Page Modified:01/28/2005
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“Now I leave off to speak any more to creatures, and turn my speech to Thee, 0 Lord. Now I begin my intercourse with God which shall never be broken off. Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations! Farewell, meat and drink! Farewell, the world and all delights! Farewell, sun, moon, and stars! Welcome God and Father! Welcome sweet Lord Jesus, Mediator of the New Covenant! Welcome Blessed Spirit of Grace, God of all Consolation! Welcome Glory! Welcome Eternal Life! Welcome Death!” Dr. Matthew MacKail stood below the gallows, and as his martyr cousin writhed in the tautened ropes, he clasped the helpless jerking legs together and clung to them that death might come the easier and sooner. And so, with Christ was Hugh MacKail “with his sweet boyish smile.” “And that will be my welcome,” he said; “the Spirit and the Bride say, Come.” (The last prayer and martyrdom of Hugh MacKail, a Covenanter)God is not obliged to answer because you pray, but He has bound Himself by covenant promise to do many things if we ask Him to do those things. When you are shut in with God, no part of you must be shut out from God. Great Revivalists like Evan Roberts of Wales, Jonathan Edwards of New England, George Whitefield of England and America, and Charles Finney of New York, were all great reapers in public because they were great weepers in private. |
The true origin of the revival is probably to be found in the prayer circles that honeycombed Wales for the last 18 months. The people who had banded themselves together were crying out mightily for a revival, and God at length graciously answered the prayers of His saints. And it is interesting to Americans to know how the prayer circles were started. A lady living in Australia read a book by Dr. Torrey in which he reiterated the statement that we must "pray through." At that time, Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander were conducting their great revival in Melbourne, the success of which was largely due to the 2000 prayer circles that existed throughout the city. Shortly afterward, the lady came to England, and was the means of starting thousands of prayer circles throughout the United Kingdom, the object of which was it pray for worldwide revival. The answer has come in part in the Welsh awakening, and may God speed the day it will spread over all the United Kingdom, and over America, and throughout the entire world! |
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