American Lutheranism, Volume 2 / The United Lutheran Church (General Synod, General Council, United Synod in the South)

by F. Bente

REVIVALISM.

46. "Justification by Sensation."—According to the Bible and the Lutheran Church the divine measures for converting sinners are the preaching of the pure Gospel and the administering of the unadulterated Sacraments. "New-measurism," then, as the very term indicates, is a human makeshift. Indeed, the Lutheran Church approves of all methods, also new measures, which merely serve to bring the divine means of grace into motion and men in contact with them. But it condemns all methods and measures, new or old, which hinder or corrupt or eliminate the divine means of grace. The new measures introduced by revivalism, however, are just such corruptions of, and substitutes for, the divine means of grace. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God"—of this truth New-measurism is a denial in toto. New-measurism denies the Gospel-truth that God is already reconciled and has already pardoned sinners. It denies that this pardon is freely offered in the unconditional promises of God's Word and in the Sacraments, the seals of grace. It denies that justifying and saving faith is the mere trust in these promises of God. It denies that faith in these promises alone engenders divine assurance of pardon. It mistakes, as C. P. Krauth put it, justification by sensation for justification by faith. (Spaeth 2, 35.) It holds that one cannot be assured of grace without certain peculiar sensations, emotions, and feelings in his heart. It denies that faith is purely a gift of God, and teaches that man must cooperate in his own conversion. It insists that special measures must be resorted to in order to frighten men into doing their share of conversion, and to produce the emotional and neurotic conditions which warrant assurance of grace. As such measures it prescribes emotional appeals, shrieking and shouting in preaching and praying, special prayer-meetings, the anxious bench, protracted meetings, camp-meetings, etc. Revivalism brands men as spiritually dead and unconverted who, like Walther and Wyneken, base their assurance of grace, not on alleged feelings and spiritual experiences, but on the clear and unmistakable promises of God in His Word and Sacraments. New-measurism condemns and ridicules the old methods of catechetical instruction, doctrinal preaching, and of administering the Sacraments as spiritually ineffective and productive merely of head Christianity and dead orthodoxy. "Jist git the spirit started," said a Methodist to C. P. Krauth, "and then it works like smoke." "Very much like smoke, I guess," answered Krauth. (1,67.) Indeed, Pelagianists, who believe that conversion is a mere outward moral improvement, effected by man's own free will; Romanists, who teach that man can and must by his own efforts and works earn the grace of God; Arminians and Synergists, who believe in man's ability to cooperate in his own conversion and salvation; Calvinists, who, denying universal grace, base their insurance on special marks of grace in their own hearts and lives; Reformedists and enthusiasts, who deny that Word and Sacraments are the only means of grace, collative as well as operative; Pietists, who insist that the terrors of conscience must be of a peculiar nature and degree, and that faith must be accompanied by a happiness and a sanctification of a special kind and measure before a sinner may fully be assured of his pardon and conversion,—they all may be, and, in fact, naturally are, in sympathy with one or the other form of New-measurism and revivalism; but Lutherans, who believe in a Gospel of real pardon and power—never. If the Lutheran doctrine of grace and the means of grace is Scriptural, then the work-nerve-and-emotion Christianity of New-measurism is wrong, and vice versa. Not Lutheranism, but Arminianism, Enthusiasm, and Reformedism are the premises of revivalism. The fact that New-measurism was enthusiastically hailed, defended, and extensively introduced by her leading men, is but a further proof that the spirit then rampant in the General Synod was not the spirit of Lutheranism.

47. Lutherans Vying with the Fanatics.—The pietism and unionism of Muhlenberg and his colaborers was the door through which, in the days of Wesley and Whitefield, revivalism had found an early, though limited, entrance into the Lutheran Church. And in the course of its history the General Synod was zealous in cultivating and developing the evil inheritance of their fathers. It sounds like a warning against the threatening contagion when D. F. Schaeffer, in the Pastoral Letter of 1831, admonishes: "Let us faithfully adhere to the Word of God and follow its precepts unswervingly; let us not follow after those whose enthusiastic behavior is more apt to promote disorder and confusion than true edification. Against such we would warn in a most friendly manner, even if they be never so beloved. As Lutherans we admonish you: 'Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.'" (25.) But the General Synod herself had already opened the door for, and encouraged, the movement. According to Chapter XVI of the constitution adopted 1829 for the District Synods, the annual Special Conferences were to meet for two days, especially in order "by practical preaching to awaken and convert sinners and to edify believers." (41.) In the following year the Hartwick Synod was organized, in order more fully to satisfy the craving of their members for revivals. At the convention of the General Synod at Frederick, 1831, a committee reported that the Hartwick Synod, having unanimously voted to join the General Synod, was divided into two conferences which were to meet as often as possible, and whose chief business it was "by earnest and practical sermons to awaken and convert sinners, and to encourage and edify Christians." (9.) At Baltimore, 1833, the Ohio Synod was censured for certain utterances against the "new measures" adopted within the General Synod. Finding revivalism in the Hartwick Synod not advanced enough, a few of its members, in 1837, organized the Franckean Synod, in order to press "new measures" to the extreme. On the Hartwick Synod the withdrawal acted as an impulse for a greater activity in the same direction. At Chambersburg, 1839, a committee reported on the meeting of this synod held in 1838: "We take particular pleasure in remarking that the proceedings of this Synod, especially the statements contained in the annual address of its President, afford the most satisfactory evidence that this Synod is decidedly in favor of revivals of religion. Protracted meetings have been held in various parts, and the Lord has especially blessed them; from which we have reason to believe that true and undefiled religion is more and more abounding within its limits. All the religious operations of the day, such as Tract Societies, Temperance Societies, etc., etc., enjoy the hearty support of this Synod." (13.) The minutes of the General Synod, of the District Synods, the Lutheran Observer, etc., soon began to teem with reports on revivals, visitations, outpourings, refreshing showers, etc. (L. u. W. 1857, 27.) At the convention of the Maryland Synod in Frederick, 1842, Harkey proposed the publication of the Revivalist, a monthly to be devoted to the history and defense of revivals, revival intelligence, the best measures and means of promoting and managing revivals—a plan which Synod declined as "inexpedient." At the same convention B. Kurtz, the advocate of the wildest revivalism, succeeded in having a committee appointed to draft a minute expressive of the views of Synod in regard to "new measures." The report was discussed for two days, when it was referred back to the committee, and at the next meeting of Synod the committee was excused from further consideration of the subject. (Spaeth 1, 111.) As late as 1876 the American Lutheran declared that the great majority of the pastors and congregations of the General Synod favored revivals; that they managed them on the lines of those conducted by Moody and Sankey; that some of the congregations employed sectarian preachers for protracted meetings. (L. u. W. 1876, 182.) When, in 1877, the American Lutheran merged into the Observer, Dr. Conrad solemnly promised to continue defending revivalism. (L. u. W. 1877, 60.) In 1908, referring to revivals still occasionally reported in the Observer, the Lutherische Herold remarked that this sort of enthusiasm, formerly the rule in the Eastern and Central States, had as yet not nearly died out, e. g., in the General Synod congregations of Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. (L. u. W. 1908, 322.) Down to 1918 occasional revivals were held or participated in by congregations and ministers of the General Synod. Several years ago Rev. Bell cooperated in a revival conducted by Billy Sunday in Toledo, etc. According to Church Work and Observer, November 9, 1916, the General Synod church at Gettysburg, Pa., conducted a joint revival with Presbyterians, Methodists, and United Brethren.

48. "The Lever of Archimedes."—In the revival agitation which swept over America in the decades following 1830 practically all of the English Lutheran churches (the German churches, in part, stood aloof) caught the contagion in a malignant form and in great numbers. While even Prof. J. W. Nevin, Schaff's colleague at Mercersburg, in his book The Anxious Bench (1844), antagonized the extravagances of a movement which was germane to his own church, Lutherans such as Schmucker, Kurtz, Harkey, Passavant, and many others, became extremists in practising, and fanatics in advocating, "new measures" as the most needful and only effective methods of accelerating and deepening conversion and reviving the Lutheran Church. Vying in their wild extravagances with the most fanatical of the sects, Lutherans, in not a few places, condemned as spiritually dead formalists, head and memory Christians, all who adhered to the sound principles and old ways of Lutheranism. (Gerberding, The Way of Life, 197 ff.) S. L. Harkey, himself a fiery New-measurist, describes a revival held in connection with the convention of the Synod of the West, in 1839, as follows: "In an instant every soul in the house was upon the knees, and remained there weeping and praying for mercy." "The whole congregation became more or less moved. The place became truly awful and glorious, and it seemed that the time had come when a decided effort must be made upon the kingdom of darkness, and that under such circumstances to shrink from the task and, through fear of producing a little temporary disorder, to refuse to go heartily into the work, would have been nothing short of down right spiritual murder." "At one time during the meeting it was found necessary to invite the mourners to withdraw from the church and remove to the parsonage that the synod might have an opportunity to proceed with the transaction of business before it." (Neve, 97.) Dr. Kurtz wrote in the Observer of November 17, 1843: "The so-called 'anxious bench' is the lever of Archimedes, which by the blessing of God can raise our German churches to that degree of respectability in the religious world which they ought to enjoy." (Neve, 95.) The Lutheran Observer of March 21, 1862, while defending revivalism and misrepresenting the "symbolism" of the Missourians as the doctrine according to which one is saved by the Sacraments ex opere operato, without repentance and faith, condemns the Lutheran system of baptizing, catechizing, confirming, communing at the Lord's Supper, etc., as Romanism and Sacramentalism, as unbiblical and not at all the religion of Christ and His apostles, as fundamentally wrong and utterly ineffective, and disgusting also to Lutherans, as soon as they were enlightened by the Spirit of God. The Observer continues: The success of Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and even of the Congregationalists among the Germans is due to revivals. "The Lutheran Church in Germany and in this country is in need of religious revivals. Nothing else will save them." (L. u. W. 1862, 152.) In 1900, reporting numerous conversions in consequence of revivals held in congregations of the General Synod, the Observer remarked: "If half a dozen of our best preachers would turn evangelists—no greater blessing could come to our Church." (L. u. W. 1900, 179.) The Lutheran World, January 17, 1901: "In our own General Synod any of our churches came to look upon the Catechism as unfriendly to vital piety, and they cast it out. Today even there are still those among us who oppose and resist the use of the Catechism under the false notion that it is the enemy of practical religion. Their idea of religion is the Methodistic notion. Fitness for church-membership, according to their view, comes through the pressure and appointments of the big meeting. Sinners must come to a bench for mourning, or they must stand up in the congregation, or they must hold their hands, or they must send in their card asking for the prayers of the church. Human devices and appointments are fixed on as requisites for having a genuine conversion and being filled with the Spirit of God. This is Romanism in disguise." (L. u. W. 1901, 54.)

49. Reports on Revivals.—To what an extent over a long period revivals were indulged in by the congregations of the General Synod appears from its minutes. The Committee on the State of the Church reported in 1857: "Revivals have been enjoyed in every quarter, many souls have been added to the Lord, and whilst the congregations have thus been largely increased, there is every reason to anticipate that the addition thus secured for the ranks of the ministry will not be a small one." (30.) In 1859: "The most extensive and powerful revivals of religion ever known among us have been enjoyed by a very large number of our churches during the past two years." (59.) In 1864: "Frequent and extensive revivals and numerous additions to the Church are reported by the brethren." (55.) In 1866: "Many of our churches are rejoicing in special seasons of grace, refreshings from on high, revivals of religion, in which sinners are converted, whilst God's people are awakening to new life." (42.) In 1869: "Revivals of religion have been quite general during the year, and many have been born into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ." (59.) In 1875: "In most of the synods there have been seasons of special extended quickening. Large numbers have professed conversion. In some instances hundreds have been added to a single church in a twelvemonth." (23.) In 1848 the Synod of Western Virginia reported: "Almost all our churches have been blessed with revivals of religion. In some upwards of one hundred persons have professed to have passed from death unto life; in others seventy-five, in others fifty, and in some not so many." (45.) In 1859: "The two institutions, Roanoke College and Wytheville Female College, have also been blessed with gracious visitations from on high, which resulted in the conversion of a number of students in both institutions." (53.) The Virginia Synod, in 1859: "We have shared to some extent the great revival blessings which God has poured out upon the land." (51.) The New York Ministerium, in 1850: "The churches generally are in a state of prosperity, and many of them have been favored with special visitations of the Holy Spirit." (31.) In 1859: "The great revival has had its influence upon our churches; many have been added to our number, and the vital piety has increased." (61.) The Synod of West Pennsylvania, in 1850: "Interesting revivals of religion have occurred since the last General Synod in different places." (29.) In 1853: "The influences of the Holy Spirit have descended as the dew upon the labors of most of them, whilst there have been refreshing showers in the case of many. Revivals are known to have been enjoyed by eight of the pastoral districts within the last two years. This number embraces nearly half of the charges of the Synod. Some of these gracious seasons were of great power, resulting in the hopeful conversion of many souls, and furnishing a number of students having the ministry in view." (28.) In 1859: "Nearly all the churches have enjoyed revivals of religion more or less extensive; conversions have been numerous." (49.) In 1864: "In some pastorates there have been special awakenings, and many have been added to the Church of Christ." (55.) In 1871: "Many of the churches have been blessed with precious seasons of refreshing grace." (44.) East Pennsylvania Synod, in 1850: "Many sections of the Church have been blessed with special visitations of the Spirit of God." (32.) In 1862 the Synod of Central Pennsylvania reported: "In mercy God poured out His Spirit upon a number of the charges and congregations, and many souls professed conversion; and although the sad effects of the war are, in this Synod, clearly seen in her churches, still we are happy to state that much good has been accomplished." (45.) In 1871: "There have been extensive awakenings in several of our pastorates, and there is a steady and commendable progress in spiritual attainments generally." (47.) The Hartwick Synod, in 1853: "Precious seasons of refreshing have been vouchsafed to its churches. The Lord is in the midst of His people, making glad their hearts with the tokens of His presence and His love." (30.) In 1862: "Although there have not been, within the past three years, revivals so numerous and so extensive as in the two years previous, yet seasons of refreshing have been enjoyed on the part of many of the churches, and such progress made as to evince the Lord's presence and blessing." (41.) In 1804: "In several of our churches the Lord has graciously revived His work, believers have been quickened into higher life, and sinners have been converted." (57.) In 1871: "Many of our congregations have enjoyed special seasons of grace, and large accessions to the Church have been the result." (44.) In 1859 the Alleghany Synod reported: "Extensive revivals have been enjoyed and a large number of members added." (52.) In 1862: "The Synod has had some precious revivals of religion in many of its congregations. In many respects the Synod has prospered in vital piety." (42.) In 1869: "Some of the charges have made large additions, as results of religious awakenings, during the past winter." (58.) The Melanchthon Synod, in 1859: "Extensive revivals of religion have been enjoyed in many of the congregations, and large additions have been made to the membership." (58.) In 1862: "The churches within the bounds of this Synod enjoyed extensive revivals during the first two years after the last meeting of the General Synod, at which time the rebellion, so disastrous to both State and Church, took place and blasted many of our most cherished enterprises, and laid low many of our fondest hopes. During the past year, accessions to the Church within our bounds have been comparatively few, revivals of religion rare, whilst there has been a marked decline in vital godliness." (46.) In 1869: "During the past year quite a number of revivals of religion have occurred." (59.) The Synod of Kentucky, in 1859: "Some of our charges have enjoyed revivals of religion, which greatly refreshed both ministers and people, and considerably increased our numerical strength." (57.) The Maryland Synod, in 1859: "Extensive revivals have been enjoyed by many of the churches." (49.) The Synod of New Jersey, in 1862: "Our body has an existence of only one year. Yet we have enjoyed revivals of religion." (42.) In 1869: "A number of revivals of religion have been reported." (61.) In 1871: "Several of our churches have enjoyed seasons of special religious interest and revival." (48.) The Franckean Synod, in 1869: "Practical religion has been well sustained. Several precious revivals have been enjoyed." (62.) In 1871: "Synod is engaged with more or less success in establishing and unfolding a true religious life in the membership of the Church of God as the grand object of being, endeavoring to promote revivals of religion." (48.) The Susquehanna Synod, in 1869: "This Synod is in a prosperous condition. During the past year, and, more particularly, during the past winter, extensive revivals of religion were enjoyed and large numbers of souls hopefully converted to God and added to the Church." (62.) In 1871: "There has been a large increase in the membership, mostly through judiciously conducted protracted meetings and catechization." (48.)

50. Reports on Revivals (continued).—In 1869 the Synod of New York reported: "Some of the congregations have been visited with special showers of divine grace, and, as a consequence, large additions have been made to its membership." (58.) The English Synod of Ohio, in 1853: "There are but few congregations in connection with our Synod but what have, during the past year, enjoyed greater or less manifestations of the Spirit of God in the conversion of sinners." (34.) The East Ohio Synod, in 1859: "In all of our churches most precious seasons of grace were enjoyed. The Spirit of God 'came down like rain upon the mown grass,' and righteousness flourished in all our borders." (52.) In 1862: "The state of religion is healthy. The past few years have been marked with the gifts of the Divine Spirit, and, while sinners have been converted to God, the professed people of Christ have been stadily [sic] growing in spirituality and church-love." (43.) In 1869: "We have had many precious seasons of revival during the past year, and large accessions to the number of those who shall be saved." (59.) In 1871: "Many precious revivals of religion have been recorded, and large accessions have been made to the churches." (45.) The Olive Branch Synod, in 1853: "Almost all the churches connected with this Synod, during the year, enjoyed precious revivals of religion." (37.) In 1859: "Many of them have enjoyed refreshing seasons from the presence of the Lord, by which they have become much strengthened and encouraged." (54.) In 1862: "The churches are, with few exceptions, in a prosperous condition. Some of them have enjoyed seasons of refreshing." (43.) In 1871: "A number of charges have had precious seasons of revival, resulting in large additions to their membership. The state of religion in our churches is more favorable than it had been in the few years previous." (46.) The Miami Synod, in 1859: "Revivals have been enjoyed in almost every charge, and large numbers have been brought to the knowledge of the truth." (52.) In 1871: "Several of them have enjoyed special seasons of grace." (45.) The Synod of Iowa, in 1859: "Some of the churches have been visited by revivals of religion, and there a more healthful state of piety is seen." (58.) In 1862: "The most extensive revivals of religion ever known among us have been enjoyed during the past winter. Our laity are becoming more of a praying as well as a working people. A deeper tone of piety exists among us. There is more heartfelt and prayerful longing for the gracious outpouring of the blessing of God, and more earnest efforts are being put forth for the conversion and salvation of souls. It is therefore our decided conviction that at no former period of our brief history have we been so fully and generally awakened to our great mission in this distant West as at the present." (46.) The Synod of Northern Illinois, in 1859: "Our Swedish and Norwegian brethren are very active, and a living practical Christianity is making powerful progress among them. During the last two years extensive and powerful revivals have been enjoyed by many of the churches connected with this Synod." (54.) In 1871: "A number of refreshing seasons of divine grace has been enjoyed during the past two years." (47.) The Synod of Northern Indiana, in 1859: "In the last two years many of its churches have enjoyed revivals of religion." (57.) In 1862: "Many precious revivals of religion have been enjoyed." (44.) The Wittenberg Synod, in 1859: "During the past two years our churches have enjoyed the special visitations of the Holy Spirit and the number of our members has been greatly enlarged." (52.) The Synod of Illinois, in 1859: "Many of the churches have enjoyed refreshing seasons from the presence of the Lord, and vital piety is advancing." (53.) The Synod of Southern Illinois, in 1862; "Some of our congregations have enjoyed refreshing showers from the presence of the Lord, during the last winter, and are in prosperous condition." (46.) In 1864: "Amid all these hindrances, some of the churches have been revived by gracious outpourings of the Spirit." (59.) In 1869: "Although new elements of wickedness, such as rationalism, pantheism, etc., are making their way into our midst, yet Christians are awake to their baneful influences and are setting themselves against them." (61.)

51. Coming to Their Senses Gradually.—New-measurism was resorted to by the General Synod in order to revive the dying Church. The true cause of her apathy, atrophy, and decay, however, was not diagnosed correctly. It was the prevailing confessional indifference, religious ignorance, and the neglect of Lutheran indoctrination by catechization, especially of the young. Dr. Hazelius, himself a revivalist, as early as 1845, pointed out the real cause and cure. "The attachment of the Church"—said he— "has been weakened so much that the causes of this alarming fact have frequently been made the subject of inquiry in our churchpaper [Observer], and we are sorry to say that among all the causes assigned, we have missed the one which is at the root of the evil, viz., the remissness of many of our pastors in the religious instruction of youths." (Wolf, Lutherans in America, p. 484.) If this was the disease, it stands to reason that a cure could not be brought about by the quack methods of New-measurism, by exciting the nerves and emotions, but only by enlightening the mind and moving the will by the Word of God. Pastor Loehe, presenting in Kirchliche Mitteilungen of 1843 a description of revivals and camp-meetings in America, remarked: "They intoxicate themselves with spiritual drinks which are worse than whisky." (Nos. 2 and 5.) Indeed, Methodistic revivalism has been found wanting, and worse than wanting, everywhere. In a Lutheran congregation it must necessarily result in a total annihilation of whatever there may be left of true Lutheranism.—The inoperativeness of revivalism was occasionally admitted also by its friends within the General Synod. At New York, 1848, regretting the decrease in the number of theological students, the Executive Committee of the Parent Education Society stated: "This subject becomes more painful when we consider that since 1842, when the Church at large was blessed with extensive revivals of religion, the number of beneficiaries has diminished constantly until the present time, whilst there has been no corresponding increase perceptible in the number of theological students who sustain themselves. During the same time there has been no corresponding increase in the benevolence of the Church in any other direction; on the contrary, the contributions of the whole Church for all benevolent purposes may now be easily covered by the annual charities of a single congregation in this city." (64.) But the ministers and congregations of the General Synod were slow in coming to their senses. It was one of the symptoms pointing in the right direction when, in 1864 at York, the Committee on the State of the Church reported: "It is a hopeful sign of substantial growth and prosperity in the Church that the time-honored custom of catechization is coming more and more into favor with the pastors. This means of preparing the baptized children of the Church for an intelligent profession of faith in Christ and the privilege of communicant membership, had, in many places, fallen into neglect on account of the frequent abuse to which it had been subject in the hands of those who employed it as a mere formal mode of introducing the young to the communion without any evidence of piety; but we believe it is now becoming more and more a means of conversion and salvation to our rising membership." (1864,55.) At Altoona, 1881, the same committee presented the following report, which Synod adopted: "Ministers, from every quarter, report with delight that catechization is regularly practised and grows in favor. We are foolish to throw away this noble heritage. It affords, as nothing else, an opportunity for the children of the Church to become professing Christians. The pastor can train, educate, and indoctrinate them through it. By its help our churches, every year, can have a healthful growth, and not depend alone upon special seasons, or revivals of religion. We, therefore, may expect in the future still larger accessions—accessions which, trained by a godly and devoted ministry, should be, not nominal, but living Christians, understanding the great truths and doctrines of the Word of God." (60.) In the following decades, as related, revivals decreased rapidly within the General Synod. A thorough and permanent cure of the Methodistic infection, however, can be effected only by the doctrine of grace, the Gospel of unconditional pardon and truly divine power, as taught by the Lutheran Church.