men!

In and around Pittsburgh, during the religious temperance revival which,
under Francis Murphy, wrought such marvels in that city and
neighborhood, over fifty thousand signatures were obtained to the
pledge, the signers, in a large number of cases, professing faith in
Christ, and having an inner assurance, as they believed, that He would
keep them, by the power of His grace, from again falling into the sin
and misery of intemperance. But, to-day, only a small proportionate
number can be found out of this great multitude who are standing fast by
their profession. A like result has followed the great Gospel work of
Mr. Murphy in Philadelphia. Of the thirty or forty thousand who signed
the pledge and professed to be saved through faith in Christ, the number
of men who have been rescued from drunkenness can scarcely be counted by
hundreds; and of these the large proportion owe their salvation to the
natural safeguards and orderly external conditions which were brought
to the aid of spiritual resolve and spiritual forces.

When the excitement of these great revivals was over, and the contagious
enthusiasm had died away, and men fell back into their old ways, amid
old surroundings and temptations, each alone in the house of his own
real life, then came


THE TRIAL AND THE TEST,

and it was found that to depend on grace alone, and the inner change it
had effected in answer to prayer, was to rest, too often, in a vain
security. The new convert was the same as to the essential evil quality
of his life as before his conversion--or turning round to go the other