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LETTER 
 
 REV. DR. WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE 
 
 PUBLISHED IN THE 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 VOLUME OF LECTURES 
 
 REVIVALS 
 
 BY EDWARD D. GRIFFIN, D.D. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 PHI5TED By PACKAIID AND VAN BEHTIIIJYSKK. 
 
 1832. 
 
 5 
 
LETTER. 
 
 Williams College, Jan. 20, 1832. 
 Reverend and Dear Sir, 
 
 You ask me for some account of the early American revivals in 
 the modern series, jiarticularly those in which I was permitted to 
 take a part, and those which have occurred in this college ; toge- 
 ther with my views of the proper means of conducting them and 
 of guarding against the dangers incident to their abuse. 
 
 Long before the death of Whitefield in 1770, extensive revivals 
 in America had ceased. And except one in Stockbridge and some 
 other parts of Berlcshire county, Mas. about the year 1772 ; and 
 one in the North Quarter of Lyme, Conn, about the year 1780 ; 
 and one in several towns of Litchfield county, Conn, about the year 
 1783 ; I know of none which occurred afterwards till the time of 
 which I am to speak. 
 
 About the year 1792 commenced three series of events of suffi- 
 cient importance to constitute a new era. That year the blood be- 
 gan to flow in Europe, in that contest which, with short intervals, 
 was destined to destroy the " man of sin" and to introduce a happier 
 form of society and the glorious state of the Church. That year was 
 established at Kettering in England, the first in the continuous se- 
 ries of societies which have covered the whole face of the Protes- 
 tant world and introduced the age of missions and of active benevo- 
 lence. And that year or the year before began the unbroken se- 
 ries of American revivals. There \^s a revival in North Yar- 
 mouth, Me. in 1791. In the summer of 1792 one appeared in 
 Lee, in the county of Berkshire. The following November, the 
 first that I had the privilege of witnessing showed itself on the bor- 
 ders of East Haddam and Lyme, Conn, which apparently brought 
 to Christ about a hundred souls. Since that time revivals have 
 never ceased. I saw a continued succession of heavenly sprinklings 
 at New Salem, Farmington, Middlebury, and New Hartford, (all 
 in Connecticut,) until, in 1799, I coidd stand at my door in New 
 1 
 
Hartford, Litchfield county, and number fifty or sixty contiguous 
 congregations laid down in one field of divine wonders, and as ma- 
 ny more in different parts of New England. By 1802 revivals had 
 spread themselves through most of the western and southern States j 
 and since that time they have been familiar to the whole American 
 people. 
 
 I preached my first sermon at New Hartford Oct. 26, 1794. In 
 the fall of 1795 a revival commenced, which in the course of the 
 winter apparently brought about fifty to the knowledge of the truth. 
 The neighbouring towns were not then visited : but in October 1798 
 a great revival began at West Simsbury on the east, and soon ex- 
 tended to Torringford on the west, and we were left like a parched 
 island in the midst of surrounding floods. The agonies of that hour 
 can never be told. First one, and then two, and afterwards more 
 met me in my study for prayer, and the wrestlings were such as I 
 had never witnessed in a meeting before. On the 4th of Novem- 
 ber I went to the house of God, saying as I went, " My soul, wait 
 thou only, only, only upon God, for my expectation is from him." 
 During the morning service I scarcely looked at the audience, and 
 cared not whether they were asleep or awake, feeling that the ques- 
 tion of a revival did not lie between me and them, but was to be 
 settled in heaven. In the afternoon, in alluding to the fact that Je- 
 sus of Nazareth was passing by, and we were left, and could hard- 
 ly hope for another visit so soon, and to the awful prospects of sin- 
 ners in the middle of life if another revival should not come in twelve 
 or fifteen years, I seemed to take an eternal leave of heads of fami- 
 lies out of Christ ; I came near falling ; I thought I should be obli- 
 ged to stop ;. but I was carried through. The next day it was ap- 
 parent that a revival had commenced ; a dozen heads of families of 
 the most respectable class were under conviction ; and in the course 
 of the winter and the following year a hundred were hopefully add- 
 ed to the Lord. The last time that I heard that 4th of November 
 referred to at New Hartford, I was told that between forty and fifty 
 of those who had been received to the church, dated back their con- 
 victions to that day. 
 
 In October 1800 the health of my family and the peremptory ad- 
 vice of physicians compelled me to leave New Hartford. I spent the 
 winter in Orange, New Jersey. A time of refreshment from the pre- 
 
sence of the Lord was afforded us, and about fifty were added to the 
 church. In October 1 SO 1 1 was installed at Newark. A revival com- 
 menced the following winter, which continued through 1802 and ex- 
 tended into 1S03. In my journal, under date of Feb. 16, 1803, I 
 find a hope expressed that the number of converts amounted to a 
 hundred. The neighbouring ministers were revived, and in the spi- 
 rit of prayer went forth two and two to visit the congregations, 
 spending a day and holding two meetings in a place, and continuing 
 out six days. These means began to be blest as early as January 
 1803, and that year about twenty contiguous congregations experi- 
 enced the mighty power of God. 
 
 In the spring of 1807 some seriousness appeared in Newark and 
 a very few obtained hopes ; but the impression past off. In the 
 summer some half a dozen Christians were much exercised for a 
 revival, and, as it appeared afterwards, several sinners were night- 
 ly carried in their dreams to the judgment seat, who threw off their 
 impressions by day. In the latter part of August a great revival 
 broke out at Elizabethtown on the south and at Orange on the west. 
 The Friday before the first sabbath in September, (which was our 
 communion sabbath,) was observed by the church in Newark as a 
 day of fasting and prayer. On sabbath morning a meeting was held 
 expressly to pray for a blessing on the word that day. Some went 
 with little impression, who found themselves and their brethren lost 
 in that desire, and returned with a strong hope that such a blessing 
 would follow. The next day I found several Christians saying 
 that they never had had such a sense of the truths brought out on 
 the sabbath before. At a meeting in the evening I saw and felt such 
 tokens of the divine presence, that I had no longer a doubt that a re- 
 vival had begun. It had begun with mighty power. In all such 
 seasons, if any feeling had been more prominent than the rest, it 
 was a deep sense of absolute dependance : but never had I had so 
 deep a sense of this before. I could not keep at home ; I was con- 
 stantly going from house to house ; and yet I felt that I was doing 
 nothing but holding a torch to the tinder which God had prepared. 
 The work extended to about the same number of congregations as 
 before, and by the same means, the ministers going out two and 
 two as in the former case. In Newark ninety eight joined the 
 
6 
 
 church at one time, and about two hundred in all. By this time 
 it was understood why a greater sense of dependance had been 
 granted : the work was to be greater than I had ever seen before. 
 
 The first of June 1809, 1 was removed by the providence of 
 God and by the advice of my brethren, to the Theological Semina- 
 ry at Andover, and to a connexion with the infant church in Park- 
 street, Boston, as a stated preacher. The house in Parkstreet not 
 being finished, and the Rev. Mr. French of Andover dying that 
 summer, I took the pulpit and supplied it till winter for the benefit 
 of the family. It pleased God to pour out his Spirit. A revival 
 of very considerable extent ensued, calculated to fit that atmosphere 
 to be breathed by the sons of the prophets. One of the subjects of 
 the work, an only child, went out afterwards a missionary's wife to 
 India, and the affectionate parents, I have been informed, were heard 
 to say, they never were so happy in their lives. 
 
 The church in Parkstreet having become discouraged by several 
 unsuccessful applications for a pastor, I thought it my duty, in the 
 spring of 1811, to devote myself wholly to them. For four years 
 we had a continual sprinkling, but things were not ripe for a hea- 
 venly shower. The congregation in Newark having amicably di- 
 vided, and the second congregation being vacant, they solicited me 
 in the spring of 1815 to return to them. There were circumstan- 
 ces which led me to believe that such was the will of God. I went 
 about the first of June. In December 1816 a powerful revival be- 
 gan in the two congregations, and about the same time in some 
 neighbouring towns, which continued through most of the following 
 year. I have no document to show the numbers that were added 
 to the churches. 
 
 In September 1821 I was appointed President of this college ; 
 and the indications of the divine will were so clear that I durst not 
 refuse. 
 
 Thus, my dear Sir, I have wandered over the first part of the 
 ground which your partial friendship assigned me, and will now 
 confine myself to the more important history of God's dealings with 
 this institution. 
 
 It was from Litchfield county that the spirit of the new era gra- 
 dually crept upon this college. For near seven years after the 
 charter was obtained, the professors in all the classes amounted on- 
 
ly to five ; until, in February 1800, two of the members professed 
 religion in Litchfield county, where they had been subjects of one 
 of the revivals of 1799. At the next commencement one of them 
 graduated and another from the same revivals entered. These two 
 were the only professors in the classes, until joined by four more 
 from the revivals of the same county the following spring, which 
 made an important change in the religious character of the college. 
 The next class that entered were nearly half professors, who in 
 their senior year took part in the first revival. 
 
 The earliest revival known to this town commenced in the spring 
 of 1805 and continued between two and three years. It soon ex- 
 tended to the college, where five began to hope. In the spring of 
 1806 a new impulse was given to the work. That spring was 
 made memorable to the college by the admission to its bosom of 
 those distinguished youth, Samuel John Mills and Gordon Hall. 
 Mills had been prepared by the revival at Torringford, Litchfield 
 county, in 1798, 9, and he joined a class which contained such 
 men as James Richards and Robert Chauncey Robbins. He en- 
 tered into the revival with all his heart ; and in the course of the 
 summer eight or ten of that class became subjects of the work, and 
 one or two others, among whom was Gordon Hall, who joined the 
 church in WilUamstown that same year. The work seems to have 
 continued beyond the summer ; for one account says, " Thirteen 
 were added to the church, of whom nine became ministers of the 
 Gospel. Ten others were supposed to be subjects of the revival." 
 Another account, drawn up in 1827, says, "Besides those who be- 
 came church members from the classes that graduated in 1805, 6, 
 7, 8, 9, about seventeen have since become professors of refio-ion." 
 
 Mills had devoted himself to the cause of missions from the com- 
 mencement of his new existence, and by the influence of that revival 
 he was enabled to diffuse his spirit through a choice circle who 
 raised this college to the distinction of being the birth place of Ame- 
 rican missions. In the spring of 1808 they formed a secret society, 
 to extend their influence to other colleges and to distino-uished in- 
 dividuals in difierent parts of the country. One of them first rous- 
 ed the missionary energies of Pliny Fisk, who afterwards died in 
 Palestine. In the autumn of that year, in a beautiful meadow on 
 the banks of the Hoosack, these young Elijahs prayed into exis- 
 
8 
 
 tence the embryo of American missions. In the fall of 1809, Mills 
 and Richards and Robbins carried this society to Andover, where 
 it roused the first missionary band that went out to India in 1812, 
 and where it is still exerting a mighty influence on the interests 
 of the world. In that band were Gordon Hall and Luther Rice 
 of this college. Richards soon followed and laid his bones in In- 
 dia. Mills and his coadjutors were the means of forming the Ame- 
 rican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American 
 Bible Society, the United Foreign Missionary Society, and the Af- 
 rican School under the care of the Synod of New York and New 
 Jersey ; besides all the impetus given to domestic missions, to the 
 Colonization Society, and to the general cause of benevolence in 
 both hemispheres. Such were the fruits of the revivals in Litch- 
 field county and of the first revival in this college. 
 
 In January 1812 another revival commenced in town under the 
 preaching of Samuel Nott, one of the first five missionaries who 
 went out that year to India. In April and May it extended to the 
 college, chiefly to the three lower classes. Twenty four were hope- 
 fully converted then and a number afterwards. Another account 
 says, " Twenty one were added to the church, of whom thirteen 
 have become ministers of the Gospel. Several others felt the pow- 
 er of this revival, and their lives have since proved that the effects 
 were not transient." 
 
 In June 1815 tlie first President left the college. His parting 
 sermon had a great efiect on the students. A third revival follow- 
 ed. Fifteen were hopefully renewed in the course of the summer. 
 Another account says, " Twelve were added to the church, of 
 whom nine became ministers of the Gospel. Several others re- 
 ceived very salutary impressions, whose lives have since shown 
 the value of this revival to them." 
 
 About the first of March 1824 a fourth revival appeared to com- 
 mence in the person of William Hervey, now a missionary in In- 
 dia. Twelve or fourteen used to attend the inquiry meetings. Se- 
 veral obtained hopes who endured but for a time. Hervey alone 
 persevered. Of the others that were impressed , one obtained a hope 
 in the summer of 1825, and is now a minister of the Gospel ; an- 
 other joined the church after he graduated, and is now a professor 
 in the institution. 
 
9 
 
 When college came together in October 1825, the arrows of the 
 Almighty stuck in several hearts. Some old hopes were scattered to 
 the winds. A fifth revival ensued. During the latter part of the 
 term the power was astonishingly great, affecting almost the whole 
 college. Of eighty five students, full seventy thought themselves 
 Christians. The impression was kept up through the spring term, 
 but there it ended. In this revival thirty five experienced hopes, 
 some of which were soon renounced. For aught I know, from 
 twenty five to twenty seven are hoping still, and another who re- 
 lapsed has apparently been recovered. Twelve or thirteen are in 
 the ministry or looking forward to it. Of these, Mollis Reed went 
 with Hervey to India ; two belong to a company of ministers who, 
 in the spirit of missions, have located themselves for life in the 
 new settlements beyond the Mississippi ; and two or three others 
 have been pondering on a missionary life. 
 
 The sixth revival began about the first of March 1827, and con- 
 tinued till vacation. It spent its chief force on the two lower class- 
 es, from which six professed religion. 
 
 In October 1828 some seriousness appeared, which continued 
 through that and the next term. Nine visited me under some im- 
 pressions. Inquiry meetings were set up. One obtained a hope 
 which was soon renounced. Not an individual held out. Three 
 of them however have since given evidence of a saving change. 
 
 A seventh revival appeared to commence in November 1829. 
 That month two gave evidence of piety who still continue. High 
 hopes were entertained and a determination was taken to pray till 
 the blessing came. Meetings for prayer, accompanied with consi- 
 derable excitement, were kept up through the term, and tlorough 
 the long winter vacation, and through the spring term. I attend- 
 ed till broken off by sickness in April 1830. In the course of the 
 winter two more expressed hopes, one at least of which proved 
 doubtful. 
 
 On the evening of January 6th, 1831, I was sent for to visit 
 Troy, where the first in the series of protracted meetings in this 
 region had lately been held, and where a great revival had begun. 
 I went on the 8th and returned on the 19th. Sometliing hopeful 
 had begun to appear in town before I left home, and on Friday 
 evening the 21st I went to a meeting to tell the people what I had 
 
10 
 
 seen. One of the students, hearing that a statement was to be 
 made, went, and was awakened. The next week we had a four 
 days meeting, beginning with a fast and ending with the communion 
 sabbath. This was the second protracted meeting in the series, and 
 was attended with an evident blessing. A revival began in town. 
 During vacation two of the students obtained hopes here, and two 
 more in Troy. When college came together the 10th of Februa- 
 ry, it was a time of great solemnity. The month of March was 
 full of power. By the second of April twenty, including those al- 
 ready mentioned, were apparently rejoicing in the truth. Of these, 
 four soon renounced their hope ; the other sixteen, for aught I 
 know, still endure, and the greater part appear like devoted Christ- 
 ians. 
 
 These are the eight revivals which the pity of heaven has grant- 
 ed to this college in twenty six years, five of which, including two 
 of less extent, have appeared in seven years.* 
 
 The means employed in these revivals have been but two, — the 
 clear presentation of divine truth and prayer : nothing to work upon 
 the passions but sober, solemn truth, presented, as far as possible, 
 in its most interesting attitudes, and closely applied to the con- 
 science. The meetings have been still and orderly, with no other 
 siwns of emotion in the hearers than the solemn look and the silent 
 tear. We have been anxiously studious to guard against delusive 
 hopes and to expose the windings of a deceitful heart, forbearing all 
 encouragement except what the converts themselves could derive 
 from Christ and the promises, knowing that any reliance on our 
 opinion was drawing comfort from us and not from the Saviour. 
 We have not accustomed them to the bold and unqualified lan- 
 guage that such a one is converted, but have used a dialect calcula- 
 ted to keep alive a sense of the danger of deception. For a similar 
 
 * April 18, 1832. There is at the present moment the ninth revival going on in college. On 
 the 18th of January we had a fast in town to pray for such a blessing in the college and congre- 
 gation. After that I recommended it to the students who staid in vacation, to hold meetings 
 for prayer. The third which they held was on the 1st of Fehruary, and I was invited to attend. 
 I found the meeting uncommonly interesting and encouraging. I was then labouring under the 
 commencement of a disease which confined me till near the middle of March. In that interval 
 a protracted meeting was held in town and a revival commenced there, and Uie spirit of prayer 
 was "really increased in college and a spirit of inquiry began among the impenitent. The first 
 hopeful conversion in college took place on the IGlh of March, two days before I renewed my 
 public labours in the house of God. There are now seven students who venture to hope that tlioy 
 have " passed from death unto life." Every thing is conducted with perfect stillness and deco- 
 rum. 
 
11 
 
 reason we have kept them back from a profession about three 
 months. 
 
 Sinners have been constantly urged to immediate repentance, and 
 every excuse has been taken away. At the same time we have not 
 denied or concealed their dependance for the sake of convincing 
 them of their obligations. On the contrary, we have esteemed it 
 vital to urge that dependance in order to drive them from all reli- 
 ance on their own strengtli, and to make them die to every hope 
 from themselves. All that you can possibly gain by flattering 
 their independence, is to extort a confession of their obligations ; 
 for as to matter of fact, they will not submit until they are made 
 willing in the day of God's power. And if you can fasten upon 
 them their obligations without that falsehood which robs God of 
 his glory, pray let it be done. This we have found it possible to 
 do. We have shown them that their obligations rest on their fa- 
 culties, and are as reasonable and as complete as though the thing 
 required was merely to walk across the floor ; that their faculties 
 constitute a natural ability, that is, a full power to love and serve 
 God IF their hearts were well disposed, leaving nothing in the way 
 but a bad heart, for which they are wholly to blame if there is any 
 blame in the universe ; that sin can rest no where but in the heart, 
 and that if you drive it beyond the heart you drive it out of exist- 
 ence ; that they alone create the necessity for God to conquer them, 
 and to decide whether he will conquer them or not ; that it is an 
 everlasting blot on creation that God has to speak a second time to 
 induce creatures to love him, much more that he has to constrain 
 them by his conquering power ; and yet after all his provisions and 
 invitations, — after he has sent his Son and his Spirit to save them, 
 — after he has opened the door wide and stands with open arms to 
 receive them, — they will still break their way to perdition if his al- 
 mighty power do not prevent ; that by their own fatal obstinacy 
 they are cast entirely upon his will ; that they are wholly in his 
 hands, — that if he frown they die, if he smile they live forever. 
 This is the grandest of all means to press them out of themselves, to 
 cast them dead and helpless upon God, to make them die that they 
 may be made alive. Conceal their dependance in order to make 
 them feel their obligations ! The maddest purpose that ever was 
 conceived, unless the thing required is to be done in their own 
 
12 
 
 strength. And then why do you pray for the Spirit ? "In all thy 
 ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." But in this 
 greatest of all his works he is chiefly jealous for his honour. He 
 will not hear your prayers for a revival, if, when you go out from 
 his presence, you tell sinners that he has nothing to do in the bu- 
 siness but to convict, — that the god which regenerates is hght. If 
 there is any truth sweeter than all the rest, it is this, that we are 
 absolutely, totally, and eternally dependant on his sanctifying grace 
 and that he will have all the glory ; — if any view of God more sup- 
 porting and encouraging than all the rest, it is that which the Christ- 
 ian takes when he feelingly says, " My soul, wait thou only upon 
 God, for my expectation is from him." Take any thing else away, 
 but take not away my God. This is the last truth that I will give 
 up till I yield my reason and my immortal hopes. K there is any 
 truth in defence of which I would go on a crusade, — or, better still, 
 in support of which I would go to the stake, — it is this. K you 
 see this denial shut up heaven, and then, instead of the Holy Ghost, 
 you see revivals carried on by human devices operating on the pas- 
 sions, there is more cause to mourn than to rejoice. 
 
 I do not object to all measures to arrest attention, to move mo- 
 derately the imagination and passions, and to put the whole man 
 into action towards God and his revealed truths. I am no advo- 
 cate for addressing men as intellectual statues. But there is al- 
 ways some danger in working on this part of the human constitu- 
 tion by other means than truth set in its most affecting light and 
 pressed home upon the conscience, and at no period of existence is 
 he danger so great as at the crisis referred to. The imagination 
 and passions are useful handmaids ; but when they assume domi- 
 nion, they make a religion of bad proportions if not altogether de- 
 lusive. This the history of religious enthusiasm shows on every 
 page. 
 
 All this is known to the educated in our country ; and if any of 
 them have adopted measures calculated to give undue prepon- 
 derance to imagination and passion, it has been, for the most 
 part, to answer other purposes of religious policy. Much has been 
 done of late to lead awakened sinners to commit themselves, in or- 
 der to get them over that indecision and fear of man which have 
 kept them back, and to render it impossible for them to return with 
 
13 
 
 consistency. For this purpose they are called upon to request pub- 
 lic prayers by rising, to come out into the aisle in token of their de- 
 termination to be for God, to take particular seats, called, in bad 
 English, anxious seats, to come forward and kneel in order to be 
 prayed for, and in very many instances, to promise to give them- 
 selves to religion at once. For much the same purpose converts 
 are called upon to take particular scats, and thus virtually to make 
 a profession in a day, and are hurried into the church in a few 
 weeks. These measures, while they are intended to commit the 
 actors, are meant also to awaken the attention of others, and to 
 serve as means of general impression. I would not make a man 
 an offender for a word ; but Avhen these measures are reduced to a 
 system and cofistantly repeated, — when, instead of the former dio-- 
 nity of a Christian assembly, it is daily throwai into a rambling state 
 by these well meant maneuvers, — it becomes a solemn question 
 whether they do not give a disproportionate action to imagination 
 and passion, and lead to a reliance on other means than truth and 
 prayer, and on other power than that of God. I have seen enough to 
 convince me that sinners are very apt to place a self righteous de- 
 pendance on this act of commitment. " I have taken one step, and 
 now I hope God will do something for me," is language which I 
 have heard more than once. Against any promises, express or im- 
 plied, I utterly protest. If they are promises to do any thing short 
 of real submission, they will bring up a feeling that more the sin- 
 ner is not bound to do : if they are promises to submit, they are 
 made in the sinner's own strength and are presumptuous. The 
 will, which forms resolutions and utters promises, cannot control 
 the heart. Sinners are bound to love God at once, but they are not 
 boimd to promise beforehand to do it and rely on their own will to 
 change their heart. This is self-dependance. They are bound to 
 go forth to their work at once, but they are not bound to go alone : 
 it is their privilege and duty to cast themselves instantly on the 
 Holy Ghost and not to take a single step in their own strength. 
 In these extorted promises there is another evil, — the substitution 
 of human authority for the divine. It is right for Christians to 
 urge upon sinners the obligation of immediate submission, and they 
 cannot enforce this too much by the authority of God ; but to stand 
 
14 
 
 over them and say, " Come, now promise ; promise this moment ; 
 do promise ; you must promise ; promise and I will pray for you, 
 — if you dont I wont 5" is overpowering them with human autho- 
 rity and putting it in the room of the divine. 
 
 Sometimes these new measures are plainly intended to work on 
 the imagination and passions. When, in addition to all the rest, a 
 whole assembly are called upon to kneel, what is this but a mea- 
 sure intended merely for effect 1 No new truth is thereby convey- 
 ed to the mind. Truth has to do with reason and conscience, but 
 these tactics with im.agination and passion first, and afterwards with 
 a stupid reliance on forms, as the whole history of the Church at- 
 tests. Is there no danger that we may again "be corrupted from 
 the simplicity that is in Christ" .'' The frequent repetition of these 
 imposing ceremonies will destroy their effect, and leave us with 
 forms instead of feelings. It was in this way that the primitive 
 Church sunk into all the dead formalities of the church of Rome. 
 The ceremonies were first adopted because they were thought to 
 be impressive. In time they ceased to impress, and then the mag- 
 nificent and garnished body of worship was accepted for the soul. 
 This is the certain course of fallen nature. It is dangerous to work in 
 human inventions upon the forms of our worship. He who made 
 and united the body and soul, best knows what forms are adapted 
 to our nature. The more simple they are the less they draw the 
 mind off from God and truth. 
 
 God forbid that I should speak against protracted meetings, but 
 I will speak against their abuse. In this imperfect world it is al- 
 most impossible that such a stimulating institution should not be 
 abused. It is so much easier to enter into the excitements of a 
 protracted meeting than to " tug at the oar of prayer" in secret, 
 or even to exercise a holy heart ; it is so much easier to move the 
 people by these impassioned forms than to bring down the Holy 
 Ghost by the struggles of faith ; that there is the utmost danger 
 that these meetings will be put in the room of secret prayer and 
 of the Holy Ghost and even of personal religion. When I see 
 them relied on to produce revivals without previous prayer, and 
 a boast made that Christians were stupid when they began ; 
 when I see a revival of ten days produce its hundred converts, and 
 the people, who were stupid before, relapse into the same stupidi- 
 
15 
 
 ty at the end of the protracted meeting ; I cannot but say, How dif- 
 ferent are these from the revivals of the last forty years, which 
 were preceded by long agonies of desire and prayer, and which 
 transmitted their spirit to many succeeding months. 
 
 There is another difference, I fear, in many cases. In those re- 
 vivals unwearied pains were taken to lay open the divine character 
 in all its benevolence, holiness, and justice ; to present the divine 
 government in all its righteousness and purity, in all its sovereignty 
 and covenant faithfulness, in all its reasonableness and benignity 
 and awful terrour ; to lay open the carnal heart, festering with 
 every evil passion, and the horrid nature of sin, with its infinite de- 
 merits ; to explain the great provision of the atonement and the 
 terms of acceptance with God ; to bring out the mercy which melts 
 in the Gospel and to press home the invitation ; to show the rea- 
 sonableness and sincerity of God in all his treatment of sinners, and 
 the unreasonableness of their obstinacy in rejecting the Gospel. 
 All these and many other topics furnished matter always new and 
 always affecting to the conscience. It was all regarded as an ex- 
 hibition of God, in his character, government, and relations to men ; 
 and if we could make a clear manifestation of God, we felt a con- 
 fidence in leaving the issue in the hands of that Spirit whose office 
 work it is to take of the things of God and show them to men. 
 But now I fear that in many instances there is so much reliance on 
 these newly invented means of impression, that the truths of God 
 are but very imperfectly brought out or even studied ; dependance 
 being placed on a few topics of exhortation, without the reasons 
 which the truths of the universe furnish. The consequence must 
 be that the people will be left in ignorance, with a high susceptibi- 
 lity of irregular excitement, and exactly fitted, should more sober 
 
 habits return, to fill the ranks of the most extravagant sectaries 
 
 the same that happened in New England some eighty years ao-o. 
 
 I have no fellowship with harsh or violent measures ; such as 
 abruptly telling a professor that she has no religion and is going di- 
 rectly to hell, (merely because she is cold ;) and when she is hor- 
 rour struck and begs you to pray for her, tearing yourself away 
 and saying, I ivont pray for you, and breaking out of the room, leav- 
 ing her in agonies on the floor ; all to shake her off from depend- 
 ance on you, but really endangering her reason and life. 
 
16 
 
 Nor have I any more complacency in public personalities ; such 
 as calling people by name in prayer or preaching ; holding up cer- 
 tain neighbourhoods as subjects of public prayer on account of their 
 special wickedness or neglects ; and worse than all, deliberately 
 labouring to make sinners angry, in order to show them how they 
 hate God and his people and his truth ; thus doing evil that good 
 may come. 
 
 " Let your women keep silence in the churches," says Paul ; 
 '' for it is not permitted unto them to speak. — And if they will 
 learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home ; for it is a 
 shame for women to speak in the church."* They may not even 
 make public inquiries after truth. " Let the women learn in si- 
 lence with all subjection ; but I suffer not a woman to teach nor 
 to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."! The con- 
 texts will show that the church referred to was not a judicatory, 
 but a common Christian assembly for instruction and worship ; and 
 the reasons assigned for the prohibition apply as much to public 
 prayers as to public teaching, and certainly as much as to public in- 
 quiries after truth. And prayers are public in any assembly of men 
 and women collected for devotion. It is not necessary, to make it 
 public, that the assembly should be in the sanctuary or on the sab- 
 bath. The primitive Christians had no sanctuary, and often held 
 those assemblies of which Paul speaks on other days of the week. 
 Wherever the sexes are mixed up in an assembly for social prayer, 
 there the prohibition applies. Nor is this against our mothers and 
 wives and sisters and daughters. They will gain more respect and 
 influence by keeping in the place which nature and nature's God 
 assio-ned them, than by breaking forth as Amazons into the depart- 
 ment of men. 
 
 From these excesses two special evils are sure to follow ; one 
 among the ignorant, the other among the learned and refined. That 
 among the ignorant is gross, 'palpable disorder. It is impossible 
 that the local scenes of the last six years should have been enacted, 
 and that the events of the last year should have given currency so 
 wide to some of them, without producing among the ignorant out- 
 breaking disorder somewhere. These fruits, I hope, have not 
 yet extensively appeared ; but a late scene which has been descri- 
 
 * 1 Cor. 14. 34, 35. f I Tim. 2. 11, 12. 
 
17 
 
 bed to me as " a perfect revel of fanaticism," may serve as an ex- 
 ample. Among other excesses, when the awakened were called 
 out into the aisle, some women found themselves converted, and in 
 the midst of a crowded assembly, and with a loud voice, began to 
 pray for their husbands. And this was taken, by men hitherto 
 deemed sober, — perhaps too sober, — as proof of the extraordinary 
 descent of the Holy Spirit. Such disorders, and worse than these, 
 will infaUibly spread themselves all abroad, if ministers and distin- 
 guished members of the Church do not combine in earnest to check 
 present measures. Human nature must cease to be human nature 
 if this is not the result. The other evil referred to is, that these ex- 
 cesses, (I speak not of the disorders,) prejudice men of learning 
 and taste against revivals, and arm the influence of society against 
 them. And thus while they throw discredit on the most precious 
 of God's works and obscure his glory where it was chiefly to 
 be shown, they lay stumbling blocks before the blind over which 
 millions will fall into hell. Let the attention of the world be 
 aroused by every hallowed means ; let the imagination and pas- 
 sions be wrought upon as far as the most sweet and solemn and 
 awful truths of God can move them ; let every knee be pressed to 
 the earth in prayer, and every authorized tongue be strained with 
 entreaties to dying men ; let the whole operation be as impressive, 
 as irresistible, as love and truth and eloquence can make it : but O, 
 for the honour of Christ and his Spirit, and in pity to the cultivated 
 millions of our race, let revivals be conducted with order and taste, 
 and shun every thing by which our brethren may be offended or 
 made to fall. 
 
 I am, Dear Sir, 
 With every sentiment of affection, 
 
 Your friend and brother. 
 
 E. D. GRIFFIN. 
 Rev. W. B. Spraque, D. D. 
 
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