Revival in Wales 1859

ULSTER 

How many of you have heard of the 1859 revival that went across the whole of the United Kingdom and was the largest revival we have ever known? It is strange that it is so unknown. It is a big subject so I am going to break the story down by country, first Ulster as it was here that the revival first appeared in the United Kingdom.

Ulster is not an often used term, but it is made up of the 6 counties of N Ireland plus Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan.

The different counties of Ulster had different mixes as far as religion was concerned, some were mainly Protestant, predominantly Presbyterian and others mainly Catholic. By 1859 the Presbyterian church had settled into generally Orthodox teaching, but there was little to no fire. There was a deadness as far as spiritual power was concerned, most could be described as nominal Christians, there being form but little substance. However, amongst the ministers there was a desire to see the Church refreshed by a move of God.

The beginning of this story can be marked as a lesson to all of us. In the Spring of 1856, an English evangelist, Mrs Colville, came to Ballymena to go house to house with the Gospel message. She went away quite depressed because of the little fruit she perceived came from her hard work. However, she came to a house in Mill Street on November 3rd, where there were a few young ladies and a young man, James McQuilkin. During a conversation with one of the ladies about her spiritual condition, Mrs Colville said, ‘My dear, you have never known the Lord Jesus’. McQuilkin felt these words referred to him and they were like a dagger to his heart. After weeks of wrestling with conviction, he gave his life to Jesus. 

James McQuilkin began to testify about his new found Saviour and his friends saw the change in his life as he put aside worldly activities. He had a long conversation with Jeremiah Meneely and later testified to two more of his friends, Robert Carlisle and John Wallace; all three became born again and in September 1857 the four friends decided to pray every Friday here in the old school house for God’s blessings on their activities. McQuilkin was inspired by reading how God answered George Muller’s prayers. 

During that same month, Jeremiah Lamphier began a prayer meeting in New York, which led, almost immediately to an awakening that brought about one million into the Kingdom of God. It was to take over a year longer, but the prayer meeting here was to start the biggest revival the UK has seen – so far.

They had one great object; they were praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon themselves and upon the surrounding country. On New Year's Day 1858 the young prayers were encouraged by a farm servant being converted and another young man found Jesus and joined their little group. They were also inspired by the news coming from America. The meetings consisted of reading the Bible, prayer and meditation and people were converted every night they met, so by the end of the year 1858 about fifty young men were taking part in the prayer meeting.

It is strange that everybody talks about the 1859 Ulster Revival because the Spirit of God was clearly over the area in 1858. One of the original four members of the prayer meeting said, “The work was confined to this parish (Connor) during the year 1858. Beside the regular prayer meeting for Christian men only we had cottage meetings until no cottage was large enough to hold the people. We also had great open-air meetings.” As the news spread the four were in great demand by those who wanted to know what God was doing.

The news from America inspired many in the Church from all denominations; sermons on revival were preached and many prayer meetings were begun.

A convert from a meeting in the Connor district, returned home at Christmas time to Ahoghill. He read the Bible and prayed with them so powerfully that that night his mother was crying out for mercy. His mother and sister came to the Lord that night. He returned for another visit and the good work spread to another family. As a result, James McQuilkin and two original members of his group held a meeting in the Second Presbyterian Church of Ahoghill on February 2nd, 1859 and another two weeks later – interest began to stir in the area. 

On March 14th a meeting was held at the First Presbyterian Church and the meeting was so packed they had to stop it for fear of the galleries falling down. A layman addressed 3,000 people outside in the chilling rain and hundreds fell on their knees in the mud. 700 were awakened and the two other Presbyterian churches in the town were crowded out. People’s lives were transformed from every strata of society and from different denominations. Many were ‘prostrated’ under deep conviction of sin which caused quite a lot of controversy.

Ballymena, just three miles away, was next, 12 days later. Many came under deep conviction and a group of young laymen spent most of their time helping these people to find their way to Jesus. 

‘The awakening spread with the rapidity of a prairie fire when it is fanned with a mighty breeze.’ Within four months the revival was all over Ulster. The areas where it was most intense were in Protestant areas. For instance, County Antrim was significantly impacted by the revival and its make up was 54% Presbyterian, 18% Episcopalian and only 25% Catholic; whereas County Fermanagh was not so impacted and it had only 2% Presbyterians, 38% Episcopalians and 56% Catholics. 

Ulster suffered a great deal from sectarianism; there being great antipathy between the Protestants and Catholics. The Catholics were generally very opposed to the revival. One bishop said that people who were influenced by the devil were taking Bibles around to ruin the people. Some violently attacked evangelical ministers and their priests would sell Holy Water to counter the ‘revival devil’ and instructed their people to boycott the revival meetings. This did not stop some going and several hundred were touched by God and went over to Protestantism. There was a significant cost to pay for some of the converts as they were ejected from their families and received other persecution such as beatings. As the revival progressed some of the priests recognised the good that was being done and in fact there was a significant decline in sectarianism. This was largely due to various Protestants going to Catholics and asking for forgiveness for the way they had treated them. Sadly, this peace did not last.   

The revival fires were mainly started through the testimony of people who were visiting from revival areas.  

WALES 

Wales had experienced many, many revivals over the previous 120 years, but the people had become lukewarm in recent years. Preaching had become very intellectual and theatrical; a lot of form but little substance. There was a longing by the older people to experience a revival again.

The revival began through two men, David Morgan, a 45 year old Calvinistic Methodist and Humphrey Jones, a 27 year old Wesleyan Methodist. 

Jones was a revivalist who emigrated to the United States in 1854 where he got involved in the Jeremiah Lamphier revival of 1857. In 1858 he returned to Wales, bringing with him something of the revival. From July to September he held missions in towns near to where he lived. These meetings were particularly fruitful. At the end of September he held a mission at Pontrhydygroes where he met David Morgan.

Morgan had been praying for revival for ten years by the time he heard about these powerful meetings, but he was a bit suspicious about them, his being a Wesleyan and not a Calvinistic Methodist did not help. Nevertheless, he went to a meeting and was very troubled by the message of ‘not being hot or cold’. He was unable to sleep so he went to see Jones where he was staying. Jones had asked the Lord for someone to work with and he heard the Lord say that Morgan was the man. It was agreed that he would preach in Morgan’s church that Sunday in Ysbytty.

Humphrey Jones spoke on ‘Woe to them that are at ease in Zion’ to try to stir up the church members to action. After the service he complained about the coldness of the people and that nobody even gave an ‘Amen’. An elder stood up to say that it was difficult to say ‘Amen’ under a ministry that he felt was condemning him. A witness said, ‘As he said those words he almost fainted back into his seat. At that moment something went through the whole congregation until everyone put down his head and wept!... the following week men came in crowds from the mountains and all the country around until we were afraid the chapel would come down.’

Morgan had been seeking more power in his preaching for some time now, but particularly so over this week. On the Tuesday night, “I awoke about four in the morning, remembering everything of a religious nature I had ever learnt or heard.” This was the first of several God encounters he experienced over the coming months. He said at the end of the year, “I have been wrestling for the blessing, and I have received it.” I believe this was the Baptism of Fire he received. He then ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit for the next two years, then amazingly he woke up one morning and he knew the power had left him and it never returned. I have never come across anything like this before. Can you imagine being used by God so powerfully all around your nation and then having the power removed?

By the middle of November the revivalists decided to go their seperate ways and very sadly in December it became apparent that there was something wrong with Jones mentally. He gave up ministry for several years, then started again and in 1871 returned to America where he died in 1895.

By the end of the year there were over 200 converts in the area that had a population of less than 1,000.  

The revival spread throughout Wales. For a while Morgan concentrated on the Ceredigion area and then he moved around the country and for about two years he was used very powerfully. From what I can gather there were only a few itinerant revivalist ministers like Morgan. Previous revivals had been led by great leaders, but this one seems to have spread mainly through prayer meetings.         MORE

SCOTLAND

The state of spiritual matters in Scotland does not seem to have been too bad immediately prior to the 1859 revival, although, as in Ulster and Wales a lot of the preaching was form over substance. There were few revivals in the 15 years leading up to the revival, but there does seem to have been a certain vigour within the Church. This may have been as a result of the Disruption of 1843 where a third of the Church of Scotland walked out to set up the Free Church. This involved all the ministers walking away from their church buildings and their Manses, so there was an amazing flurry of activity in the years following as hundreds of churches and Manses had to be built - an amazing achievement. This perceived new-found freedom probably gave fresh vigour to many of their ministries.

Like the rest of the United Kingdom many ministers in Scotland were aware of the revival that was going on in the USA and they were very encouraged when getting regular news, believing that whatever happened there could happen in their nation. The first action was generally to set up a prayer meeting to pray in the revival, so there were a number of people around Scotland praying for God to do something and they were expectant.

Another prelude to the revival was the relatively new concept of lay preachers. Brownlow North and Hay Macdowall Grant were two such men and they did successful preaching tours in different parts of Scotland in 1857 and 1858. The Lord used them to break up the dry ground to make people more receptive to what was to come

So, with that backdrop the Lord sent Brownlow North and an experienced English evangelist, Reginald Radcliffe; both at the same time to Aberdeen. North had quite a reputation in Scotland, so his meetings were immediately packed and there were stirring results; however, Radcliffe was unknown so he had to take a different approach. 

Radcliffe arrived in Aberdeen on the 27th November 1858, at a time when the revival was just starting in Ulster and Wales, at the invitation of a professor at Marischal College. He started in a Mission room in Albion Street. At the time there was quite an antagonism from ministers, particularly Church of Scotland ministers, towards lay preachers, but they had no problem if it was the children who were spoken to, so Radcliffe started with the children. Immediately the Spirit of God joined in and many of the children sought salvation, which made their parents wonder what was going on so they joined the meetings.

Holy Spirit was moving so powerfully that Radcliffe wrote in his first week in Aberdeen, ‘I believe great things are in store for our land.’ He had planned to stay ten days, but he ended up staying 5 months. Scores of children received salvation and they set up prayer meetings all over the place. On seeing Holy Spirit at work some Free Church ministers joined in. Foremost among the supporters was James Smith, the Church of Scotland minister at Greyfriars Parish Church who invited Radcliffe to speak. This caused an uproar amongst many of the churches in Aberdeen as they did not approve of lay preachers preaching on Sunday, but Radcliffe got into some churches because he was speaking mainly to children.

Radcliffe was sensitive to these concerns, so he did not preach from the pulpit. The movement increased very quickly with Radcliffe conducting up to 30 meetings per week, including seven on Sundays. No sooner had one service closed than people poured in for the next. In order to placate the opposition North and Radcliffe had to say they were giving addresses on their leaflets and posters.

North left after two weeks and Radcliffe soldiered on – the pace was exhausting. At the end of 1858 he wrote ‘I tremble here on the edge of a great work.. I want to lie in the dust and be guided from on high.’ He understood that to succeed he had to be humble so that Holy Spirit could use him to the maximum. He wanted the flame to go around Scotland and then around the world through the ports like Aberdeen. He did not have a strategy to evangelise the nation, he just kept listening to what ‘the Captain’ said.

By early February no building was big enough. To make a comparison, by now in Ulster and Wales the revival had begun to spread out from where it initially started. Also, at this time the Church of Scotland local Presbytery met and almost removed the Greyfriar’s minister for hosting Radcliffe. They held back on the understanding that Church of Scotland ministers would not host Radcliffe until the Church of Scotland General Assembly met in May.

Needless to say the opposition just attracted bigger crowds and the constant workload on Radcliffe had its effect, and on March 19th his health broke down and he went away to rest for several months, handing over the work to others. The May Assembly allowed laymen to preach in the churches.

The revival then burst out in several areas in July, including Glasgow. I am not entirely sure why there was a gap of several months before the revival really started to get going in Scotland. By July it was well advanced in Ulster and Wales. It could be something to do with the large numbers of ministers who went to experience the revival in Ulster and then brought it back home. Strangely, I have not found a record of anyone going to Wales; perhaps it was because many of the meetings there were in Welsh. 

But once the fires began they spread with varying intensity around Scotland over the next two years. 

The places most impacted by the revival were the major cities of Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and the whole of Aberdeenshire. It was said that scarcely anywhere between Aberdeen and Inverness was not touched by the revival. The fire was particularly fierce in the fishing villages between Fraserburgh and Nairn. Also, down the river Spey, the whole of Perthshire, around Montrose on the East Coast and further south between Eyemouth and Dunbar and then there was Port Glasgow, Greenock, Ayrshire and nearly every village and town in Dumfriesshire was touched. That is a great deal of Scotland and you can also add the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys and Shetlands. 

The only places that seemed to largely miss out were Rosshire and Sutherland. This was possibly due to the antagonism of the church in those areas to lay preaching.                   1085  14 mins

ENGLAND   

The start of the revival in England is much more difficult to tell as there does not seem to be a clear story here. The other three countries have very clear beginnings but England doesn’t, and the reason for this is that virtually nobody seems to have written about the revival in this nation. Apart from Edwin Orr’s book, The Second Evangelical Awakening in Britain written in 1949, I cannot find anything written on the subject. Orr’s main source was ‘The Revival’ weekly newspaper that started in July 1859 in order to record the revival in the UK. It was wonderful, as far as it went, but on its own admission, due to its size of 8 pages, it did not have the room to publish all the revival accounts it was sent and then of course there were all the stories that were never sent to them.

There were only about 20 places in England touched in the last four months of 1859, and as mentioned before, most of these were ignited by regular prayer or by testimony about what was going on in America or Ulster. Also revival broke out in a few Primitive Methodist circuits. The light that seemed to start the fire, particularly in London, was the worldwide prayer meeting that took place in the second week of 1860.

The Revival newspaper gave about half of its space for reporting on the revival in England, to London. This is not really surprising considering it had 2.8 million people, which was nearly seven times as large as the two next biggest cities of Glasgow and Liverpool. Although there are many accounts of revival in England I do not get the feeling of the country being on fire, as I do with the other three countries. I have spent some time puzzling over this and have come up with the following thoughts. Ulster and Wales in particular are tiny countries, so it is likely that the news of what was going on in different areas would have been spread very quickly and compared to England the other three countries had hardly any large cities, only Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast were over 100k. This meant that they were made up mostly of small towns and villages where communities were much more prevalent. In communities people congregate together and they know each other well, so when someone gives their life to the Lord they are aware of that person’s history, so they have an understanding of the true miracle that has taken place when their friend’s life is turned around. Revival is therefore likely to burn through the whole community.

As in other parts of the UK, people started united prayer meetings on hearing the revival news from different areas. In London daily meetings were organised in Crosby Hall in September 1859 and by the end of the year there were 120 prayer meetings in London, a quarter of them daily, the rest weekly. The numbers grew until it was better to ask where wasn’t there a prayer meeting. The movement was unprecedented.

Unlike anywhere else people got together to plan how to reach the vast numbers in London. One of the most successful ideas was to hire theatre’s and halls to hold meetings for the workers and the poor during the winter season; people who generally had never set foot in a church before. This was only possible because the Earl of Shaftesbury had promoted a bill four years earlier that allowed Christian meetings in un-consecrated buildings. At the beginning of 1860 he formed a committee and by the end of February they hired seven theatres where 20k people heard the gospel every Sunday. For the upper and middle classes, St Paul’s, Westminster Abbey and two halls were hired in the West End. Seeing how successful these meetings were, others hired Halls and Theatres across London, until there were about 20 venues being hired and an estimated million people heard the gospel each season. 

Generally speaking these Sunday services were led by travelling revivalists such as the amazing Reginald Radcliffe and Richard Weaver. Wherever they went the venues could not hold the numbers who wanted to get in and many gave their lives to Jesus in each service. Although testimonies were often given during the services, they were dominated by preaching.

As well as these large general meetings there were initiatives all over the capital to reach different groups. One of the best was the midnight meetings that were held monthly. These were meetings for prostitutes. A team would go out onto the streets and offer invitations to the women to come to the meeting. They normally had 150-300 attend and in the first year there were 19 meetings, 4,000 attended, 23k tracts, 89 back home, 75 jobs, 6 married, 81 in refuges, plus others who were helped out of the business. This movement spread and it is estimated that 1,000 prostitutes were rescued.

Another group went in twos in carriages to different streets – they would hop out and preach the gospel and then go on to another street; when it rained they visited homes and then held meetings in the evenings. Another group held special meetings for lamplighters, another to 1,000 people while they picked hops. Probably my favourite was a man called boatswain Smith, who took a boat out into the port among other boats, blew his boatswain’s whistle, attracting the sailors’ attention and then he preached the gospel from his little boat. People held meetings in schools, hospitals, parks, factories and orphanages – just about anywhere where there were unsaved people.

It is not known how many were saved in London, but clearly a great proportion were reached with the gospel. One person wrote ‘There must be a great deal of good doing in London, for one can hardly pass the end of a street of a fine evening or of a Sunday, without hearing someone preaching and not only men but women.’

It does not appear that the other English cities received the same attention as London. Radcliffe organised Halls to be hired in Liverpool in the autumn of 1861 – in fact the revival only really got going in Manchester and Liverpool at that time. I cannot find much for Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield, but Bristol seems to have been very active in the revival.

Around the country the Revival newspaper was often read out to encourage people and fires were lit through the testimonies in it. It seems that the major revivalists such as Radcliffe and Weaver were used to break through. They almost always had wonderful meetings and when they left the area local evangelists came in to build on what had been started. 

One group of evangelists were the Woolwich Boys. They were from a boys' refuge and several were saved in 1859. Groups of them were invited to speak all around the country and many a fire was lit by their testimonies.

Radcliffe was constantly calling for more evangelists; undoubtedly there would have been more saved in England had there been more workers.      

Characteristics of the revival 

I will compare the main characteristics of the revival as they relate to each of the four countries.

UNITY – Unity was a characteristic of the revival everywhere and was crucial for its success as the Lord blesses unity. Apart from unity between denominations, there is also unity within denominations. I believe that part of the reason why the revival was so successful in Ulster and Wales was because the Protestant church had a dominating denomination, Presbyterian and Calvinistic Methodist respectively and they fully supported the revival. Instructions to organise prayer meetings and support revival efforts really helped spread the fire widely and deeply. England on the other hand was dominated by the Church of England which is seldom united behind anything and England also had multiple denominations to deal with which made unity that much more difficult.

It was not just about unity amongst denominations, it was also about unity in communities. In Ulster there was a great coming together between the Protestant and Catholic communities. 

HOW LONG? – The length of this revival differed considerably between countries. In Ulster the revival went from Autumn 1858 to Spring 1860; in Wales also from Autumn 58 to Autumn 60, although meetings went on in Cardiff for some time; Scotland began in November 58 in Aberdeen, but as already mentioned for some reason there does not seem to be another outbreak until September 59 in Glasgow – it ended around the Autumn of 61, although there are some outliers, like there was a big revival in the Shetlands in 1863. England is more difficult to evaluate – as already stated there were a few outbreaks in the autumn of 59, but it does not seem to have got going until early 60. As for it’s end there seem to be occurrences dotted around all the way through to 1866.

Why these differences? I have thought a lot about this. The smallness of Ulster and Wales both in population and land mass, together with the dominance of some denominations as just mentioned, leads me to think that the fire of revival spread more quickly and reached saturation point much more quickly; this would help explain the relative shortness of their revivals.   

The delay in England I cannot explain too well – perhaps it was to do with the Church of England not being united behind the revival and also the relatively huge land mass over which the news had to travel. Perhaps it was because many of the main itinerant revivalists were busy in the other countries. The longevity in England is also interesting. I can only think again that this is because England was huge compared to the other home nations and it took time for the revival fires to get around the country. 

PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS – These were much more of a characteristic of the Ulster revival than in the other countries. We are much more used to them these days, but in 1859 there was a lot of controversy over them as the Church always wanted everything to be in order. However, those at the centre of the revival recognised that these were mostly of the Holy Spirit and in fact some leaders recognised that some of the unsaved were impacted positively by seeing the Holy Spirit at work. Interesting that these days some church leaders think it important to have Seeker Sensitive services as they think Holy Spirit puts off the unsaved!

The manifestations were only on the minority, but of course they were highlighted by the newspapers, but they lessened as time went on. There were some localised manifestations in Scotland, mainly where Ulstermen ministered, but virtually none in Wales or England. 

TESTIMONY –The one thing that stands out from all the many reports on the revival in Ulster is that for the majority of towns the revival began through TESTIMONY! The word testimony in Hebrew means ‘do it again Lord in the same power and authority’. So every time you testify you are asking the Lord to do it again. This is really powerful! What touched off the fire in many places was laymen testifying to what had happened in their town and while testifying Holy Spirit fell.

"Next evening we met again in the open air. A gentleman addressed the assembled throng. He recounted the scenes he had witnessed in the neighbourhood he had just left. The people listened with wonder, humility, and awe. As they were about to separate, one fell to the ground screaming for mercy, then another, and another, till the fallen ones might have been counted by scores! Multitudes remained till the morning light, alternately engaged in singing and prayer. "

A different type of testimony.

The girl who had found peace on the previous Sabbath evening stood up, declared that she was happy in the Lord, and simply added the words, "Come to Jesus." The effect of her invitation was like the effect of an electric shock, and many sinners came that evening, weary and heavy-laden, to Jesus, and found rest for their souls.

Another example amongst children.

‘The Spirit was preparing the soil for a special shower of blessing, and that morning a little girl came into the girls’ school, and with joy sparkling in her eyes she threw up her arms and exclaimed, ‘I have found Jesus!’ Instantly, an electric sympathy ran from heart to heart, and a large number of the children fell down on their knees weeping over their sinfulness, and crying to the Saviour for mercy. Some of them were heard before long, pleading with their parents to repent and turn to God.” 

The new converts in themselves were a testimony : “The worshipful, joyous solemnity that appears on the faces of the converts is truly heavenly and generally has a strange and thrilling effect on mere onlookers.” There were few converts, who in the excitement of knowing Jesus, did not speak to others about salvation.

Testimony was prevalent in the Ulster revival, and it was a very important characteristic in England, Scotland and Wales.

PRAYER –  A prayer meeting birthed the revival as already mentioned. Some ministers who were unhappy with the spiritual state of their churches had begun prayer meetings in 1858, particularly in Wales to pray revival in. Many more began on the news of what was happening in the USA and Ulster, birthing the revival all over the United Kingdom and thousands more sustained it. Whereas testimony was the main fire lighter in Ulster, in Wales it was prayer.

‘I am persuaded that the means blessed of God to create and carry on the revival in most places, if not in ALL, is PRAYER. You can trace its origin and progress in every locality, to prayer, especially the prayers of the new converts.’

It was a truly amazing characteristic of the whole revival. Prayer meetings sprung up everywhere and not just at the behest of denominations or ministers. In some smallish parishes there could be dozens of prayer meetings going on each week, started by hungry individuals. 

"It is prayer—prevailing, believing, wrestling prayer, which is the secret of all success.”

In a town of 9,000, 4,000 people were in prayer meetings on a weeknight.

“It is not unusual to see thousands assembled for prayer in a graveyard or a large gravel pit."

Prayer was so infectious, it was as if Holy Spirit jumped from one person to another like a Holy virus. I believe that Holy Spirit was hovering over the whole of the United Kingdom and when the people came together for a prayer meeting, beseeching God for the revival rains to fall, they were opening themselves up to receive Holy Spirit who responded by releasing the revival fires through these people. 

“In the house of a fish curer, a hymn was sung; and immediately after, those present, or the greater part of them, felt their minds seriously impressed. Instead of separating as usual, one after another engaged in praise and prayer; and this was kept up without a break until three o'clock next morning. Then the excitement increased and began rapidly to spread over the village. Similar meetings were held during almost the whole of the next day, and continued during the night, and up until an early hour the following morning. Meetings were also held in other houses; and the services were continued night and day--the houses being crowded, and the people earnest and attentive, and evidently labouring under excitement and anxiety. At these meetings several people were struck down, and the cries for mercy were loud and frequent. Matters went on in this way up till Friday afternoon. Work was almost suspended, the excitement had spread itself pretty well over the whole village, and the houses where the meetings were held could no longer contain the numbers who pressed in to attend upon and take part in the services.”

It was not just corporate prayer meetings that spread the revival. In most places the reaction of the people to what Holy Spirit was doing was to go home and start daily family meetings. In some villages almost every home had family meetings. 

“a prayer meeting was said to have existed in almost every second house…”

These prayers were mainly travailing prayers, pulling heaven down to earth. However, I have discovered through my research that a ‘spirit of prayer’ prevailed across the United Kingdom. There were several reports of people, including children being compelled by Holy Spirit to pray and reports of amazed pastors who heard new believers pray with extraordinary eloquence and with a real belief that their prayers would be answered.

"We have been greatly struck by the fact that so much of the spirit of prayer has possessed the Lord's people. They draw the heaven of heavens, as it were, into every prayer meeting; such congregations as were never before seen are brought to­gether on these occasions. But, in every one of them, there is something more than a large congregation—the prayers penetrate the hearts of those who attend, whether they be male or female, even persons who scarcely attended a place of worship are impressed. " 

"prayer-meetings, attended by hundreds, are most efficiently conducted by the converts; and then such prayers! So earnest—so scriptural—prayers like those of the old Puritans, which go up like red-hot bolts to heaven"

LAY EVANGELISTS - This revival was the first to be spread in a significant way by itinerant evangelists. Apart from David Morgan, these were not used much in Wales; they were used some in Ulster, but a lot in Scotland and England. Some were known as Gentlemen preachers such as the already mentioned Brownlow North and Reginald Radcliffe, together with Hay Macdowall Grant and others. Then there were the Americans – Phoebe Palmer, Charles Finney and E P Hammond who was particularly successful in the South West of Scotland and amongst children. Finally, there were the evangelists who related to the masses such as the collier Richard Weaver and the chimney sweep William Carter.

Reginald Radcliffe had an unusual way of preaching in that he spoke very simply and he only spoke for about twenty minutes. One man wasn’t hugely expectant when he went to one of Radcliffe’s meetings as he was anything but impressed with his preaching. However, he had to repent like mad when he saw the fruit that came from it. Brownlow North used to spend three hours with the Lord every morning and I suspect most of them did the same. Radcliffe also spent a lot of time with God – “Some truth would grab hold of him and when the meeting was held he poured it out like a torrent of lava; attacking the conscience, awakening the sleeper, terrifying the careless and in the bright light of the Spirit revealing the Lamb of God”

The amount of work this revival generated was so much that the health of several of them broke down and they had to take several months rest. Brownlow North, who was a forerunner to the revival, had to take three years off at the revival’s peak. As an example of how hard they worked, Macdowall Grant spoke to 2031 people individually about Salvation and preached 55 times in 50 days.  

New converts were in effect lay evangelists as well. As in Ulster, young converts would walk down the road and tell of their experiences to people in the next village – the Glory of God would fall and the revival began. Parents would also become evangelists to their children and indeed children to their parents. Basically, as soon as many of the people were converted, they became evangelists.

CONVERSION – This revival is a very clear example of how people were saved through conviction of sin. They were first convicted by Holy Spirit to a sense of how sinful they were, some would actually see visions of hell and scream out in fear. At that point people would gather around to point the person to Christ. They would then be awakened to the fact that Jesus was the answer at which point they would often cry for mercy and ask, ‘what must I do to be saved?’ After a period, which could be a few minutes or a few days or a few months, they would find peace through realising that by faith their sins had been forgiven and they would then be filled with joy. This has been the process in every revival except the 1904 Welsh revival where love was preached.

Someone observed -   

"For many their soul is in danger, on the brink of, almost IN hell. They see it, they feel it and in deep mental distress cry for deliverance. A Saviour is revealed to them in their despair; they behold Him; believe in Him; they are rescued, saved and they know it. They rejoice and leap for joy! "

This is what people generally experienced during the services or indeed just after they had left.

Here are a few descriptions of meetings.

"One of the converts said a few things to the people, then here and there throughout the church, parties rose and went out, labouring under deep conviction, and immediately the graveyard is filled with groups singing and praying around the prostrate bodies of men and women. Some are as in a trance, others crying for mercy. Some are still falling into the arms of friends, and sinking as into a faint and a few rush to the gates and fly in terror from the scene."

"The scene when we arrived baffles all description. Imagine a large meadow, with an immense multitude of people in all attitudes — some praying, weeping and crying for mercy, others lying in utter helplessness only able to utter feebly their entreaties for pardon, surrounded by groups of friends and strangers all interceding for them and urging them on to call on Christ and, again, others with their faces gleaming with a more than earthly light, listening to the speaker in ecstacy or eyes raised, eloquently praising God."

"While one of these, a lad of fourteen, gave an account of his conversion, and, with tears, entreated the people to come to the Saviour, another lad began to sob and weep. The young convert then ran forward, caught the penitent in his arms, and besought him to look to Jesus, and he would be saved. The affection of the boy seemed to break down the hearts of the people; one general cry burst forth from the congregation, and sinners fell all around, confessing their sins and imploring pardon. The saved of the Lord were many, and they were but the first fruits of a glorious harvest."

"in a moment, as if struck with a thunderbolt, about a hundred people were prostrated on their knees, issuing a wail from hearts bruised, broken, and overwhelmed with horror, such as will never be forgotten."

"Persons of every shade of temperament and character were mysteriously affected, overpowered, prostrated, and made to pour out the most thrilling agonising cries for mercy. Most of those impressed and awakened found peace and comfort in a very short space of time, and then their faces shone with a sweetness and glory beyond description. Very many of them received a marvellous fluency and power of prayer. A hatred of sin, a love for the Saviour, a zeal for His cause, affection for one another, and an anxiety about perishing sinners, took absolute possession of their hearts, and literally ruled and governed their actions."

The itinerant revivalists brought something new. Reginald Radcliffe preached that salvation could be received immediately – there and then. This caused concern with some ministers, especially those in Scotland who preferred that people be on trial for months to ensure they were properly converted. 

Radcliffe and others would often preach to the converted in a meeting first and then preach to the unconverted. They would then take those people who were interested in salvation to another room where they or others would have a conversation with each person, pointing them to Jesus. Radcliffe said that he believed about two-thirds of conversions came as a result of the conversation and one-third through preaching. Phoebe Palmer, the American revivalist introduced the ‘penitent form’, calling people forward to a rail if they wanted salvation. Over time this changed until Billy Graham did the ‘altar call’.

TRAINS – Only a few years earlier trains had been introduced to the north of Scotland and other parts of the UK. This was the first revival where trains were used for hungry people to get to meetings and for revivalists to travel to speaking engagements. They enabled people like Radcliffe to leave Scotland and travel down to London for a couple of meetings before returning.

Travelling to see what was going on in Ulster was much easier due to trains. Many ministers visited Ulster, particularly from Scotland and either brought the revival atmosphere back with them or their expectancy that God would move was heightened significantly.

CHILDREN – Large numbers of young, even as young as 8 years old were impacted all over the UK by this awakening and took part in it.

"One of the most striking characteristics of this move­ment is its effects on young people, and even on children. The youth of our congregations are nearly all the subjects of deep religious impressions. Many of them seem as if filled with the spirit of prayer. Very young people, even children from ten to fourteen, gather together to hold prayer meetings and pray very fer­vently."

THE WORD – Humphrey Jones wrote, "Two things are necessary to be a successful preacher: first to pray much in secret – to be there many times in the day, wrestling with God – to wrestle each time as if it were the last, and not to rise from your knees until you have a proof that the Lord has heard you. Ask the Lord in faith and with great fervency, what to say to the people. Go straight from your closet to the pulpit each time, then the anointing will follow your preaching. Another thing is to preach pointedly and rousingly – aiming at the conscience each time – telling people their sins to their faces. I would wish to preach each time as if I had to die in the pulpit when I had done preaching – as if I had to go direct from the pulpit to judgement."

The Word was king in this revival, especially in Wales; unlike in the 1904 Welsh revival. 

Someone wrote: 

"There was a beauty, a loveliness about the Holy Word which we had never before perceived. New light seemed to be thrown upon it. It electrified us and caused us to weep with joy! The feeling became general. All present were under its influence. The hardest hearts were forced to succumb. And then we sang, sang with spirit and repeated the hymn again and again - we could not leave off. Every heart seemed inspired to continue and the last two lines were sung for a full quarter of an hour. Then the minister prayed and such a prayer we had never before heard spoken. We felt we were communing with God. We could have prayed all night’. The meeting lasted four hours."

The Bible was read out loud in the streets, particularly in London and the Word was preached all over the United Kingdom, in churches, in factories, theatres – everywhere! Huge numbers of Bibles were sold to the hungry converts.

HYMNS – As with most large revivals, this one had its own form of hymns. Richard Weaver published his own book of songs. These were quite a different style to the old hymns and caused a reaction among some ministers in Scotland, however, they were very popular among many in England and Scotland. Some songs became particularly popular. In my research I discovered that one with a refrain of ‘Christ for me! Christ for me!’ led a number of people to Jesus. One person heard Weaver singing it and went into the meeting and at the end of the service, after having given her life to Christ, gave Weaver a rope with which she was going to tie her legs before throwing herself off a bridge.

OPEN-AIR MEETINGS – All over the Kingdom, there were large meetings of many tens of thousands during the summer.

TRACTS - Handing out of tracts was very common and their impact on individuals was sometimes considerable. This was a popular form of evangelism even before the revival, but hundreds of thousands, if not millions were given out in these revival times.         

THE FRUIT

TRANSFORMATION - Ministers seem to have been absolutely amazed at what went on in their area. The extraordinary number of people who were being born again, the rapt attention they all had from their congregations, the transformation of the lives of those who had been touched by God. One person wrote that, "the spirit of these newly awakened persons is all gentleness, teachableness, and humility, while the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace—rule in their hearts most clearly." Streets that had been dangerous to walk in were now peaceful, prostitutes, drunkards and crooks were giving their lives to Jesus. Some said that there was someone converted in most of the houses in their area; they could walk through their parish and hear worship and prayer coming from many of the houses. Lives were transformed, entire neighbourhoods were transformed.

"This was the most degraded of Irish villages. Rioting and drunkenness were the order of each evening. Profane swearing and Sabbath desecration were most fashionable sins, and such a place for lying and stealing I do not know. Many a time I longed to get out of it. Well, we have a change now that is truly gratifying. As you pass down the street you hear, in almost every house, the voice of joy and melody. Stop in the street; name the Name of Jesus, and old and young crowd around you. Raise the voice in praise or prayer and every building pours out its inhabitants to join the company of anxious hearers."

“I found the town in a state of great excitement; many families had not gone to bed for the two or three previous nights. From dozens of houses, night and day, you would hear when passing along, loud cries for mercy from persons under conviction, or the voice of prayer by kind visitors, or the sweet soothing tones of sacred song; business seemed at a standstill. In some streets, four or five groups of people, in houses, and before the open doors and open windows, engaged in prayer or in praise, all at the same time."

Drunkenness was probably the greatest evil of its day and because of this many revival meetings were linked to temperance and the temperance movement grew substantially during this period. When you realise that 15% of all deaths in England at the time were due to drink, you can see the scale of the problem. It is a problem that had been around for hundreds of years and I might suggest that drinking is still a problem today. As a result of many publicans coming to the Lord and the fact that so many conversions took away so much of their business, many pubs closed; how long this state of affairs lasted I do not know.

“In Campbelton, the twenty public houses in that town had only sold seven gills (28 fluid ounces) of whisky during the whole evening among them; such a marked change had come over the people in the habit of frequenting these places”.

There was a great change in morality amongst the people – apart from less drinking, there was less swearing, gambling, fighting etc.

"The whole morals of the district seem to have undergone a complete change and the police told me that their office was, so far as serious crimes were concerned, all but a sinecure…the minds of the whole community have become impressed and awed by a sense of Divine things."

During this period there was a reduction in crime. The Justice of the Peace of one town said there was not 1/10th of the usual number of cases over the previous four months.

LONG LASTING FRUIT - In Wales in particular, there was a concern amongst church leaders that those who were being saved in the revival would relapse, so ministers were urged by their Associations to look after the converts teaching and pastoring – not easy in revival. Converts were taught that they were not converted unless they had a hatred of sin and a love of holiness and the exercise of every moral duty. Rigid examination of their spiritual experience plus training them led to solid fruit. Someone did research forty years later and found out that 95% of the converts in Wales stayed the course. Converts in this revival generally, stayed the course well.

 LOVE – The love of Christ overflowed from the hearts of the converted and church goers alike. It is very noticeable that generosity to the poor increased substantially. In London particularly, the poor were helped both relating to spiritual and earthly matters. Philanthropy, increased during the revival and for a long time afterwards. Many Christian societies were formed to carry out this work, both in the UK and abroad. One of these became a few years later, the Salvation Army. The influential Keswick Convention was seeded in the revival, also the Barnardo homes and many more influential bodies, that did a host of good were begun at this time.

As with all revivals the next generation of ministers came from this one.

NUMBERS – Generally speaking the Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregationalist and Methodist churches were all for the revival, although, the different Methodist denominations did ban itinerant revivalists from ministering in their churches, basically because many ministers were jealous and wanted to maintain control of their area. Anglican evangelicals were supportive, but the liberals were indifferent and the High Church Anglicans and Catholics opposed the revival outright.

Estimating the numbers saved during the revival is difficult. Edwin Orr got hold of most of the available data to estimate that 100k were converted in Ulster, about 110k in Wales and 300k in Scotland. I think that Ulster and Wales are pretty solid as the Presbyterian church and the Methodists kept pretty good annual records. A Scottish historian I know and respect is quite critical of the 300k in Scotland, but I am more supportive of it. The problem with Scotland is that five out of six people were considered members of a church, so, if they came properly to the Lord during the revival, they would not be considered an addition. From reading all the accounts I have, it seems to me that Scotland was awash with revival fires, as much as Ulster or Wales were, so I do not think it unreasonable to think that similarly 10% of the population was saved. Also, there are many accounts of Church members being saved and one must remember the enormous number of children who were saved as they probably would not have been counted in church membership.

Here are some contemporary comments about the revival in Scotland.

“It was said that four-fifths of households of the parish had 'a day of visitation' from the Lord and in most of them one or two have been hopefully converted. The work also spread to adjoining parishes.”

“more than half the population of 280 of the Orkney island of Foula was converted.” 

“There is scarcely a house where there has not been some awakening, less or more. In one house we can count not less than eight converts.'’

“At Findochty, I understand that, with but few exceptions, the whole village may be said to have found the truth.”

England is again difficult to estimate. Orr researched as much as he could and came up with 250k added to the Church of England, 100k to the Baptists, 70k to the Congregationalists and 200k to the Methodists. This totals 620k and probably does not take into account children, 2% pa dying, emigration, existing members being converted or those converted who never joined a church. With a population of 19m, this only represents 31/4% saved in England which to me does not sound unreasonable.

In total this comes to over 1.1m and represents the largest ever revival in the United Kingdom. Do it again Lord.                                                   1308 words   15 minutes

What can we learn from this wonderful revival?

In this film I shall be discussing some of the things we have learned from the revival that we can perhaps apply to the coming revival.

We have been waiting a long time for the expected billion soul revival. I personally have been expecting 10 million conversions for the UK; ten times that of the 1859 revival.

REACHING DIFFERENT GROUPS - What I read about reaching different groups in London, such as hop pickers, lamplighters and prostitutes I thought was brilliant. Demographics have shifted hugely since 1859 with now over 90% of our population living in cities, so if we do not learn how to take a city for Christ, a future revival will not be successful. We need a plan to reach different people groups.

HELPERS - The 1859 revival in England was not so successful as they needed more helpers. When the revival comes we must be ready to send out anyone and everyone to bring in the lost. Training people now would be a step forward. Happily, we have quite a number of young people who have been to Bethel, IHOP, Toronto etc who will be wonderful evangelists in the coming awakening.

PASTORING - From my research it seemed to me that particularly in Ulster and Wales, the revival ended because pastors felt that they needed to look after the converts, so they shut down the idea of bringing in more of the harvest. I think it is very important for pastors to prepare their churches into two parts; one evangelistic and one pastoral, so that both can go on at the same time.

PRAYER – Clearly prayer is a massive part of revival. We should be asking the Lord now for the gift of travailing prayer and for the spirit of prayer to be poured out. There is definitely not enough of either going on in our nation. 

UNITY – Vital for any revival. We are not bad at this these days; pastors of different denominations get together to pray quite regularly, which is great. We must encourage every church to be involved, especially the Church of England. The number of conversions in any general awakening is only limited by the number of workers and the number of ministers open to the work. If any group or church does not want to get involved, then there will be fewer conversions.

HEALTH – As been seen, several itinerant revivalists were taken out for a time due to their health. For those busy in the revival it will be very important to look after your health. Revival is like an addiction; seeing God move is something you will not want to move away from. You will not want to miss anything in case God’s hand is lifted, but as you have seen with this revival, it went on for over a year; several years in parts, so there will be plenty of time.

TESTIMONY – This is such an important part of revival. Go to where revival is and bring it back. Encourage new believers to testify as to what happened to them.   

CONVERSIONS – Everyone seems to be saying that the coming revival is going to be different. Now this may be so, especially as far as technology goes, but in one way I hope we will revert back to the days of the 1859 revival where people were convicted of sin, awakened to Jesus and then rejoiced in their salvation. In this revival the people were not asked to repeat some words by a pastor and that was their conversion experience; a good portion of the converted had an encounter with God. 

One observer wrote

I cannot help speaking of the radiant joy that beams in the countenance—it must be seen to be believed. My own heart has been filled with gladness and happiness in looking upon this shining forth of the Spirit's witness, and this leads me at once to trace the source of this radiance; it is this—all the believers have the assurance of salvation; not the hope merely, but the precious assured reality. In the last place, I must note the earnestness of the newly-awakened souls for the conversion of others. Both old and young, as soon as they themselves have tasted of the heavenly grace, bring all their heaven-born love and energy to the Saviour's feet, that others may be partakers of the like precious promises. Let us who have long known Christ, go and do likewise.

Amen                                                                           

TRANSFORMATION – The ministers in Ulster seem to have been absolutely amazed at what went on in their area. The extraordinary number of people who were being born again, the rapt attention they all had from their congregations, the transformation of the lives of those who had been touched by God. One person wrote, that the spirit of these newly awakened persons is all gentleness, teachableness, and humility, while the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace—rule in their hearts most manifestly. Streets that had been dangerous to walk in were now peaceful, prostitutes, drunkards and crooks were giving their lives to Jesus. Some said that there was someone converted in most of the houses in their area; they could walk through their parish and hear worship and prayer coming from many of the houses. Lives were transformed, entire neighbourhoods were transformed.

Bellaghy was the most degraded of Irish villages. Rioting and drunkenness were the order of each evening. Profane swearing and Sabbath desecration were most fashionable sins, and such a place for lying and stealing I do not know. Many a time I longed to get out of it. Well, we have a change now that is truly gratifying. As you pass down the street you hear, in almost every house, the voice of joy and melody. Stop in the way; name the Name of Jesus, and old and young crowd around you. Raise the voice in praise or prayer and every dwelling pours out its inmates to join the company of anxious hearers.

“I found the town in a state of great excitement; many families had not gone to bed for the two or three previous nights. From dozens of houses, night and day, you would hear when passing along, loud cries for mercy from persons under conviction, or the voice of prayer by kind visitors, or the sweet soothing tones of sacred song; business seemed at a standstill. In some streets, four or five groups of people, in houses, and before the open doors and open windows, engaged in prayer or in praise, all at the same time.

It is difficult to know how long the revival lasted or how it stopped, because I cannot find anything written beyond 1860. All I can say is that I have seen a handful of accounts that the revival was still going in January, so I assume it petered out soon after that.

It is said that over 100,000 were saved in that revival out of a population of 2 million out of which only 25% were Presbyterians and 25% Episcopalians. So, if you exclude those areas that did not get involved in the revival about 15% came to Jesus. 

I will end with two quotes summarising the effect of the revival – one from a minister and one from an individual,  ‘a year ago I was preaching to the dead, but now I am preaching to the living." “Before the revival, in which I had no faith, my house was like a wee hell; now, it is like a wee heaven!’”                                                              2355 words   80 per min 29 mins

Other characteristics

SALVATION – The Ulster revival is a very clear example of how people were saved through conviction of sin. They were awakened by Holy Spirit to a sense of how sinful they were, some would actually see visions of hell and scream out in fear. At that point people would gather around to point the person to Christ. Seeing that forgiveness of their sins was what they were looking for they would cry out for mercy. After a period, which could be a few minutes or a few days they would find peace through realising that their sins had been forgiven and they would be filled with joy. People noticed how many had shining eyes at this point. This has been the process in every revival except the 1904 Welsh revival where love was preached.

Here are a few descriptions of meetings.

‘One of the converts said a few things to the people, then here and there throughout the church, parties rose and went out, labouring under deep conviction, and immediately the graveyard is filled with groups singing and praying around the prostrate bodies of men and women. Some are as in a trance, others crying for mercy. Some are still falling into the arms of friends, and sinking as into a swoon and a few rush to the gates and fly in terror from the scene.’

‘The scene when we arrived baffles all description. Imagine a large meadow, with an immense multitude of people in all attitudes — some praying, weeping and crying for mercy, others lying in utter helplessness only able to utter feebly their entreaties for pardon, surrounded by groups of friends and strangers all interceding for them and urging them on to call on Christ and, again, others with their faces gleaming with a more than earthly light, listening to the speaker with rapture or eyes raised, eloquently praising God.’

‘While one of these, a lad of fourteen, gave an account of his conversion, and, with tears, entreated the people to come to the Saviour, another lad began to sob and weep. The young convert then ran forward, caught the penitent in his arms, and besought him to look to Jesus, and he would be saved. The affection of the boy seemed to break down the hearts of the people; one general cry burst forth from the congregation, and sinners fell all around, confessing their sins and imploring pardon. The saved of the Lord were many, and they were but the first-fruits of a glorious harvest.’

‘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.’

‘Persons of every shade of temperament and character were mysteriously affected, overpowered, prostrated, and made to pour out the most thrilling agonising cries for mercy. Most of those thus impressed and awakened found peace and comfort in a very short space of time, and then their countenances shone with a sweetness and glory beyond description. Very many of them received a marvellous fluency and power of prayer. A hatred of sin, a love for the Saviour, a zeal for His cause, affection for one another, and an anxiety about perishing sinners, took absolute possession of their hearts, and literally ruled and governed their actions.’

REFORMATION- Society changed in Ulster as a result of the revival although I do not know how long for. 

‘There appears far less poverty, and even less sickness and death, than ever before. It was reported that drunkeness, swearing and Sabbath were all but annihilated – the local policeman said that formerly this was the worst wee place in the world.’

Crime amongst the Protestants was much reduced. A judge speaking to a Grand Jury during one Quarter Session said, ‘Now gentlemen, as I said before, I am greatly struck at the appearance of this calendar, so small is the number of cases, when I formerly had calendars filled with charges for different nefarious practices, pocket-picking, and larcenies of various sorts. Now, I have none of these, I am happy to say. How is such a gratifying state of things to be accounted for? It must be from the improved state of the morality of the people. I believe I am fully warranted now to say that to nothing else than the moral and religious movement, which commenced early last summer, can the change be attributed.’

A number of prostitutes gave up their profession and gave their lives to Jesus, others gave up because the demand for their services went down.

‘One Sabbath evening, after a sermon which was preached by a good man at the entrance to a lane of very bad reputation, a considerable number of prostitutes came out of their houses and marched in a body to the Ulster Penitentiary for the Reform of Fallen Women.’

Drinking was a scourge over Ulster, but the revival brought about many less cases of drunkenness before the courts, many pubs closing because of the conversion of the landlord or lack of demand and some breweries were closed or sold.

In Bushmills there were 22 pubs, but 14 closed and it was reported that the remaining 8 together had less business than just a single pub before the revival. Ballymena had 120 pubs, but one of the publicans reported that no man could live by that trade after the revival.

People now spent their time in church, praying or reading the Bible. The demand for the Bible and Christian books was extraordinary. Nothing else was talked about, but the revival and things of God.

‘The general effect upon society is most wonderful and important. Profanity, Sabbath profanation, and drunkenness are set aside. Many public houses are closed, a cock-pit has become a preaching station, and families, where nothing but vice in its worst forms could be seen, have been brought to love and to adore the Lord with a zeal and a fervour which withstand all efforts of the enemy of souls to overcome; while the desire for the preaching of the gospel is everywhere pervading society.’

FRUIT – The fruit of the revival was similar to most revivals. The number of Home Missions increased substantially, many of the new converts became ministers, Bible Societies abounded, new Church building went up to cater for the new demand and there was a noticeable increase in generosity and philanthropy.                                      3435 words   43 mins

CHARACTERISTICS wales

Prayer Meetings

Some ministers who were unhappy with the spiritual state of their churches had begun prayer meetings in 1858 to pray revival in. Then news of Jeremiah Lamphier’s revival in the US and what was happening in Ulster and in Jones and Morgan’s meetings, began to spread around the country, resulting in an increased hunger for revival and many more prayer meetings, in all denominations, were begun. Prayer was the main instrument God used to awaken the churches in Wales. Someone wrote, ‘The great fruit of this revival is prayer. It was preceded by prayer and it continues in prayer which remains its chief agent. In previous awakenings the ministry of the Word was the chief means, but the particular means in this present movement is ‘prayer’ – everyone is coming to believe in the effectiveness of prayer.’

And,

Here are a couple of examples of how the fire was lit through such meetings.

and

For some time the old members felt that the Church was not as of old, and their hearts longed for a new visita­tion. On a weekday evening, a prayer-meeting was held in a dwelling-house in one of the small valleys running up be­tween the lofty and barren mountains of the neighbourhood. In this meeting something strange and powerful was expe­rienced. The young people could not refrain from singing. They sang all the way home. It was not modern singing, it was the old, heavenly, unctuous heart-singing of days gone by. Its source was joy and heavenly peace in the heart; bursting as an overflowing well, its streams could not be stopped. The people of the village heard the singing. One of the old people, who had long sighed for the revival, said, There it is. That is the very thing that I have longed for. Thank God!' The singers reached the village, and the feeling spread like wildfire, till most of the people were singing and praying. On the following Sunday a great many sought admission into the church. The children and young people began to hold prayer-meetings, from house to house, and the revival continued to spread. Many people came from great distances to attend the meetings, and to witness the effects. Most of these experienced its power, and, return­ing home new men, they became instrumental in com­mencing the good work in their own neighbourhoods.

From these examples you can see how infectious the prayer was, it was as if Holy Spirit jumped from one person to another like a Holy virus. I have a theory about what was happening across Wales at the time. I believe that Holy Spirit was hovering over the whole of the United Kingdom and when the people of Wales came together for a prayer meeting, beseeching God for the revival rains to fall, they were opening themselves up to receive Holy Spirit who responded by releasing the revival fires through these people. It is interesting that in Ulster it was testimony that released the fires, but here in Wales it was largely prayer.

There were many prayer meetings down the mines. 

Almost all the miners used to be drunkards. They would come to their work on Monday with bruised faces and blackeyes. The change is above anything I ever knew. There is no company without its prayer meeting underground before starting work. They sing beautifully. On Saturday they gather together underground to give thanks for the mercies of the week. There is scarcely a house without its family altar.’

It was not just corporate prayer meetings that spread the revival. In most places the reaction of the people to what Holy Spirit was doing was to go home and start family meetings. In some villages almost every home had family meetings and from these the revival spread as well. Holy Spirit also went to work on individuals. 

About three weeks ago a few young men from Bettws-y­-coed came to work in the Festiniog slate-quarries. They were in deep concern about the state of their souls. They came on Monday morning, and their deep distress was observed by several of the quarrymen. They followed their work in this state of mind, occasionally weeping on account of their lost condition as guilty sinners before God. After dinner the following day they were observed by some working people making their way to the top of the hill. Immediately they were followed by all the workmen in that quarry, being about five hundred in number. They halted on the summit of the mountain, and on that spot, under the broad canopy of heaven they held a prayer meeting. Whilst they prayed the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them most abundantly. Nearly all present wept and sobbed aloud. They met every night that week at their several places of worship to offer up prayer to Almighty God. On the following Saturday, those who lived at a distance went to their homes, carrying with them the newly kindled revival fire and on the morrow the surrounding chapels and churches were ablaze! 

During the meetings ministers were amazed at the prayers spoken by the new converts, even the children. People who before were too shy to say anything very much were forceful and eloquent in their prayers. 

The Word

Humphrey Jones wrote, ‘Two things are necessary to be a successful preacher: first to pray much in secret – to be there many times in the day, wrestling with God – to wrestle each time as if it were the last, and not to rise from your knees until you have a proof that the Lord has heard you. Ask the Lord in faith and with great fervency, what to say to the people. Go straight from your closet to the pulpit each time, then will the anointing follow your preaching. Another thing is to preach pointedly and rousingly – aiming at the conscience each time – telling people their sins to their faces. I would wish to preach each time as if I had to die in the pulpit when I had done preaching – as if I had to go direct from the pulpit to judgement.’

At first Morgan did not like the way Jones ministered, but he saw how powerful the results were, so he adopted it himself. He would preach the gospel first, then he would come down from the pulpit and give a fiery message to the unsaved. He would then say that there was going to be a meeting of church members and anyone who wanted to give their lives to the Lord – everyone else had to leave. The converted would stay behind and Morgan would call them forward and speak to each one trying to find out their spiritual condition so as to give them a corrective word if required. Then he would kneel and commend each of the converts by name to God and welcome them into the church.

It was really the first time the ‘altar call’, that became so popular with Billy Graham, was adopted. It was quite controversial and was opposed at first by a number of ministers, mainly because they feared that people were coming into the church without being convicted of sin and converted by the Spirit of God. They thought that new converts should be given several months of trial to see if they were really converted before allowing them to become members of the church. 

The Word was preached a lot unlike in the 1904 Welsh revival. Morgan spoke earnestly and personally to the people in the power of Holy Spirit, with urgency and sincerity, speaking Gospel truths poured from a heart full of love for Christ. 

Here are two examples of meetings.

The first was an impromptu meeting. David Morgan and his friend were approached by two elders from a country area to hold a service the following day. Morgan felt it was of the Lord so he said he could fit it in at 8:00am. The elders rushed home and went all over the moors and hillside to tell people there was to be a meeting.

The chapel was crowded with worshippers at eight. "We had only taken hold of the hymn-book when the elders were melted into tears; and before the hymn was all read, the weeping had spread to the congregation. Both young men and maidens, old men and children, and mothers in Israel wept unrestrainedly. Stalwart farm-hands were struck all of a heap by the mere reading of the hymn. God filled the place! " At the close of the service only nine came forward to give their lives to the Lord, but the arrows of truth had transfixed many others, who left the service literally shrieking with mental anguish. They could be heard screaming in paroxysms of agony as they climbed the heights in the distance towards their homes. When the preachers were mounting their horses, a man came to them, shaking with sobs, and said, "I went out this morning, but I have decided to join the society tomorrow. Before they had proceeded a hundred yards, a husband and wife with tear-stained cheeks hailed them, and said, "We turned our backs just now on Christ, but we will give ourselves to God's people tomorrow" Stranger than the service, was to see people crossing the fields in ones and twos to meet us, and all telling us the same story that they were going to join the church on the morrow. 

and

There was a beauty, a loveliness about the Holy Word which we had never hitherto perceived. New light seemed to be thrown upon it. It electrified us and caused us to weep with joy! The feeling became general. All present were under its influence. The hardest hearts were forced to succumb. And then we sang, sang with spirit and repeated the hymn again and again - we could not leave off. Every heart seemed inspired to continue and the last two lines were sung for a full quarter of an hour. Then the minister prayed and such a prayer we had never before heard uttered. We felt we were communing with God. We could have prayed all night’. The meeting lasted four hours.

Conversion experience

This was somewhat different to what people were experiencing in Ulster at the time. There were a few manifestations but conviction struck many a heart causing strong, deep and overpowering emotions. The Welsh revival was full of solemnity and seriousness. For hours they would hear strong cries for mercy, followed by floods of tears.

Someone observed -   

For many their soul is in danger, on the brink of, almost IN hell. They see it, they feel it and in deep mental distress cry for deliverance. A Saviour is revealed to them in their despair; they behold Him; believe in Him; they are rescued, saved and they know it. They rejoice and leap for joy! 

This is what people generally experienced during the services or indeed just after they had left.

Lay Ministry

Many of the salvations were brought about by the ministry of ordinary men and women and not through the pulpit. This was very unusual for the times. It was not only young men and women going around telling people about Jesus, but also parents bringing their children to the Lord or indeed children bringing their parents. 

Unity

As with most revivals unity was a major characteristic of this one as well. Someone wrote:

Where there was much bigotry, bickering and unpleasant feeling between parties before and had continued for years, there is nothing now but co-operation and love.

This was not just amongst individuals, it was particularly amongst denominations. All of them worked powerfully together bout with united prayer meetings and sometimes with united services.

Young people

The young, even as young as 8 years old were impacted by this awakening and took part in it.

One of the most striking characteristics of this move­ment is its effects on young people, and even on children. The youth of our congregations are nearly all the subjects of deep religious impressions. Many of them seem as if filled with the spirit of prayer. Very young people, yea, children from ten to fourteen years of age, gather together to hold prayer-meetings and pray very fer­vently.

Training

There was a concern amongst church leaders that those who were being saved in the revival would relapse, so ministers were urged by their Associations to look after the converts teaching and pastoring – not easy in revival. Converts were taught that they were not converted unless they had a hatred of sin and a love of holiness and the exercise of every moral duty. Rigid examination of their spiritual experience plus training them led to solid fruit. Someone did research forty years later and found out that 95% of the converts stayed the course.

Characteristics scotland

Huntly Lodge

Ways the revival spread

This revival was the first to be spread in a significant way by ‘professional’ evangelists. These would not be used much in Wales, they were used some in Ulster, but a lot in Scotland and England. Some were known as Gentlemen preachers such as the already mentioned Brownlow North and Reginald Radcliffe, together with Hay Macdowall Grant and others. Then there were the Americans – Phoebe Palmer, Charles Finney and E P Hammond who was particularly successful in the South West and amongst children. Finally, there were the evangelists who related to the masses such as the collier Richard Weaver and the chimney sweep William Carter.

Reginald Radcliffe had an unusual way of preaching in that he spoke very simply and he only spoke for about twenty minutes. One man was hugely expectant when he went to one of Radcliffe’s meetings as he was anything but impressed with his preaching. However, he had to repent like mad when he saw the fruit that came from it. Brownlow North used to spend three hours with the Lord every morning and I suspect most of them did the same. Radcliffe also spent a lot of time with God – “Some truth would grab hold of him and when the meeting was held he poured it out like a torrent of lava; attacking the conscience, awakening the sleeper, terrifying the careless and in the bright light of the Spirit revealing the Lamb of God”

The amount of work this revival generated was so much that the health of several of them broke down and they had to take several months rest. Macdowall Grant spoke to 2031 people individually about Salvation and preached 55 times in 50 days. Something for us to be aware of – pace yourself in revival and make sure you have enough helpers. 

These revivalists brought a new form of evangelism. After the talk there was an ‘after’ meeting for those interested in giving their lives to Jesus and this is where each one would be offered Christ there and then. As with nearly all our revivals except the 1904 Welsh revival, salvation came through Holy Spirit convicting the person of their terrible sins; at which point they would often cry out for mercy, they would then be pointed to the Cross and the sacrifice Jesus made for us and when they saw Him, they would reach out to Him and receive Him into their heart. Now, this last part could happen in minutes, in which case the person could be received into the church or it might take months. Many minister preferred months.

Another way the revival spread was from new converts. As in Ulster, young converts would walk down the road and tell of their experiences to people in the next village – the Glory of God would fall and the revival began. Or, prayer meetings might spring up and heaven descend into one of them and it would then spread. There might be no minister involved at all.

The new converts in themselves were a testimony : “The worshipful, joyous solemnity that appears on the faces of the converts is truly heavenly and generally has a strange and thrilling effect on mere onlookers.” There were few converts, who in the excitement of knowing Jesus, did not speak to others about salvation.

Then, there was the more traditional vehicle – the minister. Many visited Ulster and either brought the revival atmosphere back with them or their expectancy that God would move was heightened significantly.

Lastly, it could start through prayer meetings. Here is an account.

“In the house of Mr Sclater, a fish curer, a hymn was sung; and immediately thereafter, those present, or the greater part of them, felt their minds seriously impressed. Instead of separating as usual, one after another engaged in praise and prayer; and this was kept up without intermission till three o'clock next morning. From this time the excitement increased and began rapidly to diffuse itself over the village. Similar meetings were held during almost the whole of the next day, and continued during the night, and up till an early hour on the following morning, in Mr Sclater's house. Meetings were also held in other houses; and the services were continued night and day--the houses being crowded, and the people earnest and attentive, and evidently labouring under excitement and anxiety. At these meetings several persons were struck down, and the cries for mercy were loud and frequent. Matters went on in this way up till Friday afternoon. Work was almost suspended, the excitement had spread itself pretty well over the whole village, and the houses where the meetings were held could no longer contain the numbers who pressed in to attend upon and take part in the services.”

Prayer Meetings

As in Wales and Ulster, prayer meetings were a large part of the revival. Either before or after the Presence of God fell prayer meetings would pop up all over the place – sometimes there were a dozen or many more in a town. 

“more, boats' crews have come to shore in a converted state. The Spirit has come upon them while at sea, and they have knelt in prayer at the bottom of the boats.”

“a prayer meeting was said to have existed in almost every second house…”

Someone wrote, “The great secret of the blessing which came from God to the awakening of whole districts, the quickening of Christians and the salvation of multitudes, was prayer, continued, fervent, believing, expectant… Through communion with the living Christ, the word came forth with living and life giving power.”

‘It is prayer—prevailing, believing, wrestling prayer, which is the secret of all success.”

In a town of 9,000, 4,000 people were in prayer meetings on a week-night.

Family Worship

Daily family worship increased massively as a result of the revival.

“Prior to the revival, only three houses conducted family worship out of 30, but afterwards only three didn't.”

Young people

A very large proportion of those saved in Scotland were young people including children. Sometimes the revival would start through the children.

“At a prayer meeting in the church on Sabbath evening I read, an account of three striking cases of conversion. A little girl in the school, after the Bible Lesson in the morning, began to speak of these cases to her companions, and immediately those who were listening to her began to weep aloud about their sins. After I arrived and addressed the school, the concern among the children rapidly spread, and, before I ended, there was loud weeping in all parts of the school.”

Transport

This was the first time of revival during the age of the train – in fact the line from Aberdeen to Inverness only opened in 1858. This enabled many people to come to meetings from a fair distance and it also enabled revivalists to travel much more quickly over the countryside. Radcliffe and others would often pop down to London to do a few meetings.

Hymns

There were a lot of new hymns written during this revival, particularly by Richard Weaver, but many of the Scottish ministers considered them too modern. Weaver often brought the presence of God down through singing.

Tracts

Handing out of tracts was very common and their impact on individuals was sometimes considerable.

Prostrations

There were prostrations in Scotland, but nothing like what happened in Ulster. The physical manifestations often came about when there was a connection to Ulster. For instance Port Glasgow where the ferries came in, or through the ministry of someone who might have been to Ulster. Many ministers did not like them as it was ‘emotionalism’ and often they would make a point that there were none in their meetings. 

Open-air meetings

The demand for meetings was so great that often there was not enough room to hold them in the churches. There were often reports of many thousands being at meetings – a couple were reported as being as many as 40,000, although people often exaggerate numbers when trying to estimate.

Fruit

Findochty

The fruit from this revival was much the same as from all revivals. 

Drunkenness was a major problem in Scotland as it was in the whole of the United Kingdom, but this declined substantially as a result of the revival. Also, a number of pubs closed because the owner had come to Christ and others closed because the demand for drink had reduced so much.

“In Campbelton, the twenty public-houses in that town had only sold seven gills of whisky during the whole evening among them; such a marked change had come over the people in the habit of frequenting these places”.

Unity amongst denominations – joint prayer meetings and services.

Unity amongst communities.

“And what is change in the town at large! Feuds and animosities done, away with—brotherly love and kindly feeling where before were anger and hatred” 

There was a great change in morality amongst the people – apart from less drinking, there was less swearing, gambling, fighting etc.

‘The whole morals of the district seem to have undergone a complete change and as the police expressed to me, their office was so far as serious crimes were concerned, all but a sinecure…the minds of the whole community have become impressed and awed by a sense of Divine things.’

And as mentioned here there was a reduction in crime. The Justice of the Peace of one town said there was not 1/10th of the usual number of cases over the previous four months.

There was an increase in Christian Societies, not to mention home and foreign missions and philanthropic schemes. The hearts of those saved in the revival went naturally out towards the poor.  

As with all revivals the next generation of ministers came from this one.

Numbers

Estimating the numbers saved in Scotland during the revival is almost impossible. Edwin Orr estimated 300,000 were converted. He really came up with this figure based on the fact that all denominations, except the Catholics, welcomed the revival, as much as those in Ulster and Wales, so as approximately 10% of those populations were converted, then it was likely that 10% of Scotland’s was. Scotland was a very church going nation, with 21/2m out of its 3m population going to church.

Some historians believe that the estimate of 300,000 is much too high, but I am not sure. Having read hundreds of accounts of this revival, it really does seem that Scotland was mightily hit by it. Here are some contemporary comments.

“It was said that four-fifths of households of the parish had 'a day of visitation' from the Lord and in most of them one or two have been hopefully converted. The work also spread to adjoining parishes.”

“more than half the population of 280 of the Orkney island of Foula was converted.” 

“There is scarcely a house where there has not been some awakening, less or more. In one house we can count not less than eight converts.'’

“At Findochty, I understand that, with but few exceptions, the whole village may be said to have found the truth.”

‘'I have been in many revival meetings, both in the north and south of Scotland, but never did I witness more clearly the Mighty One making bare his holy arm and doing his own work. What deep penitance, what humble confessions, what heart-felt sorrow, what gladness and joy, what zeal for the honour of Christ and the salvation of souls, was manifest there. The reality of all this struck me with such force that I could not help repeating the words, 'Behold I make all things new.'’

The nation seems to me to have been impacted as much as Ulster or Wales, so I do not think an estimate of 10% of the population in unreasonable. The large number of people attending church before the revival does not mean they were all born again and it is most likely that estimates have not included children, many of whom had genuine conversion experiences in this revival.

The revival was still going on powerfully in some areas up to the autumn of 1861 and it was still active in parts of Scotland through to 1863. It was an extraordinary time of blessing; the greatest revival ever in Scotland.