* Qui mariam.

Oro supplex et acclinis,

Cor contritum, quasi cinis,

Gere curam mei finis.

Lacrymosa die illa,
Qua resurget ex favilla,

Judicandus homo reus,
Huic ergo parce, Deus.
Pie, Jesu, Domine,
Dona eis requiem.

Suppliant, fallen, low I bend,
My bruised heart to ashes rend,
Care Thou, Lord, for my last end!
Full of tears the day shall prove,
When, from ashes rising, move

To the judgment guilty men-
Spare, Thou God of mercy, then!

Lord, all-pitying! Jesu, blest!
Grant them thine eternal rest!

It may be in consequence of an early acquaintance with these lines, for they have long formed a prized part of private devotional exercises, but there are few hymns that I should prefer retaining to this, if the necessity of parting with any was imposed upon me. I have no respect for anything ancient, simply because it is so, but I do feel an increased respect for any hymnic composition that is unequivocally good and ancient too, because loving the communion of saints, I feel myself, in using it, associated with a large number of the family of God once on earth, now in heaven. This observation does not apply so much to the preceding hymn, as to some other compositions. Upon this ground I do not hesitate, with reference to the church of Rome, to spoil the Egyptians, and appropriate to myself whatever has come down to us from a distant age through it, scriptural in character, and pious in spirit. To no party, therefore, would I grant a monopoly of the "Te Deum Laudamus," or the "Stabat Mater Dolorosa ;" they are the common property of the universal church-both intensely beautiful, and both mine as much as others. That the "Dies Ira" should have produced a powerful impression upon Tholuck's congregation-a congregation disposed to serious religion, as we may presume from his evangelical ministry, but the majority, perhaps, without any sure and certain hope of the better resurrection, is not surprising; and such impressions are of no trifling value. No thoughtful Christian, however accomplished, will regard it as inappropriate to himself. To the mind of the apostle, who could say in triumph, "to die is gain," the idea of being a "castaway" occurred, as a retribution only to be averted by the free mercy God; and when comparing himself with the high standard of the divine will, and the matchless beauty of the divine nature, the well-known expression resulted from the contemplation, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Just in portion as we have religious light and feeling is tenderness of conscience increased, and the power of acute spiritual perception augmented, so that a thousand spots and blemishes are observed which have never before caught the eye, endearing the cross of Him who is coming to be our Judge, upon which alone the hope of final acceptance can be safely based. In all our Sabbath assemblies, however, the unconverted gene

pro

nerally greatly preponderate; and though we have many hymns referring to the solemnities of the future, I do not know one adapted to their case, or more calculated to lead to salutary reflection and feeling than the preceding. To some of Tholuck's hearers, as to the spectators of the pageant in Paris, it might be merely as a "very lovely song of one that had a pleasant voice;" but if a more sober mood of mind was induced in any—if the impression of the awful "It is too late" of his sermon was strengthened-an important and valuable end was gained. There is a painful inappropriateness in many of our hymns on death and judgment to the circumstances of a mixed assembly; and not a few contain sentiments and expressions which a Christian, if he thinks upon their meaning, will avoid uttering, while

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

M.

REVIVALS.

To those who are satisfied with things as they are, there is something displeasing in the very name. The mere term calls into exercise a feeling akin to that of one who, when listening to Christ, "said unto him, Master, thus saying, thou reproachest us also,"-or of certain modern divines who, when, by any chance, they hear of such an institution as a Home Missionary Society, indignantly exclaim, What a reflection on our church! To all those whose personal ease is their highest consideration, an order of things, censuring past indolence and demanding new energies, will prove unwelcome, let it come when, or how it may.

It is highly probable that a prejudice against revivals has existed in the minds of some holy and devoted men, who only need to be convinced that the Lord is in the earthquake and the fire, devoutly to acknowledge the operations of his hand. If it can be shown that, by these unusual tokens of his presence, he is accomplishing the self-same work of mercy which he ordinarily effects by "a still small voice," those who are accustomed to mark the wonders of his ways will no more withhold from him the glory due unto his name, but will cheerfully own that this also is from the Lord, who is mighty in power and wonderful in working.

Some have taken exception against the term revival, as a modern technicality. But, if science has its technicalities, why should not religion? And as to objections drawn from its recent rate, the reply seems sufficient, that things usually precede the terms which describe them. It is not strange that a slumbering church was unused to a term descriptive of wakefulness. A new order of things may be found to require new names. The Reformation was once a novelty, and so was the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. And it seems not unlikely

that Christians, of another and a brighter age, may find that, to describe the peculiar manifestations of grace and mercy with which they are favoured, they must either use some of our words in a new and unusual sense, or employ terms which are not at present found in any English dictionary.

It has been further contended, that the term revival is inappropriate, because, how well soever it may describe the augmented piety of established Christians, which is one part of the thing intended, it can by no means be made to comprehend, a still more essential characteristic of the case in question, the commencement of piety in the unconverted. Suffice it to say, that the sacred writers were not so very fastidious in their selection of terms, nor so very particular in carrying out the precise original meaning of ordinary words, when they applied them to theological subjects, or introduced them in relations altogether new ;* and that, on such a principle of criticism, an objector might even cavil with our Lord himself for describing conversion as a resurrection, (John v. 25,) for resurrection supposes previous life, whereas man, being dead in trespasses and sins, never lives at all until this alleged resurrection is past already. But it is useless to argue this point any further. Those who object to the order of things described by the term revival, would not be more likely to admire it under a different name; and those who would rejoice to witness, throughout the universal church, the condition of piety which the term describes, but nevertheless dislike the name, may be left to find a better.

Various other grounds of objection have been taken by some whose piety and wisdom have entitled them to the highest respect. A holy solicitude not to withhold from God the glory due unto his name, for the measure of prosperity which his churches have long continued to realize, has led many to view, with distrust and suspicion, assertions which have savoured less of humility than of discontent, and confessions expressive rather of querulous complaint against brethren than of deep self-abasement before God. It cannot be concealed, that aversion, as to the whole question of revivals, has received apparent justification from the reckless statements of some good men, who, in their anxiety for better times, have overlooked the mercies of past and present generations, and represented the piety of an age which has given birth to the noblest institutions that have blessed the world since the days of the apostles, as in a state of declension or decay. In some instances, moreover, grounds of reasonable exception have been taken, if not against the men, yet against the measures, by which it has been attempted to build again the waste places of Jerusalem. And a few seem to have associated with the word revival all that is wild in American theology, or detestable in American slavery!

* For numerous proofs of this fact, see article on Baptism, pp. 26, 27, of the present volume.

Amidst these various and perhaps conflicting opinions, REVIVALS have continued to gain upon the public mind. The rapid succession of works bearing on the subject is a sign of the times, and many of these are productions, not of superficial theorists, whose zeal has bewildered their understandings, but of men whose habits of calm thought and sound induction are no less remarkable than their eminent piety. Venerable prejudices are passing away with the times to which they belonged, and a new order of things is beginning to appear. The problem, which a few more years will solve, is, Whether this is merely a change of evils, or one of unmixed good; whether prejudices of a new order are to take the place of those which are waxing old and ready to vanish away, or whether the universal church, ashamed of its long vassalage to great names, to fathers, and creeds, and councils, will betake itself to the law and the testimony, and evince the purity and zeal of a second Pentecost.

If this may be considered the great question of the age, an immense degree of responsibility rests on those who undertake in any measure to guide the public mind respecting it; lest, on the one hand, they should induce some to content themselves with an order of things by no means satisfactory, or, on the other, incline any to hold too cheaply that which they "have already attained." It devolves especially on the bishops and deacons of our churches, to give the subject their best attention, since divested of all technicalities, it is mainly an inquiryWhether any thing further can be done to bring a perishing world to Christ. According to the sentiments which some entertain, on the view which we take of that question, will depend, under God, the immortal destinies of many souls. Next, then, to personal salvation, it is a subject of the deepest interest in the whole range of practical theology; and no man who is set for the defence of the Gospel ought to consider himself at liberty to regard it with indifference.

Right or wrong, there are some who say that God, in various localities, has visited his church with peculiar tokens of his presence and blessing, so that the light of the moon has been as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun has been sevenfold, as the light of seven days. Right or wrong, there are some who think that these gracious dispensations are not entirely referable to what is generally understood by divine sovereignty, but that they also stand connected with the employment of certain means and instrumentalities.

In support of the first assertion, a mass of information may be found in the volumes mentioned below,* from which it is difficult to make

* I. Lectures on the Revival of Religion, by Ministers of the Church of Scotland. II. Narrative of the Revival of Religion at Kilsyth, Cambuslang, and other places, in 1742. By the Rev. James Robe, minister of Kilsyth; with an Introductory Essay by the Rev. Robert Buchanan, minister of the Zion Chapel, Glasgow.

III. Narratives of Revivals of Religion in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.