The Preparation of Sermons

Charles G. Finney had decided views with reference to the value of revivals of religion, and early in his ministry he gave a series of "Lec­tures on Revivals of Religion" to the church of which he was pastor. The first one was entitled, "What a Re­vival of Religion Is." He took for his text Habakkuk 3:2: "O Lord, re­vive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy."

He says that religion "is something for man to do. It consists in obey­ing God with and from the heart." But God influences him and induces him to do it. In his introductory re­marks he states:

"A 'revival of religion' presupposes a declension. Almost all the religion in the world has been produced by re­vivals. God has found it necessary to take advantage of the excitability there is in mankind to produce pow­erful excitements among them, before He can lead them to obey. Men are so spiritually sluggish, there are so many things to lead their minds off from religion, and to oppose the in­fluence of the gospel, that it is neces­sary to raise an excitement among them, till the tide rises so high as to sweep away the opposing influences, before they will obey God. Not that excited feeling is religion, for it is not; but it is excited desire, appetite, and feeling that prevent religion. The will is, in a sense, enslaved by the carnal and worldly desires. Hence it is necessary to awaken men to a sense of guilt and danger, and thus pro­duce an excitement of counter feel­ing and desire which will break the power of carnal and worldly desire, and leave the will free to obey God." —Pages 9, 10.

He then proceeds first to tell what a revival is not. It is not a miracle in the sense of being a divine inter­ference, setting aside the laws of na­ture.

"It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means, as much so as any other effect produced by the application of means. . . . The means which God has en­joined for the production of a revival, doubtless have a natural tendency to produce a revival. . . . But means will not produce a revival, we all know, without the blessing of God. No more will grain, when it is sowed, produce a crop without the blessing of God. It is impossible for us to say that there is not as direct an influence or agency from God to produce a crop of grain as there is to produce a re­vival.. . .

"In the Bible the word of God is compared to grain, and preaching is compared to sowing seed, and the re­sults to the springing up and growth of the crop. And the result is just as philosophical in the one case as in the other, and is as naturally con­nected with the cause; or, more cor­rectly, a revival is as naturally a re­sult of the use of the appropriate means as a crop is of the use of its appropriate means. It is true that re­ligion does not properly belong to the category of the cause and effect; but although it is not caused by means, yet it has its occasion, and may as naturally and certainly result from its occasion as a crop does from its cause...

"This principle holds true in moral government, and as spiritual bless­ings are of surpassing importance, we should expect their attainment to be connected with great certainty with the use of the appropriate means; and such we find to be the fact; and I fully believe that could facts be known, it would be found that when the ap­pointed means have been rightly used, spiritual blessings have been obtained with greater uniformity than temporal ones."—Pages 12, 14.

Modesto, Calif.