The next great awakening

Front matter

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II

Reason why moral and spiritual growth usually shows a series of changes more or less cataclysmal.

XXV

Advent of the new century a fitting time for a new spiritual awakening. Special meetings in Great Britain and United States. Absence of results. The great historical awakenings did not come uncaused. Must comply with their law. Law revealed by their study.

The sixteenth century. The German Reformation. Peculiar conditions which made Justification by Faith the truth peculiarly needed. Awakening came when this forgotten truth was faithfully preached.

The seventeenth century. The Puritan revival. Peculiar conditions which made The Divine Sovereignty the truth peculiarly needed. Conscience was quickened when this neglected truth was applied.

The eighteenth century. The Wesleyan revival. Conditions which demanded certain spiritual truths. Isaac Taylor and Blackstone quoted. Wesley's spiritual experience. Preaching *'a forgotten gospel."

First half of the nineteenth century. Teaching and work of Charles G. Finney. Conditions which demanded his message. Man's free agency and guilt. Effects of preaching these forgotten truths.

Last half of the nineteenth century. Peculiar conditions which called for the message of Dwight L. Moody. Profound changes had attended the industrial revolution. Change in the nervous organization. The "terrors of the Lord" had ceased to persuade. The Civil War. The neglected truth that God is love.

No one of these prophets simply repeated the message of his predecessor. Each emphasized a neglected truth precisely adapted to the times, which made God real to his generation.

The next great awakening will come when forgotten Scriptural truths, precisely adapted to our own times, are faithfully preached.

New social conditions. Social problems to be solved by the forgotten social teachings of Jesus.

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CONTENTS III

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The Social Ideal of Jesus.

The "rediscovery of Christ." His point of view. His great theme, beginning, middle and end, was The Kingdom of God.

To misunderstand the kingdom of God is to misunderstand the message of Jesus, the nature of Christianity, the mission of the church. The doctrine of the kingdom commonly misunderstood for centuries.

The new Christian renaissance, and what is involved in it.

Many have supposed the kingdom of God was identical with heaven. Results of this view.

Others have identified the kingdom with the visible church. Results of this misconception.

Another common error is to identify the kingdom with the invisible church. Results of this error.

A measure of truth in each conception. The kingdom of God broader than all of them.

The common conception of the kingdom in the time of Jesus. The origin of the idea. Its development by the Hebrew prophets.

Jesus meant by the kingdom of God an Ideal World. The kingdom was his social ideal.