SCOTTISH CHAPEL CATCHES WELSH FIRE
Joseph Kemp was at one time the pastor of Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh. During the 1900s the church underwent a local revival. His biographer records:
Soon after the Welsh Revival broke out (1904), Joseph Kemp went to Wales, where he spent two weeks watching, experiencing, drinking in, having his own heart searched, comparing his methods with those of the Holy Ghost; and then he returned to his people in Edinburgh to tell them what he had seen.
The evening he returned from Wales was memorable. A large meeting was in full swing when he walked down the aisle of the chapel. The people listened eagerly as he told of his visit and the effect upon his soul. After telling the story he tested the meeting, asking if there was a man willing to be saved. About five seats from the front a man rose, saying, I want you to pray for me. This man was the first of hundreds who were saved during the revival in Charlotte Chapel.
The people were now on the tiptoe of expectancy for a revival. A Conference on January 22nd, 1906, addressed by several workers who had visited Wales, lasted from 3.30 p.m. until midnight. From that day it was felt that the fire of God had fallen; and as far as Charlotte Chapel was concerned, God answered prayer and reviving had come. By the end of 1905, the church had been praying one whole year without so much as one solitary break. Night after night, week after week, month after month, the prayer meetings went on increasing in number and intensity. It is impossible to convey an adequate idea of the prayer passion that characterised those meetings.
In Joseph Kemp's own words: "The people poured out their hearts in importunate prayer. I have yet to witness a movement that has produced more permanent results in the lives of men, women and children. There were irregularities, no doubt; some commotion, yes . . . After the first year of this work we had personally dealt with no fewer than one thousand souls, who had been brought to God during the prayer meetings."
The meetings on the Lord's Day were marked by earnest outgoing of the soul to God in prayer, and a passionately expressed desire for the salvation of men, all of which told of the dealings many had had - Jacob-like - with God alone. It was, however, at a late prayer meeting, held in the evening at 9.30 p.m., that the fire of God fell. There was nothing, humanly speaking, to account for what happened. Quite suddenly, upon one and another came an overwhelming sense of the reality and awfulness of His presence and of eternal things. Life, death, and eternity seemed suddenly laid bare.
Prayer and weeping began, and gained in intensity every moment. As on the day of the laying of the foundation of the second Temple, the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people. (Ezra 3:13). One was overwhelmed with the sudden bursting of the bounds. Could it be real? We looked up and asked for clear directions, and all we knew of guidance was, "Do nothing." Friends who were gathered sang on their knees. Each seemed to sing, and each seemed to pray, oblivious of one another. Then the prayer broke out again, waves and waves of prayer, and the midnight hour was reached. The hours had passed like minutes. It is useless being a spectator looking on, or praying for it, in order to catch its spirit and breath. It is necessary to be in it, praying in it, part of it, caught by the same power, swept by the same wind. One who was present says: "I cannot tell you what Christ was to me last night. My heart was full to overflowing. If ever my Lord was near to me, it was last night."
This article has been extracted from Revival Fires, available online from the Jesus People Shop.
Source: Revival Digest.
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