This is an unusual revival as it went on for ten years, but there seems to have been little emotion. Also, it did not seem to spread out from Edinburgh - it seems to have been only in Universities. The students took the 'fire' to other Universities in the summer months, and there was some success, but not the fire one hoped for, other than in Edinburgh. Oxford and Glasgow were strange because there was a great hope that the would burst into flame, but they didn't, although there was some success. Three generations of students were touched in those ten years; it can only be imagined the impact these hundreds of men made across the world during their lifetimes.
On the 10th December Messrs Stanley Smith and C. T. Studd, the two Cambridge graduates who had given themselves to the work of the China Inland Mission, held in Edinburgh a meeting for students. Professor Charteris was in the chair, and had around him several of his colleagues from the different faculties, extramural lecturers and hospital residents. There were seven hundred students present, and the addresses were so impressive that the greater proportion remained to a second meeting, after which a crowd of students singing hymns accompanied the two young evangelists to the railway station. In January Messrs. Smith and Studd held three more meetings in Edinburgh under the presidency of Professors Charteris, Butcher and Grainger Stewart, and attended by increasing numbers of students. Some were impressed by the stirring eloquence of Mr Stanley Smith’s appeals. Others were attracted by the straightforward narrative of Mr Studd’s experiences. All were fain to recognise that it was no unmanly thing to become a Christian and that there was some magnetic, mighty influence in the power of a life wholly given to the service of the world’s Redeemer.
...In December Henry Drummond had made his first appearance before his own university as a teacher by giving the annual lecture of its Christian Medical Association. they now saw before them a religious teacher utterly free from conventionalism, ardent and enthusiastic as any of themselves, fearless of facts, loyal to the intellectual methods of the age, but still with an unshaken faith in God and in the reality of spiritual experience. He was immediately urged to return and lead the movement which had just started. His reply was, ‘I cannot address students in cold blood’; and besides (as appears from his letters), he was sure that he could not work with freedom upon all the methods on which the movement was conducted. The difficulties, however, were removed, and he engaged to give one address on the Sunday evening subsequent to Messrs Smith and Studd’s last meeting. He stipulated that it should be for students only, and upon new ground. The Oddfellows’ Hall was chosen. ...
‘It is difficult,’ says one who was present, ‘to describe the impression one got in such a meeting. We have seen young men’s meetings gathered before a platform crowded with ministers surrounding a world-renowned evangelist. But this was not a random gathering of the young men of Edinburgh. There were youths from all parts of Scotland. There were many from England and Wales. India had some of her dark sons there. Australia, Canada, the Cape and all our colonies sent their contingents. They had all come to our city to study and were in various stages of their curriculum. Knowledge had been for them the principal thing; and they found themselves, somewhat wonderingly, in a scene where they might haply get something they had not got in any classroom. They saw the platform filled with their teachers, their class tutors, and some of their own number whom they might recognise as officials of one or other of the Christian Associations. When they had sung the Hundredth Psalm, and the Professor occupying the chair had led in prayer, and read a portion of Scripture, they sang another hymn. Then the young gentleman at the chairman’s side, who was a stranger still to many of them, came forward to the table, and the confidence at once awakened by his open, earnest look at them was confirmed when he began to talk to them in the well-known classroom tone of a lecturer who has some knowledge which it is his business to impart to his auditors, and which it is their supreme business at this hour to acquire... After the address he prayed, and before giving out a closing hymn he intimated that an after-meeting would be held for personal converse with any who might feel that they could get further help from himself or any other believers present. No urgent appeal was made; rather they were told that probably the best thing for some of them would be to go home and speak with none but God. Yet the after-meeting was large, and some declared their willingness to be the Lord’s.’
...How real and deep Drummond felt the work to be may be seen from his letters. Even with his experience of such movements he was taken by surprise. ‘It is a distinct work of God,’ he writes; ‘such a work as I, after considerable experience of evangelistic work, have never seen before.’ ‘It haunts me like a nightmare. The responsibility I feel almost more than anything in my life.’
The work in Edinburgh required Drummond’s presence every Sunday, and he refused invitations to visit other universities; but these of themselves seemed ready for the movement, several of their own professors' organised meetings, and from Edinburgh deputations were sent to address while several of their own professors and graduates worked hard to make them a success. In Aberdeen, Dr Hay, the Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, organised three meetings before the end of the session. From about 800 students at King’s and Marischal Colleges, 380 attended the first meeting, addressed by a deputation from Edinburgh, and over seventy remained to the after-meeting, the majority of them discussing questions with the leaders till a very late hour. More than 300 attended the second and third. The result was not only the formation of a University Christian Association, and the decision of many for a more strenuous Christianity, but the moral elevation of the whole life of the University, which, as I remember well, was not transitory.
In Glasgow the movement was still stronger. ‘The hall was crowded to excess by the most orderly students’ meeting I'd ever attended. The Edinburgh men spoke with power, especially, I think, the young fellows who were making a public stand for Christ for the first time. Four hundred remained to the after-meeting. We were kept busy till about ten o’clock [when the hall had to be closed]. Many men waited who had been thinking about accepting Christ for a long time, and who talked to us about their difficulties. As far as we could see, there were many cases of true conversion, and also of spiritual quickening.
...Though Drummond could not attend any of those Sunday meetings, he met with the Glasgow students on weekdays for prayer and conference. When the session came to an end, sixty or seventy of the Edinburgh students volunteered to carry the influences which had blessed themselves to young men in other towns. So the Holiday Mission arose. It spread to many parts of Scotland, England and Ireland. The volunteers were carefully organised, and Drummond, Dr. Cathcart, and some of the professors superintended many of the operations.
A letter, 'Everything goes well. And, I think, by the time you come back you will find fires lit in many places. I hear that the third-year men, at their meeting on Sunday afternoon in Edinburgh, arranged to start eight Bible classes, and they hope to raise the number to fourteen. They had the best inquiry meeting they have yet had. Tomorrow I am coming to meet our sixty new evangelists. They have all been summoned by post-card to meet in the Oddfellows’ Hall at five. . . . Many of the medicals now want to be missionaries.’
Which of us does not still remember the advent of these first ‘Holiday Missioners’ among our manses! They were scattered upon us with the spring, and they came young, hearty, and laughing to be free of the long winter’s classes. They were sent, not as advocates, but as witnesses, and they gave their testimonies with a freshness and simplicity that went to the hearts of the older people who listened to them. Of course, there were crudities and indiscretions; but one would rather have had these than undue maturity and bumptiousness, of which there was next to nothing. Every deputation of five or six had one or two really able men among them, carrying a good conscience from their past work, and well trained in philosophy or science. They had little or no theology, but they told of Christ’s power upon themselves and did so in a manly, moral spirit that brought new hope to every tempted man who heard them. They talked, too, of their doubts and intellectual difficulties in a way that proved very profitable to us ministers in dealing with young men and appealed most powerfully to those of their own age... The organisation of the Holiday Mission cost Drummond and his assistants very much thought and hard work. He held the reins firmly and had full reports sent to him through the secretaries.
In Greenock a large circus was filled with men to overflowing; several openly professed decisions for Christ in the after-meeting... 'I came here, or at least to Brighton, on Monday, to see how a troupe of students were getting on with their holiday mission. I found half a dozen of them hard at work. They had had meetings for eight days before I came and with real results. They are splendid fellows and talked with the utmost simplicity, earnestness, and power. I have spent the last month in visiting the deputies at various places, and am greatly impressed with the men. Nearly all are medicals, some mere boys, and a finer set I never knew. It has been a real privilege to be among them. I hear 400 new men are coming up to Edinburgh this summer.'
...March 24, 1886. — 'Sunday was our last great meeting for the winter, and I can never forget it. Our hall was crammed to the door, and at the close we asked all the men who had become Christians to remain and join in the Sacrament. Over six hundred waited — men of every kindred and tongue. The work has been outwardly very quiet this winter, and none of us had the least idea it was taking such marvellous hold until we gathered round the Communion table. Forty or fifty have volunteered to work in the “University Settlement” in the East End, and about a hundred have given in their names for a Holiday Mission in summer, and especially in April next. All this, and the Boys’ Meeting — which is bigger than ever — has kept me very busy for the last month or two, and it has been a great strain.’
A letter from one of Drummond's students 1888-92:
‘The first time I saw Professor Drummond was in the winter time in 1888. I was a freshman; and though I had, of course, heard of him by name, I had no idea at all as to any connection he had with the University of Edinburgh. Some fellow undergraduate gave me a card to attend “a meeting for students in the Oddfellows’ Hall, to be addressed by Professor Drummond.” It seemed only by chance that I went to the meeting. There were several of the leading men in the University upon the platform, and the room, which seats, I think, about a thousand, was full. I suppose I shall never forget — I certainly do not wish to forget — the impression I gained of Professor Drummond that night. He spoke with evident earnestness, but with marked control, if not reserve. His whole bearing was calm and collected. There were no gestures. Nor was there a suggestion of the “preacher ” — natural voice, natural demeanour, natural and dignified from beginning to the end. At the close of his remarks he uttered a few words of prayer. A hymn was sung, and the great gathering dispersed with preternatural quietness and decorum. The impression left on my mind was such as to cause me to reflect upon what I had seen and heard. Taken at the very lowest estimate, here was a disciplinarian of no ordinary skill. To those who have not heard Drummond, or have wondered at his influence, I suggest a consideration, viz., that his methods were of a rare kind, and obtained for him a hearing which many religious teachers never seem able to secure. The matter of a sermon is clearly of first importance, but is it not possible that great matter is frequently spoiled by not being greatly uttered? Now, whilst in my judgment Drummond was not an orator, he had a most exceptional faculty of simple, beautiful and dignified expression. His style and mode of procedure appealed, I think, to his hearers in Edinburgh. He was admittedly a tall, well-built, handsome man — almost a king among men — and no one who has looked into those eyes can ever hold any other opinion than that they were attractive. He was rather particularly well and neatly dressed. These things, combined with his skill of style, all had their influence upon his hearers. But there was another characteristic which struck me that night. I had heard a real Teacher. Such are rare. Many professors in our universities can no more teach than fly! At best, possibly they are crammers in. But Drummond educated men. He drew them out — and drew them onwards and upwards. His ideas may have been, or may not have been, orthodox, scholastic, theological, scientific — but they resulted in leading out a young fellow’s mind. His teaching opened men’s eyes — not to wondrous doctrines, but to see. After a course of Drummond, men began to look about for themselves. ‘A considerable experience of those meetings of Professor Drummond’s only convinced me the more that he was a Teacher possessing an admirable style. But it was not long before I learned of at least two other features which made this visitor to Edinburgh such a power in the University. He held no position whatever in the University. He came as “unofficial preacher”; but in that capacity he had, in my judgment, a greater and a more lasting effect upon the University at that time than any of the University teachers themselves. And for a very simple reason. He dealt not with technical subjects but with ethics and life. The Professors of Divinity might be said to be his only competitors. But while they spoke to small compulsory classes reading for a degree, Drummond spoke to the largest class in the University, and it was a voluntary one, composed of students in all the Faculties. Moreover, he possessed his influence very largely because he went beneath the surface of things— beyond formularies, creeds, definitions — to the elementary questions of life and conduct. It is true, such a course led him inevitably into controversy and misapprehensions, but it accomplished that which he desired... The elementary basis of doctrine — if such it is to be called — was of a nature to bring men of all shades of religious feeling, and of “no religion at all,” together in one hall... My time in Edinburgh was certainly a very happy one. But I learned to measure many things as but poor and common compared with our friendship. It was the most precious thing I found during my course. Nor was I alone in this experience. I remember not a few who shared it. Drummond was prepared to take almost endless trouble with men who desired his help. “After-meetings,” I think, he disliked as strongly as some of us did. But if a man wished to see Drummond privately and have a talk with him, he was always ready. Indeed he would come through from Glasgow on a weekday simply to see a man who desired his help. Few teachers have ever had such confidences bestowed in them as Drummond, and yet he was strangely reserved as regards his own heart. He would not be drawn just by anybody at any time. He was fastidious to a degree in all spiritual matters. His taste was the essence of refinement. The last walk we had together was along Princes Street and towards the Dean Bridge. It was a Sunday night at the end of term in 1892, and we discussed amongst other things his meetings during the four years. He spoke very modestly of his share in them, though, of course, his share was everything. I loved him with all my heart and soul and mind — I think I have never loved any man so much, so strongly, so continuously. I have never seen in any man so much that was admirable — for he seemed to possess all the graces and virtues of which as perfect man I dreamed.’
'The Life of Henry Drummond," by George Adam Smith.