Well, before I begin the story, I would like to say one thing and that is that I did not bring revival to Lewis. It has grieved my heart again and again to read articles about the man that brought revival to Lewis, notices on church doors, "Come and hear the man that brought revival to Lewis." My dear people, it's not true. I don't carry revival about with me in my pocket. Revival broke out in Lewis 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 10 days but God kept me there for three years and 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.
Now having said that, I want to read you a few lines from this little book, "The Lewis Awakening." It will give you an idea of the desperate state of this island prior to this gracious movement. The presbytery of Lewis 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 as before God to examine his or her life in the light of that responsibility which pertains to us all, that happily in the divine master we may be visited with the spirit of repentance and return again unto the Lord whom we have so grieved with our iniquities and waywardness, 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.
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 are having a revival crusade," and so on. There is a world of difference between a crusade or 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 pray God for such moments, but is it not true that such moments 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. But in revival the community suddenly becomes conscious of the movings of God beginning among his own people so that in a matter of hours, not days, in a matter of hours the churches become crowded, no inclination of any special meeting but something happening that moves men and women to the house of God and you find within hours scores of men and women crying to God for mercy before they went near a church. You have 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, suddenly men and women all over the parish were gripped by the fear of God.