The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1893, Page 26

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)
A Revival.

screaming; thesamenumberof christians pray | friend sends you a letter, he often sends
ing, shouting or swooning; the shrill voice of | only an empty envelope addressed to you, and
the leader once in a while rising above the din, | the bearer delivers the message orally. But
Though always having a particular aversion | calling for ‘‘fire!’’ power!’ ; and the ministers | what seems to me one of the oddest of all cus-
to ‘‘revivals,”” yet I once had occasion to attend | shouting the loud and deep ‘‘Amen! Amen! | toms of the Chinese was the mode of resenting
Pies one during my sojourn in Virginia some years | qo Lord! Hallelujah!’’ This lasts.till ten or] an injury. ‘There is very seldom a real fight.
a ago. Thinking that a description of such 4} eleven o’clock, with the simple variation of a| Sometimes they resort to hair-pulling, and they
revival might prove of interest to the readers song instead of a prayer, when the noice, up-| pull with a vengeance; but asa rule, when one
of the Pronger, I have written the following: | roar and confusion is, if possible, still greater. | feels deeply injured, in any way, he goes right
To study such a revival calmly and dis-| This is no exaggeration ; it falls far below] on the street and begins to tell the story of his
passionately I found to be an impossibility. | the sad reality, as all who know will bear me| wrongs, ‘‘at the top of his lungs,’’ shouting
I think it impossible for any man to listen to| witness. Think you, then, that that altar is} all sorts of family secrets, and abusing the
the preaching, to hear the doctrines advanced, | 2 place for young children, or for old children, | relative or neighbor who has wronged him,
to observe all the many and questionable means | or for any humble ‘‘inquitrer’’ to think calmly, | with all the hard words and hard names he
* brought into use calmly and dispassionately. | scriptually? Do they know what they are|can think of. I have seen women on the low,
The preacher’s stand is a veritable Mount|about, think you? They are invited to come| flat roofs of their houses, screaming all sorts
Sinai, over which hangs a cloud of darkness; | forward as ‘‘inguirers,’’ to be instructed—| of horrible things about their husbands, and
it is a Mount Sinai surrounded by fire, shaken| can they understand a word? Can they dis-| men sitting in the street, with back against
by thunder and spits out fierce lightnings. |tinguish one single connected sentence? And} the wall, shouting till they were dark in the”
The subjects of sermon and exhortation are | sec there, how those preachers beat them upon| face and too hoarse to speak, telling every-
wrath and fury, ‘‘hell-fire and damnation.”’ |their backs, as though ‘‘religion,’’ or more] body about their cross and obstinate wives.
Before anything can be done, the member-| properly, faith, was a wedge that could be} The most curious part is that no one seems to
ship must be aroused to action. The preacher | driven in between the shoulderblades! It only | listen or care anything about it, and, really,
says, he wants to hear ‘‘a shout raised in the | too often happens that ‘‘mourners”’ are driven | I do not think that the people who are howling
“camp of Israel’? —‘‘that the walls of Jericho | from the altar by the force of these blows with| care, either, whether anyone listens or not.
never fell down till the Israelites began to|their backs more bruised than their hearts.| Out upon a country road I once came upon
shout; and he never knew anything to have} The preachers were excited and did not know| a man who was ventilating his wrongs in this
: been done till some sister ‘got happy’.’’— | how hard they slapped or pounded them. This way, and I am sure, that, except his own
eae ‘€Q Lord, make these sisters here shouting | revival lasts, perhaps, for two weeks. The last| family, there was not another mortal within
“a Deion happy, right now!’” day the preacher asks all who want to go to} sound of his voice; yet he was rattling on at
; Upon this now follow appeals to the passions, | heaven, to let him put their names down in his} a great rate concerning the treatment he re-
to the affections and fears; scenes are pictured | book — that he wants them all to be ‘‘seekers,’’ | ceived from his family.— Wide Awake.
‘of dying fathers, dying mothers and dying chil- | and that his church is just the place ‘‘to seek
dren. Then come scenes of hell and judgment, | religion’” — that thousands have ‘‘professed
of parents meeting their children in heayen |religion”’ in his church. He gets their names
and of men ‘hanging by a single hair over|and the revival closes. . .
“the fiery pit of hell.””— During all the preach-| The next Sunday the preacher will tell his} ‘‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take
ing may be heard violent sobbings, screams | congregation ‘‘that the Lord has powerfully heed lest he fall,’’ says the Word of God: :
and shouts. As the preacher nears the close| revived his work, and that many have been| Nothing is to be gained, but much may be
of his sermon, the shouting becomes more and | powerfully revived and converted.”? About a| lost, by boasting. Charles V., before he in-
more general —the preacher’s voice rises over] year afterward, many of the converts having| Vaded France, ordered the court historian to
all like the sound of a mighty trumpet: ‘‘Fire! | become wilder and more wicked than ever, | Obtain a large quantity of paper to record the
fire! Send. down fire! Baptize all this congre- | another “‘revival-meeting”’ is gotten up, when | Victories which he was going to obtain. But
gation with the Holy Ghost and f-i-r-e!” Power, | the same things are acted over again. Again| he lost his general and a large part of his army
_ p-0-w-e-r! Come in thy mighty rower!” a great number is induced to profess regener-| by disease, and returned baflled, defeated and
Now, the excitement being at the right stage | ation. -They honestly think that they are re-| mortified.
and all aroused to action, the door of the altar | generated—they are told so. According to] Mrs. Judge B——, a wealthy and aristo-
is thrown open and all the sinners present are | the announcement of the preacher it would| cratic lady of New Jersey, was one day sailing -
called upon to come forward before they drop | seem that now the whole neighborhood must] with a party of friends, when the subject of
into hell, In the midst of the excitement, {have been converted. —But in about three| losing property was discussed. Mrs. B ’
‘parents bring their terrified children to the/months not a few of them profess unregener-| Slipping a gold ring from her finger and drop-
- altar, and others from alarm, others from pure|ation. They have forgotten their fears, their} ping it into the river, said: ‘‘It is as impossible
_ Nervous excitement, and still others from sym- | excitement has worn off, and they return to| for me ever to become poor as for me to recover _
pathy rush forward to the mourner’s bench. | their old forsaken sins, as Peter says, ‘‘ Like] thisring.’? Not many days after, Mrs. B i}
Then follows what some preachers call a ‘‘sanc- | a dog turns to his own vomit; and the sow| cook came into the sitting-room and showed
tified row.” The mourners are told to pray | that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.’’ | her a ring which had been taken from a fish.
mightily, and’ a season of prayer commences.| New Orleans, La., June 28, 1893. It was the ring she had dropped into the lake.
__ A brother with good strong voice is called F- J. L. - |.Mrs. B—— died a pauper in Elizabethtown, -
_ upon to Jead in prayer, and all the mourners 9 N. J., and her husband died in the poor-house
“are called upon to pray, and all the christians of an adjoining town.
‘fre told to pray and:pray mightily. Now fol- Humility, and not boasting, is becoming in

A 0 0 pe

Boasting.

2 +o +

Chinese Oddity.

a scene that beggars all description, for} If one argues that China, being upon the] Christian. Whatever you are, give all the)

next half hour men and women, girls and | Opposite side of the globe, must be literally | glory toGod. John Newton said: ‘‘I am not
are mingled and commingled in one mass, | Upside down, he will not find himself very| what I ought to be; I am not what I wish to -

)and throwing their arms}|much mistaken. Dinner begins with cake,| he; I am not what I hope to be; but, by the -

nable direction; 40 or | pudding and confectionery and ends with soup. grace of God, I am not what I was.’’.
; Exchange.

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en San

ng and wee ing, praying and | Lemonade is always as hot as hot can be. If