A sermon on religious revival.
What is a revival of religion? In general terms it is synonymous with the prosperity here prayed for; or the wider salvation implied in the "Save now, I beseech thee!" If this was a psalm composed for the opening of the second temple, as is likely, after the return from exile, we can see plainly what the "saving" and "prosperity" mean—a renewal of more than the faith and heroic words of the patriarchs, warriors, psalmists, and prophets of former days—a renewal that should embrace the whole of the people.
I. A REVIVAL, WHETHER INDIVIDUAL OR NATIONAL, SUPPOSES AN ANTECEDENT RELIGION, THE POWER OF WHICH HAS DECLINED OR BEEN LOST. The spirit of our relation to Christ has evaporated, and left little but the forms of Christianity. "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love; Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead;" "Thy works are not perfect before God;" "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm." And all this may be conjoined with a complacent satisfaction with ourselves. "Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," etc.
II. A REVIVAL DOES NOT MEAN SIMPLY A RECOVERY OF WHAT HAS BEEN LOST, BUT OF HIGHER AND STRONGER QUALITIES IN ADVANCE OF THE PREVIOUS STAGE. Such as will preserve us from future declensions. Much of the power of our early religion is immature, and needs recasting in a higher mould. Our first love decays because it is not pure enough to live—has so much selfishness mingled with it; our early faith encountered few doubts and difficulties, and, till it has been tried in many a fiery ordeal, it is only superficial impression, and not the power that overcometh the world, the flesh, and the devil. The first works are only partial and imperfect obedience; the sacrifice of the whole being to Christ comes later, if it comes at all.
III. TRUE REVIVAL DOES NOT MEAN, THEREFORE, SPASMODIC EXCITEMENT, BUT STEADY CONTINUOUS GROWTH OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. True manhood is not the recovery of our youth, but a development into a greater, nobler life; an increase of acquired power for thinking and doing greater things than the youth could ever conceive or do. It is the symmetrical, harmonious development of the spiritual faculties of our nature—the reason, the heart, the conscience, and the imagination. And all such growth means the culture of the whole man; religious discipline—discipline by means of faith that realizes the invisible, of prayer that realizes our relations with the power of God, and of the will and the affections teaching us where the true secrets of our power lie.—S.
Psalms
Psalms 118 - psalms-118 - worlddic.com