Mount Carmel Revival Ministries: Articles of Interest

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2009-06-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

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A Voice From the Past Speaks to Our Hurting Society

2009-05-16T03:57:00.000-07:00

"Fathers and mothers, watch over your children. Keep them from the world. Train them up for the world to come. Draw out their young hearts in admiration of the coming glory, so that earth's vanities shall fade from their eye. Be careful as to what books or magazines they read. Discriminate between the useful and the useless, between the wholesome and the poisonous. Lead them not into temptation. As the world goes on its apostasy from God and its deification of humanity, its snares will become more subtle and its falsehoods more beautiful, especially for the young heart and eye. Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. No amount of so-called 'progress' or 'culture' or 'liberality' can make that gate wider or that way broader, either for yourselves or your children." Horatius Bonar

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Now is the Time for 'Women of Excellence' to Confront Feminism

2009-05-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Allow us to introduce............

THE SUCCESSFUL CHRISTIAN FAMILIES PACK

3 DVD TALKS FOR ONLY £ 9 !
[1] The Need for Biblical Men
[2] The Need for Biblical Women
[3] The Need for Strong Families

Feminism is an evil cancer that is destroying our evangelical marriages, families and churches. It can only be reversed by a return to biblical manhood, biblical womanhood and strong biblical families. We need to see an upsurge in positive femininity and true womanhood in order to counteract the ugly, repulsive, destructiveness that constitutes feminism.

All of these DVD recordings are of an exceptionally high quality, the speaker is Pastor Billy Crone (a former sceptic). They are essential viewing for all married couples and every young person who is not yet married. They belong in every single church library and youth programme.

POSTAGE & PACKING IS FREE OF CHARGE.

Please make cheques out to ‘Nigel Owens’ and send them to: Women of Excellence Ministries, 3 Hebron Heights, Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, BT53 7LQ.

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The 1859 Revival - When Heaven Opened!

2009-03-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

Prior to the outbreak of revival in 1859, one evangelical minister wrote that his congregation:

"seemed dead to God, formal, cold, prayerless, worldly, and stingy in religious things...All along I believed that the faithful use of the means of grace would be followed by their effects, as certainly as the tillage of a field is followed by a good crop, or as diligence in any profession is attended with success; and great was my disappointment, as year after year passed, yet still no fruit; no outpouring of the Spirit. I wondered and was grieved at what seemed so mysterious. What alarmed me most was the indisposition, almost hostility, of the people to meetings for prayer. They seemed mostly to think that they were well enough, and that I was unnecessarily disturbing them. I had never been so despondent or distressed as during the weeks immediately preceding the awakening. I had almost ceased to hope."

Another evangelical minister said of the years preceding the 1859 Revival:

"There seemed great coldness and deadness. I had preached the gospel faithfully, earnestly, and plainly, for eleven years; yet it was not known to me that a single individual had been converted."

Then however.....the revival hit and everything changed!
"A revival, then, really means days of heaven upon earth." D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"Revivals begin with God's own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and gives them new fervour and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones...Oh, what responsibility this lays on the Church of God! If you grieve Him away from yourselves, or hinder His visit, then the poor perishing world suffers sorely!" Andrew Bonar

"We often have a tinted view of revival as a time of glory and joy and swelling numbers queuing to enter the churches. That is only part of the story. Before the glory and joy, there is conviction; and that begins with the people of God. There are tears of godly sorrow. There are wrongs to put right, secret things...to be thrown out, and bad relationships, hidden for years, to be repaired openly. If we are not prepared for this, we had better not pray for revival." Brian Edwards

"We cannot organise revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again." G. Campbell Morgan

"In the Irish Revival of 1859, people became so weak that they could not get back to their homes. Men and women would fall by the wayside and would be found hours later pleading with God to save their souls. They felt that they were slipping into Hell and that nothing else in life mattered but to get right with God...To them eternity meant everything. Nothing else was of any consequence. They felt that if God did not have mercy on them and save them, they were doomed for all time to come." Oswald Smith

C.H. Spurgeon had this to say about the 1859 Revival in Ulster:

'Witness the great revival which is going on in and around Belfast. After carefully looking at the matter, and after seeing a trusty and well-beloved brother who lived in that neighbourhood, I am convinced, notwithstanding what enemies may say, that it is a genuine work of grace, and that God is doing wonders there. A friend who called to see me yesterday, tells me that the lowest and vilest men, the most depraved females in Belfast, have been visited with this extraordinary epilepsy, as the world calls it; but with this strange rushing of the Spirit, as we have it. Men who have been drunkards have suddenly felt an impulse compelling them to pray. They have resisted; they have sought their cups in order to put it out; but when they have been swearing , seeking to quench the Spirit by their blasphemy, God has at last brought them on their knees, and they have been compelled to cry for mercy with piercing shrieks, and to agonize in prayer; and then after a time, the Evil one seems to have been cast out of them, and in a quiet, holy, happy frame of mind, they have made a profession of their faith in Christ, and have walked in his fear and love."

"Roman Catholics have been converted. I thought that an extraordinary thing; but they have been converted very frequently indeed in Ballymena and Belfast. In fact, I am told the priests are now selling small bottles of holy water for people to take, in order that they may be preserved from this desperate contagion of the Holy Spirit. This holy water is said to have such efficacy, that those who do not attend any of the meetings are not likely to be meddled with by the Holy Spirit - so the priests tell them. But if they go to the meetings, even this holy water cannot preserve them - they are as liable to fall a prey to the Divine influence. I think they are just as likely to do so without as with it."

"All this has been brought about suddenly, and although we may expect to find some portion of natural excitement, yet I am persuaded it is in the main a real, spiritual, and an abiding work. There is a little froth on the surface, but there is a deep current that is not to be resisted, sweeping underneath, and carrying everything before it. At least, there is something to awaken our interest, when we understand that in the small town of Ballymena on market day, the publicans have always taken one hundred pounds for whiskey, and now they cannot take a sovereign all day long in all the public houses. Men who were once drunkards now meet for prayer, and people after hearing one sermon will not go until the minister has preached another, and sometimes a third; and at last he is obliged to say: 'You must go, I am exhausted'. Then they will break up into groups in their streets and in their houses, crying out to God to let this mighty work spread, that sinners may be converted unto him. 'Well,' says one, 'we cannot believe it'. Very likely you cannot, but some of us can, for we have heard it with our ears, and our fathers have told us the mighty works that God did in their days, and we are prepared to believe that God can do the like works now'."

Taken from the sermon 'The Story of God's Mighty Acts' - preached on the Sunday morning of 17th July 1859 (reprinted in 'Revival Year Sermons' published by Banner of Truth).

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SPECIAL OFFERS!

2009-03-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

SPECIAL OFFERS! Receive 'one DVD & one CD of your choice' OR 'three CDs of your choice' for every £5 donation you make to our ministry! Please click here for further details.

'CATHOLIC EVANGELISM PACK' - 13 talks for only £ 12.00. Order here.

2009 Defending the Faith Conference DVDs & CDs are now available! Five DVDs for a gift of only £ 9.00. Seven CDs for a gift of only £ 8.00. Order here.

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Let My Children Go: the Positive Case for Home Schooling

2009-02-18T03:30:00.000-08:00

This article is a bit old, therefore some of the legal information contained therein might be a little out of date. We therefore recommend that you check anything of a legal nature with a solicitor.

What is best for our children ? Where should they learn ? What should they be taught ?

We have all asked ourselves these questions from time to time. Every good parent loves their children and wants nothing but the very best for them.

To that end, we invite you to consider the positive reasons for educating your children at home.

Is it right to home educate ?

For those of us holding to the importance of integrity and Judeo-Christian family values, this ought always to be the very first question we ask when faced with a decision-making situation.........is it right ?

The Christian Bible does not command us to send our children to a state school. Formal education, as we know it, was largely unknown until recent times.

Rather; we – i.e. the parents – are commanded to train up our children in the way that they should go so that, when they are old, they will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).

Ephesians 6:4 uses the Greek word ‘paideia’ to describe correct parenting as something that includes training or educating the child in a way that includes the whole process of instruction and discipline. Deuteronomy 6 is more candid – showing that the entire child teaching process should be woven into and continued through every single part of your children's daily routine.

How can we therefore justify franchising out this important, God-given responsibility to a biased, immoral state system that hates, detests and actively works against everything we hold dear ? Much of what goes on in state schools today is nothing short of cynical brainwashing and failed social engineering.

From a Judeo-Christian, faith-based perspective - it is much easier to justify home schooling than it is to justify state ‘education’.

No one, especially the government, cares for children, or knows what’s best for them, like parents. This is a central tenet of our Christian belief and something on which we can never yield.

Is it legal to home educate ?

It is perfectly legal to school your children at home. Education is compulsory - but sending your child to a state school in order to receive it, is not compulsory.

The 1996 Education Act, Section 7 says that it is the duty of “the parent of every child of compulsory school age” to ensure that their child receives “efficient, full-time education suitable to his age, ability and aptitude, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise”. This act applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland but does not apply to Scotland.

In England and Wales, all you need to do is notify your child's school about your decision to home educate.

In Scotland however, the law is different and, whilst parents do not need permission to home educate, they do have to seek consent in order to withdraw their child from the state school. Due to these differences in Scottish law, parents should contact Schoolhouse Scotland Home Education Assoc for accurate legal informtation and guidance, especially when dealing with schools and Local Education Authorities. It is highly recommended that Scottish parents avail themselves of the invaluable services offered by Schoolhouse Scotland because, in the words of one expert:

"Every day I am contacted by families whose local authority bully and lie about the law on home education. Often the family has been unaware of their rights until they contact Schoolhouse Scotland and have believed that not only do they have to follow a timetable at home but they also have to allow officers to inspect their homes. It is an uphill battle to get these local authority officials to comply with the law."

If you do choose to educate your children at home, then you must, legally speaking, provide them with a learning environment where they can learn, develop and grow at their own pace. The LEA (Local Education Authority) can only justifiably intervene if parents are failing to meet these obligations.

Furthermore, there is no need to work at a table all day. The UN Declaration of Human Rights states in Article 26 that, “education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality…parents shall have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children”. Therefore, not only is the practice of home schooling perfectly legal, but there is also considerable freedom allowed in how it is composed and put into practice.

Is it practical to home educate ?
Home education, whilst requiring hard work and commitment, is not as difficult or daunting as it appears. Here are seven practical advantages that home school has over state schools:

[1] your child receives a massive amount of quality, continuous one-to-one tuition;

[2] you are able to control the environment and discipline;

[3] you can set the agenda and choose the curriculum;

[4] you can practically introduce and demonstrate the central role that your Judeo-Christian values play in all things and decisions, great and small;

[5] you can instil the moral reality of life as ‘a fully integrated whole’ where objective, values-based worldviews permeate every aspect – rather than the subjective, relativist model where everything is divided into watertight compartments and subjected to situation ethics;

[6] you can build and maintain closer, fuller and more loving relationships with your children;

[7] you are free to set your own hours, timetable and holidays – home education typically occupies much less time than state education, usually 3 or 4 hours per day.

In fact, the advantages are so compelling that many parents, religious and non-religious, opt for home schooling on this basis alone – regardless of worsening conditions in state schools and state education.

Is it natural to home educate ?
Of course! Nothing could be more natural. The family is, after all, personally instituted by God as His primary unit for society. As such, it is the first school.

In it, children have the advantage of being able to relate to adults and children of all ages, rather than just a restricted peer group, as is the case in state schools.

Can home educated children be equipped for life in the real, outside world ?
When home school children go to college, tutors are frequently impressed by their maturity and ability to integrate, more so than children from the state system.

The reason for this is that children raised in a Judeo-Christian, faith-based home school environment are taught that there is a God; He created the world initially perfect, but – due to humanity’s rejection of His absolute moral standards of integrity and decency – that once perfect world, and those of us who inhabit it, are now marred by sin. These children will therefore live their lives with a worldview that is heavily influenced by a strong sense of personal responsibility and accountability before a holy God and toward their fellow man. Young people with this kind of psychological constitution will integrate into society much easier than those who have imbibed the self-centred, a-moral, materialistic, soul-less ethos of the state education system.

Furthermore, in ‘the real outside world’ of industry and commerce, socialisation with people of all ages and abilities is necessary. Thus, the varied and vertical structure of the Judeo-Christian family unit, as opposed to the horizontal experience of state school (limited to only the child’s own peer group), is a far better training ground.

How can home educated children socialise with their own peer group ?
It is possible for a child to be involved in many social activities with other children without actually attending state school. For instance, they can:

[1] play with other children;

[2] join in sporting activity with other children;

[3] enjoy church-based and community activities with other children;

[4] meet other home educated children if parents avail themselves of the excellent home school networking services, conferences, special events and informal cooperatives that cover the UK and Ireland.

Socialisation is rarely a problem with home educated children. In fact, a child who struggles with socialising may experience more difficulty, as opposed to help, if they are placed in an overcrowded, under-resourced state school where the staff are overstretched and run ragged.

We must always seek to calmly and objectively appraise urban myths, like the theory that placing children in state schools is the silver bullet that automatically addresses all issues to do with socialisation.

Children did after all socialise and live well rounded lives for millennia before formal education, as we know it today, was recently introduced.

So, in addition to enjoying all of the positive aspects of quality socialisation, the home educated child has an added privilege of being able to avoid the negative results of parentally uncontrolled socialising. Examples of which include – peer pressure to misbehave, adopt a-moral values and make harmful lifestyle decisions.

Must I be a teacher in order to home educate my children ?
No you don’t. Remember also that we teach our children all the time, by our attitude and behaviour, without even noticing it. We teach them how to talk, reason and discern right from wrong – no one understands a child like its parents. Furthermore, we can instil into them the concept of learning and individual study as a continual discipline. When they get to college or university, this carefully cultivated mindset will give home educated children an advantage over their state educated counterparts who, generally speaking, do not have this discipline.

Most mothers are more than able to teach all that is necessary for primary ages. Fathers can usually help out by teaching practical and specialist skills, encouraging sport and taking a close, hands-on interest in their child’s progress.

Is it right to experiment with our children ?
Home education is not a fringe activity practiced by a few religious freaks and weirdoes. It is a perfectly legal, ethically correct, logically coherent and philosophically legitimate, child-centred method of education that boasts proven results and a successful track record.

Currently it is practiced and approved of by many loving parents from a wide variety of backgrounds throughout the UK and Ireland who want only the best for their children. And these parents are not doing anything new or unusual. They are not sacrificing their children’s educational welfare in order to test some abstract meta-physical experiment. Rather, they are continuing a time honoured practice of educating children that has stood the test of time – tried, tested and vindicated over thousands of years of human history.

The state education system however, with its constant changes in educational curriculum and practice, bears closer resemblance to a continual (and failing!) experiment than home education ever could.

What about academic standards ?
Whilst success should be primarily sought for in the character and attitudes built into children by home education – academic standards are important also.

Fortunately, there are many wonderful, academically strong courses and curriculum on offer to home school families throughout the UK and Ireland; some of whom offer GCSE, IGCSE, GCE, A level and AS level qualifications, in addition to official, state-accredited, UCAS-approved equivalents. Home educated children have no difficulty whatsoever in gaining admission to college and university; some have even gone to Oxford University itself.

Therefore, the evidence so far demonstrates that children from home educated backgrounds fare no worse, and probably much better, than those in state school.

This is unsurprising in view of the fact that the home educated child has so much one-on-one tuition and the teacher (i.e. the child’s parents) have the highest possible motivation.

Do I have to teach all of the National Curriculum ?
No! Home educators and private schools can opt out.

In conclusion
Not everyone is able to undertake home education. There will be always be those for whom the financial burden would be too much and therefore have little alternative but to send their child to state school.

If however, you can make the necessary financial cutbacks and sacrifices to afford home education for your children, we would definitely encourage you to consider doing so. As can no doubt be understand from reading this short introduction; the positive benefits and opportunities of home education are compelling, powerful and warrant the serious consideration of parents who desire only the best for their children.

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The Ulster Revival of 1859 (By William Henry Harding)

2009-02-17T03:47:00.000-08:00

I. THE FOUNTAINS OF REVIVAL.

The spiritual awakening which rendered the year 1859 forever famous in the an-nals of Ulster, also furnishes one of the most remarkable illustrations in all history, of Christianity suddenly and potently revived and exercising a transforming influence, swift in its action and wide in its sphere, upon all classes of society. Who were the people among whom this astonishing movement broke out? Com-ing of Scottish and English extraction, the Protestant communities of Ulster rep-resent a colony founded with infinite industry and skill, which has stood through centuries in enlightening contrast to the blighting conditions which obtain in other parts of Ireland under the domination of the priest. The history of Ulster is of a people not only distinguished by industrial ability and commercial integrity, but possessing strong religious proclivities, and contending earnestly in defence of Christian beliefs and Christian liberty.

The Revival led to the reclamation and conversion of vast numbers of people of careless or debased life but primarily it meant the kindling afresh of apostolic zeal and enthusiasm, the setting up of magnificent ideals regarding the extension of the Kingdom of God throughout the world, and, first and last, the reassertion on a majestic scale of the great basal verities of Evangelical religion.

No world-famous name is associated with the Revival. Nevertheless, begin-ning in the prayer-meetings and wayside conversations of a few humble work-people, it speedily attained the proportions of a national movement. Vari-ous springs from the hills of Antrim contributed to swell the meandering rivulet of Revival into a broad and mighty stream. Moreover, the news of the American Awakening of 1857-8 assuredly created a spirit of hope and expectation, as people read of ministers who had toiled with scant success for many a year, suddenly finding their churches crammed with eager listeners, and their houses besieged by anxious inquirers; of twelve thousand business men assembling day by day for prayer in New York alone.

At several places in Antrim, prayer-meetings had been held, displaying signs of deepening interest, but a careful examination brings into prominence as the chief fountain of the Revival, the visit of a Christian lady, Mrs. Colville, of Gateshead, to the town and neighbourhood of Ballymena. Mrs. Colville, who held clear-cut views on the subject of Conversion, and was gifted with the spiritual faculty of speaking the truth in love, laboured with courage and faith to lead people to Christ. In the course of visitation and tract distribution she was brought into contact with all classes of the community; nevertheless, she was meeting with small encouragement.

At this time there was employed in one of the important industrial businesses of the district, a young man named Jeremiah McQuilken, who one day overheard Mrs. Colville talking to a certain lady who took more pleasure in doctrinal discus-sions on Predestination than in vital, personal Christianity. “My dear,” said Mrs. Colville, anxious to direct the conversation into a profitable channel, you have never known the Lord Jesus.” Whatever may have been there in effect upon the lady, the words went as an arrow to McQuilken’s heart. He was smitten with the thought that, professing Christian as he was, this truth applied to him. For two weeks he had no peace, day or night. Then he found it, in Christ. His first con-vert was a friend named Jeremiah Meneely, and these two began to meet for prayer, with two other young men, John Wallace and Robert Carlisle. These four commenced, in a little school-house at Kells, Antrim, a Believers’ Fellowship Meeting. Month after month passed and kindred spirits joined them in interces-sion, as they wrestled and prevailed. McQuilken had been carefully studying the Bible, and was also much helped by a record of the life and labours of George Müller. In 1858, there were remarkable conversions. Steadily converts multi-plied, and Rev. J. H. Moore, minister of the Presbyterian congregation at Connor, gave every encouragement, conducting countless services. The Revival flame began to kindle. People were crying for mercy in open-air meetings. A sing-ing-class was turned into a prayer-meeting, and many met to pray, on occasion, all night. Public attention being aroused, Mr. Moore was requested at the General Assembly of his denomination, in 1858, to give his brethren an account of the novel and fascinating events.

It was with extraordinary fervour that the movement spread into Ahoghill and other parishes. In barns, schools, and private houses meetings were conducted and addressed by converts, and were attended by multitudes of people. At Bal-lymena, the whole town seemed suddenly to arouse. “The difficulty used to be to get the people into the church,” wrote a minister, “but the difficulty now is to get them out.” The benediction would be pronounced again and again, but each time the irrepressible petitions of the praying people would burst forth afresh, or the cry of the penitent, mourning over sin, would break upon the ear, and so the meeting would of necessity be protracted perhaps into the early hours of the morning.

Within the bounds of the Connor congregation a hundred prayer-meetings were held every week. The blasphemies of parties returning from markets, which had become a public nuisance, gave place to such simple but expressive hymns as the famous “What’s the News?”:

Whene’er we meet you always say,
What’s the news? What’s the news?
Pray what’s the order of the day,
What’s the news? What’s the news?

Oh, I have got good news to tell,
My Saviour hath done all things well,
And triumphed over death and hell—
That’s the news, that’s the news!

The insensate ditties of music-hall and theatre were entirely eclipsed by “What’s the News?”

Mr. W. Hind Smith, of the Y.M.C.A., who visited Ulster at the time, said, recalling its extraordinary popularity: “Wherever I went” I heard “What’s the News?” Everybody, it seemed, sang it. If you purchased a railway ticket you would hear the booking clerk singing:

The Saviour died on Calvary,
That’s the news, that’s the news!

Or if you asked a policeman the way, you would hear him commence, after he had directed you, as he continued upon his beat:

His work’s reviving all around,That’s the news!

The astonishing character of the spiritual revolution wrought in Ballymena is demonstrated by the testimony of Rev. S. Moore, who said:

On my return, after two days’ absence at a Meeting of Synod, I found the town in a state of great excitement. Many families had not gone to bed for two or three nights. ‘From dozens of houses, night and day, you would hear, when passing along, loud cries for mercy from those under conviction, or the voice of prayer by kind visitors, or the sweet, soothing tones of sacred song. Business seemed at a standstill.

In some streets, crowds of people, in the houses and before the open doors and open windows, engaged in prayer or praise, all at the same time. A goodly num-ber of young men in business establishments in the town, and not a few workmen, who were dependent upon their daily wages for their daily bread, gave up almost their whole time to the religious instruction and physical and spiritual comfort of the poor stricken sufferers [i.e., those who were prostrate under an intense realiza-tion of their sinful state]. Persons from England and Scotland and many parts of Ireland were to be seen perambulating the streets and lanes of Bally-mena—ministers, missionaries, Sabbath-school teachers, and cool, inquisitive business men, anxious to witness, with their own eyes, this strange thing of which they had heard in their distant homes—a half-dead soul revived by God’s Spirit, a poor, lost sinner (his crimes hanging over him like a heavy cloud, and his heart sore pained within him, fearfulness and trembling and horror overwhelming him) pleading for mercy.

II. A SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Although the churches and other meeting-places were crowded the Revival was marked by such heart-stirrings that even large buildings were not able to con-tain the multitudes that assembled. Hence, meetings were held on the highways, in the fields, or at any popular rallying point. A Belfast visitor, invited to speak at the village of Broughshane, found his congregation to consist of about five thousand people, the meeting-place being a quarry. The great assembly listened with close attention, particularly to a noted character—“an old man, remarkable looking—a dealer in rags would not have given more than sixpence for all the clothes he had on his person; he bore the marks and tokens of a ‘hard liver,’ a confirmed drunkard.” Tremblingly, this aged brother gave his earnest testi-mony:—

“Gentlemen, I appear before you this day as a vile sinner. Many of you know me, for you have but to look at me and recognize the profligate of Broughshane; you know I was an old man hardened in sin; you know that I was a servant of the devil, and he led me by that instru¬ment of his, the spirit of the barley. I brought my wife and family to beggary more than fifty years ago; in short, I defy the town and of Broughshane to produce my equal in profligacy, or any sin whatever; but, gentlemen, ‘‘ I have seen Jesus! I was born again on last night week, and am therefore ‘a week old’ today. My heavy and enormous sin is all gone, the Lord Jesus took it all away, and I stand before you this day not only a pattern of profli-gacy, but a monument of the perfect grace of God. I stand here to tell you that God’s work on Calvary is perfect. Yes, I have proved it, His work is per¬fect. He is not like an architect who makes a drawing of a building, and then takes out this line or that, or alters the whole and even while the building is going up makes some further change. No, but God drew out the plan of salvation, and it was complete, and He carried it out with His blessed Son Jesus, and it is all perfect, for had it not been so, it would not have been capable of reaching the depth of iniq-uity of myself, the profligate of Broughshane.”

In the Broughshane district, within an area of more than two miles, almost all the mothers of families were converted. They held prayer-meetings together and exercised a mighty influence. Two public-houses were closed. The Bible became the book of constant study, and the young men in the churches gave splendid help to the ministers. On Fair day, when a band of strolling performers made their appear¬ance, a prayer-meeting was immediately commenced opposite their platform, so that the players were left with a total audience of two policemen, both of them Roman Catholics. A day so admirably begun could have only one appropriate conclusion; the Fair terminated with a Gospel meeting. Attended by five thousand people.

Inevitably, not a few Roman Catholics were brought under the influences that were so potent in the country, and many were converted. The priesthood became alarmed, all the more keenly because they had to contend, not only with the loving presentation of Gospel truth, but in an atmosphere of intense delight in saving grace. They could meet polemic with polemic, but the consistent life and witness of a host of lowly believers could be neither gain-said nor attacked with any hope of success. The Revival was sometimes described by them as “a satanic delu-sion,” but this was sufficiently met by the comment of one who attended an “altar lecture” on the subject: “If it is the divil who has done it, then there must be a new divil, for I’m shure the ould wan woaldn’t do it at all, at all.” It was shrewdly remarked too, by a convert, in addressing a congregation, that “certainly it was not Satan who took him away from whisky drinking.”

At Ahoghill in a public meeting called purposely to afford the people an op-portunity to acquire information regarding the Revival, it was anticipated that some converts would speak, and the expectation was sufficient to draw, to the first Presbyterian church, so great a congregation that it was feared the galleries would collapse. The minister accordingly pleaded, for the sake of safety, that the place should be vacated, but the ardour of the people knew no daunting; deeply stirred, they assembled again in Ahoghill square, which was filled with people. From the steps of a dwelling-house, one of the converts addressed the crowd of about three thousand. Rain was falling heavily, and the street was muddy, yet, as the touching words of the unknown orator fell upon receptive minds, old men wept and the young were awed and subdued. The meeting continued till a late hour, and even in that miry thoroughfare the anxious knelt and cried to God for mercy.

The neighbourhood, like many others, became trans¬formed. Young men who had been noted as idle vagabonds were seen exhorting the careless. The Presby-tery, having sent a deputation to examine the work, recorded the testimony that drunkenness and Sabbath-breaking, blasphemy and profane language and neglect of the great salvation had been all but annihilated.

This, of a village (‘concerning which a police-officer, who had once been stationed there, described to Rev. Wil-liam Arthur, the distinguished Methodist preacher and author, as “ the worst wee place in the world,’’ where drunkenness, fighting and swearing were so prevalent that on special occasions, such as a “ funeral day,” the lock-up was invariably full.

III. THE THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS

The Revival spread over Antrim and Down, and every¬where with the same signs of a deep work of the Spirit. The testimony of the Hon. and Rev. Henry Ward, rector of Killinchy, Co. Down, has special weight, for Mr. Ward had la-boured among the people for thirty years. “The spirit of our meetings,” he de-clared, “is all harmony and love. The labour being divided between the ministers of the two denominations [Episcopal and Presbyterian] no distinction is made, but the hearts of all are knit together in one holy bond of Christian fellowship. There is no exaltation of man or means, no novelty, no unnatural excitement. There can be no imposition practised; such a thing, from the deep seriousness which pervades this part of the country at the present time, would not be tolerated by the people. That the work, so far as it has come under my observation, is the work of God, I have no more doubt than of the truth of the Philippian jailer’s conversion.”

So intense was the desire after the timings of God that it was recorded of one district: “Whole townlands are awakened, all outdoor labour suspended, and the people in crowds follow the minister from door to door, to engage in prayer.” The Earl of Roden, whose testimony was that of a landlord moving in and out on the friendliest terms among the tenantry, bore witness to the effects of “this great Revival,” declaring that the public-houses were deserted, solemnity pervaded the population, and prayer-meetings in many houses of the most respectable farmers were attended by the neighbours in great numbers. This solemnity of feeling was everywhere observable. For example, at Crossroads, near Omagh, a meeting in a Presbyterian church was described as “truly astonishing and awful,” as cries for mercy and salvation rang through the building. Literally for hours neither singing nor audible congregational prayer could be conducted, every heart being so sub-dued; nor did the meeting close until near the break of day.

Again, at Kilmacrennan, after the devotional exercises of the Sabbath morn-ing service were concluded, cries of mercy suddenly arose from various parts of the congregation. The persons affected were led to the entrance hall, to the school¬houses, or out on to the church green; the friends of each assembled round them. Thus, the entire premises were given to many lesser congregations, engaged in prayer and praise, Public worship could not be proceeded with until late in the afternoon; and night after night the good work went on. Such conditions prevailed, not merely in isolated spots or patches of country around some specially affected town; but they were general throughout Ulster. Multitudes thronged the house of prayer. Ministers were fetched from their work of visitation to conduct services in churches crowded with people. As the Gospel was proclaimed and the Atoning Work of Christ described, piercing cries would rise from the anguish-stricken: “Oh, my sins, my sins!” Then the regular order of procedure would be of necessity suspended. Groups of Christians gathered round the anxious, engaging in prayer, or quoting Scripture consolation regarding the Balm of Gilead. Godly leaders spoke of Calvary and the precious blood of Christ, in terms of loving faithfulness such as Bunyan might have used among Bedfordshire villagers, or Grimshaw to the lowly folk of the Yorkshire moors. Such were the scenes, which were to be witnessed from Down to Donegal. Yet they illustrate only inadequately the depth and extent of the Awakening, as, escaping from the overwhelming sense of guilt, by casting the heavy load at the feet of the Burden-bearer, weary ones found peace ineffable, and began to speak in the liberty of the Spirit.

Recording some “crowded hours of glorious life,” Rev. Hugh Hunter, of Bel-laghy, Co. Derry, wrote to Dr. Massie (Secretary of the Irish Evangelical Society): “It pleased the Lord to visit us with such a superabundance of spiritual blessing as I cannot attempt to describe. I was not in bed during the first week a single night. Each morning I got a sort of dreamy doze, but I could not actually sleep, for each morning my house was full of anxious souls waiting for a word of Bible consolation.

“Before this, our day of merciful visitation, Bellaghy was the most degraded of Irish villages. Rioting and drunkenness were the order of each evening. Pro-fane swearing and Sabbath desecration were most fashionable sins; and such a place for lying and stealing I do not know. Many a time I longed to get out of it. Well, we have a change now that is truly gratifying. As you pass down the street you hear, in almost every house, the voice of joy and melody. Stop in the way, name the Name of Jesus, and old and young crowd around you. Raise the voice in praise or prayer and every dwelling pours out its inmates to join the company of anxious hearers. Those who heretofore were at ease in Zion, now tremble as in the presence of God. A minister from a distance heard of the Lord’s work in Bellaghy. He could not credit the extraordinary accounts. He came, he saw—Jesus con¬quered him. As I was conveying him out of the village, he ex-claimed, as the holy sounds reached his ears from the humble dwellings of the poor: ‘I feel as if I were breathing the atmosphere and treading the golden streets of the New Jerusalem.’”
Of all the stories of Revival blessing, none is more striking than that of Cole-raine. The movement first became evident there in a huge assemblage of people, drawn by no alluring announcement of magnificent oratory, but simply to hear the testimony of a few rural converts, upon the Fair Hill.

It was a cloudless evening in June. Shortly after seven o’clock masses of people from town and country began to pour into the square, by every approach, and the platform which had been prepared was speedily surrounded by the multi-tude. Ministers of all the Protestant denominations were present, and when it was found that no voice could range to the confines of so vast a crowd, they and the con¬verts took up various stations on the Hill, each group im¬mediately securing its own large auditory. Then, as the Gospel was preached, many convicted souls sought refuge in Christ. Again the congregations were split into smaller sections, each being grouped around earnest believers who were pointing the anxious to Christ, and repeatedly, as peace came to stricken hearts, there arose, first in a gen-tle murmur and then in a swelling anthem, the familiar para¬phrase of the Fortieth Psalm

He took me from a fearful pit
And from the miry clay,
And on a rock He set my feet,
Establishing my way.

Next day the town experienced the growing force of the Revival. Those who were experimentally able to serve as Greathearts to pilgrims, were engaged un-ceasingly in such hallowed ministry. Soon, every street in the town numbered its converts. In those Revival days, no false shame hindered the repentant sinner from expressing, with all naturalness, his actual feelings; hence, stricken with re-morse, men and women, whether respectable churchgoers or of flagrant life, sought the Saviour with agonizing cries which were an indication, not of any mental fantasy, but of a profound realization of spiritual need.

At this time the new Town Hall, a fine building costing nearly £7,000, was ready for formal opening, and the method of inauguration had been a subject of discussion, some pro¬posing a ball. The waltz, however, had now less interest than the story of Redeeming love, and the temper of the town was not toward the polka. When, therefore, another vast meeting was held in the market-place, and when on every hand the anxious were crying for mercy, so that the moans and cries reminded the hearer of a field of battle, it was suggested that the stricken ones should be gathered for spiritual help into the Town Hall. To that convenient shelter, accordingly, the people proceeded. Thus, the building was consecrated by the tears and prayers of peni¬tent sinners, as, all night long, the gracious work went on.

The meetings were at once continued in the Independent Chapel, which was crowded to overflowing. When the first congregation was in due course dis-missed, the building was immediately filled by another, and again, again, and again, as the service was terminated, fresh and eager crowds pressed in. At length the ministers were obliged to con¬clude, but when they left the building it was only to com¬mence in another way, for they were again up all night praying with seekers after Christ. The Town Hall, too, was again opened and remained so until five o’clock in the morning, the people being unwilling to leave, even then. Subsequently, a minister who left the chapel for a few minutes “to get a breath of fresh air,” noticed a number of people running. On making inquiry he found that they were proceeding to the School of the Irish Evangelical Society, and going with them he witnessed an affecting scene, for:

“There, on their knees, were one hundred children, and beside them, ladies and gentlemen of position, who had been ‘ too genteel’ to attend the extraordinary meetings, or who had been prevented by delicate health, prostrated together before the Throne of Grace. The godless and worldly-minded man of business was there; old and young of the higher classes, were there, all crying out for grace and pardon.”

IV. NATIONAL INTEREST IN THE REVIVAL

From county to county still the movement spread. Of a scene at Newton Li-mavady, an eye-witness said: “In a field, in front of my own house, an immense work of God, and that in wonderful power, was presented to the astonished eyes and hearts of a vast concourse of beholders. Not fewer than a hundred souls were brought under conviction of sin. Some of the women and children were conveyed into the house; others followed to assist them; and shortly, nearly every room in the house was crowded with persons crying out and praying for mercy. The lawn was literally strewed like a battle-field with deeply wounded ones under conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit, who was revealing Christ to their souls.”

The field meetings and huge gatherings in public places were, indeed, a con-spicuous feature, inevitably so on account of the insufficiency of public buildings to accom¬modate such abnormally large crowds. At Ballyclare two thousand peo-ple assembled in the grounds of the Presbyterian Church, many being attracted by the news of wonderful conversions, and so crowded did the church itself become with seekers after God and those who sought to minister to such, that the doors had to be closed. This was but one meeting of many: small wonder, then, that all the public-houses were empty and there was a prayer-meeting in almost every second house. It was quite customary at Ballyclare for meetings to be attended by thousands,
On Dunmull Hill, near Bushmills, Brownlow North and a couple of converts from Connor addressed a crowd of seven thousand persons. When the meeting was supposed to terminate, the people were still so eager that Mr. North gave a second address, and throughout the meeting people were stricken down under a sense of sin. It must not be supposed that these great field services and open-air prayer meetings were in the nature of mere religious picnics: on the contrary, the deepest earnestness prevailed.

At Londonderry a united prayer-meeting was held daily, attended by from four to five thousand persons. Evangelical ministers each conducted five services each day, in addition to visiting the anxious and fulfilling other and multi¬farious duties, incidental to a period of profound religious concern. Open-air meetings, attended by vast crowds, were frequent; hour after hour would pass in exhorta¬tion and prayer, and when adjournment was eventually made to the churches, the crowd would cram the buildings and overflow into the school-rooms. “Let me never fancy I have zeal,” said Henry Martyn facing the actualities of heathen fa-naticism and official blindness, “until my heart overflows with love to every hu-man being.” Something of that spirit of this universal compulsion of souls ob-tained in Derry; the spirit-shrivelling frivolities of the world found their false light quenched in the rising splendour of the Sun of Righteousness. Among all classes there was unparalleled anxiety of heart. In less than six weeks one minister, apart from other work, conversed with about three hundred people who were under deep conviction, and most of them found peace. In the outlying districts as well as in Derry itself, the Revival changed the entire social conditions. When a party of strolling players, ochred and rouged, arrived on their annual visit to a village where they were wont to realize a considerable sum of money, they at once fled in dismay, for they found themselves faced by an audience of one person only.

Scenes equally remarkable were witnessed in Belfast itself. Nearly every street numbered its penitents. Per¬haps the most remarkable meeting in point of numbers was that held in the Botanic Gardens, when at least twenty thousand people attended, people of staid demeanour and earnest behaviour, carrying Bibles and hymn-books. Throughout the city ministers and laymen were alike en¬gaged in going from house to house, visiting and praying; during these exercises hun-dreds who, in agony of mind, had left the public meetings, were led into rest. An eye-witness recorded how he “stood for an hour and a quarter, on a Saturday eve-ning, in a crowd computed at five thousand people who were listening with breathless attention to a sermon by Mr. H. Grattan Guinness, on ‘Many waters cannot quench love.’ In churches where it was a rare thing for any to kneel all would be bowed humbly, while cries would be heard from every part of the building: “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

The sterling worth of the Revival was ere long put to a public test, when a writer in a Roman Catholic paper (published in Dublin) declared that he would accept the movement as Divine if the Boyne celebration passed without a party procession in the Durham Street district, a Belfast neighbourhood notorious for party animosity, which often culminated in open rioting and bloodshed. The out-come supplied splendid evidence of the vital power of the Revival. So thor-oughgoing was the change wrought in Durham Street, under the tender influences of the Gospel, that drunkenness and ribaldry gave place to prayer and praise, and on the eventful Twelfth of July there was not so much as a party badge to be seen; no drum thundered; no provocative cry was heard.

Even in the dark regions of the south and west—dark be¬cause under the sway of the priest—there were springings of the water of life. Under the daily preach-ing of Mr. Grattan Guinness great numbers were impressed at Limerick. There were many conversions in county Carlow, under the preaching of Joseph Denham Smith; indeed wherever that gifted and gracious evangelist went, his words dis-tilled in blessing. Chiefly, however, Mr. Smith’s name is associated with the movement in Dublin. After visiting Ballymena, in order to study the Revival, he returned to his ministry at Kingstown, full of a new fervour, and at once an ex-traordin¬ary awakening took place, thousands of people turning to Christ. On the Metropolitan Hall being taken, still greater numbers flocked to hear, and often remained hour after hour, so that the meetings were continued until late at night.

One result of the Kingstown work was the conver¬sion of almost the whole of the crews of the four steamboats crossing the Irish Channel. Meetings for praise and prayer were held by the sailors whenever they were in harbour, and when the cabins proved too small preaching was commenced from the deck of one or an-other of the boats moored along the quay, on Sunday afternoons, so that “some of the scenes on the shore of the Lake of Galilee were reproduced in the harbour of Kingstown.”

Ultimately, it was decided to erect in Dublin a capacious hall in which Mr. Denham Smith should find a convenient centre for the prosecution of the special work of evangelism for which he was so conspicuously endowed. Accordingly the Merrion Memorial Hall was erected—one more permanent outcome of the Revival.

A distinguished French visitor, who went to Ireland “full of distrust,” declared of the Revival:

“This is a mighty work of God.”

There was indeed no other con-clusion that could be sustained. The Presbyterian Church of Ireland, fifty years after, testified in solemn and moving terms to the grandeur and greatness of the movement, acknowledging a very large accession to the membership, reckoned by many thousands, an overflowing stream of candidates for the min¬istry, a devel-opment of Church extension, the creation of a new spirit of Christian liberality, and a Forward Movement in home and Foreign Missionary enterprise. Such was the well-weighed verdict pronounced after the lapse of half a century.

Summing up the general characteristics of the movement it must be said:—

1. The Revival was a work of the Spirit. It had its origin in profound convic-tion of sin, manifested in vast numbers of people who were further led to find rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, one of the most ear-nest and spiritually-minded ministers of his time, com¬puted that there were a hun-dred thousand converts. Beyond these, of course, there were multitudes who, although not “new creatures in Christ Jesus,” at least reformed their ways of life.

2. It made for Temperance. “It is impossible not to observe,” said the Dowa-ger Countess of Londonderry, “that one result of the much-talked-of Revival has been the closing of public-houses and the establishment of greater sobriety and temperance.” Mr. Macartney, a Justice of the Peace and former Member of Par-liament for Antrim, witnessed that in certain parishes the use of ardent spirits was almost entirely abandoned.

3. It worked a miraculous change in manners. Rev. William Arthur, noting how the Boyne anniversary passed in a peaceful way that astonished the most sanguine, described the effect as “the most striking effect produced upon national manners, in our day, in these islands, by the sudden in¬fluence of religion. I saw people coming away quietly, in streams, from a fair, where before they would have been reeling by dozens. I heard masters tell of the change in their men, boys of that in their comrades; heard gentle¬men, doctors, merchants, shop-keepers, tailors, butchers, weavers, stone-breakers, dwell with wonder on the im¬provement going on among their neighbours. I knew the people and I believed my own eyes.”

4. It called forth the sacrifice of praise. The General Assembly of the Pres-byterian Church appointed a day "for prayer and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His gracious mercy vouchsafed in the revival of religion.” Joy in God was exultant: there was an earnest desire after holiness of life. Millions of hymn-books were sold.

5. It was a work wrought largely through humble and local means. Hun-dreds of the men and women who exhorted and prayed and visited with such ar-dent love for God and souls were mill-hands, porters, shopmen, ploughmen and the like.

6. It made for unity. Evangelical be1ievers were at one, brotherly love pre-vailed, and love and zeal transcended every ignoble thought of denominational aggrandizement. “The great things of the Revival,” said Dr. Massie, “did not concern the polity of the Churches, but the peace of a sinner with his God.”

Assuredly, if solemnity of mind, contrition for sin, tender¬ness of conscience, love towards God, a yearning to do His will, and an intense missionary spirit that goes out to all the world, are characteristics of the Divine conquest of man, then the Ulster Revival was truly a work of the Holy Spirit. A few solitary veterans, the remnant of the godly men who bore the burden of the day, still answer to the roll-call, with indomitable spirit, if with feeble voice; they still delight to recall the fragrance, as of the garden of God, which arose as the winds of heaven blew upon the land; and if to our duller ears their words sound strange and mystic, as of mu-sic from the higher spheres, the fault is ours, since Christ is none the less the Mighty to Save, nor is our God less willing than in 1859 to hear the cry of His people.

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Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones on the 1859 Revival in Ulster

2009-01-14T13:53:00.001-08:00

"as we consider the Revivals of 1857-59 may I use the expression 'the divine humour'? Where did they break out then? It was not in the capital city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, it was in a village you have never heard of called Connor. This is how God does things...Ans it was exactly the same thing two hundred years ago. It was in that little town of Northampton in New England that the revival broke out. It was in that little town of Northampton in New England that the Revival broke out. It was in a little hamlet called Trevecca in Wales that Howell Harris was suddenly laid hold of, and in another similar small village that Daniel Rowland was apprehended by God - places you have never heard of, that is how God does it. And this is the wonderful thing - the next Revival may break out in a little hamlet that you and I have never heard of." Martin Lloyd-Jones, Revival, p. 115
"No Revival has ever been known in the history of churches which deny or ignore certain essentialtruths. Such churches have always opposed, and have always persecuted, those who have been in the midst of Revival. You will also read in the history of Northern Ireland, for instance, that in 1859 the Roman Catholic church of that time was actually putting on sale the so-called holy water, and urging people to sprinkle it upon themselves, and even to drink it, in order to avoid, and to evade, this thing which was being called Revival." Martin Lloyd-Jones, Revival, p. 35

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Does Doctrine Really Matter ?

2008-10-24T02:48:00.000-07:00

Does Doctrine Really Matter?

Many think that doctrine is not important. Some people say - "oh I don't care about doctrine, I just love Jesus'. Are they right?

The word 'doctrine' simply means 'teaching'.

Therefore 'Bible doctrine' is 'Bible teaching' that helps us understand more about God.

To be against 'Bible doctrine' means that you are against 'Bible teaching'. No one who truly 'loves Jesus' should oppose 'Bible teaching'. Therefore if you love Jesus, you will love His Word and its teachings (i.e. doctrine).

[1] Doctrine is one of the main reasons why the Bible was written. See 2nd Timothy 3:16.
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[2] Sound Doctrine will keep us close to Christ and strengthen our walk with Him. See 1st John 2:24.
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[3] Ultimately it is doctrine, and not miracles or prophetic accuracy, which determines whether or not someone is a true prophet. See Deut 13:1-6.
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[4] Sound doctrine is integral to the work of the Holy Spirit. See 1st Corinthians 12:3, John 14:26.

Sound doctrine helps us begin to understand God, how He works and how we should respond to Him. Historically, revivals have always given birth to an upsurge in sound doctrine.

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