A FALSE AND TRUE REVIVAL OF RELIGION.
A SERMON DELIVERED AT MUSIC HALL, BOSTON, ON SUNDAY, APRIL 4, 1858.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.—Matt. ix. 36.
Sunday before last I. spoke of the false ecclesiastic idea of God, and of its insufficiency to satisfy the wants of science and of religion. Last Sunday I treated of, the true philosophic idea of God, and its sufficiency to satisfy the wants of science and of religion. To-day I ask your attention to some thoughts on a false and true revival of religion. The subject is a great one—both of present and lasting importance. I cannot dispose of it in a single sermon, so to-day I shall treat mainly of the false, and show what various deeds and doctrines arc set down to the name of religion, and what present methods are used for the revival of something under that name ; while next Sunday I hope to speak of the true, and to show what are the real religious wants of the community to-day, and the proper way of satisfying them.
If you go to the shop of an apothecary and general druggist, you find some thousand jars, vases, bottles, gallipots, drawers, and boxes, all labelled with strange technical names, which you seldom hear except from doctors, druggists, and their patients. - A painful and unwholesome smell pervades the place. You feel stifled, and not quite safe. On the counter, under the show glass, you notice fearful-looking knives, forceps, pincers, and other uneasy tools of polished steel. You ask the pale,
