The GOSPEL TRUTH

A HISTORY OF AMERICAN REVIVALS

by

Frank G. Beardsley PH.D, S.T.D.

1912

Chapter 4

 

THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION.

 

Controversy had brought a speedy end to the Great Awakening in New England. The political agitations which followed prevented a renewal of the revival spirit, so completely absorbed was the public mind in the questions of the day. The year 1744 was marked by the commencement of King George's War, and this was followed a few years later by the French and Indian War. From the events growing out of the latter there culminated that agitation which resulted in the American Revolution. In the struggle for liberty the clergy bore an inconspicuous part. The pulpit, especially in New England, was a forum for the consideration of such subjects as affected the public good. Election and fast day sermons were trumpet calls to resist the tyranny of parliament and king. Throughout the colonies the ministry as a class were noted for their ardent attachment to the cause of liberty. Many of these ministers entered the army as chaplains or soldiers, and not a few of them held commissions as officers in the patriot army. 

The all-absorbing interest of clergy and people in the causes and progress of the war proved disastrous to the spiritual life of the churches. Revivals were practically unknown in many parts of the country. In places there were occasional quickenings to be sure, but for the most part they were exceptional. In connection with the founding of Dartmouth College a series of revivals commenced which extended to several communities in that vicinity and continued for several years. In 1771 and 1772 there was a remarkable revival at Princeton, N. J., which affected profoundly the religious life of the college and resulted in the conversion of many students. In 1772, there were revivals at Elizabethtown and Newark, N. J., at Stockbridge and other points in Berkshire County, Mass. At Vance's Fort in Westem Pennsylvania, through the efforts of Joseph Patterson, a layman, an extensive revival occurred in 1778, which resulted in the formation of the Cross Creek Presbyterian Church. A portion of Lyme County, Conn., was visited with a season of refreshing in 1780. Awakenings were reported at Thetford, Vt., and Brentford, N. H., in 1781, and at Boscawan, N. H., in 1782. Yale College Church at New Haven, Conn., was visited in 1783 with a gracious revival, as a result of which a score or more of the undergraduates united with the College Church. That same year witnessed revivals at West Simsbury, Mass., and at several towns in Litchfield County, Conn. During the year 1784 there were quickenings at Concord, S. C, Elizabethtown, N. J., Berlin, Conn., Medway and Franklin, Mass. In 1785 there was an extensive awakening at East Hampton, Long Island, under the ministry of Dr. Samuel Buell; more than one hundred united with the church within six or eight months after its commencement. From 1781-1787 there was a revival movement in the churches of Cross Creek, Upper Buffalo, Chartiers, Pigeon Creek, Bethel, Lebanon, Ten Mile, Cross Roads, and Mill Creek, Pa. More than a thousand members were added to these churches. The foregoing list is not intended to be exhaustive. There doubtless were other communities which were visited with awakenings of greater or less extent. 

Both the Baptists and Presbyterians in their missionary zeal had pushed out into the frontier borders and in the regions not visited by the ravages of war, were meeting with marked success. As early as 1765 the first Baptist churches were organized in Tennessee, and in 1782 in Kentucky. The Presbyterians penetrated to these regions somewhat later, but by the close of the eighteenth century both denominations were well represented on the frontier. 

By far the most remarkable religious, and revival movement of the period was the rise and growth of Methodism. As early as 1760 a party of German refugees from the Palatinate had landed at New York. For a time they had sojourned in the North of Ireland, where some of their number had been converted to the tenets of Methodism. Among them were Barbara Heck and Philip Embury, the former a woman of devout piety and marked religious personality, the latter a class leader and local preacher. For some years no attempt was made to conduct religious services. Finally in 1766, through the importunities of Barbara Heck, who had become alarmed on account of the dangers of apostasy, Philip Embury was impelled to stir up the gift that was in him. A more inopportune time for the inauguration of such an enterprise could hardly have been conceived. The Stamp Act had been passed the preceding year and the Colonies were convulsed in the throes of that agitation which was to culminate in the Revolution. However, the labors of Whitefield had to some extent paved the way for the pioneers of Methodism. The first services were held at Embury's home, but within a short time a larger room became necessary. Early in 1767 Capt. Thomas Webb of the British Army appeared among them and introduced himself as an authorized local preacher. He rendered invaluable assistance to this infant society and was instrumental in introducing Methodism elsewhere. Larger quarters soon became necessary, and the "rigging loft" celebrated as the birthplace of American Methodism, was hired. Services were conducted three times a week, Embury and Webb preaching alternately. In 1768 Wesley Chapel was erected on John Street. In the meanwhile Robert Strawbridge, an emigrant from Ireland, had begun preaching in Maryland and a log chapel was constructed at Sam's Creek in that colony. 

In 1769, in response to earnest entreaties for more laborers, two itinerant preachers, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor, were sent over to push the work in what was proving an amazingly fruitful field. In 1771 Francis Asbury, who contributed more than any other to the success of American Methodism, came to engage in missionary and evangelistic activity throughout the infant settlements of the New World. At the first annual conference in 1773 a force of ten preachers and a membership of 1160 were reported. By 1775 the preachers had increased to nineteen and the membership to over three thousand, most of whom resided in the South, which was proving remarkably well adapted to the growth of this new fold. 

The revolutionary contest reacted unfavorably against the Methodists. Many of their preachers were Englishmen, and as might have been expected were loyal to the interests of the mother country, but by 1779 most of them, with the exception of Francis Asbury, had left for England or Canada. Notwithstanding his American sympathies, Asbury was obliged to spend several months in retirement. On account of their supposed attachment to the royalist cause many of the American preachers were roughly handled, and in some instances treated with great brutality. In Maryland especially the persecutions were severe. Several of the preachers were arrested and fined, while others were committed to jail. At length the Maryland legislature becoming convinced that the advocates of Methodism had no treasonable intentions, granted them permission to prosecute their labors without interference. 

In spite of these difficulties and embarrassments, the progress of Methodism was remarkable. During only two years, 1778 and 1780, did the reports show any decrease in numbers, and both of these years were followed by a marked increase. The societies in Philadelphia and New York flourished under British occupancy. In the latter the John Street Church was the only one where divine worship was conducted, and to its services all classes flocked to hear the gospel preached in simplicity and with power. At the close of the war in 1783 Asbury was able to write in a triumphant strain: "We have about fourteen thousand members, between seventy and eighty traveling preachers, between thirty and forty circuits. ... I admire the simplicity of our preachers. I do not think there has appeared another such company of young devoted men. The gospel has taken a universal spread. . . . O America! America! It will certainly be the glory of the world for religion." 

All other denominations had suffered seriously from the effects of the war. Congregations were scattered, churches had been left pastorless and in many instances entirely destitute of religious services. Church buildings had frequently been dismantled and used as stables, hospitals, or barracks. The British soldiery seemed to have had an especial spite against houses of worship, on account of the influence there exerted in precipitating the struggle for independence. Church organizations, moreover, had settled down into a state of apathy and active efforts for the propagation of religion had ceased. Worship was universally neglected while immorality, intemperance and vice increased alarmingly on every hand. 

To complete the moral degradation of the infant republic, a wave of French infidelity swept over the land. At that time the American mind was peculiarly susceptible to this form of unbelief. The friendly relations, which had existed between the colonies and France during the revolutionary struggle, were favorable to the introduction of the skepticism then prevalent in that country. The very success of the American cause predisposed the minds of many to that which was a departure from traditional and accepted beliefs. It soon became fashionable to adopt views which avowed a disbelief in the Bible, scoffed at the divinity of Christ, and looked upon religion as a superstition of the past Especially was this true of scholars, men who had traveled abroad, and those who had embraced extreme republican views. 

The country was literally flooded with infidel literature. Dr. Timothy Dwight wrote: "From France, Germany and Great Britain, the dregs of infidelity were vomited upon us. From the Systime de la Nature, and the Philosophical Dictionary to the Political Justice of Godwin, and the Age of Reason, the whole mass of pollution was emptied upon this country. An enormous edition of the Age of Reason was published in France and sent over to America to be sold at a few pence per copy, and, where it could not be sold, to be given away."*

* Quoted from Dorchester's Christianity in tJte U. S,, p. 315. 

The colleges of the land became infected with the deadly contagion of unbelief. Lyman Beecher, in describing the condition of Yale College prior to the presidency of Dr. Dwight, said: "Before he came, the college was in a most ungodly state. The college church was almost extinct. Most of the students were skeptical and rowdies were plenty. Wines and liquors were kept in many rooms; intemperance, profanity, gambling and licentiousness were common. . . . Most of the class before me were infidels, and called each other Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, etc." 

Dr. Ashbel Green, who entered Princeton in 1782, described a similar state of affairs in that college: "While I was a member of college, there were but two professors of religion among the students, and not more than five or six who scrupled the use of profane language in common conversation, and sometimes it was of a very shocking kind. To the influence of the American war succeeded that of the French revolution, still more pernicious, and I think more general."*

* Sprague's Revival Lectures, Appendix, p. 342. 

Transylvania University in Kentucky, which was founded by the Presbyterians, passed over into the hands of infidels. Thomas Cooper, a rank freethinker, taught in Dickinson College, the University of Pennsylvania, and in Columbia College, S. C. In all of these institutions he scattered the seeds of unbelief in the minds of his pupils. At a later time there was but a single professed Christian among the students of Bowdoin College. Bishop Meade of Virginia said: "Infidelity was rife in the State, and the College of William and Mary was regarded as the hot-bed of French politics and religion. I can truly say that then and for some years after in every educated young man in Virginia whom I met I expected to find a skeptic, if not an avowed unbeliever."*

* Dorchester's Christianity in the U, S., p. 316. 

Multitudes of men, prominent in public affairs and the councils of state, embraced the new views. Washington, Patrick Henry, John Adams and many others, to be sure, never had any -sympathy with this manifest trend of the times. Edmund Randolph for a time became an avowed deist, but was reclaimed to the Christian faith through the prayers of a pious wife. Jefferson was a deist and quite liberal in his views. His secretary of war, Gen. Dearborn, was a rank infidel, and once in alluding to the churches said, "So long as these temples stand we cannot hope for good government." Gen. Charles Lee was so violent in his opposition to Christianity, that in his will he requested his survivors not to bury him "in any church or church-yard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting-house." So widespread was this contagion that Chancellor Kent said: "In my younger days there were few professional men who were not infidels, or at least were so far inclined to infidelity that they could not be called believers in the truth of the Bible." 

Infidel clubs, societies of the Illuminati, with the avowed purpose of propagating infidel and revolutionary views, were instituted in various parts of the country. These societies were in communication with similar organizations in France and encouraged a shocking immorality. 

The evils which prevailed throughout the country appeared in an aggravated form in the West and South. Many of the early settlers of Kentucky named their towns after eminent Frenchmen, as Altamont, Bourbon, La Rue, Rousseau, and others testify. In 1793 the Kentucky legislature voted to dispense with the services of a chaplain as being no longer necessary. Lawlessness seemed to be the order of the day. Religion was disregarded and morals were low. In many towns of considerable size, no places of worship were to be found, and religious services were of rare occurrence. 

Dark indeed were the closing years of the eighteenth century. Religion was at a standstill and churches were declining. Infidelity in its most coarse and brutal form sneered at religion and scoffed at morality. The predominant sentiment of the people seemed to be: "We will not have God to reign over us." Even the Methodist Episcopal Church with all of its religious fervor, its apostolic spirit, and its evangelistic zeal was suffering a state of decline. During the three years which preceded 1796 that denomination had suffered an average loss of four thousand members annually. 

In 1794 Devereaux Jarrat of the Episcopalian Church wrote: "The present time is marked by peculiar traits of impiety and such an almost universal inattention to the concerns of religion that very few will attend except on Sunday, to hear the word of the Lord. . . . The state of religion is gloomy and distressing; the church of Christ seems to be sunk very low."*

* Dorchester's Christianity in the U. S., p. 348. 

The Pastoral Letter of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1798 described the situation in the following language: 

"Formidable innovations and convulsions in Europe threaten destruction to morals and religion. Scenes of devastation and bloodshed unexampled in the history of modern nations have convulsed the world, and our country is threatened with similar calamities. We perceive with pain and fearful apprehension a general dereliction of religious principle and practice among our fellow citizens, a visible and prevailing impiety and contempt for the laws and institutions of religion, and an abounding infidelity which, in many instances, tends to atheism itself. The profligacy and corruption of the public morals have advanced with a progress proportioned to our declension in religion. Profaneness, pride, luxury, unjustness, intemperance, lewdness and every species of debauchery and loose indulgence abound". It was the critical period in the history of American Christianity. Never since the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers had the institutions of religion been put to a sorer test. The result was not only to affect the destinies of this nation, but of the world. Should Christianity or skepticism triumph? Should faith or unbelief prevail? Christianity did triumph and faith did prevail. The Awakening of 1800 swept back the tide of infidelity, gave strength and power to the churches and made possible the upbuilding of a great Christian nation, whose institutions have become the glory of the world.

 

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