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Five years ago, people were talking
about the Bicentennial. Supposing someone had said, well,
what happened 200 years ago? Would you have been able to answer?
All right, I'm going to ask you then, what was God doing 100
years ago? You say, is that important? Of course it's important. We
wouldn't be here if it wasn't for what God has done in the
past. Now the last time I talked to
you on the subject of spiritual awakening, we talked about the
wonderful prayer movement of 1858. Which not only filled every downtown
theater and public hall with praying people at noon, but filled
every church in the evening. So that out of a population of
27 million, about a million people professed conversion and added
to the churches. Now out of that movement of 1858
there came a great surge of lay activity. We take for granted
that lay people help in church work. Before that time church
work was the work of ministers. So that it wasn't a new doctrine
that came out of the revival but a new activity. Another thing
came out of the revival was a new activity in missions. In 1860
all the missionary societies got together in Liverpool in
England for a conference on missions. That was followed by another
one in 1878 in Mildmay, then London 1888, and then in New
York 1900. One of the leaders of that great
conference on missions was Hudson Taylor. But the great evangelist
of those days was Dwight Lyman Moody. I remember when I was
visiting Moody's home, now don't misunderstand, I've never met
Moody personally, but I have visited his home. His granddaughter
was a good friend of ours. I used to be base chaplain at
Westover Field in Massachusetts, and directly north from the Connecticut
Valley, up at Northfield, was Moody's home. I asked lots of
questions of his son-in-law and his granddaughter about Moody's
way of working. Now some people talk about Moody
as if Moody was an embodiment of revival. I was talking once
to a great Church of Scotland minister, D.P. Thompson. He said
to me, how do you distinguish between revival and successful
evangelism? Well, I said, it's like this.
When D.L. Moody was in Toronto, 1884, practically
every church in Toronto was blessed. But there wasn't anything much
happening in Buffalo or Cleveland. or Chicago, or Philadelphia,
or Montreal. In other words, the blessing
of God followed Moody's ministry. But in the 1858 revival, there
was a revival in every city in the United States and Canada.
That's the difference. He said, D.P. Thompson said,
it's exactly the same as what happened in Scotland. When Moody
came to Scotland in 1873, there was a revival everywhere. But when he came back in the
1880s, there was blessing in his campaign in Edinburgh, then
expectation and blessing in Glasgow, then in Aberdeen and Belfast,
Dublin and so forth. So we've got to distinguish between
an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in general revival and the blessing
of God upon a very faithful evangelist. One of my professors, Professor
William Warren Sweet of the University of Chicago, said the attempts
of sociologists and psychologists to explain D. L. Moody seem trite
and foolish. Now there are men who are blessed
through Moody's ministry. I once met a German professor
and he said as a result of the revival of 1858 and especially
as a result of Moody's first campaigns in London some Germans
living in London or visiting London caught fire for God. The result was 30 years of revival
in Germany. Now in 1881, that sounds a little
familiar, 1881, there was a Swede called Frederik Fransen who came
to the United States. He was a friend of Moody, he'd
been converted wonderfully, became an evangelist to Scandinavians
in the United States, went back to his native Sweden. And there
began times of a revival in Norway and Sweden and Denmark and other
parts of Europe. Another man who was greatly blessed
a hundred years ago was a man whose name you ought to know,
Andrew Murray. Andrew Murray was Dutch Reformed.
Isn't it wonderful how God uses people, no matter what their
label may be. He was moderator three times
of the Dutch Reformed Church. But in 1882, he came into new
experience of God at the Keswick Convention. And he became a great
power for holy living, a great man of prayer. I trust you've
read some of Andrew Murray's books. Now at the same time,
1880, there was an Australian evangelist, John McNeill. Not the famous Scottish evangelist
John McNeill, this man spelt his name a little bit differently,
M-A-C, capital N-E-I-L. Another man of God was George
Grubb, an Anglican. I take it you have heard of Norman
Grubb of the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade? He's an old man now. I knew him and also his brother
Sir Kenneth Grubb who died in London last year. I didn't know
their uncle but their uncle was a great power for God. Of course
that name Grubb is an Irish name. I remember once I was in Leeds
in Yorkshire and at that time there was a very famous Scottish
scholar connected with the Sunday School movement, Alexander Smelly
was his name. And then there was a very famous
Bible teacher at Keswick, Graeme Scroggie, you may have read his
books. And then of course this famous evangelist George Grubb.
And there they had this convention in Leeds. It said, Smelly, Scroggie
and Grubb. And I thought, what a kettle
of fish. There was something else happened
in 1881. There was a revival in a congregational church in
Portland, Maine. The pastor was a man called Francis
Clark. He wanted to conserve the benefits
of the local revival, so he started a Young People's Society of Christian
Endeavor. And it caught on. Let's see,
is there anyone here ever belong to the Christian Endeavor movement?
Oh yes. You notice quite a number of
those who raised their hands have Gray hair. The movement
was very strong. As a matter of fact, 1886 there
were a thousand delegates at the first Christian Denver Convention.
1888, 5,000 came to Chicago. Philadelphia, 6,500. St. Louis,
1898,000. And by 1895 there were 38,000
local societies with 2,225,000 members. You say, what was Christian
Endeavor? It was like a kind of junior
church. They taught young people how to work within a congregation. They had a prayer meeting convener
and someone in charge of music and so forth. It was a Christian
Endeavor society and I learned to use my voice, learned to forget
shyness and so forth, learned to preach in the open air. Why
hasn't that movement continued? It was interdenominational, and
I find that denominations don't like interdenominational movements. So after it became so successful,
the Methodists said, would it be alright if we had a special
Epworth League of Christian Endeavor? And the Presbyterians said, let's
have a Westminster fellowship of Christian Endeavour. And the
Baptists had the Baptist Young People's Society of Christian
Endeavour. And the Lutherans had the Walter
League of Christian Endeavour. Then they chopped off the Christian
Endeavour and they were left with the Westminster Fellowship
and the Epworth League and the Walter League and the Baptist
Young People's Society. They had them under their control.
It broke up that interdenominational movement. But Christian Endeavour
was greatly used of God for many years. Now, you may be surprised
to know that Dwight Lyman Moody was not an educated man. He couldn't
spell to save his life. He spelled orthodox, O-T-H-E-D-E-X,
orthodox. Once, occasionally, he said,
how do you spell Philadelphia? F-I-L-A, what comes after that? You say, well, when you read
Moody's sermons, you don't find this out. Oh, no. Christians
during the Victorian age always smoothed things over a little
bit. They felt it wouldn't be glorifying to the Lord if you
allowed Moody's bad spellings to get into his books. We always
had someone to edit them. But Moody was not an educated
man. Out of the 1858 revival there came lots of student groups,
student associations in the major universities of the United States.
And their leader was a young man called Luther Wishart. By
the way, the second in command was a young man called T. W.
Wilson. That sounds familiar, doesn't
it? T. W. Wilson. Not Billy Graham's sidekick,
T. W. Wilson. I was talking to him
the other day. But an earlier T. W. Wilson. He was secretary
of this student group at Princeton. He became president of Princeton
University, became governor of New Jersey, finally became president
of the United States. T. Woodrow Wilson. Did you know
that he was a student evangelist? And a man of God. Now, Wishard
and Wilson and others said to Moody, why don't you have meetings
for students? Well, Moody saw good reasons
for not having them. He couldn't spell. He didn't
want to make a fool of himself with students. But when Moody
went across to England in the 1880s, Some group of students, the Cambridge
Intercollegiate Christian Union, invited Moody to hold a campaign
at Cambridge University. Now in those days, Oxford and
Cambridge were universities for the sons of the wealthy or the
noble. And when these undergraduates heard that, quote, an illiterate
American was coming to speak to them, they were outraged.
They determined to teach him his place. And there's nobody
quite like an Englishman for teaching you what your place
is. Moody came with Sankey. And the very first night, the
place was packed. Now it may be a great surprise
to those of you who have gone to university or college here
in the States to know that to this day at Oxford, when you
go to a class, you wear a gown. When you go to the library to
borrow a book, you wear a gown. You say, why did they put up
with that? They get like the United States
Marines, they're sort of proud of the uniform after a while.
I remember I had to wear a gown to go to an examination when
I was studying at Oxford. A thousand university students
piled in, all dressed up in their gowns, to hear this illiterate
American. Moody called upon the vicar of
St. Mary's to lead in prayer. When
he prayed, the students rudely interrupted him with, which is
not polite in prayer. It's alright in Parliament, but
not in prayer. When Sankye sang, the students
sang a parody along with him to make fun of what he was singing.
Moody preached on Daniel in the Den of Lions. I think he must
have felt like that. Now the Hebrew word Daniel has
three syllables. Dan-ee-el. The English word has
at least two. Dan-ee-el. But in those days
the American had just one. I'm not joking. Have you ever
heard of Danel Boone? Danel Webster? In those days
they spelt the name D-A-N apostrophe L. They pronounced it in one
syllable. Danel. And every time Moody referred
to, then God spoke to Danel and Danel said to the Lord, there
was a great cheer, they clapped their hands, they tramped their
feet, they were enjoying this. Brought the house down. Every
time Moody mispronounced the name Danel. But Moody kept his
temper. When he got home that night,
he said to Sankey, Sankey, I've got no hankering for that crowd.
But he wasn't a coward either. He went back the next night,
there were only a hundred at the meeting. On the Wednesday, they
had begun on a Monday, but on the Wednesday, the maid in the lodgings where Moody
was staying brought a visiting card. Mr. Lander wished to see
Mr. Moody. Moody said, bring him
in. This was Mr. Gerald Lander of
Trinity College, the most aristocratic college in Cambridge. That's
where Prince Charles studied. When a young man came in, Moody
saw he was one of the ringleaders of the riot of two nights before.
So he said, what can I do for you, sir? He said, Mr. Moody, I was one of those who
thought that you were singularly unequipped to speak to gentlemen.
But sir, he said, as I observed you, on the platform. I came
to the conclusion that you were the only gentleman in the meeting.
Sir, he said, I wish to apologize. It was the British sense of fair
play. There is a very strong sense of fair play. You know,
when somebody fumbles the ball in a rugby game, the spectator
shot. Hard luck, sir. When he hits
the ball, the shot, well, it played soft. What do they do
over here? So Gerald Lander said, Mr. Moody,
I wish to apologize. Moody shook his hand. He said,
I'll forgive you if you come to the rest of the meetings.
And Gerald Lander sat in the front. Moody waited five nights
before giving any kind of invitation. The first man forward was Gerald
Lander. He became Bishop of Hong Kong. Moody turned that university
upside down. Stanley Smith, the chief oarsman
of the Cambrian rowing crew, was converted, became a missionary.
There were two brothers called Paul Hill Turner. They became
missionaries to China. Sir Montague Beecham, nephew
of Lord Radstock, was converted, became a missionary. W. W. Castle, son of a famous importer
in London, was converted, became bishop of Sichuan in China. There
was a young man there that was not converted under Moody, but
greatly stirred through this time of reviving. His name was
C.T. Studd. He was the Babe Ruth of
English cricket. And they formed a team called
the Cambridge Seven. They turned the universities
upside down. Students began to turn to God
by the hundreds. In the meantime, Moody was preaching
in London, in North London. They built a big tabernacle seating
25,000. While he was preaching in North London for a month,
they built another tabernacle in South London, and when Moody
finished North London, he went to South London to preach. Meanwhile, the people in North
London moved the tabernacle a few miles over, and Moody finished
there, went to the next place, North London. Turnabout. Then
there was such a demand for his preaching, they wanted him to
preach in both places at once. Not even Moody could do that.
So Moody alternated, and sometimes got others to help, including
the Cambridge Seven. There was a young atheist who
went to hear Mr. Moody preach. Moody called upon a Presbyterian
minister to lead him in prayer. The man had never prayed before
25,000 before. He got sort of carried away.
Now I once heard an Irishman say, if a man prays for three
minutes, you pray with him. If he prays for another three
minutes, you pray for him. And if he prays for another three
minutes, you pray against him. This good brother had been praying
for quite a long time, when Mr. Moody got up and said, while
our brother is finishing his prayer, let's sing him number
11. And the young atheist said, there's
an honest man. He came back the next night,
but Moody wasn't preaching there the next night. The Cambridge
Seven were there, and he was converted. He became the famous
pioneer to Labrador, Sir Wilfrid Grenfell, whose name was famous
in your grandparents' day. One of the great pioneer missionaries.
That was the sort of thing that was happening in England just a hundred years
ago. When Moody got back to the States, Luther Richard and Tommy
Wilson said, now what about American students? Moody said, well let's
start with a Christian convention. So they had a meeting for students
only at Mount Hermon in Massachusetts, near Moody's home. Two hundred
and fifty students came. One student said to Mr. Moody,
I want to speak to the students. I'm sorry, son, but we have Professor
McCosh speaking. We've got Henry Drummond from
Scotland. Finally, he said, all right,
you can speak to the students at lunchtime. This young man
got up and said, my father was one of the students that sat
under the haystack in Massachusetts and went out to be a missionary
to India. He's come back to die. But he's praying that God will
raise up a thousand university students from the mission field.
He spoke so powerfully that 100 out of the 250 volunteered to
the mission field. This young fellow just finished
his law degree at Princeton. Instead of going to law, he went
around the universities and the theological seminaries recruiting
university students for missions. 2,000 volunteered the first year. It began a movement called the
Student Volunteers. And in a long generation, in
about 30, 40 years, more than 30,000 university students went
to the mission field. Kenneth Scott Latourette, the
great church historian, said, a large proportion of the outstanding
leaders in the worldwide spread of Protestant Christianity in
the 20th century were recruited through this movement. Their
slogan was the evangelization of the world in this generation. In half a century they sent out
to the mission field evangelists, educators, doctors, agriculture
specialists, an astounding work with social implications but
all subordinated to evangelism. And why did that movement die?
1920 they reached their peak. Every four years they had a convention.
This time they met in Des Moines. 6,890 students came. Of whom
2,783 volunteered. And 637 actually left for foreign service the next
year. But in 1940, twenty years later, Instead of 6,890, there were
only 465. Why? Well, you see, after World War
I, students were greatly taken up with the horrors of war. The British lost a million men
in World War I. The French lost more than the
British. The Germans lost more than the French. The Russians
lost more than the Germans. World War I was a slaughter of
the young men of Europe. Consequently, students everywhere
were greatly concerned with peace propaganda. Ah, the scripture
says, blessed are the peacemakers. But the trouble was, the students
began putting this before the preaching of the gospel. The result was, their interest
was completely captured by social action. I believe in social action. But not at the expense of preaching
the gospel. And just a few years ago, this
movement voted itself out of existence. It went out with a
whimper, not with a bang. Now in the 1880s that we're talking
about, there was a great revival in the Congo. It was called Pentecost
in the Congo. 2,000 converted in one year at
Bantamanteke. The revival increased. On the
other side of Africa, an Anglican bishop, Hannington, was murdered
in Uganda in 1885. But seven years later, a young
missionary called Pilictinon read a tract on the work of the
Holy Spirit and came into new experience. The result was a
revival among the Anglicans. The number of lay teachers increased
from 75,000 to 2,032. Communicans from 230,000 to 18,000. Baptized
Christians from 1,100,000 to 62,000. There was a revival also in Southern Africa. In 1881,
100 years ago, there was an extraordinary revival on the Mosquito Coast
of Nicaragua. Church membership trebled within 10 years. 1884, a great revival in Chile. Even
the Presbyterians agreed it was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Great revival in the 1880s among
the Armenians in Turkey. And in the 1870s and 1880s, a
great movement of God among the aristocrats of the Russian Empire. Now you see from the 57 revivals
to 1882 was quarter of a century. There was no recession. Rather
there was a resurgence of blessing. I used to think the tide had
to go out before it could come in again. But not in God's way
of doing things. Sometimes he adds blessing to
blessing. And this certainly is what happened
in that century, the 19th century, before the death of Moody. Moody
died in 1899. He was still preaching. He said just before he died,
I would like, before I go hence, to see the whole Church of Christ,
quickened as it was in 1857, and a wave going from Maine to
California to sweep thousands into the Kingdom of God. In 1906, There was an editorial in the
Christian Missionary Alliance Weekly, which spoke of 1905 as the year
of the Holy Ghost. And so next time I speak to you,
God willing, I'm going to tell you about the sweeping worldwide
revival of 1905. Now nearly everyone in Pentecostal
churches or among Charismatics has heard of Azusa Street, but
not many people know that before that remarkable local work at
Azusa Street, there was a great revival sweep in the whole world,
including Los Angeles. I'm going to tell about that
revival next time I have an opportunity to talk to you. What's the lesson
for us? Let's pray, Oh God, do it again.
Do it again.
The Resurgence of 1882 Onward - by J. Edwin Orr - brought by Peter-John Parisis
Series J. Edwin Orr
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| Sermon ID | 7908521114 |
| Duration | 25:54 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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