The Revival of 1800, taken from the Western Sketchbook by James Gallagher. Now, such was the condition of the American church, who in that wave of population which had risen on the seashore, and rolled abroad over the Atlantic region, began to ripple over the comb of the Allegheny, and rushed down and spread itself over the fertile plains of the West. Many of the first immigrants from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas carried their religion with them. And it seems that, at the early period, religion could better bear transportation than in a later day. War is almost invariably a demoralizing tendency. And the war of our revolution, however necessary and important in its connection, was not exempt from this unhappy concomitant. But perhaps in no other part of our country were the sad results of war realized at that time to the same extent as in a new settlement of the West. There the supply of Bibles and pastors was limited. Religious privileges were few, and many of the population were a sheep having no shepherd. There was less, therefore, to counteract evil's incident to war than any other section of our land. Above all this, it must be observed that when peace was concluded with Great Britain in the year 1783, and other citizens could return to the pursuits of a peaceful life, In the enjoyments of gospel ordinances, a frontier population of the West were embroiled with hostile Indians for the space of half a generation. During this period of fierce conflict between the white and the red man, those Indian tribes that hung around our western border produced not a few men of renown. Hitted by some of these daring chiefs, a strong band of Indians would make a sudden incursion into the white settlements. and murder, burn, rob, and perpetrate cruelty in the most frightful and barbarous forms. The scalping knife was red with the blood of the mother. The tomahawk was buried in the brain of the helpless child until, terrified with the apprehension of the vengeance it had provoked, the Indians would fly with the utmost precipitation. Then, for ten or fifteen miles around, the white population was aroused. And the Indians were pursued not only with retaliating but with exterminating vengeance. Who will wonder that when seventeen years of such life as this came right in after the seven years of the Revolutionary War, the Sabbath and sacred things were in a great measure forgotten or trodden down. A generation sprung up in which dexterity and prowess and Indian warfare were the great objects of ambition. and indeed the high road to fame. And in the meanwhile, the light of religion carried to the West at the time of its first settlement, surrounded long by adverse influences shown but faintly, while iniquity abounded and waxed bold. It is necessary here to pause and notice the state of things in Europe at this period. Our country, when young, was far more influenced by Europe than she is now. The year 1728 is memorable as the great era of infidelity in Europe. Voltaire formed, about this period, his great plan for destroying the Christian religion. I quote the language of Timothy Dwight of Yale College. This eminent writer observes that Voltaire, for the purpose of blotting out Christianity, engaged in several succeeding periods a number of men, distinguished for power, talent, reputation, and influence, all deadly enemies to the gospel, atheists, men of profligate principles and profligate lives. This design he pursued with unabated zeal fifty years, and was seconded by his associates with an order and industry scarcely inferior to his own, in consequence of their united labors. And of the labors of others, from time to time combined with them, they ultimately spread the design throughout a great part of Europe, and embarked in it individuals at little distances over almost the whole of the continent. Dear adherents inserted themselves into every place, office, and employment. in which their agency might become efficacious, in which furnished an opportunity of spreading their corruptions. They were found in every literary institution, from the aposedarian school to the academy of sciences, and in every civil office, from that of the bailiff to that of the monarch. They swarmed in the palace. They haunted the church. Wherever mischief could be done, they were found. And wherever they were found, mischief was extensively done. Of books, they controlled the publication, the sale, and the character. An immense number they formed, an immense number they forged, prefixed to them the names of reputable writers, and sent them into the world to be sold for a song. And when they could not be done, to be given away, within a period shorter than could be imagined, they possessed themselves to a great extent of a control nearly absolute of the literary, religious, and political state of Europe. With these advantages in their hands, it will easily be believed that they left no instrument unemployed, in no measure untried, to accomplish their own malignant purposes. What a diligence, courage, constancy, activity, and perseverance which might rival the efforts of demons themselves. They penetrated into every corner of human society. Scarcely a man, woman, or child was left unassailed wherever there was a single hope that the attack might be successful. Books were written and published in innumerable multitudes, in which infidelity was brought down to the level of peasants. and even of children, and poured with immense assiduity into the cottage and the school. Others of a superior kind crept into the shop and the farmhouse, and others of a still higher class found their way to the drawing-room, the university, and the palace. the business of all men who were of any importance, and the education of the children of all such men were, as far as possible, encroached, or at least influenced by these banditti of the moral world, and the hearts of those who had no importance but in their numbers and physical strength, a sensual, profligate nobility and princess, if possible, still more sensual and profligate. easily yielded themselves and their children into the hands of their minions of corruption. Too ignorant, too innervated, and too indolent to understand, or even to inquire that they might understand the tendency of all these efforts, they marched quietly on to the Gulf of Ruin, which was already open to receive them. With these was combined a priesthood which in all of its dignified ranks was still more putrid. and which eagerly yielded up to surplus on the lawn, the desk, and the altar to destroy that Bible which they vowed to defend as well as to preach. and to renew the crucifixion of that Redeemer whom they had sworn to worship. By these agents and these efforts the plague was spread with rapidity and to an extent which astonished heaven and earth. And life went out, not in solitary cases, but by a universal extinction. While these measures were thus going on, with the success scarcely interrupted, Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of the Canon Law in the University of Ingolstadt in the city of Bavaria, a man of no contemptible talent, but of immense turpitude and a Jesuit, established a society of Illuminis. Into this establishment he brought all the systematized iniquity of his brotherhood. Distinguished beyond every other class of man for cunning mischief, an absolute destitution of conscience, an absolute disregard of all the interests of man and a torpid insensibility to moral obligation. No fraternity, for so long a time, or to so great an extent, united within its veils such a mass of talents, or employed in a service such a succession of vigorous efforts. The serpentine system of this order, wise have perfectly understood. The great design of the Jesuits had always been to engross the power and influence of Europe, and to regulate all its imports and affairs. The system of measures which it adopted for this end was superior to every preceding scheme of human policy. To this designed Weishaupt, who was more absolutely an atheist than Voltaire, and his cordially wish for the ruin of Christianity superadded a general intention of destroying the moral character of man. The system of policy adopted by the Jesuits was therefore exactly fitted to its purpose, for the design with this super addition was exactly the same. With these advantageous preparations, he boldly undertook this work of destruction and laid the axe at the root of all moral principle and the sense of all moral obligation by establishing a few fundamental doctrines which were amply sufficient for this purpose. These were, the God is nothing, the government is a curse, an authority a usurpation, The civil society is the only apostasy of man, that to possession of property is robbery, to chastity and natural affection are mere prejudices, and that adultery, assassination, poisoning, and other crimes of a similar nature are lawful and even virtuous. Under these circumstances were founded the societies of Illuminism. They spread of course with a rapidity which nothing but fact could have induced any sober mind to believe. Before the year 1786 there were established in great number throughout Germany, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Austria, Holland, France, Switzerland, Italy, England, Scotland and even in America. An old ease was taught, the grand and sweeping principle of corruption, that the end sanctions the means, a principle which, if everywhere adopted, would overturn the universe. The design of the founder and his co-agitators was nothing less than to engross the empire of the world and to place mankind beneath the feet of himself and his successors. Voltaire died in the year following the establishment of the Illuminism. His disciples, with one heart and one voice, united in its interests in finding a more absolute system of corruption than themselves had been able to form, entered eagerly into all its plans and purposes. Thenceforward, therefore, all the legions of infidelity are to be considered as impart in a single bottom, and is cruising together against order, peace, and virtue on a voyage of rough pine and blood. The French Revolution burst upon mankind at this moment. It was open an ample field for the labors of these abandoned men in the work of pollution and death. There is no small reason to believe that every individual Illuminee, and almost if not quite every infidel on the continent of Europe lent his labors when he could, and his wishes when he could not, for the advancement of the sins and the miseries which attended this unexampled corruption. Had not God taken the wives in their own craftiness, and caused the wicked to fall into the pit which they digged, and into the snares which their hands had set, it is impossible to conjecture the extent to which they would have carried their devastation of human happiness. But like the profligate rulers of Israel, those who succeeded regularly destroyed their predecessors. Between 19 and 100 of those who were leaders in this mighty work of destruction fell by the hand of violence. Enemies to all men, they were, of course, enemies to each other. Butchers of the human race, they soon whetted the knife for each other's throats. And the tremendous being who rules the universe, whose existence they had denied in a solemn act of legislation. Whose perfections they had made the butt Of public scorn and private insult, Whose son they had crucified afresh, And whose word they had burnt By the hands of the common hangman, Swept them all by the hand of violence Into an untimely grave. The tale made every ear which heard it tingle, And every heart chill with horror, It was in the language of Volscian, The song of death. It was like the reign of the plague in a populous city. Nail tolled upon nail, horse followed horse, and coffin rumbled after coffin, without a mourner to shed a tear upon the corpse, or a solitary attendant to mark the place of the grave. From one moon, moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, the world went forth and looked after the carcasses of the men who transgressed against God, and they were an abhorring unto all flesh. A revolutionary war closed about the time when this French infidelity was at its height, and before its frightful results had been fully disclosed. The government of France had taken part with us in our struggle against England. The noble-hearted Lafayette had embarked on her cause with the generous enthusiasm that deeply affected the American people. Other distinguished Frenchmen had been her friends. Now, it was at this juncture, when we were disposed to give the warmest welcome to whatever came from France, that a deep, dark tide of that horrible infidelity plowed its way like the Gulf Stream through the Atlantic. and heaved its huge surges on the American shore. The valleys were flooded. The swelling waves rose and buried the hills upward. The awful deluge prevailed and rolled its black pillows above the tops of the tallest mountains. In the new settlements of the West the desolation was dreadful. There were few that escaped a deadly inundation. So rare were religious privileges that it was extremely difficult to find material sufficient to construct an ark. in which one entire family might be saved. It was proclaimed over all the land that France, enlightened, scientific, fashionable France, had renounced the gospel, had burned the Bible in the streets of Paris by the hands of the common hangmen, and had inscribed in prod characters over the entrance into the common burying ground that death is an eternal sleep. And moreover, it was confidently asserted by those who had opportunity to know that Thomas Jefferson, regarded in the West as a great political luminary, had rejected the gospel and adopted the infidelity of France. That most of our enlightened statesmen were following his example. Jefferson, as a politician, had at that period immense popularity. and the influence of his name, when in unison with the downward current of depravity, was mighty. Such was the attitude of the West in relation to religion and religious privileges from the year 1783 till 1800. Harassed by almost incessant Indian wars, impelled in the broad road by the folly and wickedness bound up in its own heart, and be wished and bewildered by the abominable example of those whose names possess fascination because they were inscribed on the rolls of fame. In the midst of this period of spiritual darkness, Thomas Paine's Age of Reason came forth. Thomas Paine was favorably known to the American people as a political writer during the conflict of the Revolution. His works entitled Common Sense and the Rights of Man had secured for him a widespread reputation. And in the minds of the multitude he was closely identified with the cause of American freedom. Rarely in his assaults on the Church of God has that archangel ruined, whose name is called Apollyon, been able to occupy such vantage ground. He appealed to the American people with this, You have thrown off allegiance to the British king. Now throw off the yoke of superstition and be freemen indeed. Thomas Paine scoffed at all that was sacred in religion. Profanely mocked and blasphemed the ordinances of God. Oh, it was a tremendous eruption of the bottomless pit. The shock had well-nigh thrown down the hope of the Church. The smoke that ascended filled all the air with blackness and eclipsed the sun, while ashes, cinders, and lava came down, threatening to bury every vestige of good that remained in society. In a letter to the editors of the New York Magazine, a venerable Gideon Blackburn says about the years 1798 and 1799, the darkness was thick, like that in Egypt, a darkness which might be felt. Do few pious in the land were ready to cry out, has God forgotten to be gracious? Are His mercies clean gone? Will He be favorable no more? Upon this period, pious men in the West began to call on the name of the Lord with that earnestness and opportunity which takes no denial. In Logan County, Kentucky, the Rev. James McGrady and some Christian people appointed seasons of special prayer. They also set apart days of fasting and humiliation before God. The Great Revival of 1800, like that granted to the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, was preceded by a season of deep humiliation and earnest prayer to God. The first conclusive proofs that the Lord had heard prayer and visited His people were received in Logan County, Kentucky. The work began at the house of God. It was according to the prayer of the psalmist, Restore unto me the joys of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. The people of God were brought near to him. The preaching of the gospel and the ordinances of the Lord's house were to them the bread and the water of life. And while they admired the freeness, the fullness, and the firmness of God's covenant mercy, the very dust and ruins of Zion were precious in their eyes. And believing prayer on their behalf went up as a cloud of incense before God. Presently an awful solemnity took hold of the public mind. Persons hitherto careless flocked in great numbers to the place of worship. The power of preaching was greatly increased. God was fearful in his praises, and in prayer Christians were enabled to come boldly to a throne of grace. I designed to give presently Dr. George Baxter's account of these seasons written at the time, but first I wish to lay before the reader some particulars which are imprinted on my own memory, and have remained most distinct and clear through all the years that have intervened. The little cloud, which had begun to pour out its blessing on the churches in Logan County, Kentucky, soon spread, like that in Elijah's day, until it covered the face of heaven. My father's residence was then in East Tennessee, some 250 miles distant from the point where the revival first appeared. But brief was the time that elapsed until it was in the midst of our population. A deep solemnity pervaded the entire community. Filling the minds of old and young with awe and reverence and view of God and his holy gospel, I remember with a distinctness that is marvelous to myself the unparalleled impression in our neighborhood We'd assembled in the house of worship. Each man and woman seemed to realize the sentiment of the patriarch. Surely the Lord is in this place. Rev. Mr. Dobbins, son of North Carolina afterwards, well-known in Ohio, preached the sermon. The attention was profound. During the sermon, two young men of respectable families, well known in the congregation, began to tremble in their seats. They were perfectly silent, but their trembling was visible to all that were in the house. The people felt that the great master of assemblies was among them. They knew that this was the mighty power of God, of which they heard among the churches in Kentucky. How much a young mind may have heard in its testament, I cannot say. But then it seemed to me that the appearance of the forerunner of the final judge approaching our earth was the trump of God. could scarcely have added to the awfulness of the solemnity. Stout, stubborn sinners, who before had blasphemed God and scoffed at sacred things, were struck down as literally as Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus. But this brings me to another branch of the subject, that is, number two, the falling down. This is one of the forms of that bodily exercise, as it was then called, which accompanied this remarkable work. It must be borne in mind that the country had been overrun by a bold, blaspheming infidelity which scowled at sacred things and attempted to browbeat and bear down all that was called by the name of the Lord Jesus. Thomas Moffat, now of Springfield, Illinois, assured me that in the part of Kentucky where his people then lived, it was believed that at the commencement of the year 1800 at least half the men and women were the avowed disciples of Thomas Paine. I mentioned this statement to the aged and venerable Abraham McElroy of Northern Missouri. His reply was this, Say not one half, say nine-tenths. For thus it was in the region of Lebanon, Kentucky, where I then resided, and I myself was among the number. Such is the sample of Western society at the commencement of that revival. The awful solemnity which now arrested a public mind was accompanied with bodily affections as notable and singular as those of Saul on his way to Damascus. Bold, brazen-fronted blasphemers were literally cut down by the sword of the Spirit. The word of God was quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. Under the preaching of the gospel, men would drop to the ground as suddenly as if they had been smitten by the lightning of heaven. Among these were many persons in the prime of life, strong men, businessmen, men whom no human being ever thought of charging with enthusiasm. Here was he avowed infidel, prostrate on the ground, confessing and lamenting his folly before God. There was a notorious profligate crying for mercy. Here was a celebrated frontier warrior famous for his dexterity and prowess during the Indian Troubles. And now, behold, he prays. And there was a homopolitician seeking an inheritance more durable than earthly fame. The language employed at that time by the plain Western people in describing the results of these meetings was that so many fell. At one meeting, 50 fell. At another, 75. Again, at another, 120 fell. George Baxter speaks of a meeting in which many thousands attended where 300 fell. He mentions another in which 500 fell. At the great meeting at Cain Ridge, which continued for six days and in which it was believed there were 20,000 people, it was said that not less than 1,000 fell. Those who fell would generally lie perfectly quiet for a considerable time, in some instances an hour, in some much longer, in others not so long. There were cases of comparatively rare occurrence in which persons lay for the space of 12 or 24 hours. From their own statements I learned that those who lay in that quiet state were entirely sensible of all that was passing around them. While, at the same time, their views on divine subjects were wonderfully clear and impressive, their minds were directed to the holiness and grandeur of God, the purity and sacredness of His law, the guilt and hatefulness of sin, the great love of God in giving a son to redeem lost man, the beauty and glory of Christ as mediator, the worth of the soul, the preciousness of the gospel, the value of time, the brevity of life, the solemnity of death, of judgment, and of eternity. Christ, the Divine Savior, was exalted and extolled in the preaching, the praying, and the praising of the Church in that day. Perhaps I cannot better present this feature of that work than by inserting a popular hymn, then in very general use, which was of a favorite with many thousands. A spirit of prayer was granted to those converts who was truly marvelous, men who had never before prayed in public, and from the careless tenor of whose lives it might be fairly inferred that they had rarely if ever prayed in secret, would now pour forth their supplications with a liberty and a propriety of expression that utterly astonished their former acquaintances. They would quote scripture in their addresses to the deity, with a pertinence and an accuracy that could only be accounted for on the principle that their hearts were lifted up in the ways of the Lord, and that all the powers of their mind were quickened by the Divine Spirit. The compass of their petitions and the force of their language were wonderful. This extraordinary gift in prayer evidently accompanied that bodily exercise. Even children but five or six years old had this power in prayer and those clear affecting views of divine truth when they were the subjects of that singular dispensation. A worthy Presbyterian elder, now a citizen of Springfield, mentioned to me the case of a little girl at a meeting at Cane Ridge. Her exact age he did not know, but she was so small that her father carried her about in his arms. She spoke of Christ in a manner that melted down all who heard her. She talked of His everlasting love that brought Him to earth to save lost men, the deep sorrows He bore for our sakes. She spoke of the scenes in Gethsemane and on Calvary, the grave in which Christ was laid, His resurrection, His ascension, His intercession, and the solemnities of His second coming. Careless and hard-hearted sinners gathered around, some of them old and sinned, some who had been avowed unbelievers, but all within the hearing of her voice were overcome and brought to tears by the affecting truths which she uttered. I wish to record another fact. At the professors of religion who were in the country when this revival began, perhaps one half became the subjects of this bodily exercise, That is, they either fell or were affected in some other way. These were invariably baptized with that spirit of prayer. In many cases the bodily exercise did not continue long, but that marvelous power of prayer was last in this life. I can mention names in abundance to substantiate this fact. I commenced preaching on the 15th of December, 1815. I lived and labored in the ministry until 1830, on the ground where this work had propelled with power and great glory. The meridian splendor of this revival was from the year 1800 to 1805, though it continued in many places for several years longer. Now I can name men with whom I was well acquainted during the first 15 years of my ministry, which reaches a period 30 years distant from the commencement of this wonderful work of God. men of humble pretensions, ordinary capacity and acquirements, who had been church members before but were now blessed in this revival, who, when they engaged in prayer, would at once rise above and beyond themselves. Yes, above and beyond all that I ever heard whether elder, deacon, or minister, who had not been baptized with the spirit and power of that memorable divine visitation. And I state this while I tell the reader that I was not myself a subject of that great work. My father, my mother, and my eldest sisters were, but I never had any hope of conversion during that season of mercy. Yet, its leading facts are indelibly imprinted on the tablet of my memory. And when I speak of it, I speak what I know and testify what I have seen. One fact more. This extraordinary power in prayer continued with those persons through their life. Many of them are now gone. Some, however, continue to this day. And a man who has been acquainted with the strain or manner of prayer will know it in a moment, whenever or wherever he may have the opportunity to hear it again. The God of the Bible is the God of Providence, and there is often an affecting analogy between facts which we now observe, and notable facts in the early history of the Church as recorded in the Sacred Book. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, after that wonderful interview with God, his face shined in a manner that was marvelous, and it continued thus to shine till the day of his death. I thought of this when meditating on the unquestionable fact that those who were brought so near to God in this great revival of 1800, and it granted to them such clear vision of Jehovah's holy character, and that of Mediator, whose name is Wonderful, and whose death, purchase, redemption for men, had a striking peculiarity and stamped on their prayers, which continue through all the remaining part of the earthly pilgrimage. In my hand I have the 1802 edition. And it contains a letter from Archibald Alexander, who was the original professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. In fact, the first year in 1812, he taught all of the classes. But at this time, he is a very young man, but the president of Hampton-Sydney College in Virginia. Mr. Alexander, it says, is a gentleman of eminent science and judicious piety. And by his late tour through New England, became known and beloved by many of our Christian readers. This letter is dated January 25, 1802 from Prince Edward, Virginia. It is written to Nathan Strong, the editor of the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. This letter is the story of the Kentucky Revival, which started in the year 1800. And because it is coming from such a reliable source, I think it is worth paying attention to because we have so many naysayers in our day who don't even believe in the subject of revival or that there was any such thing. Least of all do they suppose we should make any ado about it. And with that I'll commence. Reverend and dear sir, I've deferred writing until this time, that I might have it in my power to communicate some authentic intelligence of the extraordinary revival of religion which has lately taken place in Kentucky. The enclosed letter was written to me by the president of Washington Academy in this state. who visited Kentucky for the very purpose of examining to the nature of the remarkable religious appearances which existed there. In this inquiry, he obtained complete satisfaction and now entertains no doubt of its being a glorious work of God, as you'll see by the contents of his letter. I scarcely know a man on whose judgment in a manner of this kind I could more confidently rely than upon his. Possessing a clear, discriminating mind, and rational piety, he was in as little danger of being deceived by delusive appearances as any other person with whom I am acquainted. You will, however, judge of the narrative for yourself. and may make use of it how you think proper. I ascend it with a view to its publication in the Evangelical Magazine. That's the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. If the editor think it would be useful to the public. In North Carolina, a revival attended with similar appearances has lately taken place chiefly among the Presbyterians. I am not able to furnish you with the names of the counties or congregations, but I am informed it has extended over a tract of country about twenty miles square. And now the letter that was written to Archibald Alexander, Washington Academy, January 1st, 1802. Reverend and dear sir, I now sit down agreeably to my promise to give you some account of the late revival of religion in the state of Kentucky. You have no doubt been informed already respecting the Green River and Cumberland revivals. I will just observe that the last is the fourth summer since the revival commenced in those places, and that it has been more remarkable than any of the preceding, not only for lively and fervent devotions among Christians, but also for awakenings and conversions among the careless. and it is worthy of notice that very few instances of apostasy have appeared. As I was not in the Cumberland country myself, all I can say about it depends on the testimony of others, but I was uniformly told by those who had been there that their religious assemblies were more solemn in the appearance of the work, much greater than what had been in Kentucky. Any enthusiastic symptoms which might at first have attended the revival were greatly subsided, whilst the serious concern and engagedness of the people were visibly increased. In the older settlement of Kentucky, the revival made its first appearance among the presbyteries last spring. The whole of that country about a year before was remarkable for vice and dissipation, and I have been credibly informed that a decided majority of the people were professed infidels. During the last winter, appearances were favorable among the Baptists, and great numbers were added to their churches. Early in the spring, the ministrations of the Presbyterian clergy began to be better attended than they had been for many years before. Their worshipping assemblies became more solemn and the people, after they were dismissed, showed a strange reluctance about leaving the place. They generally continued some time in the meeting houses and employed themselves in singing or religious conversation. Perhaps about the last of May or the first of June, the awakenings became general in some congregations and spread through the country in every direction with amazing rapidity. I left that country about the 1st of November, at which time this revival, in connection with the one on Cumberland, had covered the whole state of Kentucky, except in a small settlement which borders on the waters of Green River, in which no Presbyterian ministers are settled, and I believe very few of any denominations. The power with which this revival has spread, and its influence in moralizing the people are difficult for you to conceive, and more so for me to describe. I'd heard many accounts and seen many letters respecting it before I went to that country, but my expectations so greatly raised were much below the reality of the work. There, congregations, when engaged in worship, presented scenes of solemnity superior to what I had ever seen before. And in private houses, it was no uncommon thing to hear parents relate to strangers the wonderful things which God had done in their neighborhoods, while a large family of young people collected round them would be in tears. On my way to Kentucky, I was informed by settlers on the road that the character of Kentucky travelers was entirely changed, and that they were now as remarkable for sobriety as they had been formerly for dissoluteness and immorality. And indeed, I found Kentucky, to appearance, the most moral place I had ever seen. A profane expression was hardly ever heard. A religious awe seemed to pervade the country. And some deistical characters had confessed that from whatever cause a revival might proceed, it did make the people better. Its influence was not less visible in promoting a friendly temper among the people. Nothing could appear more amicable than that undissembled benevolence which governs the subjects of this work. I have often wished that a mere politician or the deist could observe with impartiality their peaceful and amicable spirit. He would certainly see that nothing could equal the religion of Jesus for promoting the temporal happiness of society. Some neighborhoods visited by the revival were formally notorious for private animosities and contentions, and many petty lawsuits that commenced on that ground. When the parties in these quarrels were impressed with religion, the first thing was to send for their antagonists. And it was often very affecting to see their meeting. They had both seen their faults and both contended they ought to make the acknowledgements till at last they were obliged to request one another to forbear all mention of the past and to receive each other as friends and brothers for the future. Now, sir, let modern philosophers talk of reform in the world by banishing Christianity and introducing their licentious systems. The blessed gospel of our God and Savior is showing what it can do. Some circumstances have concurred to distinguish a revival in Kentucky from almost any other of which we have had any account. I mean the largeness of their assemblies on sacramental occasions, the length of time they continued on the ground in the exercise of public or private devotion, and the great numbers who have fallen down under religious conviction. On each of these particulars I shall give you some remarks. With respect to the largeness of their assemblies, it is generally supposed that, as many places, there were not less than eight, ten, or twelve thousand people. At one place, called Cane Ridge Meeting House, many are of opinion there were not less than twenty thousand. There were 140 wagons which came loaded with people besides other wheel carriages. And some persons attended who had come the distance of 200 miles. The largeness of these congregations was a considerable inconvenience. They were too numerous to be addressed by any one speaker. Different ministers were obliged to officiate at the same time at different stands. This afforded an opportunity to those who were but slightly impressed with religion to wander backwards or forwards between the different places of worship, which created an appearance of confusion and gave ground to such as were unfriendly to the work, to charge it with disorder. There was also another cause which conduced to the same effect. At this time, the people began to fall down in great numbers under serious convictions. This was a new thing among Presbyterians. It excited universal astonishment and created a degree of curiosity which could not be restrained. When people fell down, even in the most solemn parts of divine service, those who stood near were so extremely anxious to see how they were affected that they frequently crowded about them in such a manner as to disturb the worship. But these causes of disorder were soon removed. Different sacraments were appointed on the same Sabbath, which divided the people, and the falling down soon became so familiar as to excite no disturbance. I was in that country during the month of October. I attended three sacraments. The number of people at each was supposed to be about four or five thousand, and everything was conducted with strict propriety. When persons fell down, those who happened to be near took care of them, and everything continued quiet until the worship was concluded. The length of time the people continued on the ground was another important circumstance of the Kentucky Revival. At Cane Ridge, the people met on Friday morning and continued until Wednesday evening, night and day, without intermission, either in the public or private exercises of devotion, and with such a degree of earnestness that heavy showers of rain were not sufficient to disperse them. On another sacramental occasion, they generally continued on the ground until Monday or Tuesday evening, and had not the minister been exhausted and obliged to retire, or had they chosen to prolong the worship, they might have kept the people any length of time they pleased. And all this was, or might have been done, in a country where not twelve months before the clergy found it a difficult manner to detain the people during the common exercises of the Sabbath. The practice of camping on the ground was introduced partly by necessity and partly by inclination. The assemblies were generally too large to be received by any common neighborhood. Everything indeed was done which hospitality and brotherly kindness could do to accommodate the people. Public and private houses were both opened and free invitations given to all persons who wished to retire. Farmers gave up their meadows before they were mown to supply the horses. But, notwithstanding all this liberality, it would in many cases have been impossible to have accommodated the whole assembly with private lodgings. But besides, the people were unwilling to allow any interruption in their devotion, and they formed an attachment for the place where they were continually seeing so many careless sinners receiving the first impressions or convictions. In so many days, constrained to call on the formerly despised name of Jesus, they conceived a sentiment like what Jacob felt at Bethel when he said, Surely the Lord is in this place. This is none other but the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven. The number of persons who have fallen down under serious convictions in this revival is another matter worthy of attention. And on this I shall be the more particular as it seems to be the principal cause why this work should be more suspected of enthusiasm than some other revivals. At Cain Ridge, Sacrament, To place mention above, it is generally supposed that not less than 1,000 persons fell prostrate to the ground, and among them were many infidels. At one sacrament which I attended in that country, the number that fell was thought to be upwards of 300. Persons who fall are generally such as have manifested symptoms of the deepest impressions for some time previous to that event. It is common to see them shed tears plentifully for about an hour. Immediately before they become totally powerless, they are seized with the general tremor, and sometimes, though not frequently, in the moment of falling, they utter one or two piercing shrieks. Persons in this state are affected in many different degrees. Sometimes, when unable to stand or sit, they have the use of their hands and converse with perfect composure. In other cases, they are unable to speak, their pulse grows weak, and they draw a hard breath about once a minute. And in some instances, their hands and feet become cold, and their pulse and breath and all the symptoms of life forsake them for nearly an hour. Persons who have been in this situation have uniformly avowed that they suffered no bodily pain, and that they had the entire command of their reason and reflection, and when recovered they could relate everything which was said or done near them. or which could possibly fall within their observation. From this it appears that their falling is neither the common fainting nor the nervous affection. Indeed, this strange phenomenon appears to have taken every turn it possibly could to baffle the conjectures of those who are not willing to consider it a supernatural work. Persons have sometimes fallen on their way home from public worship and sometimes after their arrival. In some cases they have fallen when pursuing their common business on their farms or when they had retired for private devotion. I observed above that persons generally are seriously affected for some time previous to falling. In many cases, however, it is otherwise. Numbers of careless persons have fallen as suddenly as if struck with a flash of lightning. Many professed infidels and other vicious characters have been arrested in this way and sometimes at the very moment when they were uttering their blasphemies against the work. At the beginning of the revival in Shelby County, the appearances as related to me by eyewitnesses were very surprising indeed. The revival had previously spread with irresistible power through the adjacent counties, and many of the religious people had attended distant sacraments and were greatly benefited. They were much engaged and felt unusual freedom in their addresses at the throne of grace for the outpouring of the divine spirit to the approaching sacrament in Shelby. The sacrament came on in September. The people, as usual, met on Friday, but they were all languid and the exercises went on heavily. On Saturday and Sunday morning, It was no better. But at length the communion service commenced and everything was still lifeless. The minister of the place was speaking at one of the tables without any unusual liberty. All at once there were several shrieks from different parts of the assembly. Persons fell instantly in every direction. The feelings of the pious were suddenly revived and the work went on with extraordinary power from that time till the conclusion of the solemnity. These phenomena of falling are common to all ages and sexes and to all sorts of characters, and when they fall they are differently exercised. Some pious people have fallen under a sense of ingratitude and hardness of heart, and others under affecting manifestations of the love and goodness of God. Many careless persons have fallen under legal convictions and obtained comfort before they arose. But perhaps the most numerous class of all are those who fall under distressing views of their guilt. who arise with the same fearful apprehensions and continue in that state for some days, perhaps weeks, before they obtain comfort. I have conversed with many who fell under the influence of comfortable feelings, and the account which they gave of their exercises while they lay in trance was very surprising. I don't know how to give you a better idea of them than by saying that they appeared in many cases to surpass the dying exercises of Dr. Samuel Findlay. Their minds appeared wholly swallowed up, and contemplating the perfections of deity is illustrated in the plan of salvation. And while they lay in all appearance senseless and almost destitute of life, their minds were more vigorous and active, and their memories more retentive and accurate. than they'd ever been before. I have heard respectable characters assert that their manifestations of gospel truth were so clear as to require some caution when they began to speak, lest they should use language which might induce their hearers to suppose they had seen no things with their natural eyes. But at the same time, they had seen no image or sensible representation, nor indeed anything besides the old truths contained in the Bible. Among those whose minds were filled with the most delightful communications of divine love, I but seldom observed anything ecstatic. Their expressions were just and rational. They conversed with calmness and composure, and on first recovering the use of their speech, they appeared like persons just recovering from a violent sickness which had left them on the borders of the grave. have sometimes been present when persons who fell under the influence of convictions obtained relief before they rose. On these occasions it was impossible not to observe how strongly the change of their minds was depicted in their countenances. From a face of horror and despair, they assumed one which was open, luminous, and serene, and expressive of all the comfortable feelings of religion. As to those who fall down under legal convictions and continue in that state, they are not different from those who receive convictions in other revivals, accepting that their distress is more severe. Indeed, extraordinary power is the leading characteristic of this revival. Both saints and sinners have more striking discoveries of the realities of another world than I have ever known on any other occasion. I trust I have said enough on the subject to enable you to judge how far the charge of enthusiasm is applicable to it. Lord Littleton In his letter on the conversion of Paul observes, and I think very justly, that, quote, enthusiasm is a vain self-righteous spirit swelled with self-sufficiency and disposed to glory in its religious attainments, end quote. If this definition be a good one, there is perhaps as little enthusiasm in Kentucky as in any other revival. Never in my life have I seen more genuine marks of that humility which disclaims the merit of its own duties and looks to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of acceptance with God. I was indeed highly pleased to find that Christ was all and in all in their religion, as well as in the religion of the gospel. Christians in their highest attainments were most sensible of their entire dependence on divine grace, and it was truly affecting to hear with what agonizing anxiety awakened sinners inquired for Christ as the only physician who could give them any help. Those who call these things enthusiasm ought to tell us what they understand by the spirit of Christianity. In fact, sir, this revival operates as our Savior promised the Holy Spirit should when sent into the world. It convinces us in of righteousness and of judgment, a strong confirmation to my mind both that the promise is divine and that this is a remarkable fulfillment of it. It would be of little avail to object to all this, that perhaps the professions of many of the people were counterfeited. Such an objection would rather establish what it meant to destroy. For where there is no reality, there can be no counterfeit. And besides, when the general tenor of a work is such as to dispose the most insincere professors to counterfeit what is right, the work itself must be genuine. But as an eyewitness in the case, I may be permitted to declare that the professions of those under religious convictions were generally marked with such a degree of engagedness and feeling as willful hypocrisy could hardly assume. The language of the heart, when deeply impressed, is easily distinguished from the language of affectation. Upon the whole, sir, I think the revival in Kentucky among the most extraordinary that have ever visited the Church of Christ. In all things considered, it was peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of the country into which it came. Infidelity was triumphant and religion at the point of expiring. Something of an extraordinary nature appeared necessary to arrest the attention of a giddy people who were ready to conclude that Christianity was a fable and futurity a dream. This revival has done it. It has confounded infidelity. odd vice into silence and brought numbers beyond calculation under serious conviction. Whilst a blessed savior was calling home his people and building up of his church in this remarkable way, opposition could not be silent. It is, I have hinted above, But it is proper, I should observe here, that the clamorous opposition which has sailed the work at its first appearance has been in a great measure borne down before it. A large proportion of those who have fallen were at first opposers to it, and their example has taught others to be cautious if it has not taught them to be wise. I have written on this subject to a greater length than I first intended, but if this account should give you any satisfaction and be of any benefit to the common cause, I shall be fully gratified. Yours with the highest esteem, George Baxter