The Holy Ghost in Revival - Part 2 — Duncan Campbell

The Church’s Responsibility in a Time of Revival

Not least one to ask this question, what is the Church really prepared to do about it? Here were lepers who did come. Now I want to be perfectly personal and direct. I believe that there are many within these walls who are conscious of the desperate need of the land today.

And they will subscribe to the conviction that revival is the only answer. That a manifestation of God is the only answer to the problem. That is your conviction. Well, that was the conviction of the lepers.

If we stay here we die. We'll do something about it. In other words, we'll take a risk. And in the economy of grace, blessed be God, there are no risks. They did something about it. Now tell me, what are we really prepared to do about it?

Let's face ourselves with unqualified honesty. Let us stand in the full blaze of the searching beam of God. I'm talking about revival. I'm interested in revival. I'm aware of the desperate situation. What am I doing about it?

I wonder if I may ask one question. How much time did you spend today in prayer? That God might visit the land. That God might spend revival time. Revival lesson. Your sincerity. Your honest Christian experience.

I have said frequently recently that it is my deep-seated conviction that much that grows under the name of church activity, and I say this as a Presbyterian minister, is just a laughingstock of devils.

We are not sincere. We are not sincere. We don't act according to what appears to be our convictions. If I really was concerned, if I really viewed the situation as heaven must do it today, why every moment at my disposal the promises of God?

That's Christianity. That's God in the soul. That's the life force of Jesus making itself manifest through my mortal flesh, but my dear people, are we there? Are we there? Oh, you may say what a dear lady said about my preaching some little time ago.

I was asked to address a conference of women outside of London. Never an easy conference to address. I was there for a week, the only male among them. After one sermon or address, the lady, a titled lady, the wife of a lord, she was heard to say a very interesting address, a very interesting address.

But we must not forget that the dear man was born and brought up among the hills of Scotland and the Hatha theology of his own. No, this is the word and I believe the message that the church of Jesus Christ stands in need of in this desperate hour, that the church of God will face reality.

Humbling Ourselves Before God for the Healing of the Land

This year also, a consciousness of obligation. We do not well. This is a day of glad tidings. Of course it is. A day when God wills to authority. If my people, called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my faith, then I, and will come, I'm quoting from the Gaelic, and will come and heal the land.

That's the God that we worship. That's the God that we believe in. My dear people, this is the day of grace. This is the hour of Pentecostal reality. I've said repeatedly recently, if Pentecost cannot be repeated, if recitation such by the air, when the word of what we are living, living in the day of the Holy Ghost, have been outpourings of the Holy Ghost, and so possessed by the Spirit, that they will recognize that this is indeed an hour of glad tidings.

We have a message that confronts the church, yet in the world today,.

That God is forgotten.

That is an arresting passage in the prophecy of Isaiah. Your sins and your iniquities have sent God into hiding. What sin? What iniquity? The sin and the iniquity of his people. And I am told to say again, that there is only one thing that hinders revival in Canada today, and that is the sin of God's people.

Revival doesn't begin among the ungodly of course. It begins among the people of God, my people. My neighbor were lepers, and they did something about it. And because they did something about it, the situation was saved.

Repentance, Judgment, and the Church’s Spiritual Vitality

So let me say again, the man who has eyes to see, is today gazing upon ominous shadows, for repentance or judgment. Repentance is a saving grace, whereby a sinner's repentance of the mercy of God doth with grief and hatred turn from him.

Heed my people, turn from me, and seek my faith. Oh, let me repeat it. Words that are pregnant with meaning, and will listen. But why is he not listening? Why is he not listening? Why is he not coming down?

Why is the land not healed? Because the church, regardless of the multitudes, that are represented by Samaria here, are in a desperate situation. There is one thing above another that the church of Jesus Christ needs today.

It is surely, oh, it is surely a sense, a gripping sense. Why is the church in existence? Why was it called into being? Propagate the message of the gospel. Surely to honor God in the midst of men. I wonder how many of us believe that the character of God is committed to his people.

Committed to his people. Committed to his church. When they fail in the eyes of the average man of the world. Oh, tell me, dear people, are we truly representing God? Are we showing a concern, fundamental convictions, that unless a man is born again, he will be doomed and damned forever?

My dear people, how many of us believe in hell? I am glad you are going to discuss it. How many of us believe it? It seems to me that few in the Christian church today really believe in the doom of the damned.

Could we sleep if we did? Would the prayer meeting be so empty? And listen, you do not judge the vitality of any congregation by what you see on Sunday morning. Of course you don't. That is not the evidence of spirituality.

You go to the prayer meeting on Wednesday or Thursday. That's the evidence. That's the evidence. That's the measure of your impact. That's the measure of your interest in revival. That's the measure of your vision relative to the desperate need of the country.

That's the measure. Oh, let's face it this morning. Let's face it with honesty and sincerity. Listen to the words of Scripture I send thee to open their eyes, to turn them from badness to light and from the power of Satan and to God.

God’s Purpose for Every Christian’s Life

My dear people, this is the conviction. Oh, this is the conviction that gives purpose and gives direction to the true child of God. I read somewhere, I think it was from Boston's Fourfold State, that great book that comes down to us from the Puritan period.

This is what Boston said. No man is born into the world whose work he is not born with, suggesting that God has a plan. Young folk, are you listening? That God has a plan and that God has a purpose. Why is it that so few young men today are offering for a mission work?

Why is it that so few young men are willing to go out to the villages and the country districts of Canada to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ? It's just because they have no sense of purpose or a heaven-given direction.

They are not aware of the fact that God has a plan and that God has a purpose, that every man's life is a plan of God. No, I'm not prepared to depart from my ambition. Let the multitudes go to hell. My ambition, my security, my stated salary.

God help us. Is that the spirit of a Christian? Is that the spirit of a man who is willing to face the implications of Calvary? No. The cry of his heart is, Take the world, but give me Jesus So that the day will come of my sacrificial giving of myself.

I shall come before him so that I will be spurned to his eternal glory. And there because there came an hour in my experience when I faced before the implications of Calvary and cried, I'm going through whatever others do.

I'll go the way of the world despite a few. I started out Jesus going through. I was in a room one day. A young woman came into the room and she knelt at the couch beside me. She was weeping bitterly, weeping bitterly.

Counting the Cost of Calvary and Missionary Calling

And she cried, Mr. Campbell, I'm in my Gethsemane. I'm in my Gethsemane. What was it? She was engaged to a young minister. A young minister that certainly will make his name in the church. He had asked her hand in marriage.

One night she's kneeling in prayer in her own room. He didn't tell me whether she fell asleep or fell into a trance. But she heard the wail of the damned. The wail of the masses. Of the masses in Congo.

In Congo. And that night in her Gethsemane she said no to the hand offered her and gripped the hand of the man of Calvary. Young girl has been instrumental in leading hundreds to his waiting for Congo to open to her.

And she'll be back there the moment the door opens. But many others, why do I tell you that story? Was it easy? Was it easy? To put that hand aside of all that it meant and all that it promised? God may not ask you to do that.

But he asked you to face the implications of Calvary. Oh, we're so unwilling. The cross. We want an easy. Was the path of the master easy? I often think of him there in that struggle in the wilderness.

The enemy comes to him. The kingdoms of the world. Demonstrate your power. Lower yourself down. Turn the stones into bread and the world will... And I sometimes wonder if Jesus at that moment didn't just pause for a second.

And then he lifted his eyes. He looked down toward Gethsemane and he saw the bitter cup. He lifted his eyes and he saw Calvary with its shade and death. But I venture to say that his eyes rose higher and he saw a city that had foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Gowry’s Courage Under Enemy Fire

He saw the redeemed hosts. He listened to their singing. Their singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. He could never be sad. His face steadfastly. The goal possible. The good tidings. I lay beside a few yards from a highlander, young man of the 42nd Highlander at the Battle of Passchendaele.

He's wounded, badly wounded in his right arm. He's doing his best to stem the flow of blood. Indeed I saw him tear his shirt to try and bandage the wound. But as he works at this, wounded arm is looking across that bloody field.

And there in front of him he saw a young man with the carton of the 42nd Highlander, the black one. I heard him say, Boys, I'm sure that's Joffrey Blair Gowrie. I'm sure that's Joffrey Blair Gowrie. And then as I watched that wounded comrade out there, I saw a hand being lifted, a soul beckoning for help, a beckoning for someone to give him a drink.

And then I saw this young man springing to his feet in face of the enemy's fire, crying, and he saved him. Oh, for that, are we there, dear people? Oh, are we there? This is a day of glad tidings. And we hold our peace.

The Missed Opportunity to Speak to a Soul

The crying, all silent. Am I speaking to criminals today? In face of the need, in face of the desperate situation, silent. Oh, may God forgive. I'm sure some of you must have heard of the great Dr. Thomas Chalmers, the leader of the disruption from the Church of Scotland in 1843, when the great free Church of Scotland came into being, but became the great missionary church.

Of our beloved land.

This movement was led by Thomas Chalmers. They left their mansions, they left their churches, because they refused to bow to the establishment or partner. They came right out. Hundreds of them founded the church.

Dr. Chalmers is visiting the northeast of Scotland in the interest of the church, and on this occasion is staying in one of our country hotels in that part of our land. After supper, the proprietor came to the doctor and said, Dr. Chalmers, will you lead us in worship?

It was their custom, of course, as it is the custom there, to have worship after supper, even in hotels. He was asked to take the book as it is commonly referred to. And while reading the chapter, he was suddenly gripped by the conviction that he should speak to the proprietor about his soul.

The proprietor was a God-fearing man. He wasn't a Christian. But he was a man who read the Bible and insisted upon family worship every evening. Something said to Thomas Chalmers, now speak to the man.

They went on their knees and Chalmers prayed, and as he prayed, his conviction seemed to grip him. But another voice spoke, and the other voice said, there are quite a lot of guests in the hotel tonight, and the staff are very busy, including the proprietor himself.

Just wait for a more opportune moment. You'll be back again in the near future, and you can take time to talk to them there. Now this is in Chalmers' diary. He went to his room and retired to rest, sleeping until about midnight, when a disturbance in the hotel woke him.

He couldn't understand it. But on coming down to breakfast, he was told at 11 .20.

That the proprietor had died of a heart attack.

Dr. Chalmers tells us that he went back to his room, couldn't think of breakfast, his head in the pillow, and cried, It was, my God, an opportune moment, but I miss it. It was an opportune moment. This is a day of glad tidings.

Oh, are we missing the opportunity that is ours. I believe that God is calling for men, especially young men, who will get into the battle with this battle cry. I'm sure that was the thought in the mind of the poet when he penned the words, Give me men to match my mountains.

Give me men to match my plains. Men with empires in their purpose. Men with eras in their brains. Give me men to plead for nations like Elijah on his knees who in hours of death-like stillness waits to catch that heavenly breeze.

Praying for Revival and Waiting on God

Give me men of faith and vision stripped of every earthly gain. Our powerful role, God gives. In the nations, wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may at the beginning that revival did not while whom came with her the Apollinus and the solution came to her then and the vision came.

This is the vision that she has. She is called there to give themselves to virgin and God in prayer. I say to thank God for a wise man a real prophetess. They were together and it was decided on the suggestion of one of the sisters that two nights a week should be spent waiting for God in prayer.

They would meal in the little cottage at Varda's Crossroads and the minister and his office bearers at the other end of the parish on Tuesday and Friday night. They gave themselves.

To virgin and God in prayer.

The churches were as empty. The young people of the parish are indifferent the drinking houses closed prisons of entertainment are crowded but very little thought of God. Until by whom crowded by men I remember as yet.

The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and the Beginning of Revival

I stepped off the gangway one of the office bearers came over to me and said might I ask you a question before you go any further.

Are you walking with God. One of the men that prayed in the barn. This was one of the men to whom God.

I was glad that I was able to say to him there dear God that I had with me after seventeen years of frustration and baffling at the minister tired of it all at the end of my service at the end of all human resource seeing so very little then God stepped into my life and told me that there's nothing in this to talk about the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

My dear people to me it's the most real thing God coming your body to be marked realization and consciousness. But we wonder that the parish church just on our way to the mass it will be a short meeting.

We just want the people to know that you've come and that you're the minister to us for ten days. Well if you're interested to know that I never got that supper and that instead of being on the island for ten days I was there for almost four years.

To the church a congregation of approximately three hundred had gathered. It was a good meeting. There was a gracious sense of God and I preached for about an hour and a half just in the highlands.