RELIGIOUSNESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.
THE fact that religious revivals are not necessarily revivals of righteousness, is becoming every day more apparent. If it is quite possible to be as religious as a Hottentot or a Turk and yet have no Christianity, spurious revivals are what may be expected. A false religion and a false Christ are doubtless among the most efficient means employed by the father of lies to build up his kingdom. In a revival of genuine religion there are conversions to truth, practical as well as theoretical. True conversion is not only a change of heart, but of life—a change from evil practices, habits, and opinions to such as are good, and pure, and upright. The world will not be saved through a church that is unsaved—one that affiliates with, and is actuated by, a spirit of compromise with evil and wrong-doing. In such churches there may be revivals of religion, but not of Christianity. Where there is pride, fashion, worldly conformity, love of pleasure and amusement, indulged in and sanctioned by a church, there will surely be a revival of the same in their religious in-gatherings. On the other hand, where a church is baptized with the Holy Ghost, and moral purity, honesty, truth, and love abound, there will be a revival of the same spirit of power, bringing forth the fruits of righteousness and true holiness.—Selected.