God's Princess - Madame Guyon

The Amazing Testimony Of Madame Guyon 

Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (commonly known as Madame Guyon) (April 13, 1648 – June 9, 1717) was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism. Quietism was considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church, and she was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703 after publishing a book on the topic, A Short and Easy Method of Prayer.

Early life and marriage

Guyon was the daughter of Claude Bouvier, a procurator of the tribunal of Montargis. Of a sensitive and delicate constitution, she was sickly in her childhood and her education was neglected. Her childhood was spent between the convent, and the home of her well–to–do parents, moving nine times in ten years.

Guyon's parents were very religious people, and they gave her an especially pious training. Other important impressions from her youth that remained with her came from reading the works of St. Francis de Sales, and from certain nuns, her teachers. At one time she wanted to be a nun, but soon changed her mind.

When she was 16 years old, after turning down many other proposals, she married a wealthy gentleman of Montargis, Jacques Guyon, age thirty eight. During her twelve years of marriage, Guyon suffered terribly at the hands of her mother-in-law and maidservant. Adding to her misery were the deaths of her half sister, followed by her mother, her beloved son, and of her daughter and father who died within days of each other. Guyon continued belief in God's perfect plan and that she would be blessed in suffering. To this end she was, when she bore another son and daughter shortly before her husband's death. After twelve years of an unhappy marriage, Madame Guyon had become a widow at the age of 28.

During her marriage, Guyon became introduced to mysticism by Père Lacombe, a Barnabite, and was instructed by him.

Life after marriage

After her husband's death, Madame Guyon felt herself drawn to Geneva. She left her children and repaired to Annecy, to Thonon, where she was to find Father Lacombe in July 1681 and again place herself under his direction. She began to disseminate her mystical ideas, but, in consequence of the effects they produced, the Bishop of Geneva, D'Aranthon d'Alex, who had at first viewed her coming with satisfaction, asked her to leave his diocese, and at the same time expelled Father Lacombe, who moved to the Bishop of Vercelli.

Madame Guyon followed her director to Turin, then returned to France and stayed at Grenoble, where she published the "Moyen court" (January, 1685) and spread her doctrine. But here, too, the Bishop of Grenoble, Cardinal Le Camus, was perturbed by the opposition which she aroused. At his request she left the city; she rejoined Father Lacombe at Vercelli and a year later they went back to Paris (July, 1686).

Right away Madame Guyon set about to gain adherents for her mystical theories. But the moment was ill-chosen. Louis XIV, who had recently been exerting himself to have the Quietism of Molinos condemned at Rome, was by no means pleased to see gaining ground, even in his own capital, a form of mysticism, which, to him, resembled that of Molinos in many of its aspects. By his order Father Lacombe was shut up in the Bastille, and afterwards in the castles of Oloron and of Lourdes. The arrest of Madame Guyon, delayed by illness, followed on 29 January 1688; brought about, she claimed, by Father de La Motte, her brother, and a Barnabite.

She was not released until seven months later, after she had placed in the hands of the theologians, who had examined her book, a retraction of the propositions which it contained. Some days later she met, at Beyne, in the Duchess de Béthune-Charrost's country house, François Fénelon, who was to be the most famous of her disciples. She won him by her piety and her understanding of the paths of spirituality. Between them there was established a union of piety and of friendship into which no element ever insinuated itself that could possibly be taken to resemble carnal love, even unconscious.

Through Fénelon the influence of Madame Guyon penetrated, or was increased in, religious circles powerful at court--among the Beauvilliers, the Chevreuses, the Montemarts--who were under his spiritual direction. Madame de Maintenon, and through her, the young ladies of Saint-Cyr, were soon gained over to the new mysticism. This was the height of Madame Guyon's fortune, most of all when Fénelon was appointed on 18 August 1688 as the tutor to the Duke of Burgundy, the king's grandson. Before long, however, the Bishop of Chartres, in whose diocese Saint-Cyr happened to be, took alarm at the spiritual ideas which were spreading there. Warned by him, Madame de Maintenon sought the advice of persons whose piety and prudence recommended them to her, and these advisers were unanimous in their reprobation of Madame Guyon's ideas. Madame Guyon then asked for an examination of her conduct and her writings by civil and ecclesiastical judges. The king consented that her writings should be submitted to the judgment of Bossuet, Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles, and of Tronson, superior of the Society of Saint-Sulpice.

After a certain number of secret conferences held at Issy, where Tronson was detained by a sickness, the commissioners presented in thirty-four articles the principles of Catholic teaching as to spirituality and the interior life (four of these articles were suggested by Fénelon, who in February had been nominated to the Archbishopric of Cambrai). But on 10 October 1694 François de Harlay de Champvallon, the Archbishop of Paris, who had been excluded from the conferences at Issy, anticipated their results by condemning the published works of Madame Guyon. She, fearing another arrest, took refuge for some months at Meaux, with the permission of Bossuet, then bishop of that see. After placing in his hands her signed submission to the thirty-four articles of Issy, she returned secretly to Paris. At Paris, the police, however, arrested her on 24 December 1695 and imprisoned her, first at Vincennes, then in a convent at Vaugirard, and then in the Bastille, where on 23 August 1699, she again signed a retraction of her theories and an undertaking to refrain from further spreading them. From that time she took no part, personally, in public discussions, but the controversy about her ideas only grew all the more heated between Bossuet and Fénelon.

Madame Guyon remained imprisoned in the Bastille until 21 March 1703, when she went, after more than seven years of captivity, to live with her son in a village in the Diocese of Blois. There she passed some fifteen years in silence and isolation, spending her time writing poetry.

She was still venerated by the Beauvilliers, the Chevreuses, and Fénelon, who never failed to communicate with her whenever safe and discreet intermediaries were to be found.

Mysticism

Guyon believed that we should pray all the time, whatever one was doing, to be also spending time with God. "Prayer is the key of perfection and of sovereign happiness; it is the efficacious means of getting rid of all vices and of acquiring all virtues; for the way to become perfect is to live in the presence of God. He tells us this Himself: "walk before me, and be thou perfect" Genesis 17:1. Prayer alone can bring you into His presence, and keep you there continually."[1]

As she wrote in one of her poems: "There was a period when I chose, A time and place for prayer ... But now I seek that constant prayer, In inward stillness known ..."

Grace vs. works

In the Christian dispute regarding grace and works, Guyon defended the controversial belief that salvation is the result of grace, not works. Like St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Calvin, and Martin Luther, she thought that a person's deliverance can only come from God as an outside source, never from within the person himself or herself. Accordingly, God is supposed to decide who is to be saved, regardless of anyone's efforts or industry. He then, as a result of His own free will, bestows his favor as a gift. This predestination was opposed by the Pelagians, who considered it to be irrational in that God would favor a wicked sinner over a good person. However, according to Schopenhauer, "if it were works, springing from motives and deliberate intention, that led to the blissful state, then, however we may turn it, virtue would always be only a prudent, methodical, far–seeing egoism. … Works …can never justify, because they are always an action from motives."[2] In her autobiography, for example, Madame Guyon criticized self–righteous people who try to gain heaven through their works. She praised lowly sinners who merely submitted themselves to God's will. Of the righteous, she wrote:

…the righteous, supported by the great number of works of righteousness he presumes to have done, seems to hold his salvation in his own hands, and regards heaven as the recompense due to his merits.… His Savior is for him almost useless.

[3] These righteous persons expect God to deliver and save them as payment for their good works. In contrast to the self–sufficient, righteous egoists, the sinners who have selflessly submitted to God "are carried swiftly by the wings of love and confidence into the arms of their Savior, who gives them gratuitously what He has infinitely merited for them."[4] God's "bounties are effects of His will, and not the fruits of our merits."[5]

Death and influence

In 1704, her works were published in The Netherlands, becoming very popular. Many English and Germans visited her at Blois, among them Johann Wettstein, and Lord Forbes. She died at the age of 68, in Blois, believing that she had died submissive to the Catholic Church, from which she had never had any intention of separating herself.

Her published works, the Moyen Court and the Règles des associées à l'Enfance de Jésu, were both placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1688. Fénelon's Maximes des saints was also branded with the condemnation of both the Pope and the bishops of France.

Her disciples at the Court of Louis XIV were persons of piety and of exemplary life. Madame Guyon's most devout disciples after her death were to be found among the Protestants and especially the Quakers. Evangelicals such as Spurgeon were also influenced. Her works were translated into English and German, and her ideas, forgotten in France, have been read in Germany, Switzerland, England, and America.

Supplement to the life of Madame Guyon

An 18th century manuscript, hand-written in French, entitled "Supplement to the life of Madame Guyon" exists in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. This anonymously written manuscript, translated recently by Nancy C. James and placed in an appendix in "The Pure Love of Madame Guyon" - the supplement sets forth many fresh details about the Great Conflict which surrounded Madame Guyon. The author of the manuscript provides new insight into Guyon's theology and life.

Bibliography

Works

• Vie de Madame Guyon, Ecrite Par Elle-Même (Life of Madame Guyon, Written by Herself), 3 vols, Paris, 1791
• Le Moyen Court Et Autres Écrits Spirituels (Short and Easy Method of Prayer) 1685
• Opuscules spirituels (Spiritual Opuscules), 2 vols, Paris, 1790
• Commentaire au Cantique des cantiques de Salomon (Song of Songs of Solomon) 1688
• Les Torrents Spirituels (Spiritual Torrents) 1682
• Commentaire sur Livre de Job (1714)
• Règles des assocées à l'Enfance de Jésu

Biographical

• Nancy C. James, The Pure Love of Madame Guyon: The Great Conflict in King Louis XIV's Court - University Press of America (June 28, 2007) ISBN 0761837574
• Nancy C. James, The Spiritual Teachings of Madame Guyon - Including Translations into English from Her Writings - Edward Mellen Press (October 2007) ISBN 0773452893
• Nancy C. James, The Conflict Over the Heresy of “Pure Love” in Seventeenth-Century France: The Tumult Over the Mysticism of Madame Guyon - Edward Mellen Press (December 2008) ISBN 0-7734-5009-2
• Coslet, Dorothy Madame Jeanne Guyon: Child of Another World, Christian Literature Crusade, 1984, ISBN 0875081444
• Henri Delacroix, Études sur le mysticisme [Studies on Mysticism] (Paris, 1908).
• Thomas Cogswell Upham, Life, religious opinions and experience of Madame Guyon (New York, 1854)
• Louis Guerrier, Madame Guyon, sa vie, sa doctrine, et son influence, (Paris dissertation, 1881), reviewed by Brunetière, Nouvelles Études critiques [New Critical Studies], vol. ii.
• Selections from the Autobiography of Madame Guyon, Keats Publishing, Inc., New Canaan, CT, ISBN 0-87983-234-7
• Françoise Mallet-Joris, Jeanne Guyon. Paris: Flammarion, 1978. ISBN 2-08-064076-3

See also

List of Christian mystics

Christian mysticism


References

1. ^ Short and Easy Method of Prayer
2. ^ The World as Will and Representation, Vol. I, § 70
3. ^ Selections from the Autobiography of Madame Guyon, Chapter I
4. ^ Ibid.
5. ^ Ibid.

This article incorporates text from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), a publication now in the public domain.

External links

Works by Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon at Project Gutenberg

Works by Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon at CCEL

Short Biography by Dorothy Disse

Guyon's Continuing Influence

Autobiography of Madame Guyon

The Pathfinder of Africa.

David Livingstone, 1813-1873, Missionary, Explorer

Written by: Unknown Posted on: 03/13/2003

Category: Biographies

Source: CCN

David Livingstone 1813-1873 Missionary and explorer. David Livingstone was born near Glasgow, Scotland. He studied medicine and theology at the University of Glasgow. He tried to go to China as a mission- ary in 1838, but when the Opium War in China closed the doors, he went to Africa. He pushed 200 miles north of his assigned station and founded another mission station, Mebosta. Livingstone contin- ued on the mission field and advanced 1400 miles into the in- terior in spite of the hardships he encountered. He was at- tacked and maimed by a lion; his home was destroyed during the Boer War; and his wife died on the field. Eleven years later, Livingstone was found by his bed, kneeling, and dead. Natives buried his heart in Africa, as he had requested, but his body was returned to Westminster Abbey in London.

David Livingstone BORN: March 19, 1813 Blantyre, Scotland DIED: May 1, 1873 Chitambo, Northern Rhodesia LIFE SPAN: 60 years, 1 month, 12 days

SELDOM ARE GOD'S GREAT GIANTS HONORED by the world--but Liv- ingstone joins the class of men who rank as the greatest explorers the world has ever produced. Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Charles Lindbergh, Edmund Hillary, and Neil Armstrong all have thrilled the world with their ex- ploits. Add the name of Livingstone who opened up Africa to civilization and Christianity. No wonder the natives gave him the longest funeral procession in history, after burying his heart under a tree near the place where he died. Livingstone traveled 29,000 miles in Africa, added to the known portion of the globe about one million square miles, discovered many famous lakes, the Zambesi and other rivers, was the first white man to see Victoria Falls, and probably the first individual to traverse the entire length of Lake Tanganyika. Had his health not failed he would surely have succeeded in also discovering the source of the Nile. He never lost sight of one of his great objects--bringing Christ to Africa--although healing and exploring were often the ve- hicles he used. Born the second son of poor and pious parents, Neil and Agnes (Hunter) Livingstone, he had three brothers and one sister. The seven were crowded into a two-room house. The fa- ther, while delivering tea to his customers, would also dis- tribute religious books. At age ten young David was put into the cotton-weaving mills factory as a piecer to aid in the earnings of the family. He purchased Rudiments of Latin, which he used to help himself study that language at evening school. His hours at the factory were long, from 6 a.m. till 6 or 8 p.m. He attended evening school from 8 to 10 p.m., then studied until midnight or later. Often he placed a book on a portion of the spinning jenny so he could catch a few sentences in passing. By age 17 he was advanced to cotton-spinner and the pay was such that he could put himself through medical school in Glasgow, entering in 1830. By the time he was 22 he had studied Greek, theology and medicine in college courses at Anderson's College and Glasgow University. During this time he was soundly converted at age 20 (1833) while reading the book Dick's Philosophy of the Future State. He continued his studies in London, where he received a medical degree with honors in 1840. During these years of study several things happened. First he applied to the London Missionary Society in 1838 and was provisionally accepted. Then, in 1839, God sent Robert Moffat into his life. Home on furlough, Moffat gave stirring messages that aroused Chris- tian people to the missionary possibilities in Africa. One statement burned in Livingstone's soul and haunted him as he tossed on his bed. Moffat had said:

I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages, where no missionary has ever been.

Livingstone decided it was God's will for him to go to Africa. Finally he received his appointment--Kuruman in southern Africa--which Moffat had built and managed. In 1841 he landed at Algoa Bay. Here two qualities of his life manifested themselves immediately--characteristics which were to demonstrate future greatness. One, the ability to cope with the difficulties of travel, whether by ox-wagon, horse or on foot. And, second, a quick understanding and sym- pathy for the native Africans. Kuruman was 700 miles due north of Cape Town, so af- ter a ten-week journey from Cape Town he arrived at Kuruman July 31, 1841. A few months after his arrival he made a journey with another, covering over 700 miles, winning the confidence of the natives wherever he went by his medical activity. A sec- ond trip, alone, was made into the interior February to June, 1842. Returning, he stayed until February, 1843, teaching, preaching, caring for the sick, and building a chapel at an outstation. Then it was off to the interior again in search of a suitable location for another mission site. On this trip he discovered the beautiful valley of Mabotsa in the land of the Bakatia tribe. Upon his return in June 1843 when he finally found a letter authorizing his formation of a settlement in the regions beyond, he went back to Mabotsa in August to open a mission station there. Crowds of sick, suf- fering folk begged the great white doctor to heal them. At night around the fire he would listen to their stories, then he would tell them about Jesus. The only problem with the area was that it was infested with lions. Livingstone decided to rid the valley of them, for he heard that if one in a troop is killed, the rest leave the area. He took with him Mebalwe, a native teacher--and here happened one of the most famous incidents of his entire life. Livingstone shot a lion. Then, as he began to reload his gun, the wounded lion sprang up on him and shook him as a cat does a rat. His left arm was crushed to the bone. Mebalwe grabbed his gun and, seeing the motion of the upraised gun, the lion left Livingstone and sprang upon Mebalwe, biting him through the thigh. Another man coming on with a spear was bitten as well before the lion toppled over dead as a result of the bullet wound. Living- stone's arm was stiff and useless from then on and, when he raised it, intense pain shot through his body. The left arm had loss of power the rest of his life. He returned to Kuruman to have his arm treated and to recuperate. 

Mary Moffat, Robert's daughter, was now looking prettier every day. The two began to be drawn to one another, and so they made some plans. As soon as his arm healed, he would hasten back to Mabotsa to build a comfortable little stone house. Returning, he was married in March, 1844, with Robert Moffat performing the ceremony. Then came the 200-mile ox-wagon honeymoon. They remained at Mabotsa until 1845. A fellow missionary named Edwards, who had joined them, made life miserable for them, so they moved 40 miles away to Chonuane to work among the Bakwains. Misfortune struck them the second time. The lack of rain brought the threat of fam- ine and a scarcity of water. One evening he announced he was leaving and the next morning everyone was packed and ready to follow David Livingstone. They found a suitable locality at Kologeng and set- tled down for five years to what would be his last home on earth. By the time they left there he had four children, three of whom were boys. However, things became very parched for lack of rain. Rumors came about a huge waterfall. Living- stone was challenged to find it, believing the banks of a large lake would make an ideal location for a mission state. Not only did mysterious Lake Ngami challenge him, but there was a powerful chief of the Makololo tribe named Sebutuane, still farther north, under whom he hoped to estab- lish a mission station beyond the range of both the Boers and the militant tribe of the Matabele. On August 1, 1849, the Livingstone party came to the northeast end of Lake Ngami and were the first white people to see the lake. The presence of tsetse flies and the obstruction of a local chief prevented them from going the additional 200 miles north to meet Sebituane and so they retraced their steps with reluctance. They found the mission station destroyed by the Boers. In the spring of 1850 they were to start out again. 

As before Liv- ingstone took his wife and children with him, fearful that they might be molested by the Boers. But, rather than the Boers, the disease malaria struck the party at Lake Ngami, and they had to turn back. Back at Kologeng a baby girl was born to the Livingstones, but she soon took fever and died. They then retreated to Kuruman, where he remained with his family for rest until the spring of 1851. In April of that year they set out again, determined not to return to Kologeng but to a hill region where health conditions surely must be better. He, his family, and a fellow explorer named Oswell found Chief Sebituane on the Chobe River, which they had dis- covered by taking a new route. Now came one of life's crucial decisions--the family. Where health was safe, hostile tribes lived. Where friendly people lived, health conditions were bad. He decided to send his wife and children back to England until he could find a suitable location for them. So back to Cape Town they all went, and for the first time in eleven years Livingstone saw civilization. He was 39 and it was a sorrowful parting. He fully intended to join them in two years. The family left for England on April 23, 1852. Frustrated in not being able to find a healthful site for a mission station, he gave attention to a second objec- tive--to find a way going to the sea. Going to Linyant on the River Tshobe, which was the capital of the Makololo terri- tory, he set out upon the trail of many waters, declaring, "I will open a path into the interior or perish." It was in No- vember, 1853, that he started his famous journey through un- known country to the west coast of Africa with 27 Makololo men loaned to him by a friend, Chief Sekeletu. It was a hor- rible journey, with sickness, hunger, swamps, hostile tribes--six months of hardships--but on May 31, 1854, some 1,500 miles of jungle had been conquered as they arrived at Luanda. Broken in health, Livingstone was invited by ship captains to take passage back to England. However, he had brought men to a place where they could not return by them- selves. He was not going to leave them! He would guide them back to their homes. Africa had never known such loyalty. He then took his party on an even longer and more perilous journey back to Sesheke. Contending with wet weather, they could find no dry place to sleep en route. He was nearly blinded as a result of being hit in the eye by a branch in the thick forest, and nearly deaf because of rheumatic fever. Then there were the perils of crocodiles, hippopotami, javelins of hostile savages. His return was con- sidered a miracle. Two months of rest followed. The boat he considered going back to England in sank--and with it all his maps, journals and letters. He now determined to find a route to the east coast of the continent. Sekeletu gladly furnished him with the means of following down the Zambezi River, giving him some 120 tribesmen. 

He started east in November of 1855. Only 50 miles en route, he discovered a magnificent waterfall that he named Victoria Falls. His food consisted of bird seed, manioc roots and meal. His bed was a pile of grass. He arrived at Quilimane on the coast in May, 1856, and was given hospitality by the Portuguese before finding a ship to take him back to England. He left his Makololo tribesmen in good hands at Tete. Before he left, he received a letter from the London Missionary Society, stating they did not like his efforts of diverting from settled missions to exploration. It was a shock to him, since he felt himself just as sincere a missionary as ever. But he accepted a sev- erance of relations after 16 years of service. However, the London Royal Geographical Society was not quite so naive, as they awarded him their gold medal, their highest honor, when he returned home. Why? Because Livingstone had done something no one else had ever done--he had crossed the entire African Continent from west to east. Arriving home for the first time in 16 years, he found himself famous. His father's death while Livingstone was en route home cast a pall on the cele- brations. He was forced into a limelight which he disliked. He was asked to give lectures, which was a burden, for he had never been a good public speaker. Neither did he care to write, but he did put together his Missionary Travels at the urging of many. The universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Glasgow all gave him honorary degrees. Now came the second segment of his life of explora- tion, from 1858 to 1865, which took him into the Zambezi River area under the auspices of the British government. He was appointed the Consul for the East Coast of Africa, and he was given a command that included his having anything he wan- ted or needed. 

He was now on governmental salary, had better equip- ment and ample funds. His wife and youngest son returned with him, his own health was much improved, and it looked like a bright future, as he accepted the challenge of exploring the eastern and central portions of the continent. But many disappointments were ahead. In March 1858 at age 46 he set out for Africa. Soon after arriving at Cape Town the trials began. His wife's health was poor, preventing her from going further with him. She took the child and went to her parents, the Moffats, at Kuruman. Then a second serious problem arose. Livingstone could command and organize Africans, but managing white col- leagues and a large expedition was a total disaster. His greatest mistake was in taking his younger brother, whose temperament was totally unsuited to expedition work. Six years of disharmony and frustration were to follow, with a man named John Kirk being the only capable associate of this group. Third problem: He found out that there were myriad obstacles to the navigation of the Zambezi. Fourth reversal: His modern equipped boat, the Ma Roberts, was more of a hin- drance than a help. She was so slow that a native canoe could easily outdistance her. She burned so much fuel that half of the time was given just to cut wood for her. On September 8, 1858, he did reach Tete and his beloved Makololo tribesmen. Much exploration followed, including the finding of Lake Nyasa on September 18, 1859, plus the discovery of the Shire River and the Kongone entrance to the Zambezi, which was Lake Shirwa. On November 4, 1859, he received a letter informing him that he had a little daughter born at Kuruman on November 16, 1858--a year before. Much of 1860 was spent with his old friends, the Makololo. At the beginning of 1861 a new boat, the Pioneer, came to replace its antiquated predecessor. On the boat were missionaries under the direction of Bishop Charles Mackenzie, to minister to those who lived on Lake Nyasa. He explored the Rovuma River and helped establish the mission station on the Shire River in Nyasaland. This had been one of his dreams--an interior mission station--but the dream was soon shattered. Bishop Mackenzie died on January 31, 1862. Several of his helpers also died. That month, Livingstone's wife rejoined him after a separation of four years. In the intervening time she had taken the youngest son and baby girl back to Scotland, and then returned to rejoin her husband. But her failing health prevented the reunion to last for long. She died on April 27, 1862--just three months after she was reunited with her hus- band. She was buried under a great baobab tree at Shupange on the lower Zambezi. Livingstone was 49 years old and consid- ered this a terrible loss. Out of 18 years of marriage, the two were together less than half the time. He put together a boat called the Lady Nyasa, and sought to launch her in June, 1862, on the lake for further exploration purposes. But weather conditions prevented the launch. 

Slave trading continued to plague him. Human skele- tons showed up everywhere. Finally, the Portuguese king prom- ised to cooperate with Livingstone, but the officers in Af- rica ignored such royal suggestions. Livingstone's work actu- ally helped rather than hindered them, for wherever he ex- plored in Portugese East Africa, the officers would come in and tell the natives they were Livingstone's children. Thus, through lying and trickery, they would obtain even more slaves--in Livingstone's own name. Then came a dispatch from the British government re- calling the expedition, saying it was more costly than the government had anticipated. But the truth was that the Portuguese government had written to the British Foreign Of- fice that Livingstone's work was offensive to them, and the Portuguese asked for his removal. This latest blow in 1863 failed to stagger him. He decided to sell the boat, but not to the Portuguese because it would be used in slave trade. Rather, he decided to go to Bombay, India, and sell it there. With a small crew, only 14 tons of coal, scant provisions including little water, and having never navigated a boat on the ocean, he left Africa April 30, 1864, and arrived in Bombay on June 16. He was re- ceived warmly but could not sell the boat, so he sailed to London, arriving July 10. This was his second and last trip home. He spent his time with his children, associating with William Gladstone and other notables, giving speeches against the slave trade and writing another book, The Zambezi and Its Tributaries. While home, his mother died. Another tragedy in his life--Livingstone's son Robert, who at this time was fighting in the American Civil War to free the slaves, was killed and buried at Gettysburg. Now the third phase of his explorations began to shape up. The Royal Geographical Society planned and spon- sored his last expedition, which was from 1866 to 1873. His influential friend, Sir Roderick Murchison, had encouraged him to go back to find out more about the slave trading and also to discover the sources of the Zambezi, Congo, and Nile Rivers. 

He returned to Africa by way of Paris, France, where he put his daughter Agnes in school, and then Bombay, where he finally sold the boat at a loss of $18,500. The money he got was invested in an Indian bank, which shortly went broke--and all his funds were lost. He sailed from Bombay on January 3, 1866, and arrived in Zanzibar on January 26. This time he was once more going to be the only white man, having some 60 carriers consisting of Indians, plus Chuma and Susi from Africa and animal transport. They landed at the mouth of the Rovuma River in April, 1866, intending to pass around Lake Nyasa far from the influence of the Portuguese. However, in five months, he lost by desertion or treachery all but eleven of his men and all the animals. For four years he was befriended and cared for by people he despised--slave traders. During this time he discovered the southern end of Lake Tanganyika (1867) and Lakes Moero and Bangweolo (1868). In 1869 he reached Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, the headquar- ters of the trade in ivory and slaves. By this time Living- stone was desperately ill, only to find his supplies and mail sent from the coast plundered and gone. He spent the next two years striving to explore the upper Congo. He struggled back to Ujiji a broken and disappointed man beginning on July 20, 1871. On this trip a spear was thrown at him, missing his head but grazing the back of his neck. Also, a huge tree crashed across their path, missing Livingstone by a yard. Ar- riving on October 22 with three attendants, he thought surely mail and medicine would be waiting for him--but it was not. The medicine had been sold and the letters destroyed or sold by Arab traders. On October 26, 1871, four days after his arrival, when his spirits were at their lowest ebb, with awful sores on his feet, dysentery, loss of blood, fever, and being half- starved--he heard Susi, one of his faithful followers, come running at top speed, gasping, "An Englishman--" J.G. Bennet of the New York Herald had called for a famous English reporter, Henry Stanley, to search for and find Livingstone at all cost, or verify his death, which by this time had been rumored. Shortly, when Stanley saw Living- stone approaching, he pushed through the crowd of natives to see him with the now-famous and legendary, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" A supply of food and mail was like a tonic to the tired explorer. Stanley lived with the missionary during the winter and did everything to nurse him and encourage him to return to England. Failing to convince him to return to Eng- land, in March, 1872, the two men--now good friends--parted. Livingstone accompanied Stanley to Unyamuembe. 

He was to wait until men and supplies, which Stanley going to Zanzibar prom- ised to send him, would arrive. Waiting was difficult, but finally the promised men and supplies did arrive. Stanley summed up his relationship with Dr. David Livingstone with these words: "I was converted by him, al- though he had not tried to do it." In August the new party started toward Lakes Tanganyika and Bangweolo. Jacob Wainright became a valuable and trusted aid, along with old-time stalwarts, Susi and Chumah. Trials were reduced to such things as ants and floods. When Livingstone grew too weak to travel, Susi car- ried him on his shoulders. He found himself entangled in the swampy region of Lake Bangweolo in the middle of the rainy season. Because of an accident to his sextant, for a while he was lost. His dysentery attacks were almost continuous, but he kept going across the great swamps, reaching the southern side of Lake Tanganyika, mapping to within a day of his death. Soon he could not walk at all. He was carried on a litter and reached Chitambo, a village in Itala where a hut was built for him. His last written words by letter were:

All I can say in my solitude is, may Heaven's rich blessing come down on every one--American, English, Turk--who will help heal this open sore of the world.

At 4 a.m. on May 1, 1873, his friends heard an un- usual noise, lit a candle and found him dead on his knees in the hut. They removed his heart and buried it reverently at the foot of a mulva tree, with Wainright reading the service. A wood monument was erected. They embalmed his body by fill- ing it with salt, leaving it in the sun to dry for 14 days, then wrapping it in cloth, before enclosing the body in the bark of a Myonga tree, over which they sewed heavy sail cloth. This package was tied to a long pole so that two men could carry it. Along with his papers they started toward Zanzibar on a 1,000-mile trip that was to take nine months. They arrived in February of 1874 and gave the body to the of- ficers of the British Consul. When the body arrived in England on April 15, there was some doubt about the identity of the remains. However, upon examination of the mangled left arm, the doubt disap- peared. On April 18, 1874, London came to stop as he was bur- ied in Westminster Abbey with the kings and the great. At his funeral were his children, Susi, Henry Stanley--and the aged Robert Moffat, who started it all. 

Pandita Ramabhai

Pandita Ramabhai – a woman mightily used of God

A social worker

Pandita Ramabhai, a brilliant and famous Hindu social reformer, became a nominal Christian but in 1891 was wonderfully converted. She had built a centre for Indian widows, and she bore a special burden for the younger widows and orphans, many of who came to the centre as famine victims. In 1898, while visiting the Keswick Convention, Ramabhai pled with the four thousand gathered there to pray for evangelisation and revival in India. In 1901, she had some two thousand girls in her institution, which she called Mukti (salvation-deliverance), near Pune south of Bombay.

A humble beginning

Ramabhai felt strongly the need for revival among her young widows in India and throughout the whole world. For more than five years, Ramabhai challenged her friends in her magazine, the Mukti Prayer Bell. From 1899 onwards, she spent much time in fasting and prayer. In September 1901, she began a special prayer meeting for the outpouring of the Spirit. There was much blessing in December and January, and twelve hundred of her Mukti girls were baptized. All professed to have accepted Christ, and many were truly born again. In July 1902, God sent to Mukti three weeks of real revival, and some six hundred were saved. In 1903, Ramabhai heard of revival blessings in Australia connected with the Torrey-Alexandaer campaign. So she sent her daughter to Australia to enlist prayer for India among the hundreds of newly formed prayer circles.

Prayer circles

In December 1904, Ramabhai received word of the revival God had just sent to Wales, and her hunger for an outpouring of the Spirit deepened. She started prayer circles of ten girls each, urging them to pray for the salvation of all nominal Christians in India and for the outpouring of the Spirit in India and across the world. At first, there were seventy in her prayer circles there. She sent out a call for other prayer circles to be formed among friends and supporters, giving each a list of ten unsaved girls or women for whom to pray. Within six months, there were 550 at Mukti who met twice a day to pray for revival.

Revival at Mukti

While these groups were longing and praying for revival in western India, God was doing simultaneous work in northeast India in the Khasi hills of Assam. Ramabhai got word of the early outpourings of the Spirit in Assam and the evangelistic witnessing that followed. She asked for volunteers from among her Mukti girls to give up their secular studies and go out into the villages to preach the Gospel. Thirty young women volunteered and met daily to pray for the endowment of the Holy Spirit. After some days of praying, on June 29, 1905, the Holy Spirit came upon a larger group of the girls, with weeping, confession of sins, and prayers for empowerment.

One of the thirty volunteers was so set aflame spiritually that the other girls saw a vision of fire engulfing and surrounding her. One of the other girls ran across the room to grab a pail of water to throw on her, only to discover that the fire, though visible, was not literal. It was the fire of the Spirit as seen in Old Testament times and at Pentecost.

The next day, June 30, while Ramabhai taught from John 8, the Spirit came in power. All the women and girls began to weep, confess their sins, and pray for an endowment of the Holy Spirit. Girls became stricken down under conviction of sin while studying, attending the industrial school or at work. Lessons were suspended, and all Mukti began seeking God. Two young girls were so gripped with the power of the Spirit that they prayed for hours and hours, until their faces literally shone with a heavenly light.

As soon as the girls had fully repented and received the assurance of forgiveness, they began to pray for sanctification and baptism by the Holy Spirit. They searched their hearts before God until He showed them their inner impurities. Many girls had visions of the “body of sin” within themselves. They testified that the Holy Spirit came into them with holy burning, which they called a baptism of fire that was almost unbearable. The girls then became flooded with peace and joy until their faces radiated God’s glory. A report stated as follows:

“One little girl of twelve is constantly laughing –her face, plain, even ugly, is beautiful and radiant. She does not know it. She is occupied with Jesus. You think you have looked on an angel face. Some claim to have seen the Lord – one, a blind girl. All speak of His coming again. One sang hymns, composing them as she sang – lovely hymns to Indian tunes.”

June 30, 1905 is the day revival truly began in India. It spread across the country to Pune, Mumbai, Yeotmal, Manmad, Hoshangabad, Ratnagiri, Dhond, Allahabad, Aurangabad, and towns in Gujarat.

Waves of Prayer

Another account from the Mukti revival states: “It is the marvellous spirit of prayer that has been most evident. Waves of prayer go over the meetings like rolling thunder; hundreds pray audibly together. Sometimes after ten or twenty minutes it dies away and only a few voices are heard, then it will rise again and increase in intensity; on other occasions it goes on for hours.

“During these seasons there is usually some confessing their sins, often with bitter weeping which is painful to hear. The conflict seems so great that they are almost beside themselves. It reminds one of the narratives in the Gospels about our Lord casting out evil spirits, and truly evil spirits are being cast out. There is much one cannot understand at first, but one grows by His grace into the work and learns to distinguish by the outward signs as well as by the Spirit’s inward teaching the false from the true. Satan counterfeits all that the Lord does, and is working hard to hinder and spoil the work of God, but he is a conquered foe!”

Ramabhai’s praying bands were sent to other places like schools and mission stations of different denominations, and in many places, a deep revival work resulted. Those who visited the Mukti remarked that they had never been in any places where there was so much time given to Bible study and prayer.

Revivalist Bro. Campbell's experiences and insights

When the Mountains Flowed Down

Editor's Note: 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 myself or any other ministers in the parish saved seventy-five per cent before they came near a meeting or heard a sermon. 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 that 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 calendar for the following year. However, due to circumstances I won't go into, my other meetings were cancelled, 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, and 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, in His sovereignty, 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 schoolteacher came down front crying out, "O God, is there nothing left for me?" She is a missionary in Nigeria today. There was a busload 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 schoolteacher, 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; the Spirit of God had directed it. 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 and see this." At one end of the meetinghouse, 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 at 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, and 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.

Duncan Campbell: Duncan Campbell (1898-1972) was raised in the Highlands of Scotland. He came to the Lord 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.

Website: www.gloryofhiscross.org  

Revival Messages by Duncan Campbell

The Price and Power of Revival

Duncan Campbell

In this passage, I discover that a power is placed at the disposal of the Church that can outmaneuver and baffle the very strategy of Hell, and cause death and defeat to vanish before the presence of the Lord of Life. Barrenness is made to feel His fertilizing power.

Yet, how is it that while we make such great claims for the power of the Gospel, we see so little of the supernatural in operation? Is there any reason why the Church today cannot everywhere equal the Church at Pentecost? I feel this is a question we ought to face with an open mind and an honest heart. What did the early Church have that we do not possess today? Nothing but the Holy Spirit, nothing but the power of God. Here I would suggest that one of the main secrets of success in the early Church lay in the fact that the early believers believed in unction from on high and not entertainment from men.

One of the very sad features that characterizes much that goes under the name of evangelism today is the craze for entertainment. Here is an extract from a letter received from a leader in youth work in one of your great cities: "We are at our wits' end to know what to do with the young people who made a profession of conversion recently. They are demanding all sorts of entertainment, and it seems to us that if we fail to provide the entertainment that they want, we are not going to hold them." Yes, the trend of the time in which we live is toward a Christian experience that is light and flippant and fed on entertainment.

Some time ago, I listened to a young man give his testimony. He made a decision quite recently, and in giving his testimony this is what he said: "I have discovered that the Christian way of life can best be described, not as a battle, but as a song mingled with the sound of happy laughter." Far be it from me to move the song or happy laughter from religion, but I want to protest that that young man's conception was entirely wrong, and not in keeping with true New Testament Christianity.

"Oh, but," say the advocates of this way of thinking, "how are we to get the people if we do not provide some sort of entertainment?" To that I ask the question, how did they get the people at Pentecost? How did the early Church get the people? By publicity projects, by bills, by posters, by parades, by pictures? No! The people were arrested and drawn together and brought into vital relationship with God, not by sounds from men, but by sounds from heaven. We are in need of more sounds from heaven today.

Pentecost was its own publicity. I love that passage in Acts that tells us that "when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together." What was noised abroad? That men and women were coming under deep conviction. That was God's method of publicity, and until the Church of Jesus Christ rediscovers this and acts upon it, we shall at our best appear to a mad world as a crowd of common people in a common market babbling about common wares. The early Church cried for unction and not for entertainment. Unction is the dire and desperate need of the ministry today.

Further, the early Church put power before influence. The present state of our country presents a challenge to the Christian Church. Those who have eyes to see tell us that at this very hour forces are taking the field that are out to defy every known Christian principle.

In many quarters there is today a growing conviction that unless God moves, unless there is a demonstration of the supernatural in the midst of men, unless we are moved up into the realm of the Divine, we shall soon find ourselves caught up in a counterfeit movement, but a movement that goes under the name of evangelism. There are ominous sighs today that the devil is out to sidetrack us in the sphere of evangelism, and we are going to become satisfied with something less than Heaven wills to give us. Nothing but a Holy Spirit revival will meet the desperate need of the hour.

The early Church, the men of Pentecost, had something be-yond mere human influence and human ingenuity. But what do we mean by influence? The sum total of all the forces in our personality--mental, moral, academic, social, and religious. We can have all these, and we can have them at their highest level, and yet be destitute of power. Power, not influence, was the watchword of the early Church.

While at the Keswick Convention, it was my privilege to spend an afternoon with a leader in foreign mission activity. I was arrested by what that man said to me. Here are his words: "Our Bible schools are turning out young men and young women who are cultured and polished, but who lack power." I want to suggest that he was near to the truth. We may be polished, we may have culture, but the cry of our day is for power from on high.

I could take you to a little cottage in the Hebrides and introduce you to a young woman. She is not educated. One could not say that she was polished in the sense that we use the word, but I have known that young woman to pray heaven into a community, to pray power into a meeting. I have known that young woman to be so caught in the power of the Holy Spirit that men and women around her were made to tremble--not influence, but power.

The Apostles were not men of influence--"not many mighty, not many noble." The Master Himself did not choose to be a man of influence. "He made Himself of no reputation," which is to say that God chose power rather than influence. I sometimes think of Paul and Silas in Philippi. They had not enough influence to keep them out of prison, but possessed the power of God in such a manner that their prayers in prison shook the whole prison to its very foundations. Not influence, but power.

Oh, that the Church today, in our congregations and in our pulpits, would rediscover this truth and get back to the place of God realization, to the place of power. I want to say further that we should seek power even at the expense of influence. What do I mean by that? I mean this: never compromise to accommodate the devil. I hear people say today, "These are different days from the days of the 1859 Revival or the Welsh Revival. We must be tolerant and we must try to accommodate." The secret of power is separation from all that is unclean. We must seek power even at the expense of influence.

Think again of the great Apostle Paul. What an opportunity he had of gaining influence with Felix. Had he but flattered him a little in his sin, he could have made a great impression, and I believe he could have got a handsome donation for his missionary effort by being tolerant, by accommodating the situation. But Paul chose power before influence and he reasoned of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Let Felix say what he will, let Drusilla think as she chooses to think, I must be true to my conscience and to my inner convictions and declare the whole counsel of God and take my stand on the solid ground of separation unto God.

Now the person who will take his stand on that ground will not be popular. He will not be popular with some preachers of today who declare that we must soft-pedal in order to capture and captivate. Here I would quote from the saintly Finney: "Away with your milk and water preaching of the love of Christ that has no holiness or moral discrimination in it, away with preaching a Christ not crucified for sin." Such a collapse of moral conscience in this land could never have happened if the Puritan element in our preaching had not, in great measure, fallen out.

Hear a Highland minister preaching on this very truth: "Bring me a God all mercy but not just, bring me a God all love but not righteous, and I will have no scruples in calling Him an idiot of your imagination." Strong words, but I say words that I would sound throughout our land today, in this age of desperate apostasy, forsaking all the fundamental truths of Scripture. Here you have the Apostles proclaiming a message that was profoundly disturbing. We are afraid of disturbing people today. May God help us; may God have mercy upon us.

I would to God that a wave of real godly fear gripped our land. Let me quote from a sermon delivered by the Rev. Robert Barr of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa: "This is what our age needs, not an easy-moving message, the sort of thing that makes the hearer feel all nice inside, but a message profoundly disturbing. We have been far too afraid of disturbing people, but the Holy Spirit will have nothing to do with a message or with a minister who is afraid of disturbing. You might as well expect a surgeon to give place to a quack who claims to be able to do the job with some sweet tasting drug, as expect the Holy Spirit to agree that the tragic plight of human souls today can be met by soft and easy words. Calvary was anything but nice to look at, blood-soaked beams of wood, a bruised and bleeding body, not nice to look upon. But then Jesus was not dealing with a nice thing; He was dealing with the sin of the world, and that is what we are called upon to deal with today. Soft and easy words, soft-pedaling will never meet the need."

Finally, the early Church believed in the supernatural. Someone has said that at Pentecost, God set the Church at Jerusalem on fire and the whole city came out to see it burn. I tell you if that happened in any church today, within hours the whole of the town would be out to see the burning, and they would be caught in the flames.

It is fire we want. The best advertising campaign that any church or any mission can put up is fire in the pulpit and a blaze in the pew. Let us be honest. We say "God, send revival," but are we prepared for the fire?

I believe we have only to regard and observe those laws and limits within which the Holy Spirit acts, and we shall find His glorious power at our disposal. Surely that was the conviction that gripped an elder in the Isle of Lewis when, in a situation that was difficult and trying, he cried, "You made a promise, and I want to remind You that we believe You are a covenant-keeping God. Your honor is at stake." That man was at the end of his tether; that man was in the place of travail.

Revival is not going to come merely by attending conferences. When "Zion travailed she brought forth children." Oh, may God bring us there, may God lead us through to the place of absolute surrender. Is it not true that our very best moments of yielding and consecration are mingled with the destructive element of self-preservation? A full and complete surrender is the price of blessing; it is the price of revival.

The Door of Vision 

"I looked... behold, a door was opened in heaven and, behold a throne... and... I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment... and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God" (Revelation 4.1-5).

Following upon the vision of the closed door of Rev. 3.10, John lifts his eyes towards heaven, and in vision is transported through an open door. The vision must have filled him with a sense of awe and wonder as he is made to gaze upon the throne. How arresting is his description of what he saw -- "a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne" (Rev. 4.2). Suddenly, the sense of awe and wonder is broken by a voice speaking with trumpet clarity to him: "Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter" (Rev. 4.1).

I do not propose to deal with the prophetic aspect of this great passage. My purpose is to direct attention to several thoughts it suggests.

We have here the DOOR OF VISION: "I looked." What a conception John had of the transcendent majesty of God! The throne in heaven immediately suggests authority and power. Here one is reminded of the words of the Psalmist: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre" (Psalm 45.6). That was David's comprehensive description of the throne of God. Behind this declaration is the implied conviction of the almightiness of God.

Here I would record the prayer of a young man during the Lewis revival. A goodly congregation had gathered in the parish church, but so far, revival blessing had not touched the parish. The minister in the pulpit found the going hard, and was about to end the address when he saw a young man strangely moved, and obviously under a burden. The minister closed his Bible and stood in silence -- a silence that was tense. Suddenly that silence was broken by the cry of this young man as he prayed: "God, I am now looking through the open door, and I see the Lamb in the midst of the throne, with the keys of death and hell at his girdle." Again, there is silence in the congregation, to be broken once more by the continued prayer of this young man: "Lord, there is power there; let it loose!" What followed can never be adequately described. "Miracle" would be the only definition! Suddenly, the congregation was gripped by the power of God, and not only the congregation, but every community in the parish, and many souls that night felt the mighty impact of the convicting and converting power of Almighty God. Following this visitation the local press reported that "more were now attending the prayer meetings than had attended public worship before the revival." What was it that brought about this gracious visitation? The sovereignty of God? Yes! But God had found His agent in a young man who had the Throne Vision.

I sometimes wonder if our weakness in face of the problems that confront us, is not due to the fact that we are not in touch with the Throne. How easy it is to develop a mentality that unconsciously ignores the fact that the need of Divine help is greater than we imagine, and especially when we remember that the issues of our words and actions are so influential. How true are the words of McCheyne: "If we are to walk worthy of our high and holy calling, we must live daily in consideration of the greatness and glory of Jesus." This is the prime qualification of any man for the service of Christ's Kingdom, and is clearly set forth in the words of Ananias to Saul of Tarsus: "The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth" (Acts 22.14), i.e. to have personal and intimate communion with Christ. This surely, is the secret of all that is of enduring value and influence. To see the face and hear the voice of that Just One, is to know the vision that inspires, and the fellowship that alone moves the soul to a life of sacrificial service. In the case of Paul, the vision and the voice sent him to be a witness unto all men of what he had seen and heard.

There are few men who do not, more or less, make their own life and character the theme of occasional study. It is good to look back. David found it so: "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies" (Psalm 119.59). Jeremiah calls upon Israel to look back: "See thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done" (Jer. 2.23). By so doing, he reminds them of their backslidden state.

It is good that we should ponder Vision in Retrospect. Henry Ward Beecher, surveying the past, and remembering the greatness of God's mercy towards him, writes: "I recall three or four instances in which it seemed to me that if certain occurrences had not taken place just as they did I should have been overthrown. If I had not been taken out of Boston at one time, as I was, I do not see what would have prevented me from going to destruction. I look back upon passionate moments, upon moments of willfulness, which would have led me to worse disaster, had not events in the providence of God transpired to check me in my course and change my career." That, surely, could be the testimony of many of us. As we review our past, we see many instances that would have proved fatal to our character, testimony, and witness if they had been allowed to go undisturbed.

I read somewhere the story of a traveler who, at night, shouted to the keeper of a toll bridge, to let the gate rise in order that he might pass through. A terrible storm was raging and the night was dark. The keeper was prevailed upon to come out and open the gate. When he did so, he found the traveler on the bridge side of the gate, and said to him: "In the name of God, where did you come from?" The traveler replied, "I crossed the bridge." The gate-keeper kept him that night, and in the morning showed him the bridge which he had crossed. The storm had so destroyed the footpath that night, that only one beam remained, and the sure-footed horse had kept to the beam, the rider quite unconscious of how near he was to being hurled into the raging torrent 100 feet below! "See thy way in the valley," said the prophet. And as we look back, some of us see how very narrow and slippery was the path on which we trod, and but for the mercy of God, we would have fallen to destruction. The Psalmist, remembering the sustaining and protecting hand of God, exclaims: "Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" (Psalm 107.8). That, I am sure, would be the language of many a heart on contemplating the goodness and the sustaining mercy of God. The hymn-writer, Addison, dwelling on the wonder of God's protecting and sustaining grace, pens these imperishable words:

"When in the slippery paths of youth 

With heedless steps I ran, 

Thine arm, unseen, conveyed me safe, 

And led me up to man.

"Through hidden dangers, toils, and deaths, 

It gently cleared my way; 

And through the pleasing snares of vice, 

More to be feared than they."

There is another aspect relative to Vision in Retrospect, to which I would draw attention: it is what one might call the Disturbing Vision. Looking back, we see moments that gave birth to great resolutions. We had our dreams, and we aspired to something good and great. The call of Christ was full of appeal, and at that time it appeared easy to sing: "Make me a channel of blessing." As we look back, what is it that we now see: what has the 'way in the valley' recorded? It is true, we had our dreams, and we aspired to a life of usefulness in the cause of Christ, but today, looking back, we cannot record positive achievement. Broken vows and resolutions are the sad reminder of our failure and defeat, and with David we say: "I remembered God, and was troubled" (Psalm 77.3). What caused the failure? Was it that the Throne Vision did not dominate, inspire, and empower? Self-confidence and an unwarranted self-sufficiency that finds expression in the neglect of an utter dependence upon God has blinded the eye of the Throne Vision. How many there are today who began well, whose lives were full of promise, and radiant with hope, but who today live to remember their neglect of the Throne of Grace -- the pathway to the Throne. Oh, how great is our need ever to seek the constant ministry of sustaining grace which alone enables us to stand "in the evil day," and our prayer should ever be that of David:

"Shew me Thy ways, O Lord; 

Thy paths, O teach Thou me: 

And do Thou lead me in Thy truth, 

Therein my teacher be: 

For Thou art God that dost 

To me salvation send, 

And I upon Thee all the day 

Expecting do attend" (Psalm 25.4-5).

We come now to consider Vision in Prospect, and here the words of David bring encouragement: 

"I to the hills will lift mine eyes, 

From whence doth come mine aid. 

My safety cometh from the Lord, 

Who heaven and earth hath made." 

(Psalm 121.1-2).

'Aid' and 'safety' are assured by the Throne Vision. How precious to the man conscious of failure are the words: "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: And... have the petitions that we desired of Him" (I John 5.14-15). That is the measure of God's provision, and it is our privilege, unworthy though we are, to avail ourselves of all the resources of His saving and sanctifying grace. How frequently we need to remind ourselves of this when faced with temptations and trials that so often beset us. Worthy views of the throne, and all that the throne stands for, are the secret of victorious living, for no man is stronger than what his communion with God makes him. It is the men of faith who see the hand that grips us when tempted to disregard the voice that speaks from the throne. Such are the heroes of faith, who have a God who sits upon the throne as a present help, and who is ever at their side to lead them to victory. Confident in the God who has never failed them, they are not moved from their steadfast purpose.

Here, let it be said that there are occasions in life when faithfulness to the throne involves persecution, and the faithful servant may have to stand alone. It is an easy thing to go with the crowd, and to do as others do, without any reference to God's claims, but the man who takes his directions from on high, will not be moved. "Men of Athens," cried Socrates, "I hold you in the highest reverence and love, but I am going to obey God rather than you."

The story of the Church of God down through the ages is one of conflict, but also of conquest: "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Rev. 12.11). John saw in "the blood of the Lamb" the eternal sign of Satan's defeat, and the assurance of ultimate victory. Here I would quote from an address by the late Gordon B. Watt: "The finished work of Christ is our plea before the throne, and our weapon against the enemy. Our right it is in Christ to ask God to bear witness on the battlefield of life, to the power of the blood and the effectiveness of the Cross against Satan and all his forces. He will not disappoint us. He cannot fail."

Here let me stress one truth: the obedience to the known will of God. It was Christ Himself who declared that entrance to the heavenly kingdom is denied to those who merely say, "Lord, Lord," and is awarded only to those who do the will of the Father. The path of His will may be narrow but it is never obscure, as to His requirements. But the Throne Vision, while it reveals the measure of our responsibility and possibility, also reveals the measure of our resources.