CHAPTER IX. PROGRESS OF THE REVIVAL. We shall now resume our selections from those portions of Mr. C.'s journal which relate to the Huddersfield revival. Jan. 1, 1845. — Adieu, 1844! A happy and successful year hast thou been to me rial life! Hail, 1845! a has taken me by the hand. Through what scenes of joy or sorrow is it to lead? To what is it to introduce me? "There is a time to be born, and a time to die," says Solomon. What! and not a word about the time between? No; it seemed so short, I suppose, he needs make no account of it; as if, taken in itself, it was not worth mentioning, but just puts the cradle on the grave's brink. O, my soul, be watchful and active! Death is on the swift march to meet thee; and, though he cannot kill thee, he may unhouse thee suddenly, which he will do sooner or later. May he find thee as now, only holier, and filled with love! Let thy religion be experimental, practical, doctrinal. And thy preaching, let it be the same, that thou mayest save thyself and them that hear thee. Remember Rowland Hill's sentiment, that a merely doctrinal religion leads to Antinomianism; if only experimental, to enthusiasm; and if practical only, to pharisaism; but the three combined the most so in all my ministenew friend, but an untried one, make the real and scriptural Christian. Just so! This trinity in personal religion is of high importance, next to the doctrine of a trinity in theology. How things run in trinities! Matter, light and heat, one sun; hail, rain and snow, water; body, soul and spirit, one man; Father, Son and Holy Ghost, one God; rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, entire sanctification, at least, a blessed evidence of it; a doctrinal, experimental and practical religion, one Christian. O, my soul, never detach thyself from these! My mind is solemn. The new year has me by one hand, so to speak, and Providence holds me by the other. If the latter remain my Friend, the other cannot be my enemy. At peace with the Master, at peace with the servant. Amen! so be it, and so it is! Held our watch-night at Buxton-road Chapel. Text, "Awake, thou that sleepest," &c. — Eph. 5: 14. Thirteen souls were converted. Glory be to God! some born of the Spirit at the close of the old year, and others in the beginning of the new. Interesting scenes to Heaven, if there be still joy there over a sinner repenting. That settles it! Good news for the skies! God and the Lamb for ever and ever! Luke 15: 10. Amen! Afternoon of New Year's Day. -Out for a walk; medications retrospective, remembering all the way the Lord my God has led me in the wilderness, to humble me, and to prove me, to know what was in my heart, whether I would keep his commandments or no. - Deut. 8: 2. Had much cause for humiliation, indeed; and much, also, for thanksgiving and gladness of heart. At times sombre,—the pilgrim habit would return upon me; the looking up, and forward, and upward, and inward, with sighings of soul, and uncertainties as to the providential path, and scrutiny as to principles, motives, courage, purity, faith. ""T is sweet sometimes to speak and be the hearer; With his own thoughts, as with a living throng Jan. 3. Last night had a meeting for the new converts. Had a large proportion of them present. They knelt ir succession around the altar, after receiving a few words of advice and exhortation to faithfulness, then a few words of prayer, pronouncing over them the apostolical benediction : "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen."-2 Cor. 13: 14. And while singing a verse of a hymn they retired to their seats, and a fresh company came up; and so till all had been so confirmed,— a good Methodistic "confirmation" this, of truly regenerated souls! By this means, also, we found who had not yet been appointed to class, and had the thing attended to. Then we had a prayer-meeting for mourners, and a number saved. It was ascertained that six hundred and forty persons had been saved in justification and sanctification since the meeting commenced, the proportions thus: two hundred converted from the world; one hundred and forty members converted persons meeting in class before the revival, but unsaved; and three hundred cases of entire sanctification; total, six hundred and forty. How satisfactory to record the name of every person saved in such a work! It enables one to judge pretty correctly as to the character of the work, and preserves from exaggerated reports. All glory be to God! He doeth the works! How easy to gain the victory when Jesus takes the field! How hard the conflict when he stands aloof! "I I go nt up to the feast yet," said Jesus; but others went up. He was in the mountain, at prayer, while the disciples were rowing in vain against the wind and waves of the Tiberian Sea. But in the fourth watch of the night Jesus came to them, walking among the waves; fear came upon them when they ought to have had joy. They thought it was a spirit; but a voice came booming over the waves, "Be of good cheer; it is I, be not afraid." Peter was soon out among the waves to meet his Lord, with only the plank of faith to support him, which the winds and waves soon deprived him of. But Jesus caught him as he was going down, and saved him, with the sweet words, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" Peter remembered that, doubtless, in many an after conflict for souls! With Jesus aboard, they were victorious over winds and waves, and soon reached their quiet harbor. O, but there is much of this administration in these revival efforts! Jan. 4, Saturday morning. Pressed faith for purity, lovingly and intensely, last night; faith in a promise, a naked faith, stripped of all feeling, in a naked promise; "believe that ye do receive, and ye shall have."- Mark 11: 24. Faith is a voluntary act of the mind; otherwise it could not be a condition of salvation. Showed that everything stands still till this faith is exercised; as the "unclean spirit" went not out of the man's son, till the father cried out, with tears, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." For Jesus had said to him, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." Faith, under the Gospel, seems to be the finishing act of the mind. It is like signing a check on the bank, without which the best drawn check is good for nothing. The promise of Jesus is like an unsigned check until the believing soul endorses it by its faith; then it is negotiable at the bank of grace. Many do not understand this, and plead the promise most earnestly, and wonder that it draws nothing, while they refuse to believe. They might just as well present a draft at a bank, and plead intensely to have it cashed, while they refuse to endorse it. When we are pleading a promise for full salvation, we endorse it by believing that we do receive it; that instant we shall feel that the promise is honored, and we do receive. I love to press upon believers that sentiment of Mr. Wesley,-"It is of importance to observe that there is an inseparable connection between these three points: 1st, expect it AS you are; 2d, expect it by FAITH; 3d, expect it NOW. To deny one is to deny Do you them all. To allow one is to allow them all. believe we are sanctified by faith? Be true to your principle, and look for the blessing just as you are, neither better nor worse,- as a poor sinner that has nothing to pay, nothing to plead, but Christ died. And if you look for it as you are, then expect it now; stay for nothing. Why should you? Christ is ready; and he is all you want. He is waiting for you; he is at the door." Worldly wisdom and the wisdom of the serpent will have much to say against such sentiments; but they will stand good and unimpeachable to the end of the world. I preached as one beating the air, for years, upon this doctrine, because I was in the fog on the simple way of faith. But no sooner did I clearly perceive the scriptural truth of those propositions of Mr. Wesley, experience them, and preach them, than the arm of God was made bare in the full salvation of believers. It was by pressing them home by all the varied illustrations I could command that those three hundred |