For true revivals of religion no one can
be more deeply thankful than I am. Wherever they may take place, and by
whatever agents they may be effected, I desire to bless God for them,
with all my heart. “If Christ is preached,” I rejoice, whoever may be
the preacher. If souls are saved, I rejoice, by whatever section of the
Church the word of life has been ministered.
But it is a melancholy fact that, in a
world like this, you cannot have good without evil. I have no hesitation
in saying, that one consequence of the revival movement has been the
rise of a theological system which I feel obliged to call defective and
mischievous in the extreme.
The leading feature of the theological
system I refer to, is this: an extravagant and disproportionate
magnifying of three points in religion,-viz., instantaneous
conversion-the invitation of unconverted sinners to come to Christ,-and
the possession of inward joy and peace as a test of conversion. I repeat
that these three grand truths (for truths they are) are so incessantly
and exclusively brought forward, in some quarters, that great harm is
done.
Instantaneous conversion, no doubt, ought
to be pressed on people. But surely they ought not to be led to suppose
that there is no other sort of conversion, and that unless they are
suddenly and powerfully converted to God, they are not converted at all. Keep Reading...
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