RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Revlsz
Revivals of Religion
pointed librarian of the Fraterhuis, and in the same year the Synod of Dort assigned him a part in the new revision of the Dutch translation of the Old Testament. The committee of translators and revisers, which convened at Leyden in 1633-34, made Revius secretary. He likewise took an active part in the establishment of the Athenaeum at Deventer in 1630, and was influential in calling the first professors. In 1641 he accepted a call to Leyden as regent of the state college, and held this position for the remainder of his life. His closing years were embittered by the rise of Cartesianism, to which he was intensely opposed. A rare Hebrew scholar, Revius was also a prolific writer. He showed, however, a domineering disposition and exercised a vehement polemic, as shown in his struggle with Cartesianism and the Remonstrants. Against the latter he wrote, Schriftuurlijk tegen Bericht van de Leere der Gereformeerde Kerken aengaende de goddelijke Predestinatie ende andere aen-clevende Poincten (Deventer, 1617); against the former he wrote especially his Statera philosophies Cartesiance (Leyden, 1650); and Theke, hoc est levitas defensionis Cartesiance (Briel, 1653). The rights of the Church he defended in his Examen seu de potestate magis-
tratuum reformatorum circa res ecclesiasticas (Amsterdam, 1642), and his Uittreksels over de rnacht der overheid in het afzetten van predikanien (Leyden, 1650). While endeavoring to avoid the contemporary controversy whether men might wear long hair, he was obliged to defend his moderate position
in his Libertas Christiana circa usum capillitii defensa (1647).
While he was regent, no less than 576 disputations took place at Leyden. In 1623 Revius published at Leyden his own Greek and Latin translation of the Belgic Confession, a revised and enlarged edition appearing four years later as Belgicarum ecclesiarum doctrina et ordo. Copies of this were widely circulated among the Orthodox Greeks and won the approval of Cyril Lucar (q.v.), whose own " Confession " may thus have been materially influenced by the Belgic Confession. Revius also conferred a considerable service on science by editing 300 letters of the famous Joseph Juste Scaliger (q.v.) under the title Epistres francoises des personnages illustres et doctes a M. Joseph Juste de la Scala (Harderwijk, 1624). His main work entitled him to prominence among historical writers, Daventrice illustrated, sive histories urbis Daventriensis libri sex (Leyden, 1651). Revius was also one of the best poets of his time, publishing Over-Yseselsche Sangen en Dichten (Deventer, 1630; enlarged ed., Leyden, 1634), and De CL Psalmen Davids in sin en de
rijmen gebetert (Deventer, 1640).
(S. D. van Veen.)
Bibliography : Sources are his own sketch in his Daventrice illustrates, ut sup., pp. 725-728; and J. Hoornbeek, Miscellanea sacra, pp. 575-591, Utrecht, 1676. Consult: J. van Vloten, Het Leven en de uitgelezen zangen en dichten van Jacobus Revius, Schiedam, 1863; E. J. W. Posthumus Meyjes, Jacobus Revius, zijn Leven en Werken, Amsterdam, 1895.
I. II.
III. 1.
Theory of Revivals.
Early Revivals.
In Biblical Times (§1).
Protestant Revivals (§ 2).
In America.
Revivals under Edwards.
Revival of 1734-35 (§ 1).
Great Awakening, 1740 (§ 2).
Revival under Criticism (§ 3).
James Davenport (§ 4).
Edwards' Defense; Statistics
(§5). Revivals about the Year 1800.
REVIVALS OF RELIGION.
College Revivals; Timothy Dwight
(§ 1). Lyman Beecher (§ 2). Kentucky Revival (§ 3).
3. Theology of these Revivals.
4. Later Revivals. Asahel Nettleton (§ 1). Charles Grandison Finney (§ 2). Criticism of Finney's Methods
(§3). Dwight Lyman Moody (§ 4).
5. General View of the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries.
In General (§ 1). Benjamin Fay Mills (§ 2). Reuben Archer Torrey (§ 3). J. Wilbur Chapman (§ 4).
IV. The Welsh Revival of 1904-1906. The Welsh People (§ 1).
The Revival Described (§ 2).
Its Origin (§ 3).
Evan John Roberts; Early Life
(§4). Work in the Revival (§ 5). Occult Phenomena (§ 6).
V. Roman Catholic Mission.
The phrase " revivals of religion " is ordinarily applied to the spiritual condition of a Christian community, more or less limited in extent, in which a special interest is very generally felt in respect to religious concerns, accompanied with a marked manifestation of divine power and grace in the quickening of believers, the reclaiming of backsliders, and the awakening, conviction, and conversion of the unregenerate.
I. Theory of Revivals: The progress of Christianity in the world has rarely, for any length of time, been uniform. Its growth in the individual and in the community is characterized by very obvious fluctuations. Like all things temporal, it is subject to constant change, exposed to influences the most varied and antagonistic. Now it makes rapid advances in its conflict with sinful propensities and developments; again it is subjected to obstructions and reverses that effectually check its onward course, and result in spiritual declensions.
Growth in grace is attainable only by ceaseless vigilance, untiring diligence, unremitting conflict, and a faithful improvement of the opportunities and means of spiritual advancement. Any relaxation in the strife with moral evil tends to spiritual retardation: the evil gets the advantage over the good; the religious fervor abates; the soul becomes lukewarm, cold, dead. As with the individual believer, so is it with the community. A church, a sisterhood of churches covering a large section of country, by reason of the predominating influence of some worldly interests — the greed of gain in a season of great commercial prosperity, the strife of party during a highly excited political campaign, the prevalence of a martial spirit in time of war, or the lust of pleasure in a time of general worldly gaiety and festivity, or any absorbing passion for mere temporal good — may be so diverted from the direct pursuit of holiness, and the prosecution of the work of advancing the kingdom of Christ, as to
Revivals of Religion