In short, a minister should make the impression, uniformly and every where, that his extra meetings are important meetings; that their object and influence are important; and that they must not be shoved off, or put by, or neglected, for any ordinary secular appointments. He should manifest, in his degree of preparation for them, how much he thinks of them. His people should understand, that they cost him an effort, and should be made to feel that, by neglecting them, they not only incur guilt, but suffer loss.

I only add further, in respect to these meetings, that a minister should be very explicit in his appointments of them that there may be no mistake as to the time and place. He should also be punctual in his attendance. This remark has been made before, but its importance will justify me in repeating it. Wherever and whenever a minister has encouraged his people to expect him, let him be present, if possible, at the time. Let them not be disappointed. Strict punctuality will have an important bearing, not only on his meetings, but on his whole ministerial character; securing respect, inspiring confidence, and preparing his people to listen to him with interest and profit.

LECTURE X.

Revivals of Religion. Description of them.

Not peculiar to any country or age. Frequent in our own country. Revivals the work of God, operating by means. Means not to be undervalued-nor trusted to, as alone efficacious. In what sense a minister should labor for a constant revival.

A SEASON of revival is one, when the people of God are awakened, humbled, unusually impressed with the great realities of religion, and specially engaged in the performance of its duties. It is also a season, when sinners, in considerable numbers, are convinced and converted.

These visits of mercy have not been peculiar to any country or age; but in every place, and in every period of the church's history, when the people of God have awakened to their duty, and his ministers have faithfully dispensed his truth; he has afforded them the tokens of his gracious presence, and crowned their labors with a blessing.

In the primitive age of the church, there were special and powerful revivals of religion. The spirit of God was gloriously shed forth, sinners in vast numbers were converted, and the religion of the cross spread, in a few centuries, over the greater part of the then known world.

The reformation from Popery was accomplished, in no small degree, by revivals of religion. The term revival, indeed, was not then in use; but the thing signified by it was every where visible. God's ministers were aroused

to great earnestness in prayer, and boldness and faithfulness in preaching the truth; and their labors were eminently successful. Sinners by hundreds and thousands were converted; churches were purified and established; and the professors of a false and corrupt religion were induced to forsake it, and embrace the gospel.

After the lapse of nearly two centuries, Germany was visited with another revival of religion, in connection with the labors of Arndt, Franke, Spener, and others. These men originated the sect of the Pietists. They were a means of arousing the dormant Lutheran church, and bringing a portion of it back to the standard of the Reformers.

The history of the Moravians, and of their early settlements, is little less than a continued narrative of revivals of religion. The spirit of God was poured out upon their stations, not only in Germany, but in heathen lands, and sinners in great numbers were awakened and converted.

The times of Owen, Baxter, and Bunyan were seasons of much spiritual refreshing in different parts of England. No one can read the account of Baxter's labors and successes at Kidderminster, without perceiving that the scenes there exhibited, in every thing except the name, resembled the modern revivals of religion. In the following century, evangelical religion was again revived in England, and the spirit of it was widely diffused under the ministry of Whitefield, the Wesleys, and their fellow laborers.

Similar scenes have been witnessed, at different periods, in Scotland, from the Reformation to the present time. There was a revival in the West of Scotland, about the year 1625, called by the profane rabble "the Stewarton sickness." Five years later, there was a revival at the Kirk

of the Shots, where as many as five hundred were converted under a single sermon. At nearly the same time, a revival took place in the North of Ireland, which Mr. Fleming regards as "one of the largest manifestations of the Spirit, that hath been seen, since the days of the Apostles."

There have been frequent and powerful revivals of religion during the last half century, in Wales. A work of this kind commenced there in 1827, as the result of which, within about fifteen months, more than three thousand persons were added to the Congregational churches.

I hardly need mention the revivals which are now in progress, under the labors of Missionaries, in the East and West Indies, in Asia Minor, in Southern Africa, and in the Islands of the sea; in consequence of which thousands upon thousands of the benighted and perishing have been brought into the light, and been made partakers of the hopes and privileges, of the gospel.

I have noticed the above facts, for the purpose of showing, at a glance, that revivals of religion are not (what they have been sneeringly represented to be) peculiar to our own country. They are not peculiar to any country; but in every place, and in every age, when appropriate means have been used, accompanied with earnest, believing prayer, God has poured out his Spirit, revived his work, and cheered and comforted the hearts of his people.

It would be wrong, however, not to admit, and to do it with humble gratitude and praise, that our country has been distinguished, perhaps above every other in modern times, by the special operations of the Divine Spirit, and by the frequency and power of revivals of religion. They commenced almost at the first settlement of New England, and were of frequent occurrence under the preaching of

John Cotton, Richard Mather, Thomas Shepard, and other eminent ministers of that day.

Revivals prevailed over all the settled portions of New England, and in many parts of what are now the Middle and Southern States, about one hundred years ago. The principal instruments in this "Great Awakening," were President Edwards, Whitefield, the Tennents, and others of a kindred spirit, whom God raised up and sent forth, to labor in this blessed work.

Another era of revivals commenced with the commencement of the present century, and has continued to our own times. Indeed, revivals in this country have been so uniformly connected, of late, with the labors of a pious, faithful ministry, that they have come to be looked for, with a degree of confidence, and labored for, I had almost said, as things of course. Our young ministers are expected to be trained to be revival preachers; to know how to labor for the promotion of revivals, and how to behave themselves in the church of God, when seasons of refreshing come.

The knowledge here referred to involves the most important branch of pastoral duty. Better be ignorant, unskillful, any where else than here. This is a kind of knowledge in regard to which young ministers, most of all, need right instruction. They feel that they need it. And yet, after all that can be said, much will remain to be acquired in other ways to be suggested by their own wisdom, and to be learned, under the teachings of the Holy Spirit, and by their own experience.

In this and the following lectures-to be devoted to the subject-I shall not attempt to answer all the inquiries which might be proposed in reference to revivals; but shall hope to furnish some hints-to lay down some general principles, which, to a certain extent, may serve