April 1931
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Can We Have a Revival? story of the church is a story of seasons of spiritual apathy followed by .visitations of pow- er. In the Sixteenth Century occurred the great revival known as the Reformation, in which the voice of Luther rose above all others, crying: J. ±1 “The just shall live by faith.” In the Seven- teenth Century, the fires of devotion were kept alive by such choice spirits as Milton, Owen, Baxter, and Bunyan. These were giants in those days. In the Eighteenth Century came the Wesleys with their field preaching, the Pennents, Jonathan Edwards, and Whitefield mak ing his frequent journeys across, the sea to preach to the colonies where he led fifty thousand souls to Jesus Christ. The opening of the Nineteenth Century was marked by the infidelity of Paine, Voltaire, Rousseau, and their kind, so that righteous hearts were failing them for fear. But when the enemy came in like a flood, the Lord lifted up His standard. Roland Hill, Lyman Beech er, Nettleton—a roll call of mighties, with Moody to crown it, arose to bear aloft the banner of the cross; and despite all forebodings, the numerical increase of the church during this period was greater than in all the eighteen centuries before it. Almost a third of the Twentieth Century has passed. The years have been marked by spiritual dearth. Some are asking, ,“Are we ever going to have another great revival, or are revivals out of date?” If God is law and Christ is a mere man, if there is no virtue in the atoning blood, if the Holy Spirit is a mere influence, and if rea son is to usurp the function of faith, then farewell to the old evangelism. But if the fundamental truths of Chris tianity are to abide, we may still look for seasons of re- J. freshing. Revivals are not out of date while trouble is in the world. The world is full of pain, weeping, disappoint ments, loneliness, breaking hearts, envy, jealousy, lurk ing treachery and despair, death and bereavement. All this proceeds from sin. The Christian Scientist who pronounces disease an “opinion of mortal mind” is regarded as a weak sister, and the man—minister or otherwise—who minimizes sin is in the same category. The world knows better, because its nerves and sinews are tingling with the pain of it. The world is dark with the shadows of sin, and as long as this condition lasts, we need to pray for a revival that will bring back the conviction of sin. Men and women need to hear from the preacher of the enormity of sin. Time was when sin was an ugly thing; wrong was wrong, and right was right. There was a clear dividing line. Today the line is indistinct. That is what is the matter with the world. Some one has said that man is a fine study in comedy. He is a finer study in tragedy. We are told that when Jesus Christ saw the city He wept over it. Do we not have even more to draw out our compassion today? Has sin ever caused you a sigh or a sob? We weep over ,
sorrow, business, failure, disappointment, broken hopes. In the philosophy of Jesus, there is but one mistake—sin. There is only one matter to weep over—sin. Revivals are not out of date as long as sin and its consequences are in the world. Revivals are not out of date while there is salvation in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Sin is the source of all our trouble. The vital question is : What will heal it ? There is only one cure,for this heart malady—the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God. The gospel has lost nothing of its healing power. “Therein is a righteousness revealed.” The righteousness of God is all that God commands, demands, requires, and has Himself provided in the life and death of His Son Je sus Christ. So long as there is salvation offered through belief in Jesus Christ, so long are revivals of the old kind possible. The business of the preacher is to point to the Lamb of God. It is not to dream dreams or to philoso phize or to debate or to present new theories of moral ther apeutics, but the one task of the preacher is to point to Him in whose sacrifice was gathered the judgment of the sins of the world. Revivals are not out of date while the church is more or less indifferent to her work. Alas! The bride sleeps while the Bridegroom agonizes. He must needs awake her with the reproach of love: “Could ye not watch with me?” • Such apathy, whenever and wherever it occurs, may be traced to a misapprehension of the real business of the church. It is an error to suppose that the church is an organized body of truth seekers. The value of truth is indeed above rubies, but it is not hard to seek. God has been pleased to give the revelation of truth and to emphasize it in the teachings of His only begotten Son who said: “I am the truth.” Our quest ends at the revela tion and at Jesus’ feet. It is a mistake to say that the supreme purpose of the church is to make this world a better place to live in. It is a fact that a. true follower of Christ must hold him self in readiness to do good unto all men as he has op portunity. But the Christian who allows his energy to be monopolized by the sociological propositions of our time falls infinitely short of his divine commission. To clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to provide better homes for the neglected poor, and then to send them out into eternity without a vital interest in the gospel of grace is poor philanthropy from the standpoint of Jesus Christ. For “what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Sociology, standing by itself, is nothing short of Epicureanism of our time, since it speaks on this wise: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” By such conceptions of Christian life and service, we have been sidetracked and diverted from the main con- "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me pure within? ■ Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
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