According to Finney, excitement was necessary in church to make people more satisfied with their lives, encourage them to live morally, and motivate them to fight against sin.

Charles Grandison Finney, a leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States, emphasized the importance of excitement in the church. He believed that religious excitement played a vital role in energizing congregants and making their religious experience more vivid and satisfying. According to Finney, excitement in church would:

1. **Make people more satisfied with their lives**: Finney thought that enthusiasm and passion during a church service help believers feel more engaged with their faith. This feeling of engagement can lead to a greater sense of fulfillment and contentment in life.

2. **Encourage them to live morally**: When church services are exciting and engaging, Finney believed that this would help parishioners internalize moral teachings more effectively. They would be more likely to adopt these teachings into their daily lives, thus living a more moral and upright life.

3. **Motivate them to fight against sin**: The excitement in church would not only make the fight against sin a personal matter but also a collective struggle. Energized and impassioned by their faith, congregants would be more inclined to resist temptations and join communal efforts to combat sinfulness in their communities.

Finney saw the church as not just a place of worship but also a platform for social reform. Thus, the excitement was necessary to foster a proactive and morally responsible congregation that would engage with societal issues.

Extra: The Second Great Awakening, which spanned the early 19th century, was a Protestant religious revival movement in the United States. Preachers like Charles Grandison Finney were central figures in this movement, and they traveled extensively, preaching about the importance of individual empowerment in seeking salvation. Unlike the deterministic views of predestination that had been prevalent in some theological traditions, the Second Great Awakening emphasized the role of the individual's free will in achieving salvation.

This period saw the establishment of large camp meetings, the rise of new denominations, and a surge in social activism, including movements such as temperance, the abolition of slavery, and women's rights. Finney’s focus on excitement can be understood within this broader context: it was not only a tool to enhance individual satisfaction with one's faith but also a catalyst for widespread social change. By creating an engaged and active populace through emotive religious experiences, church leaders like Finney could channel the energy of their congregations into the moral crusades of the day.