TIMES OF REFRESHING. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS-DESIGN OF THE WORK-TIMES OF REFRESHING WHAT TIMES MEANT. "CHURCH HISTORY," as Neander well remarks, "is a living witness of the Divine power of Christianity;a school of Christian experience;-a voice sounding through the ages, of instruction, of doctrine, of reproof, and of encouragement." In every age God has had a Church in the world, made up of those who are living witnesses of the truth,-the honoured instruments of communicating its light and blessings to others. These, in all ages, have been special objects of his favour;— a seed to serve Him";-" a people whom He has formed for himself to show forth his praises" ;lights" shining amidst prevailing darkness and B corruptions; "-to these He has granted "times of refreshing," to strengthen their faith and joy. The design of the present work is to bring under review,— not in continuous and consecutive order,-some of these blessed seasons of revival,-in the past and present history of the Church. The providential dispensations, the various instrumentalities, by which these seasons were introduced, and their happy results, -are the accomplishments of Divine prophecies and promises, and the earnests and harbingers of the coming glory of the Church in "the latter days." The Apostle St. Peter, addressing an astonished and awakened multitude, principally Jews, exhorting and encouraging them to repentance, said to them,-"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." What are these "times of refreshing" of which the Apostle here speaks? Some consider St. Peter as referring to the future conversion of the Jewish nation and the happy times to be introduced by that event. Thus writes an able critic :-" No other meaning, it seems to me, will suit the words, but that of the times-the great season of joy and rest-which, it was understood, the coming Acts iii. 19-21. . |