Article February 21, 1901 Issue

The Coming Revival

The Southwestern Advocate

There is much discussion now among the pastors and in the religious press about the great revival needed, prayed for, and expected. We have read with interest all we could find on the subject. We are surprised, however, to see how few seem to apprehend the real difficulties and the forces already at work that are, as we see it, to hasten and help it.

Of course every man seems queer to every other man, and every one thinks his opinions right. We may therefore be pardoned for thinking it strange that among so many writers of distinction, so few have seemed to take in the situation. A few months ago, we wrote three articles on "A Crisis in Methodism" that provoked considerable comment. In those articles we gave as three reasons for our decline that "we are growing too conservative," that "we are drifting away from the poor," that "this is an age of intellectual disturbances which have caused doubt, while no settled or well defined system has yet been produced that takes the place of the old in mind and conscience." We still hold these views; but we might have said more and now affirm that our present industrial system is un-Christian in the true sense, and that the masses feel that it is impossible to continue in business under sharp competition and live up to the Christian standard of religion.

Business men who are not church members, generally brand their competitors who are church members as hypocrites; and business men who are church members are not as a rule spiritually-minded and neither attend prayer nor class meetings. It is rare indeed to find a business man who either professes or strives to attain to any high degree of grace. Why? Because the system by which he transacts business is heart-hardening and contrary to the Golden Rule.

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