And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
~ Jonah 3:4-9
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?
~ Joel 2:13-14
Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
~ Amos 5:15
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
~ Luke 15:18-20
The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
~ Matthew 4:16-17
Records of Revival in Progress in the United Kingdom Supplied Chiefly by Ministers in Whose Unusual Work of Spiritual Awakening Has Occurred, by Various Ministers. 1857-1859.
FISHERWICK PLACE CHURCH, BELFAST.
BY JAMES MORGAN, D.D.
For some time previous to the occurrence of the general awakening of the past year, there had been a preparation for such an effusion of the Divine Spirit as has been granted to us.
The tidings from the United States had awakened much attention, and impressed many hearts, and excited ardent hopes and earnest prayers for ourselves. This influence was increased by the proceedings in our Church courts, especially at the annual meeting of the Assembly in 1858, of which full reports were given in the public newspapers. I believe that the key-note of our revivals was struck at the special devotional meeting of the General Assembly of that period; for our ministers returned from it to their congregations deeply solemnised, and commenced holding similar meetings in their respective localities.
The effect was apparent in an increased attendance on the congregational prayer-meetings. It had been found difficult for some time before to sustain them, and the interest was feeble. Few attended them; but at the end of 1858 there was a marked change. It was found necessary to remove from a small to a capacious place of meeting. Throughout the concluding months of that year, and the whole of the past year, the prayer-meetings have generally been large, and lively, and profitable. There might be an average attendance of from four to five hundred persons, and at times there was difficulty in accommodating all who came.
It was, however, in the beginning of June last that the first decided case of revival occurred, and it appeared in the following circumstances. Two young men, from a neighbourhood in which the work had previously appeared, addressed our Sabbath schools. Their words were simple and earnest in tone, but not what we are accustomed to consider able or powerful.
A woman had come with her children to hear these addresses. She was much impressed. The following morning she called upon me in great distress of mind. She asked me with intense emotion to pray for her. I was proceeding to do so when she herself burst forth in a prayer such as I have seldom or ever heard equalled in earnestness and importunity.
When she concluded, I asked her to explain how she had come to be so exercised. She said they had been exhorted on the previous day at the Sabbath school to go and examine themselves whether they were the children of God or not, and that at the time she formed the resolution to do so. That night, she said, she earnestly besought the Lord to discover to her what her true condition was, and He had revealed to her that she was not converted to Him. This filled her with distress, and she had been in agony all the night. She came to me for my advice and prayers as soon as she thought it was proper to call upon me.
I reminded her that her husband, who had been long sick, and whom I visited until he died, had once been in the same state as she then was, and had subsequently found peace. She remembered it all, she said, but could never understand it.
I gave her the best counsel I could. I dwelt especially on the truth, that “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” She became much quieter and more composed, and then we prayed together.
On leaving the room where we had met, she went into the kitchen to see our maid-servants, with whom she was acquainted. After speaking for half-an-hour or more with them, she returned to me, filled with joy and peace in believing
She said, “Three things are distinctly impressed on my memory.
Now I know,” she exclaimed, “ what the new birth is—now I know what the agony of the new birth is -now I know how it is that any one who is born again may know it.” She expressed her conviction that she had never before known anything of true religion.
She was a poor woman, but most correct and industrious, and an attendant on public ordinances, though not a communicant. During the long sickness of her husband, her conduct was truly praiseworthy. I had been speaking with her about uniting with us in the Lord’s Supper, and I would have received her, yet she maintained that till that hour she had no just views or experience of true religion.
I was thankful my first case was so distinct and undoubted. It encouraged me to expect more, and it produced a most favourable impression on my mind respecting the work of grace in the midst of us.
I need only add, that this woman became a communicant shortly after, and has continued to adorn the doctrine of God her Saviour by a life becoming the gospel.
On the following Sabbath, my attention was again drawn forcibly to the subject. After the public services of the day, I learned that some members of the congregation were much impressed in a family not very distant from my own house, and I went to inquire after them. I found a young man and his sister, both affected very much as the woman whom I have described. They had passed through the most agonising convictions of sin, and had found peace in believing. As I left them, after having conversed and prayed with them, I was requested to visit another similarly affected in the next house. Thence I was taken to a third, and subsequently to house after house, until my time and strength were completely exhausted. I believe there were there in that immediate neighbourhood not fewer than a hundred souls in the agony of the new birth.
I knew many of them, and recognised them to be scholars of our Sabbath schools, either now or of former years. A large proportion of all who were affected were of that class. I have often gone among them since, and made all the inquiries I could respecting them, and I am thankful to say, I believe there is the most satisfactory evidence of the genuineness of the work of grace, in the good conduct of its subjects.
At this period I felt it to be necessary to organise some system for attending to such as were or might be impressed. My elders entered cordially into the matter, and laid themselves out to render all the assistance in their power. Some of them spent a large portion of their time in visiting the houses of the affected. I requested our Sabbath-school teachers to meet and adopt measures for looking after their scholars, and the districts in which they resided. They did so, and continued to pursue these labours with unabated zeal. Classes were formed for giving instruction on the week evenings, which are still continued. The work progressed. It appeared in all our associations, whether in the Sabbath assemblies of the church or the schools, and the history of it may be continued in connexion with these.
Our Sabbath assemblies were very pleasant and profitable. There was no undue excitement in them. Only two young women were ever stricken there, so as to cry aloud in the congregation, and to be carried out in prostration of body as well as in agony of mind. But a healthful spirit of inquiry arose in many, and the word was made effectual to them for salvation.
In the Sabbath schools, the work was more marked and general than in the congregation. The teachers were most assiduous and faithful. Many of the young were impressed. At the present time, the signs of spiritual good are as hopeful as at any previous period, perhaps even more so.
I meet a large class of young persons every Sabbath evening. At present it contains about seventy. Formerly I found occasional inattention, or lightness of conduct, but latterly there has been a uniform spirit of the deepest seriousness and attention.
Three evenings in the week we have long had a school for mill-girls, who could not attend at any other time. Formerly many of them were rude and unmanageable, but now they are devout, respectful, diligent, and in all respects present the most agreeable and encouraging appearance. There has been a gracious work in the souls of many of them.
The day schools have exhibited similar results. The scholars hold a weekly prayer-meeting, and some of themselves take part in the exercises. Lately, an application was made to us by some little boys for the use of a schoolroom in which they might hold a prayer-meeting during the interval of public worship on the Sabbath-day. Of course it was granted; and I can hear their voices in devotional exercises while I am awaiting the hour of our afternoon service. A fortnight ago, it was announced that I was to preach my annual sermon to children, in the afternoon. During the interval the children held a special prayermeeting, to seek the Divine blessing on my sermon.
I must add that I have abundant evidence of a similar work prevailing in other places; for some of my congregation, who left us in the beginning of the summer careless and worldly, have returned in the autumn earnest and lively Christians, having been brought under the influence of the Divine Spirit in the places where they resided.
I will not presume to say how many may have been savingly influenced in all these ways and exercises, but I believe they amount to several hundreds. And there are two things which I am constrained to testify of them,that I never saw a case which suggested to me the idea of insincerity—and that I never saw an example of backsliding into open sin. I do know a few instances, but only a few, in which the glow of first love has abated, and in which, I fear, there never was a maturity of the Spirit’s work; but I have not been disappointed in any case where I had reason to believe there was a sound conversion to God.
In what I have written, I have confined my remarks to my own congregation; but I cannot conclude without expressing my belief and gratitude that the extent of the work has been almost as wide as the province.
In the town of Belfast there has been a very marked outpouring of the Spirit. There is an extraordinary change on many of its congregations. Some churches that were wellnigh empty are now filled. Sabbath schools are greatly increased. So are the communicants at the Lord’s table. We have the prospect of five new congregations in the town in connexion with the General Assembly, chiefly the result of the present revival. Immorality has greatly declined. Peace and goodwill have prevailed. Party spirit has been swallowed up. Generosity in the cause of God has been increased. The annual collection for the Assembly’s Foreign Mission was made on the 20th of November; and, in my own congregation, the offerings laid on the plate amounted to £412.
A similar influence is gone over the Church generally. Whenever I meet a minister from the country, his conversation is of the revival among his people. Many, of whose congregations there has been no notice in the public newspapers, can tell of the same results that have attracted attention in more prominent and public places. I met one lately, and on asking him if there was any good doing among his people, he replied, “Yes; a year ago I was preaching to the dead, but now I am preaching to the living.” Another said, “The congregation has been revolutionised.” A third told me they would be obliged to pull down, or enlarge somehow, their church, only lately built. Everywhere there has been an increase of communicants by a third or a fourth, and in some cases greater. These are specimens that might be multiplied throughout Ulster.
And a similar influence has reached our mission-field in India. The reports of the work at home have been the means of carrying it abroad. Recently there were six baptisms in one day in the city of Surat, where nothing similar had occurred before. At Gogo there was an example of one person being stricken, similar to the many examples that have been witnessed at home. God has done great things for us, whereof we are glad. We are constrained to acknowledge that “of Zion it may be said, This and that man has been born in her.”.
BALLYCARRY.
BY THE REV. JOHN STUART.
In this extensive district, the cradle of Irish Presbyterianism, we have had a great religious awakening. God has been in our midst working wonders. After more than seven months’ experience of His gracious “revival,” I can boldly and fearlessly bear my testimony to its blessed fruits and marvellous results.
It is impossible to witness the worship of our crowded assemblies, to look down from the pulpit on the sea of upturned, animated faces, and to come constantly in contact with the spiritual life of individual Christians, without exclaiming—“What hath God wrought!”.
The Holy Spirit, in the outgoings of His love, visited us early in the summer of last year, and all at once there was a vast increase in the congregation. The spare pews in the church were taken, and the aisles covered with forms, which were soon crowded with earnest, anxious, solemnised hearers. Preaching now became a real luxury. Society seemed to be stirred to its lowest depths. I had before me a people bungering and thirsting after righteousness. Our communion, on the first Sabbath of June, was truly a “feast of fat things.” Never before had we experienced a day of such sweet refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The first drops of the heavenly shower had begun to fall; and now the shower descended in right earnest.
Such were the multitudes which attended my evening services in the church, or in the open-air, when no church could contain them, and such was the seriousness and anxiety of the people, that for forty-two successive nights I preached, conversed with anxious inquirers, and frequently prayed over stricken ones,” till the first streaks of young day warned us to retire from the solemn scene.
At every week-day evening meeting, and generally during every Sabbath service, persons were “stricken.” Sometimes four, sometimes ten, sometimes twenty.
Then arose the wild, unearthly cry for mercy, “My soul, my sinful soul, Lord Jesus, have mercy on me!” One little maid, whilst tears flowed fast, cried, “O Jesus, give me the faith of the dying thief! Oh, give me the faith of the centurion! O Jesus, Saviour of the jailer of Philippi, have mercy on me!”
Great numbers were “prostrated” in their own houses, and many laboured under deep conviction for several days before they were enabled to rejoice in Jesus. All ages, from the child of ten and twelve, to the man and woman approaching the “ threescore years and ten,” have been brought under the influence of this gracious “awakening;” and the cloud of Divine mercy has settled upon many a house, where heretofore there was no fear of God, and no concern for the soul. About two hundred persons in connexion with my church have been the subjects of “ bodily prostration;” but of the larger number awakened by the “still small voice,” I cannot at present form an estimate. I rejoice to say the good work is still progressing and deepening. The wave of mercy still rolls on. Blessings have descended like dew, and the fertility and fruit which followed have astonished even the sceptic and the scoffer.
I should think that at the several week-night prayer meetings in connexion with my congregation, which are still on the increase, more than a thousand persons attend. These meetings are conducted for the most part by godly laymen; and many tears are shed there, and many hearts there experience emotions of solemnity, and a desire after better things, to which heretofore they had been strangers. No one can be present at those meetings, and witness the deep devotion, the wondrous gift of prayer, and the earnest pleadings of the converts, without being convinced that the work is not of man, but of God.
During the past summer and autumn, I might say of the revival, in the words of the prophet, “It grew like the lily; now it is casting forth its roots as Lebanon.” Among all who were “stricken down” I do not yet know of a single backslider. So far as I am enabled to discover, they are being “conformed” to the image of Christ, and are presenting to the world a living portraiture, more or less, of that life which was in Him. “God has done great things for us, whereof we are glad.” Instead of the coldness, and deadness, and formality of former times, we have now life, and light, and heat, and earnestness, and energy.
In the Sabbath school the attention of both boys and girls is far more marked than it ever was before. The number of teachers and scholars has been more than quadrupled.
The candidates for admission to the Lord’s Supper in October were seventy in number, whereas the former average was only ten. The entire number of communicants was about four hundred, being nearly two hundred more than on any former occasion. The only difficulty is to find a room large enough to contain my Bible class.
During the past seven months forty souls have, by the good hand of God, been brought from under the chilling influence of Christless Unitarianism, and added to my church; and among these converts there is a love of Jesus, and a spirit and power of prayer, which nothing but the Holy Spirit of God could have planted in their hearts. One young man, W. N brought up under this system of frozen Deism, and somewhat addicted to irregular and dissipated habits, having been sent for on a certain evening to come to my church to assist in conveying home his sister, who was stricken down under terrible conviction of sin, expressed in a very sinful way his opposition to the revival. Next day, whilst engaged in field labour, he began to feel the burden of sin insupportable, and again and again repaired to a secret place to pray. In the evening, still overwhelmed with anxiety about his soul, he retired to rest, but could find no repose; he wrestled with God in prayer; he cried to his. Redeemer for mercy, and in his excitement he imagined he saw a stream of blood flowing, and a brilliant and beautiful star above him, whose light flashed upon his face;. he arose and importunately pleaded for pardon through the shed blood of the Divine Redeemer, when he felt his burden removed, and was able to realise a Saviour precious to his soul. Next evening he said to his father, * You must commence family worship to-night.” “I cannot,” said the father, “I am not qualified to pray.” The young man then took his Bible, read the precious word, and, in a prayer at once beautiful and fervent, led the devotions of the family, and pleaded, with all the ardour of a new-born soul, for the conversion of his parents, his brothers, and sisters. He is now one of my most efficient assistants in every good work, growing erery day in grace and in knowledge. His father thus expressed himself to a friend, not long since“Before the revival, in which I had no faith, my house was like a wee hell; now, it is like a wee heaven!”
E. D—, a girl who, by her own confession, had led a wicked life, attended a prayer-meeting, and was stricken on the highway during her return. Her loud screams for mercy being heard, she was carried by some ten or twelve of the converts to my house, and laid upon the parlour sofa. I never witnessed any one under such excruciating mental torture. She imagined Satan was dragging her down to hell; she screamed, “Keep him off, keep him off.” It required five strong persons to hold her down.
For a moment or two she would be calm, and then she prayed earnestly for forgiveness; then she would cry, “There he is; don’t you see him?” and her struggles were superhuman and desperate. In this way she passed the entire night. In the morning she was removed to the house of her mistress, where she lay in great bodily weakness for some days, pleading for mercy. She at length found peace in believing, and is now, so far as I can see, an humble and consistent Christian.
These are but two of a large number of cases I could detail. Blessed be the God of all grace for those precious days of refreshing we have had! Never shall I forget the brilliant eyes and radiant faces of all those brothers and sisters, and children beloved, who found pardon, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
BOVEVA.
BY THE REV. ADAM MAGILL.
In the summer of 1856, four young men in my congregation resolved to establish a social meeting for prayer, to be called the Sabbath-school Teachers’ Prayer-meeting. Little interest was felt in this meeting for several months; yet these young men, having felt the power of religion on their own hearts and lives, and knowing how little success they could expect as teachers in winning souls for Christ without His Spirit, continued to meet from time to time to implore a blessing on their labours and on the gospel preached.
In the month of July 1857, I delivered a course of lectures on the work and necessity of the Holy Spirit, which were blessed in the conversion of some souls, but more especially in awakening a greater interest in attending public worship and listening to the word preached. But no marked, prominent feature of a revival of religion appeared.
Early in the spring of 1858, tidings of a great revival in America reached us. As the great awakening in New York and elsewhere was evidently in answer to prayer, and as the Spirit of God is distinctly promised to those who ask, we felt strongly induced to urge from the pulpit the necessity of additional meetings for prayer, besides the one already in existence, conducted by the Sabbath-school teachers.
As a mark of God’s blessing on this proposal, eight prayer-meetings sprang up within the bounds of the congregation, and were zealously conducted by young men. At these meetings the Scriptures were read, and fervent prayers offered up for the minister, and for the Holy Spirit to be poured upon the people.
At first these meetings were thinly attended, but gradually the interest increased, and the attendance became more numerous, and it became manifest that the Lord was blessing them, as several persons were led to the Saviour through their instrumentality.
All the important information that could be collected in the meantime on the American revival was communicated from the pulpit, which appeared to impress the minds of the people with some such feeling as this—“I wish the Lord would visit us in a similar way.”
Prayer meetings grew larger; the attendance on public worship increased, more earnestness and a deeper solemnity marked the worshippers. The Spirit of the Lord was evidently at work, striving with men’s consciences, evinced in the silent tear that was occasionally wiped from the eye, as if the person were ashamed it should be seen; and from the fact that persons were found stealing at night, for fear of discovery, into a barn, or behind a hedge, to pray. I saw evidently the mountain of sin yielding a little to the hammer of the gospel; still, no great awakening appeared; we had nothing that could be termed a revival.
On the 11th of June 1859, at a prayer-meeting in Glenconway schoolhouse, the Lord made bare His holy arm in sight of all the people. A young convert from County Antrim addressed the meeting earnestly and solemnly on what the Lord had done for his soul. The people listened with deep attention, tears stole down many a cheek, hearts pent up with silent grief were ready to burst, and at the close six persons were plunged into the most heart-rending anguish I ever witnessed. The cry of all was to the same effect,” Oh, my sins! my sins I am going to hell Jesus, have mercy on me!”
One cried, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on my wicked father and mother!”
Two young men shed tears bitterly, and, with the arrow of the Lord in their souls, they went from the meeting to a graveyard, and there spent all night in wrestling with the Lord for pardon. They are now candidates for the ministry.
It was thus evident the Lord was in the midst of us answering the earnest and fervent prayers for His Holy Spirit, offered in the name of Christ in that very place on many a previous occasion.
The following day, June 12, was the Sabbath-a day which will never be forgotten by many in this parish. Oh, with what power and majesty Jehovah walked amongst us! Zechariah xii. 10, was wonderfully fulfilled to us. When the usual time for public worship came, the church was so crowded that we were obliged to retire to the churchyard, and conduct the services in the open air. The crowd became immense, the minister and congregation of Scriggan having joined us, and a more solemn assembly never met on earth.
During the services, the tears and suppressed sobs of many shewed that it was no ordinary occasion—that it was the day of God’s power—that the Spirit of power was dealing personally with men’s souls. When the benediction was pronounced, a few retired, but the great majority lingered stood, in fact, as if held in a vice, or bound with a chain and in a moment, as if struck with a thunderbolt, about a hundred persons were prostrated on their knees, sending forth a wail from hearts bruised, broken, and overwhelmed with horror, such as will never be forgotten, and which, perhaps, for solemnity and awe, will never be surpassed until the judgment-day. Oh, what must the wailings of the lost in hell be, when the discovery. is made that their lamps are gone out, that the day of mercy is past, and the door of hope shut for ever! For hours these stricken, smitten, bleeding souls remained on their bended knees, unconscious of everything but their own guilt and danger, and need of a Saviour, pleading and praying with an intensity and fervour which surpasses all description.
The evening of Wednesday, June 15, was appointed for prayer, and long before the hour for commencing the service, the church was crowded. The awful sadness in every countenance bespoke the deep earnestness within; even the most ungodly were overawed, and wore a solemn sadness on their faces. Had a pestilence swept over the neighbourhood, leaving one dead in every house, greater awe would not have been produced. At the close of the services, several efforts were made to dismiss the congregation, but without avail; and it was not until four o’clock in the morning that the people could be persuaded to go home. Multitudes were again, on that night, steeped in awful sorrow, and stung with the most poignant remorse for sin. Such unutterable horror overwhelmed one young man, that the blood streamed from mouth and nose. who all his life was a profligate, had such a vivid view of the horrors of hell, and the pains of hell took such hold of him, that he cried like a demoniac, that a hundred devils were dragging him to the bottomless pit.
On the morning of Sabbath, June 19, nearly all the children in the Sabbath school, to the number of a hundred, another man, were plunged into the same deep, sinking, sorrowing sense of great guilt and unworthiness.
For several Sabbaths the services of the sanctuary had to give way to the sobs and cries of pierced souls; and though every lawful effort was made to suppress all excitement, yet the agony and sorrow within were too great to be repressed, and frequently the audible cry broke forth for mercy.
Numbers of cases of conviction of a very interesting nature took place in private, in the family, or elsewhere. Some were struck with a sense of sin in the field, when working —some on the highway-some when conducting family worship, and others in their beds. One person told me, when he awoke in the morning he found his pillow wet with tears, and his whole frame feeble and exhausted. One strong young man, when working alone in a turf bog, was prostrated with a spade in his hand; and for hours he there wrestled in prayer to God, and all the succeeding night, in his house, the cry for mercy went up from a broken heart. It was not till the morning he found peace, when his powerful muscular frame was shaken and exhausted, as if he had been rising out of a protracted and severe fever. So powerfully and generally did the Spirit of God work both in the public sanctuary and in private, that few in this neighbourhood were unawakened. Would to God I could say they were all converted!
Allotted will not permit me to enter further into detail; I shall therefore close this paper with a few practical remarks.
What has been the primary cause of this great religious awakening, sweeping from family to family, and producing an anxiety about the salvation of the soul, such as has never been experienced by any preceding generation in this neighbourhood? The answer is, God’s Spirit has been signally dealing personally with the consciences and hearts of the people. The mass of our church-going people were cold, dead, formal, and prayerless—living and dying in sin, and going to the judgment-seat and to eternity unblessed, unconcerned, and unsaved. The ministration of the word had become feeble and powerless; the lamentation was going forth from many a godly minister, “Who hath believed our report?” “The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain; for the wicked are not plucked away.” Suddenly, as on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit shook the “ dry bones,” awakened the slumbering conscience, and impelled men to flee from the wrath to come.
What stronger evidence of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit than the dread of sin overwhelming the soul; “When He is come, he will reprove the world of sin.” This was one most prominent feature in the awakening here. The aspect of anguish, the deep groan, the piercing cry of horror, and the intense earnest appeal, “Lord Jesus, have mercy upon my soul!” is the most distinct and demonstrative evidence that God was waking up the soul to feel how intolerable the burden of sin was; and oh, if intolerable upon earth, where there is hope, how will the sinner endure it in its full, crushing, and overwhelming power in hell, where there is none!
A large number of my congregation were stricken to the earth, as if suddenly pierced with a spear, whilst others were distressed and perplexed with an awful sense of unworthiness. The effects in both cases were similar, being manifested in the earnest, prayerful devotedness of their lives, teaching us to submit to whatever way the Spirit of the Lord may please to work.
If I dare venture an opinion on the bodily distress many endured, arising, no doubt, from a sense of guilt pressing on the mind producing great anguish of soul, it would be this,—Professors of religion had become so hardened in sin-s0 “gospel-hardened”-so utterly impenitent, so” and the habit of resisting the most powerful appeals from the pulpit had become so confirmed, that God saw that an extraordinary remedy was necessary for an extraordinary emergency; and I believe the loud wail coming from the lips of the sinking, perishing sinner, preached with greater power to a careless people than the most eloquent sermon that could be delivered. And, therefore, regarding the physical features of the revival here, I feel constrained to bow, and say, “It is the Lord, let him do as it seemeth him good.”
A striking feature in the people here is their insatiable thirst for prayer. Prayer, the most earnest and persevering, preceded the revival here, and now it is sustained in its vigour by prayer; and, at the present moment, the district prayer-meetings, which are numerous, are crowded every night-God fulfilling His promise, that when He would pour out the Spirit of grace, He would accompany it with the spirit of supplications also. The congregation is composed of about two hundred families, one hundred and eighty of whom worship God daily, not with the cold, formal prayers of other days, but with burning hearts and burning words. A young man or a young female, in many cases, leads the family devotions, they being the converted persons in such families.
A desire for the conversion of souls still perishing, is very strongly manifested. I have seen a young female, full of love for the Saviour, kneel on the highway-side, and there pray with a fervour I shall never forget for the conversion of her father.
Young men, after a hard day’s work, often walk six or eight miles to hold a prayer-meeting in some backward district, or to pray with and warn some ungodly family. But I must hasten to a close, with the following important facts:
1. The greater number of converts are among those who regularly attended the means of grace. How necessary, like blind Bartimeus, to be in the way when the Saviour passes by!
2. God’s people here were praying for, and expecting, a day of quickening long before it came. How important, like the apostles, to wait for the promise of the Father, and to continue waiting on the spirit of prayer and supplications!
3. A larger proportion of the young than those in middle or old age have been converted, What a lesson to the young to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and become converted before sin hardens and blunts the soul!
4. There are more females than males, seemingly, converted, teaching us that as men are more involved in the world, they are in more danger of its blighting and withering influence on the heart.
I have thus given a few of the facts and features of the revival of religion in this congregation, and I have confined my observations strictly to what came under my own observation. May this imperfect narrative of God’s great work here be acknowledged by the Holy Spirit, and may we all, as minister, Sabbath-school teachers, and elders, pray more, labour more, and expect more, as I believe we. have only had a sheaf of the great harvest, a shower of the Spirit, leading us to look out for and continually to expect the flood—the flood upon the dry ground. Holy Spirit! descend upon a dry, unfruitful Church, and on a cold, dead world, and may righteousness go forth as a light, and the salvation of our God as a lamp that burneth!
ARMAGH.
BY THE REV. J. R. M’ALISTER.
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