REVIVAL OF RELIGION, a season of religious awakening out of spiritual torpor or indifference; usually brolight about by the fervid exhortations of men deeply impressed with the feeling that the churches, the pastors and the people have been slumbering while Satan has been gaining possession of the kingdom of Christ on earth. The term, revival of religion, is a modern one, but the thing it signifies is as old as Christianity, as old as Iraelitism or as religion itself. The mission of every one of the Hebrew prophets was for the revival of religion; in the Christian Church, revivals, though not called by that name, oc curred at intervals from apostolic times; and every sincere and enthusiastic reformer — Saint Peter Damlani, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Dominic, in the Middle Ages; the Jesuits, the Redemptorists and other missionary orders; these were in their time revivalists in fact, though not in name, The Reformation is re garded by Protestants as a great awakening of the Christian consciousness and the well spring of all the efforts that have since been made for the renovation of the spiritual life in the Protestant churches. In England, at the beginning of the 17th century the religion of the Established Church had degenerated into a cold but decent formalism, but a revival of spiritual interest in the common people was brought about through the instrumentality of the Puritans. After the restoration of the monarchy and of the State church there was a period of spiritual sloth and apathy, infidelity and immorality till in the 18th century Great Britain was aroused by the fervid preaching of the Wesleys, Whitefield, Rowland Hill, Romaine, Venn, Newton, Cecil, Fletcher and others, earnest men who were raised up and qualified by the divine spirit for the work which lay before them. (See METHODIST CHURCHES OF THE WORLD). In the colony of Massachusetts Jonathan Edwards carried on notable revivals at Northampton in 1734. Shortly afterward Gilbert Tennant aroused great religious interest in New Jersey. The impulse spread through the colonies, and has been called the Great Awakening; it seems to have arisen independently of the movement in the parent country; but it was greatly quick ened by the missionary labors of John Wesley and George Whitefield during their visits to the colonies. Its influence was very powerful during the years 1740, 1741 and 1742, and its quickening results were felt long afterward, and inspired the multiplication of churches, seminaries and colleges. About the same time there was a remarkable revival of religion in various parts of Scotland, especially at Cam buslang and Kilsyth; • and out of a similar awakening in Wales arose the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. In 1839 Kilsyth was again the focus of a great revival of religion, which extended to Dundee, Perth, Blairgowrie, An crum, Jedburgh, Kelso, and in the north of Scotland to Ross-shire and Sutherlandshire. In the first half of the 19th century there were many revivals in the United States, notable among which were those under Charles G. Finney (q.v.), who also visited Great Britain and preached to vast crowds in London and other cities; a notable feature of the great re vival commenced in 1830 was the camp meet ings (q.v.), assemblies of great numbers of people, held in the open air and addressed by relays of evangelists from morning till night. In 1858 there was a great revival of religion in the United States, which subsequently extended to the British isles and even to the continent of Europe. Its principal centres at first were New York and Philadelphia, whence it spread throughout the States, producing for a time a sort of federation of the evangelical churches for the promotion of the work of spiritual con version. In nearly every city in the land meet ings for prayer were held daily, often in busi ness hours, in churches, in counting houses, in theatres and other places of public resort; in the one State of New York more than 2,000 cities, towns or villages had an active part in this revival ; throughout the country the inter est in the movement was universal; daily re ports of the deep religious feeling of the people were received at the principal centres and pub lished in the newspapers. In New York every evangelical church received large accessions to its membership, and a like report was made con cerning Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Chi cago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and other cities.
For nearly two years the meetings for prayer and the labors of the evangelists continued almost unflagging, and for many years noon hour prayer-meetings continued to be held in the business centres of many of the cities. In the summer of 1859 the movement extended to the north of Ireland, where it was not less fruitful of spiritual good than in America; the people flocked to the services in the open-air meetings or assembled in social gatherings for devotional exercises; there was a noticeable diminution of vice and immorality, especially of drunkenness; and judges and magistrates cor dially recognized the reality and power of the spiritual work. From Ireland the revival spread to Scotland, and in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee, and the other con siderable towns, the religious denominations joined in active exertions to bring the neglected poor within the range of evangelistic and edu cational agencies. It extended to Wales also, where in one year the increase in the member ship of the Calvinistic Methodist body alone was 33,724 souls; the gain to the independent denomination was 30,000, to the Established Church 20,000 and to the Wesleyan body 10,000. In more recent times the great revival in Wales of 1904-06 was conspicuous for its great wave of moral regeneration in certain districts. In the West and Southern United States and rural districts of the East the revival often took the form of the camp meeting (q.v.), and these open air gatherings continue to be made an instrument of evangelism and conversion by the Methodist Church. Out of the camp meet ing sprang the Chautauqua Assembly (q.v.), an institution both religious and educational Especially notable was the revival initiated in Chicago by Dwight Lyman Moody (q.v.) and conducted by him in conjunction with Ira D. Sankey. These two evangelists —a preacher and a singer of the gospel — visited Great Brit ain in 1873, and for two years in the principal cities of England, Scotland and Ireland their meetings were attended by multitudes from all ranks of society, and their labors zealously sec onded by ministers of all the evangelical churches; thousands' of persons professed con version, and there was a manifest religious awakening. The two evangelists on their return home engaged in revival work of the same kind in the American cities; and they subsequently made two visits to Great Britain, namely, 1883-84 and 1891-92. The Salvation Army (q.v.) and the Volunteers of America (q.v.) are agencies designed to promote a continuous revival of religion, especially among the poor and neglected classes.
Among modern American revivalists and professional evangelists are ((Gypsy* Smith, J. Wilbur Chapman, *Sam" Jones, R. A. Torrey, and most prominent of all ((Billy') Sunday, an ex-baseball player who, though lacking in the elegancies of speech, possesses an energy of statement, a seemingly boundless enthusiasm and an ability for drawing and holding an audience that is phenomenal, He is the most conspicuously successful revivalist since Moody.
Bibliography.— Bacon, L 'History of Christianity' (New York 1847) ; Beardsley. G. F., 'History of American (New York 1904); Burns, J., 'Revivals: Their Laws and Leaders) (New York 1910) ; Davenport, F. M., 'Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals) (New York 1905) ; Duncan, 'History of Re vivals of Religion in the British Isles) (New York 1840) Edwards, J., 'Narrative of the Work of God in Northampton' (1756) ; Ellis, W., 'Billy Sunday, the Man and His Message) (1914); Finney, C. G., 'Lectures on Revivals of (Boston 1835; new ed., London 1910); James, W., 'Varieties of Religious Ex perience' (New York Porter, (Letters on Religious Revivals) (1850) ; Starbuck, 'Psychology of Religion) (1900) ; Stead, W. T., 'The Revival in the West) (London 1905) ; Torrey, R. A., 'How to Conduct and Promote a Successful Revival' (New York 1906); Tracy, J., 'The Great Awakening: A History of the Revivals of Religion in the British Isles) (London 1840) ; Tyler, B., 'New England Revivals) (Boston 1846).