In view of these facts, what would have become of religion but for revivals? Had Joshua, and David, and Josiah. and Ezra, and Luther, and Edwards, the WV- leys, Whitefield, and other revivalists, clung to estab- lished customs, and opposed innovations, as some did, and as others do now, the name of God would hardly have been preserved from oblivion.
The same tendency is observable in individuals and some churches now. They are in close fellowship with sin and the world, without God, and without any well- grounded hope.
Revivals are also necessary because there is no other cure for the evils to be remedied. Spiritual life can never spring out, of the dead, worldly policy which es- chews revivals: reason, common-sense, and history are all against it. We may lill the Church with man-made converts, who have been coaxed into a profession of re- ligion without having the first elements of a Christian character; but that is not God's work, nor is ii relig- ious; it is rather an attempt to cover the wolf in sheep's clothing, to be stripped of his false pretence when it is too late to repent and be saved. Nearly all the religion of the ages is attributable to revivals. Every device to supersede their necessity has failed. It may be added with special emphasis that revivals are necessary to the triumph of moral reforms. Experience has taught many that they cannot reform without the grace of God. Such were their habits of licentiousness, profan- ity, intemperance, fraud, sinful amusements, etc., that all attempts al reform were fruitless until they came to God tor salvation. Then they found deliverance, not from the huh it only, but from all disposition to follow it. This is the only solid basis of reform, when bad appe- tites, passions, and habits are fully established. God only can save in these extreme cases.
8. Revival measures require great courage, zeal, and decision in their leaders to make them most effective.
Because, first, they generally encounter opposition from
without, and often from professors of religion. It may be silent, but still it is real and hurtful. Sometimes it takes the form of friendship, as in the case of Nehemiab and Sanballat. and suggests damaging complications, which require clear perception and invincible firmness. At others ii is outspoken and threatening, which is less hurtful. Hut not unfrequently genuine but misguided friends of the work have to be restrained to prevent their hindering what they fain would help. To do this successfully often requires much decision and tact Hut
it must be done. A lew weak and fanatical people have
sometimes been allowed to neutralize the best efforts. hut there seems to he little danger from that quarter at the present time. These measures Buffer more from
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spiritual death than from overaction. And yet with some there is so much dread of excitement that they hardly dare to light the fires of revival for fear of an explosion. These circumstances call for courage to venture. But many who wish well to the cause have no faith in God or man. They cannot see how success is to be achieved, and therefore they hesitate to attempt it. Here is an- other call for courage. Many of the great revivals of the ages commenced with one man. He alone believed, and worked it up; but when it became manifest that God was with him, others rallied to his support. In the progress of the work this same unbelief, during every little reverse, is prompt to predict that it is going to stop. This calls for more faith in the leader, who will do well to review the book of Nehemiah. Then churches sometimes get weary, and want their evenings for rest, business, or recreation, and propose to suspend the meet- ings. A proper zeal will suggest some little modifica- tion of measures, and strike for new achievements. Re- vivals have been successfully carried on for years under this policy; not so much by holding meetings every evening as by making every meeting, whether regular or extra, to advance the work.
Literature. — Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England [1740] ; to which is prefixed A Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in Northampton, Mass. [1735] (N. Y.); Porter, Revivals of Religion, showing their Theory, Means, Obstructions, Importance, and Per- versions, with the Duty of Christians in regard to them (N. Y. and Cincinnati, 1877) ; Finney, Lectures on Re- vivals of Religion (Oberlin, 0. 1868) ; Fish, Handbook of Revivals,for the Use of Winners of Souls (Boston, 1874). See North Brit. Rev. Nov. 18G0; Mercersb. Rev. Jan. 1872. (J. P.)
Revocatus was a Christian martyr under Severus, a catechumen of Carthage, and a slave. On the day appointed for the execution, he was led to the amphi- theatre, and, having denounced God's judgment upon his persecutors, was ordered to run the gantlet be- tween the hunters. He was then destroyed by wild beasts, A.D. 205.— Fox, Book of Martyrs.
Revolution. The name given to that change in the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of England which took place when James II had been expelled from the throne in the year 1688, and his son-in-law, William, prince of Orange, was elected by the voice of the people. The immediate occasion of the Revolution was a fallacious proclamation issued by James, under the pretence of extending toleration ; hut the true ob- ject of which was to place all the offices of trust in the hands of the papists, whose hopes had been revived by the death of Charles II. Some Protestant Dissenters were imposed upon by this specious pretence; but the sagacity of the bishops justly apprehending the intend- ed consequences, the)' strenuously contended and pe- titioned against the proclamation, and alarmed the fears of Protestants throughout the kingdom.