The Scottish Revival (Western Isles)
When the Mountains Flowed Down - Duncan
Campbell
Duncan Campbell: Duncan Campbell (1898-1972) was raised in the
Highlands of Scotland. He came to know God as a teenager and
served congregations of the United Free Church (Presbyterian) and
as an itinerant evangelist. In addition to his involvement in the
Lewis Awakening, he was much in demand as a speaker throughout
the British Isles.
All Scriptures KJV: This article is adapted from a taped
message delivered by Mr. Duncan Campbell approximately thirty
years ago to the students of the Faith Mission Bible College in
Edinburgh, Scotland. It chronicles some of Mr. Campbell's
experiences and insights related to the revival from 1949-1953 in
Hebrides Islands off the northwestern coast of Scotland.
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest
come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. As
when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to
boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the
nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible
things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains
flowed down at thy presence. Isaiah 64:1-3
I never read that third verse without my mind going back to
what actually happened in the parish of Barvas on the island of
Lewis. At the outset, let me make it clear that I did not bring
revival to the Hebrides. I had the privilege of being there and
in some small way leading the movement for about three years but
God moved in the parish of Barvas before I set foot on the
island. Revival is still a sign which is spoken against, and you
cannot believe every story you have heard about the Lewis
Awakening. Down through the years things have been said which
have no foundation in fact, however, facts are powerful things.
Revival Defined
First, let me tell you what I mean by revival. An evangelistic
campaign or special meeting is not revival. In a successful
evangelistic campaign or crusade, there will be hundreds or even
thousands of people making decisions for Jesus Christ, but the
community remains untouched, and the churches continue much the
same as before the outreach. In revival, God moves in the
district. Suddenly, the community becomes God conscious. The
Spirit of God grips men and women in such a way that even work is
given up as people give themselves to waiting upon God. In the
midst of the Lewis Awakening, the parish minister at Barvas
wrote, "The Spirit of the Lord was resting wonderfully on
the different townships of the region. His Presence was in the
homes of the people, on meadow and moorland, and even on the
public roads." This presence of God is the supreme
characteristic of a God-sent revival. Of the hundreds who found
Jesus Christ during this time fully seventy-five per cent were
saved before they came near a meeting or heard a sermon by myself
or any other ministers in the parish. The power of God, the
Spirit of God, was moving in operation, and the fear of God
gripped the souls of men - this is God-sent revival as distinct
from special efforts in the field of evangelism.
A Foundation of Intercession and Vision
How did this gracious movement begin? In 1949, the local
presbytery issued a proclamation to be read on a certain Sunday
in all the Free Churches on the island of Lewis. This
proclamation called the people to consider the "low state of
vital religion . . . throughout the land . . .... and the present
dispensation of Divine displeasure . . . due to growing
carelessness toward public worship . . . and the growing
influence of the spirit of pleasure which has taken growing hold
of the younger generation." They called on the churches to
"take these matters to heart and to make serious inquiry
what must be the end if there be no repentance. We call upon
every individual as before God to examine his or her life in
light of that responsibility which attends to us all and that
happily in divine mercy we may be visited with a spirit of
repentance and turn again to the Lord whom we have so
grieved." I am not prepared to say what effect the reading
of this declaration had upon the ministers or people of the
island in general, but I do know that in the parish of Barvas a
number of men and women took it to heart, especially two old
women. I am ashamed to think of it - two sisters, one eighty-two
and one eight-four, the latter blind. These two women developed a
great heart concern for God to do something in the parish and
gave themselves to waiting upon God in their little cottage.
One night God gave one of the sisters a vision. Now, we have
got to understand that in revival remarkable things happen. It is
supernatural; you are not moving on human levels; you are moving
in divine places. In the vision, she saw the churches crowded
with young people and she told her sister, "I believe
revival is coming to the parish." At that time, there was
not a single young person attending public worship, a fact which
cannot be disputed. Sending for the minister, she told him her
story, and he took her message as a word from God to his heart.
Turning to her he said, "What do you think we should
do?" What?" she said, "Give yourself to prayer;
give yourself to waiting upon God. Get your elders and deacons
together and spend at least two nights a week waiting upon God in
prayer. If you will do that at your end of the parish, my sister
and I will do it at our end of the parish from ten o'clock at
night until two or three o'clock in the morning." So, the
minister called his leaders together and for several months they
waited upon God in a barn among the straw. During this time they
plead one promise, "For I will pour water upon him that is
thirsty, and floods upon dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon
thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring" (Isaiah
44:3). This went on for at least three months. Nothing happened.
But one night a young deacon rose and began reading from Psalm
24, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who
shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a
pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord,
and righteousness from the God of his salvation" (Psalm
24:3-5). Closing his Bible, he addressed the minister and other
office bearers in words that sound crude in English, but not so
crude in our Gaelic language, "It seems to me so much
humbug. To be waiting as we are waiting, to be praying as we are
praying, when we ourselves are not rightly related to God."
Then, he lifted his hands toward heaven and prayed, "O God,
are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?" Then, he went to his
knees and fell into a trance. Now, don't ask me to explain the
physical manifestations of this movement because I can't, but
this I do know, that something happened in the barn at that
moment in that young deacon. There was a power loosed that shook
the heavens and an awareness of God gripped those gathered
together.
Breakthrough in Barvas
Now, I wasn't in the island at the time. I was in another area
when word came asking me to come to Lewis for ten days. I had
other meetings scheduled and wrote back that I would put Barvas
on my calender for the following year. However, do to
circumstances I won't go into, my other meetings were canceled,
and I found it possible to go to the islands as requested.
Arriving by boat, I was met by the minister of the church and one
of his office bearers. As I stepped ashore, the office bearer
came to me and said, "Mr. Campbell, may I ask you a
question? Are you walking with God?" I was happy to be able
to respond, "I can say this at any rate, I fear God."
They had arranged for me to address the church at a short
meeting beginning at nine o'clock that night. It was a remarkable
meeting. God sovereignly moved, and there was an awareness of God
which was wonderful. The meeting lasted until four o'clock in the
morning, and I had not witnessed anything to compare with it at
any other time during my ministry. Around midnight, a group of
young people left a dance and crowded into the church. There were
people who couldn't go to sleep because they were so gripped by
God. Although there was an awareness of God and a spirit of
conviction at this initial meeting, the real breakthrough came a
few days later on Sunday night in the parish church. The church
was full, and the Spirit of God was moving in such a way that I
couldn't preach. I just stood still and gazed upon the wondrous
moving of God. Men and women were crying out to God for mercy all
over the church. There was no appeal made whatsoever. After
meeting for over three hours, I pronounced the benediction and
told the people to go out, but mentioned that any who wanted to
continue the meeting could come back later. A young deacon came
to me and said, "Mr. Campbell, God is hovering over
us." About that time the clerk of the session asked me to
come to the back door. There was a crowd of at least 600 people
gathered in the yard outside the church... Someone gave out Psalm
102 and the crowd streamed back in to the church which could no
longer hold the number of people. A young school teacher came
down front crying out, "O God, is there nothing left for
me?" She is a missionary in Nigeria today. There was a bus
load of people coming to the meeting from sixty miles away. The
power of God came into the bus so that some could not even enter
the church when the bus arrived. People were swooning all over
the church, and I cannot remember one single person who was moved
on by God that night who was not gloriously born again. When I
went out of the church at four o'clock in the morning there were
a great number of people praying alongside the road. In addition
to the school teacher, several of those born again that night are
in foreign mission work today.
In Church, Meadow, and Moorland
>From Barvas, the move of God spread to the neighboring
districts. I received a message that a nearby church was crowded
at one o'clock in the morning and wanted me to come. When I
arrived, the church was full and there were crowds outside.
Coming out of the church two hours later, I found a group of 300
people, unable to get into the church, praying in a nearby field.
One old woman complained about the noise of the meetings because
she could not get to sleep. A deacon grabbed her and shook her,
saying, "Woman, you have been asleep long enough!"
There was one area of the islands which wanted me to come but
I didn't feel any leading to accept the invitation. The blind
sister encouraged me to go and told me, "If you were living
as near to God as you ought to be, He would reveal His secrets to
you." I agreed to spend a morning in prayer with her in the
cottage. As we prayed, the sister said, "Lord, you remember
what you told me today that you were going to save seven men in
this church. I just gave your message to Mr. Campbell and please
give him wisdom because he badly needs it." She told me if I
would go to the village, God would provide a congregation. I
agreed to go, and when I arrived at seven o'clock, there were
approximately 400 people at the church. The people could not tell
what it was that had brought them; it had been directed by the
Spirit of God. I spoke for a few minutes on the text "And
the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all
men everywhere to repent' (Acts 17:30). One of the ministers
stopped me and said, "Come see this." At one end of the
meeting house, the most notorious characters in the community
were on their faces crying out to God.
On a trip to a neighboring island I found the people were very
cold and stiff. Calling for some men to come over and pray, I
particular requested that a young man named Donald accompany
them. Donald, who was seventeen years old, had been recently
saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit about two weeks later on a
hillside. As we were in the church that night, Donald was sitting
toward the front with tears falling off his face onto the floor.
I knew Donald was in touch with God in a way that I was not. So I
stopped preaching and asked him to pray. Donald rose to his feet
and prayed, "I seem to be gazing into an open door and see
the Lamb in the midst of the throne and the keys of death and
hell on his waist." Then he stopped and began to sob. After
he composed himself, he lifted his eyes toward heaven, raised his
hands, and said, "God, there is power there. Let it
loose!" And at that moment the power of God fell upon the
congregation. On one side of the room, the people threw up their
hands, put their heads back and kept them in that position for
two hours. It is hard to do this for ten minutes, much less two
hours. On the other side, the people were slumped over, crying
out for mercy. In a village five miles away, the power of God
swept through the town and there was hardly a house in that
village that didn't have someone saved in it that night.
In one area of the district there was bitter opposition to the
movement because I preached the baptism of the Holy Ghost as a
separate and distinct occurrence following conversion. Those who
opposed me were so successful in their opposition that very few
people came to the meetings. One night, the session clerk came to
me and said, "There is only one thing we can do to the
correct the situation which now prevails. We must give ourselves
to waiting upon God in prayer. I have been told there is a farmer
who said we could meet in his home. He is not a Christian and his
wife isn't saved, but they are God-fearing people." About
thirty of us, ministers and elders from the district, met in this
farmer's house. I felt the going very, very hard. I prayed. All
the ministers prayed. One felt that the very powers of hell were
unleashed. About midnight I turned to one of the elders and told
him I thought the time had come for him to lay hold of God. This
man rose to his feet and prayed for about half and hour. (Of
course, you must remember that we were in revival, and in revival
time doesn't exist. Nobody was looking at the clock.) The man
paused, lifted his hand toward heaven and said, "God, did
You know that your honor is a stake? You gave the promise that
You would pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry
ground, and You are not doing it." I wonder how many of us
could approach God with words like that on our lips? Then he
said, "There are five ministers in this meeting, including
Mr. Campbell, and I don't know where a one of them stands in Your
Presence. But if I know anything about my own heart, I think I
can say that I am thirsty for a manifestation of Your
power." He paused again, then cried out in aloud voice,
"God, Your honor is at stake and I now challenge You to pour
water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground." And in
that moment the stone-built house literally shook like a leaf. I
immediately went to the Acts of the Apostles where it is recorded
that they prayed and the place where they were assembled was
shaken. As soon as this dear man stopped praying, I pronounced
the benediction a little after two o'clock in the morning and
went out to find the whole village ablaze with God. I went into
one house and found nine women on their knees in the kitchen
crying out to God. One woman saved that night has written some of
the finest Gaelic hymns in our Gaelic hymnal. On the following
Sunday, the road was black with the people walking two miles to
the church. The drinking house in that particular village closed
that night and has never reopened since. This is God at work. A
God sent revival is always a revival of holiness.
Conclusion
It takes the supernatural to break the bonds of the natural.
You can make a community mission-conscious. You can make a
community crusade-conscious. But only God can make a community
God-conscious. Just think about what would happen if God came to
any community in power. I believe that day is coming. May God
prepare us all for it. Amen
Source: International Revival Network: archive.openheaven.com.
May be freely copied provided source and/or copyrights are included with the
text.
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