2 Chronicles 15:8-9, 2 Chronicles 15:12-15

I. We see here that the heart of a revival lies in a renewal of the covenant of the Church with God. A dead Church holds back from God the dead world. An awakened Church is the pioneer of an awakened world.

II. A second feature in this ancient revival of religion was a public proclamation of a revived faith before the world. Religious men are too much in earnest to be still about it. They are moved by a great power. It will express itself as becomes a great power. It is the instinct of religious faith to bear its witness to the world.

III. The old Jewish revival was attended with a great influx of converts from without. So commonly works a pure revival upon the world. Very rare is the exception in which the heart of the world does not respond to the heart of the Church.

IV. A fourth feature of a true revival of religion is a thorough reformation of public and private morals. To put away idolatrous worship was what we should call a reformation in morals. Idolatry was immorality concentrated in its most hideous forms. No religious zeal could have been genuine in a monarch which did not sweep the land clean of them.

V. Such awakenings are often followed by periods of temporal prosperity. "The Lord gave them rest round about." No other civilising power equals that of true religion. It never hurts a man for any of the right uses of this world to make a Christian of him.

A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book, p. 43.