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The Revival (Pt.3)

25/1/2016

Within weeks 10,000 people were converted to Christ in the 1859, Ulster Revival, in the north of Ireland.

Rev. Hamilton Moore, minister of the local Presbyterian Church in Connor to which most of the praying men belonged encouraged the prayer meetings. His own preaching was simple, direct, lacking great eloquence but certainly having spiritual power in the conversion of sinners. He preached both the terrors of the Lord against sin as well as the mercy of God towards sinners. He preached Hell as well as Heaven. His was not half a message as most today. His grasp of God’s truth was full and solid; his voice loud and clear; his heart soft and warm. He never talked about numbers but only the souls of men. He sought not after ministry or fame, but only sought to honour God and reach hearts.

He was destined to be a leading light in this forward Movement of God in the land. His local efforts to stir his people to prayer over previous years seemed almost futile. The lowest point of his ministry was reached when only two could be found attending regular united prayer.

But then came the stirring. The prayer meeting was full, other prayer meetings were started; the people realised a hunger for prayer and the power of prayer as lives were changed.

Reports of a stirring in this area began to spread and so that same year at the General Assembly he was asked to bring a report to the other ministers of this work of the Spirit of God.
At the same time reports were being received from America that a great stirring was taking place there. The Assembly appointed two ministers, Dr. William Gibson and Rev. William McClure to go to America and to report back. Amazingly it had also started there in September 1857 with one man, then a few, then many, praying for revival. This did not begin with preachers but the normal rank and file of believers most of whom were business men. By this time there were 12,000 men praying in New York City for a move of God.

Reports began to be heard from other ministers in the land who had laboured long and hard without seeing any results who now had packed congregations and full prayer meetings.

Believers in Ulster did not flood to America for a blessing but turned to God in prayer.

Back in the church at Connor by the beginning of 1859 there were about 100 separate prayer meetings a week. These were held in homes, barns, schoolrooms and work places. These were mostly run by normal church members, one being a butcher who was only saved two years before but was now on fire for God. Another prayer meeting was held in a mill made up of about 500 people with the local farmers being the preachers. The church was never empty and the 1,000 families that made up the local community who attended the church were seeking God earnestly, and souls were being saved on every side. The meetings were solemn, the people earnest with many being moved to tears.

This was Revival. (To be Continued)

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Vessels of Revival

16/1/2016

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The beginning of the 1859 revival in Ulster, can be traced to the parish of Connor in Co. Antrim. Here not far from Ballymena is a small village called Kells. God found Himself four weak, foolish sinners, that He saved, filled with faith, and a spirit of prayer for revival. The first was James McQuilkin who one day overheard a conversation between two ladies, one being Mrs Colville, a Baptist missionary from England. Mrs Colville spoke to a lady about assurance of salvation. James, feeling that there was a lack of theological understanding asked Mrs Colville if she was a Calvinist. She responded by saying, "I do not care to talk on mere points of doctrine. I would rather speak of the experience of salvation in the soul. If one were to tell me what he knows of the state of his heart towards God, I think I could tell him whether he knows the Lord Jesus savingly." This conversation led to James falling under deep conviction of sin. He was cut to the heart and led into long weeks of agony as he wrestled over his spiritual condition before God. Finally he came through to salvation, peace, and forgiveness. Immediately he began to witness to others around him and the news spread in Kells that this man who was once known for his love of the world, now loved Christ and His Word.

One of McQuilkin’s friends, Jeremiah Meneely (or Jerry as he was well known) was a faithful church goer but lacked a sure knowledge that his sins were forgiven. Having heard about his friend’s transformation, he sought for him. After a long conversation with James, Jerry found himself in a state of seeking God. As he read the Bible one day wrestling over these things and confused in mind, the Spirit spoke a scripture clearly to his heart. He slapped his knee exclaiming, "I see it now" and arose assured of his sins forgiven and of his name written in Heaven. Around the same time McQuilkin led two other young men to Christ, Robert Carlisle and John Wallace. These four new converts were God’s raw material.

James McQuilkin sent off for George Muller’s book, a narrative of his life and labours called, Life of Trust and this had a profound effect upon him in starting the prayer meetings. He also read, The Life of McCheyne and Finney's, Lectures on Revivals sowed deep seeds of hunger for genuine Heaven-sent revival.

Beginning in September 1857, these four banded together in a bond of fellowship to meet weekly for prayer and Bible study. Their sole desire was their own edification and the salvation of others around them. The simple place they chose to meet was the Schoolhouse at Kells. "During the long winter of 1857-1858 every Friday evening, these young men gathered an armful of peat each, and taking their Bibles made their way to the old schoolhouse. There they read and meditated upon the Scriptures of truth and with hearts aflame with a pure first love, poured out their prayers to the God of heaven." Everything that they steadfastly held to over the next year centred around three great fundamental truths of scripture, these were "the Sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, the Sufficiency of the Holy Scripture, and the Secret of Holy Supplication." This not only marked those small fervent prayer meetings but soon covered the whole land in living manifestation as God stepped down and marched through the land.

These prayer meetings continued with no visible results for three months, but on New Year’s day, 1858 the first convert was brought in. After that others were born from above and now joined the prayer meetings. By the end of 1858 about 50 men were meeting with them to wrestle and prevail in prayer. The one cry and burden of all their prayers was for an outpouring of the Spirit upon themselves and the surrounding area. They were hungry and determined to pray through to God. Many of the local church people ridiculed, mocked and opposed this type of praying. They were happy to rest back and do nothing. They believed that 'the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost so we don't need to pray for the Holy Ghost.' Such a stagnant attitude never brings Revival.

But the small band prayed on determinedly, unmoved by the theories and theologies of man. The women did not attend these initial despised meetings because of the reproach. Soon they were holding cottage meetings until no cottage was big enough. Then they held open-air meetings, and slowly and quietly the work of God was carried on.

TO BE CONTINUED…

READ NEXT WEEK of a revival which spread out across the whole land, family by family, village by village, and town by town...

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THE NEED FOR REVIVAL

9/1/2016

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—"There seemed, great coldness and deadness. I had preached the gospel faithfully, earnestly, and plainly, for eleven years; yet it was not known to me that a single individual had been converted."

—"The congregation, was in a most unsatisfactory state; in fact, altogether Laodicean."

One would not be surprised if the above two comments were quotes by ministers labouring in the year 2015–2016, but they are in fact comments made by two individual ministers in the years 1858–1859, in Ulster, Ireland.

A third able minister said:

—"Hitherto, our condition was deplorable. The congregation seemed dead to God, formal, cold, prayerless, worldly, and stingy in religious things. Twice I tried a prayer-meeting of my elders, but failed; for after the fifth or sixth night I was left alone. All along I believed that the faithful use of the means of grace would be followed by their effects, as certainly as the tillage of a field is followed by a good crop, or as diligence in any profession is attended with success; and great was my disappointment, as year after year passed, yet still no fruit; no outpouring of the Spirit. I wondered and was grieved at what seemed so mysterious. What alarmed me most was the indisposition, almost hostility, of the people to meetings for prayer. They seemed mostly to think that they were well enough, and that I was unnecessarily disturbing them. I had never been so desponding or distressed as during the weeks immediately preceding the awakening. I had almost ceased to hope. I felt as if I was almost alone, no one mourning or praying with me; and I told my people I was appalled at their determination to have no prayer-meetings, and that we would not have a drop of the shower of grace which was going round, but would be left utterly reprobate."

This paints a depressing and hopeless picture of the spiritual state of the land. BUT amidst such darkness there were those scattered across the land who prayed faithfully for a mighty work of the Holy Ghost.

The famed Methodist preacher William Arthur wrote a book in 1856, called, The Tongue of Fire which was about the true power of primitive Christianity. In its first three years it went through 18 re-printings which shows that there was a real hunger for true powerful New Testament Christianity.

As we scan the spiritual condition of the late 1850's we see that there was little to encourage genuine believers who had prayed and laboured hard for many years with little result or change to the spiritual condition. Many ministers, like the three quoted above, were discouraged with a seeming fruitless ministry.

It is at times like this, when all things spiritual are at the lowest of low ebbs, that the hungry believers cry out to God to send Revival and He in His faithfulness comes in power, sweeping souls into the Kingdom of God.

Not far from Ballymena, in county Antrim, is a small village called Kells. Here in 1859, God found Himself four weak, foolish, despised vessels through whom to work. God bypassed the great religious establishments as well as the ministers of religion and found four sinners that He saved and filled with faith and a spirit of prayer for revival.

Through the work of God in the hearts of these four new converts who were moved to seek God in prayer, 100,000 souls came to Christ in one year. This is the extraordinary story of this stirring, reviving and outpouring of the Spirit of God that came to be known as 'The 1859 Ulster Revival.' [TO BE CONTINUED]

NEXT WEEK Read about these four new converts who were used to see the beginning of the 'The 1859 Ulster Revival' as God's vessel.

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The Revival (Pt.3)

Vessels of Revival

THE NEED FOR REVIVAL

Limerick City Church

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