I listened to this very stirring sermon by Rev. John Morrow of Omagh Free Presbyterian Church during the week on the "Rise of the 1859 Revival" i.e. the Ulster Revival when it is estimated that some 100,000 people were saved in what became known as the "Year of Grace." #HighlyRecommended
Note: CH Spurgeon made several mentions to the 1859 Ulster Reival in his sermons. Including:
DETAILED REPORT OF REVIVAL IN A SCHOOL 1859
"I
will tell you here an incident of the revival. It is one I know to be
correct, it is told by a good brother who would not add a word
thereunto, I am sure. It happened, not long ago, that in a school which
is sustained by the Corporation of the City of London, in the north of
Ireland, one of the bigger boys had been converted to God; and one day,
in the midst of school, a younger youth was greatly oppressed by a
sense of sin, and so overwhelmed did he become that the master plainly
perceived that he could not work, and, therefore, he said to him, "You
had better go home, and plead with God in prayer in private." He said,
however, to the bigger boy, who was all rejoicing in hope, "Go with
him; take him home and pray with him." They started together: on the
road they saw an empty house; the two boy went in and there began to
pray; the plaintive cry of the young one, after a little time changed
into a note of joy, when, suddenly springing up, he said, "I have found
rest in Jesus, I have never felt as I do now; my sins, which are many,
are all forgiven." The proposal was to go home; but the younger lad
forbade this. No, he must go and tell the master of the school that he
had found Christ. So hurrying back, he rushed in and said, "Oh! I have
found the Lord Jesus Christ." All the boys in the school, who had seen
him sitting sad and dull upon the form, remarked the joy that flashed
from his eye, when he cried "I have Christ," The effect was electric
The boys suddenly and mysteriously disappeared; the master knew not
where they were gone; but looking over into the playground, he saw by
the wall were a number of boys, one by one, in prayer asking for mercy.
He said to the elder youth, "Cannot you go and tell these boys the way
of salvation — tell them what they must do to be saved?" He did
so, and the silent prayer was suddenly changed into a loud piercing
shriek, the boys in the school understood it, and, impelled by the
Great Spirit, they all fell on their knees, and began to cry aloud for
mercy through the blood of Christ. But, this was not all. There was a
girls’ schoolroom in the same building over head. The ear had
been well tutored to understand what that cry meant, and soon
interpreted it, and the girls too, affected by the same Spirit, fell
down and began to cry aloud for the forgiveness of their sins. Here was
an interruption of the school! Was ever such a thing known before in a
school-room? Classes are all put aside, books forgotten; everything
cast to the winds, while poor sinners are kneeling at the foot of the
gross seeking for pardon. The cry was heard throughout the various
offices attached to this large school, and it was heard also across the
street, and passers by were attracted — men of God, ministers and
clergymen of the neighbourhood were brought in — the whole day
was spent in prayer, and they continued until almost midnight; but they
separated with songs of joy, for that vast mass of girls and boys, men
and women, who had crowded the two school-rooms, had all found the
Saviour.
Our good brother, Dr. Arthur, says, that he met with a youth
while travelling in Ireland, and he said to him, "Do you love the
Saviour?" And he said, "I trust I do." "How did you come to love him?"
"Oh," said he, "I was converted in the big school-room that night. My
mother heard that there was a revival going on there, and she sent me
to fetch my little brother away; she did not want him, she said, to get
convinced; and I went to fetch my brother, and he was on his knees
crying, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.’ I stopped,
and I prayed too, and the Lord saved us both." Now to what are we to
attribute this? I know many of the brethren there — the
Presbyterians and others — and I do not think there is any
difference or any superiority in their ministry over anything we can
see or hear in London, and I think they themselves would subscribe to
the truth of what I assert. The difference is this: there has been
prayer there; living, hearty prayer has been offered continually,
perhaps by some who did not live in Ireland. God alone knows where that
revival really begun. Some woman on her bed may have been exorcised in
her soul for that district, and may have been wrestling with God in
prayer; and then the blessing has descended. And if God will help you
and help me to lay near to heart the neighbourhood in which we live,
the family over which we preside, the congregation we have to address,
the class we have to teach, the labourers we employ, or any of these,
surely then by mighty prayer we shall bring down a great blessing from
high; for prayer is never lost; preaching may be, but prayer never is.
Praying breath can never be spent in vain. the Lord send to all the
churches of Great Britain, first of all, the power of prayer, and then
shall there come conversions of multitudes of souls through the
outpoured energy of the Holy One of Israel! (6:288)
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