More than fifty years have passed since America experienced under D. L. Moody’s preaching the last great spiritual awakening. This was one of four significant movements in slightly more than two centuries of American religious life. Each revival was accompanied by new religious vision and vitality, and marked an era of both personal quickening and community transformation. Distressingly enough, each movement was also followed by a period of social decline and decay, attended by debauchery and immorality, the sure hallmarks of waning and spent spiritual vigor. No more than 50 years ever separated one awakening from another, and each awakening came at the height of cultural declension.
Today at another crossroads in her national life America desperately needs a long-overdue spiritual refreshing. The tide of evil from two world wars is running full; doom and despair threaten to inundate the nation on every hand. Has secularism so eroded and warped America’s being that spiritual renewal and power are no longer possible? Is there no likelihood of national revival?
The first Great Awakening in America came during the 1740’s and followed two wars—that of King William (1689–1697) and that of Queen Anne (1701–1713). Wickedness and spiritual sloth gripped the colonies. “The churches, once the supreme arbiters of community faith and practice were losing their hold on the people. Drunkenness and debauchery were the order of the day; even among the clergy there was ample evidence of egregious conduct. Samuel Whitman’s observation, in an election sermon preached in Connecticut in 1714, ‘that religion is on the wane among us,’ may well have been the understatement of the year” (Clifton Olmstead, History of Religion in the United States, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1960). Into this spiritual vacuum strode giants like Theodorus Frelinghuysen, George Whitefield, Samuel Davies, Gilbert Tennent, and Jonathan Edwards. Revival came. Observers wrote that “the very face of the town seemed to be strangely altered”; taverns were “empty of all but lodgers”; congregations were “bathed in tears”; transformed people embraced “each other with streaming eyes; and all were lost in wonder, love, and praise”; every listener was “eager to drink in the words of the minister”; and “young people became eager to participate in preaching and personal evangelism.” Thirty to forty thousand converts were added to the churches. Public morals improved. Every segment of American life felt the power of this thrust.
The effects of this Great Awakening gradually subsided, however, and following the American Revolution religion and morality became moribund. To some extent the decline of piety in America reflected the influence of the French Revolution of 1789 when atheistic rationalism sapped the vital wellsprings of religious life and burrowed itself deeply into American life, especially into the colleges. Then came the second awakening, but this time apart from great preaching by pulpit masters like Whitefield. The effects of the awakening had enduring value nonetheless. Multitudes came under conviction of sin. Infidelity was confounded. “… drunkards, profane swearers, liars, quarrelsome persons, etc., are remarkably reformed … many fell down as men slain in battle.” Those who lived in folly and vice “are now reduced to order and are daily joining in the worship of God … and offering up their supplications to a throne of grace.” College campuses responded. Under Timothy Dwight at Yale “a remarkable transformation took place.” Hampden-Sydney, Washington College, Amherst, Dartmouth, Williams and others felt the force of revival quickening. So constructive was the awakening that it left “a positive influence for good that would not be effaced from American society for years to come” (Olmstead, op. cit., 263).
The third period of revival followed hard upon the War of 1812. Here the key figure was Charles Grandison Finney, a converted lawyer, whose preaching caused sinners under conviction to seek the grace and mercy of a loving Saviour. Not alone in his endeavors, Finney was aided by men like Elder Knapp who took Boston by storm despite the opposition of anti-revival ministers who “charged that he wore old clothes in the pulpit in order to secure a more sympathetic response in the offerings.” From Knapp’s ministry came the famous Tremont Temple which today still ranks high among the great American Baptist churches. And the famous NYC Fulton Street Prayer Meeting, although not begun until 1858, owed its spark to the spiritual impulse of this third era of revival quickening which was to influence American life for thirty years. Oddly enough, this revival decade of the 1830’s saw also the rise of some of the cults indigenous to American contemporary life such as Mormonism.
The fourth period of awakening is inseparably linked to Dwight Lyman Moody, perhaps the greatest evangelist since Whitefield, Wesley and Edwards. His ministry after the Civil War was re-enforced in subsequent efforts by J. Wilbur Chapman, Reuben Torrey, Gypsy Smith and Billy Sunday. Under Moody’s influence numerous projects brought unmistakable gains to American religious life. Among them were the Student Volunteer Movement in foreign missions, the new impetus to the missionary work of the YMCA and the YWCA at home and abroad, the Northfield Con ferences, and the Northfield schools. And what was to become the Bible institute movement commenced with the opening of the Bible school in Chicago that later bore Moody’s famous name. Moody left his indelible imprint upon American religious life both in the number of people he reached for God and in the changes that followed in the cities and rural areas of America.
Now in the 1960’s, America is in the fifth period of its religious life. More than half a century has passed since the last awakening led by Moody. Two world wars have come and gone. They have torn American life asunder. Indications everywhere point to needed spiritual awakening. The divorce rate has quadrupled since 1890, has doubled since 1918. Between 1950 and 1958 illegitimate births increased over 45 per cent; in 1958 alone 79,000 of the 308,700 illegitimate children were born to teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19. According to the F.B.I., crimes have been increasing four times as rapidly as the population. In 1959 there were almost 1,600,000 classifiable crimes among which were registered 8,600 murders, 15,000 rapes, and almost 700,000 burglaries. New York City alone had over 17,000 automobile thefts and those mostly by teenagers. In 1940 there were 173,706 people in prisons and reformatories; in 1959 there were 207,513. Some TV shows have been fixed, some labor unions have been headed by known gangsters, and some prominent business men have been convicted of collusion in illegal price fixing. All these facts point to the need for spiritual, moral refreshing. It may well be asked, “Watchman, what of the night?”
Into the contemporary scene has come Billy Graham, a prominent symbol of hope for revival in our times. Is the present awakening, however, the kind that characterized American Christianity in former days? Comparisons—because of oversimplification—always run the risk of error, of course, especially where spiritual matters are concerned. Nonetheless three observations suggest a negative answer to our query. 1. There is little if any evidence of an upward trend in the moral life of the great cities. To what extent yesterday’s and today’s “big cities” may be “equated” for comparative purposes is, of course, a matter of considerable discussion. Generally speaking, however, in cities “turned upside down for God” we have nothing today to match the stories of Whitefield in Philadelphia, Edwards at Northampton, and Moody in Chicago, for example. 2. Revival has not broken out in local churches on an overall community scale. 3. While Graham has addressed all classes of society, only the middle class has been reached significantly. Finney reached many professional people of his day as well as factory workers and giants of commerce like Marshall Field and Cyrus McCormick. Also the down-and-outers, and the then-designated “working class” showed particular response to Moody’s preaching. Perhaps today’s economy is less stratified, or at least has different measures of status. At any rate, not all segments of society are noticeably responding to the Gospel. These comments in no way disparage what Graham has accomplished under God. Thousands have been converted, millions of Christians have been helped by his radio, TV, and mass evangelism endeavors. Nor should Graham be cancelled out as the possible key figure in an awakening of the sort described above. However, awakenings like those of the 18th and 19th centuries have not come in the present era.
One may well compare the conditions at the time of former revivals with those of today. Have any new elements so penetrated the scene as to distinguish the present from all preceding periods? The answer is yes. What are these factors?
From 1890 to 1920 America experienced a flood of immigration. Millions of people came from southern Europe, most of them either dynamically or at least nominally attached to the Roman Catholic Church. Of many origins, they formed the great “melting pot” of which much has been said by historians. To this day these Romanist forces have not been assimilated into our traditionally Protestant America. In fact, while the Roman Catholic element in American life (13 per cent of the population in 1850, 23 per cent in 1958) has become numerically large and politically aggressive, at no time in the history of that church in America has it experienced anything like the revivals or awakenings of Protestantism. Since the Romanists represent a large, strategic portion of the population it seems logical that no truly great awakening can occur apart from significant impact on the Roman Catholics.
Another unique facet of the present scene is the marked change in the educational milieu. Born in the womb of the Christian faith, institutions of higher learning were formerly the friends and fearless advocates of that faith. Today they often stand as the enemies and assailants of historic Christianity. Faster than the pulpits of the land can attract young people to Christ the colleges turn them out as skeptics and agnostics. Many young people receive excellent secular education, of course. Without the integrating perspective of Christianity, however, such education soon destroys itself and its people. It cannot pump into the blood stream of national life those nutriments essential for survival, let alone vitality. Much of today’s secularism and paganism is the fruit of education divorced from the Christian faith.
Another marked difference from former times is the revolutionary pace of scientific activity. More technological changes have come in the last fifty years than in the previous several centuries. Jet planes span the continent in just a few short hours; radio and television bring on-the-scene reports of events that once required months to communicate. This overwhelming transformation of daily life brings its own peculiar tensions, however. Everywhere men sense with uncanny terror the dread edge of some tragic abyss. Many look for a “savior” to guarantee peace through some major scientific or political breakthrough and to quiet people’s alarms and fears.
Politics has not proved to be that “savior,” as evidenced by the unbroken succession of wars. Nor has secular education solved our problems. Rather it has demonstrated that knowledge without spiritual foundations only deepens a nation’s difficulties. The technical progress of science in recent decades has been staggering; but even scientists despair of the future and grimly warn men of science’s monstrous power to wipe humanity from the earth. Not through politics, education or science but only through spiritual renewal are a country’s soundness and wholeness to be established. America’s history reiterates this truth. But to us in the twentieth century such universal refreshing has not yet come.
No one is naive enough to expect religious renewal to solve every problem. No revival has ever done that. But through revivals nations have returned to God; through them saved people, quickened churches; improved communities have brought fresh dynamic into national life. Men and nations have gained courage, insight and daring to meet the demands of the hour. Revivals have recaptured and sharpened the vision of what men can be in Christ, and have furnished the inner motivation and power whereby men go forth conquering and to conquer.
If revival is to sweep America, spiritual renewal must catch up and permeate not only some but all phases of life and thought. Areas like sciences and education and politics which heretofore seemed secondary or incidental to the influence of revival have come to special prominence. No sphere whatever in today’s complex welter of men and things dare remain untouched by the judging and healing hand of God.
However dark and desperate the time may be, it can never stay nor withstand the awakening light and renewing power of the Holy Spirit. Ministries of men like Billy Graham have already yielded a rich, even if token, harvest, as far as total revival is concerned. They uncover a burgeoning sense of need by countless people in America and throughout the world, a need once met only by widespread spiritual awakening, the same need that in this generation can be met only by a similarly all-encompassing renewal. Without such full and overflowing measure of the Spirit of God America has no prospect but that of hollow men in arid times.
I Believe …
Early Christians did more than simply lament the evil of the world around them; they displayed the power of a holy life.
Today we could profit from several pertinent questions. Is my Christian walk and experience arresting to others? Do I frequent the House of God with greater zest than theatre patrons crowd Broadway on opening night? Do the Scriptures magnetize me with greater compulsion than do obscene paperbacks their prey?
If the world considers Christianity irrelevant, even undesirable, perhaps the dissonance of our empty lives is in part responsible. Only deep hunger for God and being fed of Him can yield the convincing melody of a life attuned to glory.
POPE JOHN’S JULY ENCYCLICAL AND SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Commenting on the July encyclical of Pope John XXIII, a prominent Protestant churchman found (misderived, we think) comfort in the fact that the Roman pontiff virtually pronounces socialism as no longer “merely a swear word” for Roman Catholics. Among other things the Pope generously affirms the duty of the wealthy nations of the world to help the poorer ones to develop, but without trying to impose political ideals on those who are being helped.
Although the encyclical is one of the great social documents of our times, and we shall refer to it on more than one occasion, its political overtones ought to be made obvious. The Denver Register (America’s “national Catholic newspaper”), boldly identifies the Alliance for Progress Charter adopted in Uruguay by all Latin American republics except Cuba as answering the Vatican plea. The poverty and predicament of the great masses of Latin America are to be relieved in the main by American foreign aid. The Register openly captions its report: “Alliance for Progress Answers Pope’s Plea” (Aug. 27 issue).
As we write we have before us an essay extolling the great blessings that accrue to those embracing Romanism. Yet the world awaits an adequate explanation of why countries which have enjoyed such blessings for centuries remain in ignorance, poverty, and sometimes in actual squalor. Spain, Portugal, and some Latin American countries are exploited by dictators while material want and crass superstition abound.
One of our correspondents suggests that we ask His Holiness “if he can name one Roman Catholic country wealthy enough to help the poor ones, and whether it is merely a coincidence that within the geographical limits of the Christian world, the illiterate, poverty-stricken, backward countries are all, without exception, Roman Catholic.… All of us Protestants should remind ourselves that there is no Protestant country with any degree of illiteracy and poverty, and that in fact, all the rich, literate, and highly-developed countries in the world are, without exception, Protestant.…” Issuing his private encyclical, our social-minded correspondent adds for good measure: “The countries outside the Communist orbit which still have dictators are mostly Roman Catholic …” An embarrassing possibility now, however, is that Protestant-oriented British Guiana will introduce Communist rule to South America.
WORLD ARMS RACE AND THE MORALIZING OF POWER
The world’s mad arms race quickened its frightening pace as the Soviets ended the 1958 moratorium on testing nuclear weapons. The Communist regime announced plans for super-bombs whose explosive potential equals from 20 to 100-million tons of TNT. Already, Tass reported, Russia has rockets similar to those manned by her cosmic astronauts, which are able to rain death upon any spot on the globe.
The only language the power-hungry naturalists have ever understood is the language of more power. The fact that Khrushchev’s rocket-rattling surprised and shocked Western leaders only indicates their naive understanding of the history of thought and the nature of man. Khrushchev made it clear that strongly-worded phrases fashioned with Harvard artiness hold no terror for him.
Christianity is a religion of peace. The Church has no mandate to fuel the arms race. It must nourish the believer’s aspirations toward constructive thought and life, and guard against sweeping man’s energies into the service of irrational impulses and resentments.
Yet the Church has a firm message calling both East and West to higher ground. Khrushchev’s thesis is: communism and peace (peaceful co-existence is a strategic interim posture). Eisenhower’s thesis (and the Free World’s generally) is: peace with justice. But the biblical thesis is grace and peace.
No century in history provides clearer evidence than ours that the virtues of peace and justice cannot be superimposed upon unregenerate human nature. The answer to the problem of the human race is a new society of regenerate men and women. If the Church must remind the powers that be, as indeed she must, that the only deterrent to slavery is the use of force in the service of justice, it must also remind the children of our age, as the biblical writers do, that enduring peace has Messianic roots, and that it deals not merely with political tensions but with the grip of sin and the stench of death upon our spirits.
