A Revival Needed—but How?
By Editor
Mr. Moody is quoted as saying that a revival is "the only hope of our republic." He adds:— "The country can not last without righteousness. Revivals are perfectly scriptural. There have been revivals in every age. I do not know if there were any before the flood; if there had been, the flood might not have been sent on the earth. But soon after the flood came on, see the revival spirit! Whenever the world got dark, God sent a prophet, and a revival was the result." The Christian Work remarks in this connection that "the very need of a revival is a certification of indifferentism to spiritual things, or evidence of the existence of downright 'spiritual wickedness.'" The same paper asks, "Is a revival possible to-day?" It answers by admitting God's willingness, but demanding man's co-operation in faith and repentance. The people are indifferent. The editor says:— "Now this is precisely the case with the people of this country. Thousands, yes, millions of them attend the public worship of God on a Sunday, and say in the beautiful words of the Episcopal liturgy, 'We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep,' and then during the ensuing six days they 'err and stray' more than ever. Of what good were those confessions the previous sabbath?" The revival of 1857, it declares, was "born of hard times." "We came pretty near a revival three years ago. But the nation wanted nothing quite so much as a revival of business. They would have welcomed a proper, orderly revival of religion as an annex to the revival of business, but business must come first; it came, and the other did not follow: it still tarries." And we have simply this to say: There is need of a revival in God. But it will not come through half-hearted seeking; it will not come through political methods; it will not come through a superficial preaching of faith and repentance. It will come when the church casts herself, all broken and contrite, at the feet of God, confessing her sins of unbelief, self-gloring, and criticism of His Word, renouncing her worldly policy and political alliances, casting pagan traditions and superstitions and man-made machinery to the winds, and accepting God's healing message of His everlasting Gospel, as given in Rev. 14:6-12. This is God's present truth for this time; and His life and power are in the message. Will the church heed this? If not, will not you, reader?