Glimpses of Christian History Presents Pastwords #84: Shouting, Genuine and Spurious by G. W. Henry ©2007

Henry rejoiced that Calvin didn't give everyone lockjaw.

THE PLATFORM

e are now to introduce you, dear reader, to the subject of shouting, and other external spiritual manifestations. And now let us take each a pilgrim's staff in hand, and travel through the sacred record, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, and see what we can find appropriate to our purpose. David accumulated the materials for Solomon to build the temple, and the prophets and apostles shall furnish us with the goodly stones and cedars, to construct this little literary edifice. We will build on the stable foundation--the written word. Standing here, we defy the world. If God be for us who can be against us.

There are two pillars in the Christian temple which have always annoyed the Devil, the Bible and Christian experience; and as it is our business to disturb the old adversary as much as possible, we shall, while constantly referring to the law and the testimony, throw in, as occasion requires, a little of what we have seen and felt. It was a prominent characteristic of Methodists in olden times to relate their experience, and we are strongly inclined to seek the old paths and walk therein. When everything in the shape of theology fails, it is often the case that the simple relation of what the soul knows and enjoys will kindle the fire, which, like electricity, will leap from heart to heart until the great congregation will be dazzled by its light and melted with its heat; and if all are not fettered with a slavish fear of men, there will be a shout, and perhaps a loud shout. The witness, as said Jesus to Nicodemus, speaks what he has seen and felt. His soul is all a-glow with feeling; and it is no wonder that words impelled by strong desire and burning love, go like grape shot to the hearts that listen.

The subject of shouting has not been a matter of controversy between the Church and world only, but has got to be a kind of family quarrel. This controversy makes sad inroads upon the piety and efficiency of the Church. The day when all secrets are to be unfolded will show that it has done quite as much to recruit the vast army of backsliders, and to un-nerve and weaken the church, as any one of Satan's operations. And it seems to be waxing worse and worse every year in the Methodist Church. In almost every periodical we find this bone of contention. We see a writer, professing the faith of Christ, claiming to be on the same war-ship with the brethren they persecute, and to be led by the same captain, placing his big brogans on all spiritual demonstrations, especially if they do not agree in weight and measure with his balances and half bushel. The brother stepped on so heavily is grieved of course, and thinks it duty to defend practices he loves. Accordingly he calls on the prophets and apostles to endorse him. They back his paper without hesitation. And now he thinks his foes vanquished. He thinks his paper ought to pass, with holy men of old who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as his endorsers. But paper thus backed will not be accepted by the children of the Pharisee; and next week out comes another old grey goose quill and tries to capsize the whole concern. Many of the readers are befogged at once. Timid as fawns, which start at the rustling of a leaf, they know not which way to turn to escape their bewilderment. As Peter, while looking at the roaring wave, listening to the terrific thunder, and enveloped in darkness made more dense, by the occasional lightning's flash, they are in trouble up to their chin, and perhaps sink to rise no more.

Alas! how many do we hear confessing with tearful eyes and aching hearts, that they have lost the favor of God, by trying to please our modern Uzzahs, who are always for steadying the ark. Thousands have shrunk from a full consecration, for similar reasons. As the last cord that binds them to earth is about to be severed, they hear a whisper that causes them to hesitate to cut it. What will be the consequences of an unreserved consecration to God, of soul, body and spirit? New duties to perform, and mortifying crosses to be borne. They shrink from these things. The reproach of loud shouting and falling under the Spirit's power is more than they can endure. They cannot sell all they have to buy the pearl of great price. They dare not sign the contract. And all the way down to the damp, dark grave, they carry sad hearts and wear gloomy faces.

If a stranger had overheard the Saviour, as he taught his disciples on the green hills and mountain summits of Palestine, saying to them that he must go up to Jerusalem, and suffer many things at the hands of Scribes, and Elders, and Pharisees, he would have inquired with astonishment, what! go up to Jerusalem to suffer? one would have supposed it the haven of grace. And well may strangers in this the nineteenth century, be astonished at the fact that spiritual christians must go up to Jerusalem to suffer the persecutions of Pharisees. Fires are kindled and crosses are erected by backslidden class-leaders, by proud Pharisees in pulpit and in pew. Often have God's faithful been heard to pray, to agonize in prayer, that they might be able to endure the flames--to bear with fortitude the pains of crucifixion. Gog and Magog--a man-fearing and man-pleasing spirit, are the causes of much of this evil. It is this popular devil that is now dragging more souls to hell than any of his co-adjutors.

O! thou traveler on the boisterous waves of Genesareth, that entered the land of the Gergesenes, measuring swords with legions of devils, and giving them a free passage to the depths of the sea in a herd of swine--if thine ear has not grown heavy, and thine arm shortened, cast this Pharisaic Devil out of thy Zion, and kennel him eternally in his native hell.--Amen!

We do not intend, dear reader, to condemn persons for their silence, nor to commend any merely for their loud shouting. We are not called by the Holy Ghost to any such work. It is our design, as heretofore stated, to inquire what is the will of our heavenly Father in reference to this matter. The Apostle Paul has ever been whispering in our ear, do you seek to please God or man? and we remember that Jesus says, How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not he honor that cometh from God only. We desire to please God, and to obtain the honor which he confers, and therefore intend to subject ourselves to the Spirit's dictation; and we hope to induce others to follow our example.

But before we advance farther, that you may better understand our platform, and that we pass good naturedly along, and have a pleasant time while exploring our subject, permit us to relate, by way of illustration, an affair of recent date in which the author bore a conspicuous part. It occurred during a camp-meeting we attended, of which Dr. Z. Paddock had the management. The names of Benjamin and Zechariah Paddock have always been music in our ears. When we were a flaxen-haired boy, a wild youth, these brothers and ministers of Jesus, as they went forth to sow in Litchfield Circuit, Herkimer Co., N.Y., scattered some good seed in the youthful furrows of our heart. Their songs, and prayers, and preaching, watered by their tears, were not lost by the way side, although the tender blade did not appear for more than a quarter of a century.

At this meeting, which occurred during the summer of 1857, there was a love feast called, where thousands sat in open court, waiting to throw in their testimony for Jesus. In front of the stand were sitting with us a row of brethren, among whom were the Doctor and Bro. Gorham. And here let me say, that Bro. Gorham was also one that held a high seat in our affections; from whose sanctified lips we heard the sacred doctrine of perfect love; from whom we received, as the instrument of God's grace, the white stone with a new name engraved upon it; and who conducted us into the land of Beulah, where we have lived ever since, by the grace of God, in its waving cornfields and fruitful vineyards. When our turn came to bear witness to the joys of salvation, we arose with a cup brim-full, and as we gave utterance to our feelings, the Angel of the Covenant plunged into the pool and so agitated the waters that every nerve of our body vibrated like a Jew's harp, and as has often been the case on like occasions, before and since, we were raised on tip-toe and began to hop, unable to control our motions, though perfectly conscious of our condition; and while trying to get back to our seat, hopped on the toes of the Doctor and other brethren, and finally fell back in their laps. This made no small stir in the camp. Some shouted, others wondered, and said they had never seen it after that fashion before. But he love feast went on until it blazed like the burning bush.

Just at this point another old acquaintance found his way to our side; one who is faithful in attendance at all the means of grace, rain or shine, in whose employ we served for many years for miserable wages. He is called the Accuser of the brethren. Of course he came with a message. He at once whispered in our ear that we had offended our dearest friends by our ridiculous performances. Dr. Paddock, says he, is never known to shout aloud, and is never the subject of such peculiar exercises, and there are none of his numerous friends but will say he knows more of the heights and depths of salvation, than a poor blind man just blasted out of the mountain; besides, he has eulogized your books more than any other man, and has given them wings to fly to firesides where they would not otherwise have reached, and now you have lost his friendship by disgracing the meeting. It may be tolerated, says he, by Gorham, for he sometimes shouts himself, but you have disgraced yourself in the eyes of the Doctor. By this time we had hauled in our horns, and shrunk back in our shell like a snail. We would willingly have been trampled upon by the meanest mortal on earth. We were in the predicament of Bunyan's pilgrim, when Apolyon had knocked his sword out of his hand, wounded him in the head, and laid him on his back. But he was one of God's invincibles, and at the critical moment shouted, O mine enemy, rejoice not against me, when I fall I shall rise;" in a breath he was on his feet again, brandished his Jerusalem blade, and Apolyon cleared the track, and Christian went on his way rejoicing. Soon we began to crawl out of our shell again, and determined to know whether the Accuser had told the truth or not; for sometimes he tells the truth when it will serve his evil purpose; but then he mixes truth and falsehood just as cotton and wool are mixed in pure woolen goods, so that it is sometimes difficult for the keenest eyed saint to separate the true from the false. According to our determination we told the Doctor all that he had told us. Now the Doctor is one of the German flutes of the Lord's band, and the furrows of his cheeks are always overflowing with tears of Christian love. "Well," says he, "that is all a lie; I was greatly blessed; and was exceedingly tried with myself because I have no such ecstasies; and now Bro. Henry I want to make a contract with you,--if you will never be tried with me for my stillness, I never will be tried with your shouting, hopping and falling." Ah! how delightful to our troubled spirit were the rich, silvery tones of this voice. The contract was signed and sealed with hearty amens in the presence of angels and God.

Now, reader, you may fish something out of this story that will be for your advantage. You have a specimen of the manner in which the Devil is operating throughout our Zion. He disturbs one brother or sister because they are never the subjects of extraordinary demonstrations of the Spirit; and at the same time tells the noisy ones that they had better stop their mouths and hide their heads. He sits in his great iron chair, and laughs out of both corners of his mouth, to think that he has so adroitly killed two birds with one stone.

Can you tell, reader, why the Devil is said to have one cloven foot? If you do not know, we can tell you. It is because he creates all the divisions among brethren. If he can only crowd this foot into the Church, into families, into neighborhoods, where the Prince of Peace reigns, and all hearts are bound together like Joseph's sheaf, in unfeigned love, and them sow a few seeds of discord, and curdle the sweet milk of fraternal love into bitterness and strife, he has gained a great victory; for by whom a man is overcome, by the same he is brought into bondage.' Some one has said that Satan was like a sun-fish. He would shrink himself to the thickness of a shingle, and slip so smoothly between two brethren, that they would scarcely perceive him; then he would spread out his sharp horny fins until he had fixed a gulf between them as impassable as that between Dives and Lazarus. Alas! how frequently have the peculiar exercises of which many are the subjects, been made the entering wedge of endless heart burning and strife.

Not a thousand years ago, two sisters, who for years had walked together in Christian love, without a single discord to mar the harmony of their fellowship, were entirely alienated from one another. While on a visit to a neighboring society, one was awakened, to the subject of holiness, sought and obtained it, and like Noah's dove, having found rest on the Ararat of perfect love, returned to her home with the green olive leaf in her mouth. She began to wave it as a token of victory. She exhorted others to come up to a higher standard. And as she testified of Jesus' saving power, the fire fell, and as John fell as one dead at a glimpse of Jesus, on the Isle of Patmos, she fell, though she had always been numbered among the orderly, and measured her full length on the floor; and as the giant oak, uprooted by the mighty storm king, bears down many smaller trees in its fall, this sister, overthrown by a mighty spiritual gale, in her fall broke the bones of the new bonnet of her hitherto loving friend, demolished her fair fabric of artificials, and carried all, and the poor sister's superficial religion in the bargain, down into the dust. This of course raised the devil. Faithful testimony, holy living, and slaying power always set him to roaring. Think not, says the Author of holiness, that I am come to send peace, but a sword." Wherever the Apostles went and preached, and they preached holiness, his Satanic majesty was aroused; divisions were made in the Church; multitudes met to discuss the strange doctrine, and Pharisees took counsel together for the purpose of extinguishing the fire; and they even went so far as to put holiness to jail.

But let us jog back to the old church. The congregation is dismissed. The sexton turns the key at a late hour, saying as he goes, this woman is a setter forth of strange doctrines; our old church has never witnessed such scenes before. The two sisters have separated, one going from the summit of Mount Tabor, with the wine of the kingdom sticking to her lips, the other from the valley of Limbo, with a dark cloud upon her brow, and a heavy weight upon her heart. As she presses out the bruises from her new bonnet, and readjusts her artificials, she says, if such performances are the fruit of holiness, may heaven deliver me from it." And now Satan whispers, through the lips of a member of the Church of Sardis, this is all wild fire."Yes." says the sister, I am convinced of it. She may be a Christian; I shall not judge her; but hereafter she can have my seat to occupy as well as her own. On the next Sabbath she betakes herself to the Church of Sardis, where minister and people are so destitute of life and power as to be unable to raise a quarrel even with the world. The newly baptized sister now receives a gracious visit from her Leader and Pastor, both heavily burdened with a message. They proceed in the most approved manner. Their approaches are as regularly and carefully planned as in the siege of a towering fortress. They employ any number of friction wheels, well fitted for service by a plentiful supply of soft soap. But finally the germ of the matter is reached. The good sister is informed that her exercises are regarded disreputable, and that if persisted in the result would be, To Let would be written on many pew doors. But how does she endure this fiery trial, this crucifixion at the hands of Pharisees and Elders? Alas! she yields to temptation. She withholds her testimony. Her sun goes down under a cloud, and the light that was in her becomes gross darkness. And now the sisters are forever separated, and without a miracle of grace will sink forever.

The devil that so carefully guarded the pew doors, is cousin-german to the one that proposed to kill Lazarus, whim Jesus raised from the dead; for says he, if Lazarus be permitted to go about preaching Christ's power over death, the Elder's salary will be diminished, the Church will be broken up, and our nation lost.

Here you see the effects of Satan's cloven foot. You see too, how artfully he makes good an instrument of evil. The testimony of the Savior's power to cleanse form all unrighteousness, is used as a means to distract and divide. A sister falls under God's power, and this is made the occasion of a great outcry. Did ever a devil do a darker deed? The Holy Ghost beareth us witness that we had rather meet death on a horse stolen from a neighbor's pasture, and run our risk of heaven, than to be found fighting against these manifestations of the power of God. In one case we rob a man of his horse, in the other we rob God of his glory. It was the business of Pharisees in Christ's day to rob him of glory, and their posterity are pursuing the same calling. It is our earnest prayer that the Church may yet have power to cast out these unclean spirits.

The question to be determined is whether shouting and other peculiar exercises are allowable or not, and whether under certain circumstances they are not positive duties! We maintain the affirmative of both these questions; not, however, without qualification as to time and circumstances. God is a God of order. And now we propose to search diligently to ascertain what is the order of God in reference to spiritual manifestations. Let God be true if every croaker's mouth be stopped. The apostle prays that the Gospel may have free course, run and be glorified; as much as to say, clear the track Pharisees, and velveteared professors, whose nerves are so easily excited by the whistle of the old Gospel engine, and the shouts and songs of the emigrants, as they thunder through vanity fair and across the enchanted ground to the celestial city. This interpretation of the apostle's words may be doubted by some, but we hope to establish its correctness before we get through.

On the journey we shall take special pains to knock at the doors of the prophets and holy men in every age and ash them, whether shouting aloud, clapping of hands, and falling under God's power are in order in their times, or whether they perform their daily marches with muffled drums and funeral dirges, singing--

Hark from the tombs a doleful sound.

They will respond that if they had their sorrow, they had their seasons of great joy; that if they sometimes wept, they shouted as frequently. The gloomy religion that many rate so highly was never to our taste. When we were a small boy, in a certain branch of Zion, a Christian's thermometer was his face. The one with the longest face was made a Deacon, and the one who could testify that he was the greatest sinner on earth was made an Elder. The unpardonable sin was for a person to say that he knew his sins forgiven and that he was a child of God. If his joy rose above zero he was pronounced a fanatic, and if his zeal was more than lukewarm he was an enthusiast, and his friends began to shake their heads dubiously, and talk of the asylum. But if a good sister should say in open court that she loved the Savior, the gag law was enforced at once. We then said in our heart, if this is religion, O Lord deliver us from it. We felt as the man on the platform of the gallows, who being told that he could have his choice, to return to his home and live all his days with a perpetually scolding wife or be hung by the neck, replied, drop your platform and let me swing.'

We should have been converted long before, if religion had not seemed so gloomy as affair. All wish to be happy; and when they see Christians who endure instead of enjoying religion, whose life is all conflict without victory, all wormwood and gall without a single drop of the oil of gladness, no wonder they prefer spiritual death, just as the person referred to preferred to sleep in the tomb rather than be caged with a scolding wife, whose tongue, says Solomon, is like the continual dropping of water. Men will not resign the positive enjoyments of life for a life compounded of fears, gloom and sorrow. But, glory to God, we were not born under that star. Our spiritual morning was an Austerlitz. We passed from darkness to a most marvelous light. Our captivity was turned back. Our mouth was filled with loud laughter, so that we aroused the whole encampment. Surely we were not a still-born child if we can judge from the laughing and shoutings of our first moments in the new life. Deliverance came to our heart about one o'clock in the morning of the tenth of August, 1842, after a long season of weeping and mourning. It was given while sister Catharine Acre was explaining, in a conversation of not more than ten minutes, the simplicity of faith and the plainness of the way. Thank God! John Calvin was not able to give all our sisters lockjaw.

In every country and town there are magistrates set as watchmen on the walls, to guard the intertess and morals of the people. From these dignitaries the rum-seller receives his license, to deal out damnation by the gill, to fathers, husbands and children; to break marriage ties and female heads and hearts; to deluge whole families in bitter scalding tears, and then very mercifully hand over the bloated body to the sexton, and their families to the poor-master; to set whole towns on fire of hell, and pour floods of the liquid lava of damnation over all the land. Let the philanthropist remonstrate, and threaten to bring them to justice, and the response is a demon's laugh, and a license stuck into his face.

And there is another class of persons in our land, who have license to do a more horrible business. They live in southern climes. They have license to hold, whip and starve slaves; a license hatched out by Congress, and brooded under the wing of the Executive of the Union; a license to turn the image of God into a chattel; a license which makes the marriage tie as fragile as a string of tow, and life as uncertain as a soap bubble in the air. Remonstrate with them, and they entrench themselves behind their constitutional rights, as Jackson behind the cotton bales at New Orleans. But what good will these licenses do them in the judgment day in the presence of the King of kings? Less than Adam's fig leaf apron did to him.

But we have a license from the authorities of heaven to sing and shout, which we intend to use through this little volume, and which we mean to poke in the face of every pharisaical class leader or preacher whom Satan has employed to put the breaks on the wheels of the car of salvation. God has spoken by the mouth of Isaiah, let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.' Who art thou who repliest against God? It is God that justifieth. Where is the brazen faced Ajax that dare spike the artillery of heaven, or smother the shouts of the Christian victor? It is the Devil's work to throw water on the fire, and he would long ago have quenched it had it not been for the omnipresent Jesus, who casts on a sacred oil, which causes the flame to rise higher by throwing on water, a secret the Devil could never solve.

Let us as Christians read carefully our license, and ascertain its boundaries and true meaning. The doctors say the great art of dealing out medicine, is to know when not to give it; and it is important for the Christian to know when not to shout. There are periods of the Christian's life when a note of triumph would be disgraceful. The license gives the privilege only of shouting on the top of the mountains. Mark the plural number--mountains. The obstacles we meet, and have to overcome, in the Christian's life, are mountains. There is no mountain so vast out that faith, as a grain of mustard seed, may not cast it into the sea. Every victory over the world, the flesh and the Devil,--over death, hell, and the grave, is a mountain summit gained, where we may wave our palms of victory, clap our glad hands, and sing and shout our joys. But while we stand at the base of the mountain, shouting will not be in order. Politicians never light their torches, form their processions, and shout their loud huzzahs, until they know they have gained the victory. A fighting cock will never clap his wings and crow until his antagonist lays dead at his feet, or shows his white feather. But you may whip a goose a thousand times, and it will return to the flock exceedingly loquacious and claim the victory; and none but the geese, in or out of the church, clap their wings, and shout the victory, until the white feather of the enemy is seen. But we have many a season for shouting; and what a shout we shall have, when the last enemy is conquered, on the top of the Mount of God. Hallelujah to God!

CROSSING JORDAN

In the autumn of 1829, Mr. Evans wrote in his diary extensive notes of a conversation which he had with several ministers in Bristol, on 'the manner of religious rejoicing so remarkable among the Welsh.' His friends condemned it in a sweeping sentence, under the name of 'Welsh jumping.' Mr. Evans attempted its vindication. We insert his own account:

"I observed that I could find no account of it among the Welsh until the time of Harris and Rowlands, Calvinistic Methodists, who flourished in Wales about the same times as Whitefield and Wesley in England. The preaching of these men was the means of producing a religious revival throughout all the principality, which had sunk into a state of deep lethargy, since the time of the great awakening under Vavasor Powell, about one hundred years before. At this period nothing was to be seen in almost every parish but young men and young women flocking together into the churches and churchyards, and engaging in different gambols and pastimes, such as ball-playing, foot-ball, leaping, fighting, and such like frolics, as if Wales had been changed into an Olympic mountain, and old paganism restored again. It is true, there were some preachers and churches, both Congregationalist and Baptist, then existing in the principality; but their talents, their spirits, or their magnanimity could not storm such a fortress of impiety. And, besides, there was a dreadful prejudice still remaining in the country against all sects, since the days of Charles II; and they suffered persecution even unto blood, for about one hundred years previous to the appearing of these men. But form the ashes of those sufferers the revival by Harris and Rowlands sprung up, as did Luther from the ashes of Huss and Jerome of Prague.

Mr. Rowlands and Mr. Harris were both of the communion of the Episcopal church, and, as such, there was not so much enmity against them at first; but after they had come out, and when the people understood that they were preachers of the cross of Christ, considerable persecution arose against them from the multitude; but it was now too late--for the gates of the city were opened--the leaven was put in the meal--the fire had been kindled--the sword was drawn from the scabbard, and many had been wounded, (spiritually,) and were ready to open the door for the gospel in spite of every danger. Harris, Rowlands, and the two Williams, had been clothed with power from on high, and the hammer of their ministry was sufficiently heavy to break in pieces the northern iron. Several laymen of powerful minds were also raised up about this time; such as Mr. David Morris, and others, who were valuable auxiliaries to carry on the work. By their ministry, this praising and jumping in religious enjoyment began in Wales, which has not wholly left it on certain occasions until this day.

As an apology for them, granting at the same time the possibility of extremes even in a good cause in the present state; and that graceless persons may feel something from these excitements as of the powers of the world to come, in the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost in the apostolic age; observe,

1. That it appears to me like the residue of the Spirit, and the powers of the world to come; which were necessary to open a way for the gospel through the darkness and obduracy of paganism in the days of the Apostles.

2. It is no argument of importance against it, that many graceless persons felt a considerable degree of influence at the time, as well as others; for so it was in the case of Saul, king of Israel, and some besides named in Scripture.

3. There is no essential difference between religious enjoyment in Wales and that which is now experienced in America; and that which accompanied the preaching of Whitefield in England, and even in Scotland; and that which also followed the ministry of President Edwards, in America, when whole towns and neighborhoods echoed with the sounds of persons praying and praising God, as if a bursting cloud-shower of the Spirit of grace and prayer had descended upon them. Persons under the ministry of Whitefield wept, cried for mercy, and even fainted by the power of this influence.

4. And such gracious influences are necessary for the spread of the Gospel in every country, and in every land: and therefore the millennium is described in the Bible as a period remarkable for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost--'that a nation shall be born at once,'--and 'the flowing of the nations shall be to the mountain of the Lord's house.' It is this influence that has driven, as it were, the Gospel into every nook of the mountains of Wales, as well as into its cities, towns and villages; while in England, with all the advantages of education, the gospel, in a manner, is hid in a corner; and it has not run through the country, and searched out, and taken possession of all the inland parts of that spiritual Africa, and that for the want of these gales of divine influence, the powers peculiar to the Gospel: and it can never be spread through every part of England as it is in Wales without these gifts. Common preaching will not do to rouse sluggish districts from the heavy slumbers into which they are sunk. Indeed, formal prayers and lifeless sermons are like bulwarks raised against these things in England; and this evil genius has also entered the principality under the pretence of order Five or six stanzas will be sung as dry as Gilboa, in stead of one or two verses, like a new song, full of God, of Christ, and the Spirit of grace, until the heart is attuned for worship. The burying-grounds are kept in fine order in Glamorganshire, and green shrubs and herbs grow on the graves, but all this is of little value, for the inhabitants of them are all dead--so is every form of godliness where its power is not felt. Order without life is exceedingly worthless. You exhibit all the character of human nature, leaving every bud of the flower to open in the beams of the sun, except in divine worship. On other occasions you appear to have as much fire in your affections as the Welsh have. If you are noticed in a court of law, the most efficient advocate, such as Erskine, will give you the greatest satisfaction; but you are contented with a preacher, speaking so lifelessly and so low that you can hardly understand the third part of what he ways; and you will call this decency in the sanctuary. To-morrow, I shall see you answering fully to the human character, in your own actions. When the speakers on the platform will be urging the claims of missions, you will then beat the boards, and manifest so much life and cheerfulness, that not one of you will be seen to take up a note-book, nor any other book, while the speaker shall be addressing you. A Welshman might suppose, by hearing your noise, that he had been silently conveyed to the midst of one of the meetings of the 'Welsh jumpers,' with this difference, that you would perceive many more tears shed, and hear more 'calves of the lips' offered up, in the rejoicing meetings of Wales. But you will use your heels well on such occasions, and a little of your tongues. But even in Wales, in certain places--that is, places where the fervent gales are not enjoyed which fill persons with fear and terror and joy in approaching the altar of God--you may see, while hearing a sermon, one looking into his hymn-book, another into his note-book, and a third turning over the leaves of his Bible, as if he were going to study a sermon in the sanctuary, instead of attending to what is spoken by the preacher as the mouth of God. If there is joy and gladness pertaining to many, the light of God's countenance in the sanctuary should develop it; until a fire is kindled, and he speak with his tongue, making melody unto the Lord in his heart, and praising Him with his lips.

5. It is vain to urge objections against these powerful gales of divine influence, and allege that it is under the ministry of the illiterate preachers of Wales only they are experienced. Harris, Rowlands, and the two Williamses were not so, for they had been brought up for the established church. Whitefield and Edwards were men of education, and they preached the doctrine which in England is considered evangelical.

6. It is also beside the point to affirm that only persons of no weight, that is, ignorant boys and girls, are in the habit of thus rejoicing and praising God in his temple; for it is certain that those who express their joy in this manner possess so much sound experimental knowledge, as to make them eminent in that respect. I have listened to many of them in the midst of their enjoyments, and have often been delighted while they repeated true, evangelical, and substantial stanzas, replete with profound sentiment: for in such seasons, they could find out the very best, which made impressions on their memories; and these rapturous feelings developed them, as if the tongue were moved by the heat and force of the fire within. And many other things of an evangelical and gracious character they will utter on these joyful occasions, with such heavenly eloquence as would be inimitable, and impracticable even for themselves to utter with the same effect, without enjoying these meltings of spirit. This enjoyments is accompanied by many tears and much tenderness of heart: nor are persons of a dry spirit and hard heart ever regarded as fit subjects for this work of praise, in these blessed seasons of Christian enjoyment. It does not accord with any, but with him whose heart melts like wax, and runs in the form and mould of the Gospel.

7. There is no way in which churches or particular persons may enjoy this heavenly ecstasy, but by walking with God, and a spirit of watchfulness and prayer, which shows its pure and holy character. It awakens watchfulness against all evil tempers, improper expressioins, and wicked actions, lest the sense of it should be lost. Such a frame of mind cannot be expected by living in sin . These individuals come to the house of God with an earnest desire for this enjoyment, and dreading lest there should be a something in them which would cause God to deny them this unspeakable privilege. It is an exceedingly easy matter for a minister to manage a congregation, while Christian enjoyment keeps them near to God. They are diligent and zealous, and ready for every good work. But it is very easy to offend this joyous spirit--or give it what name you please, enthusiasm, religious madness, or Welsh jumping, (its English name,)--and make it hide itself. A quarrel and disagreement in the church will occasion it to withdraw immediately. Indulging in sin, in word or deed, will soon put it to flight. It is like unto the angel formerly, who could not behold the sin of Israel without hiding himself; so is the angel of the religious life in Wales, which proves him to be a holy angel, though he has the name of a 'Welsh jumper.' My prayer is, that this angel be a guard upon every congregation, and that none should do anything to offend him. It is an exceedingly powerful assistant to accompany us through the wilderness. But the individual that has not felt its happy influences, has nothing to lose; hence he does not dread a dry meeting and a hard prayer, for they are all the same to him; but the people of this enjoyment pray before prayer, and before hearing, that they may meet with God in them.

8. The seasons when these blessings are vouchsafed to the churches of Wales, are to be noticed. It is generally at a time when the cause of religion is at a low ebb--all gone to slumber. This happy spirit of enjoyment, like the angel of the pillar of fire, appears when there is distress, and everything at the worst. Its approach to the congregation is like the glory of God returning to the temple of old; it creates a stir among the brethren,--they have a new prayer, and a new spirit given them to worship God. This will lay hold of another,--some new strength and light will appear in the pulpit, until it will be imagined that the preacher's voice is altered, and that his spirit is become more evangelical, and that he preaches with a more excellent savor than usual. Tenderness will descend upon the members, and it will be seen that Mr. Wet-eyes and Mr. Amen have taken their places among them. The heavenly gale will reach some of the old backsliders, and they are brought with seeping to seek their forfeited privilege. By this time the sound of Almighty God will be heard in the outer court, beginning to move the hearers like a mighty wind shaking the forest. In these seasons of refreshment from the presence of the Lord some churches will receive, in the course of a year, additions of one hundred, others a hundred and fifty, and some others upwards of two hundred new members. Sometimes, the gale seems as if it blew upon the outer court--upon the hearers, and the young people from ten to fifteen years of age--when nothing extraordinary appears in the light and effect of the ministry, nor in the church; but afterwards making its way through the outer court to rouse the inner court, until a great concern is awakened for the state of the soul. But observe: The revival that begins in the church, and proceeds from thence to the world, and not that which commences outside of the church, is more frequent, and more efficient in its converts, for the pangs of labor are to begin in Zion.

9. Again, it may be remarked that the happy effects which follow these powerful revivals, evince their nature. They are certain, where they are strong, to bend the oaks of Bashan--men of strong and sturdy minds, and haughty hearts--to attend the ministry of the word. They will bring all the ships of Tarshish, the merchants of the world, into the harbor of hearing. The power of the day of the Lord will raze all the walls of bigotry to the foundation. The thoughts of eternal realities, and the spirit of worship, are by these blessings diffused abroad, and family worship is established in scores of families, where a few months before no regard was had unto it. The door of such district, thus opened by the powers of the world to come, shall not be closed against the hearers of the Gospel, until a goodly number of souls are there converted unto God. Where the living waters flow, dead fish are made alive by its virtues.

10. Since the first appearing of these gracious gifts at Llangeitho, under the ministry of Mr. Rowlands, they have been showers of blessings, which are poured down on the congregations of the Baptists and Congregationalists as well as the Calvinistic Methodists; and sometimes one of these denominations is favored with the, whilst the others are destitute. These refreshing seasons were, at times, experienced in a very powerful manner at Llangeitho, for about fifty years; that is, all the period of Mr. Rowlands' ministrations in that church. About two thousand persons assembled there for communion once a month, from the several counties of Wales, even in winter, and about three thousand in the summer season; which rendered it the most extraordinary place in Europe; and, beyond a doubt, hundreds of those who assembled there, on such occasions, are now in heaven singing the new song. If to live on the merits of Christ, to fear God, and praise him, and lead a sober and righteous life, is an evidence of a godly state, then this was visible at that time at Llangeitho.--Pages 42-29.

We have conversed with aged Welsh Baptist saints, who said they had witnessed hundreds of men and women, leaping as does upon the mountains, and shouting at the top of their voices, under the preaching of Mr. Evans. All Wales was in mourning when he died, and entered the land where there is no scorner to curl his lip and point the finger. O, that the Baptists of the present day in America had such men,--aye, and the Methodists, too.

Farewell, Christmas, till we meet thee where we shall see as we are seen. Then the great Oculist will open our eyes, and, with Milton, and thousands who cannot see the beauties of nature, we shall gaze on Him who both redeemed us and washed us in his blood, and shall sing with the throng gathered from every kindred, tongue and nation. Amen! Hallelujah!