Table of Contents
Winslow Personal Declension & Revival of Religion in the Soul investigates different elements that lead to Spiritual declension like Love, Faith, prayer, Doctrinal Error, fruitlessness, etc.
Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul
by Octavius Winslow (1841)
Winslow Personal Declension & Revival of Religion in the Soul investigates different elements that lead to Spiritual declension like Love, Faith, prayer, Doctrinal Error, fruitlessness, etc.
More Information on Octavius Winslow
See More: Octavius Winslow Books
Octavius Winslow
Octavius Winslow (1 August 1808 – 5 March 1878), also known as "The Pilgrim's Companion", was a prominent 19th-century evangelical preacher in England and America. A Baptist minister for most of his life and contemporary of Charles Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle, he seceded to the Anglican church in his last decade.
Historical family information
Winslow was a direct descendant of John Winslow and Mary Chilton who braved the Atlantic to travel to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Legend has it[citation needed] that Mary was the first female of the little band to set foot in the New World. In 1624 she married John, brother to Edward Winslow (1595–1655), a celebrated Pilgrim leader. [expand title="see more on Octavius Winslow"]
Education and American Ministry
It is suggested that Winslow began his ministerial training in Stepney, London, but then moved to Columbia College, New York. Twice he was granted the privilege of receiving honorary degrees. The first was a Masters of Arts (M.A.) by the University of the City of New York (NYU) in 1836. Secondly, in 1851, Columbia College in New York City conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity (D.D.). The second degree was given mostly because of the body and scope of his written works. Winslow's official ordination would later be on 21 July 1833 at the Oliver Street Baptist Church.
After completing a short service as a moderator at a Stanton Street church, he was dismissed on 18 May 1831 and he went on to found or "plant" the 20 members Bowery Baptist Church which was organized in March 1833 and met in the Military Hall on the Bowery. After meeting in this Hall for a year, they relocated to Broadway Hall and renamed the church Central Baptist Church. These years would bring the church a "moderate degree of prosperity" and would bring Winslow trials of depression. When Winslow would later leave this flock, there would be no written records as to why he left.
He is said to have ministered in the newly started Second Baptist Church there in Brooklyn on the corner of Tillary and Lawrence Streets in 1836 and 1837, the work sadly closing in 1838 and the church was sold to the Free Presbyterian congregation. In 1839 he moved back to England where he became one of the most valued ministers of his time. This was largely due to the earnestness of his preaching and the excellence of his prolific writings.
Ministry in England
theWord modules by Octavius Winslow
Table of Contents of Winslow Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul
Preface (below)
Chapter 1: Incipient Declension
Chapter 2: Declension in Love
Chapter 3: Declension in Faith
Chapter 4: Declension in Prayer
Chapter 5: Declension in Connection with Doctrinal Error
Chapter 6: On Grieving the Spirit
Chapter 7: The Fruitless and the Fruitful Professor
Chapter 8: The Lord, the Restorer of His People
Chapter 9: The Lord, the Keeper of His People
Preface
That the subject on which this humble volume treats is vastly solemn, and deeply searching, every true believer in Jesus must acknowledge. The existing necessity for such a work has long impressed itself upon the Author’s mind. While other and abler writers are employing their pens, either in defending the outposts of Christianity, or in arousing a slumbering church to an increased intensity of personal and combined action in the great work of Christian benevolence, he has felt that it might but be instrumental, in ever so humble a way, of occasionally withdrawing the eye of the believer from the dazzling and almost bewildering movements around him, and fixing it upon the state of HIS OWN PERSONAL RELIGION, he would be rendering the Christian church a service, not the less needed and important in her present elevated and excited position.
It must be admitted, that the character and the tendencies of the age are not favorable to deep and mature reflection upon the hidden, spiritual life of the soul. Whirled along as the church of God is, in her brilliant path of benevolent enterprise, – deeply engaged in concerting and in carrying out new and far-reaching plans of aggression upon the dominion of sin, – and compelled in one hand to hold the spiritual sword in defense of the faith which, with the other, she is up-building, – but few energies are left, and but little time is afforded, for close, faithful, and frequent dealing with the personal and spiritual state of grace in the soul; which, in consequence of thus being overlooked and uncultivated, may fall into a state of the deepest and most painful declension. “They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard have I not kept.” (Son 1:6)
It is, then, the humble design of the writer in the present work, for a while to withdraw the mind from the consideration of the mere externals of Christianity, and to aid the believer in answering the solemn and searching inquiry, – “What is the present spiritual state of my soul before God?” In the following pages he is exhorted to forget the Christian profession he sustains, the party badge he wears, and the distinctive name by which he is known among men, – to turn aside for a brief hour from all religious duties, engagements, and excitement, and to look this question fully and fairly in the face.
With human wisdom and eloquence the Author has not seen fit to load and adorn his work: the subject presented itself to his mind in too solemn and dreadful an aspect for this. The ground he traversed he felt to be so holy, that he had need to put off the shoes from his feet, and to lay aside everything that was not in strict harmony with the spiritual character of his theme. That the traces of human imperfection may be found on every page, no one can be more conscious than the Author, – no one more deeply humbled. Indeed, so affecting to his own mind has been the conviction of the feeble manner in which the subject is treated, that but for a deep sense of its vast importance, and the demand that exists for its discussion in almost any shape, he would more than once have withdrawn his book from the press. May the Spirit of God accompany its perusal with power and unction, and to Him, as unto the Father and the Son, shall be ascribed the glory!
This E-sword module was formatted by wlue777 and original document found at www.gracegems.org
More Works on Revival
- Bonar, Horatius – True Revival
- Carradine, Beverly – Revival Sermons
- Fereday, W.W. – Josiah and Revival
- Finney, Charles Grandison – Breaking up Fallow Ground
- Greenfield – Power from on High (Revival)
- Mackintosh, C.H. – Prayer and the Prayer Meeting
- Orr A Neighborhood Awakening
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