Over a four to five year period a spiritual awakening commencing in the Clyde and Glasgow area developed into a work that spread across to the country as far as Aberdeen in the east, and the northern isles. This work followed on in the country after reports of similar things happening in Northern Ireland. By late 1859, prayer meetings were crowded and the movement was moving north as far as Lossiemouth and Wick.
As with the Welsh Revival of 1904 people were influenced by the Spirit in as much as they felt:
Unworthiness concerning personal sin.
A need to remove doubt and to act in faith.
Total surrender to God's Spirit.
A public confession of Christ.
On 22nd August 1860 4,000 people gathered to hear a message addressed by all Churches on the Inshes on the south side of Perth. Earlier that year in Buckie (12 Feb, 1860) 1,500 which is the half the population, attended the Free Church to hear James Turner. Some of the congregation went prostrate, there was an uproar and Turner abandoned the meeting. They adjourned to the United Presbyterian Church to continue.
During one of these meetings two ministers came to investigate the work, they became very interested in the state of a young girl with regard to her posture and voice. Whilst bent down close to her, one of the ministers in acknowledgement to the other minister said “Sir, I must confess this is the work of God”. There are many stories like these of God moving people, including the very young, but somehow unless you are in a particular church circle, one does not hear of those happenings, or of any today.
Revivalists
The period of revivalists is a period of interest to us even more so in these days as you read this brief history.
Robert Murray McCheyne and Andrew Bonar, during their college years came "under the spell of the meteoric message of Edward Irwing before his excesses in doctrine had lead him far away from the beaten track" (whatever that means!).
Irwing had, as with Thomas Erskine and John Macleod Campbell been not far from the debates as they challenged and stretched the Calvinistic views that prevailed. In an era of all things mechanical, steam engines, bridges, and great advancements in construction, perhaps the Christian walk was not a simple tick box check-list, a system or procedure of sorts but something far more.
As with the Welsh Revival of 1904 people were influenced by the Spirit in as much as they felt:
Unworthiness concerning personal sin.
A need to remove doubt and to act in faith.
Total surrender to God's Spirit.
A public confession of Christ.
On 22nd August 1860 4,000 people gathered to hear a message addressed by all Churches on the Inshes on the south side of Perth. Earlier that year in Buckie (12 Feb, 1860) 1,500 which is the half the population, attended the Free Church to hear James Turner. Some of the congregation went prostrate, there was an uproar and Turner abandoned the meeting. They adjourned to the United Presbyterian Church to continue.
During one of these meetings two ministers came to investigate the work, they became very interested in the state of a young girl with regard to her posture and voice. Whilst bent down close to her, one of the ministers in acknowledgement to the other minister said “Sir, I must confess this is the work of God”. There are many stories like these of God moving people, including the very young, but somehow unless you are in a particular church circle, one does not hear of those happenings, or of any today.
Revivalists
The period of revivalists is a period of interest to us even more so in these days as you read this brief history.
Robert Murray McCheyne and Andrew Bonar, during their college years came "under the spell of the meteoric message of Edward Irwing before his excesses in doctrine had lead him far away from the beaten track" (whatever that means!).
Irwing had, as with Thomas Erskine and John Macleod Campbell been not far from the debates as they challenged and stretched the Calvinistic views that prevailed. In an era of all things mechanical, steam engines, bridges, and great advancements in construction, perhaps the Christian walk was not a simple tick box check-list, a system or procedure of sorts but something far more.
4 comments:
Any idea how this awakening in the clyde started off?
Possibly from Northern Ireland?....
but somehow unless you are in a particular church circle, one does not hear of those happenings, or of any today.
The reason is simple Brian, and I think the response to the Solemn Assembly proved it, why does the church need revival, it seems to believe that all is well and that there is no sin in the church, there is no need for faith as we have programs and procedures, there is no recogognition of the working of the Spirit, and our public confession only seems to extend to people who come to us rather than us going out to them.
Unworthiness concerning personal sin.
A need to remove doubt and to act in faith.
Total surrender to God's Spirit.
A public confession of Christ.
In Dallas Willard's book "The Divine Conspiracy" he notices that on examination of local gatherings of Christian believers .... it seems a general law of social and historical development, that institutions tend to distort and destroy the central function that brought it into existence.
Clyde Reid, in his law of religious evasion, states "we structure our churches and maintain them, so as to shield us from God, and to protect us from genuine religious experience". Adult members of Churches today, rarely raise serious religious questions for fear of revealing their doubts, or being thought of as strange. There is a conspiracy of silence on religious matters in the Church. This conspiracy covers up the fact that Churches do not change lives or influence conduct to any appreciable degree. It was the case, in the 18th and 19th century and still is the case in the 20th and 21st.
B
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