(Clip) Barrenness to Revival — Duncan Campbell

Seventeen Years in a Barren Wilderness

For 17 years, I moved in a barren wilderness. It's true that I was evangelical in my preaching, so much so that on several occasions I was asked to conduct special missions. I was even asked to address Catholic conventions because I was Campbell of the 21 Revival.

I was Campbell of the Mid-Argyle Revival. And because of that, I was asked to address those conventions and conduct those missions. And God, in His mercy, gave me a measure of encouragement. God is wonderful.

17 years of it, knowing in my own heart that I wasn't right with God. Oh, what an experience! What an experience! On my knees before God, again and again I acknowledged it. Until one morning. I was preparing for a Keswick convention.

I'm in my study. It's about five o 'clock in the morning. When I heard someone singing in the drawing room of the Mass. And, of course, I recognized the voice. It was the voice of my own young daughter.

And she's singing, coming, coming, yes they are, coming, coming from afar, from the Indies and the Gandes. Steady flows that living stream to love's ocean, to His fullness. Calvary, their wandering theme.

There was something about that singing that spoke to me and gripped me and moved me. Because I knew that that lassie was thinking of the day when she would be in Nutt Hall as a missionary. Definitely called by God to that field.

She's only 16 years of age. After singing through the solo, she came over and she threw herself on my knees, as daughters sometimes do. She put her two arms round my neck and said to me, Daddy, I would like to have a talk with you.

A Daughter's Challenge to Return to Revival

Well, I said, Gina, I'll be happy indeed to talk with you. Oh, what was coming to me? We went to my study. And she said, for several days, Daddy, I've been battling against facing you with this question, but I must do it.

When you were a young pilgrim, before you went in for the ministry, you saw revival. You saw revival. How is it, Daddy, that you're not seeing revival now? And then faced me with this crushing question.

Daddy, you have a large congregation and many are joining the church. But Daddy, when did you last kneel beside a poor sinner and led him to Jesus? My dear people, that shook me. That shook me. I went to the Keswick Convention that night and did my part.

Crying to God for Forgiveness and Restoration

But on my way home, I vowed in the presence of God, that if He didn't bring me back to the experience that I had on that horse's back, I would give up the ministry and go back into business. And my dear people, I meant it.

I would be anything but a deceiver. When I arrived home, I couldn't take supper. To my study, I said to my wife and daughter, Don't disturb me tonight. I'm going to have a session with God. And I threw myself on my face in my study.

And I cried to God to forgive me. Oh, I cried to Him to forgive me. And in about an hour, blessed name He came to me. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities and who healeth all thy defences. And I knew that God had come to make me again to that glorious experience in the fullness of the blessing of the Holy Ghost.

I know that I lay there with this. I can't fully describe it. I can't put it into words. But I was caught up in an experience that could only be explained in terms of God. An experience of the Holy Ghost that had come again.

The Vision of Hell and the Call to Obey God

But just at that moment, a vision came to me. And that was a vision of hell. A vision of hell. And I could see multitudes, multitudes, caverns of death to be doomed and damned eternally. What a vision.

Oh, what a vision. At that moment, the door of my study opened. And that dear lassie came in. She lay down beside me. I can almost hear her voice now. As she is praying to God and saying, Oh, Jesus, keep His reason to Daniel.

She was afraid that I was going mental because of the vision that God gave me. The vision of souls lost eternally. God kept my reason to me. And suddenly, it left me. But it left me weak. Oh, brother, it left me weak.

Then, a voice seemed to say to me, Go back to the faith mission. Give up the ministry. You've suffered much by what you listen to in the church. For seventeen years, you've been in a barren wilderness.

God has come to you again. Obey God. Oh, thank God. Oh, thank God. I said yes to God. And the flood tides of glory came over me again. And if I had a vision of hell, Oh, I had a vision of the risen Christ.

Resigning the Congregation to Proclaim the Gospel

The risen Christ, the uttermost. And God said to me, Go out and tell it again. And on the following morning, I wrote three letters to the secretary of my congregation, to the presbytery clerk, and to the clerk of assembly, resigning my charge in this town, but retaining my status as a Presbyterian minister in Scotland.

And I retain that to this day. But I'm now free. I'm free to go out. I'm free to proclaim the glorious gospel. And I'm happy in the midst of the Holy Ghost. My dear people, I say that from the depths of my heart.

Revival Through the Holy Ghost

It was the Holy Ghost that did it. And in a very short time, I found myself in the midst of this glorious revival that continued for three years and continues to this day. It has kept coming since then, wave after wave.