Promoting a Revival by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Mar 25, 1915

Promoting a Revival

By G. B. Thompson

An evangelist was once asked for suggestions as to the best methods of promoting a revival. He said, “Go home, get into your closet and stay there until you are revived.” This blunt instruction contains the secret of how to have a revival, either personally or as a church. If all the members of the church do this, the church will be revived. Are you cold and lifeless, praying a little from a sense of duty, rather than from a longing of the soul for closer communion with God; praying short, formal prayers; feeling you hardly have time to pray when there is so much to do? To your closet, O man, and the God who seeth in secret will reward you openly. Matt. 6:6. Victory obtained in the closet will be seen in the life.

Is there a need in the church? Is the prayer meeting waning? Is the missionary meeting dead? Is a spiritual paralysis creeping over you? Are some backsliding and losing their first love? Is the withering hand of covetousness getting a grip on some who once were faithful in rendering to the Lord that which belongs to him? Are worshipers of mammon rather than of God found in the church? Are some of the youth drifting with the world's tide of pleasure and sin, and being ensnared with the wiles of the wicked one, and do you find yourself unable to hold them spiritually? If so, pray. You can do nothing until you have fervently and earnestly prayed. Confess your own coldness and unfaithfulness and lack of zeal, and supplicate the throne of God for deliverance for yourself and your brethren. Do not let go of the arm of God too soon. Pray through to victory. Like Elijah, continue until the cloud appears, and the reviving shower falls, and the spiritual drought is ended.

Following Pentecost, we are told, “when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Acts 4:31. Prayer first, then the shaking! Nothing will remove the spiritual stupor, and bring life among the dry bones, like supplicating the throne of God. But prayer will do it.

Back of every revival it will be found that somebody has gone to praying. Before Pentecost they “all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.” Acts 1:14. Continued prayer, then Pentecost—this is God's order.

The mighty work of foreign missions, which is bringing the light of the gospel to the benighted millions of the earth, was born in a haystack. When Samuel J. Mills and his four companions prayed during a thunderstorm that August evening, in the shelter of a haystack, the greatest movement since Pentecost was launched. Something took place in heaven. God heard prayer. Prayer, then missions!

The Missionary Review, after a careful study of modern missions, says: “From the day of Pentecost, there has been not one great spiritual awakening in any land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or three; no such outward, upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings have declined; and it is in exact proportion to the maintenance of such joint and believing supplication and intercession that the word of the Lord in any land or locality has had free course and been glorified.”

The strength of our mission work is not in the number of laborers in the field, or the amount of gold and silver in the treasury, but in the earnest prayers which are ascending to God from earnest hearts that fear nothing but sin.

“Mr. Moody tells of one of the most memorable hours in his life when unexpectedly he had crossed the ocean and was in England without any intent of holding a religious service. One Saturday at noon he had gone into the meeting in Exeter Hall, on the Strand. At the close a minister greeted him, and asked him to come and preach for him the next morning. Mr. Moody said: ‘I went to the morning service and found a large church filled with people; and when the time came, I began to speak, but it seemed the hardest task of my life. There was no response from the audience. They seemed as if carved out of stone or ice. I was having a struggle all the time, and wished myself in some other place, but I had promised to speak also at night. “‘At night it was the same thing,—house filled, people outwardly respectful, but no interest or response. When about halfway through my sermon, there came a change. It seemed as if the windows of heaven had opened, and a bit of breath blew down. The atmosphere of the building seemed to change; people's faces changed. It impressed me so that when I finished speaking, I gave the invitation for those who wanted to be Christians to rise, and to my immense surprise the people got up in groups. I turned to the minister and said, “What does this mean?” He said, “I do not know, I am sure.” “Well,” I said, “they misunderstood me, and I will explain what I meant.” So I announced an aftermeeting in the room below, explaining who were invited,—only those who wanted to be Christians,—and then dismissed the service.’” “They went to the lower room, and the people came crowding, filling all available space,—seats, aisles, and standing room. Mr. Moody talked again a few minutes, and then asked those who would be Christians to rise. This time he knew he had made his meaning clear. They arose again in groups and by scores. Mr. Moody said: ‘I turned and said to the minister, “What does this mean?” He said, “I am sure I do not know.” Then the minister said to Mr. Moody: ‘What’ll I do with these people? I do not know what to do with them. This is something new.’ He replied: ‘Well, I'd announce a meeting for tomorrow night and Tuesday night, and see what comes of it. I am going across to Dublin;’ and he went, but he had hardly stepped off the boat when a cablegram was handed him from the minister, saying: ‘Come back at once. The church is packed.’ “‘So he went back, and stayed ten days. The result of those ten days was that four hundred souls were added to that church, and that every church near by felt the impulse of this great revival. “‘What was the explanation of that marvelous Sunday and the days following? There was some secret hidden beneath the surface. Mr. Moody discovered it. A member of the church, a woman, had been taken sick some time before; then she grew worse; then the physician told her that she would not recover, but that she would likely be shut in her room for years. She began to think of the deep meaning of this affliction. She thought of her life, and said, “How little I have done for God! Practically nothing, and now what can I do shut in here?” Then she said: “I can pray; I can pray for my church; I can pray for the manifestation of God’s Holy Spirit.” Then after every service she asked those who returned home if there was any special word concerning the work in the church. One Sunday noon her sister came in from service and asked,

‘Who do you think preached today?’— “‘I do not know. Who?’—‘Why, a stranger from America, a man called Moody, I think.’ “‘The sick woman's face turned a bit whiter, her eyes looked scared, her lip trembled, and she said: “I know what that means. There is something coming to the old church. Do not bring me any dinner. I must spend this afternoon in prayer.” And so she did. That night in the service the startling change came. Afterwards she told Mr. Moody himself how, nearly two years before, there came into her hands a copy of a paper that told of Mr. Moody and his work. She was led to pray that God would send that man into their church in London, and every day of her life for two years this had been her prayer; and now, by a seeming strange coincidence, God had answered, and abundantly answered, in the salvation of hundreds of souls.’”

O the blessing of interceding with God for lost souls! It is said that in a little town in Scotland the Christian people spent the whole night in prayer, and the following day a revival began, and five hundred persons were converted.

More than a century ago a number of students in a great university rose early each morning, and during the winter interceded with God for a revival, and it is said that every student in the university surrendered to Christ.

“Dr. J. G. K. McClure tells about an invalid woman residing in Springfield, Ill., who had been bedridden for seventeen years, and was almost helpless. For many years she had been praying to God in a general way to save souls. One day she asked for pen and paper. She wrote down the names of fifty-seven acquaintances. She prayed for each of these by name three times a day. She wrote them letters telling them of her interest in them. She also wrote to Christian friends, in whom she knew these persons had confidence, and urged them to speak to these persons about their soul’s welfare, and to do their best to persuade them to repent and believe. She had unquestioning faith in God. In her humble, earnest dependence upon him, she thus interceded for the unsaved. In time every one of those fifty-seven persons avowed faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour.”

In every church there should be found those who, like this woman, are praying for a revival among their neighbors and friends.

G. B. Thompson.