children dreamed of the awful
retribution which awaited them in the other world.

And there was a fiery zeal in the work of saving men's souls from the
wrath to come which showed that it was no figurative faith which moved
the preachers and their co-workers. A song sung by all ran in one of its
favorite stanzas:--

"Must I be carried to the skies
On flow'ry beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas?"

Excitement naturally overcame many, and they rushed forward to the
mourner's benches in front of the altar and cried out for mercy, or
silently prayed for days and weeks till the light "broke upon them" and
they went forth shouting for joy. These then became exhorters, and moved
among their friends in the congregation, begging them to yield their
"proud and haughty spirits" ere it should be too late. At times scores
of penitents would be on their knees in the spaces about the altar,
others would be "laboring" with the sinners not yet stricken, and still
others thanking God in loud voices for their delivery from sin and
Satan, whom all regarded as an active demon always seeking whom he might
destroy.

In the South the deism which had influenced the generation led by
Washington and Jefferson had given way to the stern faith of the
Calvinists, for whether one were Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, or
Campbellite, the essentials of his religion were the same. Wealthy
planters, small farmers, and negro slaves sought the salvation of their
souls in the same churches and under the same preachers. In fact it was
common for men to be told by their pastors that unless they were willing
to sit down in heaven by the side of the "poor slave" they could not be
saved, and the slave often begged his master to accept the terms of
salvation. A few great planters who were not touched by the religious
fervor of the time held aloof, and the poorer whites and the slaves came
to accept the view that these were the rich men who could not be saved,
and commonly said hell was their unavoidable portion.

In the East, save in the Unitarian and Episcopalian churches, there was
the same religious realism. In the great revivals of 1857 earnest men
and great congregations prayed aloud that God might convert the
heretical Theodore Parker, or that, if he were not a subject of grace,
as many believed he was not, he might be taken from this world, where he
was doing infinite