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"What was the Protestant Reformation, that beginning in the fourteenth century under Wiclif, and continued under Hus in the fifteenth, at length culminated in the sixteenth under Luther and Calvin, and a host of kindred spirits?" It was a special dispensation of the Spirit, whereby the minds of men everywhere in Christian lands were turned towards the utterances of the Divine Word, the errors of the Papacy were discovered and renounced, the truth as it is in Jesus apprehended and embraced by multitudes, and the churches built up in the faith of the gospel. It was a great and general revival of religion, whereby converts in tens of thousands were born of the Spirit of God. So thorough and wide-spread were those conversions, that the fires of persecution were kindled in vain. In spite of princes and prelates, converts to the pure faith of the gospel were made all over Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, and Great Britain, and not a few in Spain and Italy. It was the greatest revival of religion that the world had witnessed, and the church enjoyed, since the days of Constantine.

Revivals in Great Britain and Ireland. -- From that day, all along the centuries, the annals of the church abound in testimonies to the reality and efficacy of these special effusions of the Spirit. The Church of Scotland was born anew in the great revival under Knox and his brethren. "The whole nation," says Kirkton, "was converted by lump." Near the close of the sixteenth century, under the ministry of such divines as Wishart, Cooper, and Welsh, all Scotland was visited by an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit. So mightily were men affected, that the whole General Assembly, four hundred ministers and elders, while renewing their solemn league and covenant, with sighs and groans and tears, were swayed by the Spirit, as the leaves of the forest by the "rushing mighty wind" of the driving tempest.

Similar scenes were further witnessed in Scotland, beginning in 1625, at Stewarton, extending through the land, and into the north of Ireland, and eventuating in that remarkable display of divine grace in the Kirk of Scotland, where, in June, 1630, under the preaching of Bruce and Livingston, "near five hundred" souls, in one day, were brought under deep conviction of sin, and presently into the light and liberty of the gospel. So, too, in 1638, on the occasion of signing the covenant, the whole country was stirred as by the mighty hand of God. "I have seen," says Livingston, "more than a thousand persons, all at once, lifting up their hands, and the tears falling down their eyes," as with one heart they vowed to be the Lord's. Such was the
preparation in Scotland, and in England also, for the great reformation, that issued in the Commonwealth under Cromwell, and the prevalence of Puritanism in the Church of England.

The Great Awakening in the Eighteenth Century.-- A period of great degeneracy, profligacy, and corruption, succeeded the restoration of the monarchy, extending into the next century. At length, in 1730, an era of spiritual revival was ushered in, under the preaching of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and a host of like-minded men of God, during which the churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland, were visited with a wonderful refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The wave of divine grace extended to the British Colonies in America, where, under the preaching of Edwards, and Bellamy, and the Tennents, and others of kindred spirit, the churches everywhere, in and out of New England, were so graciously and powerfully revived, that the period has ever since been known as "The Great Awakening," so many were the revivals of religion among the Christian people of the Western World.

These visitations of the Spirit were followed by the French War and the war of the American Revolution, resulting in a great decay of piety, and a wide diffusion of scoffing infidelity and profanity. During this period, here and there a church or neighborhood was favored with a gracious outpouring of the Spirit; but, for the most part, the churches in America were brought into a most lamentable state of spiritual declension. At length, in 1792, "commenced," says Dr. Griffin, "that series of revivals in America which has never been interrupted. I could stand at my door in New Hartford, Litchfield County, Conn.," he adds, "and number fifty or sixty congregations laid down in one field of divine wonders, and as many more in different parts of New England."

The Grand Era of Modern Revivals. -- All over the new settlements in the Western and Southern States of America, particularly in Kentucky and Tennessee, a work of divine grace, resulting from a special outpouring of the Spirit, beginning in 1796, and continuing for a dozen years or more, completely remoulded the character of the people, and led large numbers to forsake their sins and unbelief, and to connect themselves with the church. Again: after the war with Great Britain (1812-15), many of the churches were favored with revivals. Especially was this the case in the years 1827-32, when, under the preaching of Nettleton, Finney, and other evangelists, and by means of protracted meetings of four days' continuance, or longer, revivals were multiplied all over the land.

Very marked, also, was the wave of spiritual grace, that, beginning in the city of New York early in 1858, shortly after a season of widespread bankruptcy, spread from city to city, and town to town, all over the United States, until, within a single year, nearly half a million of converts had been received into the churches. It was confined to no denomination, no section, and no one class, in the communities where it prevailed. It was a great and wonderful revival.

During the year 1837 a work of peculiar power began at a mission station at Hilo, in Hawaii, under the preaching of Mr. Coan, and continued for a period of five years, during which 7,557 converts were received into that one church; 1,705 having been admitted the same day, July 1, 1838. Since the days of the apostles, the world had scarcely witnessed so wonderful a display of divine grace. And now, within the past five years (1878--83), a still more powerful movement of the Spirit in the Telugu Mission, India, has resulted in bringing more than twenty thousand hopeful converts into the churches; the accessions during the past year (1882) averaging not less than two hundred per month.

The evangelical churches in America very generally, and to a considerable extent in Great Britain and Ireland, as also in the British Provinces, most heartily believe in revivals of religion, look for them, pray and labor for them, and derive much of their vitality from these effusions of the Spirit. A large proportion of their ministry have been converted in revivals. A class of preachers known as "evangelists," or "revivalists," devote themselves wholly to their promotion. Here and there, serious irregularities have been introduced by enthusiasts, and much harm done to religion. These offenses, however, are exceptional, and of very limited influence. Very generally, revivals of religion are regarded by the best people as mighty helpers to the churches, and as most salutary in their influence over the church and the world.