This is an interesting account of a revival, but also the story of people pulling away from the Church to form their own meetings away from denominations - they became like Brethren. I wonder though if the opposition from the clergy is exaggerated?
The first time that we saw and heard Mr Ross, was on an April Sunday evening in 1871, in the Town Hall, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. He was then in the prime of life, about fifty years, of age, with a physique evidently well fitted to endure hard work, and a voice loud and strong, such as a Gospeller well inured to open-air work alone possesses. He spoke twice that night, at considerable length both times, with tremendous force and great solemnity, yet with such melting tenderness and in the 'power' of the Holy Ghost, that few within the building were unmoved. Some whom we have known all through the intervening years were awakened and saved that night; others who came out of curiosity got as much as kept them from ever coming again, for so searching and exposing was his preaching, so irresistible were his appeals, and so solemn his warnings, that lifeless professors and ungodly sinners had either to be convicted of sin or flee from the truth. Such is the power of the unvarnished Word of God, spoken honestly and as it was intended to be spoken, pointedly and plainly, in the power of the Spirit of God. Like as of old, when Peter, full of the Holy Ghost, preached the Word, men were "cut to the heart," and cried out" What shall we do" (Acts. ii. 37); but when Stephen, full of the same Spirit, preached the same Word of God, his hearers, likewise "cut to the heart," gnashed their teeth with rage, and rose up in opposition against the preacher (Acts vii. 54-57): so must it ever be. Preaching that brings no conviction to the conscience and no opposition from the world, whatever it may be, is not the Word in the power of the Spirit. It always has the double mark of fruit unto God and opposition from the devil.
Neither had been lacking in Inverurie at that time. The little inland town was stirred to its depths, alike by a profound interest in eternal things and by an intense opposition to the Gospel of God. This, no doubt, accounted for the crowded-out hall that Sunday evening, to hear Mr Ross preach, for, although little was done in the way of advertising in these days, people came from far and near to see and hear the men who said they were "saved, and sure of it," so uncommon was it to hear such things from either pulpit or platform then.
For a fortnight previous to this Sunday night, Mr Donald Munro and Mr A Camie, two agents of the Northern Evangelistic Society - of which Mr Ross was at that time superintendent - had been preaching the Gospel in Inverurie. In order to give some idea of the reception they received, and of the condition of things, an extract from a report by the evangelists which appeared in "The Northern Intelligencer "- a journal edited by Mr Ross - may here be in place. It is as follows:- "Our second meeting took place last night; very few were present but scoffers and such an exhibition of the devil l never did see before anywhere. There were about thirty scoffers. During the time of prayer, they hissed, cheered, and shouted, so that one could not hear his own voice. When I was coming out of the hall, I found them waiting in the lobby, and, there and then they tried to crush me. God be praised that we are counted worthy to suffer for His Name's sake! No doubt but He will cause us to triumph in this place also, as in other places."
That this confidence in God was realised, the subsequent communication of a few days later shows:- "Thanks be to God! He has begun here also to save the lost. Several conversions took place the last three nights. Last night, several of the scoffers came to the meeting with their Bibles marked at certain passages, with the intention of cavilling. These passages were got from an Aberdeen newspaper. Poor fellows! they are glad of any excuse or shelter for their present attitude towards God and His work; in fact, they don't know what to do; no doubt God will yet save some of them." And He did. It was the report that several young lads, companions of our own, had been converted, and were companying with the despised revival preachers, that led a number of us to the Lesser Town Hall on Sunday evening, April 2nd; and that night, before the clock struck twelve, the writer had, through grace, passed the boundary line of the devil's empire and entered the kingdom of God. Yes, blessed be God! that was the day and the hour of our second birth, the greatest event of our life, to which we look back with deepest gratitude, and for which we offer unceasing thanks to God. And there were others born again that night and all through the week following, so that, on the occasion of Mr Ross's visit that Sunday evening, there were some twenty or thirty new-born babes in Christ all in the glow of their early love, hungering and thirsting for the Word, and quite a number of old believers who were being helped out of their grave-clothes and into the full liberty of the Gospel of death and resurrection with Christ. To the latter the Gospel came for the first time in its fulness, so that they got what some of them spoke of as "a second conversion," through which they were lifted into the light and liberty of God's salvation. This gave them a full deliverance from doubts and fears and legal bondage, filling their souls, with joy unspeakable. This, with the opposition that was raised against the preachers and the work, made things quite lively in the town. Indeed, "the Revivals" - as we were called until another name was found - were the one topic of conversation in all the countryside.
WHAT DID THE EVANGELISTS PREACH?
It may be asked, "What did these men preach, that there was such a stir created?" Simply the truth of God - the old Gospel of Jesus Christ in fresh and living power, with the definite assurance of present salvation to all who believe and receive it, and the certain damnation of all who reject it. The evangelists brought no new doctrine, but they had the old fundamental truths of ruin by sin, redemption by Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Ghost burning in them as living realities, and preached them in full confidence that God would use His own Word to do His own work.
The Northern Evangelistic Society had no published creed but on the monthly page of "The Northem Intelligencer" the following appeared as its "motto," which gives a very fair idea of what was preached and how the truth was stated-plainly, pointedly, definitely:- "EternaI salvation is a free, present, attainable, inalienable, imperishable gift - that is, any man or woman in this world, be he or she the blackest sinner in it, may in one moment be justified forever from every charge of sin and may rest as sure of eternal glory as he is certain that in himself he never has deserved and never will deserve, anything but eternal damnation."
There is not much to call "heresy" there, one would think. Yet the cry of "heresy" and "error" was raised and proclaimed from pulpit, press, and platform.
What, then, caused such opposition, and who were the instigators of it? The answer must be - the ministers and office-bearers of the Churches, and especially of the Free Church of Scotland. There were a few exceptions, but, apart from these, the religious leaders of the town and district manifested open hostility to the preachers and the work. It is especially sad to have to add that none were more prejudiced or bitter than those ministers who had been used in the Revivals of 1859 and subsequent years. They evidently could not bear to see anything done outside the bounds of their own "Zion," or to recognise any effort for the salvation of the people over which they had no control. God has to teach by strange means sometimes, and this opposition of the Churches and ministers, was, no doubt, used to shake many of His people free from traditional influences, and thus prepare them to hear and learn His will. Neither Mr Ross nor the agents of the Northern Evangelistic Society had at this time any thought of severing their connection with the existing Churches. They attended them on the Sunday mornings, and so did all the converts, although it must be confessed there was very little there to attract those who had the life of God in them and were seeking to have it fed by the ministry of His Word.
OPPOSITION OF THE MINISTERS.
As the work went on, and the Lord saved sinners - some of them respectable sinners of the synagogue - the opposition of the ministers became more virulent. Never - so far as we can remember in Inverurie did any of them come to the meetings to hear for themselves what was being preached, or to see how the services were conducted; they gained all their information from second-hand sources, mostly from the ungodly; and, as may be imagined, the wildest and most untruthful statements, were accepted and declaimed against. In one Aberdeenshire town, at the early stage of the work, a Free Church minister came to the meeting one evening, and took his seat in the body of the hall, with his coat buttoned close up to cover his clerical collar and. thus hinder the evangelist from knowing who he was. The meeting went on as usual; the Word was spoken in the power of the Spirit; and the parson, evidently enraged to the utmost degree, and unable to endure it longer, got up in the middle of the hall, and, folding back his coat, said aloud, "I am one of the black devils with the white ties. Come away, and not listen to this man any longer; he is leading you astray." It had been asserted that some of the preachers had made allusion to the ministers in the terms this man quoted concerning himself - an assertion which was utterly untrue - and this appeal to their prejudices was to arouse opposition - which it did. How could the people be blamed for openly opposing what their spiritual guides taught them was "heresy," and either gave the cold shoulder to or openly opposed themselves? Verily, some of these men will have a heavy account to reckon with in the judgment day. Especially sad it is to have to add that he who acted in the manner described was one who, in the Revival of 1859, took an active part in the work, but had become, through sectarian bitterness and prejudice, as barren and dry as the heath in the desert.
"THE NEW PROPHETS."
A licentiate of the Free Church of Scotland, acting as a missionary in Inverurie at this time, was put forward by the clerical party as their champion. He gathered together all the misrepresentations made by the enemies of the work in all the countryside, and, weaving it together with his own misrepresentations of what he had seen and heard, it was issued in pamphlet form, bearing the ominous title of "The New Prophets." Of course, this was welcomed by the ungodly, and, no doubt, used to stifle conviction in many; while the ministers and their satellites circulated it far and wide; and for years after, wherever the work of God was seen and the power of God was manifest, there "The New Prophets" was circulated. Local newspapers echoed the opposition of the ministers, and for many months the towns and villages of Aberdeenshire rang with the doctrines and doings of the "Prophets," so that the advertising of meetings in any new place was quite unnecessary: the interest had preceded the preachers. Notwithstanding all this desperate opposition, blessing from on high was given in every place: sinners of every age and class were born of God; and old believers, in whom the heavenly flame had long burned low, were stirred up, revived, and refreshed, and many of them deeply exercised regarding their connection - nominal as it had become - with religious systems and men who had been the most bitter enemies of the work of God.
When it was found that the opposition could not stamp out the work, the next thing tried was imitation of it. In places where nothing save the dry weekly sermon, or, in rare cases, the addition of a mid-week prayer meeting, had been known for years, evangelistic services were set going, and all the "evangelical " ministers brought from near and far to undo, if possible, the work of the "New Prophets." It was pitiful in the extreme to see men who had at one time been used of God in preaching His Gospel, lending themselves to this miserable work, and, as was remarked by many who knew them in their better days, without exception stripped of all their power, and utterly useless in the service of God, doing a work for the devil that he could not get one of his own children to do. How solemn for any Heaven-born saint to sink into such a condition! How awful the discovery at the judgment seat of its dire results! To speak evil of those whom God is using, and to oppose that which they are being helped from the eternal throne to accomplish, is sure to have its recompense here and hereafter - here, in barrenness and judicial blindiness; hereafter, in eternal loss in the day of the judgment seat.
These efforts did not always turn out in the way the ministers expected. Two instances well known to the writer may illustrate this:-
A Christian nobleman whose residence was in the vicinity, and who himself took an active part in evangelistic work, especially in the Free Church, of which he was an elder, was asked by a neighbouring minister to preach in his church one Sunday morning and use his influence to prevent the "congregation" from going to hear the "New Prophets " who were labouring in the place. The earl, instead of taking his place inside his carriage to drive to the church, seated himself beside the coachman and began at once to inquire about the preachers and the meetings. The coachman was a Christian; he had attended the meetings regularly, and got much blessing through them, and, no doubt, gave a true account of what he heard and saw, with the result that the earl, stirred in spirit, preached a regular evangelical sermon, saying the very same things as the "Prophets," and finished by praying for them and the work. Some of the hearers said, as they walked home, "He was sent for to curse these people, and, behold, he has blessed them aItogether, as Balak said to Balaam of old."
A sermon preached against "Assurance" had the effect of sending one home to search his Bible, with the result that he saw there God's way of salvation, and went right off to the minister and told him so.
Those who were converted under these conditions had, as may be guessed, a good deal to bear. Several were threatened, a few shut up in their homes, and the bulk escorted along the streets to and from the meetings, by bands of scoffers singing songs. Howling crowds assembled outside the hall, and often roughly handled both preachers and converts, but the work went on and increased. It seemed as if what is recorded of Israel in Egypt was again fulfilled -"The more they afflicted them, the more they 'multiplied and grew" (Exod. i.,12), until worldly men who had no religious profession were heard to say, "The ministers may rave and roar as they like; it is evident they cannot put a stop to these men's preaching." There was a joy and brightness all its own in these days which we have never seen equalled; and, even amid "fiery trial," when stones and turf and rotten eggs flew thick and fast, songs of triumph rose. We often think it would be better for us now to have such a blast occasionally, to clear the floor of chaff, and "harden off " the true plants of the Lord's husbandry who are in danger of being hot-housed to death in artificial heat.
" SQUEEZED OUT " FROM THE CHURCHES.
Neither Mr Ross nor any of his co-workers had, up to this time, said a word in regard the leaving the Churches, or even hinted at such a step. They still hoped for a "purging" of the unconverted ministers and members and prayed openly and publicly that such might be speedily granted.
Some twenty or thirty of revived old believers and young converts were in the habit of meeting for an hour on the Sunday morning to pray for God's blessing on the services to be held in the various churches. These were happy and profitable seasons, but, not infrequently, they were followed by an unconverted preacher reading a dry, written sermon, or a bitterly prejudiced minister preaching against the "presumption" of any saying they were saved, or making slighting reference to the "new religion which had come into our midst, disturbing the peace of congregations, where quietness and unity had prevailed." Yes, indeed; the "quietness " of spiritual death and the "unity" of icebergs frozen together.
All this was "squeezing out " God's people who had shared the blessing from the churches, and certainly prevented most of the young believers from becoming "members," much as they were invited, for, strange as it may appear to those who are unacquainted with the devious ways of the world's religion, although the mother birds were to be eschewed as evil, the chickens were perfectly eligible as church members; indeed, some were offered inducements extend-ing to an education for "the ministry," if they would only desist from keeping company with the "Prophets," and become "respectable members of the Church."
After some six to eight weeks of nightly meetings, the evangelists passed on to other fields, and we were left with God and the Word of His grace. An old disused chapel was got, and meetings for prayer and reading of the Word continued in it several times a week, Mr Ross paying occasional visits, and cheering us on. Geo R Masson, Andrew Allan, John M Campbell, and others, had meetings also, and quite a number were saved there. Mr Ross was wont to say, "As you go, preach, and disturb the devil everywhere " and this was done sometimes, I fear, with more zeal than prudence. A concert held in the Town Hall, at which some of the church choir were to perform was attacked by about a score of us giving tracts at the door; which, when Mr Ross heard of, he said, "That will make the dust fly" - and, it did.
OUTSIDE THE CAMP.
Gradually the Word of God was making its way; and as light was given from that Word, it was followed. Mr Ross and several others of the evangelists had been baptised and were teaching to others what God had made a great blessing to themselves. This caused a, "winnowing" amongst believers who had up till then followed on together - some obeying the Word, others shying off from various causes. It is truly wonderful how, when family, business, and other considerations arise, and where the truth has to be "bought," some who were ready enough to share the times of Gospel grace and to rejoice in sinners, being saved, turn back and walk no longer with the Lord and His disciples when what is irksome to the flesh and involves a cross comes in the way. When baptisms in the river Don began, the ranks were thinned; the half-hearted ones, who would share the grace but shun the cross, went back, and generally sank down to where they had been before, or joined the opposers - for light rejected or received but unfollowed brings judicial blindness - a form of spiritual disorder from which, it is to be feared, very many in our time suffer. Those who followed the little light they had, got more; others who shunned the path lost what they had. And so it ever must be.
While all this was going on, we were diligently reading the Word, and some were seeing their privilege to gather simply as disciples of the Lord, owning no name but His own. Up to this time we had never heard of such gatherings, although a small one had existed in the city of Aberdeen, and one or two in the county, for some time. The name of "Brethren," so-called, was, unknown; we had never heard or read of such a people. It cannot, therefore, be said that it was to Brethren - either open or close - that believers in the north of Scotland came out, for it is absolutely certain that few ever heard of them, or knew that there were believers meeting outside of all denominations. It is well to know this, for it refutes the theory that all in every place are responsible for and identified with certain doctrines, and doings, which are said to have existed thirty years before there was an assembly of believers gathered in the Lord's Name in the north of Scotland, so far as we are aware.
Form, 'Donald Ross, Pioneer Evangelist', pages 155-169, by John Ritchie.