The Lewis Revival 1949 - Part 6 — Colin Peckham

Supernatural Strength and the All-Night Revival Meetings

Up until 3 and 4 in the morning at the meetings, and then up again at 7 and 8 to go to work, and we were not tired. Reverend Alistair Macdonald joins the chorus, and usually we did not return home until early hours in the morning, but still we went to work at 8 o 'clock, not without feeling tired.

One seemed to have supernatural strength. In Duncan Campbell's reports, he says, on several nights the meetings continued until 3 and 4 in the morning. Buses came to collect people for a concert in the town, but they returned empty for not one person went.

I addressed five meetings today, he says. We simply cannot get the people away, and the meetings just continue on until tomorrow morning. People are here from every parish in Lewis and Harris. So deep is the interest that during my visit to a certain district, all work stopped on the day regarded as a Sabbath.

Meetings were held during the day and night. Yesterday buses brought people to certain districts, others came by boats, but most came over the hill and wore by foot. Very few cars in those days. So eager were they a few nights ago on the hearing that we were to be at a certain church at 11 o 'clock at night, they secured buses and arrived an hour before the service, filling the church so that the people of the district, when they came to the church at 11 o 'clock, had to remain outside for two hours.

We had a praise meeting this morning at 1 .30. At 4 o 'clock this morning we were assembled at the shore, singing the songs of Zion as the boats carried them across the Sound to the main island. One of the elders, he said, assured me last night that every person on this island who could be out was in church.

Duncan Campbell's Fiery Preaching of Judgment and Salvation

What about his preaching? Norman Campbell says, Duncan Campbell was a fiery preacher and he preached the full gospel. At first he preached the law and the judgment, then he would go on to Jesus as the Savior.

Mary says, every night now I walk to the church to hear this preacher thunder forth the judgments of God. He stormed up and down the pulpit, expounding scripture, preaching damnation to the lost and salvation to those who repented and savingly believed.

I knew one thing, this man was sincere. The preaching had been searching, but the night the Bible broke out in Arnall it was simply overpowering. The Holy Spirit was applying the word to so many hearts as we listened to the intense presentation of the gospel.

The Personal Application of Christ's Judgment

The text rang out again and again, and thou Capernaum who art lifted up to heaven will be cast down to hell. And the preacher applied the word personally, you are here tonight and you have turned your back on God.

Once, twice, even three times you have said, and are continuing to say, I don't want to know Christ. You have been lifted up to heaven, you will be cast down to hell. The sense of the presence of God bowed all out.

Plain, Practical, and Uncompromising Sermon Craft

Duncan Campbell preached from the heart. His preaching was practical, plain, personal. He spoke to the heart with tremendous authority and boldness. Andrew Woolsey says, there was nothing complicated about Duncan Campbell's preaching.

It was fearless and uncompromising. He exposed sin in its ugliness and blotted length on the consequences of dying and living and dying without Christ. Mr. Campbell's messages were on paper, written on paper of all bits of paper of different sizes, scribbled notes, scraps.

They weren't written out in detail at all. He would simply write a word to remind him of a particular illustration. So nobody would understand the scribbles which were his messages. They were in gallery.

And Mary, my wife, had mercy on him and took the scraps of paper, sorting out the material as best she could. And with his help and comments, printed them down clearly in an exercise book. We have the exercise book there.

They are preserved in this book. Each sermon would take up about a page or two of A5. That's all he had to preach. It would consist of three or four headings with a few explanatory notes under each head.

At the side of each sermon would be the dates and times when it was preached. We have thus preserved a record, not completed by any means, of the sermons preached in the various places. As we worked together on this thing, and Mary translated, it was absolutely amazing, the simplicity, the absolute simplicity of the preaching.

Scripture-Filled Preaching on Sin, Judgment, and Redemption

It was just filled with scripture, scripture, quotations, quotations, quotations. But the matter, there were no Greek verbs explained. There were no theological concepts unraveled. There was no detailed analysis of biblical passages.

He was just preaching his heart, and he had plenty of scripture stored in his mind to fill the words. Theology, on an eternity without God, on the doom of the sinner, on the wrath of God, on the power of the cross, on the glory of the redeemed, on the wonders of heaven.

Oh, the gospel rang forth. It was terrible in the eyes of sinners, but thrilling to those who responded and yielded to the Savior. It was no easy believism. We understood very well that there was a hell to shun and a heaven to gain.

He preached on the depravity of the heart. People knew this doctrine very well. They'd heard it from the booklets. Yet he applied it to the hearts, and they had nowhere to hide. Sin's wickedness had ruined their lives and distorted their nature.

Their lives were corrupt. Their understanding was darkened. Their hearts were deceitful and desperately wicked. They were carnal and defiled. I mean it. He preached on the judgment of God. Man cannot will his way back to God.

He is doomed. He cannot work his way back to God. He cannot free himself from sin's bondage. He is defiled and cannot cleanse himself from sin. He is without hope and without God in the world. He is under the terrible wrath of an almighty God.

God's Sovereignty and Human Responsibility

Clear. He preached on the sovereignty of God. In that area, sovereignty is made much higher. And he preached it. But he said this. I believe in the sovereignty of God, but I do not believe in a sovereignty that nullifies man's responsibility.

His sovereignty. God has given to man responsibility. He never actually led people to the Lord. He never made appeals. There were no appeals made to those who went to the front to seek God. No, that wasn't that.

That didn't happen. The presence of God drove them to seeking God. The conviction of the Spirit of God drove them out, and they sought God. He would, at times, clear a room and have an after-meeting and pray with them.

Holiness and Prayer at the Heart of Revival

So we have the depravity of the heart, the judgment of God. The sovereignty of God. Holiness was another emphasis. Because when you come into the presence of God in revival, you are dealing with a holy God.

And that comes through. God is holy. And then he emphasized prayer. This was always to the fore. Prayer was at the heart. Margaret MacLeod, remember, said it was a community of people. If my people, two chronicles.

If my people, not just a few here and a few here and a few there of my people. But if my people, the community. The community was praying. The men in the barn prayed. With one heart and with one voice.

The after-meeting. Duncan never led people to God. He got them. For instance, the house would be filled.