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Page 49
As to revivals, popularly so-called, we maintain, first of all,
that it ought to be the policy and aim of the Church to preclude their
necessity.
It is generally admitted that they are only needed, longed for
and obtained, after a period of spiritual decline and general
worldliness. A Church that is alive and active needs no revival. A
lifeless Church does. Better then, far better, to use every right
endeavor to keep the Church alive and active, than permit it to grow
cold and worldly, with a view and hope of a glorious awakening.
Prevention is better than cure. We would rather pay a family physician
to prevent disease and keep us well, than to employ even the most
distinguished doctor to cure a sick household; especially if the
probability were that, in some cases, the healing would be only
partial, and in others it would eventuate in an aggravation of the
disease.
In the chapters on the Baptismal Covenant and Conversion, we
showed that it is possible to keep that covenant and thus always grow
in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we
sorrowfully admitted that the cases of such as do it are not as
numerous as is possible and most desirable, we also learned that they
might be far more numerous, if parents and teachers understood their
responsibility and did their duty to the baptized children. We verily
believe that thus it might become the rule, instead of the exception,
that the children of Christian parents would grow up as Christ's lambs
from baptism, would love Him with their earliest love and never wander
into the ways of sin. We also firmly believe that those thus early
consecrated, trained, taught and nurtured in faith and love, make the
healthiest, the strongest and most reliable members and workers in
the Church.
Neither can we for a moment doubt but that such is the good and
gracious will of Him who desires the little children to be baptized
into Him. It certainly seems repugnant to all that we have ever
learned of our God and Saviour, that it should be His will that our
dear children, who have been _conceived and born in sin_, and are
therefore _by nature_, or by birth, _the children of wrath_, should
remain in this state of sin and condemnation until they are old enough
to be converted at a revival. Yet it must be either that, or a denial
of the Bible doctrine of original sin, if we accept the teachings and
practices of modern revivalism. For either of these positions we are
not prepared.
Therefore it is our great aim and object to recall the Church to
the old paths. Therefore we are concerned to see the Church firmly
established on the old foundations of the doctrine of original sin, of
baptism for the remission of sins, of training up in that baptismal
covenant by the constant, diligent and persevering teaching of God's
Word, in the family, in the Sunday-school, in the catechetical class
and from the pulpit. In proportion as this is accomplished, in that
proportion will we preclude the necessity of conversions and,
consequently, of revivals.
Who will say, that a congregation made up of such as are
"_sanctified from the womb_," "_lent to the Lord_," from
birth, having "_known the Holy Scripture_" from childhood, would
not be a healthy, living Church? Such a Church would need no revival.
Would it be possible to have such a Church? Is it possible for
any _one_ member to grow up and remain a child of God? If possible for
one, why not for a whole congregation? Are the means of Grace
inadequate? No, no! The whole trouble lies in the neglect or abuse of
the means. With their proper use, the whole aspect of religious life
might be different from what it is. It is not a fatal necessity that
one, or more, or all the members of a church must periodically grow
cold, lose their first love, and backslide from their God. It is not
God's will, but their fault, that it should be so.
While the church at Ephesus lost its first love, and that at
Pergamos permitted false doctrine to creep into it and be a stumbling
block, and that at Thyatira suffered Jezebel to seduce Christ's
servants, and that at Sardis did not have her works found perfect
before God, and that of Laodicea had become lukewarm; yet the church
at Smyrna, with all her tribulation and poverty and persecution,
remained rich and faithful in the sight of God, and that at
Philadelphia had kept the Word of God's patience, and her enemies were
to know that God loved her. While the former five were censured, the
latter two were approved. The former might have remained as faithful
as the latter. It was their own fault and sin that the former needed a
revival. The latter needed none. Which were the better off?
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