74 REVIVAL AT BETHLEHEM. [CHAP. V. 



had been prayers and preaching incessantly from morning to 

 night. I had already seen in a New York paper the following 

 advertisement : &quot;A protracted meeting is now in progress at the 



church in Street. There have been a number of 



conversions, and it is hoped the work of grace has but just com 

 menced. Preaching every evening : seats free.&quot; I was surprised 

 to hear of the union of ministers of more than one denomination 

 on this occasion, and, on inquiry, was told by a Methodist, that 

 110 Episcopalians would join, &quot; because they do not sufficiently 

 rely on regeneration and the new man.&quot; It appears, indeed, to 

 be essential to the efficacy of this species of excitement, that there 

 should be a previous belief that each may hope at a particular 

 moment &quot; to receive comfort,&quot; as they term it, or that their con 

 version may be as sudden as was that of St. Paul. A Boston 

 friend assured me that when he once attended a revival sermon, 

 he heard the preacher describe the symptoms which they might 

 expect to experience on the first, second, and third day previous 

 to their conversion, just as a medical lecturer might expatiate to 

 his pupils on the progress of a well-known disease ; and &quot; the 

 complaint,&quot; he added, &quot; is indeed a serious one, and very con 

 tagious, when the feelings have obtained an entire control over 

 the judgment, and the new convert is in the power of the 

 preacher. He himself is often worked up to such a pitch of 

 enthusiasm, as to have lost all command over his own heated 

 imagination.&quot; 



It is the great object of the ministers who officiate on these 

 occasions to keep up a perpetual excitement ; but while they are 

 endeavoring by personal appeals to overcome the apathy of dull, 

 slow, and insensible minds, they run the risk of driving others, of 

 weaker nerves and a more sensitive temperament, who are sitting 

 on &quot; the anxious benches,&quot; to the very verge of distraction. 



My friend, the driver, was evidently one of a slow and unexcit- 

 able disposition, and had been led for the first time in his life to 

 think seriously on religious matters by what he heard at the 

 great preaching near Bethlehem ; but it is admitted, and deplored 

 by the advocates of revivals, that after the application of such 

 violent stimulants there is invariably a leaction, and what the-) 



