emphasis on family life and the Lord's
Day when "the goings of God" were
discerned in His sanctuary. And so the
movement continued through White-
field, Asbury and Finney with an em-
phasis on being "endued with power
from on high" and "constant fillings"
of the Holy Spirit. And Finney was a
huge influence on Catherine Booth.
Revival fires burned on both sides of
the Atlantic.
being through obedience, dedication
and holy courage. It arose out of the
Home Mission of the Second Evan-
gelical Awakening in 1859, known as
the "Year of the Right Hand of the
Most High." William Allen wrote of
"the amazing growth and worldwide
ministry of The Salvation Army"
and "the spiritual causes of this re-
vival of religion.
ker's apprentice, was cleansed by the
blood and filled with Holy Spirit fire
until "Blood and Fire" became less a
motto and more a way of life. There
were more spiritual luminaries in one
square yard of Salvation Army sky,
claims one biographer, than in the
century span of many other organi-
zations. Yet we may rightly question
this in the today's climate of spiritual
declension. How are the mighty fallen
and the fallen become mighty!
In South Africa, early Salvationists
were cast into prison, but revival
broke out in the jails! The individ-
ual foot�soldiers of Methodism led to
the shock troops of Salvationism as
men and women lived, sacrificed and
died for the sake of the Gospel. Ho-
prayers and tears were our meat and
drink. Vibrant testimonies blistered
our lips and knee drills were crowded
with earnest, believing prayers. But
what of today? That sovereign, sud-
den, searching work of God (Hab.
3:2-6) appears to be missing except
in isolated pockets of "old-fashioned"
resistance to post-modern theologies
with the emphasis on "bricks, budgets
and bucks."
by a pseudo-gospel which equates di-
vine approval with affluence? Have
we forgotten the meaning of practical
holiness with its moral obligation to
reach the socially poor and the spiritu-
ally lost? Are we marked by a Christian
character that will stand the test of the
Judgment Seat (1 Cor. 3, 2 Cor. 5)?
island in 1947. At one meeting where
the heavens appeared to be as brass,
an old deacon prayed in a climate of
unusual spiritual hardness, "Lord,
you promised to pour out floods of wa-
ter on the dry ground ... and you're
not doing it!" This was followed by
a silence and then he prayed again,
"Lord, I challenge you to now honor
your word!" Then, said Campbell,
that great building, made of granite,
shook like a leaf and people all over
the village were calling on the Lord to
need! And it is gloriously possible.
other things, required less playing
and more praying, less feasting and
more fasting, less profession and more
possession, less popularity and more
persecution, less lust and more trust.
To be revived we need a divine discon-
tent, a homesickness for holiness, for
revival will only come when we are
desperate, when we no longer trust in
religious organization or political cor-
rectness, in material prosperity and
popular preaching that tickles the
ear. We need to stand before the Lord
in our true state, "poor, miserable and
blind," desperate for revival.
tar, but that he never took it back!
There must be a return to simplicity,
to New Testament study and meth-
ods, with the Bible as the model for
service. Our focal point must again be
the preaching of the cross, the prior-
ity of the salvation of Christ as man's
greatest need. Speculative theology and
cold orthodoxy must be put aside.
with laughter, and our tongues with
singing: then said they among the hea-
then, The Lord hath done great things
for them ..." (Psalm 126:1-6).
in his homeland of South Africa.