Shame and Genuine Religious Revivals
In his description of the recent revival in Boston, the Rev. M. C. Ayers says:— "At any meeting one might see silk hats and silk dresses in close contact with homespun and overalls; and the wearers of the different grades of apparel manifested absolute consciousness of equality in the one great fact that they were sinners, and thus they were heartily ashamed of their sins." "The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all." Prov. 22:2. The rich are no better than the poor, and there is no reason why they should not meet on common ground, when they are common sinners. But if they are simply "ashamed of their sins," they will not long keep on that common ground. The frequent use of similar expressions of late, in connection with great revivals, convinces us that we need not hope for any real religious awakening. The man who has no deeper feeling than shame for his sins, may either cover them up and hide them from even his own sight, or he may become lost to shame for them. When Michael stands up, and "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake," some of them will awake to shame, and everlasting contempt; while those only who have felt godly sorrow for sin, because they have violated God's holy law, will awake to everlasting life. Genuine revivals are always connected with something else than shame because of meanness.