Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 30, 1910

Modern Revivals

In these days of sensational stir many preachers have adopted the methods of the world in seeking to secure a hearing. Leaving the simplicity of gospel methods, they employ some of the strenuous, spectacular plans of the sensational advertiser and traveling showman. Dr. Thomas E. Green, in the June number of Hampton's, discusses the methods of some of these strenuous preachers, and speaks of some of the after-effects of their revival work. He cites a recent spectacular parade in the city of Chicago, where a revivalist led his followers on a midnight march through the tenderloin of the city. Of the results of this unusual performance, he says:—

All Chicago flocked early to see the show. Five thousand marchers, four abreast, many of them boys and young women, devout old men and grandmothers, inspired by an earnest notion that they were doing something heroic, marched through the section where the worst dregs of Chicago's vice are segregated. The streets were jammed with multitudes of the curious, from theater parties in evening clothes and automobiles, to boys and girls for whom it was an astounding lark. All the other resorts were closed by order of the police, but

the morbid throngs filled the saloons. Barkeepers were exhausted with the effort to serve their patrons. Cafés were thronged with men and women drinking at the tables. Young men and girls everywhere showed the effect of undue indulgence during the long wait for the show. The instant the marchers had passed beyond the district, the resorts threw open their doors, and police and dive-keepers gave unanimous testimony that there never had been a night of such business as was transacted from that hour until daylight.

The estimate of some of the onlookers of this performance was given by a veteran policeman, who said: “It drew a lot of people to the tenderloin who never saw it before, but I haven't yet heard a word about religion.” In closing the recital of this Chicago effort, Dr. Green justly raises the question, Was it worth while? Did it pay? We do not believe that the best results can follow the preaching of the gospel by such methods, nor do we believe that the influence of the tenderloins of our cities can be counteracted, or their residents or patrons particularly helped, by exposing the young and innocent to direct contact with their influence. We need, in the preaching of the present day, greater simplicity, simplicity of faith and simplicity of method. These, accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, will convict men of sin in a way that can not be done by the blare of trumpets.