Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 1 AUTHETIC RECORDS OF REVIVAL Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 3 Authentic Records of Revival NOW IN PROGRESS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM EDITED BY REV. WILLIAM REID, M.A. AUTHOR OF “STREAMS FROM LEBANON,” “THE BLOOD OF JESUS,” ETC. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HORATIUS BONAR, D.D. Quinta Press Weston Rhyn 2008 Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 4 Quinta Press Meadow View, Weston Rhyn, Oswestry, Shropshire, England, SY10 7RN Visit our web-site: http://www.quintapress.com ISBN 1 897856 xx x Layout copyright Quinta Press © 2008 4 Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 5 AUTHENTIC RECORDS OF REVIVAL, NOW IN PROGRESS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. EDITED BY THE REV. WILLIAM REID, M.A., AUTHOR OF “STREAMS FROM LEBANON,” “THE BLOOD OF JESUS,” ETC, WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HORATIUS BONAR, D.D. ii PUBLISHED IN 1860 BY JAMES NISBET & CO. OF LONDON 5 Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 6 6 AUTHENTIC RECORDS OF REVIVAL Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 7 iii PREFACE. THE present volume, which has been in course of publication as a serial since the month of February, is believed to be fully as reliable as any of the many works which have appeared in connexion with the present religious awakening. Towards the end of last summer the writer commenced a weekly serial, embodying principally the narrative of the awakening which was then at its height in the North of Ireland; but after conducting it for a period of eighteen weeks it was discontinued, and, after the lapse of a brief interval, the present work was commenced. The volume of last year, which contained twice as much matter as the present, served a good purpose at the time; but as it was composed, for the most part, of information collected from public and unauthenticated sources, persons who were anxious to regard iv the revival movement with an unfavourable eye could have cavilled at its details, and doubted its veracity; and as the writer did not know the private sources whence its contents were drawn he could not vouch for their perfect accuracy. But in reference to the present volume, the authenticity and genuineness of the matter it contains are removed entirely from the region of dubiety by getting ministers to give narratives of the work of the Spirit of God as they themselves have seen it in its manifestations and results among their people. The contents of the present work, having been furnished in this way, are unchallengeable; and the Editor believes they will be received by every candid reader as thoroughly correct, and perfectly reliable. Ministers, missionaries, and Sabbath-school teachers will find in it a great number of very important facts and incidents, which they can use with confidence for the benefit of those who are under their instruction; and it is believed that a perusal of the volume will have a very salutary 7 Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 8 8 AUTHENTIC RECORDS OF REVIVAL effect upon the minds of all who read it with a sincere desire to be improved by it; and, if the Lord tarry, the Holy Spirit may render it useful in a coming age, “shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that v he hath done,” and may thus make it the germ of revival in the distant future. The Editor gratefully acknowledges his obligations to the writers of the different narratives which appear in the following pages. They belong to various sections of the Christian Church; but their communications are pervaded with that catholicity of spirit which will go far to make them interesting to all readers who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Every paper stands upon its own merits; and no author is to be regarded as responsible for the matter contained in any contribution save his own. Some slight difference of opinion will be found among them with regard to the accessories of the work of revival; but they are all agreed as to its reality and good results. In this volume we have the concurrent testimony of a very considerable number of trustworthy witnesses to the great fact, that, in different localities—some of them five hundred miles apart from each other—a genuine, extensive, and permanent work of the Spirit of God has occurred. We are living in remarkable times. The Holy Spirit is working marvellously upon the minds of men. But who among us is sufficiently thankful to the God of all grace that in the course of a few months He has rendered it possible for volume after volume to be vi issued from the press filled with the most striking narratives of “His doings among the people? “We were wont to make much of the conversion of a few souls. “Would it not be a mournful thing if we could now read of the conversion of tens of thousands without being suitably impressed and influenced by it? July 1860. Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 9 CONTENTS. PAGE Modern Hostility to Revivals. By HORATIUS BONAR, D.D., 1 Fisherwick Place Church, Belfast. By J. MORGAN, D.D. 10 Ballycarry. By the Rev. JOHN STUART,17 Boveva. By the Rev. ADAM MAGILL,22 Armagh. By the Rev. J.R. M’ALISTER,31 Boardmills. By the Rev. G.H. SHANKS,37 The Things which we have Seen and Heard. By the Rev. WM. B LAIR, A.M., United Presbyterian Church, Dunblane, 46 Trinity Church, Belfast. By the Rev. THEOPHILUS CAMPBELL, M.A., Incumbent, 64 Islandmagee, near Carrickfergus. By the Rev. WILLIAM CAMPBELL,79 Portrush. By the Rev. JONATHAN SIMPSON,81 Great George’s Street Church, Belfast. By the Rev. THOMAS TOYE,113 “What hath God Wrought!” An Account of a Visit to Ireland and Glasgow in December 1859. By the Rev. J. BARBOUR JOHNSTONE, Wolflee, 119 Straid. By the Rev. JAMES BAIN, Pastor of the Independent Church,143 Minterburn. By the Rev. A. GRAY, A.M., 151 Lines Written on Reading an Account of the Ulster Revival. By the Rev. J. LEWERS, Albany, New York, 159 Ahoghill. By the Rev. F. BUICK, 161 viii Dundee. By the Rev. W.B. BORWICK, 174 Facts and Impressions. By the Rev. JOHN PILLANS, Perth, 190 9 Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 10 10 AUTHENTIC RECORDS OF REVIVAL Ballykelly. By the Rev. T.Y. KILLEN,198 History and Character of the Present Religious Revival in Ireland. By JOHN EDGAR, D.D., Professor of Divinity, Belfast, 215 Carnmoney. By the Rev. JOSEPH BARKLEY,235 Keady. By W.H. CARSON, D.D., 241 Castlecaulfield, near Dungannon. By the Rev. JOSEPH ACHESON, 248 Carrickfergus. By the Rev. JAMES WARWICK, Joymount Presbyterian Church, Carrickfergus, 254 East Gorbals Free Church Mission-District Sabbath-School, Glasgow. By the SUPERINTENDENT, 266 Ancrum Roxburghshire. By the Rev. JOHN M’EWA N, 273 Cross Roads, near Omagh. By the Rev. JOHN HAMILTON,277 Closeburn, Dumfriesshire. By the Rev. JAMES HUTTON,280 Newtownards. By the Rev. GEORGE HUGHES, 287 Times of Refreshing. By the Rev. J. DENHAM SMITH, Kingstown, Dublin, 303 Eyemouth, Berwickshire. By the Rev. JOHN TURNBULL, 321 Newtonlimavady, County Derry. By the Rev. NATHANAEL MACAULAY BROW N,336 Deskford, Banffshire. By the Rev. WILLIAM J. KER,349 Londonderry. By the Rev. RICHARD SMYTH, M.A., 359 Dunbar, North Berwick, and Cockenzie. By the Rev. JAMES DODDS, Dunbar, 377 Helensburgh, Dumbartonshire. By the Rev. JOHN ANDERSON,391 London. By the Rev. J. WEIR, D.D., of Islington, 401 Pulteneytown, Wick. By the Rev. GEORGE STEVENSON,431 Carrubber’s Close Mission, Edinburgh. By the Rev. J. BARBOUR JOHNSTONE, Wolflee, 451 Cellardyke. By the Rev. ALEX. G REGORY, M.A., Anstruther, 461 Authentic Records v2.qxp:Authentic Records of Revival 6 12 2008 19:01 Page 11 1 RECORDS OF REVIVAL. MODERN HOSTILITY TO REVIVALS. BY HORATIUS BONAR, D.D. THE world has condemned” revivals”—not the name merely, but the thing. It speaks out privately, both in conversation and in letters. It speaks out publicly in its newspapers and literary journals. Though some of its organs have been silent, though others have chronicled “revival facts” as items of needful intelligence, yet its leading organs have given verdict against them in warm and insulting language; the verdict, as it is reckoned, of modern intellect and philosophic candour. Though not so actively. intolerant as in last century, the world, under the progress of the nineteenth, is quite as hostile as the eighteenth, and indicates no abatement of malignity. It has not yet summoned the mob to stone the preacher and scatter the congregation; it has left that to the Romish priest; yet it hints that there is room for the interference of magistracy and police, to protect the sober-minded community from the contagion of a fanaticism, which the world dreads as much as it hates. The attack has, as yet, been more general than special; individual ministers or others, doers of the work, have been 2 spared. It was not so in the days of Whitefield and his fellows. He “Stood pilloried on infamy’s high stage, And bore the pelting scorn of half an age; The very butt of slander, and the blot For every dart that malice ever shot.