T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
January, 1933
9
^Yflay teeexfjeci a GREAT REVIVAL
( f fy e fo re ihe (d om in g o f ( f h m s i ? B y H. A. IRONSIDE* Chicago,"Illinois
“ O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: 0 Lord, revive thy work in the midst o f the years, in the midst o f the years make known; in wrath remember mercy”
“ Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me,” and again he cries out, “ Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may re joice in thee?” And
M ay we expect a great revival before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? In attempting to answer the ques tion in a scriptural way, there are some things that need to be defined. First, what do we mean by revival? I do not know any term that is more misused than this term. A series o f meetings may be announced and called “ revival meetings,” and if it were not so sad, it would be almost ludicrous to see the way the advertisements sometimes read. I have picked up a newspaper and read that on a given Sunday night a “ revival” would begin in a certain church. How does anybody know that ? Then I have read, a few weeks later, “ The revival which has been in progress at such a church during the past few weeks will close on such and such a night.” If there had been a revival, what a pa thetic thing to have it broken off so suddenly! A revival is not simply a series o f well-attended meetings where there is good preaching, good singing, and possibly a number of people coming to Christ. A revival is something far more than that. Some years ago, I found myself in a strange town on Sunday morning. I went to the largest Protestant church I could find, and I shall never forget an announcement the pastor made. Outside was a striking placard announcing revival meetings under the leadership of a well-known evan gelist, but the evangelist was not there, and the pastor wag evidently rather humiliated over it. Coming to the front, he said something like this, “ My dear friends, I was very confident that our revival was to begin today. You remember I announced that it would begin last Sunday, but on the Saturday night pre vious I received a telegram from the evangelist saying he was in a great meeting in Indiana and could not leave for another week. I wired him giving permission to remain, but said we would expect him for this Sunday. Last night, to my great disgust, I received another telegram saying the meetings were going on with such interest he could not come for another week. My patience is about at an end. I am going to send him a night letter this evening telling him he must be here next Sunday without fail, or there will be no revival in this church this year!” It was very evident that revival, to that minister, meant just a special series of meetings under the leadership of an evangelist. I have no hope whatsoever that there will be anything like a great world-wide demonstration under the leadership of some one or two particular preachers in our day or generation. R evivals in S cripture What do we mean, what does Scripture mean when it speaks of revival? In the Psalms, we hear David saying,
here Habakkuk prays, “ O Lord, revive thy work in the midst o f the years.” What is meant by revival in these pas sages of. Scripture? The word itself is most suggestive. It means to stir afresh that which is already alive. There is a life in every born-again person, that needs from time to time to be freshly stirred and roused up, and when tbis takes place, it results in increased devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, in greater carefulness as to one’s own individ ual walk before God, and in deeper exercise in getting the gospel to those who are out o f Christ. W e are not to think o f meetings for only the uncon verted, as necessarily revival meetings. It is God’s people who need to be revived. There never was a time, and there never will be a time until our Lord Jesus Christ comes back again, when the people o f God will hot do well to cry, “ O Lord, revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee.” It is folly for any one to say, “ We are so near the end o f the dispensation; the coming of the Lord has now drawn so near that it is useless to think o f revival and of awaken ing to any great extent.” Why, the very fact that the com ing of the Lord has drawn so near, the very fact that we are so near the close o f this dispensation o f the grace o f God, is the very reason why people of God all over this globe ought to be on their faces crying out, “ Wilt thou not revive us again ?” We are expecting to meet our Lord very soon ; we are expecting to hear His voice, to rise to meet Him in the air, but many o f us are far from being in that condition of soul in which we would like to be found when Jesus comes, and therefore we should be praying, “ Wilt thou not revive us again?” It is God’s will that His people should be duly exercised. I take it as one o f the signs o f the times, one of the evidences that the Lord is preparing His people for His near return, that all over this and other civilized lands, and in every land where missionaries are carrying the gospel to a heathen people, there seems to be a growing sense of the need o f a special arousing, an awakening, and a revival. It is unthinkable that when tens of thousands o f God’s beloved people are crying from the depths o f earnest hearts, “ Revive thy work in the midst of the years,” that God does not intend to bring revival and blessing. But people ask, “ Where do you find in Scripture any definite prophetic word saying that the Christian dispensa tion will close with a great revival ?” I do not know with
*Pastor, Moody Memorial Church.
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