They had His grace in their hearts--had been "saved" through prayer and faith--and would He not care for, protect and defend them?
Alas, for the sequel! Of all these two hundred converted and "saved" men, who had, in a moment of time, been changed from servants of sensuality and sin into children of God, their souls made "whiter than snow," not over five or six can to-day be found in the ranks of sober men! In and around Pittsburgh, during the religious temperance revival which, under Francis Murphy, wrought such marvels in that city and neighborhood, over fifty thousand signatures were obtained to the pledge, the signers, in a large number of cases, professing faith in Christ, and having an inner assurance, as they believed, that He would keep them, by the power of His grace, from again falling into the sin and misery of intemperance.

But, to-day, only a small proportionate number can be found out of this great multitude who are standing fast by their profession.

A like result has followed the great Gospel work of Mr.Murphy in Philadelphia.

Of the thirty or forty thousand who signed the pledge and professed to be saved through faith in Christ, the number of men who have been rescued from drunkenness can scarcely be counted by hundreds; and of these the large proportion owe their salvation to the natural safeguards and orderly external conditions which were brought to the aid of spiritual resolve and spiritual forces.
When the excitement of these great revivals was over, and the contagious enthusiasm had died away, and men fell back into their old ways, amid old surroundings and temptations, each alone in the house of his own real life, then came THE TRIAL AND THE TEST, and it was found that to depend on grace alone, and the inner change it had effected in answer to prayer, was to rest, too often, in a vain security.

The new convert was the same as to the essential evil quality of his life as before his conversion--or turning round to go the other way--and if he stood still where he had turned, and did not, in a new life of practical obedience to Divine laws, walk forward in the Heavenly road, his conversion would avail him nothing.