THE

CHRISTIAN'S I)UTY,
IN A TIME OF REVIVAL:
BEINQ A
S. JE R M O JST,
PREACHED BY
REV. GEO, B. CHEEVER, D.D. ,
IN THE CHUECH OS" THE FUE1TANS, UNION" SQUAEE,
SabTaath, AyriX 4th. 1858.

NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF ",THE WITNEgS.'
BY DUNN BROTHERS'*-, CO.,
201 THIRD AVENUE.
185S.

Til E

CHBISTIAN'S DUTY
IN A TIME OF REVIVAL.

" Curse ye Meroz, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; be
cause they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord
against the mighty." — Judges 5 : 23.
These words are a part of the Song of Deborah and
Barak, on occasion of a great victory gained over the
Canaanites. They describe the indignation of God
against the inhabitants of a Hebrew village, be
cause, while their brethren jeoparded their lives in
the high places of the battle, they refused to take
part in the conflict, and came not to the help of the
Lord against his enemies. The instruction to be
gained from this passage may be opened thus : In
difference and laziness in God's service at a time
when great effort is required, is beyond measure
odious in his sight, and must draw down his anger.
Especially is this the case when the service to be
entered on is peculiarly spiritual in its nature, and
essential to the prosperity of Zion. If the angel of

4 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
God pronounced so heavy a curse upon the people
of Meroz, because they withheld their assistance,
when the object in view was only a temporal victory ?
how much more criminal must it be for God's
children to remain inactive, when the object to be
gained is the eternal salvation of souls, and the ad
vancement of the Redeemer's kingdom ! Or, to
bring our text to bear more immediately upon pre
sent duty, if the physical cowardice and negligence
which we read of in these ancient Israelites, excited
God's indignation so strongly, when he called them
to aid in the nation's deliverance from mere tem
poral enemies, with what increased displeasure must
he behold, in a revival of religion, the soldiers of
Christ sleeping on their posts, and negligent of spi
ritual duty, when he is calling them to the work of
saving souls in the battle against sin and Satan !
Here, then, we are to consider — first, our character
as Christian soldiers, and our responsibilities as a
church and as individuals, in sustaining the work of
God's grace, which is always a conflict with sin and
Satan. Second, we are to inquire how, in the midst
of such a work, and for its continuance, we are to
come to the help of the Lord against his enemies.
And third, we shall glance at some of the reasons
why we should do this.
First, then, our character as Christian soldiers,
and our responsibilities for God's work. "We have
enlisted under the banners of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Captain of salvation. When a soldier puts his
name on the company's roll, especially in a time of
open war, he looks for nothing but battles and

IN A TIME OF REVIVAL. 5
sieges, long marches and dangerous attacks, and ex
pects to hold himself in readiness for active service
whenever his commander requires. Now, it is al
ways open war with us ; we never can have any
truce with Satan. Ours must be a life of warfare,
and we are not to look for any thing else. This is
not the place of our rest, and indeed, the rest of
heaven itself is not idleness, but consists in blessed
activity. While we are in this world we are in an
enemy's country, and must never lay aside our
armor, nor relax our vigilance.
But there are times of peculiar danger, interest,
and importance, seasons of divine visitation, and
critical conjunctures of life or death to souls, when
our responsibilities are increased. And it becomes
us to inquire anxiously, and with very great solem
nity of heart, what addition it is that any thing like
a season of religious revival makes in the array of
our dangers and duties. We are to feel that at such
a moment every thing we do, or think, or say, takes
hold upon eternity with very great directness and
power, and involves consequences of infinite im
portance. And at such a time especially comes in
that great sentence of God to an army on duty :
"To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not,
to him it is sin." We must remember that, as a
church, it becomes us to put on our beautiful gar
ments, to be prepared to entertain our Heavenly
King, and to receive a long and delightful visit of
refreshment and sanctification from his presence. It
becomes us to take a heavenly position, to be united,
affectionate, and warm-hearted, and to have our

6 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
social meetings animated with holy fervor, and full
of Christian sympathy and love to souls. It be
comes us to walk closely and humbly with God, to
be fearful of doing any thing which may grieve
away his Spirit, to feel as if we hardly dared
breathe, while the operations of divine grace are
becoming so visible, while such solemn movements
are taking place around us, while every thing bor
rows a hue from eternity, and while the angels of
God are round about us and in the midst of us, busy,
here and there, on their errands of mercy.
It becomes us to be mindful that the Church of
Christ is the medium through which God communi
cates the blessings of his grace to perishing sinners,
and that, if that medium be not holy, if the water
of life and salvation be discolored and mingled with
earthly impurities, the needy will be repelled from
the fountain of life rather than attracted to it.
However favorable all circumstances may be for a
revival of religion, if we are not prayerful and
watchful, we shall but harden the hearts of sinners,
and make them more unholy, and quench the Spirit
of God, and shut out his influences, and shut. up the
kingdom of heaven against men, not suffering them
that are entering to go in. We shall render all the
efforts of Heaven's mercy vain. The cross of Christ
will have no power, the love of Christ will not be felt
and dying sinners will not come to be washed in the
fountain of his precious blood. We shall be a vo
luntary savor of death unto death, and together
with the god of this world, shall cooperate in blind
ing the minds of them that believe not, lest the

IN A TIME OF REVIVAL. 7
light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine within them. Jehovah
will not dwell in the midst of an unsanctified, Lao
dicean, lukewarm church. When his people be
come unmindful of the Rock of their salvation one
of their enemies can chase a thousand of them, and
two put ten thousand to flight. When the host
goeth forth against thine enemies, then keep thee
from every wicked thing. Tor the Lord thy God is
in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to
give up thine enemies before thee ; therefore shall
thy camp be holy, that he see no unclean thing in
thee, to turn away from thee.
Now our duties and responsibilities as a church
are made up of individual duties and responsibilities ;
we are, therefore, to look to ourselves, not to our
neighbors. Each individual soldier is to go for
ward at his captain's word of command, and not to
look around and see how many are waiting, or not
marching. If each man's heart were right, then
would the whole heart of the Church beat with a
strong, equable, simultaneous, heavenly impulse-
But we are to remember that at a critical time a
single prayerless individual may disturb and greatly
thwart the whole movement. As long as there was
a single Achan in the camp of Israel at such a time,
the children of God were miserably defeated; the
hearts of the people melted and became as water >
the anger of the Lord was kindled against them;
they turned their backs against their enemies ; they
could not go forward to victory. For thus saith the
Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in

8 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
the midst of thee, 0 Israel, thou canst not stand
before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed
thing from you. Now there is no shifting this
responsibility from our own shoulders ; we must
each one of us see to it, as our own personal con
cern, that we are not a dead weight upon the Church,
that we are not the accursed thing which will grieve
away the Holy Spirit.
How then, in the second place, are we to come to
the help of the Lord in a crisis of spiritual conflict)
and for the support of the work of his grace ?
I remark, first, that Christians are bound to pos
sess and to cultivate a deep sense of dependence on
the Spirit of God, an all-prevailing sense of the im
possibility of accomplishing any thing but by his
Spirit, through the instrumentality of his truth.
This dependence on divine truth, and on the Spirit
of God to give it efficacy, is at the foundation ; and
if this foundation be laid deep, the work built upon
it will be strong and lasting. It is a great grace, a
powerful grace, an effectual grace — this overmaster
ing and constraining sense of dependence on the
Divine Spirit. No man ever possesses it, but with
a clear view and vivid sense of divine truth, and
of the glory of God, and of the guilt and ruin of
men in their sins ; no man possesses it, but with love
to Christ and love to souls yearning and active
within him. But this grace, wherever it prevails,
carries the yearning heart first of all to God, to the
throne of grace, to plead there, prostrate at the
mercy seat, for this gift of the Spirit, and next, con
strains to an equally earnest activity with perishing

IN, A TIME OF REVIVAL. 9
sinners, to bring them under the pressure and
power of the truth by the Spirit. A man who feels
that he can do nothing without God, but longs to do
every thing for him ; a man who sees immortal
souls around him crowding down to ruin, and "longs
to save them for Christ's sake, through Christ's aton
ing sacrifice, can not but earnestly plead for the out
pouring of God's Spirit, to accompany God's truth,
and at the same time will be employed, as God gives
him opportunity, in presenting that truth to the
consciences of men, and bringing them under its
influence. These are the two great primal forms of
Christian duty and effort in and for a revival of reli
gion. A man will not, can not, be faithful in these
directions, but by the power of the Spirit of God in
his own heart ; and wlierever any good number of
Christians in a church are thus awakened, animated,
active, and faithful, the revival of religion is there
begun, and will assuredly go forward.
I remark, then, in the second place, that for the
gaining and maintaining of this sense of dependence
on the Spirit of God, and for the procuring of this
gift of the Spirit for others, incessant and fervent
prayer, especially secret prayer, is the Christian's first
duty. He ought to be weeping and pleading in
secret places, with a heart longing for the salvation
of perishing sinners. " They shall come with weep
ings, and with supplications will I lead them ;" a text
that not only indicates the supremacy of prayer
among the means necessary and efficacious for the
revival of God's work, but also the kind of prayer,
out of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Indeed,
1*

10 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
whatever we do, in coming to God for dying men,
or in seeking to bring them to him, the deepest
humility and tenderness are requisite, with an anxi
ous, trembling, weeping heart, because of our own
deficiencies and unworthiness. Our insensibility
and want of love to Christ, and to the souls of our
fellow-sinners, ought to fill our hearts with grief.
And we ought to plead, with a broken-hearted ear
nestness, that God will not, on account of our sins,
remove his presence from us. What sluggish, idle,
selfish, unprofitable servants have we all been ! In
what a mist of worldliness have we been enveloped !
How have we gone about our own business, and
neglected God's ? Our very best state of feeling has
been half sin, and amidst all God's mercies, com
mands, entreaties, and warnings, we have been half
asleep. We have not deserved to be visited with
any thing but judgment, and yet God is loading us
with blessings ! It is proper, therefore, that we
come to the throne of grace with weepings, and with
tearful, importunate supplications, out of a broken
heart and a contrite spirit, both for ourselves and
others. Thus Daniel came and received the bless
ing. For this, God will thus be inquired of, and he
will be found of those who thus search for him with
all the heart. It is they, who thus labor in secret,
that labor efficaciously, and labor to the end.
God only knows how incalculably the poorest, hum
blest, most obscure private Christian may help for
ward the coming of the Redeemer's kingdom, by
the devout earnestness of snch persevering, humble,

IN A TIME OF REVIVAL. 11
fervent prayer. No promises are withheld, no bless
ings are too great to be granted, to that holy impor
tunity, which gives God no rest, but, ardent,
opens heaven, and brings down the Holy Spirit on
the hearts of sinners. Morning, noon, and night,
should find us thus beseeching God for his mercy.
Doubtless, it is this habitual, earnest, imploring, per
severing prayer, that is needed more than all things
else, for this is the spring of all other activities, and
all failures, and evils, and sins, are found first of
all in unfaithfulness here. All religious declension
begins in the neglect of secret prayer ; all beginnings
of reaction and declension in a revival of religion
are just there.
But here it is to be noticed, in the third place,
that if we pray with earnestness, then with earnest-
,ness we shall also act. And we must act by direct
personal effort for the conversion -of those around
us. We must no longer live as if men were not dy
ing in their sins, nor keep our lips as silent on the
subject of religion, as if it were intended only for
the grave. Alas ! how many opportunities we con
stantly pass by and lose, for kind and tender admo
nitions to our irreligious friends ! And what multi
tudes in a miserable eternity are now, while they be
wail their own folly, cursing the coldness and unfaith
fulness of Christians, and their neglect to tell them
of their danger ! There is not a Christian who now
hears me, but might speak, from time to time, ten
derly and freely to some impenitent sinner; and yet
it is to be feared that a great many Christians never
trouble themselves in the least concerning this duty.

12 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
And if it be so, then, as far as that goes, your inter
course with immortal beings, so far from leading
them to imagine that there is any thing important
in Eternity, Heaven, Hell, or that you feel any
anxiety for their future happiness, would incline
them to suppose that you scarcely think of it. And
your profession of religion, and whatever you do in
consequence of it, perhaps appears an inconsistency,
while they often say within themselves, as they meet
you on earthly business, but never hear a word on
the infinitely important business of eternity : " I won
der that he never speaks to me upon the subject ; it
surely can not occupy much space in his own
thought?." Now you ought surely to remove this reproach
from your profession, and this sin from your own
soul. I know that the habit of silence will be diffi
cult to break through. And it may be still more
difficult to form the habit of addressing your com
panions freely, kindly, and faithfully, in regard to
eternal realities. But every important duty is more
or less difficult ; and this heavenly habit is one
which you may acquire, and you may join with it
the influence of a holy life and example. If you
will, you may be so heavenly minded, and so accus
tomed on all proper occasions to speak of eternity
and heavenly things, that wherever your compan-
ons meet you, they shall expect, as a thing of
course, whatever be your general theme of conver
sation, or the business or relaxation on which you
meet, a direct arrest of their worldly thoughts for a
few moments at least, and an introduction of the one

IN A TIME OF REVIVAL. 18
grand theme of all-absorbing and overwhelming in
terest, which they know occupies and controls your
whole being. In their inmost souls they will respect
you ; they will revere the consistency of your Christ
ian character, and will love you for your own
anxiety for their good. Wherever you go, you shall
go as a being of a higher order, and you shall be ex
pected, before you separate from your acquaintance,
to tell them something of that blessed life which you
are leading; something of that holy city of which
you hope soon to be an inhabitant ; something, too,
of their own melancholy estrangement from God,
and of that dark world to which they are fast tend
ing; and something of the preciousness of your
Saviour, and of the worth of that salvation, which it
makes you weep to see them reject. You will be
able to throw around yourself a heavenly atmo
sphere, so that all with whom you associate shall ex
perience its power ; and even the careless and the
hardened will find their hearts insensibly won by
your gentle and affectionate demeanor, through which
religion is divested of its stately, formal, and forbid
ding appearance, and made a part of the business,
conversation, and happiness of life. A thousand
opportunities of doing good shall spring up around
you, of which you could have had no expectation j
and when you stand in eternity, with the white robe
upon you, and the palm in your hand, there will be
around you a happy throng of redeemed spirits, who,
you will be told, are the seals of your benevolent
private ministry on earth, and the crowns of your
rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus.

14 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
Which of my hearers, as a grateful disciple of
Christ, does not feel his soul exult with holy anima
tion, in the prospect of a happiness so great ? Every
individual who now hears me might realize it. But
who is there that has engaged in this work with any
thing like the persevering heartiness and prayerful-
ness demanded by the infinite importance of the
end ? Who is there that has not greatly neglected
this work ? Has it ever been made, in any measure,
as it ought to be, the grand business of life ? Surely,
there is no excuse for disregarding it — there can be
none. If you have been" bought with the precious
blood of Christ, and have had your own eternal in
terests secured by him, oh ! then, what business is
worthy of you or of Him in this world, but to do as
much as possible for His cause, and to save as many
immortal spirits as possible before you die ! Instead
of this, perhaps to you comes the reproof of an idle
profession. Israel is an empty vine; he bringeth
forth fruit unto himself. Alas ! how many of your
opportunities are thrown away, how great a portion
of your thoughts are quite utterly worldly, how few
of your careless companions have you affectionately,
perseveringly, and earnestly endeavored to lead to a
better, more thoughtful, more religious state.
Ah ! dear friend, is there one, whose thoughts are,
by your instrumentality, your heavenly warnings,
your fervent prayers, your conversation and example,
involuntarily turned towards eternity? Yet you
might live so like a heaven-born spirit, that the very
sight of your person should call up in the mind of
the observer a crowd of holy associations, and

IN A TIME OF REVIVAL. 15
solemn images of scenes in the future world. Is
there one, over whose spiritual interests you have so
solicitously watched, for whom you have so weep-
ingly prayed, whom you have so tenderly entreated
to seek the Lord Jesus, that you have, as it were,
inclosed that soul in a moral spell, and endeared it to
yourself, and obtained over it a power like that of
parental affection ? There is no mind so weak as
not to possess the ability to influence some other
mind. You may say that your opportunities are
contracted, and your ability small ; but God knows
how great they are, and he never asks you to do
more than he has given you the means of doing.
But he requires you to be the salt of the earth.
And now, do your companions, your brothers, your
sisters, your parents, your children — do they feel
that yon are affectionately desirous that they too
should become the happy followers of your beloved
Lord ? Have you daily improved the many delight
ful avennes which your situation in regard to them
opens to their hearts ? How many sweet opportuni
ties do you possess, with your dear relatives and
friends, of winning them away from sin to holiness,
from earth to heaven *? But, alas ! how many are
constantly wasted ! When your friends are sick, you
daily inquire after- their health ; and if you should
see the plague-spot on the cheek of any one of your
acquaintance, you would instantly tell him the great
ness of his danger. But how often does he hear you
inquire after the health of his soul? You tell him
nothing of the moral plague, which you know is
spreading over his spiritual being, and fast prepar-

16 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
ing him for spiritual death, while he himself is utterly
blind to its ravages. Think what a glorious result
would follow, were each member of the Church of
Christ to perform his duty faithfully, every day, in
personal effort for the conversion of souls. A single
word is often like a stone thrown into the water,
which sets a circle in motion that widens and spreads
as far as the tide of existence itself has expanded.
Private Christians thus become, oftentimes, the most
powerful, though unseen, preachers ; the influence
is constantly spreading ; and it is in this way espe
cially, conjoined with a holy example, that they
must be the salt of the earth.
How easily, when your heart is full, can you in
troduce the subject ! How many trifling occur
rences you may lay hold upon ; how many pleasant
expedients you may use ! Go to the example of
Christ, and hear his affectionate, gentle, and familiar
introduction-of the subject to the woman of Samaria.
Though wearied with his journey, and sitting tired
and thirsty on the well, he would neglect no op
portunity to invite a single soul to drink the water
of life freely. And if we felt in any suitable degree
the power of his love ; if our spirits were moved with
compassion for those who have no interest in him ;
if we felt how short our time in this world is, and
yet how much good we might do by faithfully im
proving it all with a direct reference to eternity, we
should imitate our Saviour's example, and the hearts
of multitudes would be blessing us as angels of
mercy to their souls.
Unquestionably, the grand reason why the truths

IN A TIME OF REVIVAL. 17
delivered on the Sabbath from the pulpit have so
little power, is because Christians do so little suc
cor and sustain them by their own efforts during the
week. The serious impression produced on the
Lord's day is dissipated by secular cares and con
versation. It is the business of Christians to spread,
by their own holy conversation and deportment, the
rehgious atmosphere of the Sabbath over the whole
week, and thus maintain the hold of divine truth on
the minds of the impenitent. They will be thought
ful and anxious when they find every Christian they
meet in earnest about eternity, with the face to
wards heaven, and all the aspect indicating a spirit
ripening for a better world, and affectionately de
sirous to lead others thither. Vivid piety possesses
a commanding sympathy ; it spreads, it powerfully
moves others, it takes the listener and spectator by
surprise, anal touches the heart, and opens the moral
vision, and points to eternal realities. The Sunday's
sermon, said Leighton, lasts but an hour or two, but
holiness of life is a continual sermon all the week
long. In any thing like a revival of religion, the
Christian ought to feel that it is a solemn as well as
heavenly season to his soul. The Christian house
hold should'be pervaded by an air of sanctity ; the
most cheerful movements should be sacred, and the
songs a melody to the Lord ; the joy of the family
a delightful participation with that of the angels in
heaven. Is it a time for levity and trifling ; a time
to be occupied about ten thousand indifferent things ;
a time for worldly leisure, when every moment you
can gain is precious with a heavenly value, and may

18 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
teem with infinite results ? If ever you ought to be
sober and watchful unto prayer, it is now.
You will say, perhaps, that I have drawn a pic
ture which is rarely realized, and which, to be re
alized, requires incessant watchfulness unto prayer,
incessant effort, constant heavenly-mindedness, the
affections in heaven, the world under your feet, a
constant sense of eternal realities, an unceasing im.
pression of the value of the soul, a glowing fervor
of love to Christ, a great delight in his word, a con
stant sense of his presence, a constant experience of
the joy of his salvation, the constant power of the
Holy Spirit in your heart. Well, dear friends, is
there any thing in all this impossible, impracticable ?
And is not this just the kind of life you ought to
lead, just the kind of character you ought to form,
advancing as you are into the eternal world, where
all the beings and things around you will require in
you a character that has been patiently wrought
into habit out of just such elements, in order to
render you happy in the presence of God and the
Lamb ? And is not such a life a heaven upon earth
to those who labor after it, and succeed in attaining,
and find themselves habitually under the power of
such elevating, transfiguring, triumphant habits and
impressions ? If it be very different from the life
of the majority of professors of religion, so much the
worse for them, so much the more melancholy that
they should come short of it, but so much the more
necessary that you should not measure yourself by
their standard, but should rise above it.
Some of the means of doing this are very plain.

IN A TIME OF REVIVAL. 19
You want a realizing apprehension of divine things ;
you want to feel them near, to feel them pressing
upon you, thronging round you, speaking to you,
gazing at you, lifting you up, bearing you upon their
wings, as angelic messengers. You want the word
of Christ abiding in your soul as a fountain of life
and strength. You want the Holy Spirit taking o*
the things that are Christ's, and showing them to
you, and Christ himself making your heart burn
within you as he walks with you and talks with you
by the way. Now, was ever this accomplished but
by steady and earnest effort, by time given to the
humble study of the word of God with prayer ? But
did it ever fail of being accomplished by such dili
gence ? Did ever a soul anxiously give itself to
prayer and to the word of God without such a bless
ing ? Did ever any one thus wait upon God and go
away disappointed ? As you look round upon this
busy, guilty, worldly city, and the gay, the fashion
able, the careless circles in it, you can not but feel
that to lead such a life, and to make the salvation
of souls your object, will require a real separation
from the world, even while in it, a separation by liv
ing above it, by surrounding yourself with a charmed
atmosphere, the atmosphere of prayer and heaven,
and by carrying with you wherever you go, your
own heavenly standard and heavenly companions.
You can not but feel, and you feel rightly, that it
needs decision and a new supply of faith and spir
itual strength from the great Comforter every day
and every hour.
And is not every event and all discipline good

20 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
and blessed, that presses you down every day and
every hour at the foot of the cross, that compels you
to come with weeping importunity to your Saviour,
to the throne of grace, for yourself and for others ?
Oh ! for such a sense of your dependence as will
keep you there ; for there, in that humble posture
and frame of spirit, is your safety, your strengthj
your happiness, your preparation for usefulness now
and glory hereafter. You need a holy industryj
which will snatch opportunities for frequent visits
to the throne of grace ; there you must have your
cold and unfeeling heart taken away ; there you
must get a deep pity for sinners, and prepare your
self to press the subject of their own salvation upon
them in personal conversation, with tenderness, sim
plicity, and in earnest. There you must plead, and
weep, and feel as Jacob did, 1 will not let thee go
except thou bless me.
Consider now, once more, in the third place, the
reasons for such activity. You ought so to come to
the help of the Lord, because God commands it ;
because Christ died for you ; because your insensi
bility blunts the arrows of divine truth, hardens the
hard-hearted, lulls the sinner to sleep, blinds his
moral vision, makes him stupid," grieves the Holy
Spirit, and discourages the efforts of your Christian
brethren ; and because, if you do not, you have no
reason to think yourself a disciple of Christ. Sure
I am that the natural insensibility of sinners is dread
ful enough without having it increased by the still
more shocking indifference of Christians. To the
continuance of that insensibility you must be found

TN A TIME OF REVIVAL. 21
accessory, unless you obey the command of God, and
come to his help against the mighty. Besides the
commands, and all the encouraging, animating pro
mises of God, you have the love of Christ to con
strain you. You belong not to yourself, but to Jesus.
Think of his mercy, his dying love, and your im
measurable obligations to him, in redeeming you
from sin and death and the wrath to come. Why
were you called and made a partaker of his love,
when thousands around you have adhered to their
wretched, melancholy choice of perdition ? If you
ever have been made a partaker of Christ's love,
must it not kindle to a new flame in any thing like
a revival of religion ? But if your piety is of such
a character that it fails to make you sympathize with
your Lord and Master in his compassion for sinners ;
if it makes you stupid, inactive, without warmth ;
if it suffers you to be neglectful of the salvation of
others, then, dear friend, it is worth lamentably lit
tle. No man in his senses but would think it a fear
ful hazard to take such a piety as his passport to
eternal life. If you do not feel anxious for the wel
fare of other souls, it is high time to look to your
"own. If in the midst of the work of God you can
still sleep, then you had better begin your Christian
life over again, and come humbly to the meeting of
inquiry with anxious, trembling sinners ; for what
evidence ought to be looked for of a man's piety and
growth in grace, if it be not a heavenly interest in
the welfare of perishing immortal souls around him ?
Every thing is put to hazard by such dreadful in
sensibility.

22 THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY
It is an insensibility that can be overcome if you
choose ; indeed, we can contrive to remain insensi
ble, only by interposing the veil of time and sense
between our souls and eternal realities. If we knew
we had but a day longer to live, or that some one
of our dearest friends now impenitent would be
called into eternity this week, we should not long
be complaining of insensibility. But if in such a
case we should be roused up effectually, we ought
to be now. If death, the judgment, and the eternal
realities of heaven and hell will powerfully agitate
us and our friends, when we stand in the midst of
them, they ought to do it now, for faith makes these
things present to us, and we know that they will be
present, when happiness will be as dear and misery
as dreadful as they are now.
We need now to act, to pray fervently, and act
fervently, and not to be surmising, suspecting, won
dering, hesitating. While one man is standing still
and speculating about the lions in the way, another,
who possesses the warm zeal of the Gospel, will
have prayed a dozen sinners into the kingdom of
heaven. We need to act fearlessly, committing the
result to God. If your neighbor's house were on
fire at midnight, would you let the fear of making
a great disturbance, or spoiling the night's rest of
the people, prevent you from giving the alarm, or
make you ceremonious in doing it, or would you
think it necessary, in using the fire-engine, to be
very careful not to wet any individual or any furni
ture in the way ? If we wait for a perfectly conve
nient season, we shall wait till the graves are ready

IN A TIME OF REVIVAL. 23
for us. If the farmer should neglect to sow his corn
field because he is afraid there may be some bad
ears in the harvest, or to cut his hay in a sunny day
because he fears a storm to-morrow, his field would
lie fallow forever, and his hay would rot where it
grew. And if we do not faithfully perform our
duty, leaving the result with God, all our anticipa
tions will be blasted.
It is not the scabbard of conservatism that we
need to brandish, as Christian soldiers, but the sword
of the Spirit and the weapon of all prayer ; it is not
prudence that we need, but earnestness, activity,
and zeal. In the heat of the contest, what is the
scabbard good for without the sword, or what should
you think of a man who should throw away his
sword and brandish his scabbard ? It is the part of
good sense as well as courage in such cases some
times to throw away the scabbard, as a proof that
you are resolute, and because it is a useless incum
brance ; but who would think of leaving his weapon
and wielding its sheath ? Yet Satan sees a great
many soldiers doing this, and not only so, but calling
upon others to use nothing but the scabbard.
Now do we need to use with more directness and
earnestness than ever the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God. Now do we need to be a
thousand times more active and fervent in the ser
vice of our Saviour ; we need to feel a thousand fold
more for the welfare of perishing sinners, and to
chano-e our sluggish Christian character for one of
heavenly zeal and energy, one that better adorns
our profession ; we need to be more humble, more

24 penitent, more faithful in Christian effort for the
conversion of sinners, more incessant and earnest in
prayer. We need to plead with an earnestness that
can not be expressed, an importunity of spirit for
which there is no language, that God would in mercy
continue and increase the work of his grace. Then
it will go on ; there will be new repentance on earth
and new joy in heaven. Religion never will decline
with us if we are truly unwilling it should. But if
we ourselves would keep hold on the slightest hope
of heaven, we can not do it with any ground of con
fidence while sluggish in the service of that Saviour
who purchased us with his own blood. If we ever
hope to be useful, we can not do it, unless we wake
from our spiritual slumbers, and so pray, and watch,
and strive, that for us to live, it may indeed be
Christ.