Irreverent Revivalists.
By Editor
OUR opposition to the methods of the Salvation Army, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Hammond, and some others, is not because they are new, or contrary to custom, but because they tend to light views of sacred things. We are willing to give them credit for honesty of purpose, and admit that, although deluded, they do accomplish some good; but we think that the good is more than counterbalanced by the evil. The names of God and Christ are repeated unnecessarily, and in the most flippant manner. To us it sounds like profanity, and shocks our sensibilities more than does the vulgar profanity of the street, owing to the source from which it comes. And we are not alone in this view. The Pittsburg correspondent of the New York Examiner, writes concerning the work of the Salvation Army in that place, as follows:— “Their success is limited, and it is a question whether their presence in this city, and at least a majority of the cities of the Union, is not a positive evil. The youth are being accustomed to hear sacred words and names shouted and sung in wretched doggerel to low airs, and a general demeanor in the conduct of worship which shocks their sense of propriety. “The reported conversion of a few reprobates fails to satisfy us, in view of the immense cost at which such results are secured, in the general irreverence which is encouraged and propagated by the methods employed. The whole system on which these meetings are conducted is false. . . . It certainly grates upon the ears to hear new apostles but recently lifted out of the slums and gutters, and alas! in many instances soon to return thither, addressing reputable citizens as sinners and the sons of perdition. These scenes, like the display at the foot of the gallows by murderers reported converted at the last moment, are a parody on the doctrines of grace.”