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

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

Intercessory Prayer

The over-heard closet supplication of George Whitefield was, "Give me souls, or take my soul!"

Alleine, it is said, was infinitely and insatiably greedy for the con-version of souls: and to this end he poured out his heart in prayer and preaching.

Matthew Henry said: "I would think it a greater happiness to gain one soul to Christ than mountains of silver and gold to myself." Doddridge said: "I long for the conversion of souls more sensibly than for anything besides."

The death-bed testimony of the sainted Brown was: "Now after forty years preaching Christ, I think I would rather beg my bread all the laboring days of the week for the opportunity of publishing the Gospel on the Sabbath than without such a privilege to enjoy the richest possessions on earth."

John Welsh, often in the coldest winter nights arising for prayer, was found weeping on the ground and wrestling with the Lord on account of his people. When pressed for an explanation of his distress, he said, "I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, while I know not how it is with them."

Ralph Waller wrote: "My greatest desire is for the salvation of sinners. Oh, for souls! souls! The salvation of souls! Oh, could I always live for eternity, preach for eternity, pray for eternity, and speak for eternity! I want to lose sight of man, and see God only." Two days be-fore his death he said: "At Liverpool and Boston I appropriated one hour each day to pray for souls, and frequently spent the time prostrate on my study floor: in addition to which I held night vigils, arising to pray each night at 12:00 o'clock. I do not say it to boast, but it appears plain to me that the secret of success in the conversion of souls is prayer."

Brainerd could say of himself: "I cared not where I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls for Christ. All my desire was for the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God."

-- The Consecrated Life

Soul Travail

Deep, spiritual revivals come through soul-travail. "For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children" (Isa. 66:8). Paul, be-ing in great distress over some who had given great promise of piety and usefulness, said: "My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). All successful revivalists and great soul-winners bear testimony to the necessity of soul-travail as a condition of success. The experience of Evan Roberts along this line is very conspicuous.

A reporter of the Evening Ex-press, Cardiff, Wales, gives a "description of the scene which occurred in Ramoth Chapel, Hirwain, during the soul-travail of Evan Roberts, for such it really was. No such extraordinary scene has yet been witnessed during the course of the revival. It was an ordeal as dreadful as that through which the young revivalist passed at Blaenanerch, when he got the Spirit's baptism which sent him on his great mission.

I talked on Friday and Saturday to two of the leading ministers of the Calvinistic Methodist Church in Wales, who were on either side of him in the pulpit when it occurred. No words can depict the awfulness of Evan Roberts' agony, they say. He clutched the Bible nervously, turned over its pages hurriedly, and then suddenly his face became distorted with pain. He fought against manifesting the emotion that convulsed every fiber of his being, and exclaimed despairingly in an undertone which those standing near him distinctly heard. "0 Lord, do stay Thy hand. I can endure this no longer."

The next moment he was on the pulpit floor, and there he lay prostrate for nearly a quarter of an hour. He was concealed from the view of the congregation by those standing around him, but his sobs rang through the building and the "Oh! oh! oh!" repeated over and over again in varied tones, were heart-piercing in the extreme. When he recovered him-self and emerged from the ordeal and sat down these two ministers (whom I saw in different places, one on Friday and the other on Saturday) told me his countenance was well-nigh transfigured and was quite angelic in its calmness and repose, and they both heard him exclaim peacefully, "0 for the strength of body to bear this weight of glory!"

He subsequently told them that he was sure God had for some days previously been building up his body to stand the intense strain of the ordeal in which he had, in a most realistic sense, been par-taker of Christ's suffering. He him-self believes that it is by such an ordeal that God enables him to agonize for souls. Attempts of course are made to account for this on physical grounds, such as hysteria, overwork, intense nervous exhaustion, and the like. But others who are familiar with the experiences of David Brainerd and other saintly revivalists of former days, and who know how day by day this young man in private as well as public lives in fellowship with God that is intimate and deep, interpret such an incident in the light of those words, "Ye shall indeed drink of My cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with."

--Way of Faith

Report Of Recent
Meeting In Aron Valley, Wales

In the afternoon there was remarkable power in the meeting. At one time the whole congregation almost simultaneously broke forth into an intense outburst of prayer, scores of people praying with great and inexpressible fervor. For about a quarter of an hour this went on, Mr. Roberts remaining in a prayerful attitude, and, like the people, engaged in earnest supplication. Some were standing up with up-lifted hands, and others were on their knees. Strong men were sobbing like children, and pretty well all the congregation were in tears. There was another wonderful meeting at night and many decisions.

-- London Christian

The Token Of A General Revival

The evidences of the coming of a general religious revival, which shall move the whole country from border to border are accumulating. It is true that, at this season of the year, and in our own church particularly, there is always considerable evangelistic success, and many converts are gathered in. But there is something more this year. If the "breaking up" has not actually come, there is a presentiment of it, a powerful and confident expectation in many quarters.

This is based partly on the good tidings from Wales and from the Torrey-Alexander meetings in London; on the reports from Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Schenectady, and New York (particularly in Cal-vary Church.) Here in Cincinnati earnest efforts are being made in St. Paul and in other churches with excellent promise, and there is concert of action among the denominations. In New York City all the pastors of the city are planning for united efforts, and there, as here, days of fasting and prayer are being observed with the one great object in view.

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