When God Stepped Down From Heaven - Duncan Campbell — From the Pulpit & Classic Sermons

Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. Each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers of the Christian faith and powerful sermons from modern preachers too.

This week we have Duncan Campbell with his message, When God Stepped Down from Heaven.

Revival Is God's Work, Not Human Achievement

Now before I begin the story I would like to say one thing and that is that I did not bring Revival to Louis. It has grieved my heart again and again to read articles about the man that brought Revival to Louis.

Notices on church boards, come and hear the man that brought Revival to Louis. My dear people, it's not true. I don't carry Revival about with me in my pocket. Revival broke out in Louis sometime before I went to the island.

I thank God for the privilege of being in its midst for over three years. I went at the invitation of one parish minister for ten days, but God kept me there for three years. Now I am thankful to God for the privilege of perhaps in some small way leading that movement and teaching the young converts in the deep things of God.

The Spiritual Decline Before the Lewis Awakening

Now having said that, I want to read you a few lines from this little book, The Louis Awakening. It will give you an idea of the desperate state of this island prior to this gracious movement. The Presbytery of Louis met to consider the terrible drift away from the ordinances of the church, especially the drift away from the church by the young people of the island.

Now here are words from a declaration that was read in all the congregations. The Presbytery affectionately plead with their people, especially with the youth of the church, to take these matters to heart and to make serious inquiry as to what must be the end should there be no repentance.

My dear people, take that to heart. Should there be no repentance, and they call upon every individual asked before God to examine his or her life in the light of that responsibility which pertains to us all, that happily in the divine mercy we may be visited with the spirit of repentance and may turn again unto the Lord whom we have so grieved with our iniquities and waywareness.

Especially would they warn their young people of the devil's man traps, the cinema, and the public house. That was a declaration by the Presbytery read in all the congregations and published in the local press.

What Revival Means

Now you might ask me, what do you mean by revival? There are a great many views held by people today as to what revival is. So you hear men say, are you going out to the revival meetings? We're having a revival crusade, and so on.

There is a world of difference between a crusade and a special effort in the field of evangelism. My dear people, that is not revival. As I already said from this platform, I thank God for every soul brought to Christ through our special efforts, and for every season of blessing at our conferences and at our conventions.

We praise God for such movements. But is it not true that such movements do not, as a general rule, touch the community? The community remains more or less the same, and the masses go past us to hell.

In revival, the community suddenly becomes conscious of the movings of God, beginning among His own people. In a matter of hours, not days, in a matter of hours, churches become crowded. No intimation of any special meeting, but something happening that moves men and women to the house of God.

And you find within hours of men and women crying to God for mercy before they went near a church. You've read the history of revivals. The Jonathan Edward revival in America, that was what happened. The Welsh revival, that is what happened.

And the more recent Lewis revival, that is what happened. When God stepped down, men and women, the fear of God. This to me is an interesting story, and I want to tell it in full. One evening, an old woman, 84 years of age and blind, had a vision.

You can't ask me to explain this vision, because I cannot. But strange things happen when God begins to move. And this dear old lady, in the vision, saw the church of our fathers crowded with young people, with young people.

And she saw a strange minister in the pulpit. She was so impressed by this revelation, because a revelation it was, she sent for the minister. The parish minister was a God-fearing man, a man not long to see God working.

Oh, he had tried ever so many things to get the use of the parish interested, but not one single teenager attended the church. That was the situation. Well, what of this dear old lady to say to him, I'll tell you what she said, I'm sure, Mr. Mackay, that you're longing to see God working.

What about calling your office bearers together and suggest to them that you spend two nights a week waiting upon God in prayer. You've tried missions, you've tried special evangelists. Mr. Mackay, have you tried God?

Oh, I tell you, this was a wonderful old woman. Oh, he meekly obeyed and said, yes, I'll call the session together, and I will suggest that we meet on Tuesday night and Friday night, and we'll spend the whole night in prayer.

I tell you, dear people, here were men that meant business. The dear old lady said, well, if you do that, my sister and I will get on our knees at 10 o 'clock on Tuesday, 10 o 'clock on Friday, and we'll wait on our knees till 4 o 'clock in the morning.

I tell you, this puts us to shame. So they went to prayer, and I want to mention that they had but one promise from God, and that promise they pledged, I will pour water on him that his thirsty floods upon the dry ground.

That's God's promise. And in their prayers, according to the minister, they would say again and again, God, you're a covenant-keeping God, and you must be true to your covenant engagements. The praying and the meetings continued for several months, until one night, a very remarkable thing happened.

Prayer, Repentance, and the Lewis Awakening

They're kneeling among straw in the barn, the barn of a farmhouse, when suddenly, one young man rose and read of Psalm 24. Who shall ascend the hill of God? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart to have not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing of the Lord.

And he shut his Bible, and then looking down at the minister and at the other men who were kneeling there, he said these rather crude words, not so crude in Gaelic, but this is what he said, Brethren, it seems to me just so much humbug, to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.

Oh, my dear brethren, let's take that to heart. He began to pray. Are my hands clean? Is my heart clean? And that dear man got no fault. He fell on his knees, and then on his face among the straw. Within a matter of minutes, three of the elders fell into a trance.

Now, please don't come to me at the end of this meeting and ask me, did I really mean by men falling into a trance? I cannot answer that question. All that I know is this, that when that happened in the barn.

Now, it happened in the Jonathan Edward Revival, remember that. Not peculiar by any means to Lewis. It happened in America. It happened in the 59 Revival in Wales. Not the 1900 Revival, but the 59 Revival.

This I can say. The moment that that happened in the barn, the poor was let loose in barbers that shook the whole of Lewis. I say shook Lewis. It began to move among the people. The minister writing about what happened in the following morning said this, you met God on Meadow and Moorland.

You met him in the homes of the people. God seemed to be everywhere. What was that? A special effort. Not anything at all organized on the basis of human endeavor. An awareness of God community. So much so that works stopped.

What was happening? People were meeting in groups. Young men would gather in a field and begin to talk about this strange consciousness of God that had gripped the community. A matter of days, I received a letter inviting me to the island.

It was at that time in the midst of a very gracious movement on the island of Skye. It wasn't Revival, but men and women were coming to Christ. God was glorified in the number of prominent men who found the Savior at that time, but it wasn't Revival.

I imagine that in Canada or in America, they would refer to it as a big revival, but it was definitely a move. I received this invitation to come to Lewis for 10 days. I wrote back to say that it wasn't possible for me to do that because I was involved in a holiday convention on this island and the speakers were arranged and accommodation in the different hotels for the people that were coming from all over Britain.

I cannot take time to tell you how that convention had to be canceled, largely because the tourist board took the hotels over my head for a special Skye week that they were going to have, so I had to cancel everything.

However, the minister received the letter and he went to the old lady with him and read the letter to her. This is what she said, Mr. Mackay, that is what man is saying, but God has said something else and he'll be here within a fortnight.

And I tell you, the convention wasn't canceled then, but she knew. Oh, my dear people, listen, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. And she knew God's secret. Well, I was on the island within 10 days to spend 10 days among the people.

The First Meeting and the Outbreak of Revival

I was met at the pier by the minister and two of his of his bearers. Just as I stepped off the boat, an old elder came over to me and faced me with this question, Mr. Campbell, may I ask you this question?

Are you walking with God? Oh, here were men who meant business, men who were afraid that a strange hand would touch the ark. Are you walking with God? Glad to be able to say, well, I think I can say this, that I fear God.

The dear man looked at me and said, well, if you fear God, that will do. And then the minister turned and said, we're sure, Mr. Campbell, that you're tired and you must be longing for your supper and supper will be ready for you in the manse.

But I wonder if you would address a meeting in the parish church just on the way to the manse to show yourself to the people. There'll be a fair congregation. I'm not saying a great number, but, oh, anything between 200 and 300, I expect.

You see, there's a movement among us. Well, it will interest you, dear people, to know that I never got that supper because I didn't arrive at the manse until twenty minutes past five in the morning. I went to the church.

Now, this is the interesting bit, because it deals with the outbreak of God in supernatural power, the God of miracle revealing himself in revival. I preached in the church to a congregation of about 300.

And I would say a good meeting, a wonderful sense of God, something that I hadn't known since the 1921 movement in Medjugorje. But nothing really happened. And I pronounced the benediction. And I'm walking down the aisle when this young man came to me and said, nothing has broken out tonight, but God is hovering over us.

He's hovering over us midday. And he'll break through any moment. Well, I must be perfectly honest. I didn't feel anything. But you see, he was a man much nearer to God than I was. Oh, he knew the secrets.

We're moving down. The aisle and the congregation is moving out. They're all out now, except this man and my son. He lifted his two hands and started to pray. God, you made a promise to pour water on the thirsty and lands upon the dry ground, and you're not doing it.

Pray, pray, and prayed again until he fell again onto the floor. He's lying there. I'm standing beside him for about five minutes. And then the door of the church opened, and the session clerk came in.

Mr. Campbell, something wonderful has happened. Revival has broken out. Will you come to the door and see the crowd that's here? Eleven o 'clock, Matthew, eleven o 'clock. I went to the door, and there must have been a congregation of between six and seven hundred people gathered around the church.

This dear man stood at the door and suggested that we might sing a psalm. He gave out Psalm 102. When Zion's bondage God turned back, us men that dreamed were we. Then filled with laughter was our mouth, our tongue with melody.

And they sang, and they sang, and they sang. And in the midst of it, I could hear the cry of the penitent. I could hear men crying to God for mercy. And I turned to the elder and said, I think we had better open the doors again and let them in.

And within a matter of minutes, the church was crowded at a quarter to twelve. Now, where did the people come from? How did they know that a meeting was in progress in the church? Well, I cannot tell you.

But I know this, that from Village and Hamlet, the people came. Were you to ask some of them today, what was it that moved you? They couldn't tell you. Only that they were known by a power that they could not explain.

And the power was such as to give them to understand and see that they were healthy, serving sinners. And of course, the only place they could think of where they might find help was at the church, between six and seven hundred.

Conviction Spreads Beyond the Church

There was a dance in progress that night in the parish. This young man was praying in the aisle. The power of God moved into that dance. And people, over a hundred of them, fled from the dance as though fleeing from a plague.

And they made for the church. She endeavored to get up into the pulpit. I found the way blocked with young people who had been at the dance. When I went into the pulpit, I found a young woman, a graduate of Aberdeen University, who was at the dance.

And she's lying on the floor of the pulpit crying, Is there mercy for me? Is there mercy for me? Is there mercy for me? His vision was young people, as well as old. Well, that meeting continued until four o 'clock in the morning.

As I was leaving the church, a young man came to me. Oh, he's not a Christian, but he's a God-fearing young man, and told me this story. Mr. Campbell, there must be anything between two and three hundred people at the police station.

They're gathered there, and some are on their knees. Now, I can't understand this. Now, he wasn't in the church, you see. But here, a crowd of men and women from a neighboring village, even six miles away, themselves moving to the police station, because the constable there was a God-fearing and well-saved man.

And just next to the door, Peggy Scottett. And this young man begged off me to the police station. And I went along. I shall never, never forget what my ears heard and my eyes saw this morning. Young men were kneeling by the roadside.

I think just now of a group of half a dozen. One of them under the entrance of drink. And his old mother kneeling beside him and saying, Oh, Willie, Willie, are you coming at last? Willie, Willie, are you coming at last?

And Willie today is a parish minister of Ilgin. And from the group of young men who sought the Lord that night, there are nine in the ministry. My dear people, that's revival. And I'm excited to see in passing that is the crying need of the Christian church in Canada today.

But not this effort and that effort on the basis of human endeavor, but a manifestation of God that moves sinners to cry for mercy before they go near a place of worship. My dear people, that was how it began then.

That was how it began. And then it left over the bounds of the parish, the neighboring parishes. We are now addressing meetings through the day. We're addressing meetings right through the night. But I can remember once within 24 hours addressing eight meetings.

Crowded churches five times. Twice out in a field once down at the shore where men had come across a loch there. Old men. And they were so moved that night. So many of them found the Savior that we followed them to the shore.

And there we sang the songs of Zion at two o 'clock in the morning before they left for their homes. Oh, my dear people, that's God at work. That's revival. I remember one night a man coming to me and saying, would it be possible for you to visit our parish?

Well, I said, it all depends on when I could visit the parish. I think it would be possible for me to go if you could have me between one and two o 'clock in the morning. So it was decided that I should go at one o 'clock, half past one.

I arrived there to find a large church, one of the large churches in Lewes. Crowded to capacity with as many outside. Spoke there and then left the church with hundreds crying to God. I see hundreds crying to God.

Another young man came to me and said, Mr. Campbell, there must be between three and five hundred people on a field down here. They're wondering, the elders there are wondering if you could come down and address them.

And I went down and I found this crowd. Oh, it was easy to address them. The Spirit of God was hovering over us. The Spirit of God is moving. I see a man lying on the ground. He's in distress of soul, in terrible distress.

Then four young girls, I would say about 16 years of age, they came over and they knelt beside him. And I hear one of them saying, listen, the Jesus that saved us last night can save you now. And that man was saved.

Four young lassies prayed around. My dear people, I think I ought to tell you a rather amusing incident. We weren't in favor with all. There was a certain section of the Christian church that bitterly opposed me.

There was a mad Armenian, estranged or claiming that the baptism of the Holy Ghost was a definite subsequent experience to conversion. Now, my dear people, I believe that may cross your path, but there it is.

I want to say this in passing, that I believe it was because the people of Lewis grasped that truth that we can say today we know practically nothing of backsliding from that gracious movement of years ago.

It is because they entered into the fold of men and women going out into full-time service. Well, we're singing at this meeting when I saw the door of a cottage opening and I saw an old woman coming out with a black shawl on her and she walked over and she got a hold of one of the elders.

People would go home and let people sleep. I can still see that dear man going over to her and taking her by the shoulders and shaking her and saying, woman, get away home. You've been asleep long enough.

Conviction of Sin and the Farmer's Conversion

But from that meeting, I went back and when we arrived at the manse, the minister was with me. We found an elder waiting us to say that a farmer was in great distress of soul. Now, this man hadn't been near a church for 12 years.

He just lived for his cattle and horses. He lived for the earth. He had a godly wife and a godly daughter and they were concerned about him. They invited me prior to this incident and I spoke to the old man and he said, oh, well, I may turn up at the church sometime.

A day or two after that, he was seen walking down the road to the church and one of the elders said that he thought the suit he had on was the suit that he married in. It wasn't certainly a mothering one.

He went to the church at any rate and the church was so crowded that he had to sit on the pulpit steps just quite near to me. And God was in a fearful state, crying and repeating, God, hell is too good for me.

Hell is too good for me. So that we could see conviction, there is one thing that I've been crying for after this conference. That'll get men and women prostrate in the press. Give it to us. Give it to us.

The minister went, found every room in the farmhouse packed with people praying. Oh, they were praying for the farmer, afraid that he would go mental. I said to the wife, mercy on the mighty sinner. And she gently opened the door and there's a farmer on his knees.

And again, he kept repeating, God, can you have mercy on me? Can you have mercy on me? I seem to feel that hell is too good for me. And there he is. We're standing at the door. He's quite unconscious of us being there.

And then the wife, I'm just stating a fact, the wife spoke. And this is what she said. Mercy on the mighty sinner. Take his life. Not his experience of God would be real. Conviction, in the words of Mary Morris.

Conviction, leave them there. Oh, how often I heard her say that during the U .S. revival. God, I sometimes feel, dear people, that we take things out of the hand of God by our counsel. Oh, that we might get to the implicit confidence in God.

We leave the work to him. The following night, he asked for a meeting in the house. In the morning, God met with him. In a glossary, he asked for a prayer meeting. Do you know that out of that prayer meeting, there are four ministers in the church today, talking to you about incidents and how it began.

Fruits of Revival and the Hunger for Prayer

But I think I ought to mention one or two of the supreme features of the movement. First of all, of course, it was the awareness of God. That, to me, was the outstanding thing. This sense of God, the fear of God, in the parish and in the neighboring parish, speak to any person, and you would find them thinking about God and crying for mercy.

Now, that is a fact that cannot be disputed. God was everywhere. Because of this awareness of God, the churches were crowded. Through the day, right on, through the night, through five, does not exist.

You see, the presence of God puts to flight programs. How often I cry to God to so move in our midst. The outstanding feature was this deep, deep conviction of safety. To explain this, you would have to be there to start to incident.

A dear old lady came to me one day, and she said, I feel led to ask you to go to this particular part of this parish. There are mighty sinners there. Well, I said to her, you know, I have no leadings to go there.

They are bitterly opposing me, and I don't suppose I could get any place to hold a meeting. She looked at me and said this, Mr. Campbell, if you were living as near to God as you ought to be, he would reveal his secrets to you also.

And I took that as a rebuke, and I went back to the manse, and I said to the minister, I think we ought to spend the morning with old Peggy. And waved upon God with her in the room. So sister knelt with her in their little room.

A dear old woman began to pray, and I can give you her prayer. Do you remember the conversation we had this morning at two o 'clock? And you told me you were going to visit this part of the parish with revival.

And I've just spoken to Mr. Campbell about it, but he's not prepared to think of it. You better give him wisdom, because the man badly needs it. That was what the dear woman said. And when we rose from our knees, I said to old Peggy, you know, where do you wish me to go, and where is the meeting to be held?

Before you go, and God will provide the congregation and the meeting place. Well, Peggy, I'll go. Oh, you better. And I went on the following evening, and there must have been a congregation of anything between three and four hundred, gathered round this bungalow, a seven-room bungalow.

And the bungalow was so packed, and so many young people anxious to be in, that the man of the house, who wasn't a Christian, but a God-fearing man, suggested that they should get into the bench in rows of threes.

Take off their shoes, and pack themselves like herring. Now, that was what they did. Rows of threes on their knees in the different beds. Not one of them could tell you, but moved by a sovereign God, they were there.

I spoke for about ten minutes, when one of the elders came to me and said, Mr. Campbell, will you come round to the end of the house? Some of the leading men in the village are crying to God for mercy.

And if you go there, we'll go to the peat stack over here, where you see those women crying to God on their knees. And I went round to the end of the house, and there they were. The men that old Peggy saw, that would become pillars in the church of our fathers.

And today, those men are pillars in the church. My dear people, that's the revival that I believe in. But in the midst of those crying to God for mercy, there were two pipers. I think most of you know that I was a piper.

Playing the bagpipes at a concert and dance when God met with me and spoke to me and saved me from God. Well, two of them are there. Now, those two pipers were advertised to play at a concert and dance in a neighboring parish.

And the minister of that parish was there. He was the man who spoke to me and said, go to the end of the house. And he and his wife were looking at the two pipers. Oh, they're there crying to God for mercy.

He turned to his wife and he said, look here, we'll go back to the parish and we'll go to the dance and we'll tell them there what is happening in Barabas. So off they went 50 miles, arrived when the dance was in progress.

Went to the door and was met by the son of a schoolmaster. What are you wanting here, Mr. McLennan? Oh, I've just come to the dance. Oh, but we know you haven't come to the dance to dance. The parish minister, he came right and went in.

Psalm 50 and the Empty Dance Hall

They're dancing. Then there was a lull. He stepped onto the floor. Young men, young women, I have an interesting story to tell you. The Smith pipers aren't with you. They're not with you. They're crying to God for mercy in Barabas.

Oh, the stillness of eternity and quoting the words of the minister came over the dance. And then he said, young folk, listen, I would like you to sing a psalm with me. And I think we ought to sing Psalm 50 where God is depicted as a flame of fire.

They began to sing. He's leading it himself. When they came to the second verse, suddenly there was a cry. The young man fell on the floor and began to cry to God for mercy. In five minutes, the hall was empty.

And there now in three buses, coaches that brought young people from other parishes. And they're in the coaches on their knees crying to God for mercy. And listen, the young man who fell on his knees that night was inducted to a parish church just before I came across to Canada.

That's God at work. The spirit of God so moved. The conviction was so terrible that we could only leave them there. I suppose you've read about the most remarkable movement. The Acts of the Apostles repeated again.

The Arnold Revival and a Manifestation of God's Power

It's in the village of Arna. A young girl who's been here for several years and came to us last year. She was up there just now. And she was over at the house at Shook when the elder prayed. Now that was what happened about midnight.

The situation was difficult. Again, bitter opposition. Bitter opposition. He's teaching error. So it went on. At midnight, this man got up to pray. And I still recall his words. God, do you know that your honour is at stake?

Do you know that you made a promise that you're not fulfilling? Now there are five ministers here along with Mr. Campbell. I don't know where any of them stand, not even Mr. Campbell. But if I know anything at all about my own poor heart, I think I can say that I'm thirsty.

I'm thirsting for a manifestation of your power. And then, about a quarter to two in the morning, he stood up and said this. God, on the basis of your promise to pour water on the thirsty, I now take it upon myself to challenge you to fulfill your covenant engagement.

And when that man said that, the foremost supplicant, rather a minister said to me, and asked Campbell. He said, yes, but I am in my own thoughts. And when John Smith stopped praying, I pronounced the benediction and went out of the church to find the whole community alive.

The whole community alive. Opposition had fled. And the gracious movement broke out that is spoken of in Scotland today as the Arnold Revival. One of the mighty movements in the midst of this gracious visitation.

You know that the drinking house was closed that night and it's never been open since. Never been open since. The men who used to drink there and spend the evening there are now praying in our prayer meetings.

And one of them is a minister in southern Arabia. Donald MacPhail. I could go on. But that was how the movement began. Conviction, distress of soul, fourteen young men standing in a hall discussing the amount of beer that was to be brought to the parish for a dance on Friday.

Suddenly one of them turns to the others and says, boys, let us increase the amount. I believe that this is the last time that beer is going to come to this parish. Another young man said, Angus, are you suggesting that the revival is going to come to this godless parish?

I cannot say what is going to happen or what is going to come, but something is happening to me. And that was all that he said. But listen, dear people. Fourteen young men fell on their knees in front of the public hall and were there for over an hour.

And all of them saved. And eleven of them are office bearers in that church today. And that is one community after that gracious movement when you couldn't find a single unsaved soul in the parish or in that part of it.

The Enduring Fruit of Revival

My dear people, do you good folk understand what revival means? Have you a conception of what it means to see God working? The God of miracle, sovereign, supernatural, moving in the midst of men and hundreds swept into the kingdom.

Oh, that we might see it. That we might see it. My time's gone. But you ask, now, what are the fruits of it? You've already said that you know nothing about backsliding. Now that is true. I could count on my five fingers all who dropped off from the prayer meetings.

You see, in Lewis and in the Highlands generally, they would no more believe that you were a Christian than they would believe that the devil was a Christian if you don't attend the prayer meetings. The devil is born again.

Suddenly there is created a hunger to be among the praying people of God. And the prayer meetings become crowded. You couldn't find a parish in Lewis today that hasn't five prayer meetings. Local press stated in the midst of the movement, there are more people attending the prayer meetings now than attended public worship on a communion Sunday.

Now that's true. Well, that is one of the outstanding features relative to the fruit that remains. And from those prayer meetings, now get a hold of this. From those prayer meetings, a movement has begun now that is sweeping through Lewis.

Where is it? Among whom? Among the teenagers. Among young men and young women. Some time ago, would be making their way to town to the pictures or to the dance or to the drinking houses in the town. But today, in their scope, now I'm not saying it's revival.

Not in the sense that we witnessed it some years ago. But in parishes tonight, you will find perhaps half a dozen prayer meetings in progress. They were in the church, and from the church they go for a bite of supper.

And then to houses here and there to wait upon God till two o 'clock in the morning. And in those prayer meetings, young people, young men and women, teenagers and others coming savingly to Christ. Your Miss Bengal was among them recently, and she has a story to tell.

Perhaps when she comes back to Prairie, she'll tell you all about it. Not as if we let her go. I think I said to Minister Maxwell, if you can give us half a dozen other Miss Bengals, we'll welcome them with open arms in the work of the mission in Pagan England.

But in passing, well, it may drop a seed somewhere. But that is true, the movement continues. And perhaps another feature relative to the fruits is the number of men and women that have gone forth into full-time service in the ministry and in the foreign field.

You've been listening to From the Pulpit Classic Sermon Series. This week you heard Duncan Campbell with his message, When God Stepped Down from Heaven. Tune in next week to hear J. Glenn Owen talk about It is the Last Hour on From the Pulpit Classic Sermons.