Dr M’Caig, Principal of Spurgeon’s Pastors College, London

Much is aid in certain quarters, today, about the importance of having a religious atmosphere in our elementary schools. We do not sympathise with those who please for it, because the atmosphere they mean is that of a particular ecclesiastical system, which they wish provided at others’ expense. But all Christians must feel the importance of breathing a true spiritual atmosphere. It is a grand thing in our Places of Worship to have this atmosphere; the brooding consciousness of the presence of God, and the nearness of spiritual realities. That consciousness, intensified, is what I mean by the Revival atmosphere.

It was my joy to enter upon the religious life in a time of Revival. I was, so to speak, born in a Revival. In the year 1868, evangelistic meetings had been held in our Fifeshire village throughout the summer in the open air, conducted by earnest ministers sent out by the Home Mission of the Free Church of Scotland, and, when the longer nights of autumn drew on, these meetings were held indoors, in a public hall during week nights, and in the church on Sundays. No doubt there had been much earnest prayer among the Christians of the neighbourhood and in September a great Revival broke out, and spread through many of the neighbouring villages. In its blessed sweep I was caught, and then it was that I first heard the word Revival, and shared with the other converts the glad opprobrium of being called Revivalists. Then I knew something of the Revival atmosphere. The ordinary meetings for worship were transfigured; the preaching, the praying, and the singing, all took on a new tone and colour. It became easy to talk about spiritual things. Religion became the all-engrossing subject of men’s thoughts. Some might laugh and oppose, others question and criticise, but all seem impelled to think about it. Enter any family circle at that time, and you would hear it spoken of; join any group of people by the wayside, and you soon found them discussing the same subject; listen to the conversation of a company of workmen as they rested a little from their labours, and the topic would be the Revival. Great things were accomplished. The lives of Christians were raised to a higher plane. Multitudes of sinners turned to the Lord; for every true Revival becomes also an awakening; Revival as for those who already have life are concerned, but for the ungodly, it is an arousing out of the sleep if death, and a beginning of the life “that is life indeed.” Whole villages seemed to be transformed, and public houses came near to ruin. I remember one case of a village of some five or six hundred inhabitants, which fortunately had only one public house before, but that house had always done a roaring trade, but the Revival made it close its doors altogether; and the great annual holiday of the place, which was marked by a sort of bacchanalian procession, was celebrated by prayer and praise meetings, for all the former leaders of the festivities had been converted. In that village, and indeed in many others, wherever you went, you would hear the singing of the sweet songs of Zion, and see the happy faces of those who were breathing the Revival Atmosphere.

My next experience of a genuine Revival was during the first visit of Messrs. Moody and Sankey to Edinburgh in 1873. That visit had been prepared for by much believing prayer. For months before the Evangelists came, a daily noon prayer meeting had been held in the Free Assembly Hall, and before the Mission began the blessing began to come; and as soon as the campaign was opened, there were floods of blessing. I remember making a journey to Edinburgh to attend a day’s meetings. The new thing about these meetings was the wonderful singing of Mr Sankey; that led many out of curiosity to go, but once in the place, you felt the power of God was there; and alike with the sweet singing of the one Evangelist, and the strong, simple speaking of the other, the Spirit of God touched the heart. The old feeling of 1868 I felt to be in these gatherings, the overshadowing, soul-subduing, heart-gladdening sense of the Presence Divine; the rare, pure, glorious Revival Atmosphere.

It was a marvellous time in Edinburgh, and the work spread to many parts of Scotland, not only where Moody and Sankey went, but wherever earnest souls went to tell out God’s glad evangel, it was found that the Spirit had gone before, and prepared the people, and the work of evangelising became easy and delightful. The influence of that wonderful Revival is felt in Scotland unto this day.

I have seen many missions, successful missions since, but not till the recent Welsh movement did I see another genuine widespread Revival. As I read the stirring accounts from the facile pen of the Revival chronicler, “Awstin,” I, from the first, recognised the true note, and felt persuaded that the Spirit of God was at work. I took the first opportunity of paying a visit to the scene of the movement. We go a long way to see the wonders of God’s handiwork in nature, and surely we ought to be ready to travel far to see His wonders in Grace. In no spirit of idle curiosity did I journey to Wales, but with a great longing to see the glory of the Lord, and to breathe again the delightful atmosphere of Revival.

A very few minutes in Swansea furnished ample evidence of the widespread interest, which the movement had awakened. The hotel people could at once tell where the meeting was to be, taking it quite as a matter of course that they should be asked for information about it. The old lady at the post office, where I call to despatch a telegram, was ready to give all details as to the route to be taken, and talked eagerly of the wonderful work, believing that “a wave of salvation was flowing over the country.” The policeman at the street crossing went out of his way to show me to the right train, and expressed a fervent wish that he could get away to the meeting. When, after considerable difficulty, I found myself inside the chapel where the meeting was to be held, I found a state of things which I had never before known: the spontaneous singing, and praying and testifying, with no leader in charge, for the people had gathered hours before the time of the meeting. Throughout all the meetings, which I attended, the wonderful outburst of song, the simultaneous praying of a number of supplicants, the shoutings of “Hallelujahs,” &c, were constantly in evidence, and served to differentiate these meetings from those I had formerly known. But these special features of the Welsh Movement could not hide the fact that in its essence it was the same as the other Revivals I have mentioned. The same spirit was brooding over the gatherings, stirring the heart, prompting the prayers, inspiring the songs, creating the atmosphere. One of the hymns we had learned to sing in the Fifeshire Revival of 1868 was

“O, the Lamb, the bleeding Lamb,
The Lamb upon Calvary.”

and, to my intense delight, I had not been long in the first Welsh meeting till the same tune greeted my ears and the same old words rang out in their Welsh form:

“O, yr Oen, yr addfwyn Oen,
Yr Oen ar Galfari,”

and the old scenes lived again.

I do not need to speak in detail of the glorious Welsh Revival, I only bear my testimony to the fact that wherever I went in the Swansea district and at a subsequent visit to the Merthyr district and Pontypridd, the true Revival Atmosphere was found. Dear Mr Evan Roberts, whom may God abundantly bless, put the matter well when one day he said, “Some people think that the spiritual world is far away, but, my friends, it is very near, it is awfully near to us now.” And that is just the Revival Atmosphere - the sense of the nearness of the spiritual world. It was this that gave the tone of the intensity to all the praying and the singing, it was this that made faces flow with the celestial radiance, it was this that broke down stouthearted sinners and led them to surrender to the Christ of God.

The intensity of the Welsh Revival may have passed away but I trust that the work itself has not yet ceased, and I am persuaded that its effects will abide. Revival is still the need of the Church of God. We praise God for what he has done in Wales, and we are thankful that in many parts of England something of the blessing was enjoyed - we had some generous droppings at the Tabernacle, when over 800 souls professed conversion - and in other parts of London stirrings of the Spirit were known - but London has not, as a whole, felt the throb of Revival and the glow and inspiration of the Revival Atmosphere. We long for it, and we pray for it; it can only be brought about by the moving of the Spirit of God in answer to prayer. Prayer first, prayer last, prayer always. Along with prayer there must be consecration of heart and life, and the exaltation of Christ and His Cross. The atmosphere can be created by the prayer that is born at the Cross; it comes of the “Breezes of Calvary.” In Revival times God is put first, the spiritual and unseen dominates the seen and temporal. Religion is felt to be the most important matter in life. Ought not this always to be the case? If Christianity is worth anything to us, is it not worth everything? If Christ is aught to us, He should be ALL.

May THE WELSH EVANGELIST be instrumental in fanning the Revival flame in Wales, and may it spread to England, and may all the churches of our land, through the incoming in full measure of the gracious, glorious Spirit of the Living God, be filled with the heavenly, spiritual, Revival Atmosphere.