
 influence had come down silent as the sun- 
 beams, and gentle and refreshing as the dews 
 of heaven. There was deep sympathy in all 
 that community ; a calm, subdued, serious and 
 holy spirit of conversation, which showed 
 that the ' God of peace' was there. 
 
 Who can doubt that if such a power were 
 to descend on the population that occupies the 
 same extent of territory here ; — if the same 
 heavenly influence should pervade the two 
 hundred thousand here that pervaded the com- 
 paratively few hundreds there ; and if the
 
 HINDERANCES TO KEVIVALS. 167 
 
 same deep enquiry were to exist here on the 
 topics pertaining to our eternal welfare ; — if 
 the effects were to be seen in closing the 
 places of sinful amusement, in directing the 
 steps of the guilty to the house of God, and in 
 bringing out the lost and loathsome victims 
 of crime, and lust and disease, to the light of 
 heavenly day ; and in filling the mansions of 
 the rich and the gay with the sweet peace of 
 religion, and of holy com'n^iunion with God, 
 who can doubt that such a scene would be in 
 accordance with man's exalted nature, and 
 would be a spectacle on which hovering an- 
 gels would look with wonder, gratitude, and 
 joy 1 But alas ! tens of thousands here are 
 far away from any such heavenly influence ; 
 thovisands sneer at the name of revivals, and 
 perhaps some hundreds of professed chris- 
 tians would have no sympathy in such a Avork 
 of grace. 
 
 III. I mention as a third obstacle resulting 
 from the nature of a city organization, the 
 fact that wickedness is concentrated, orga- 
 nized, and embodied there. If there is any 
 peculiar guilt on earth, it will be found there. 
 
 If there is any that can exist only by com- 
 15*
 
 168 niNDER^NCES TO REVIVALS. 
 
 bination and alliance ; any that depends on con- 
 federacy and organization ; any that shrinks 
 from the light of day, it would be found in 
 the large capitals of the world. If there is 
 any crime peculiarly dark, deep, oflcnsive, 
 loathsome in the sight of heaven, it will be 
 found in such places. If Satan has any strong 
 holds which he fortifies with peculiar care, 
 and guards M-ith peculiar vigilance, they are 
 the large cities of the world. In all ages they 
 have constituted, as they do now, the princi- 
 pal obstructions to the spread of religion ; and 
 many, many a city has been doomed to de- 
 struction by God on account of its consum- 
 mate wickedness, and because there was no 
 other way to maintain his religion here below, 
 than to sweep it with the besom of his wrath. 
 So it was Avith the cities of the plain — in the 
 time of Abraham the principal barriers to the 
 progress of righteousnes, and the very sewers 
 of iniquity. So it was with Babylon — the 
 proud oppressor — doomed to ruin irretrieva- 
 ble and eternal, on account of its pride, cru- 
 elty, and oppositioi> 'to God. So, as has al- 
 ready been remarked, Christ found the princi- 
 pal obstruction to his preaching in Chorazin,
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 169 
 
 in Bethsaida, in Capernaum, and in Jerusalem. 
 There was consummate wisdom in the plan 
 of the builders of Babel when they said, ' Go 
 to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose 
 top may reach unto heaven ;' (Gen. xi : 4 ;) 
 for the very object of building a city was to 
 contravene the Divine purpose, and set God 
 at defiance ; as it would seem, almost, had been 
 often the desisfn in the great cities of the world. 
 Since that time, it would almost seem as if 
 the design for which they had been founded 
 had been to concentrate evil, and oppose reli- 
 gion on the earth. Tacitus long since de- 
 scribed Rome as the colluvies gentium — the 
 sink of nations — a description, the truth of 
 which no one will doubt who is familiar with 
 his history, or that of Gibbon. Dr. Johnson 
 in a similar manner characterized London. 
 
 London ! the needy villain's general home, 
 The common sewer of Paris and of Rome I 
 With ea^er thirst, by folly or by fate, 
 Slicks in the drc^s of each corrupted state. 
 
 All that at home no more can beg or steal, 
 Or like a gibbet better than a wheel ; 
 HisK'd from the stage, or hooted from thecourf, 
 Their air, their dress, their politics import ;
 
 170 IIINDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 
 
 01).stfiuioiis, aiifiil, voluble and gay, 
 
 On Britain's fond credulities llicy [>rey. London. 
 
 That beautiful poet, too, who perhaps never 
 erred in describing the characters and customs 
 of men, or of society — Cowpcr — lias told us 
 what a city is in the following lines : 
 
 Thither flow, 
 As to a common and most noisomo pcwer, 
 The dregs and feculence of every land. 
 In cities, foul example in most minds 
 Begets its lik<;ness. Rank abundance breeds 
 In gross and pampered cities ; sloth, and lust, 
 And wanlonncss, and gluttonous excess. 
 In cities, vice is hidden with most case. 
 Or seen with least reproach ; and virtue, taught 
 By frequent lapse, can hope no triumph there 
 Beyond the achievements of successful flight. 
 I do confess them nurseries of the arts, 
 In wliich they flourish most ; where in the beams 
 Of warm cncouracemenl, and in the eye 
 Of public note, they reach their perfect size. 
 Sucli LonJon is, by taste and wealth proclaimed 
 The fairest capital of all tlic world, 
 By riot and incontinence the worst. Task, B. 1. 
 
 On this fact, in regard to cities as they have 
 always existed, it would be needless here to 
 dwell. Beautiful as they often are ; rich.
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 171 
 
 splendid, magnificent ; the home of refine- 
 ment, of courtesy, and accomplishment ; the 
 seats of science, and the nurse of the arts ; I 
 add, too, with thankfulness to God, the home 
 often of deep piety and rich and liberal-heart- 
 ed benevolence ; yet they are the home, also, 
 of every kind of infamy, of all that is false 
 and hollow, and of all that fascinates, allures, 
 and corrupts the hearts of men. There are 
 fovmd men of all nations, colors, characters, 
 opinions. There men of splendid talents live 
 to corrupt by their example and their influ- 
 ence ; there unbounded wealth is lavished to 
 amuse, betray, and ruin the soul ; there are 
 the vortices of business and of pleasure that 
 engulf all ; and there are the most degraded 
 and the worst forms of human depravity. 
 
 I speak here particularly of sins of combi- 
 nation and alliance, of sins so allied and inter- 
 locked that nothing can meet and destroy 
 them but the mighty power of God in a revi- 
 val of religion : sins Avhich stand peculiarly 
 opposed to the prevalence of religion. The 
 infidel in the country village usually stands 
 almost alone. He may gather a few disciples ; 
 but their character usually testifies to the na-
 
 17'2 HIMDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 
 
 ture of the opinions held, and prevents the 
 extension of the evil. In this land, a frown- 
 ing public opinion usually rests on him and 
 his doctrines. But in this city, he may make 
 as many converts as he pleases. He may al- 
 ways find enough to gratify his vanity as a 
 leader ; always find enough to enable him to 
 brave public opinion, and to keep him in coun- 
 tenance. The man of profaneness in the 
 country village is usually almost alone. He 
 mocks and curses his Maker with few to 
 countenance him, and the burning lens of 
 public indignation usually meets him where- 
 ver lie goes. If he has a few companions they 
 are known, and their known character is a 
 sort of check on the extension of the profane- 
 ness. But not so in the city. If he chooses 
 to curse his Maker, he can do it when he 
 pleases, and be sustained by as many as he 
 chooses. If he prefers to do it on the wharves 
 and in the gutters, he will find enough there 
 to countenance him ; if he chooses to do it 
 in the streets, alas, he may find a patron every 
 where, and can scarce turn a corner without 
 being greeted by a fellow-laborer in the work 
 of cursing. If he prefers to think that it is
 
 HINDERANCES TO KEVIVALS. 173 
 
 an accomplishment for a gentleman, he wilh 
 find gentlemen enough — so called, — who will 
 keep him in countenance. In the country- 
 village or neighborhood the licentious young 
 man is known. His character is understood ; 
 and he is usually a solitary monument of infa- 
 my. There is no organization for the purpo- 
 ses of licentiousness. The deed of wicked- 
 ness is solitary, marked, hated. But what 
 shall I say of a city — of all cities 1 Who can 
 guage this evil there, and report to us the es- 
 timate 1 Who can acquaint us with the or- 
 ganizations designed to prevent impurity of 
 life and licentiousness of morals'? Who can 
 take any accurate census of the actual number 
 of abandoned femaliss ; who of this far greater 
 number of abandoned men — young and old 
 — who are living in gross violation of the 
 laws of heaven 1 Every great metropolis of 
 the world in this respect bears a striking re- 
 semblance, to Sodom ; and it is matter of 
 amazement that every great city does not 
 meet its righteous doom, I might go over 
 the whole catalogue of crimes that are marked 
 on the calendar of human guilt, and we should 
 find them all concentrated, organized, consol-
 
 174 iiiNDnnANCF.s to revivals, 
 
 idated in our cities and large towns. There 
 foul and ofTeusivc exhalations rise from the 
 receptacles of human depravity ; there vol- 
 umes of curses roll up toward heaven ; there 
 the seducer practises his arts to inveigle the 
 young ; there tens of thousands riot in intem- 
 perance and curse their j\Iaker ; there multi- 
 tudes practise all arts of fraud and infamy ; 
 and there Satan, knowing the power of cities 
 in all the surrounding regions, has established 
 his strong holds, and fortifies and guardes his 
 possessions with all that skill and art can do. 
 
 Now, it is not so much to affirm that the 
 proportion of the wicked in cities is greater 
 than in the country, that 1 have dwelt on this 
 point; it is to fix the attention on two or 
 three features of the fact directly bearing on 
 the subject before us. 
 
 One is, that sin exists here in combination 
 and alliance. It is not dissocial and solitary. 
 It is united, and interlocked, and interwoven 
 with numerous customs of society. The point 
 of my remarks, therefore, is, that sin in cities 
 presents a solid front to the Gospel of Christ. 
 It is kept in countenance. It resists the Gos- 
 pel, confident that it may he resisted. Hence
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS.' 175 
 
 the necessity of revivals of religion. O what 
 shall ever meet and destroy this combined 
 and consolidated wickedness, but the power 
 of the Spirit of God descending on the whole 
 community in answer to the prayers of Chris- 
 tians, and inclining these ten thousand alien- 
 ated hearts to seriousness and to God! 
 
 Another feature is, that the arrangements 
 for sin in a city peculiarly contemplate the 
 young. Well does the enemy of God know 
 that the church looks to them for its increase. 
 Its hopes are these. Its prospects of purity^ 
 fervor, and of the final conquest of the world, 
 are these. Cast an eye now over a city, and 
 ask for whom are the institutions of sin, licen- 
 tiousness, and intemperance designed ^ Who 
 are to be the victims! Who is to sustain 
 them ] Not much care is shown to propitiate 
 the aged. Age has few passions that can b& 
 excited; and it is either fixed in principle be- 
 yond the hope of being seduced to profligacy, 
 or it is already corrupt and ruined. An old 
 man must soon leave the stage of action, and, 
 Avhether virtuous of vicious, his opinions can' 
 not long influence the world. Not so the 
 young. There are passions in youth that may 
 16
 
 176 J^INDERA^'CES TO REVIVALS. 
 
 easily be enkindled ; there arc alluring' arts 
 that may readily be made to decoy them; and 
 the wicked world looks to- them to patronize 
 and sustain them. Who is to sustain the 
 numberless dram-shops licensed here under 
 the authority of the laws in our city, and to 
 license the future drunkards Avhose oaths and 
 blasphemy are to roll up towards heaven 1 
 Our sons, if ten thousand arts of the tempter 
 can break them away from the restraints of 
 home, and can neutralize the effect of Sab- 
 bath-school instruction, and put back parental 
 prayers unheard. Who are to be the patrons 
 of the theatre \ Your sons and daughters ; 
 and unless the love of pleasure can be im- 
 planted more than the love of God, soon 
 might their doors be closed, to be opened no 
 more. Thus every vice looks to the young 
 for patronage; and ten thousand arts concen- 
 trate their influence to alienate the young 
 from God, and to draw them down to death. 
 Another feature is the ease with which guilt 
 here may be concealed. The most powerful 
 protection of virtue in the country is public 
 opinion, and the assurance that the guilty 
 there cannot escape from it. An eye of public
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS. 177 
 
 vigilance is on every man, and his character 
 is known and understood. Not so here. The 
 guilty may flee away from every being but 
 God, and practise his deeds of evil unknown. 
 In a cellar, a garret, or a palace, at his pleas- 
 ure, he may hide himself, and who can drag 
 him out to the light of day 1 What is more, 
 he may so conceal his guilt that his Infamy 
 shall not be suspected ; or what is more and 
 worse still, he may so combine with others as 
 to modify public opinion, and make virtue 
 cease to blush when she gives him the hand. 
 
 When one looks on these facts he will 
 cease to wonder that cities have every where 
 presented formidable obstacles to revivals of 
 religion. One question I have to submit, in 
 conclusion, to those who bear the name of 
 christian. It is, whether their hearts would 
 feel any joy at a work of grace that should 
 pervade all this population, and fill these 
 streets and dwellings with seriousness and 
 the fear of Godl A heathen monarch of a 
 much greater city than tliis, once rose up 
 from his throne, and covered himself with 
 sack-cloth, and was followed by his court and 
 nobles, and by all the people, in a solemn fast
 
 178 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS, 
 
 for three days. Who adjudges that the bosom 
 of the king of Nineveh in this was swayed by 
 any improper feeling 1 Another heathen mon- 
 arch, at the head of two millions of men, sat 
 down and wept. In an hundred years, said 
 he, all that mighty host will be dead. The 
 vision of Xerxes extended no farther. He had 
 no tear to shed over their doom beyond the 
 grave. How different that feeling from the 
 view which excited the Redeemer to weep ! 
 His tears fell because he could see beyond 
 the tomb; because he saw the unending 
 career of the never-dying soul ; and knew 
 what it was if the soul should be lost. And 
 this multitude that we see in this city; this 
 gay, busy, thoughtless, volatile, unthinking 
 throng that sweep along these streets, or that 
 dwell in these palaces, or that crowd these 
 theatres or these assemblj'-rooms, where, O, 
 where, Avill they be in a hundred years \ Dead ; 
 all dead. Every eye will have lost its lustre ; 
 every frame its vigor; every rose shall have 
 faded from the cheek; the charms of music 
 shall no more entrance the ear; the fingers 
 shall have forgotten the melody of the lute 
 and the organ. Where will they be ? In yon-
 
 HINDERANCES TO REVIVALS, 179 
 
 der heaven, or in yonder hell — part, alas ! how 
 small a part ! with ears attuned to sweeter 
 sounds, and with eyes radiant with immortal 
 brilliancy, and with a frame braced with the 
 vigor of never-dying youth. Part, alas ! how 
 large a part! in that world, a view of whose 
 imutterable sufferings drew tears from the 
 eyes of the Son of God ! Each man that dares 
 to curse Jehovah on his throne ; each victim 
 of intemperance and lust ; each wretch on 
 which the eye fastens in the lowest form of 
 humanity, has an immortal nature that shall 
 live beyond the stars, and that shall survive 
 when ' the heavens shall be rolled together as 
 a scroll!' The shadowy vale of death will 
 soon be past, and the thoughtless and guilty 
 throngs will be found amid the severe and 
 awful scenes of eternal justice! Christian^ 
 pray, pray, pray for a revival of pure re- 
 ligion IN the guilty cities of our land. 
 l(i*
 
 SERMON VI 
 
 THE DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS IN REGARD TO 
 REVIVALS THERE. 
 
 ^ JSI'oiv while Paul waited for them at Jlthens, 
 his spirit was stirred within him when he saw 
 the city wholly given to idolatry.^ — Acts, 
 xvii : 16. 
 
 Two very opposite effects are produced on 
 different minds by difficulties and embarrass- 
 ments. One is to dispirit and dishearten, the 
 other is to animate with augmented ardor and 
 zeal. The former is the effect produced on 
 the mass of mindj the latter is that produced 
 on the few. The multitude become intimida- 
 ted, and give over effort as hopeless ; the few 
 who are bold and resolute, who act from con-
 
 BUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 181! 
 
 victions of principle and conscience, or who 
 see a prize worth exertion, are stimulated to 
 greater efforts by every new difficulty, and 
 develope resources of invention and talent be- 
 fore unknown to themselves, and surprising to 
 their friends. This it is to be great ; and this 
 constitutes the real greatness of the few Avho 
 have deserved and received the name. 
 
 The record of the visit of the Apostle Paul 
 at Athens, furnishes an illustration of this 
 principle ; and I know not that a better one 
 can be found.. It was the first time when he 
 had been there ; but not the time when he first 
 learned its fame. He himself had been born 
 in a city whose schools rivalled those of 
 Athens ; and there is reason to think that at 
 some period of his life he had been familiar 
 with the more distinguished classic produc- 
 tions in the Greek language ; and he was cer- 
 tainly not disqualified for appreciating the elo- 
 quence, and the elegant arts of that city. — 
 Longinus thus speaks of Paul : ' The following 
 men are the boasts of all eloquence, and of 
 Grecian genius, viz : Demosthenes, Lysias 
 -iEschines, Hyperides, Isccus, Anarchus, Iso- 
 crates, and Antiphon, to whom may be added
 
 182 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 Paul of Tarsus,^ certainly qualified to appre- 
 ciate what to a classic inind must have been 
 interesting, nay, almost entrancing, in Athens. 
 Her schools, licr academic groves, her won- 
 ders of art, it might have been supposed, would 
 have attracted the attention of such a mind. 
 What an opportunity of examining for the 
 first, and perhaps the last time, the immortal 
 works of Phidias and Praxiteles! What an 
 opportunity for mingling in the circles of the 
 most refined society in the world ! How vain 
 Avould it appear to be for such a stranger, a 
 solitary and unknovv-n man, to attempt to pro- 
 duce a change in the religious condition of 
 that city, or to produce there a revival of re- 
 ligion ! 
 
 The effect on his mind of a survey of the 
 state of things there is described in my text. 
 ' His spirit was stirred within him, when he 
 saw the city wholly given to idolatry.' The 
 spirit of Paul was roused here, as it was every 
 where, by the prevalence of sin, and he was 
 led to put forth augmented efforts, in view of 
 the very difficulties before him. 
 
 In this instance we have an illustration of 
 the feelings which a christian should cherish
 
 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 183" 
 
 in the midst of a great city. They were feel- 
 ings such as Paul himself cherished in the 
 midst of gay and voluptuous Corinth, M'henhe 
 resolved that he would know nothing there 
 save Jesus Christ, and him crucified ; — which 
 he had in Ephesus, where he labored so assid- 
 uously for the overthrow of idolatry, and for 
 the conversion of its multitudes to God ; and 
 which he had in Antioch, in Philippi, and in 
 Rome. I wi«h at this time, from the feelings 
 thus manifested by Paul, to offer some remarks 
 on the duties of christians in cities and large 
 towns, particularly with reference to revivals 
 of religion ; and I shall set my views before 
 you in a series of observations all bearing on 
 this point, to show what christians ought to do 
 to promote revivals of religion in such places. 
 I. My first observation is, that relig'ion first 
 showed its power, and especially in revivals 
 of religion, in cities and large towns. There 
 the Gospel met every form of human wicked- 
 ness, and showed its power to triumph over 
 all. In Jerusalem, the seat of pharisaical 
 pride and hypocrisy, and of dependence on the 
 mere forms of religion ; in Antioch, the rich 
 and commercial emporium of Syria, and the
 
 181" ijUties of christians. 
 
 seat of all the affluence and luxury that com- 
 merce produces ; in Ephesus, the strongest 
 hold of idolatry, and the place to which tens 
 of thousands resorted to pay their worship at 
 the shrine of the most splendid temple in the 
 heathen world ; in Philippi, long the capital 
 of Macedonia, and filled with all the sins that 
 usually pertain to court ; in Corinth, the most 
 gay, and voluptuous, and sensual, and dissipa- 
 ted city of the age — the Paris of antiquity ; and 
 in Rome itself, the capital of the world, and 
 like London, the common sewer of the nations, 
 as it was characterized by Tacitus ; in all these 
 places the Gospel showed its power, and 
 achieved its earliest triumphs. In each of 
 these flourishing churches were established, 
 and in each one, under the apostolic preaching, 
 w^ere witnessed all the phenomena that charac- 
 terize religion now. 
 
 It must continue to be so, till the whole world 
 is converted to God. Cities are, and will be, 
 the centres of moral power: and their influ- 
 ence must be felt over all other portions of 
 the world. Missionaries now go to great ci- 
 ties just as the apostles did, and begin their 
 work there. It is in such places as Constan"
 
 DUTIES OF CHRISTIAKS. 185 
 
 tinople, and Jerusalem, and Calcutta, and Can- 
 ton, and Bankok, and Cairo, that the triumphs 
 of the Gospel are expected; and to secure 
 such places of influence is deemed as needful 
 as it is for an invading army to seize upon the 
 strong fortresses of aland. In our own coun- 
 try, therefore, and in other lands, christians 
 are to labor and pray now, as the apostles did, 
 for the promotion of religion in cities and large 
 towns. 
 
 II. My second remark is, that there is the 
 same need of a revival of pure religion in 
 these places, that there was in the cities that 
 were visited by the apostles, and the same 
 things to excite christians to effort for their 
 conversion which there was then. Were Paul 
 to come now and visit this city, or any of the 
 great cities of our land, as he did Athens, 
 Avhat would he find 1 What honor would he 
 see put on God % What would he see to be 
 the great and prevalent object of living 1 And 
 what, with his recorded views of the character 
 of men, and of the final destiny of the guilty, 
 would he regard as the doom of the multitudes 
 here '( We may take this great city as a fair 
 and favorable specimen of the character of the
 
 186 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 cities of our land. What would he find here 1 
 He would find indeed no idols, and no temples 
 reared to false gods. Thanks to the God of 
 our fathers, who directed hithcrward the steps 
 of men who feared his name, not aw idol god 
 has been made, nor an idol temple reared, 
 since the white man first penetrated the forests 
 of the new world ; and amidst ail the works 
 of art in our cities, the chisel of the sculptor 
 has never been employed to engrave a god of 
 stone. But in this city he would find more 
 than an hundred thousand people without any 
 form or semblance of religion. They enter 
 no sanctuary ; they worship no God, true or 
 false. They have npt even gone so far as to 
 rear, as the Athenians did, an altar ' to the un- 
 known God,' — the unknown God, amidst their 
 rabble of divinities, who, they supposed, had 
 come to save them from the pestilence. Along 
 these streets the pestilence has also spread, 
 perhaps in as frightful a form as that described 
 by Thucydides in Athens ; and God, the true 
 God, has enterposed to save , but the multi- 
 tude that were spared erected no altar to their 
 unknown God to commemorate the event. He 
 might go into some thousands of houses, and
 
 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 187 
 
 he would find no shrines, no Lares, no Penates, 
 no form or mode of devotion. He would find 
 their inmates devoted to idols, but idols with- 
 out temples, save the temple of the heart. To 
 Mammon or to Bacchus he might find them 
 devoted, with an ardor never witnessed at 
 Athens ; but to these they have erected no al- 
 tars. He would find many a splendid house 
 where dwells a whole family with no form of 
 devotion ; Avho enters no sanctuary ; who have 
 no Sabbath except for amusement ; who live 
 as though it Avere not worth inquiry or argu- 
 ment whether there be a God and an eternity. 
 He would find many who live to feast on the 
 bounties of Providence without thanksgiving ; 
 who riot on the verge of the grave imalarmed ; 
 and who attend even their departed friends to 
 the tomb with no more personal anxiety about 
 their own preparation to die, than though the 
 inscription made on the entrance to a cemetry 
 in the capital of France during the revolution, 
 ' Death is an eternal sleep,' were settled to be 
 the truth, and ought to be inscribed over every 
 dwelling-place of the dead. But are they 
 idolaters 1 As degrading, and often as sunken 
 as though they worshipped blocks of wood and 
 17
 
 188 DTTTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 stone, for they fix on other objects the affec- 
 tion due to God. Many even in tliis city liave 
 sunk to a depth of debasement to which the 
 vilest form of idolatry rarely consigns its vo- 
 taries ; for even a hud religion has some res- 
 traints — irreligion has none. Part worship 
 wealth, part fashion ; part do homage to low 
 and debasing pleasures. And amidst the idol 
 worship of Athens there was not a more effec- 
 tual exclusion of the true God from the soul, 
 than there is from the hearts and habitations 
 of tens of thousands in this city. 
 
 III. My third remark is, that it is chiefly on 
 christians that dependence can be placed to 
 rouse the great and thoughtless multitudes of 
 a city population to a sense of their guilt and 
 danger. I say chiefly ; for though we may 
 hope something from the effects of the vari- 
 ous dispensations of Providence in afflictions 
 in arousing men ; though we may rely some- 
 what on the fact that the consciences of men 
 may be alarmed in view of their guilt and 
 danger, and in the prospect of death ; though 
 we may hope that thoughtful inquiry may be 
 aroused by the Divine Spirit in some minds 
 without any visible means used ; and though
 
 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 189 
 
 (ve may hope that some of the great mass may 
 Tom time to time become sick of the vain 
 .vorld, and in their disgust inquire whether 
 ihere is not comfort to be found in religion, 
 yet the main hope is, that christians will use 
 their influence to bear the truth to them, con- 
 vince them of their danger and their folly, and 
 direct them to the Lamb of God. I say chris- 
 tians — meaning to include in this term the 
 ministers of religion — with all the influence 
 which can be derived from personal piety, 
 learning, and eloquence, and all that can be 
 derived from the respect which their office 
 creates ; other officers of the churches, with 
 all the influence which their office creates, and 
 with all that their private worth can add to 
 their official influence ; Sabbath-school teach- 
 ers, with all the advantages which are furnish- 
 ed them from their access to the hearts of 
 large numbers of the young ; christian parents, 
 with all that there is of authority and tender- 
 ness in their relation to their children — all of 
 which should be tributary to the Gospel ; 
 christian physicians, with all the influence 
 which they may have in the houses of the sick 
 and the dying 5 christian magistrates, with all
 
 190 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 the power of iheir office in restraining vice 
 and recomuiending virtue ; the aged with their 
 ripe experience, the young with their ardor, 
 and the middle-aged with the maturity of their 
 judgment ; man with his energy and talent, 
 and w^oman with her patience and tenderness 
 in visiting the abodes of poverty and want. 
 These constitute the reliance, under God, in 
 promoting religion among the thoughtless 
 masses of a city population. They are the 
 enrolled, the disciplined, and the officered ar- 
 my which has been appointed here to fight the 
 battles of the Lord. This constitutes the or- 
 ganization for all that is lovely and of good 
 report against the numerous organizations for 
 evil in a city like this : and this is what the 
 Saviour relies on in the great work of secur- 
 ing for himself those centres of influence and 
 power. They can feel, and should feel for the 
 condition of those around them. They have 
 influence and power given them for this end 
 by the Head of the church. In Athens, Paul 
 was probably the only man who had any just 
 view of the guilt and danger of the multitudes 
 that thronged the streets of that city ; the only 
 man that had any just view of God, and any
 
 DUtlES OF CHRISTIANS. 191 
 
 knoAvledge of the plan of redemption ; and 
 the only hope of rousing that vast population 
 of idolaters rested on the voice of this solitary 
 stranger, a man unknown and without influ- 
 ence, or if known, despised. It is not so here. 
 God has placed here more than twenty thou- 
 sand, all of whom, according to their profes- 
 sions, should have the same feelings as Paul 
 had in Athens. They profess the same reli- 
 gion ; they worship the same God ; they have, 
 or should have, the same views of the guilt 
 and danger of man, and of the necessity to be 
 prepared to meet God. They are each one in 
 possession of the same knowledge of the plan 
 of salvation, and of the same hope of heaven ; 
 and there is not one of them, old or young, 
 who is not, or should not be able to tell his 
 neighbor the way by which he might be made 
 everlastingly happy. Every parent can tell 
 this to his children ; and every Sabbath-school 
 teacher to his scholars ; and every man to his 
 neighbor, to the poor, to the outcast, and to 
 the vile. And how obvious it is, that, in the 
 possession of this knowledge, it is their duty 
 to seek that the whole population should be 
 pervaded with christian influence, or that there 
 17*
 
 192 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 should be a revival of relifrion spreading 
 throutrhout this entire communitj' ! It is as 
 if the pestilence had come in upon the whole 
 population, and was cutting off the inhabitants 
 at a fearful rate every day, and God has en- 
 trusted to twenty thousand the knowledge of 
 one infallible remedy for the disease. Who 
 would feel himself blameless if a single one 
 should die by his neglecting to communicate 
 a knowledge of that remedy \ 
 
 IV. My fourth observation is, that in cities 
 and large towns christians are exposed to pe- 
 culiar temptations and dangers. 
 
 Temptations to unfaithfulness exist every 
 where. The country village has its tempta- 
 tions, and the city has its own. Which are 
 the greatest, it is not needful now to inquire. 
 The only point of inquiry before us here is, 
 what dangers beset christians in cities and 
 large towns'? Especially what dangers in re- 
 gard to the direct efforts for the promotion of 
 religion! What is there to chill and para- 
 lyze our efforts in reference to the cause of 
 revivals'? 
 
 I here arc many; and to siiow ;he na> ,.^ ..i 
 all these temptations and dangers fully, would
 
 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 193 
 
 far transcend the proper limits of a whole dis- 
 course, and can here only be glanced at. They 
 are such as the following: 
 
 I. The danger of soon being discouraged 
 by the magnitude of the evils around us. 
 They are so numerous, and they pertain to so 
 many subjects, and they are so fortified by 
 prevalent customs, that the spirit of christians 
 soon sinks and faints within them. To rouse 
 a city — to promote a reformation there — to 
 secure a general revival of religion, seems 
 like an attempt to lade out the ocean, or like 
 an efibrt to remove quicksand where it fills in 
 as fast as you remove it. 
 
 II. We become familiar with the evils, and 
 cease to feel appalled by their naagnitude. A 
 warm-hearted christian on going to Paris is 
 shocked and pained at the gayety and licen- 
 tiousness there ; a christian from the country 
 is shocked at the amount of sin in a great city, 
 and pained at the condition of its thoughtless 
 thousands ; a young convert, just from his 
 first view of the cross, and of the dying Sav- 
 iour,, and with -d conceptions of the 
 worth of the suui, u\ c^,.s over the condition 
 of the tens of thousands around him, and
 
 194' DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 feels, like young Mclancliton, that he can per- 
 suade them all to turn to God. But how soon, 
 as a general rule, does your stranger chris- 
 tian in Paris, and he that comes to us from 
 the country, and the young convert, lose all 
 this ardor! these thousands we see walk the 
 streets almost forgetting that they have souls. 
 The young and the accomplished we see 
 crowd the abodes of fashion, and we seem to 
 forget that for them Christ died, or that there 
 can be for such gay and happy throngs any 
 such places as a sick bed or a grave ; the rich 
 we see roll along in splendor, and cease to 
 feel almost that there is a God before whom 
 they must appear, and a hell where the rich 
 man that is impenitent will lift np his eyes in 
 torment ; and soon Ave sleep as calmly in our 
 beds as though all this multitude were on the 
 way to heaven. 
 
 III. We are appalled by the fact that evils 
 are combined and confederated^ and that it 
 seems almost hopeless to attempt to break 
 them up. It is not that you have to meet an 
 army of profane men, and that when they are 
 reformed the field is clear, and the victory 
 gained. It is not that you must meet a host
 
 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 195 
 
 of Sabbath-breakers, and that when they are 
 restrained the victory is won. It is not that 
 we must ferret out and reform some thou- 
 sands of the impure and hcentious, and that 
 then the work is done. It is not tliat you 
 must vanquish an army of atheists, and infi- 
 dels and scoffers, and that when you have 
 convinced them of the truth of Christianity 
 the task is completed. Nor is it that you 
 must meet with fashion, and vanity, and the 
 love of the w'orld, and substitute for all this 
 the love of God. The difficulty is, that they 
 
 ARE ALL IN THE FIELD TOGETHER. They are 
 
 parts of one great army — the army of the foe 
 of God; they are imder the control of one 
 master mind — the great apostate spirit — that 
 marshals them for his war against virtue and 
 against God ; and imless all are driven from 
 the field the victory caimot be won; and see- 
 ing this, christians soon become disheartened. 
 Connected with this is the fact that sins are 
 interlocked and confederated together. They 
 never appear alone. You cannot meet one 
 form of evil by itself, and destroy it as if it 
 were alone. When, for example, you make 
 war on intemperance, it is not on intempe-
 
 If)() DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 ranee alone. It is a war at the same tinne on 
 avarice and covetousness, and on all the forms 
 of traffic and of business by wlii'ch it is sus- 
 tained, and on all the customs and vices that 
 walk in the train of intemperance. You make 
 war on profaneness, and licentiousness, and 
 Sabbath-breaking, and the theatre, and on the 
 love of money in some of its worst forms, 
 more than half of all which evils are connect- 
 ed with indulgence in intoxicating liquors. 
 How long could a theatre be sustained if in- 
 toxicating drinks were not accessible 1 How 
 few, comparatively, would be profane if they 
 were never excited by intoxicating drinks 1 
 And how closely connected are intemperance 
 and licentiousness every where 1 Attack one 
 form of sin any where, and you attack a host 
 of affiliated vices, and all their friends are 
 roused to oppose you. Cicero long since re- 
 marked that there was a ' common bond ' 
 among the virtues. They are united — a fam- 
 ily of sisters — always strengthening each 
 other — always found in each other's com- 
 pany, and always diffiising around smiles and 
 joy. They arc like a parterre of commingled 
 flov>ers, when you breathe the fragi-ance emit-
 
 DUTIES OF CIIRISTIAXnS. 197 
 
 ted by them all. And so there is a, common 
 bond among vices. They are of one family, 
 of one bad parentage. ¥/hen you meet with 
 one you may be sure that others are not far 
 off — not, indeed, a family harmonious and 
 happy, like the virtues, but still united and as- 
 sociated. You caanot meet one without rous- 
 ing up all j and hence the difhculty every 
 where of putting down vice and promoting a 
 reformation, and hence the friends of virtue 
 become intimidated and appalled. 
 
 IV. A fourth danger in cities is, that of con- 
 formity to the evil customs that prevail around 
 us. I do not mean that christians, whom God 
 has set in cities to carry forward his work 
 and to save souls, fall into open sinj but I 
 refer to what the Bible calls ' conformity to 
 the world.' There is a gi'eat deal of piety in 
 the world — in the main connected with honest 
 intentions — that is like the chameleon, taking 
 its hue from surrounding objects. Or I may 
 use, perhaps, a better illustration. It is like a 
 precious gem set in foil. The jeweller spreads 
 beneath it a colored substance, and the gem 
 partakes of that color. It sparkles and is 
 beautiful. It has an original beauty, but its
 
 198 nTTTIF.S OF cnRI.STI;\NS. 
 
 peculiar hue is borrowed from the foreign 
 substance in wliich it is embedded. Not a 
 little of the religion of this world is like this 
 gem. It is genuine, and in itself beautiful 
 and valuable. But it borrows its appearance 
 from the things around it, and when the set- 
 ting happens to be bad, the whole brilliancy 
 is gone, and the beauty disappears. In a high 
 state of religious feeling in a church, or in a 
 time of revival, that religion sparkles like the 
 diamond. When the christian church is rous- 
 ed to seek the salvation of the world — when a 
 pure love flows from heart to heart — when all 
 are engaged in promoting the salvation of sin- 
 ners, then it shines brilliant as a gem of the 
 purest water. But when the church slumbers, 
 and its zeal languishes, and iniquity abounds, 
 then it is a precious stone badly set, and the 
 dark foil dims all its lustre and mars all its 
 beauty. It requires a high order of religion 
 not to be conformed to the world. We are 
 with the people of this world; we transact 
 business with them; we converse with them; 
 we are invited to partake with them of the 
 pleasures in which they find their only enjoy- 
 ment; we mingle with them in the social
 
 DTJTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 199 
 
 circle ; we ' catch the manners living as they 
 rise,' and we suffer the world of vanity and 
 fashion to give us laws about the style of 
 living, and conversation, and dress, and amuse- 
 ment. Piety that would have shone with the 
 brilliancy of the diamond in the persecution 
 of Nero or of Mary, may be dull and dim 
 while the world caresses or flatters ; and zeal, 
 that Avould beam like that of a seraph were 
 the whole church alive to God, sinks away 
 into a flickering and almost expiring flame 
 when the church slumbers. In no place does 
 the world have such influence over christians 
 — or rather, perhaps, I ought to say, in no 
 place is there so much danger of the influ- 
 ence — as in cities. I such places, eminently, 
 ' iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes 
 cold.' 
 
 V, Connected with this is a fifth danger, in 
 regard to the mass of christians. It is seen 
 in a disposition to palliate sin, or to apologize 
 for it, or to speak of it in a language that shall 
 not imply reproof. The nomenclature of sins, 
 like that of chemistry, is often changed ; and 
 the characteristics of an age can often be de- 
 termined by the appellations given to vice. 
 18
 
 200 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 An age of great refinement — the golden or 
 tinsel age of society — is often characterized 
 by great fastidiousness and great delicacy — in 
 plainer language, great prudishness. Crimes 
 change names ; faults are apologized for under 
 names that border on virtue; and words which 
 suggest the idea of sin or wrongs are ex- 
 changed for names that suggest any thing but 
 the thing referred to ; and so the gay and the 
 christian world together ' wrap it up.' When 
 iniquity abounds ; when it goes up into places 
 of affluence and rank, the world demands the 
 language of gentleness and apology. ' Pro- 
 phesy unto "US smooth things' becomes the 
 common wish : and the kind of reproof, and 
 fidelity in preaching, where things are called 
 by their right names, and where the iniquity 
 of the heart is laid open, and men are warned 
 with appropriate earnestness to flee from the 
 wrath to come, is set down as fanaticism and 
 extravagance. How difficult it is to reach 
 some far-pervading sins in the community, 
 sins that endanger the salvation of thousands 
 in all our cities, and how difficult to rouse 
 christians to a sense of their existence, or the 
 dangers thatattend their indulgence!
 
 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 201 
 
 I had hoped to have had time to speak of 
 other dangers of the members of the churches 
 in regard to the promotion of religion in pur 
 cities, arising from the love of gain ; from the 
 temptations to neglect secret prayer ; from 
 the tendencies to neglect the careful study of 
 the Bible ; from the fact that the impressions 
 made by preaching are so soon obliterated 
 from the mind by business and the influence 
 of the world ; and I would have spoken also 
 of the difficulties of promoting religion, from 
 the organized resistances, and from the want 
 of the kind of social influences that prevail in 
 country neighborhoods and villages. But I 
 have already trenched much on the time that 
 should have been allotted to what was design- 
 ed to be the leading purpose of this discourse. 
 That remains to be considered ; and a few 
 brief hints must now be all. 
 
 It is, the duties of christian in cities in 
 regard to the promotion of revivals of reli- 
 gion. They are such as the following : 
 
 I. To form and cherish just views about 
 the possibility, the desirableness, and the im- 
 portance of revivals of religion here. It is 
 oiot too much to suppose that large numbers
 
 202 DUTIKS OV CHRISTUN'S. 
 
 of professing christians in the diflereat 
 churches have no definite views on these 
 points. They have never made them a mat- 
 ter of distinct thought or inquiry. They 
 have never gone to the New Testament to 
 find out what was done in the time of the Sa- 
 viour and the apostles^ and wliat was said 
 about the possibility and the vaUie of such 
 works of grace. Perhaps many have obtained 
 all the views which they have ever had of 
 such works of grace from, the observation of 
 foreign tourists, or from the tone of the 
 worldly society around them. And it is to 
 be feared that not a few professing christians 
 in all churches in cities regard, at heart, revi- 
 vals of religion as of doubtful value, or as 
 scenes of wild-fire and fanaticism. Is it un- 
 charitable to ask how many christians there 
 are in any of our churches that would stand 
 up amidst the rich and the gay, in the bril- 
 liant circles where they are sometimes found, 
 as the firm advocates of revivals of religion 
 if they were attacked ? Are there not many 
 that would concede all that the sceptical or 
 the scoffiing opponent Avould desire to have 
 conceded] Now it is much, it is every thing,
 
 DtTTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 203 
 
 when christians intelligently, and on settled 
 grounds, believe in the value and existence of 
 revivals of religion ; when they have so ex- 
 amined the subject, so read the New Testa- 
 ment, and so made it a matter of prayer, as 
 to see that, in the estimation of the Redeemer, 
 the descent of the Holy Ghost on the world, 
 in powerful revivals of religion, was to be the 
 triumph of his work, and a blessing worth the 
 self-denials and toils of this life, and his un-a 
 speakable agonies on the cross. Such a feel* 
 ing in the churches is usually a precurser 
 of such a work of grace 5 and we cannot 
 hope for such descending influences on our 
 cities until christians shall think as the Sa- 
 viour thought, and feel as the Saviour felt. 
 This is the great thing now needed among 
 christians; and that day which shall convince 
 all, or the great body of professing christians 
 in cities, of the reality and desirableness of 
 revivals of religion, will constitue a new era 
 in the history of religion, and will precede the 
 manifestations of the power of God like that 
 on the day of Pentecost. 
 
 2. For the promotion of religion in places
 
 204 DUTIES OF CIIIUSTIA.NS. 
 
 like this, christians should be firm and settled 
 in the principles of religion. There should 
 be no yielding of principle, no improper com- 
 pliance, with the customs around us. Our 
 views of religion should be drawn from the 
 Bible, and not from the books which uninspir- 
 ed men have written, or from the views which 
 the gay and fashionable, the rich and vain, 
 and even the literary and scientific world may 
 entertain of religion and its duties. Litera- 
 uire and science, poetry and the arts, are to 
 be allowed no more to give us our views of 
 religion than gayety and fashion. From the 
 Holy Bible — the unerring word of the living 
 God — christians are to derive their views of 
 the nature of religion. There we are to go to 
 learn what the soul is worth ; what it cost to 
 redeem it ; what is its condition as it comes 
 into the world ; what is the state of man by 
 nature ; what dangers beset him ; why man is 
 placed on the earth, and for what objects 
 christians are to live. Fresh with the views 
 drawn from the living fountains of tiiith, what 
 estimate should we 'form of tlie multitudes 
 around us ? — what but that they are lost, ruined, 
 dying, and that everj- thing should be done that
 
 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 205 
 
 can be done for their salvation 1 And when 
 we have drunk deep at that living fountain^ 
 what views should- we derive of the duty of 
 christians here ] That they should be every 
 where the firm and unwavering friends of 
 God ; the advocates of truth and holiness ; 
 the rebukers of sin by their lips and by their 
 lives ; and the laborers in the vineyard of 
 their Lord to save souls from death. On all 
 the questions that divide the religious from the 
 irreligious world, the christian should have 
 settled views, and should abide by them, come 
 contempt, or cursing, or flame. There sliould- 
 be no vacillating ; no Avavering ; no taking 
 sides with the foes of the Redeemer ; no 
 yielding a point which the Redeemer would 
 not yield. In the great questions pertaining 
 to the new birth and the atonement ; to revi- 
 vals of religion and to missions j to temper- 
 ance, chastity, and the Sabbath ; to the spread 
 of the Bible and to Sabbath-schools; in regard 
 to the theatre, the ^all-room, and the splendid 
 gayety and folly, there ought to be singleness 
 and uniformity of opinion and conduct among 
 the friends of the Redeemer. It ought to be 
 known where each friend of Christ could be
 
 206 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 found. There ought to be tlic same views 
 and feelings which the Redeemer would have ; 
 the same course of life which he would ad- 
 vise and recommend. Is it so 1 So far from 
 it, that you can hardly go into a promiscuous 
 assemblage of professed christians without 
 finding on many of the most important of 
 these points as many different views as there 
 are different minds ; and so far from it that 
 you cannot calculate on the efficient and bar-* 
 monious co-operation of any considerable 
 portion of such a group to put down any one 
 of these evils. So it ought not to be ; so it 
 was not in the days of apostolic decision and 
 independence in religion. 
 
 III. It is the duty of christians to provide 
 means for the religious instruction of the 
 masses of mind that are thrown together in 
 cities, the means of bringing all under chris- 
 tian influence. Just now, not very far from 
 one half of tbe population in all our cities 
 would be excluded from places of Avorship, 
 should they be disposed to attend, for the ab- 
 BoJutc want of room. Now it is in the power 
 of the various denominations of christians in 
 this city, and in other cities, to provide ample
 
 I>UTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 207 
 
 accommodations for all the population that 
 could attend on public worship. It is in their 
 power to get all the wandering and neglected 
 children into Sabbath-schools. It is in their 
 power to place a Bible in every family. It is 
 in their power to keep up prayer-meetings, 
 and other religious services, in every lane and 
 alley where it would be desirable. It is in the 
 power of christians, aided by what they might 
 depend on in other classes of the community 
 favorable to morals, to close the thousands of 
 dram-shops and low taverns that infest us. 
 What can be done should be done ; and I am 
 saying only that which all men will admit to 
 be well-founded, when I say that all these 
 things should be done in this city, and when 
 done we might look for a general revival of 
 religion. 
 
 IV. It is the duty of christians in a city, as 
 every where, but principally here, to bring the 
 influence of religion to bear on the members 
 of their families. We look abroad, but let us 
 also look at home. If we wish a revival of re- 
 ligion, it must be sought in our own hearts j 
 m our own dwellings. Whatever there is in 
 our hearts that grieves the Holy Spirit of God
 
 208 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 should be removed, and what there is we may 
 easily know. If we have forgotten our first 
 love ; if we have laid aside the simplicity of 
 our confidence in the Lord Jesus ; if we have 
 neglected prayer; if our secret devotions are 
 cold, formal, heartless, often intermitted ; if 
 we are seeking the world, its wealth, its plea- 
 sures, its honors 5 if we have become rich, and 
 at the same time proud and self-confident ; if 
 avarice has grown as covetousness has been 
 gratified ; and if for our families we are seek- 
 ing the world rather than heaven, it is time 
 for us to pause, and to retrace our steps, and 
 with penitent hearts to begin life anew. — 
 These things hinder religion ; these things 
 prevent revivals. And Avhatever there is in 
 our families that grieves the Spirit of God 
 should be laid aside. The God that sees all 
 knows what that may be. If family devotion 
 is cold and formal, or is not maintained at all ; 
 if the love of dress, and vanity, and parties of 
 pleasure, and the gayeties of the world have 
 seized upon the minds of our children, and if 
 we feel that they must be indulged ; these, then, 
 are things that prevent religion : these the 
 things that shut the heavenly influences from
 
 DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 209- 
 
 our dwellings and from the city of our habita- 
 tion. 
 
 V. There should be prayer for a revival of 
 religion ; prayer distinctly and definitely for 
 that. O could twenty thousand christians in 
 this city unite in that one supplication, ' O 
 LoED REVIVE THY WORK,' Avould not the ear of 
 God be open to their cry % When shall this 
 be 1 When shall the time come that we can 
 feel that such a prayer ascends to God from 
 the hearts of the thousands of his professed 
 friends in a city like this 1 This, brethren, is 
 what we need ; the spirit of that ancient man 
 that wrestled till the break of day, saying, 'I 
 cannot let thee go except thou bless me ;' the 
 spirit of that prophet of the Lord, who in the 
 name of the church said, 'For Zion's sake 
 will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's 
 sake will I not rest, until the righteousness 
 thereof go forth as brightness, and the salva- 
 tion thereof as a lamp that burneth.' — Isaiah, 
 Ixii: 1. 
 
 Christians, God has placed you in this city 
 to do good ; to show the power of his Gospel 5 
 to promote religion. What are the prospects 
 of the immortal souls around you 1 Where 
 will they soon be 1 Soon they and you will
 
 'ilO DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 be together at the bar of God. You will meet 
 when the gaycties of life shall have died away; 
 when fashion and wealth shall have lost their 
 glitter ; when the eternal doom of the soul is 
 to be pronounced, and when your chief joy 
 then will be found in the reflection that you 
 have done as much as possible for their sal- 
 vation. 
 
 If religion is to be revived, it is to begin at 
 the house of God. There are the hopes of 
 man in regard to his immortal welfare. There 
 is not a vice in this city that might not be 
 crippled or destroyed if every christian had 
 the burning zeal of Paul. Christians should 
 drink anew of the fountain of the waters of 
 life. Time Avas, in the days of the martyrs, 
 when a female, trained in the refinements of 
 the Roman capital, would not throw a grain of 
 incense on a pagan altar to save her body from 
 the flames. O come those times again ; times 
 when all who bear the christian name shall, 
 with such firmness, resist all the forms of sin. 
 Come those times when every christian, dead 
 to the world but alive unto God, shall resist 
 sin, if need be, 'even unto blood,' and when 
 he shall labor and pray unceasingly for a re- 
 vival OF PURE religion !
 
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