A bit of Sunday reflection and consider the"awakening" some years ago if you go to my previous post on awakening you will find out a bit more about historic changes in the community.
Come back and consider:
What signs are there of people looking for faith?
What is in my church or community to encourage faith?
Where are the hindrances?
Am I the blockage to an "awakening" ?
For a community to be revived some would save certain conditions are required or helpful. What are these conditions?
When an awaking took place in the past in the islands, Rev Kenneth Macrae had strict tests to affirm it was a work of God and not just some minor hysteria.
He as well as other denominations would hear reports at there centres of works in communities. ( Free church, Church of Scotland, Scottish Baptist Union etc.)
By 1939 a wide revival work was present in lewis. At the Free Church
Assembly he( Kenneth Macrae) recorded “evidences... that the Lord is effectively
working in the hearts of men”.
There was concern over certain
phenomena. At Point meetings were reverent and with solemnity. There
was elements of excitement and hysteria. Yet clear evidence of
lasting conversions.
By 1938 the phenomena of swooning,
of out cries, of temporary paralysis of limbs and muscular spasms or
jerks drew much attention. The press searched for stories. People
would collapse, others rise together, some weep or call in Gaelic on
their relatives. Some lost all power to their limbs and would be
carried to other rooms to recover. These things caused controversy.
Some ministers affirmed the physical effects as God's. In their
thinking All the phenomena was linked to revival. Others were
concerned how the media were presenting the situation.
MacRae spoke at one meeting of the
Free Church Stornoway on the:
Unusual features of the present
religious movement in lewis.
He was convinced there was a revival
in Lewis and a work of God. But he wanted people to consider some of
the peculiar features of it.
In particular MacRae wished the
meeting to consider that in Park... convulsive fits.
Grimshader ...trembling or
tremors...with crying.
At point and Shader ...trances and
women praying and exhorting ( ...and a good deal of disorder). He noted further:
- Those or some could not give an explanation to what was happening. Rather than looking for the work of the Holy Spirit people were disappointed if there was no manifestations.
- Secondly MacRae saw a sense of superior order of Christians taking hold with those who had experienced some of the manifestations.
- He felt that matters might lead to unscriptural extravagances.
He also talked and reported on other
happenings in the country, quoting Kilsyth and Cambuslang.
He concluded that the manifestations
were neither good or evil but hysteria.
He quoted the medical observations
for hysteria.
- Highly strung people mainly young women
- Infectious
- Associated with convulsions tremors and trances
- Attacks are always in an audience never alone.
- Those effected say they could not help themselves.
- If wanted to those effected could have controlled themselves.
- Delusions and hallucinations
- Consciousness not lost.
MacRae was concluding that mass
hysteria was happening in Lewis and his concern was separating it
from the work of the Holy Spirit.
Hi did specifically acknowledge the
work of the Holy Spirit at that time.
Quoting the action of McChenye from
Dundee. He was supporting the need to have religious meetings closed
by 11.00 pm. “Lest Good be evil spoken”.
It is clear from MacRae there is a
need to discern what is of God and a work of the Holy Spirit and what
is not. While he saw the Lewis revival as of God, not all was his
making. It is easy to be tricked in times of revival to assume all
phenomena are in connection with the spirit of God, and to question
it is to hinder that Revival. There is a more discerning Church
today- but a good warning nevertheless.
There have been many Scottish
revivals and in particular in the 19th century the country
had “breakouts” in different parts. Alexander Macrae tells us
that almost all revivals have been started by lay preachers. He has
also noted that some if not all revivals have started when someone
talked about a previous revival. The retelling of past works has
inspired and moved the hearts of others. Whilst we would acknowledge
that a Blessing of God transforms a meeting which can continue into
revival, it is when people “work at it” with a sense of urgency
and expectation that we see results in terms of a deepening of faith
across communities. The work of the Haldanes is a good example of
this. The North East coast revival in 1921 shows the spread and
catalytic effect from a work. it started in Norfolk in 1921 and
spread to Caithness Scotland the the travelling movement of the
fishermen.
Now go back and ask the questions at the begining of this post again and reflect.
Caithness work -on this blog
Alexander Macrae,
Revivals in the Highlands and Islands, 1998
Kenneth MacRae,
Diary of Kenneth MacRae
