scenes will be renewed, with the most striking results, in the simultaneous conversion of great multitudes, may be gathered not only from the moral necessity of the case, as we look out upon the mass of ungodliness in the world, and from past scenes in the history of the church, but also from the promise of Scripture that "a nation shall be born at once," as it were in a day, in those times when a "little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation." But this is outside work, and meanwhile there will be going on the natural growth of the church from within, as its own children are "trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." At this the church. has ever aimed, and with as much success as its measure of wisdom, of earnestness, and of faith would warrant. To this means of increase have looked the great body of Christians; some through the ideas associated with infant baptism and a subsequent confirmation, and others apart from those usages. And American Christians, who are accustomed to rely so extensively upon revivals, and to count upon them each winter, as at the season most favorable for special services to this end, must not forget that, in other lands, this instrumentality has been less used, and that there the growth has been almost wholly through the regular means of grace, the cultivation. of family religion, and a church education of the children by catechism and liturgy. There must be, as there ought to be, great power of development in the church on this side. It is the natural method of increase; it accords, also, with the inspired explanation, through Malachi, of God's intent in the institution of marriage and of the family,-" that He might seek a godly seed;" and it produces the most perfect type of character, free from the angularities and crudities of adult conversions, and beautifully rounded out into the symmetry of a complete and gradually formed mind and heart. Indeed, there is reason to think, that, in ordinary communities, where the ingatherings from revivals are mostly of youth from twelve to twenty years of age, a large proportion of the so-called "converts" are really persons regenerated in childhood, and awakened by the revival. to a new and more intelligent consciousness of the divine life. in the soul. The influence of the family and of the Sunday school at least prepared the soil and sowed the seed for the seemingly sudden harvest of the revival.

What is needed, then, in this direction, to make revivals productive of permanent good, is, to recognize their true relation to other Christian experiences, and to other modes of Christian progress toward the final triumph of the Redeemer's kingdom. Made exclusive in their demand, they falsely turn every other condition of the church into a declension, draw off attention from equally important duties, and give to piety a vacillating character, changing from the heights of excitement to the inevitable reactionary depths of insensibility or of depression. But no such distorted view of revivals need be cherished. They do not constitute the whole of religious work, but they belong in the Christian system, and have a place of special honor and power under the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Doubtless, also, they have their law, in the mind of God, though no one has yet succeeded in definitely stating it, or in bringing them under fixed conditions of time and circumstance. While, as a general rule, spiritual results will be according to the prayerful use of appropriate means, God wishing to encourage prayer and to reward faithful labor, yet Christians are often disappointed in the results of prayer and effort in specific cases; so that no man can surely predict the range and power of revivals in particular localities. What pastor has not been surprised by a powerful revival in spiritual circumstances seemingly unfavorable; and again disappointed at its non-arrival when its conditions appeared to be more fully met?

They come in very variant circumstances, and therefore the old divines have associated them with the sovereignty of God; but to God, we may well suppose that a sameness of principle appears throughout. They are to be regarded as glorious additions or supplements to the ordinary working of spiritual forces; in which God seizes upon a conjuncture of facts and favoring occasions to work saving results on a large scale and with great rapidity, exalting the faith of his people and striking terror into the heart of his foes. In the United States, revivals have thus been conspicuously used, at eventful periods, to save the land from prevalent infidelity and worldliness. In the days of Jonathan Edwards, after there had been a wide-spread deadness in religion, accompanied by an invasion of error, the "Great Awakening" was spiritually the salvation of the country.

Again, after the Revolutionary War had left religion in a low condition, and French infidelity had infected large numbers, God used the powerful revivals at the beginning of this century, to give new life to religion in the nation. Similarly, the

second war with Great Britain, the mercantile prosperity and subsequent reverses, twenty years later, and also the financial crash of 1857, were followed by extensive and powerful revivals. And now, in accordance with the inspired declaration, that "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will left up a standard against him," the praying and believing ones are expecting that the present spread of skepticism will furnish the occasion for mighty outpourings of the Holy Spirit, which shall demonstrate the divine character of the Gospel, and shall convert the very leaders of unbelief into apostles of the faith.

They may therefore properly be objects of desire, of prayer, and of effort, on the part of ministers and of churches, while not allowed to interfere with the steady prosecution of ordinary Christian work, and the expectation of a continual success in the conversion of sinners and in the upbuilding of personal character. Indeed, as the special activities of a merchant in his spring and fall trade subside into the regular routine of industry during the remainder of the year, so when the excitement and labor of a revival pass, it should be to allow steady play to the regular duties of family, social, and church life; it being understood, that piety equally inspires both modes of action, and that the converts of a revival need subsequently to be trained to obey the unexciting demands of the details of a daily life that shall be inspired by faith in Christ, and love to God and their neighbor. In this light, that pastor is most wisely a friend of revivals, who follows them most faithfully with the use of the ordinary means of grace, and with a recommendation of piety in its everyday aspects. That church also gives the best evidence of having received permanent good from a revival, which accompanies its zeal for conversions with an equal care for the growth and education of "the babes in Christ," and for the exhibition by the older members of a proportionate character, and a readiness for all forms of usefulness, whether these be technically religious or secular. The converts will thus be

made to understand, that the revival is religion in only one of its phases, and in one of its forms of power; and that a church does not necessarily decline in piety when those special scenes pass, but often goes on to greater trials and triumphs of Christian principle, which require daily communion with God and an abiding faith in the perpetual aid of the indwelling Spirit, in order to "overcome the world."

L

ARTICLE IV.—A STUDY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
REFORM.

INTERNATIONAL LAW itself, and proposed improvements in it, are of the highest interest to the friends of progress. Every real advance is a water-mark showing how the tide of Christian civilization is rising. No questions of a great and grave public character are more momentous. "It is the immortal glory of Grotius, through a new dispensation of international right," says "Historicus" (Preface to Letters reprinted from the London Times) "to have evangelized the society of nations brutalized by a licentious carnival of force. It has been the shame of others to have degraded the palladium of law into the minister of the temporary passion of governments and the servile instrument of the interests of States." "The practices of war

between civilized nations have been sensibly mitigated," says Wheaton, "and a comparison of the present modes of warfare with the system of Grotius, will show the immense improvement that has taken place." "The law of nations has improved with the general improvement of civilization, of which it is one of the most valuable products." The question whether this shall continue, resolves itself, says Dr. Woolsey, "into the broader one, whether true civilization, built on sound morality and religion, is destined to advance or decline." "It is probable that the advance will be more rapid than heretofore, although by no means easy or unopposed."

The North American Review for April, 1872, contained a v gorous attack by Hon. John Norton Pomeroy upon the proposition to make the private property of belligerents, except contraband, &c., free from destruction or capture on sea or land. The "Draft Outlines of an International Code," by David Dudley Field, Esq. New York, Nov., 1872, printed for criticism and revision), prepared by that gentleman as a member of the Committee of the "Social Science Congress," Manchester, 1866, contains the following Article and note, pp. 539, 541.

"846. Private property, whether tangible or intangible, on