A Fast Gallop to Hell

Picture in your mind, friend, a time in America when the only mode of transportation available to you was your horse. If you were hungry and needed to grab a bite to eat on the way, you couldn't because there are no fast-food restaurants back then. If you stopped and told someone you needed to go to McDonald's, they would point you to their farm.

And if you had business out of town and your loved ones needed to contact you immediately, they couldn't. They couldn't telephone you or text you because that technology was not invented yet. In the summertime, you just sat in your houses and sweat because there was no AC.

You could not walk over to the wall and flip the light switch or the fan on because it was a time before electricity. Railroads were not even invented yet at this time in America. Travel was long and hard by stagecoach.

If you wanted entertainment, you couldn't turn on the TV because there was no such thing. If you really wanted entertainment, you'd have to wait for the circus to come to town. You couldn't go play golf on the weekend because there were no golf courses to be found.

Modern conveniences that you take for granted today and ones you probably couldn't live without were not even invented back then. You're probably thinking, why preacher? What horrible time was this you're speaking of? I'm speaking of America in 1826, a nation that lacked all these modern conveniences, of which I'd gladly give every one of them up, friends, to be alive in America back then, which was in the grip of a holy ghost revival. The Second Great Awakening was in full gallop and God was afoot in the land.

I'd trade that day for this day any day, friends. The inhabitants of villages were confronted with eternity, and even the very atmosphere of entire towns was pervaded by such a God-consciousness that even the most hardened sinners felt the heavenly influence. I have a text you probably won't hear preached in your church this Sunday, and that is Psalm 5515, which states, Let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is A Fast Gallop to Hell. I want to take the time to pull back the curtain on a time in America when God was at work saving souls through a mighty spiritual awakening. Most pastors, I'm sad to say, are completely ignorant about the subject of revival, and if that's the case, which it is, then the people of the church know nothing as well when it comes to the hallmarks of a powerful revival and the hindrances to revival.

I want to read you an eyewitness account from the Second Great Awakening in the year of 1826 in Rome, New York, as related by Charles Finney. The state of things in the village and in the neighborhood roundabout was such that no one could come into the village without feeling awe-stricken, and the solemn impression that God was there in a peculiar and wonderful manner. As an illustration of this, I will relate an incident.

The sheriff of the county resided in Utica, but had much business in Rome. He afterwards told me that he had heard of the state of things in Rome, and he, together with others, had a good deal of laughing in the hotel where he boarded about what they had heard about the revival. One day it was necessary for him to come to Rome for business, and he wanted to see for himself what it was the people had talked so much about.

He drove on in his one-horse sleigh, and when he approached the canal, about a mile from town, he said, as soon as he crossed the old canal, an awful impression came over him, an awe so deep that he could not shake it off. He felt as if God pervaded the whole atmosphere. He said that this increased the whole way till he came to the village.

He stopped at Mr. Flint's hotel, and the hostler came out and took his horse. He observed, he said, that the hostler looked just as he himself felt, as if he was afraid to speak. He went inside to conduct his business with the gentleman who was expecting him.

He said that, several times, in the course of the short time he was there, he had to arise from the table abruptly and go to the window and look out and try to divert his attention to keep from weeping. A few weeks later he was hopefully converted. I will stop there, friends, in Vinnie's narrative of the powerful revival that gripped that town in 1826, where it was said afterwards by the local pastor of the place that the moral state of the people was so greatly changed that did not seem like the same place.

Indeed, the revival had made a clean sweep of whatever sin was left was obliged to hide its head. Now, you're probably wondering by now, friends, why I chose my text about death and hell, and why I named this sermon A Fast Gallop to Hell. Here is where things get even more interesting.

Charles Fanny told about an officer who was in charge of the arsenal in town, a Lieutenant James Simonson, who was said to have been so apprehensive that he would be seriously affected by the revival that he would not go through the streets on foot, but always went on horseback and at full speed. That's where I get the title of my sermon this evening, friends, A Fast Gallop to Hell, and I chose my text out of Psalm 55 with the purpose to convict and convert rebels who were on the run from a holy God while pretending to be churchmen. Let death seize down upon them and let them go down quick to hell for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.

This speaks, of course, to the hypocrite who has never come face to face with his own wicked heart. He covers himself with a robe of self-righteousness and brags on what he has and what he's done for God. I know because for years, friends, this was myself.

I was active in my church and I maintained a good opinion of myself, but I was absolutely blind to how God saw me. Although I was a completely occupied with advancing God's kingdom, I had never gotten into it myself. I had never been confronted with what these folks in this revival of the Second Great Awakening had been confronted with.

The awful majesty of a holy God and the horrible wickedness of my own heart. It may surprise you, friends, that most all these subjects of the revival were already church members in good standing before the revival came to town. Before the revival, they considered themselves just fine and on their way to heaven, but once the very atmosphere of that town was altered and God came down in his manifest presence, they could no longer judge their own righteousness by comparing themselves with their neighbors.

When a holy God pervaded the town, the church people were then confronted with a new standard, the one they could not measure up to, and that was perfection. They saw that they were sinners on a fast gallop to hell. Wickedness was in their dwellings, in their hearts.

They feared death as they were convicted of their sins and acknowledged they were rebels against a sovereign who was justified in having them cut down and sent to hell. These good church members during the revival would fall from their seats as if they had been shot and lay in the pew stall while they writhed and groaned in a terrible manner while under conviction of sin. Some of the finest elders in the churches of that day soon realized in the revival that they were nothing but fakes and frauds who served their church faithfully, but had never taken their place as a lost sinner at the foot of a crucified Savior.

If you don't believe me friends, here is a personal account of an elder in the Presbyterian Church by the name of Mr. Ballard, and here are his remarks and the story about him. Mr. Finney said he, I owe you a confession. I was angry when you said that to me, and I must confess that I hoped I should never see you again.

What you said forced the conviction upon me that I had never been converted, that I had never had had any higher motive than a mere selfish desire for my own happiness. I saw that I had always been a deceived hypocrite, and you can add to this deceived elder's words, friends, that he was on a fast gallop to hell. I fear the most miserable and terrible shrieks from hell come from deceived church members who lived their lives on a fast gallop to hell.

The psalmist laments, let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into hell for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. They are deceived individuals, blinded by Satan, and they come closer to hell with each passing hour in the busyness of their life, but a day finally arrives when they are seized by the divine warrant, when they close their eyes in death and open them in a raging sea of swirling smoke and flames, fed into hell. They were cast there, and they were cast into hell, and they cry out there forevermore.

Oh friend, let us have a revival of our own with the Holy God, and let us not be cast down into that terrible place. Let us pray.