THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
1. Asahel Nettleton.
in favor of a true freedom, till in Nathaniel William Taylor's teaching the will has always, in every case of actual choice, a " power to the contrary " (for the history see New England Theology). As the outcome of the development of this theology, the preacher in these revivals felt that he was actually and powerfully influencing his hearers to repentance, and they felt that upon them alone lay the responsibility of choosing or refusing the service of God, since they possessed a perfect ability to choose or refuse; and yet preacher and convert praised the grace of God as efficient agent and divine benefactor in every man's salvation (cf. F H. Foster's Genetic History of the Xew England Theology, Chicago, 1907).
4. Later Revivals: Among Congregationalists and associated denominations revivals went forward up to the point now reached without the help of any one who was exclusively devoted to this work. The period of professional revivalists had not set in. The early educational advantages of Asahel Nettleton (q.v.) were small, and, as his parents were not professing Christians, it was not till his eighteenth year that he became a Christian. Inclined first to the foreign missionary work, he was gradually drawn into revival labors, and was never able to extricate himself from the responsibilities thus incurred. He traversed a large part of Connecticut, with frequent labors in Massachusetts and New York, and in the South his journeys carried him as far as Charleston, S. C. For about twenty-three years he was one of the most active and conspicuous figures in the service of the churches through the conduct of revivals. Of his special preparation for his work, gained by experience in the work itself, his observers frequently speak. Because of his familiarity with the experiences of many different men in many different places, he often seemed to be describing the experience of his auditors as if he were personally acquainted with their innermost thoughts. '"' When he commenced his labors in any place, he first attempted to impress the people with the fact that their help must come from above, and that they must place no dependence upon an arm of flesh." So earnest was he in this feeling, that if he thought they were depending too much upon him, he would suddenly leave them for a time. He began his work by seeking to deepen the earnestness of the church and the sense of responsibility. He would preach upon the sins of Christians, and by his searching and personal methods of application seek to carry conviction home to them first. Then he was ready to preach to sinners. His style was simple and impressive. He did not seek to awaken great emotion, but preferred a quiet revival. Preaching earnestly, following this with familiar addresses in the lecture room, and adding to these faithful private conversation and personal labor, he gathered the fruit " by hand," as some one has felicitously described the personal method of labor. His conversation with such was, however, usually brief, and partook somewhat of the nature of a physician's prescriptions. One duty and one only did he press upon anxious inquirers, that of immediate repentance. He urged this upon them
because they could do nothing short of it which would in any way improve their condition. Thus he fell in with the best line of New England teaching. In one respect these revivals were very defective. To the end, the peculiar path which Nettleton had had to tread when he came into the kingdom continued to exercise an influence upon him and upon the religious experience of his converts. There was a long period of distress through which most of them had to pass, and a great degree of dimness and mystery and uncertainty about the act of conversion itself. It was the result of bad teaching, just as was the supreme (and successful!) effort which one of Edwards' young people went through with, to repent of her sin in Adam I Nowhere is it possible to find a clear explanation of the nature of faith in his sermons. Nowhere does he tell a sinner exactly what he is to do in terms which possess clearness because resting upon a clear psychology of repentance and faith. The day for all this had not come. He produced true faith because he so powerfully presented the motives under which it arises; but just what happened at the decisive moment in his soul, neither the sinner nor his teacher really knew.
Charles Grandison Finney (q.v.), living in Central New York, then a frontier country, was brought up with meager advantages as to education, and with religious advantages yet more deficient; so he grew
to young manhood, studied law and ^l„„„^„™ entered upon its practise, in Adams,
N. Y., without any real acquaintance
Grandison Finney.
with the Gospel. He had had some educational opportunities in his later youth, having spent a brief time in a high school in Connecticut; but the religious privileges which he then enjoyed had brought little light to his mind. He says of himself, when he began the study of law, that he was " almost as ignorant of religion as a heathen." His first Bible was purchased because of the references to it which he found in his law books. There was a new element in the revival work which Finney's conversion led him to undertake which goes back to his own mental processes and spiritual experiences. The day he was converted he gained a new idea of the nature of faith. He had held it to be an intellectual belief, but now he understood that it was a voluntary trust. This he put forth by the direct act of his will, and upon this his conversion followed, though he did not at once understand that he was converted, in this particular rehearsing the experiences of many converts from the time of Edwards down. But the application of this principle to the philosophy and the methods of revivals could not long remain hid from him, nor his own mode of procedure remain unaffected by it. The out-working of this principle manifested itself first in the realm of theology. Finney was a born theologian. He possessed the interest in abstract truth, the power of analytical thought, and the love of cogent proof, which united make the theologian, and constitute him, at the same time, an original, investigating, and advancing theologian. He was therefore soon engaged in further discussions with his pastor, and was led step by step to substantially the same positions taken by Nathaniel William