A NEWSPAPER VIEW OF THE WELSH REVIVAL Dear BroTHEeR RUSSELL:— Enclosed find a newspaper clipping that may interest you. It is from the March “Review of Reviews,” and throws a, little clearer light than anything I have yet seen on the “Great Welsh Revival.” The statement that it is more a movement toward community reform than individual regeneration, is in line with the wholesale methods of the “New Christianity.” The emotionalism which characterizes the movement is, it seems to me, indicative of Satanic influence rather than of that of holy Spirit, which is peaceable and sane and quiet. Satan’s effort among those who are reaching out after truth and godliness at this time, is not, apparently to openly thwart and oppose, but to mislead—to carry to an excess of emotion where reason is lost sight of. That this is being accomplished by this movement is evident—and not only among those directly concerned, but throughout nominal Christianity—whose members are pointing to this as an evidence that “the holy Spirit” is still working in “the churches.” Jeremiah foretells (2:35) “Yet thou saidst, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from me!—Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee, because thou sayest ‘I have not sinned!’ ” If I am uncharitable, I want to be corrected—if right in above view, I thought the clipping might strengthen the faith of some (as it has mine) regarding something hard to understand—the apparent success of some nominal church movements —and so submit it to you for use as you see fit. With Christian love to yourself and all the Bible House friends, I am, Yours in the King’s service, Horace E. HoLiister. SOME RESULTS OF THE WELSH REVIVAL The weekly edition of the Times, of London, finds the whole movement finely characteristic of the Welsh people, with their emotional temperament, love for music and oratory, and warmhearted impulsive lives. Summing up his impressions of the results of the revival, the writer in question says: Suppose we first hear the critic. “Remember,” he tells you, —and I well remember,—‘the revival of 1858-59. It was as great in fire and extent ag this. The chief figure in that revival himself soon lapsed into an unbroken callousness, and his name was not held in honor, while in Cardiganshire, the cradle and center of the movement, a few months revealed a trail of immorality left by the revival, and showed how closely kin are sympathy and sensuality, emotion and lust. Then, as now, the excitement threw many off their balance, and condemned them to end their days in rayless mania. The net result was bad—the people, strung up by an untrustworthy fanaticism, soon fell back into an immovable indifference, and dissent itself was left enfeebled and palsied.” Such criticism is in the air. There is some truth, but not all the truth, in such an estimate of the revival, and those who know intimately the mining valleys of South Wales, and, alas, the squalid, brutal lives of many of the toilers, must be profoundly thankful for any influence that can awaken and startle them to the thought and the hope of better things. The weariness of well-doing is the strain under which so many fail. That strain is increased by the unwisdom that confounds innocent amusement with wrong-doing, and regards football and lying as equally heinous, The revival does give an impulse to better things. If its influence wanes and fails, it will be for the lack of that sustained nurture and spiritual discipline which are essential to moral growth. But in spite of all the inevitable failures and lapses, a revival which makes men sunk in ignorance and depravity feel even for one short week the spell and power of a noble ideal cannot and must not be condemned, The Saturday Review says of it:— It is clear that a religious conception directs the present movement to which the men of the earlier revivals were strangers. Their minds were fixed on the idea of individual conversion. They rushed to the chapels and field preachings to hang on the lips of a great orator who proclaimed salvation. In the movement of today the underlying idea, seems to be the public confession of sin, and the salvation not so much of the individual as of the community. In a word this remarkable revival is a protest against an individualistic and sectarian conception of religion, and a struggle to return to a corporate and positive Christianity. PILGRIM TOUR OF GREAT BRITAIN BY BRO. M. L. M’PHAIL Vou. XXVI ALLEGHENY, PA., JULY 1, 1905 Liverpool, Eng., June 22, 25 Liverpool, Eng. Aug. 15 Birkenhead, “ “ 24 Nottingham, “ “16, 17 Warrington, “ “« 26, 27 ~=— Leicester, “ “ 18 Macclesfield, “ “« 98,29 Birmingham, “ « 20, 21 Manchester, “ Ju. 30-Jul. 2 Oxford, “ “« 22, 23 Sheffield, «July 3, 4 Luton, “ “ 94, 25 Dewsbury, “ “ 5, 6 London, “ «27, 30 Bradford, “ “ 7, 8 Forest Gate, “ Sept. 1, 3 Leeds, “ “ 9,10 Chatham, “6 “ 4 Hull, “ “11, 12 Maidstone, “ “ 5 Scarborough, “ “« 13, 14 St. Leonard-by-Sea, “ 6 Middlesboro, “ “ 15 Brighton, Eng. “ 7 Neweastle-on-Tyne, “ 16, 17 Portsmouth, “ “ 8 Hawick, Seot. “ 18, 19 Seven Oaks, “ “ 9 Kircaldy, “ “ 21 London, “ “ 10 Edinburgh, “ “ 92,24 Bath, “ “ 12 Dundee, “ “ 25, 26 Bristol, “ « 13, 14 Glasgow,Scot.,Jul.27-30,Aug. 6 Gloucester, “ “ 15 Paisley, Seot. Aug. 1 Liverpool, “ « 16 Kilmaleolm, “ “ 3 Nottingham, “ “ 7 Greenock, “ «4, 5 E. Kirkby, “ “ 18, 19 Saltcoats, “ “ 7 Neweastle-on-Tyne, “ 20 Belfast, Ireland “ 9,10 Edinburgh, Scot. “ 21 Dublin, “ “ 11,13 Glasgow, “ “23, 25 No. 13 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER REV, EH. L. EATON, D. D., ON THE CHURCH OF TODAY We feel a keen interest in Dr. Eaton, with whom, it will be remembered, we had a friendly debate about two years ago. We keep hoping to note some influence from our Scriptural arguments showing that not the reformation and conversion of the world is the Lord’s program for this Gospel age, but rather the selection or election of a “little flock,” the church, the royal priesthood, through whom under Jesus their High Priest all the world shall be mentally, morally and physically assisted out of present degradation and death conditions to life-everlasting privileges. We see little sign that Dr, Eaton has fully accepted our position, but in a recent sermon he seemed to have a clear view of the nominal church, as separate and distinct from the true church composed only of “the few precious and godly men and women that can be found in all churches,” so that we may not yet abandon hope for a further opening of the eyes of his understanding. He certainly cannot hope that the nominal mass of “Christendom” can ever “save the world” to any higher standard than its own. Yet here are his own words describing churchianity, exactly reproduced :— “What is the exact state of the church? I do not mean North Avenue church. I do not mean the few precious and godly men and women that can be found in all churches. I mean the entire Christian establishments in these United States. What is its condition today? From what I have seen during [3583] the last dozen years, and from what I constantly read, I am persuaded that the church, with all its wealth and culture and prestige, is not leading the procession. It is not advancing as fast as our population is advancing. It is in a state of moral dearth, a spiritual dryrot prevails all too generally. It is not winning the unsaved in great numbers. It has not seen a sweeping revival in thirty years. Its ministry—probably more than half of them—are willing to admit that the days of revivals are past, and that our only hope now is to try to save the children; that there is not power enough in the church, the preaching, nor in the Gospel to save a grown-up sinner any more. We are not looking for great and all-inundating revivals as of yore. “The church has generally become a social club, so nice and respectable and so fine that the poor do not fecl at home in it. and the working men have turned their backs upon it almost from one end of the country to the other. And, next to the quarter of a million of America’s licensed saloons, the saddest fact in America today is the alienation of the poor and the laboring classes from the church! The climax of the catalogue of Gospel blessings which our Lord sent to John the Baptist in prison to comfort his sore heart was “To the poor the Gospel is preached!” But the church is not reaching the poor, nor the rich in great numbers, nor the submerged one-tenth, nor the criminals, nor the fast young men and women that swarm in saloons and club rooms, crowding them to suffocation these Sunday afternoons and nights. (191-195)
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