dered as most important
and salutary in their results. Let it not be supposed that I am
deprecating that which is to be understood by a revival, in the true
sense of the word; not those revivals which were formerly held the
benefit of all, and for the salvation of many: I am raising my voice
against the modern system, which has been so universally substituted for
the reality; such as has been so fully exposed by Bishop Hopkins, of
Vermont, and, by Mr Colton, who says--

"Religious excitements, called revivals of religion, have been a
prominent feature in the history of this country from its earliest
periods, more particularly within a hundred years and the agency of man
has always had more or less to do in their management, or in their
origination, or in both. Formerly, in theory, (for man is naturally a
philosopher, and will always have his theory for every event, and every
fact,) they were regarded as Pentecostal seasons--as showers from
heaven; with which this world below had nothing to do but to receive,
and be refreshed by them as they came. A whole community, or the great
majority of them, absorbed in serious thoughts about eternal things,
inquiring the way to heaven, and seeming intent on the attainment of
that high and glorious condition, presents a spectacle as solemn as it
is interesting to contemplate. Such, doubtless, has been the condition
of many communities in the early and later history of American revivals;
and it is no less true that the fruits have been the turning of many to
God and his ways.

"The revivals of the present day are of a very different nature." [The
American clergymen are supported in their opinion on the present
revivals and their consequences by Doctors Reid and Matheson, who,
otherwise favourable to them, observe, "These revival preachers have
denounced pastors with whom they could not compare, as dumb dogs,
hypocrites, and formalists, leading their people to hell. The
consequences have been most disastrous. Churches have become the sport
of derision, distraction, and disorder. Pastors have been made unhappy
in their dearest connexions. So extensive has been this evil, that, in
one presbytery of nineteen churches, there were only three who had
settled pastors; and in one synod, in 1832, of a hundred and three
churches, only fifty-two had pastors."] "There are but two ways by which
the mind of man can be brought to a proper sense of religion--one is by
love, and the other b