Spirit Impacts in Revivals (part 3) – Geoff Waugh
Posted on July 24th, 2010
Thursday 8 August, 1745 – Crossweeksung, America
David Brainerd, missionary to the North American Indians from 1743 to his death at 29 in 1747, tells of revival breaking out among Indians at Crossweeksung in August 1745. Concerning 8 August, 1745, he wrote
the power of God seemed to descend on the assembly ‘like a rushing mighty wind’ and with an astonishing energy bore all down before it. I stood amazed at the influence that seized the audience almost universally and could compare it to nothing more aptly than the irresistible force of a mighty torrent… Almost all persons of all ages were bowed down with concern together and scarce was able to withstand the shock of astonishing operation (Howard 1949:216-217).
The ‘Great Awakening’ which had begun a decade previously now impacted Indian settlements with charismatic outpourings of the Holy Spirit, producing both conversions and significant social improvement.
Sunday 25 December, 1781 – Cornwall, England
Forty years after the eighteenth century evangelical revivals began the fires of revival had died out in many places. Concerned leaders called the church to pray. Those prayer meetings included outpourings of the Spirit in revival. On Christmas day 1781, at St. Just Church in Cornwall, at 3.00 a.m. intercessors met to sing and pray. The Spirit was poured out on them and they prayed through until 9.00 a.m. and regathered that Christmas evening. Throughout January and February, the movement continued. By March 1782 they were praying until midnight as the Holy Spirit moved on them. The chapel which George Whitefield had built decades previously in Tottenham Court Road, London, had to be enlarged to seat 5,000 people, the largest church building in the world at that time. Baptist churches in North Hampton, Leicester, and the Midlands, set aside regular nights devoted to prayer for revival. Methodists and Anglicans joined them, and revival spread.
June-July, 1800 – Kentucky, America
Presbyterian James McGready organised camp meetings in Kentucky, an area nicknamed Rogues Harbour populated with fugitives from justice including murderers, horse thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters. On the last day of the first camp meeting, held in June with around 450 people, ‘a mighty effusion of [God=s] Spirit’ came upon the people, ‘and the floor was soon covered with the slain; their screams for mercy pierced the heavens.= At the next camp meeting held in late July 1800 an enormous crowd of 8,000 attended, many from up to 100 miles away. McGready recalled:
The power of God seemed to shake the whole assembly. Toward the close of the sermon, the cries of the distressed arose almost as loud as his voice. After the congregation was dismissed the solemnity increased, till the greater part of the multitude seemed engaged in the most solemn manner. No person seemed to wish to go home – hunger and sleep seemed to affect nobody – eternal things were the vast concern. Here awakening and converting work was to be found in every part of the multitude; and even some things strangely and wonderfully new to me (Christian History, No. 23, p 25).
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