ver, till the last communion, had he administered the ordinance without
receiving more or less into the church. But now there are _no awakenings,
no conversions_, not much apparent growth in grace in professors, and none
come to his study to converse about the salvation of their souls. With the
increase of business, and the brightening prospects of commerce and
manufacture, there is an increase of worldly-mindedness. _Thus it is with
all the denominations._"(620)

In the month of February of the same year, Professor Finney, of Oberlin
College, said: "We have had the fact before our minds, that, in general,
the Protestant churches of our country, as such, were either apathetic or
hostile to nearly all the moral reforms of the age. There are partial
exceptions, yet not enough to render the fact otherwise than general. We
have also another corroborated fact: the almost universal absence of
revival influence in the churches. The spiritual apathy is almost
all-pervading, and is fearfully deep; so the religious press of the whole
land testifies.... Very extensively, church-members are becoming devotees
of fashion,--join hands with the ungodly in parties of pleasure, in
dancing, in festivities, etc.... But we need not expand this painful
subject. Suffice it that the evidence thickens and rolls heavily upon us,
to show that the _churches generally are becoming sadly degenerate_. They
have gone very far from the Lord, and He has withdrawn Himself from them."

And a writer in the _Religious Telescope_ testified: "We have never
witnessed such a general declension of religion as at the present. Truly,
the church should awake, and search into the cause of this affliction; for
as an affliction every one that loves Zion must view it. When we call to
mind how 'few and far between' cases of true conversion are, and the
almost unparalleled impertinence and hardness of sinners, we almost
involuntarily exclaim, 'Has God forgotten to be gracious? or, Is the door
of mercy closed?' "

Such a condition never exists without cause in the church itself. The
spiritual darkness which falls upon nations, upon churches and
individuals, is due, not to an arbitrary withdrawal of the succors of
divine grace on the part of God, but to neglect or rejection of divine
light on the part of men. A striking illustration of this truth is
presented in the history of the Jewish people in the time of Christ. By
their devotion to the world and forgetfulness of God