Subtitle: Helps To A Life Of Holiness And Usefulness or Revival Miscellanies Containing Eleven Revival Sermons And Thoughts On Entire Sanctification, Revival Preaching, Methods To Promote Revivals, Effects of Revival Efforts, Revivals and The Terrors of God, Revival Excitements, Revival Prayer-Meetings, Difficulties of Converts, Temptation, Infidelity, Affliction, Backsliding, Prayer, Ministerial Conflicts, etc.
From the preface: The large and rapid sale of the volume containing an account of Rev. James Caughey's extraordinary revival labors having stamped it with the seal of public approbation, the testimonies of numerous and competent witnesses having satisfied us that it has been made extensively useful, and many persons having expressed a strong desire to see some of those sermons in print which have been so remarkably blessed of God in the pulpit, we have thought fit to prepare and publish the present work, as a companion to the former. We publish it with an honest conviction that it will be a valuable addition to the spiritual literature of the church, and a means of leading many to seek a higher state of grace, and to engage in more intelligent and comprehensive efforts for the salvation of souls.
The sermons which form the first part of this book were mostly taken down by British stenographers, as delivered in public. They give as fair a view of the character of Mr. Caughey's pulpit efforts as can be imparted in print. But no one can form any adequate conception of the effect of these discourses on a congregation, who has not heard them, as, burning with intellectual and spiritual fervor, they fell from the lips of that devoted man of God. They are published, not as models either of form, style, or manner, for any man to imitate; Mr. Caughey cannot be copied; perhaps he ought not to be; he is unique in almost every respect; but we offer them simply as specimens of that pulpit oratory which God has so wondrously blessed. Not that they are without merit as compositions. They do contain many fine, not to say sublime, passages. They are rich in illustration. They breathe with the fire of a soul in earnest. They possess the rare power of kindling the heart to feeling, and of arousing the reader to action. They cannot be read without profit. Similar remarks apply to his "Thoughts" on the manifold topics treated of in the second part of this book. They are not elegant; they are not always profound: they are abrupt; the unity of the chapters is not always preserved, a fault growing out of the fact of their being written originally in the form of familiar letters: but they are vigorous, practical, plain, distinguished for strong common sense, and animated, like his sermons, though not in the same degree, with life and feeling. The soul of earnest thought is in them, and they will benefit every reflective and serious reader.
The Table of Contents are as follows: PART I REVIVAL SERMONS, 1 Sermon 1: THE STANDING DOUBT Sermon 2: THE OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH Sermon 3: PURIFICATION BY FAITH Sermon 4: THE FEAR OF DEATH DESTROYED BY A SIGHT OF CHRIST Sermon 5: THE FULLNESS DWELLING IN JESUS CHRIST Sermon 6: THE FEAR OF UNCONVERTED MEN IN THE HOUR OF DEATH Sermon 7: QUENCHING THE SPIRIT Sermon 8: THE STRIVING OF THE SPIRIT Sermon 9: THE STING OF DEATH Sermon 10: A CALL TO DECISION Sermon 11: AN INVITATION TO STRAITENED SOULS
Part 2 REVIVAL MISCELLANIES Chapter 1: IS ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION A GRADUAL OR AN INSTANTANEOUS WORK? Chapter 2: ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION A DISTINCT BLESSING Chapter 3: REVIVAL PREACHING Chapter 4: METHODS OF PROMOTING A REVIVAL Chapter 5: EFFECT OF REVIVAL EFFORTS ON LUKEWARM CHURCH-MEMBERS. Chapter 6: REVIVALS AND THE TERRORS OF GOD Chapter 7: REVIVAL EXCITEMENTS Chapter 8: OF CONFUSION IN REVIVAL PRAYER-MEETINGS Ch