THE REVIVALIST. SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF REVIVALS. MANY persons, not positively hostile to revivals of religion, seem yet to regard them as something extraneous to religion; it may be, a useless appendage of it. If the regular forms and ordinances of religion are sustained, they see not what more is wanted. But such an idea has no sanction in the Scriptures. Even under the Old Testament, seasons of the outpouring of the Spirit of God were regarded as essential to the life and continued existence of the Church. Take some specimens of the language of the Hebrew Scriptures. Isaiah says: Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city; because the palaces are forsaken, the forts and towers shall be dens for ever, the joy of wild asses and the pasture of flocks, until the Spirit be poured upon us from Jan. 1844. B |