The GOSPEL TRUTH A HISTORY OF AMERICAN REVIVALS
by
Frank G. Beardsley PH.D, S.T.D.
1912
Chapter 11
DENOMINATIONAL MOVEMENTS -- CONCLUDED.
In the great revivals which swept over the country during the first half of the nineteenth century, there was scarcely a denomination which did not share in the quickened spiritual life of the period. Said Dr. Gardner Spring: "The period, commencing with the year 1792, and terminating with 1842, was a memorable period in the history of the American church. Scarcely any portion of it but was visited by copious effusions of the Holy Spirit From north to south, and from east to west, our male, and more especially our female academies, our colleges, and our churches drank largely of this fountain of living waters."*
* Humphrey's Revival Sketches, p. 214.
Bishop McIlvaine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, speaking of the influence of revivals in his own denomination, said: "During this period, our Episcopal churches, under a greatly extended and more earnest and evangelical ministry, were in many places favored of God with marked manifestations of the power of the Spirit; bowing the hearts of many persons, within a short space of time, to the obedience of Christ. I have nowhere seen more fruitful 'revivals of religion,' in which conversions were more marked, the spiritual results more beneficial and permanent. How many of our clergy can tell of such movements under their labors, and bless God for their issues of life. And how many can point to revivals in Episcopal churches as marking their spiritual birthdays."*
*Ibid., pp. 221, 228.
Three denominations of minor importance -- the United Brethren in Christ, the Evangelical Association, and the Cumberland Presbyterians, all of which came into existence about the beginning of the century, are deserving of special mention on account of the influence which they have exerted upon the revival history of our country.
The earliest of these, the United Brethren in Christ, owe their origin chiefly to the labors of Philip William Otterbein, whom Asbury characterized as "the holy, the great Otterbein." He was born June 3, 1726, at Dillenburg in the duchy of Nassau, Germany, was educated at Herborn, and came to America as a German Reformed missionary in 1752. His first settlement in this country was at Lancaster, Pa., which then had the second largest German Reformed Church in the colonies. He afterwards preached at various other places in Pennsylvania and Maryland, but for nearly twenty years prior to his death in 1814 he was pastor of an independent German congregation in Baltimore.
During Otterbein's Lancaster pastorate he met with a deeper religious experience, which led him to enter upon revivalistic labors with great fervor. Not alone to the congregations of which he was pastor did he thus minister, but to the surrounding neighborhoods he made frequent visits, conducting evangelistic services and enlisting the co-operation of the spiritually minded in these efforts for the regeneration of men.
In this work he early became associated with Martin Boehme, a pious Mennonite, whom he had met at a great bam meeting near Lancaster. Boehme was engaged in a similar work and after hearing him preach, Otterbein was so impressed with the similarity of their views and purposes, that he embraced him, exclaiming: "We are brethren," whence the denomination at a later time is supposed to have taken its name
The labors of Otterbein and Boehme resulted in the formation of a number of societies of pious believers in various parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland, who were not encouraged to leave the churches of their birth. For their spiritual guidance and instruction, teachers or preachers were appointed who visited them from time to time. Eventually some form of organization became necessary, and conferences were formed, the first one meeting in 1789. In 1800 these scattered societies were united into one body which was denominated "The United Brethren in Christ." An itinerant system and a form of church government similar to that of the Methodists were adopted, and during the period this denomination did a great work in the evangelization of the scattered German pioneers, though in subsequent times the work of the church has been chiefly among an English-speaking population.
Although there never was any organic connection between the Methodists and the United Brethren, there always was the warmest sympathy and the heartiest co-operation between them. A lasting friendship sprang up between Asbury and Otterbein, the former of whom used his influence to cause the latter to accept the work with which he was so long identified at Baltimore. When Asbury was set apart to the office of bishop, at his request, Otterbein assisted in the ordination service, and when the latter died Asbury wrote in his journal: "Forty years have I known the retiring modesty of this man of God, towering majestic above his fellows in learning, wisdom and grace, and yet seeking to be known only to God and the people of God.'
Similar in origin and purpose was the Evangelical Association. In 1790 Jacob Albright, a successful manufacturer of brick and tile in Lancaster County, Pa., met with a sore bereavement in the death of several of his children. By this providence and the funeral sermons which were preached, he came into a sense of conviction for sin, from which he ultimately found relief through the prayers and exhortations of one Adam Riegel, an independent lay preacher. Upon conversion Albright united with the M. E. Church. Eventually he was led to believe that God had called him to the evangelization of the German-Americans in the country round about. But the Methodists did not then contemplate a work among a foreign-speaking population, and so meeting with no encouragement from the church of his choice Albright was compelled to organize his converts into independent societies, but along lines for which the Methodists served as a model. These societies eventually became known as the Evangelical Association, of which Albright was the first bishop, an office which he did not long fill, owing to his death in 1808. But the work which he inaugurated lived and was instrumental in leading many thousands of German-Americans to embrace the gospel of Christ.
The Cumberland Presbyterians originated in the great revival which visited Kentucky and Tennessee about the beginning of the century. This work, as we have seen, commenced with the labors of Rev. James McGready in Logan County, Ky. The work soon spread and the necessities became such that uneducated men were ordained to the ministry to enter the fields which had already whitened to the harvest, and for the demands of which the laborers were far too few. On this account and also because it had permitted candidates for ordination to except certain of the doctrines of the Westminster Confession, the Cumberland Presbytery was dissolved by the Synod of Kentucky in 1806.
After seeking in various ways for redress but in vain, certain members of this exscinded Presbytery reorganized the Cumberland Presbytery in 1810 as an independent Presbytery, eliminating those doctrines which savored of what they regarded as fatalism. By 1813 the growth had been so great that the work was divided into three Presbyteries and the Cumberland Presbytery was resolved into the Cumberland Synod. By 1829 this Synod had become a General Assembly, which accounts for the origin of the church and its name.
The outgrowth of a revival, as might be expected, the Cumberland Presbyterians were essentially revivalistic. Camp-meetings and circuit preaching were the principal means employed to reach the people. The early preachers manifested an unusual activity for the evangelization of the frontier settlements of the south and southwest. But the evangelistic zeal of the church far exceeded its ability to care for those converted under its labors, as a consequence of which large numbers of its converts became absorbed in other denominations. The work accomplished by this denomination in the salvation of men was a worthy one, and one for which the Cumberland Presbyterians are deserving of honorable mention in the annals of American revivals.
Having devoted considerable attention to the denominational movements of the first half of the nineteenth century, we are prepared to sum up the results of the period. The Awakening of 1800 turned back the tide of infidelity, aroused the churches from the lethargy into which they had fallen, and gave to them a profound impulse towards the work of evangelization. But much still remained to be accomplished, "and there remained yet very much land to be possessed." The frontier settlements needed to have the gospel preached to them, while multitudes in various portions of the country were as yet uninfluenced by the churches. As a result of the remarkable revivals and revival movements from 1800-1850 the religious character, of the country was greatly changed. At the commencement of the century only one out of every fifteen persons was connected with an evangelical church, and there was but one church organization to every 1740 inhabitants, but by 1850 one out of every seven persons was a member of an evangelical church, while there was a church organization to every 895 inhabitants. The frontier settlements had been evangelized and the colleges of the land had been blessed with showers of refreshing grace. Truly a marvelous record for so short a time. But as the period came to a close the darkening shadows were beginning to gather. Worldliness and indifference were robbing the churches of their power and revivals were rare. Happily these conditions did not long prevail, but were overcome by that remarkable awakening, known as the Great Revival of 1857.