Revival sketches and manual
by Heman Humphrey
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Excerpt:
So, again, while all genuine revivals agree in the essential things, the subjects of them are variously wrought upon in the progress of the work. In some cases, God makes a short work, drawing sinners at once to the foot of the cross; in others, convictions of sin and wrath long continue before Christ is revealed to them. In one revival the thunderings of the law as it were constrain sinners to "flee from the wrath to come" to the only Refuge; in another, the sweet voice of mercy sounding out from Calvary by the same divine power draws them as with cords of love.
Revivals may and actually do exhibit all these and other different phases, modified by such agencies as God is pleased to employ for his own glory in building up his spiritual kingdom.
Bearing in mind these leading characteristics, and divers operations by the same Spirit, the way is now prepared to inquire where and how long ago did these special operations of the Spirit begin, and briefly to trace them down through the ages to the present time.
Whether any thing like a revival took place when, in the days of Enos, men began to call upon the name of the Lord, we are not informed; but when the flood came, the whole earth was filled with violence.
And so after Noah, when Abraham was called, it seemed as if the apostasy had again become nearly or quite universal. Certain it is that he went out alone as a true worshipper, "not knowing whither he went." There was no organized church in the world, nothing like it, till through his faith in the divine promise one was established in his family; and then Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, and others of like precious faith, became heirs of the promise.
But among their posterity there was rapidly a great falling away from the worship of the true God. All along there was doubtless a remnant, according to the election of grace; but we do not find recorded a general reformation till we come to the last chapter of Joshua. Of those who were twenty years old and upward when they left Egypt, all, save Joshua and Caleb, had perished in the wilderness. But now the time had come when there was to be a great national reformation. Joshua, knowing that he must soon lay down his high commission and die, gathered all the tribes together at Shechem, that he might meet them for the last time, and give them his dying charge.
It was a solemn and imposing national convocation. All the people hastened with alacrity to meet their aged and beloved chief, and to hear his parting words. As the chosen captain of the Lord's hosts, he had led them on from victory to victory, had divided the promised land among them according to their tribes, and nothing now remained but his final charge and benediction. When the hour had come, we seem to see him rising in the midst of the vast assembly, every whisper hushed, and every eye fastened upon him, as he waved his hand and commenced his address by glancing at the origin of their nation, the remarkable history of God's dealings with them, from the calling of Abraham down through their sore Egyptian bondage, their miraculous deliverances, their ^wanderings in the wilderness, and their now quiet ^ttlement in the land of promise. This done, he proceeded to pronounce the final charge for which he had called them together. And what a charge!
"Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord." The appeal was overwhelming. It melted down the whole of that vast assembly, and they answered as one man, " God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods." Joshua, following up the appeal, held them to their promise. "Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice we will obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem."
