In this sermon, the speaker shares his experience of witnessing powerful prayer warriors who were deeply devoted to God. He emphasizes the importance of prayer and recounts a dangerous situation he faced while preaching the gospel in South Ireland. The speaker requests prayers for the missionaries working in Ireland and highlights the challenges they face. In the second part of the sermon, the speaker acknowledges the busy and complex life in America but encourages the audience to take advantage of the peaceful environment in the church building to pray. He contrasts this with the underground church in Russia, where believers pray in difficult conditions but experience a powerful move of God.

Now, I thought this evening we'll have a double header. I thought Mrs. Stewart would be the first one to go and I would be the second, but she thought, well, I better answer the questions concerning the Irish question. Since we've come to Memphis, many friends have asked us all about our good friend Dr. Ian Paisley and also about the believers in Northern Ireland, the believers in the South of Ireland, and what is the true story behind the Irish question, as we see on the television, as we're reading, you were a vital influence for beloved Ulster and beloved Erra, we want just for a few minutes to tell you about this ministry. Now, we have known Dr. Ian Paisley since he was a young fellow, as we have been preaching in his father's church. Now, he's a gentleman around about 42 years of age, big, tall, rough fella, 42 years of age or so, and he is a holy man of God. No matter what the newspapers say or the commentators or television men tell you, he is a holy man of God first and foremost, a man who talks with God, and a man who walks with God, and a man who has power with God. And he comes from a very, very fine evangelical background. His father, a very beloved Ulster pastor, and then his own brother is possibly one of the finest evangelists we have in the whole of the British Isles, preaching to a vast multitude, and he is an evangelist belonging to the Open Brethren Assemblies, what we call the Brethren Fellowship. They don't like that word Brethren with a capital B, but never mind, Open Brethren, and his brother's one of the finest evangelists of the Open Brethren Group in Northern Ireland and throughout Great Britain, and Brother Paisley himself is a wonderful pastor. He has, I say, his new church dedicated just recently seats some 2,000 people, and not only is he a good pastor, but he is also a good Bible teacher. You know, he spent his time in prison. He was in prison there, as you know, for a few months in Belfast because of false accusations, and when he's in prison, he wrote a wonderful exposition on the Epistle to the Romans that could be used as any textbook in any Christian seminary or Bible school. And then not only is he a wonderful expositor, but he is also a wonderful soul winner. And it's wonderful to go into that church and see the pastor weeping for souls, and to see the congregation weeping for souls. And then Dr. Paisley is also a very blessed, blessed revivalist. Now, he's just spent his holidays with our children in Edinburgh, that is our daughter and her husband, Bob Doon. And while he was on holiday, he gave one gospel meeting to 1,000 people, and 85 came forward to accept Christ as Savior. Now, he's a revivalist, and in that church, sometimes they pray all night. Now, I don't know if in Memphis you have any churches that pray all night, but many times in their church they are praying all night. And many times they gather every morning at 5 o'clock to pray, at 5 o'clock. And if you go earlier to work than that, you can get into the 4 o'clock prayer meeting if you want in the morning. They'll just suit your convenience how early you get up in the morning. And it's a revival church. The Holy Ghost is moving constantly. And then we would say that our brother Ian Paisley is a fighting fundamentalist. Now, he has nothing to do with a Presbyterian church as a denomination, because the Presbyterian denomination of Northern Ireland has modernists in it. Modernists teaching in the seminary, and also in alliance with the World Council of Churches, or the British Council of Churches, who in turn are allied with the World Council of Churches. And so he has started his own independent Presbyterian churches, and he's the moderator. Now, I was going to ask Mrs. Stewart how many churches they have. I can't tell you, because the churches are growing up all over Ulster, because the eyes of the Lord's people have been opened about the World Council of Churches, and the compromise of evangelicals staying in the apostate church. And so, there may be twenty, maybe thirty churches now, of which Ian is a moderator. And he's a fighting fundamentalist. He will not compromise in any way the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should he? And we are living in an age, my dear brother and sister, where believers, outstanding Christian leaders, and outstanding brothers and sisters, even in Memphis, are compromising with their faith, once and for all, delivered to the saints. They stay in the apostasy and try to make it better when God says, come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean things. Because we believe the World Council of Churches is heading up for the Antichrist. And we want nothing to do with preparing the advent of the Antichrist, the false Christ. And so, Brother Ian Paisley takes a definite, definite stand as a fighting fundamentalist. And he makes sure that nobody is allowed in his pulpit, or teaches a Sunday school class, or sing a solo in his church, that has anything to do with compromised evangelism. For example, if there's a great citywide evangelistic campaign in Belfast, he wants to make sure that all the ministers who take part are born again and are fundamental. And if they're not, he will not participate in such an evangelistic campaign. Because he does not believe in compromised evangelism. So he's unashamedly a fighting fundamentalist. But also, he's the champion of the Protestant faith, the Protestant cause. Now, you know that he is a Martin Luther or a John Knox. Now we have a young man, a friend of our son-in-law Bob Doom, our son-in-law's friend, Jack Glass. He's a Baptist boy. And he went to the Baptist seminary in Glasgow, and to his utter astonishment, he was naive. And here's a boy of 20 years of age. He's hearing these Baptist professors deny the virgin birth, deny the fundamentals of the word of God. And he's protesting. They're very angry because he protests. And Jack Glass takes a definite stand against the modernists of Britain, and modernists of Scotland, and also against the Alliance of the Roman Catholic Church. And of course, the newspapers dub him as the John Knox of Scotland, a young man only 28 years of age. But with Brother Paisley, we say that these are new Martin Luthers and new John Knoxes. Now, do you know, I wish you could read German. And if you think you know that we are very straight, you ought to read Martin Luther. In the German, he's awful. He's not polite. You ought to see what he says about the Pope. You ought to see what he says about Rome. I know our evangelicals are working with the Roman Catholic Church. Our evangelicals are allied with the Vatican and preparing for a great alliance, which will head up for the coming Antichrist. But we are so glad that our Brother Ian Paisley is a militant Protestant. And he is standing for what Martin Luther believed and what John Knox believed, an old-time reformer. Now, let's go right back into the question, the Irish question. May I say it is definitely a political question. Definitely a political question. Now, you know, the South of Ireland used to belong to the British Empire and to Great Britain. In other words, they were British subjects. Their passport was British. And they had representation in the Parliament in London. But many years ago, they broke away from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. And they became the Republic of Erra. E-I-R-E, the Republic of Erra. And now the Republic of Erra is almost 100% Roman Catholic. I do not think there's 1% of Protestants in the whole of the South of Ireland. And we see that they broke away from Great Britain because they did not want to live under the British crown. Because nobody can be King or Queen of Great Britain except they are Protestants. And so we discover that they have for years and years and years, as I have been evangelising the South of Ireland in Ulster, they have political movements to overthrow Ulster. They have gangs and terrorists during the past years planting bombs in Ulster and intimidating the people. And then they have a population explosion. You see, in the South of Ireland, they are very little worth. They have a very little income. Almost a million people, Catholics in the South of Ireland, have to go to England and work. But they have sent many up to Northern Ireland to populate Northern Ireland with a population explosion to take over Protestant Ulster. And so there has been wars and battles over the border and intimidating the Protestants of Northern Ireland. Now, Londonderry, I first began to preach in Londonderry when I was 14 years of age. Londonderry is now a predominant Roman Catholic city and yet it's the second largest city of Protestant Ulster. And that's where the trouble began. And so we discover now that Rome wants to take over Northern Ireland. I said it's a political question. Now, I'll tell you why we must pray. Because Ulster, Northern Ireland, is the last stronghold of Protestantism in the British Isles. It is also the last stronghold of Evangelicalism in the British Isles. England's gone, Wales is gone, and Scotland is gone. That's why we have American missionaries in Scotland. But the last stronghold of Evangelical Protestant life is in Northern Ireland. Now, you'll be surprised to know that Northern Ireland, Ulster, is the most evangelized part of that. I think I can say that. We have nowhere else in there, anywhere in Europe, where we have such a large concentration of Evangelical believers. I believe mile by mile, square mile for square mile, north of Ireland, is more evangelized than any spot on earth, including anywhere in America. And in the churches, thank God, there's standing room only. Many times they have to have two services every Sunday morning. And there's a revival atmosphere always in the Northern Ireland. And it's wonderful to see these thousands of believers, filled with the Holy Ghost, filled with the love of Christ, out and out for the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know the reason why it is a political question, because the Vatican is a political association. You know, many believers do not know that the Vatican is a state. The Vatican is absolutely nothing to do with Italy. Vatican City is in Rome. But Rome is not in the Vatican City. The Vatican City is a principality, a state, a sovereign state, having absolutely nothing to do with Rome. Now, when it was my good friend, Archduke Otto, who is the pretender to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, that is, Franz Joseph's eldest boy. He's a man of my age. And he himself told me, because the Hatzbergs, as you know, are the greatest family in the history of Roman Catholic Europe. They've provided more kings and queens and princes and princesses for the Roman Catholic thrones of Europe than any family in European history. And Archduke Otto, the pretender to his father's throne of Austro-Hungary, told me that the Vatican is one of the most political powers in all the entire world. And he explained to me about, there are thousands of diplomats. And as you know, they have their ambassadors all over the earth. And so, when you go into the Vatican City, it is not Italy. It is a nation, a country by itself. And the Pope is the head of the state. And so, it is a political organization. And that is what it makes the Irish question a political question. And they are seeking, in every conceivable way, to take over, now, Northern Ireland. And if the Roman Catholics, Romanism, took over Northern Ireland, then the last stronghold of the Protestant faith and the Christian faith has been destroyed. And that would be a great triumph for Rome. Now, I can remember when the trouble was starting. Just about, maybe three years ago, Mrs. Stewart knows better than me, I'm not good at dates, we travel so much. But maybe three years ago, we were having a campaign for two weeks with Dr. Paisley's church in Belfast. And I said to him, Ian, I said, we haven't had an open-air march yet. You know, in Great Britain, it's our custom to have open-air marches. If this was Great Britain, we'd have a march around the city streets, inviting the unsaved to come into the meeting. We have that almost every night. And so, I said, Ian, we haven't had a march yet. And he's an Irishman, of course, and Irish people are always laughing. They never stop laughing. They're either going to tell you a joke or just finish telling a joke. And so, he just laughed and laughed and said, he said, James, he said, would you want to end up in prison? And I said, well, what's the matter? Oh, he said, if we start marching around the streets, we'll end up in prison. Don't you know the power of Rome? Well, I said, let's ask. Let's start anyhow. He said, no, we must ask the police. I said, what? No, no, we can't march. We can't have an open-air gospel march in Belfast unless we ask the police. But I said, it's a Protestant land. We're under a Protestant throne. The Queen is a Protestant. She has to be a Protestant. Why can't we just go out marching and preach in the streets if we want to? No, they said, you can preach, but you can't march. We must ask police permission. And they may not give it to us. Well, I said, no, I'm asking. And so, he laughed. He said, all right, off to prison, boys. And so, we got permission after several days. But can you imagine? I was astonished and my wife. We had to have police protection. Can you imagine police protection? And it's saying in gospel hymns, have you been to Jesus for the precious? Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing flood or the cleansing power? And are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? And here we are, and just shouting out gospel text, not saying anything against the Pope, but simply saying, come to hear the gospel. And we are marching around our own Protestant part of Belfast, not a Roman Catholic part of Belfast. And yet, we must have police protection. And so, they very rarely, recently after that, a Dr. Paisley was falsely accused with others, our preachers we know, and put in a prison for several months. And now, he is a militant leader of the Protestants and the Evangelicals. And we thank God for his courage. Now, the Romans have been trying to kill him, naturally trying to kill him. You pray that God will preserve him. And then, will you please pray that God will continue to keep revival fires burning in Ulster? You know, it's not enough to be negative. You must be positive. It's not enough to contend for the faith. You must also have revival. You must win souls for Jesus Christ. And Spurgeon called his magazine, The Sword and the Trowel. Now, you must have the sword to defend the faith and fight the devil, but you must have a trowel in your hand. You must build up the spiritual walls of Zion. And that's just exactly what the believers are seeking to do in Northern Ireland. Now, no believers anywhere on earth gives so much money for God's work, as the believers in Ulster. They hilariously and hilariously and hilariously give, give, give, give, give, give. And you can imagine that in this revival atmosphere, how Satan would like to destroy it all together. And so, I trust that what I've told you this evening will give you some idea of what is happening there in Northern Ireland and south of Ireland. And as I said already to you, about Northern Ireland is the most evangelized part in Great Britain. Will you please remember that the south of Ireland is the most un-evangelized part in Great Britain. And they are the most fanatical Romanists in the world. I have been in Colombia, South America. We've been in Roman Catholic Spain many times, but they are not bitter in comparison to the Roman Catholics at south of Ireland. They supplied America with its first Roman Catholic president. President Kennedy's people from Ulster. Or from Arra. And the almost 65% of all the professors in the American Catholic universities from, from the south of Ireland. 80% of all your nuns, your priests, your missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church are from the south of Ireland. They have cemeteries of 10,000 in their cemeteries. The whole of south of Ireland is dedicated to one thing, to the spread of Romanism around the world. And their zealousness for their religion would put us to shame. If we had a Protestant church of 35,000 people here in Memphis, we would think we had something, wouldn't we? But we could show you a Catholic church in Dublin, Ireland with 35 and 40,000 members. And thousands and thousands at that church there for a few minutes before they go to work at 6 o'clock, 5 o'clock in the morning. And so that is zeal. And so, will you please pray? It's very dangerous. We have one of our missionaries now, he's a pastor now in America, an Irishman. And he was left almost half dead and killed by the Romanists. Why? Because he's preaching the gospel in the streets in south of Ireland. It's dangerous. On my first occasion, about 14 years of age, when preaching down there, we had to leave the village fast because they ran out after us with big butcher's knives. They'd have used them all right. They're fanatical. And they hate us and hate the gospel of the Lord Jesus. But you pray for the situation in south of Ireland. Pray for the missionaries who are laboring in the south of Ireland. Many in grave danger even now. But God is working and God is moving. And we want you to pray in a very definite way for that ministry. Now, this evening, I want in the second part of our meeting to carry on with our ministry last night. Now, I wonder how many was here last night. So I know where we're going. Oh, that's wonderful. Almost everybody was here last night. I'm so glad. Now, I'm reading this evening. I'm talking concerning revival this evening. I am in the prophecy of Joel. I'm in the prophecy of Joel. And just for the sake of you who may have not been here tonight, the few who were not here rather last night, we spoke last night on the prayer road story Bible. And we gave us our verses Isaiah 57 verse 15 and Ezekiel or Exodus chapter 3 verse 3. And you remember how that we read the scripture there in Isaiah 57 and 15. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabited eternity, whose name is holy. I will dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and a humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one. And then, of course, Exodus 3 and 3, Moses says, I will now turn aside and see this great, wonderful, supernatural sight. And we saw that the prelude to revival first was an awareness of the presence of God. Then that brought about a humiliation before God. And then the third prelude was a holy wonder at the things of God. And so this evening I want to carry on with the thought of revival. I prayed so much last night after the service and I prayed so much today. Oh God, what would you have me say this evening? And God would have me carry on from where I left off last night concerning revival. Now, in Joel chapter 1 and chapter 2, we find the kind of revival that God wants. Now, you will see here portrayed for us a real, genuine, thorough work of God the Holy Spirit. And you'll see a genuine, lasting work of grace. There's no false fire here and so there's no false alarm. And I want you to notice three things concerning revival as it is sketched out for us by the prophet Joel. Now, you notice, first of all, it was a weeping revival. A weeping revival. And then it was a sweeping revival. And lastly, it was a reaping revival. First of all, a weeping revival, a sweeping revival, and a reaping revival. Now, will you notice the reaping revival, the weeping revival? Will you please remember? Oh, get this right into your understanding tonight. True, genuine, Holy Ghost revival never begins with laughter. It never begins with joyous singing. Never, never, never, never. It begins with weeping, weeping. Notice here, in verse 13 of chapter 1, gird yourselves and lament ye priests, how ye ministers of the altar. Come, lie all might and sackcloth, ye ministers of my God. For the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. And then you notice again, chapter 2, verse 12. Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. Now, why is it a weeping revival? There are two reasons given here in Joel. First of all, because of the terrible condition of Zion. Read here in the first verse of chapter 1. The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even the days of your fathers? No. Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. That which the palmy worm hath left hath the locust eaten, and that which the locust hath left hath the canker worm eaten, and that which the canker worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he that hath cheek-teeth of a great lion. He hath laid bare, or laid my wine waste, he hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree. He hath made it clean bare, and cast it away, the branches thereof are made white. Now, it has to be a weeping revival because of the terrible condition of Zion. The prophet, God says to, through the prophet Joel, to the people of Zion, have you fathers ever seen this before? Have your fathers and your grandfathers? No, no, no. Then tell it to your children. Tell it to your grandchildren. And even go to another generation and tell it to your great-grandchildren. The terrible condition of Zion today. Oh my brother, my sister, need I tell you that we have a reason to weep today in America because of the lamentable, terrible condition of Zion, spiritual Zion? You know, revival begins with weeping, and then it finishes with laughing. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And you remember we have two or three revival songs that talk about singing and laughing and dreaming. Well, just like one that dreamt, and we say, we can't believe it's true what God has done, what God has accomplished. And we have knowing people when revival came to laugh and laugh like drunken men and women. And they would laugh and laugh and telephone each other all night long through the city, crisscrossing the city. Did you hear the news? My husband's just saved. Did you hear the news? All my family got saved tonight in the meetings. And the people are laughing and laughing and laughing with a holy laughter. But my friend, revival finishes up that way, but it begins with weeping. And then, you know, there is a weeping revival also here because of the indifference of Zion. The indifference of Zion. Then we have it again in verse 13 of chapter 1. We have it there for the meat offering, the latter part of the verse of verse 13, chapter 1. For the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. They are compromising, they are hard-hearted, they are robbing God of their tithes and of their time and of their money and of themselves. And may I say to you this evening, I would not be a true man of God, and I'm your missionary. And we counted a high privilege and a high honor to be your missionary. But we counted a solemn responsibility to be your missionary on the foreign mission fields of the earth. But I'm not talking this evening as your missionary, I'm talking as a prophet of God tonight. And I say this, when I come back to America, I'm confused, I'm bewildered at what I see and what I hear. Confused and bewildered at what I see. The coldness, the deadness of the Lord's dear people, it overwhelms me. Can you explain it to me? Why is it that in communist lands and pagan lands, that the believers there, under persecution, but not even one percent of our privileges, our spiritual privileges, love the Lord so intensely. And we are so cold in our devotion and service to Jesus Christ. And we make all the alibis and excuses of why we have not done something for the Lord. They kept back the offerings that were to be brought into the holy place, and the money that was to be placed in the treasure house. Because they were cold. They were living in the distance. They were half-hearted. And that is why we must weep and weep and weep and weep. It's a weeping revival. Now, just the other evening, I was in a prayer meeting. In fact, the experience is so holy. It was so sacred to me, that I even felt I grieved the Holy Spirit telling Mrs. Stuart about it. You know, when you meet with God, you're in God's holy presence. And you can't tell everything that God tells you. You can't tell everything about your secrets before the Lord. But the other evening, I had one of the most exhilarating experiences I've had for months. And I wasn't expecting it. I used to preach with Mrs. Stuart, missionary messages, this particular weekend. And we got very tired and weary, because I have a battle with my health every day, because of my heart trouble, and constant traveling and preaching and writing, or book writing, and hours and hours proofreading, and writing to our missionaries, and writing to the native pastors around the world. And when I got in there on a Saturday night, I was ready to flop. Get to bed early, so I could rise enough in the morning early, to get ready for the preaching on the Lord's day. But the pastor, with a tear in his eye, or a tear in his speech, said to me, Brother James, he said, are you too tired and weary to go to our prayer meeting? And I was just going to say, yes, I'm too tired and weary. And then I said, wait a minute, I said, do you have a prayer meeting on Saturday night, tonight, especially for tomorrow? Oh no, not especially. He said, we have it every Saturday night. I said, with who? I said, with two people. No, no, no, two deacons. No, no, no. He said, we have 16 every Saturday night. I said, you have 16 men that pray with you every Saturday night, from half past seven to nine o'clock? He said, I do. Oh, I said, brother, I said, that's a miracle. It's a miracle. In America, to find 16 men with their pastor, every Saturday night, praying from half past seven to nine o'clock. That's a miracle. You talk of the cross and the Red Sea, during the week. Oh, it's a bigger miracle. And I said, Pastor, I'll surely be there. And, you know, I had some pains. But glory be to God, friend, when I got that, that prayer meeting, I forgot all about my pain. You know, the moment I went in, it was a large, large auditorium. And, you know, usually you don't feel the power of God in the big auditorium, there's only 15 or 16 men praying. You feel more the power of God in a small room. But when I went into that building, that huge building, I felt the power and presence of God. I was aware of God right away. And then, the pastor very quietly said, Now, brethren, you know what we're here for. We're glad to have Brother Stuart. And now let's pray. And he turned out the lights and just a soft glow over us. And these 16 men prayed. Oh, brother, sister, I wish you had remained. You talk about the world series. Oh, brother, that's peanuts. Oh, listen, you talk about the world, the world's care, the world's exposition, nothing. These men were flat on their faces before God. And I shuddered. I said, Oh, God, I said, I can't believe what I'm hearing. They were giants in prayer. Ordinary common man. Giants. And I knew they had been praying for months. And when I left that, we couldn't talk to each other. We had seen God face to face. We have a new Christian center in Scotland to evangelize the youth, and we call it Fanaio. The missionaries asked me, what should be the name? I said, Fanaio. I have seen God face to face. We had a Fanaio that night. It wasn't a long prayer meeting, but we could have carried on all night long quite easily. It was only an hour and a half prayer meeting. But, oh, friend, when I got up from my knees, I knew we'd seen God face to face. And I said, Oh, God, sure they're going to have revival in that church. You see, when we arrived, drove up, the pastor said very quietly, without, unemotionally, very quietly said, Sister Ruth, Mrs. Stewart, we're going to have revival in our church. Well, of course, many people tell us that, and it never counts. But brothers, sisters, it's coming to that church. God could do nothing else but send revival to that church. They're standing room only already. No gimmicks. You don't need gimmicks. Gimmicks screams the Holy Ghost. Don't need gimmicks. Flying in orchards from, where did you fly them in again? Not Jamaica, where is it? Oh, it's Hawaii Island. I think we fly them in to get the Cucumber Summer School. All the gimmicks. They'll give you a book. I got a book the other night because I attended a gospel service. Can you imagine? Me, a minister. You can say I'm an old man. And the grandness gives me a book because I condescended to come to a meeting one night. Can you imagine? Oh, no, friend. No, no. How is a revival coming? That place is standing room only. Why? God is there. And wherever God is in a place, that people are going to come from miles, as Mr. Thompson said tonight, miles and miles around to see God working. Now, friend, let me say this. We just now are making India our number one mission field for a literature crusade. India's army is 450 million people. Now, we're in touch with native pastors. They are praying for revival. And we should be. They have invited us to come for evangelistic campaigns all over India. But, you know, we just got a letter the other day. And listen to this. I've written it down. They inaugurated just a few months ago a hundred days of round-the-clock praying. Somebody praying every hour on the 24 hours for a hundred days. A 24-hour vigil. And, you know, 10,000 believers took part. Young men and young women, men and women, 10,000. And they prayed around the clock non-stop for 2,400 hours. Will anybody say hallelujah? Are you too ashamed? Say hallelujah. Hallelujah. 2,400 hours. Oh, wouldn't you like to fly into that right away now? Oh, yes, so it's a weeping revival. And we know that we need to weep. I've been praying if God would have me speak this week on a message I've never had them to preach on, let alone myself or Mrs. Stewart. And Eli trembled for the ark of God. And Eli trembled for the ark of God. My brother, sister, if there ever was a day when we needed to weep over the spiritual condition of Zion and the indifference of the saints in Zion, it's right now in November 1969. It will be a weeping revival. And then, because it's a weeping revival, it has to be a sweeping revival. And it's sweeping in its preparation. There's no half measures, you see. There can be no half measures. Because desperate conditions demand desperate preparations and desperate measures. And so, I read there in 114, sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord. And then coming to chapter 2, verse 15 and 17, blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breast, let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet, let the priest, the minister of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. I haven't time to expound that between the porch and the altar, but it's a blessed truth there. And let them say, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, but the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, where is their God? And so, it's a sweeping revival. And it's sweeping in its preparation. Call everything to a standstill. Now, we would say, oh no, no, no, that's not the way to revival. Do you know it's possible for you to be carrying on so much work for the Lord that you couldn't have revival? If God is not moving and God is not working, it's better to call a halt to all we're doing. And to say, why is God not working? I can remember as a young man, maybe 18 or 19 years of age, I forget which, I was reading the Acts of the Apostles, and I was so convicted, my ministry was so powerless, and I said, Lord, you know I'm the boy preacher of Great Britain, and all I'm seeing is 60 or 70 souls saved night after night. But I said, that's not Pentecost, that's not the Acts of the Apostles. Lord, I'm not seeing revival, I'm seeing good evangelistic campaigns, but Lord, I'm not seeing what we saw in the Acts of the Apostles and what we had in the olden days. Oh God, I must have revival. And I canceled all my meetings. And I said, oh God, I'm going to wait in your presence, fast and pray for weeks. I wasn't married, I had no children, no wife, I could go alone. And I said, I'm going to fast and pray, and I will not preach until the Holy Ghost comes down upon me. And you know, I tell this story, I have them in the car, but I've written it down, a story about Mr. Brown, I call him, he was a stutterer. God raised up this man, a stutterer, to come work with me. And we bought a, he bought a trailer, an old trailer, not the beautiful trailers we have here in America, the run-down old thing in Britain, and we fasted and prayed for months there. And then the Holy Ghost came down on us, and we were ready to preach. And my dear friend, we saw revival. But I canceled everything, I called everything to a halt. I read in the life story of Dr. A.T. Pearson, a spiritual giant who said he, he resigned from all the missionary committees, on all evangelistic committees around the world. And he almost resigned from his own pulpit. You know why? He wanted to call everything to a halt, to stand still in his spiritual life and say, oh God, what's wrong? Why am I so bound and unfaithful? I haven't told this story, it's not in Dynamite in Europe or appeared in any magazine, but you know, the reason why God sent revival to Latvia, and used me as a revivalist for that part of Russia, was because there was a group of about 30 to 40 Baptist pastors. And unknown to each other, they were discontented with themselves and with their churches. And each of them, unknown to each other, told God, said, oh Jehovah, we're not going to preach again until you do something for us and through us. And they went to their, their, their congregations and told them, said, we are not resigning from the pastorate, but we're just calling a halt. You get in other preachers to preach for us, but I'm going off for a month or two months to be quiet with God and find out what's wrong. Now they didn't know this was happening, all over Latvia. And these men, unknown, were away. And then they got to know that they weren't preaching. Why are you not preaching? Why are you not preaching? Brother, we must see God work, that's why. And these men fasted and prayed together. Well, wasn't the Lord good? The Holy Ghost said to me up, and one of the youngs of Scotland, Jimmy, you go to Russia. Wasn't that wonderful? And oh brother, I came into it. When I arrived there, the revival broke out. I was revanished, the revival, if God used me, but I was just the Irishman brought in to gather the harvest. Why did revival come to Latvia? Because they called everything to a halt. You know, it takes courage to call everything to a halt. Say, we're stopping this class and this class and this class and this class and this class. Let's get down to business. Let's get some, let's get set to our hearts and see what's the matter. Why we're not being used for the salvation of souls? Why God is not working? And why God is not moving? So I say that it is a sweeping revival. We call everything to a halt. And then when we call everything to a halt, and we get into God's presence, and we begin to see, oh God, searchers, oh God, what is wrong? Things begin to happen. Now, when we gather to seek God's face, there can be nothing superficial. It has to be genuine. It has to be real. You know, we read there in verse 13, And rend your heart and not your garments. Don't be hypocritical. Don't be insincere. Come clean with God. Come clean with your pastor. Come clean with your brother and sister. Don't rend your heart, not your garments. Don't have anything so superficial. Have no pretense. Don't rend your garment when you ought to rend your heart. You see, they put on sackcloth. You see in my book there, the General's Daughter, General Booth Elder's Daughter, I tell a story about Mrs. Booth-Cliburn, they're in Brussels, when she was again the Worker of the Salvation Army in that country. The Holy Ghost said to her, put on sackcloth and ashes, and go to the meeting tonight in sackcloth and ashes. So that's what they did in the Old Testament. And they rent their garments, you see, in penitence, as a sure evidence of penitence. But the people were doing that, but they weren't repenting in their hearts. What's the use of tearing up the outward garment, if there's nothing tearing up inside you? Don't rend your garment. Rend your heart. Come clean through with God. Let it be a sweeping revival. Let everything that's of the devil, and everything that's of the world, that's just blasting your Christian experience, let it be swept completely out of your life. Let everything that's not of God in your home, if it's possible, swept completely out of your life. I think one of Mrs. Stuart's finest messages, and she has many, is when she talks about Gideon destroying the altar, but destroying the veil and that statue, and the gods there that belong to his father. That took courage. There's many things sometimes in a home that we can't touch at all, because we don't have the authority. Maybe the mother's not saved. Maybe the wife is not saved. Maybe the husband's not saved. Maybe father's not saved. And maybe we're in such a situation, we can't clear the devil out of the home. But let us do what we can do, brothers and sisters. Is there anything in our life that's not pleasing to God? Is there anything in our business that's not pleasing to God? You know, we had a dear friend in Europe, and we love to tell this story. I've never told it publicly, but somehow I've got to tell you this story. Never told it publicly before. A dear brother came to me weeping in Europe and said, James, I want you to pray for me. I'm going to make a very, very bold stand. I'm going to call the newspapers in the city and tell them that I'm not going to make these machines for cigarettes and pipe tobacco anymore. I've read in a magazine that it's injurious to the health and cause cancer, heart trouble, and different things. And then God is convicted of being sure of me that I've got the ability to have it. He said, I've never smoked myself. I don't smoke myself. But my machines have got to do something with tobacco. And we said to him, calling them by his first name, because we've known him for years. And what does this mean? It means, he says, I can lose thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. And it means, he said, that there'll be an upcry. There'll be a cry all over the city because I employ so many people in my factory. And you know, the trade union fought him. The television laughed and mocked and scoffed at him and his country. And he's made a fool, a laughing stock for Christ. But with his tears in his eyes, he said, I'm going to keep clean. I'm going to do what the Holy Ghost told me to do. So that I become a bankrupt. Now, it's not easy to see your business that you've built up all your life, an elderly man, see it go down, down, down, down. And even other Christians saying, you're stupid, you're a fool. You don't need to be so fanatical. And then one day, we got a marvelous letter. In the letter, dear James and Ruth, hallelujah, glory be to God. God at last has answered my prayer. I wondered why God tested me so much. And he wanted to see if I was real in my commitment. And then he wanted the unconverted people of my country to know that I was real in my Christian witness, that I was willing to lose all my business, everything and become a bankrupt for Christ. But now he says, God has blessed us so marvelously. He says, not only have my business been restored, but he says, I'll have to build a new factory and employ maybe another hundred new workers. And he said, I cannot keep fulfilling the orders that come from all over the world. Isn't that wonderful? Now, where do you get business, Christian businessmen like that today? Can you tell me, some just appear to lose a hundred dollars. This man was losing maybe a hundred thousand dollars in a few months time alone, but he was standing like a rock for Christ. Now friend, I don't know. I'm searching my own life, my own family, my own life. I'm not so much interested in you as I am in myself. I don't want to be a stumbling block. You read last night in Isaiah, take away the stumbling stones, the stumbling block. Oh, it would be a terrible thing if somebody went to hell because they stumbled over us. They say, these sham, these hypocrites. Wouldn't it be a terrible thing? It'd be a terrible thing for young good believers, weaker brothers and sisters to stumble over us because we were a bad person. Say, well, she does it, he does it, and they didn't say for you. And you know that young converts often come to me, young people, teenagers, just say, and they say to me, why is it, Dr. Stewart, that the older believers are so cold? I said, listen, young children, they once were on fire like you, bubbling over the newfound love, but as they grew older, they grew colder. What a shame. Surely the more we know the Lord, the more we ought to love him. We ought to go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper. And so, as I said, revival doesn't begin with singing and laughter. It begins with weeping. And I'll tell you why. I mentioned the experience last night about Jacob. He came to hear him, you remember. And when he awoke from his sleep, he said, oh, he said, this is a holy flame. This is a holy flame. Surely the Lord is in this flame. And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this flame. And he said, it's nothing else than the house of God and the very gates of heaven to me. But he said, it's a dreadful place. Now, you remember Nehemiah in chapter 9, I think it's verse 8 says, the great and terrible God. And Daniel says in Daniel 9 and 4, the great terrible God. And friend, revival is always a dreadful place. And the way we were meeting for revival becomes a dreadful place becomes a place of welcome, a place of weeping. We are aware of the awful sense of the majesty and the holiness of God that were broken down before him. And we render heart. And we cease to be hypocrites and we stop trending our garments and just showing an outward confession of our sins. We make a real genuine repentance and restitution. And we break down before him and say, oh God, this is a dreadful place. Thou art a great and terrible God. Oh God, have mercy on me. I brought dishonor to thy name. I brought dishonor to thy name. Lord, I've broken thy heart. Oh, I've broken the heart of my Redeemer. I've grieved the Holy Ghost. I've quenched the Holy Ghost. Oh God, I've been a bad witness. I've been so cold. I don't even pray, Lord. I don't know how to pray. And I have no power. I contribute nothing to the spiritual power of my church. Oh God. I don't even witness to the unsaved around me. I don't care whether they go to heaven or hell. And they're my next door neighbors and I work with them. Lord, I don't have a passion for souls. I don't weep for souls. I don't weep for the salvation of lost souls in the central Baptist church. Oh God, have mercy on me. A sweeping revival. And then I must close. Because it's a weeping revival and a sweeping revival, it finishes up with a reaping revival. Isn't that beautiful? A reaping revival. Listen to this. I've read this for years and years. In fact, I'd always like to read it every day. Verse 18, chapter 2 of Joel. If you want a tonic, if you want some spiritual vitamins, read these verses. Joel chapter 2, verse 18. Then the Lord will be jealous for his land and pity his people. Yea, the Lord will answer. He will answer. And say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn and wine and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith, and I will no more make your reproach among the heathen. Verse 21, for brevity. Fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring. For the tree beareth her fruit. The fig tree and the vine do yield the fruit. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God. Here's the reaping. For he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cast it come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. And the floor shall be full of wheat, and the fat shall overflow with wine. And I will restore to you the years of the locust of Eden, the canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palm of worms, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God. But I have dwelt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed. But oh, let me finish with just one verse more, and you ought to mark it in your Bible if you don't know this delightful verse. It's the last verse of the book of Amos chapter 9. And it's verse 13, a reaping revival. Amos 9 verse 13. And as you know, Amos lines right there just before, behind Joel. Amos, Joel, Obadiah. And we read in Obadiah there, or rather Joel, in Amos chapter 9 verse 13. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper. And the treader of grapes, him that sows seed. And the mountain shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. Read it again. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him that sows the seed. Isn't that wonderful? What does that mean spiritually? It means that you just preach the gospel, and you have a mighty and gathering of souls. Then you preach again. And before you can hardly finish preaching, there's another mighty and gathering of souls. And when you're taking care of these young converts, suddenly there's another mighty move in the Holy Ghost, and you have another whole lot of young converts in your hand. That's a reaping revival. And that's the side effect of revival. The side effect of revival. Automatically sinners are saved. Automatic. Convictors of sin. Sinners are saved automatically. But God's people have revived. And the reason why we see so few souls saved is because we do not have revival. But when revival comes to you, my brother, my sister, revival comes to me, then automatically we're going to see sinners crying out, Oh God, be merciful to the sinners. And after we lead them to Christ and baptize them, and we're going to start crying a bit, why, we have to get with another mighty and gathering. Yes, they get saved and they baptize them, and then they go out and win souls. And it's just a reaping, reaping, reaping all the time. I would just like to expound and preach to you this verse, but I better not, I better finish. That's a reaping revival. Can we pray? It's only about a quarter to nine, and I wonder, could we do what we did last night, have a little time of prayer? You know, our life in America, as you know, and I'm not complaining or criticizing in any way, we have to face facts. Our life in America is difficult, it's complex. We are working so hard, rising so early, going to bed so late, and so, so long distance to the drive, to church or to place of business, and it's so possible tired and weary, and just too fatigued to pray maybe. And maybe we didn't, you didn't have much time today to pray. Now here we have a beautiful building here, this auditorium, beautiful building, with beautiful heating, lighting, everything we have, and the holy quietness to pray. Now tonight, our underground church in Russia will be praying in the snow, in the ice, in the forest tonight. Can you imagine? Maybe 300 strong, meeting on the center of death to pray. And yet here we are tonight in Memphis, in this beautiful building, we're warm, we're clothed, and we're right here among us, without any danger. Let's spend the next few minutes just talking to God. Rend your heart and not your garments. Oh, God's glory is at stake. God's glory is at stake. Just one after the other. Short, cry to God. Tell God what's in your heart. Oh, gracious God and our loving heavenly Father, we thank you thou art saviors by thy grace and call us into a holy fellowship with thee in a walk of holiness like enough. And we thank you we are partners together with thee in worldwide evangelization. The evangelization of Memphis and Tennessee and also to the outermost part of the earth. Oh, God, send us revival. Oh, Lord, send revival to me, to my family, to my missionaries, to my mission field. Oh, God, give a real passion revival to every brother and every sister in our assembly tonight. For Christ's sake, I pray. Amen.