[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.It was as a prominent Shaker advocate that McNemar in 1807 wrote his tract,The Kentucky Revival.As a spokesman of the "Millennial Church," he presented the revival in a glorious image: "farfrom esteeming the Kentucky Revival a day of small things, we believe it was nothing less than an introduction tothat work of final redemption, which God had promised, in the latter days."64 He continued,The Kentucky Revival, from the beginning, spoke better things.It was not.that faith, in the promise,which puts heaven at a distance; nor merely preaching about the kingdom.It was a near prospect of thetrue kingdom of God, into which many were determined to press, at the expense of all that they held dearupon earth.The late revival was not sent to RE-FORM the churches.It did not come with a piece of newcloth to patch the old garment, to mend up the old hope with some new experience; but to prepare the wayfor that kingdom of God, in which all things are new.65Just as God sent the revival, wrote McNemar, so he dispatched three Shaker missionaries from New York, and theytransferred "the testimony of Jesus Christ" to the subjects of the western revival.Jesus Christ had returned, themissionaries preached, in the person of Ann Lee, and now those convinced could, by following the "way" presentedby the "United Society of Believers," enter into the final salvation and redemption of the world.66 Hence forMcNemar and other revivalists who turned Shaker, the Great Revival had become the open sesame for themillennium.63 Quoted in MacLean, Life of Richard McNemar, pp.1819.64 M'Nemar, The Kentucky Revival, p.3.65 Ibid., p.5.66 Ibid., pp.8083, and passim. Page 110The image of the revival had proved to be neither static nor simple.Moving from the work of God to the work of thedevil, it inspired evangelists and it motivated energetic supporters of orthodoxy to rebuttal.How a Presbyterianresponded intellectually to the revival determined, in large part, his eventual affiliation with either the Presbyterian,Cumberland Presbyterian, or "Christian" Church.It was felt to be the beginning of the millennium concluding withJesus Christ's return, or the event preliminary to the millennium.For still others it represented the absolutefulfillment of history, promising a millennial epoch coming after Jesus Christ's advent in his female counterpart.Thus the Great Revival triggered a chain reaction of responses, proving anew the complexity and pervasiveness ofthe southern evangelical cast of mind. Page 111Chapter EightHomiletics & Hymnology"As to the Idea of sermonizing," scribbled a Methodist itinerant in 1803, "I thought but little about it.It concernedme but little, the Idea was to go out and call Sinners to come to Christ, that they might be saved from Sin here, andsaved in heaven for ever here-after."1 Calling sinners to Jesus Christ was certainly the end toward which allhomiletics was aimed, but this is not to say that all, or even most, evangelical ministers gave as little thought to theirmessage as James Watts apparently did.In the scholarly mind the revivalist preacher often occupies a despised andridiculed position.It would be fatuous to argue that the southern ministers of the Baptist, Methodist, andPresbyterian churches, as a type, were genuinely sophisticated, rational, and erudite defenders of their faith.Even so,the ministers possessed these traits to a remarkable degree.They desired intellectual assent to their propositions.An emphasis on emotions, it is true, was widely used to gain the potential convert's attention and emotive consent.As such, emotionalism performed a necessary and extremely successful role in the ministerial efforts towardevangelization.Frequently, however, the emotional harangues which travelers have noted time and again were notpart of the body of the sermon.Indeed, they were often in the form of a fervent application, affixed by the ministerto the end of his more orderly address
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Tematy
IndexJohn Ringo Ghost 01 Ghost
John Norman Gor 04 Nomads of Gor
John Norman Gor 01 Tarnsman of Gor
John Norman Gor 23 Renegades of Gor
John DeChancie Castle 07 Castle Spellbound
John Norman Gor 12 Beasts of Gor
John Dalmas Farside 01 The Lion of Farside
Chatelain Maurice Wyslannicy z kosmosu
155 TOEFL Essays, 31 40
Melanie Klein Today Volume 2