THE COMING REVIVAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1138, 27 May 1911, Page 9

THE COMING REVIVAL.

INFLUENCED BY HIGHER CBITICISM. At Clapham Congregational Church on Sunday, April S, in a sermon remarkable for its breadth of view. Rev. AV. Morton Barwell drew attention to the sequence of action and re-action which characterised tho history of tho Christian Church. A period of.quiet and ebb, when men were tempted to say that the spirit of revelation was no more, was always followed by a period of manifestation, generally focussed in some shining saint or epochal movement. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, the Reformation, John Wesley, the Moody and Sankey missions of tho last century, all marked a period of rcanimation and revival, and yet the character of each of the.new movements of spiritual restoration was determined by tho quiet and unnoticed influences that had been at work during tho period of apparent dearth. Mr. Barwell believed that at the, moment wo were standing on'\the threshold of another such quickening and declaratory period. As to tho character' of the coming revival, he said nothing except that it would bo influenced by the enlarging and educative forces which had boon at work in the minds of men during tho last few .years —such forces as the Higher Criticism and historical criticism, and tho opening up of our knowledge of tho East and of other world religions. THE CORONATION. INTERESTING PROPOSAL FROM' • THE FREE CHURCHES. Tho National" Free Church Council' , has drawn up a special form of commemoration service for tho use of Nonconformists on Coronation Day.

Tho service starts with Watts' li.vmn "O God, Our Help in Ages Past," and after a prayer will come another hymn; "Lift Thy Song Above tho Nations. The passage describing tho anointing of Solomon as King (Kings 1, 32-40) will bo road, and after the singing'of the Te Dcnm suitable passages from the New Testament will follow. Tile Bcrvico also includes the hymns, "Lord, AVhilo for all Mankind We Pray," and "Praise to Our Lord, Whose Bounteous Hand," and after tho sermon the congregation will sing tho National Anthem.

Another service has also been prcpar'd(l for Welsh-speaking Nonconformists, tins including the same passages of Scripture in Welsh, a translation of "0 Got], Our Help in Ages Past," and several hymns by Welsh writers. The Rev. P. B. Meyer, lion, secretary of the National Free Church Council, told an interviewer that where the vicar or rector of a parish invited the Free Churches to join in a service on the Coronation Day the Council was advising its adherents to do so, it being always understood that one of their number should take part in the reading of tlio le.'son, and that special scats <rf honour should bo reserved for the leading representatives of the Free Church organisation.

"Where this is not feasible," ho added, "wo are suggesting that tho Free Churches should hold one united service, and that Ihey should suggest to the Mayor that a stream of neople, from thn Established Churches (led by the clergy) and n stream from the chapel (led by cur ministers) should march through our streets and meet, say, in the market place. "There, in the open air, which admits of no denominational differences, we propose that .1 brief meeting should bo held under the presidency of the Mayor of the borough or the leading citizen. Patriotic soups might bo sung, brief prayers offered, and ono or two patriotic speeches made."