Excerpt from A Letter to an Orthodox Minister, on Revivals of ReligionI. You assert that none but orthodox sects are favor-v ed with religious excitements. I think a plain state ment of facts will prove your assertion untrue and al so convince you, that these revivals do not depend upon the peculiar religious Opinions of any christian denom imation. Let us then attend to the facts in question.In the first place, what is the origin of modern revivals? They originated with John Wesley and George Whitefield, the founders of the Methodist de nomination. These distinguished men began their min istry in England at a period of great moral apathy, and religious indifference, and even gross immorality. They adopted an, earnest, direct, familiar, pungent and im-f passioned style of preaching. They usually addressed the less informed and more depraved classes of society. Their intelligible, powerful and heart-rending appeals produced a most astonishing and wonderful excitement of the passions and feelings. They were at first greatly pleased with the striking results of their labors, and readily ascribed them to the special operations ofthe holy spirit. But more experience convinced them of the deceptive character of such promising appearances, and led them to doubt the expediency of such commotions. Forthey early discovered that it was much easier for their converts to relate marvellous experiences, than to ex bibit christian dispositions and characters.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.