Natural  reason  is  impotent  against  a  Christianity  that  is
spirit  and  life.  But,  if  the  defenders  of  the  gospel  offer
it,  first  of  all,  as  a  book  of  articles,  it  will  not  be  strange
if,  when  they  have  separated  the  Life,  it  is  unable  to
live.
I  bring  you  thus  to  the  very  point  where  we  now  are,
and  where  Protestant  Christendom  is.  And  here  I  rejoice
to  find  a  great  many  of  our  truly  Christian  ministers  and
brethren  questioning,  sighing,  praying  for  the  reviving
of  revivals.  Conscious  of  the  mournfully  low  state  of
religion,  the  growth  of  worldliness,  the  want  of  godliness,
the  decay  of  ministerial  force,  and  the  afflicting  signs  of
a  delicate  and  earthly  spirit  in  the  ministry — afflicted  by
this,  as  every  Christian  heart  properly  should  be,  they  lift
their  voices  in  the  pulpit,  on  the  platforms,  and  in  the
religious  newspapers,  calling  upon  us  to  arise  and  seek
unto  God  for  the  renewing  of  those  scenes  of  fervor  and
Christian  power  which  they  remember  in  former  years.
They  see  no  hope,  save  in  the  restoration  of  those  opera-
tions which  have  had  effect  heretofore.  They  reprove
us  for  the  delicate  or  fastidious  spirit  we  manifest.  They
tell  us,  kindly,  that  God  will  not  do  things  according  to
our  tastes  and  fashions,  that  we  must  have  protracted
exercises,  and  not  scruple  to  enlist  evangelists,  and  set  on
foot  those  religious  measures  which  the  distinguished
operators  of  former  times  found   to  be  so  effective.
