CONCENTRATIONover the audience, and, "Why not now-why not tonight?" ...
is asked ....
The persons who show signs of being influenced are then
"labored with" by either the revivalist or his co-workers. They
are urged to surrender their will, and "Leave it all to the Lord:'
They are told to "Give yourself to God, now, right now, this
minute"; or to "only believe now, and you shall be saved";
or, "Won't you give yourself to Jesus?" etc. They are exhorted
and prayed with; arms are placed around their shoulders, and
every art of emotional persuasive suggestion is used to make
the sinner "give up:'
[Edwin Diller] Starbuck in his The Psychology oj Religion
relates a number of instances of the experiences of converted
persons at revivals. One person wrote as follows:
"My will seemed wholly at the mercy of others, particularly
of the revivalist M--. There was absolutely no intellectual
element. It was pure feeling. There followed a period of ecstasy.
I was bent on doing good and was eloquent in appealing to
others. The state of moral exaltation did not continue. It was
followed by a complete relapse from orthodox religion:'
... While there have undoubtedly been many instances
of persons attracted originally by the emotional excitement
of the revival, and afterwards leading worthy religious lives in
accordance with the higher spiritual nature, still in too many
cases the revival has exerted but a temporary effect for good
upon the persons yielding to the excitement, and after the
stress has passed has resulted in creating an indifference and
even an aversion for true religious feeling .... In others there
is merely awakened a susceptibility to emotional excitement,
which causes the individual to undergo repeated stages of
"conversion" at each revival, and a subsequent "backsliding"
after the influence of the meeting [has passed].
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