A COMMON PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT UNITES ALL CLASSES IN ULSTER
An extraordinary incident sparked off a spiritual awakening in Dundrod during the famous 1859 Ulster revival. This extract comes from an eyewitness, Rev William Magill
I had been in Belfast the day previous, and had leaned over the prostrate bodies of men and women labouring under strong conviction of sin. I had heard, for the first time in my life, the sighs and groans of breaking hearts and witnessed, with a feeling of wonder and awe, the mental agony and the terrible struggle of souls wrestling with 'the principalities and powers of darkness.' When the battle was won, I heard with almost equal wonder the shout of victory, like the pealing of a trumpet on the field from which the enemy had fled.
I came home filled with strange thoughts, cherishing high hopes, and breathing earnest prayers that the Lord would come over the mountains and visit my people. I expected something and was not disappointed.
When dressing on the following morning, I observed a man approaching the manse, and the thought at once arose in my mind, "This man is perhaps coming for me - the work is begun."
It was even so. I was soon on my way to his house. He told me as we went, that one of his daughters, after returning home from the prayer-meeting, had fallen strangely ill - that she was up all night, and had raised the whole family to engage in prayer with her and for her. He feared that she was 'going wrong in her mind'.
Before reaching the house, I heard her voice in loud and earnest continuous prayer. When I opened the door and looked in, I saw her mother and two sisters, all on their knees and in tears. In the centre of the group, was the 'stricken one,' with her eyes upturned to heaven, and face covered and seamed with tears. Her arms were extended to their utmost length, as if to grasp some distant and coveted object, and then brought together with violence as she clasped herself as if in mortal agony. From her lips there burst forth words of fire, as living streams from a burning mountain: "O Christ, help me! Lord Jesus, save my guilty soul! O thou quickening Spirit, come! Oh, create in me a new heart and give me a heart of flesh!"
I stood riveted on the spot, witnessing in silence this exciting and wonderful scene, for I never heard such prayers before. She exclaimed, without rising from her kneeling posture, 'Oh, here is my minister! Come pray for my guilty soul!"
I knelt beside her and prayed, her voice accompanying mine all the time with beautiful and impassioned prayer. Such asking, seeking, striving to enter the 'kingdom,' I had never heard before.
The struggle was soon over. She rose up, and began the song of triumph! What a change - a perfect transformation! Her eye, as she sang, was lit up with strange and unearthly fire. Her voice, was no longer tremulous and plaintive, but now rang like a trumpet; while her whole face was covered with a smile, such as we might suppose an angel to wear. Her sister was similarly transformed.
The Lord had begun His work. The news spread from lip to lip, and house to house, over the country. It roused the people, and old and young, men and women, husbands and wives, little girls and mothers with infants in their arms, ran to witness the strange doings, and to hear the wild, wondrous, but heavenly words that flowed from the lips of these plain country girls.
That evening, under the clear, open sky, hundreds of all ranks and ages met to unite in prayer. Farmers and farm-servants, men, women and little children, Roman Catholics and Protestants of various names, knelt together on the hard ground, forgetting or overlooking for the time every mark of distinction, in the common awe which all felt, and in the earnest prayer which all offered to God.
A psalm was sung, a word of exhortation was given, and prayer offered up, and the benediction pronounced, but the multitude stood still. Another psalm was sung, and the converts rushed in among their friends and neighbours, shouting, pleading and with heaving hearts, and sparkling eyes, and beaming countenances, and in strange sweet tones, told of their new-born joys. The multitude heaved to and fro like a ship in a storm; and like drunken men in the streets the men staggered and fell with a shout or a deep sigh. Tears were shed, and groans, as if from dying men, were heard. Prayer and praise, tears and smiles mingled together.
It is pleasing to record that of all the converts in Dundrod, though numbering upwards of 200, no evil thing can be said of them.
Source: www.revival-library.org.
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