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The Revivals
From: Classic Books for Today #156
By S. B. Shaw (1905)
(Used by Permission)

"Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?"   Psalm 85:6

Gipsy Smith, the well-known evangelist, in an interview in the course of which he was asked to account for the revival, said: "For a long time there has been a good deal of faithful ministry and faithful preaching going on in our midst. I have had a fair chance of judging, for I have seen many changes since I became an evangelist, but I have never found in my life so much faithful preaching and honest desire to see the Church of God revived, on the part of the ministers, as at the present time. It is only fair to those who do the work on the spot to say that, for it is they who make it possible for us evangelists to come in and do the reaping. That means that faithful preaching in the pulpit has made people think in the pew, and caused people to pray."

Nearly a dozen students belonging to the (United Free) New College, along with two from the Divinity Hall of Edinburgh University, took advantage of the monthly holiday at the beginning of this week to spend a day or two in Wales and see something of the revival there. All signs indicate that the revival is to be a universal, not a local movement. It is spreading rapidly in all parts of the country, like a fire along the prairie, and it is altogether inter-denominational.

No weekly budget of news from Scotland, says the Christian World, would be at present representative that did not take notice of the growing and spreading anticipation of revival. From East and West, from North and South, from Edinburgh and Glasgow, from Aberdeen and the Border, comes the cry. The churches are all, or nearly all, pre-paring for something they are persuaded will come. But not only are they preparing, they are combining, and prayer-meetings of separate and joint orders are being held.

The Bishop of Manchester, in his monthly letter to his clergy, commenting on revivals, says: "No doubt excitement has always at-tended them. The preaching of John the Baptist, and even of our Lord Himself, had manifestly a passing and exciting effect on multitudes, who eventually returned to their former ways, or even were hardened in sin. But the result was the foundation of the Church and the beginning of new life for the world."

It is significant of the deep impression made by the Welsh Revival on widely separate schools of thought, that a Sacerdotal organ like the Church Times should have taken up the cudgels in its favor in the face of certain harsh criticisms passed upon it, says the Christian. Mr. Evan Roberts has promised to visit Liverpool at the beginning of March. Liverpool contains about 100,000 Welshmen, among whom the revival spirit is growing.

The Goleuad, the weekly organ of the Calvinistic Methodists, stated last week that one of the results of the revival in South Wales is the decision of a well-known solicitor to give up taking cases on behalf of brewers, and in doing this he is sacrificing 2,000 pounds a year. Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander have accepted an invitation in which Anglicans and Nonconformists have joined to conduct a mission in Sheffield during the monthof September. The evening meetings are to be held in the Drill Hall, which is to be made to seat 5,000 people by the erection of temporary galleries. The meetings during the day are to be held in the Montgomery Hall.

The Bishop of Durham is probably the most wholehearted sup-porter on the bench of revivalism, and in a speech last week at Bishopwearmouth, he so far up-lifted the veil of secrecy as to what passed at the last Larabeth meeting as to say that bishop after bishop expressed a hope that the blessings which had unquestionably come to Wales should be extended to England. One of the wisest and most statesmanlike of English prelates said that it was clearly the work of the Holy Ghost.

The energy of the religious revival has at last manifested itself in the North, says a correspondent of the Sabbath-school Chronicle. Many of us looked for the first manifestations in Liverpool, the new Metropolis of the Principality, as it is termed, but, passing by this city, the stream of influence has caught the busy city of Leeds. Here, as I write, a revival is in progress.

-- Belfast Witness

Soul-Travail, The Ground Work of Revival
Burdens Of Prayer

While Jesus is making intercession at the right hand of God, the Holy Spirit on the earth is praying through the hearts of those in whom He dwells. The human spirit is the vehicle through which the Holy Ghost pours His deep, divine yearnings, and in the same proportion that He widens and fills our souls, will He breathe into us these strong, sweet, melting intercessions, whichare according to the will of the Father. It is an infinite honor for the Spirit to put any burden of prayer on us, even when it is for our personal or family welfare; but when He draws us out into the priestly life of Christ, and puts in us unspeakable prayer for persons and objects that lie far beyond our personal or family interests, then it is in a higher sense praying in the Holy Ghost and alone for God's glory.

The Spirit will divide and diversify His burdens of prayer according to the grace and gifts of each believer, calling some to pray in one direction and others in another, and He will put the pressure of prayer on and continue it, according to the soul's capacity, and its degree of willing co-operation with God in the prayer. A history of special bur-dens of prayer, as to their intensity and duration, would be amazing, especially if traced in connection with the answer that followed.

-- Soul Food

The Power Of Prayer

All of the people who have been converted have been saved in answer to prayer. Every saint in glory is there in answer to somebody's prayer. On the other hand, all who have missed heaven have missed it through the neglect of prayer, and have gone down to the regions of eternal death from lack of prayer.

The powers of darkness are felt everywhere from lack of prayer. The devil has paralyzed to a great extent the church from lack of prayer. Many ministers have lost their power from lack of prayer. And many millions now throng the broad way to death from lack of prayer.

All of the great victories in the Christian Church have taken place in answer to prevailing prayer. The Old Testament saints cried to God with an unearthly cry, and in answer to their prevailing prayer and favor with God they "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." "Wherefore seeing we also (who read this article, as well as all others) are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us; looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."

What made Knox, Whitefield, Bunyan, Alleine, Abbott, Clowes, Finney, Carvosso, Muller, Wesley, Payson, and a host of others, such burning and shining lights? What gave them such wonderful power over the people, such power to cast out devils? We answer, prayer; long, persistent, uninterrupted, prevailing prayer, was the secret of their power with God and men.

-- S. B. Shaw

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