and proportionate, as to give you a true opinion of the whole case. Already, perhaps, you will have wondered that nothing objectionable has occurred; since much that has previously reached you in other ways, has more or less of this character. The fact is, in this, as in other instances, that what is ob jectionable and extravagant, wins notice; while what is excellent and approved seeks the shade, and remains unknown. Revivals have often been used as advertisements. A feeble, or a vain man, doubtful of his standing, or thirsting for illegitimate distinction, has looked to a revival, as he would call it, as his instrument. In his case the bolder measure was the better; he has committed himself to daring experiments, looked for hasty and dashing results, and has sent them, without delay, in dashing terms to the newspapers. Many of these statements have reached, unhappily, this country, and have warped many minds from a calm and just opinion. Let me, however, assure you, that these occurrences are as much the cause of lamentation to the wise and humble of that land, as they can be to ourselves; and that to take up a judgment of the case before us from them alone, or chiefly, would be as unjust as to determine the character of religion at home, by the extravagancies of Irvingism. Apart from these unworthy instances, it is to be admitted, that a course of action in connection with revivals has recently sprung up in many of the churches, which has created great division of opinion and feeling. These practices have received the appellation of " New Measures," and they have the countenance of many in the leading denominations; and of the ministers who use them, some are of excellent talent, and undoubted piety. The two measures by which they are chiefly marked, and for which they are mostly blamed or applauded, are protracted meetings and anxious seats. The first of these, indeed, existed before, and the principle of them enters into the nature of a revival; but they existed under other names, and had a different character. In the earlier revivals, the meetngs were made more frequent than ordinary, as the case seemed to require, and often a day would be entirely set apart for fasting and prayer. Sometimes a freer demand on time might become, from the interest of the occasion, desirable, and sometimes, where there was a predilection for the Scotch sacraments, or where the people, from being greatly scattered, found it very difficult to come together, four days, inclusive of the Sabbath, would be thus employed. But with the friends of the New Measures, the protracted meeting does not arise out of the urgency of the case; it is a component part of the system. It is, agreeably to its name, rather one lengthened meeting, than a number of meetings, admitting of intervals for worldly and social duties. It is seldom less than four days in duration, and is often run out to seven or more. Undoubtedly, the discreet use of the protracted meeting, by giving solemnity to a special occasion, by fixing the attention on one subject, and by causing the whole power of truth and sympathy to bear on the conscience and affections, may be attended with the most happy and striking results. But the evils of making it an essential part of a system appear to be, that an undue importance may be given to it, at the expense of ordinary and stated means; that the means supplied may be so far in advance of the spirit to use them, as may abate, rather than improve desire, and end in weariness; that many excellent ministers, in meeting the claims of such a period, will break down under them, as indeed they have done, and be unfitted for their fair share of labor. Besides, where the length of the meeting becomes amongst the people the popular test of its excellence, there will be no bounds to this easy mode of competition. Already a seven day meeting has a sound of reputation about it, which is denied to one of three or four days. Of course, empirical teachers have taken advantage of this impression, and have outdone all outdoing. They have heid, some of them, fourteen days; some twenty-one; and recently an attempt has been made to hold a forty days' meeting. This party, then, if length be excellence, has excelled all; and has, moreover, the benefit of a number which is frequent in Scripture, and is associated with sacred recollections. As you might expect, long before the forty days were expired, all patience and all feeling were exhausted. The pastor whom he professed to assist, I was told on the best authority, sought to meet his congregation on the usual evening, for the usual service on the following week, and he could not get enough people together to compose a prayer-meeting. The other measure which has been lately adopted, and which is, I believe, altogether new, has received the somewhat barbarous and canting denomination of "Anxious Seat." The practice is so styled from the circumstance, that after a sermon which is supposed to have impressed the people, a seat, or seats, before the pulpit, and in the face of the congregation, is cleared, and persons willing to profess anxiety for their salvation or conversion to God, are challenged to come forward, and to use them for that purpose. They are then made mostly the subjects of particular address and supplication. Now I have, on several occasions, seen this practised, and have carefully sought information relative to it from its friends and its foes. I can readily believe that the employment of it may have been attended with decided evidence of usefulness in many cases. And I can as readily understand that a pious minister, truly awake to the importance of his work, and weary of the delay and indecision of many who wait on his ministry, may have, from the best intentions, ventured on such a measure, rather than to stand in perpetual doubt of those he pants to save. Besides this, I well know, that a congregation may be brought to a certain state of feeling, which may authorize some special movement on the part of a pastor, who finds himself in exact sympathy with them, and which nothing could justify under other circumstances; and in such an untried and affecting situation, should his earnestness commit him to some indiscretion, it would be any thing but marvellous. Yet, after the best consideration of the subject, and the fullest admissions in its behalf, it does appear to me, and is, I believe, appearing to many who have tried it, to be, as a measure of action, unwise and unsafe. 1. In the first place, I am disposed to submit, that we have no right to establish such measures. It is certainly not an apostolic method. It is not within the limits of our commission. It is our duty to urge the authority of Christ on the conscience, and to insist on an entire submission to it; but, as I conceive, we have no right to make this particular movement the visible test of that submission. It is an undue encroachment on the rights of a congregation assembling on the authority of Christ, and professedly for his worship; and there is no reason why they should obey such a call to show their discipleship. 2. It is a bad auxiliary to the success of the mi nistry. That some good may arise from it, is not denied; this may be predicated of the worst things. Its general tendency is not to support the effect of the preached word, if it is wisely administered. Where it is introduced as a novelty, there is, indeed, excitement enough; but it is of the wrong complexion. I have seen a whole congregation | the New Convert-room. Another set followed. This was repeated four times. The next morning he left the town, having previously sent a notice to the newspaper, stating, that Mr. had preached there last night, and that sixty-one converts professed religion. Need I multiply cases? or need I remark on those I have adduced? Apart from the last, which is too blame-worthy to be common, has not the spirit of these measures a strong tendency to beget, 3. Then, as an evidence of character, it is cer- on the part of ministers and people, an impatience tainly among the worst that can well be employed. It of results; not of actual determination of mind, is a measure highly inviting to the ignorant, the which we cannot ask, nor the sinner yield too soon; vain, and the self-conceited; and it is equally re-but of outward and visible evidence, when, in truth, pulsive and difficult to the timid, the modest, and the case does not really admit of such evidence? reflective. I can hardly conceive of a delicate and Regeneration is, indeed, the work of an instant; but well-educated young female, being able to meet the evidence of it is the work of time. The mere such a demand in the face of a large congregation, assurance on the mind that I am converted, is not unless she regards it as a duty to Christ, and a term evidence to me; and the mere assertion of it can be of her salvation; and then, in obeying, she does vio- no evidence to others. The proper fruits of conlence to those feelings, which are the safeguard and version are the only safe evidence in either case; the beauty of her character. I have seen such young and there has not been time to produce or ascer persons shrink and shudder at the call, through tain them. modesty, and then comply through fear; and, when complying, writhing from distress under hysterical tortures. But who has a right to exact all this amount of suffering? And is it not the worse, if it is not only unnecessary, but prejudicial, to the end proposed, by diverting the attention to a bodily service, from what alone is of acknowledged importance? 4. Let me again observe, that where it is used as an evidence of state, it is likely to lead to hazardous and precipitate conclusions. I know that many ministers are very guarded on this subject; but with this caution it is difficult to prevent the anxious inquirer from regarding it, and similar signs, as evidences of condition. And in many instances, especially among the Methodist denomination, the anxious seat, or the altar, and the acts of rising or kneeling, are in reality, if not with formal design, made terms of state. They are used too, not only to express the reality of awakened concern; but as tests of having "submitted to Christ," " found hope," and of being "true converts." Such notices as the following are common in the several religious papers: "Last Sabbath day I attended a camp meeting; it was orderly and solemn; and thirty-one professed to indulge hope." "On Saturday, an awful solemnity was on the assembly. On Sabbath morning three persons gave themselves away to Christ, and were admitted to the church." "A protracted meeting began on Monday. On the following Saturday the session examined twenty-one; all of whom were next day admitted to the church." "On the second day of the meeting, the anxious and the converts were called on to separate themselves from the rest of the congregation." "On the last day," at another meeting, "about four hundred, if I mistake not, assembled in the anxious room. The converts being called on to separate themselves from the anxious, about onethird declared themselves converts." A revival preacher, after delivering a sermon, called on the anxious to meet him in the lectureroom. About two hundred obeyed. He called on them to kneel in prayer; and he offered an alarming and terrific prayer. They arose. "As many of you," he said," as have given yourselves to God, in that prayer, go into the New Convert-room." Upwards of twenty went. "Now," he said to the remainder, "let us pray." He prayed again in He then challenged those who had given themselves to God in that prayer, to go into like manner. The effect of such a course is, undoubtedly, to create a fearful amount of premature and unscriptural hope, and, therefore, of dangerous and destructive delusion. The effect again, on the church, is to fill it with unconverted, ignorant, and presumptuous persons, and to produce defection on the one hand, and corruption on the other. And this, in fact, has been the result. Of revivals so managed, it is considered that not one fifth, sometimes not one tenth, have stood; and many of those who have remained in the church, have given painful evidence of the want of renewed character and conversation. If one half of those sixty-one, who were so hastily reported by the minister to whom I have referred, to be converted on one evening, should retain a false hope through life, and die with it in their right hand, where would the responsibility lie? or who would dare to incur such responsibility? 5. Besides the objections to the new measures thus taken, it must be stated, that they seem to have the faculty of generating a spirit worse than themselves, and which is chiefly to be apprehended. Rash measures attract rash men. Those who would have felt it difficult enough to manage an argument, or discriminate between a right or wrong affection, are struck by what is so tangible and so visible, and so capable of impressing the grosser and animal sensations. Without the power, and perhaps the piety of their teachers, they quickly usurp their places. As they have attained their stations by deviating from the usual way, they reckon that it is only to be retained by the same course; and their onward and devious path is tracked by the most unsanctified violence and reckless extravagance. In fact, a number of young and raw men, previously unknown to the ministry, and without pastoral experience, instead of giving themselves "io reading, meditation, and prayer," have chosen this shorter method to ministerial efficiency; and the effect, wherever it has reached has been exceedingly calamitous. They have announced themselves as the revival preachers; and have chosen to itinerate over the church; unsettling every thing, and settling nothing. They have denounced pastors, with whom they could not compare, men of tried and approved piety, as hypocrites, formalists, "dumb dogs," and as "leading their people to hell." They have denounced the Christians who have listened to them; and have made submission to their mechanism the test of their conversion. They have addressed the sinner, under the name of fidelity, in harsh, severe, and bitter terms; and have been covetous either of submission or opposition. The endearments and The consequence has been most disastrous. Churches have become the sport of division, distraction, and disorder. Pastors have been made unhappy in their dearest connections; they have stayed to mourn over diminished influence and affection; or they have been driven away to find in calmer regions a field of renewed labor. So exten-coveries, and surpass their predecessors as much as sive has been this evil, that in one presbytery of nineteen churches, there were only three that had settled pastors; and in one synod, in 1832, of a hundred and three churches, only fifty-two had pastors; the rest had stated supplies. The general effect has been to discourage revivals in their best form; to cast down the weak, to confound the sober-mind-gion; then will these irregularities be met, and ed, and to confirm the formalist; and to dispose the censorious world to "speak evil of the good way." ties of relative life have been sacrificed to the bitter | out impotent hands to stay the evil; and weep over zeal which has taught the child to disrespect the the desolation without being able to repair it. The parent, and the parent to cast off the child. They restoration of Davenport to sanity, and his subsehave made, as many have recently in our own land, quent confession, did not repair the moral desolagreat, if not full pretensions to inspiration; and tion which his conduct and principles had made. have taught people to rely on impulse and impres- "Another of the evils to be apprehended, is opposion in offering what has been called the prayer sition on the part of good men, and the consequent of faith. They have encouraged females to lead disunion of the churches by a civil war. The pein prayer in promiscuous and public assemblies; culiarities of the system I have recognized cannot and, in fact, have revived all the irregularities of go through the churches without opposition. Splenthe Corinthian church, as though they had been did by its early power, many have yielded to it who placed on record, to be copied, and not avoided. disapproved, for fear they might quench the Spirit; and many have been silent, because they feared that they might speak against a work of God. But when the work shall have given out its distinct character, and put off the natures of love and gentleness, &c. and put on those of wrath and strife; when other reformers shall hasten on to new disthese surpassed others, and denounce them as they denounced those who could not go with them; when stripling imitators of pious men having nothing in common with them but their imprudence, without their age and moral power, shall go out to outrage humanity, and caricature revivals of relithen the collision will be keen and dreadful. For, in every church, there is wood, hay, and stubble, which will be sure to take fire on the wrong side. All your periodical Christians, who sleep from one revival to another, will be sure to blaze out now; while judicious ministers, and the more judicious part of the church, will be destined to stand, like the bush, in the midst of the flames; while these periodical Christians will make up, by present zeal, for their past stupidity, and chide, as cold-hearted formalists, those, whose even, luminous course, sheds reproof on their past coldness and stupidity. "Another evil to be feared, is, that it will unavoidably array a large portion of the unrenewed part of the community against revivals and religion; and produce infidels, scoffers, Unitarians, and Universalists, on every side-increasing the resistance seven-fold to evangelical doctrine; withdrawing, in proportion, the voluntary support of the gospel; and consigning the precious cause of Christ, which ought and might govern public opinion, to the hands of a feeble, despised, dispirited few, who watch the holy fire upon the deserted altar of God. All forms of error will grow rank from the aliment of such violence done to the laws of humanity and to the laws of God. The extravagances of the pious in the time of Cromwell threw back the cause of vital piety in England for two centuries, to a state of imbecility and scorn, and has furnished topics to grace the pages of infidel historians, poets, and orators, through every succeeding generation. Ι was, as I have remarked, just in time to observe these effects; and while it is needful that I should report them, I must be careful with you, as I was with myself, that a wrong impression should not be received from them. They followed on the great revival of 1831; but they are the mere sediments of that flood of life, which went over the land, and blessed all things where it came. Much as it may be lamented, and right as it is to use it for future caution, the evil is as nothing compared with the good consequent on revivals generally. That evil, too, is subsiding. Those ministers of most talent and character, who were carried away partially by the heat and interest of the period, are now reviewing their course. The madness of others will make them perfectly sober. The leading ministers of the country, and amongst them the best friends of revivals, have entered their testimony against them. The following extracts of a letter written by my esteemed friend, Dr. Beecher, will show you with how much wisdom, as well as determination, it is done. It will also, if I mistake not, powerfully illustrate a portion of the subject I have endeavored to place under your attention: To some of the consequences of a revival, conducted under such auspices, I beg leave now to call your attention. "It will become more and more exceptionable. Urged by circumstances, men will do things, which, if in the beginning they had been predicted, they would have said, Are thy servants dogs, that we should do these things? By degrees, however, all landmarks will be removed, and what was once regarded as important will be set at naught, and what would once have produced horror will be done fearlessly. There is nothing to which the minds of good men, when once passed the bounds of sound discretion, and launched on the ocean of feeling and experiment may not come to. But the evil, which may flow from those who commence these aberrations, is but a drop of the bucket in the ocean of disorder and misrule to which they may open the door. There is nothing so terrible and unmanageable as the fire and whirlwind of human passion, when once kindled by misguided zeal, and sanctioned by conscience, and the idea of being reviled and persecuted for doing God service. They who did the deed may repent of it early, and stretch "Another effect to be deprecated is, that it will prevent the great evangelical assimilation which is forming in the United States, and paralize general efforts as much as private churches. The rumor of extravagance would soon begin to press hard upon the friends of revivals in New England; who could not and would not take the responsibility of justifying what they disapproved, and would be compelled, in self-defence, publicly to clear themselves, as having no part nor lot in such matters. There is also a large portion of the church out of New England, which is evangelical, but which is acquainted with revivals more by the hearing of the ear, than by eye-sight and experience; and who, between doubt and fear, are approaching the happy day, when the breath of the Lord may breathe upon them. Upon all these, a revival of extravagance and disorder would exert a deadly influence, and for one generation, at least, protract the form with out the power of religion. While all the enemies | which I have alluded; but that I have drawn the of evangelical doctrines and of revivals, would keep a jubilee, that these days of hated light had gone by, and given place to the reign of reason and formality. outlines of a moral chart, which such a disastrous revival, as your present course could not fail to lead to, would amply fill up, I have not a doubt. That you will appreciate my motives, and not be offended, I cannot but believe; and I have equal confidence that you will appreciate the considerations which I have suggested, and will, as fast and as far as possible, supersede our fears, by a course that all good men will approve and rejoice in." LETTER XXXI. Are there any evils attendant on the approved revivals? "Another thing to be feared is, that meeting in their career with the most determined opposition from educated ministers, and colleges, and seminaries, all these in succession would be denounced, and held up as objects of popular odium, and a host of ardent, inexperienced, imprudent young men, be poured out, as from the hives of the North, to obliterate civilization, and roll back the wheels of time to semi-barbarism; until New England of the West shall be burnt over, and religion disgraced and MY DEAR FRIEND-I have thus, with some are, trodden down as in some parts of New England it and not, I hope, at too great length, endeavored to was done eighty years ago: when laymen and wo-possess you with the result of my observation on men, Indians and negroes, male and female, preach- the interesting and momentous subject of revivals, ed, and prayed, and exhorted, until confusion itself both in the forms which are deemed objectionable, became confounded. There is nothing so powerful and in those which are generally, if not universalas the many waters of human passion, and nothing ly, approved amongst this people. I am ready to so terrible as the overflowing of such a scourge; suppose, that in passing through the account with and a dispensation so calamitous would be more awakened attention, it may have suggested such intolerable, as it is so utterly needless, and would questions as the following; and of which you would come so unexpectedly in the very dawning of a be glad to find a solution. Are no evils attendant bright day. The nature of the gospel, and of the on the approved revivals? Are these evils capable human mind, and the mode of exhibiting truth and of a remedy? Are the fruits of these revivals conducting revivals, have been developed, and prac- equally good with those produced under ordinary tised with such success, that in New England, and circumstances? Would not a continued advanceto a great extent through the nation, the conviction ment in knowledge and piety be preferable to these is established, that they are the work of God, and occasional movements? Are revivals to be expectmost benign in their moral influence upon the pre-ed for our own country? If practicable, are they, sent as well as the future life. Extensively opposi- on the whole, desirable? Let us just glance at these tion is silenced, and the public mind is fast preparing inquiries, so proper to the subject, and so important to come under the influence of faithful preaching, in themselves. and the Holy Ghost. In New England, revivals are becoming more frequent in the same places, and more general in their extent. There seems to be a joyful and rapid spread of the work of God: but one overflowing of a violent, ungoverned revival, would snatch the victory from truth, and throw revivals back at least fifty years. It would be the greatest calamity that could befall this young empire. The perversion of the popular taste, and the extinction of the popular prejudice against learning, and a learned ministry, where an enlightened public sentiment, coupled with enlightened piety, is our all, would be to us, nearly, what the incursions of the northern barbarians were to the Roman empire. It would stop all our improvements, and throw us back in civilization, science, and religion, at least a whole century. It would constitute an era of calamity never to be forgotten, and be referred to by future historians as the dark age of our republic. There are parts of our nation, to which I might refer you, which were burnt over by such a revival some twenty years ago, where the abiding evils may still be seen in the state of society which has followed. And there, too, with all their extravagances of falling, and groaning, and laughing, and jumping, and dancing, were regarded by many, and by some very good men, as a new dispensation of the Spirit-a new mode of conducting revivals with power; and those who rode on the foremost waves, thought themselves to be, and were thought to be, raised up to be reformers in their day. Oh, my brother! if a victorious army should overflow and lay us waste, or if a fire should pass over and lay every dwelling in our land in ashes, it would be a blessing to be coveted with thanksgiving, in comparison to the moral desolation of one ungoverned revival of religion; for physical evils can be speedily repaired, but the desolation of moral causes is deep and abiding. 66 Dear brethren in Christ, you must not, for a moment, suppose that I do not fervently love you; or that I ascribe to you, in extenso, all the defects to Yes, there are. They are liable to run out into wild fanaticism. The extravagances to which I have referred grew out of an approved revival; they were not consequent from it, but were incidental to it; they were an unlovely excrescence on one of the fairest reforms in the history of the churches. A revival is a crisis. It implies that a great mass of human passion that was dormant, is suddenly called into action. Those who are not moved to good will be moved to the greater evil. The hay, wood, and stubble, which are always to be found, even within the pale of the church, will enkindle, and flash, and flare. It is an occasion favorable to display, and the vain and presumptuous will endeavor to seize on it, and turn it to their own ac count. Whether such a state of general excitement is connected with worldly or religious objects, it is too much, and would argue great ignorance of human nature, to expect, that it should not be liable to excess and disorder. The evils to which this state of excitement exposes, may, however, be greatly qualified, if not wholly prevented. I know, indeed, some imagine, that they are already so fully master of the subject, that they can adjust the whole affair as they would a machine, and determine before hand how it shall act, and where it shall stay. But I do not admire their mechanism; it is too nice and too complicated, to be wise in itself, or useful for the occasion; and I freely confess, that the churches, both here and there, have something yet to learn on the question. The churches in the States have indeed had considerable experience in these revivals, and there is undoubted advantage in this. The ministers have looked carefully at the subject, and have taken wise consultation on it; and there is obtaining amongst them a general agreement, as to the methods which are most effectual and approved. This is well; still I should rely for the prevention of evil, as also for the educing of good, not so much on the organiza tion as on the spirit of the revival. The spirit of the true revival is humility and prayer; and if this were made prominent and predominant, as a sign and a test, by ministers and churches, it would strangle in its birth the evil spirit of vanity and vexation. considerable with the approved revivals. Where it has occurred most sensibly, the state of the church subsequent to the revival, as compared with the state previous, has still been a decided improvement. And in the best cases, which are very numerous, and still increasing, where the crisis has been regulated by a just and holy discretion, there has been no relapse. The state of excitement, through which they have passed, has, indeed, disappeared, for to be healthy, it must be transitory; but it has left upon its subjects that ardor of life, which has made them ready, with delightful elasticity, for every good word and work. As far as instrumentality may contribute to the end desired, nothing appears of such importance as a wise and influential superintendence. The ordinary mind may do for the ordinary occasion; but here is an occasion in which every thing is extraordinary, and which, like the storm at sea, will call for the utmost sagacity and steadiness of character. The management of such a period should never be I think, then, these observations may dispose of allowed to pass into the hands of the untaught, the the second as well as the first inquiry. inexperienced, and the froward. Most of the ex- Are the fruits of the revivals equally good with travagance which we have to lament has arisen those produced under ordinary circumstances? from this source. The people have seldom gone I should say, decidedly, Yes, quite as good, and astray until they have been led astray. In every frequently better; only admitting that the work is case which has come to my knowledge, where a real, wisely managed, and associated with proporrevival has been conducted by discretion, no blame- tionate instruction. Persons, so converted, are surworthy excesses have followed. The churches rounded by more affecting circumstances, and reshould look carefully to this. They could not em-ceive deeper impressions. Perception is more ploy their associated functions better, than by dis- awakened, conviction is more pungent, prayer is countenancing, on the one hand, those self-consti- more ardent, the will more resolved. There is a tuted itinerant revivalists, untried and unknown in prostration and a solemnity of feeling which is neany other capacity, and who rise to notice by tram- ver forgotten. There is, therefore, greater evipling on better men than themselves; and by claim- dence of character, stronger motives for progress, ing, on the other hand, in this best, but most oner- and, as an effect of these, more decision of conduct. ous and most difficult of services, some of her best Most of their active and devoted Christians have men; men of large pastoral experience, of great been born in the revivals; and their most intellisuccess in pastoral life, and of not only unfeigned gent, pious, and successful ministers, have either but eminent piety. received the truth at these seasons, or have had their incipient character formed and moulded in them. Perhaps, however, the evil to which the revival, as it now exists, is most liable, is the danger of relapse. That there is room for this complaint must be admitted; and it is open to two or three remarks. First, where revivals are pressed into excess, they carry the seeds of this evil in their own nature. We are so constituted, that our nature seeks indemnity for all violence done to itself. Excess of excitement brings excess of exhaustion, as surely as night follows day. Hence, when those have managed a revival who have not known where to stop, they have been confounded to find, instead of the results they expected, a deep sleep come over the people, from which none could awaken them. When revivals are allowed to take, in common expectation, a periodical character, there is danger of reaction. Those who have received benefit by a certain method, if they may calculate on its return, will be disposed to look to it exclusively. Hence, some churches have an exaggerated hope in the extraordinary means, and almost no hope in the use of the ordinary; they have obtained a dispensation to slumber through the intervals, on the promise of being thoroughly awake at the revivals. These circumstances, connected with a partial reliance on the same causes, have affected many ministers. They wear an air of despondency, and often preach under its chilling or paralysing influence, except they are expecting a revival, or in the midst of one; and, on this account, if such men would be more efficient in a revival than most, they would be less so at any other period. This evil might be mostly prevented, by not allowing them to receive an intermitting and periodical form. Care should be taken to show that they are of a special and an extraordinary nature; and are not of equal importance with the means that are ordinary. They should be made subservient to, and not subversive of, the regular institutions of Divine mercy. They should be regarded as a remedy for a disease, and not as the aliment of vigorous life; to be used only as occasion required; and which occasion ought not, in fact, to arise. After all, the reaction, on the whole, has been in This is as I should expect it; and it is in harmo ny with my experience. I have never found that those make the best Christians, who have taken the longest time in coming to a decision. On the contrary, conversion, when it has been long in developing itself, has been of feeble character; the subject of it has often been in doubt as to its reality; and in doubt and darkness, he has held a cheerless and unprofitable course between the church and the world, neither party being certain to whom he belonged. Would not a continued advancement in knowledge and piety be preferable to these occasional movements? We are Undoubtedly it would, if the average result of the supposed uniform movement were equal to the occasional one. But is not this a begging of the question? Do we know any thing, in fact, of this continued and uniform advancement? speaking of a mode of life; and all modes of life, known to us, are subject to the alternations of declension and progress. Is the spiritual life, whether personal or social, exempt from these vicissitudes? Has it no winter, and may it know no spring? In the course of twenty years, where is the church that has not had a comparative season of depression? And, at such a time, what could have been a greater blessing to it than a sound revival? And might not such a revivification have been expected, in the use of the means of grace, in a special form, and with condensed power, as a remedy for a diseased and dangerous state? Besides, let us take the best of the case, and suppose that the churches are not sinking into declension, but are making gradual and uniform advancement; have we ever known any churches in so happy and palmy a state, as that the blessings meant to be conveyed by a revival would be superfluous? Have we not a thousand congregations, and these the most prosperous, to which, as it relates to one half of their body, the blessing of a revival would not be as life to the dead?-who are untouched by ordinary means and who require a |