dating from the time when its first notes were sounded by Theodore Parker; indeed, more than has any form of radicalism since the first scoffer said, “There is no God," or, "Christianity is false." "For which of

these do ye stone me?"

After these failures on the part of radicalism, and these triumphs on the part of the evangelical faith, are we still advised by the "Parker Memorial" pulpit to substitute that which fails for that which succeeds? If history proves anything clearly, it is that society has been repeatedly checked in its downward career by religious revivals based upon the truths of evangelical Christianity.

Is it replied that the evangelical patient is constantly taken sick again? True: but the trouble is with the patient, not with the physician, nor with the remedies employed. A given patient sickens, applies to the doctor; the prescription is ordered, and the patient recovers. But, owing to wilful irregularities, he again sickens; the same remedy is successfully administered, and he recovers; again and again does it thus result. Now, shall the physician and the remedy be cast aside, or give place to a prescription which, whenever employed, has not only not cured sick men, but has repeatedly made well men sick?

"What would the great hives of our various industries in Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, and Cornwall have been," asks an English correspondent, "but for revivals? It is all very well to howl against spasmodic and hysterical religion,' but the fact is that the mighty moral renovation which the populations of those countries have undergone, is

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due chiefly to the thing to which such ugly epithets are attached." *

In the introductory chapter of this volume the incompetency of human nature, however thoroughly cultivated, likewise the insufficiency of different historic types of civilization, however embellished by art and science, were found to be utterly inadequate to effect desirable and permanent religious reforms, however auspicious their beginnings. Even when these conditions were combined under the most favorable circumstances, men have been found to wax worse and worse until they have reached the limits of human degrada

* A prominent member of the Young Men's Christian Association of New York city has recently thus written, under the heading" Is the Work Lasting":- "The work of Messrs. Moody and Sankey in New York was thorough, and the persons who were induced to begin a new life with Christ continue to walk with Him. The churches which went into the work with inquiry rooms most heartily, were greatly strengthened by large accessions of members. Very many who were outside, to all human appearance, of all church influence, were reached, and have united with the churches, and are now leading useful lives. Hope was inspired in those who had lost courage; drunkards and opium-eaters were reclaimed; thieves and gamblers were reformed; men living in degrading sin forsook their evil ways, and women fallen and outcast were restored to their families and friends; truant sons came back to their homes; brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, long alienated, were reconciled; men engaged in business of questionable character relinquished it, and Christians of every name appeared to be more interested in encouraging, sympathizing with, and helping those who needed their kindly aid. It is impossible to give any adequate conception of the influence for good which has resulted from the labors of these devoted evangelists."

tion, or until they were arrested in their downward course by Bible Christianity. It is this same Christian faith which has repeatedly saved even culture itself from rottenness.

All things considered, therefore, would it not be wiser for the pulpit of the "Church of the Unity," and that of "Parker Memorial," to hush their clangor for a while? When they know more of this which they assail, they will be wiser than they are. Thomas Carlyle passed this severe but just criticism upon Voltaire.

"Our serious ground of offence against Voltaire," says Carlyle," is, that he intermeddled in religion without being himself, in any measure, religious; that he entered the temple, and continued there, with a levity which, in any temple where men worship, can beseem no brother-man; that, in a word, he ardently, and with long continued effort, warred against Christianity, without understanding beyond the mere superficies what Christianity is." The aptness of this rebuke needs no comment, and the reader will instantly make the desired application.

II. THE TAbernacle Methods.

The Boston Tabernacle movement, in its human relations, had its birth in the purest intentions of Christian people.* For several years the feeling had

* This was well expressed by the call of the committee for a day of prayer and fasting: "Messrs. Moody and Sankey, having established themselves in the Tabernacle the Christians of Boston and its vicinity have erected for their work, are desirous that not only the city, but all New England, shall

existed in New England, that the membership of the evangelical churches needed an awakening; that many were merely nominal Christians, having departed from the consistency and earnestness of primitive evangelical piety. Wickedness, too, had been walking the streets of our cities comparatively unchecked and unrebuked. In a word, the conviction had well-nigh fully ripened that the whole community needed, not only a toning up, but a thorough regeneration, politically, socially, and religiously.

None were more troubled on account of these conditions than the clergy. They saw "fields ploughed and sown, yet yielding no fruit; machinery constantly in motion, yet all without one particle of produce; nets cast into the sea, and spread wide, yet no fishes enclosed; all this for years, in some instances for a lifetime. They could speak of sermons preached, but of sermons blessed they could say nothing. They could speak of discourses that were admired and praised, but of discourses that had been made effectual by the be spiritually revived and blessed. The committee unite with these distinguished evangelists in this desire, and beg to suggest to Christian brethren and pastors of all denominations, who sympathize with this movement, to observe Thursday, February 8, as a day of prayer and fasting. Have we not too much occasion ought we not to humble ourselves in the dust, and cry, 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me'? Dear brethren, let us all unite and make the day one of solemn, heart-searching confession and supplication. Then may we individually take up the other words of the psalmist, and say unto God, Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee."

Holy Spirit they could not speak. They could tell how many had been baptized, how many communicants had been admitted; but of souls awakened, converted, ripening in grace, they could give no account. They could enumerate the sacraments they had dispensed; but as to whether any of them had been 'times of refreshing,' or times of salvation, they could say nothing satisfactory;" while the dishonesty of church-members had brought Christianity into disrepute. There was, therefore, every reason to inspire preachers to labor and pray for "times of refreshing." "Revive thy work, O Lord," was the earnest and often repeated supplication heard from the pulpit.

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In addition, it may also be said that before the Tabernacle was thought of, most of our citizens had lost faith in the supposed, and asserted reformative tendencies of material prosperity; the claim that more shillings conceded for the making of a shirt would double the religion of mankind,"had been found extremely fallacious. Men had been saying, "Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly;"† but distrust and confusion had resulted. Educational methods were likewise held more and more at discount, since it was found that the intellectual training of our public schools, independent of religious instruction, had served, in some instances, merely to convert an ordinary into an extraordinary villain. Reliance upon

human reason in religious matters likewise afforded no satisfactory basis. The people discovered, as had the German Hamann, that "The soundness of the reason is the cheapest, most arbitrary, and most shame † Genesis, xi. 3.

* Dr. Bonner.