The Revival and After the Revival – Chapter XIV

After the “revivalist” has, through the Spirit of life, “revived” the church, after the “evangelist” has proclaimed his “evangel,” and through the Spirit of all grace, all souls are “evangelized,” what then?

This is an important question that all evangelists, pastors, and church members, on whose shoulders the care of souls rests heavily, should be able to wisely answer.

We have this treasure of God’s grace in earthen jars, and when the stress of six, eight, or ten weeks of “revival work” is released, the weak flesh will always react. The outward signs have stopped. The bell that used to ring twice a day is now only heard occasionally. An hour or more of the afternoon and three hours of the evening, which were once filled with intense religious activities, are now free for other, nonreligious activities. The friendship that made both old members and new converts feel a warm glow of affection for each other has also ended. The evangelist who was the controlling spirit, whose tones, gestures, illustrations, appeals, and nervous energies filled the very room with magnetic power, has gone. Men and women who, for six weeks, were full of talk to penitents, converts, and believers about the work of grace and its blessedness now grow more silent and seldom say anything upon the subject; and young converts, who were saluted six months ago with hearty inquiries about their spiritual lives, now meet the same members but find that no “words of the kingdom” are spoken. The bright ideas and strong resolve of the revival period have been put to the test and strain of everyday life in the kitchen, shop, street, counting room, school, and parlor, and the souls that sang of heaven in the magnetic presence and under the igniting words of the young evangelist are now beyond his reach and beyond the mystic spell of song and sermon, facing the paralyzing, hostile facts and forces of this world. It was hard enough to fight the every-day battle during the revival, but now, alas, it is doubly difficult. The external conditions are gone.

When the panting, powerful little tug has taken the ship out of the harbor and beyond the Narrows into the broad sea, when the cables are loosened, the connection severed, and the tug turns to other places of special effort while the ship alone faces the broad sea, what shall the captain and crew do? The momentum has ceased, and the driving, guiding force from without has gone. To the men responsible for work on the “old ship Zion,” this question is important. In the heat of enthusiasm and of mutual congratulations over a current work of grace, church members and church leaders may forget the evil possibilities of tomorrow, but such forgetfulness is utter ignorance.

By J. H. VINCENT

Updated 2023 Nathan Zipfel

The Revival and After the Revival – Chapter XIV. 

After the “revivalist” has, through the Spirit of life, “revived” the church, after the “evangelist” has proclaimed his “evangel,” and through the Spirit of all grace, all souls are “evangelized,” what then?

This is an important question that all evangelists, pastors, and church members, on whose shoulders the care of souls rests heavily, should be able to wisely answer.

We have this treasure of God’s grace in earthen jars, and when the stress of six, eight, or ten weeks of “revival work” is released, the weak flesh will always react. The outward signs have stopped. The bell that used to ring twice a day is now only heard occasionally. An hour or more of the afternoon and three hours of the evening, which were once filled with intense religious activities, are now free for other, nonreligious activities. The friendship that made both old members and new converts feel a warm glow of affection for each other has also ended. The evangelist who was the controlling spirit, whose tones, gestures, illustrations, appeals, and nervous energies filled the very room with magnetic power, has gone. Men and women who, for six weeks, were full of talk to penitents, converts, and believers about the work of grace and its blessedness now grow more silent and seldom say anything upon the subject; and young converts, who were saluted six months ago with hearty inquiries about their spiritual lives, now meet the same members but find that no “words of the kingdom” are spoken. The bright ideas and strong resolve of the revival period have been put to the test and strain of everyday life in the kitchen, shop, street, counting room, school, and parlor, and the souls that sang of heaven in the magnetic presence and under the igniting words of the young evangelist are now beyond his reach and beyond the mystic spell of song and sermon, facing the paralyzing, hostile facts and forces of this world. It was hard enough to fight the every-day battle during the revival, but now, alas, it is doubly difficult. The external conditions are gone.

When the panting, powerful little tug has taken the ship out of the harbor and beyond the Narrows into the broad sea, when the cables are loosened, the connection severed, and the tug turns to other places of special effort while the ship alone faces the broad sea, what shall the captain and crew do? The momentum has ceased, and the driving, guiding force from without has gone. To the men responsible for work on the “old ship Zion,” this question is important. In the heat of enthusiasm and of mutual congratulations over a current work of grace, church members and church leaders may forget the evil possibilities of tomorrow, but such forgetfulness is utter ignorance.

By J. H. VINCENT

Updated 2023 Nathan Zipfel