We had an excellent paper on Zoom yesterday from Roger Fay from Ripon on revival in Yorkshire in the 1790s. Roger described what happened and some of the resuts and then gave some analysis of the issues it raised such as Arminianism and women's ministry. He ended
In conclusion, our consideration of the divinely wrought revivals that took place in Yorkshire in the 1790s, even with all their attendant problems, should make us thirsty for fresh outpourings of the Spirit of God today, even though we should be careful to test all things, hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:21–22). Let the Methodist historian George Smith, writing in 1864, have the last word as he looked back on what had taken place in the 1790s, a date that was nearly within living memory in his own day:
O how gloriously has Jehovah revealed Himself! How fearfully has He displayed His wrath against all unrighteousness and confronted the awakened sinner with all the terrors of judgment! And yet, at the same moment, how blessedly and graciously He manifested Himself in pardoning mercy to the broken-hearted, believing penitent. We can scarcely believe it possible for God to reveal Himself more marvellously in a world of material existence, than we have known it done in some of these seasons, when all classes of mind, persons of every age, men and women of every description of character, the pious and profane alike, have, with one accord, stood awe-stricken in the felt presence of the heart-searching God.
Is this not what we need to experience today, with all the consequent God-glorifying salvation of sinners and blessing of the church, the ‘felt presence of the heart-searching God’ as he draws near to us in the person of his glorious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!.
The lecture should be on the Evangelical Library YouTube Channel soon. Ournext lecture is from Dr Ian Densham on Octavius Winslow, on March 10, Details of the zoom number from The Library.
The lecture can be accessed here.
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