“Water on the thirsty, floods upon the dry ground” - The unusual move of God in the Hebrides 1949-52
On a Hebridean Island, almost as close to Norway as it is to Bournemouth, in the winter of 1949 and for the next three years, the Spirit of God came in such power that still today the impact is felt in the values that shape the people who live there.
I know that because my father-in-law went to Stornoway in the 1970’s, one of the Scottish towns that became famous as a centre for the revival. He spoke with eyewitnesses of that post war generation who had experienced the remarkable things that had happened.
We may live in post - Christian Britain, yet a visit to the Isle of Lewis today may change your view of that. For there, the percentage of people who attend church is far higher than anywhere else in the UK. Sunday is observed as a day of rest and worship. Few shops and facilities are open on “the Lord’s Day” and various proposals by the local council to change that meet with resistance. Even boat sailings to the mainland have been challenged by all the churches on the Island.
Although in the Hebrides, a Sabbatarian culture has been in decline, like church attendance during the last thirty years, such values continue in the crofts, on the hillsides, and isolated settlements of the moors.
Lewis in the past
Its very remoteness meant that the Isle of Lewis was largely free from the cultural and social changes that impacted the mainland. The clan system was maintained, Gaelic spoken and integration with the rest of Britain was resisted. It wasn’t until 1801 that the first Gaelic Bible was published. Most of the Outer Hebrides was unreached by the Christian faith and what was there was largely nominal religion.
That is until Finlay Munro and Alexander Macleod came to the Islands in 1822. Their evangelistic mission saw 9000 turn up on one occasion. So began the first real spiritual awakening in Lewis, followed in the years to come by similar campaigns.
As the 20th Century came in, congregations grew across the region and waves of blessing rolled through the Church. But the people cried out to God for more than mission campaigns; for something else. And then, when the Second World War took away a generation of men, the people gathered in homes, mission halls and churches and a deep spirit of prayer gripped them.
This kind comes by prayer and fasting
In 1949, Duncan Campell began a mission like all the others in the past, in the village of Barvas at a Church of Scotland building, about ten miles west of Stornoway. As before, many professed faith in Christ.
The pattern was a month of prayer meetings each morning and preaching to packed congregations in two different churches in the evening. But this time the people would not go home. They stayed long into the night to pray. For the next two years, each time Campbell returned for these missions the same thing happened and thousands were converted to Christ.
That was the public impact. But what was perhaps more significant as a cause of this move of God, was the faithful private praying of two aged spinsters, Peggy and Christine Smith, who lived in an old house in Barvas. One was 84 years of age and blind, the other 82 and crippled with arthritis. They were troubled because there were no young people attending public worship at their church. So, they decided to pray on a Tuesday and Friday every week. They would remain there until three or four in the morning.
The Story within the Story
During the early days of the mission, Church leaders would get together in a barn to pray in the middle of the night. One of them read from Psalm 24:3-5, in the King James version of course!
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands,
and a pure heart;
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive the blessing from the Lord,
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
And one of the Ministers said; “It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.” He then prayed, “God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?”
Immediately, at around 3 a.m., the presence of God gripped every person present. And not just them. The entire village and larger surrounding area sensed that same awareness of God. Those praying left the barn and found men and women kneeling along the roads, crying out to God for mercy. Every home had lights on in it, as no one could sleep with the awareness of God being so overwhelming.
The back story is that Peggy Smith, the elderly spinster mentioned before, had told her own minister, Rev. MacKay, that in a vision she had been told by God that someone should be invited to come and preach but she didn’t know or recognise the face of the man she saw in the vision.
Rev. Mackay did, however, as she described the man. He was Duncan Campbell. So, he wrote asking him to preach. But Campbell was already committed to preaching at a convention on Skye. Undeterred, Peggy Smith told Rev. Mackay; “Mr. MacKay, that is what man is saying, but God has said something else, and he will be here within a fortnight.”
Unexpectedly the convention on Skye was cancelled and Campbell was able to arrive on the island of Lewis a few days later. He preached at Barvas Church on the first night. Nothing unusual happened. But then with everyone having left, a young man approached Duncan Campbell, knowing God was going to do something much more that night, and in the middle of the aisle, said “Nothing has broken out tonight, but God is hovering over us. He is hovering over us, and he will break through any moment.”
That young man then lifted his hands and started to pray, “God, you made a promise to pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground and you are not doing it.” He then intensely began interceding in prayer for a considerable period of time then collapsed to the floor.
At around 11 p.m. the back door of the church opened, and a man entered saying, “Mr. Campbell, something wonderful has happened. We were praying that God would pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground and He’s done it! He’s done it! Will you come to the door and see the crowd that is here?”
Hundreds of people began entering the church. No one had invited them. They had been drawn by God, at that late hour of the evening. By 12 midnight the church was packed.
On the same evening there were one hundred young people at a dance at the parish hall. God suddenly fell upon them right at the time the young man was praying in the aisle of the church. The music at the dance hall stopped, and the young people, overcome by conviction of sin, fled the hall as if they were ‘fleeing from a plague,’ and they made their way to the church.
In addition to these 100 young people, there were hundreds more who at the same time and without any explanation, went running to the church. That meeting continued until 4 a.m. As Duncan Campbell was leaving the church someone approached him and asked him to go to the police station, as there were at least three hundred people that had gathered there.
During the one mile walk to the police station, he saw people all along the road, kneeling and crying out to God in repentance, pleading for mercy.
On arrival at the police station, Duncan Campbell didn’t preach a sermon, but the crowd that had mysteriously gathered themselves there were crying out to God for help. Many had come in buses from locations up to twelve miles away. When asked why they had come, they didn’t have an answer. They just said they had a hunger in their heart to go to the village of Barvas.
The revival began spreading to other towns, and what happened in Barvas happened in other places.
Some said that they were drawn by the power of God. It seemed as if the power of God blanketed the island of Lewis, creating a hunger for His Word. The preaching was direct. It didn’t tickle ears, it pointed people to Christ.
Following church services several homes in the village would be opened for those seeking God to receive further spiritual help. Many couldn’t sleep because the presence of God was so real. Normal work and activities were suspended for people to sort out their lives before God.
As in all genuine revivals, there was opposition. On the Isle of Lewis this came from other church leaders who didn’t like Duncan Campbell, his emphasis, or his brown shoes! Ministers traditionally wore black.
Some criticised him for his preaching emphasis on the filling or baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Other unusual signs.
There were prostrations, that became known in some later 20th Century moves of God as being “slain in the Spirit,”. In the Hebridean revival though there were no strange animal impersonations or other bizarre manifestations, just a deep and overwhelming sense of God’s presence.
Many had visions and trances, of which Duncan Campbell said; “We dare not speak against them because we might be speaking against God.”
Numerous people referenced having heard angels singing. Some saw demons flying out of church buildings! One man testified that while praying in the church, he saw a white dove resting on people’s heads.
One of the houses in the village of Arnol shook while people in it were praying. There were lights overshadowing some of the homes. Many sailors shared their testimony that while their ships were passing the island they would feel the presence of the Lord.
One record stated that there were 20,000 converts during the first five weeks. Duncan Campbell indicated that 75% of those saved during the Hebrides Revival were saved before they came to church. That was similar to the Welsh Revival in 1904/5. And again as in that revival so in the Hebridean revival, old debts were repaid and several police courts became idle, with no cases to try.
Duncan Campbell said at the time, “I did not bring revival to Lewis. Revival is a going of God among His people and an awareness of God laying hold of the community.”
In conclusion. Revival is not us working things up, it is God coming down into lives, homes, marriages, churches. It's when God draws near and heaven touches earth.
And for that we must go to God and relentlessly pray, like the prophet Isaiah; “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble at your presence.”
Peter Baker
January 2024