- Home
- Speakers
- Duncan Campbell
- (Clip) Barrenness To Revival
(Clip) Barrenness to Revival
Duncan Campbell

Duncan Campbell (1898–1972). Born on February 13, 1898, at Black Crofts, Benderloch, in the Scottish Highlands, Duncan Campbell was a Scottish evangelist renowned for his role in the 1949–1952 Hebrides Revival on the Isle of Lewis. The fifth of ten children of stonemason Hugh Campbell and Jane Livingstone, he grew up in a home transformed by his parents’ 1901 conversion through Faith Mission evangelists. A talented piper, Campbell faced a spiritual crisis at 15 while playing at a 1913 charity event, overwhelmed by guilt, leading him to pray for salvation in a barn that night. After serving in World War I, where he was wounded, he trained with the Faith Mission in 1919 and ministered in Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, leveraging his native Gaelic. In 1925, he married Shona Gray and left the Faith Mission, serving as a missionary at the United Free Church in Skye and later pastoring in Balintore and Falkirk, though he later called these years spiritually barren. Rejoining the Faith Mission in 1949, he reluctantly answered a call to Lewis, where his preaching, alongside fervent local prayer, sparked a revival, with thousands converted, many outside formal meetings. Campbell became principal of Faith Mission’s Bible College in Edinburgh in 1958, retiring to preach globally at conventions. He authored The Lewis Awakening to clarify the revival’s events and died on March 28, 1972, while lecturing in Lausanne, Switzerland. Campbell said, “Revival is a community saturated with God.”
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
This sermon shares a personal testimony of a minister's journey from feeling out of touch with God to experiencing a powerful revival. It highlights a pivotal moment when the minister's daughter challenges him to return to the heart of ministry and led him to a deep encounter with God, resulting in a renewed passion for sharing the gospel and experiencing the Holy Ghost. The sermon emphasizes the importance of obedience to God's calling and the transformative power of God's forgiveness and presence.
Scriptures
Sermon Transcription
For seventeen years, I moved in a barren wilderness. It's true that I was evangelical in my preaching, so much so that on several occasions I was asked to conduct special missions. I was even asked to address Catholic conventions. Because I was Campbell of the 21 Revival, I was Campbell of the Mid-Argyle Revival. And because of that, I was asked to address those conventions and conduct those missions. And God, in His mercy, gave me a measure of encouragement. God is wonderful. Seventeen years of it, knowing in my own heart that I wasn't right with God. Oh, what an experience! What an experience! Feeling out of touch. And on my knees before God, again and again I acknowledged it. Until one morning. I was preparing for a Catholic convention. I'm in my study. It's about five o'clock in the morning. When I heard someone singing in the drawing room of the Mass. And, of course, I recognized the voice. It was the voice of my own young daughter. And she's singing, coming, coming, yes they are. Coming, coming from afar, from the Indies and the Gandhis. Steady flows that living stream, to love's ocean, to His fullness. Calvary, their wandering theme. There was something about that singing that spoke to me, and gripped me, and moved me. Because I knew that that lassie was thinking of the day when she would be in Knut Hall as a missionary. Definitely called by God to that field. She's only sixteen years of age. After singing through the solo, she came over and she threw herself on my knees, as daughters sometimes do. She put her two arms round my neck. And said to me, Daddy, I would like to have a talk with you. Well, I said, Gina, I'll be happy indeed to talk with you. Oh, what was coming to me. We went to my study. And she said, for several days, Daddy, I've been battling against facing you with this question, but I must do it. When you were a young pilgrim, before you went in for the ministry, you saw revival. You saw revival. How is it, Daddy, that you're not seeing revival now? And then faced me with this crushing question. Daddy, you have a large congregation, and many are joining the church. But Daddy, when did you last kneel beside a poor sinner and led him to Jesus? My dear people, that shook me. That shook me. I went to the Keswick Convention that night. And did my part. But on my way home, I vowed in the presence of God, that if He didn't bring me back to the experience that I had on that horse's back, I would give up the ministry and go back into business. And my dear people, I meant it. Oh, I meant it. I would be anything but a deceiver. When I arrived home, I couldn't take supper. I went to my study. I said to my wife and daughter, don't disturb me tonight. I'm going to have a session with God. And I threw myself on my face in my study. And I cried to God to forgive me. Oh, I cried to Him to forgive me. And in about an hour, blessed name He came to me. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities and who healeth all thy diseases. And I knew that God had come to make me again. And to bring me back to that glorious experience in the fullness of the blessing of the Holy Ghost. I know that I lay there with this power coming over me. Oh, I can't fully describe it. I can't put it into words. But I was caught up in an experience that could only be explained in terms of God. An experience of the Holy Ghost that had come again. But just at that moment, a vision came to me. And that was a vision of hell. A vision of hell. And I could see multitudes, multitudes streaming over the caverns of death to be doomed and damned eternally. What a vision. Oh, what a vision. At that moment, the door of my study opened. And that dear lassie came in. She lay down beside me. And I can almost hear her voice now. As she is praying to God and saying, Oh Jesus, keep his reason to Daniel. She was afraid that I was going mental. Because of the vision that God gave me. The vision of souls lost eternally. God kept my reason to me. And suddenly it left me. But it left me weak. Oh brother, it left me weak. Then, a voice seemed to say to me, Go back to the faith mission. Give up the ministry. You've suffered much by what you listen to in the church. For seventeen years you've been in a barren wilderness. God has come to you again. Obey God. And thank God. Oh, thank God. I said yes to God. And the flood tides of glory came over me again. And if I had a vision of hell. Oh, I had a vision of the risen Christ. The risen Christ. Able to save to the uttermost. And God said to me, Go out and panic again. And on the following morning, I wrote three letters. To the secretary of my congregation. To the presbytery clerk and to the clerk of assembly. Resigning my charge in this town. But retaining my status as a Presbyterian minister in Scotland. And I retain that to this day. But I'm now free. And on this day, I'm free to go out. I'm free to proclaim the glorious gospel. And I'm happy in the midst of the Holy Ghost. My dear people, I say that from the depths of my heart. It was the Holy Ghost that did it. And in a very short time, I found myself in the midst of this glorious revival. That continued for three years. And continues to this day. It has kept coming since then, wave after wave.
(Clip) Barrenness to Revival
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download

Duncan Campbell (1898–1972). Born on February 13, 1898, at Black Crofts, Benderloch, in the Scottish Highlands, Duncan Campbell was a Scottish evangelist renowned for his role in the 1949–1952 Hebrides Revival on the Isle of Lewis. The fifth of ten children of stonemason Hugh Campbell and Jane Livingstone, he grew up in a home transformed by his parents’ 1901 conversion through Faith Mission evangelists. A talented piper, Campbell faced a spiritual crisis at 15 while playing at a 1913 charity event, overwhelmed by guilt, leading him to pray for salvation in a barn that night. After serving in World War I, where he was wounded, he trained with the Faith Mission in 1919 and ministered in Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, leveraging his native Gaelic. In 1925, he married Shona Gray and left the Faith Mission, serving as a missionary at the United Free Church in Skye and later pastoring in Balintore and Falkirk, though he later called these years spiritually barren. Rejoining the Faith Mission in 1949, he reluctantly answered a call to Lewis, where his preaching, alongside fervent local prayer, sparked a revival, with thousands converted, many outside formal meetings. Campbell became principal of Faith Mission’s Bible College in Edinburgh in 1958, retiring to preach globally at conventions. He authored The Lewis Awakening to clarify the revival’s events and died on March 28, 1972, while lecturing in Lausanne, Switzerland. Campbell said, “Revival is a community saturated with God.”