In this sermon, the speaker recounts a story of a young man named Gowry who bravely saved a wounded comrade in the face of enemy fire. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a sense of purpose and conviction in life, particularly in the context of saving souls. He questions why so few young men are willing to engage in mission work and proclaim the riches of Christ. The speaker urges listeners to recognize that God has a plan and purpose for every person's life and encourages them to have a vision for revival and a deep concern for the desperate needs of the country.

Now it leads one to ask this question, what is the Church really prepared to do about it? Here were the lepers who did come. Now I want to be perfectly personal and direct. I believe that there are many within these walls who are conscious of the desperate need of the land today. And they will subscribe to the conviction that revival is the only answer, that a manifestation of God is the only answer to the problem. That is your conviction. Well, that was the conviction of the lepers. If we stay here, we die. We'll do something about it. In other words, we'll take a risk. And in the economy of grace, blessed be God, there are no risks. They did something about it. Now tell me, what are we really prepared to do about it? Let's face ourselves with unqualified honesty. Let us stand in the full blaze of the searching beam of God. I'm talking about revival. I'm interested in revival. I'm aware of the desperate situation. What am I doing about it? I wonder if I may ask one question. How much time did you spend today in prayer? That God might visit the land, that God might come in revival power and in revival blessing. Measure your sincerity and your honesty, yes, your Christian experience, by that. I have said frequently recently that it is my deep-seated conviction that much that grows under the name of church activity, and I say this as a Presbyterian minister, is just a laughingstock of devils. We are not sincere. We are not sincere. We don't act according to what appears to be our convictions. If I really was concerned, if I really viewed the situation as heaven must do it today, why every moment at my disposal would be spent in pleading the promises of God? That's Christianity. That's God in the soul. That's the life force of Jesus making itself manifest through my mortal flesh. But my dear people, are we there? Are we there? Or you may say what a dear lady said about my preaching some little time ago. I was asked to address a conference of women outside of London. Never an easy conference to address. However, I was there for a week, the only male among them. After one sermon or address, the lady, a titled lady, the wife of a lord, she was heard to say a very interesting address, a very interesting address. But we must not forget that the dear man was born and brought up among the hills of Scotland and he hath a theology of his own. No. This is the word, and I believe the message, that the church of Jesus Christ stands in need of in this desperate hour that the church of God will face reality and will face sincerity. He that doeth truth, or in other words, he that is truthful, will come. Notice further, that there is here also a consciousness of obligation. We do not well. This is a day of glad tidings. Of course it is. A day when God wills to outpour his Spirit. If my people, called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my faith, then I in heaven will hear and will come, I'm quoting from the Gaelic, and will come and heal the land. That's the God that we worship. That's the God that we believe in. My dear people, this is the day of grace. This is the hour of Pentecostal reality. I've said repeatedly recently, if Pentecost cannot be repeated, if recitations such as has witnessed by the early church following Pentecost cannot be repeated, then we are living in a day when the Word of God holds no pattern or precedent. But we are living in that day. We are living in the day of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit that hath been outpoured. And women, so in the hand and so possessed, that they will recognize that this is indeed an hour of glad tidings. We have a message. We have an answer to the problems that confront the church, yes, and the world today, that God is forgotten. That is an arresting passage in the prophecy of Isaiah. Your sins and your iniquities have sent God into hiding. What sin? What iniquity? The sin and the iniquity of his people. And I am told to say again that there is only one thing that hinders revival in Canada today, and that is the sin of God's people. Revival doesn't begin among the ungodly, of course it doesn't. It begins among the people of God, God is my people, called by my name. If they would do something, oh, here were lepers, and they did something about it, and because they did something about it, the situation was saved. Oh, let me say again, the man whose eyes to see is today gazing upon ominous shadows of slander world that is ripening for repentance or judgment. Repentance! Oh, that the word may ring through the Christian church. Repentance! Repentance is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of sin and a pretension of the mercy of God doth with grief and hatred turn for me. Be my people, turn for me, and seek my faith. Oh, let me repeat it, words that are pregnant with meaning. I in heaven will listen. But why is he not listening? Why is he not listening? Why is he not coming down? Why is the land not healed? Because the church is asleep regardless of the multitude that are perishing as represented by Samaria here. A famine, a desperate situation. There is one thing above another that the church of Jesus Christ needs today. It is surely, oh, it is surely a sense, a gripping sense of an engrossing purpose. Why is the church in existence? Why was it called into being? Surely to propagate the message of the gospel. Surely to honor God in the midst of men. I wonder how many of us believe that the character of God is committed to his people. Committed to his people. Committed to his church. When they fail, he fails in the eyes of the average man of the world. Oh, tell me, dear people, are we truly representing God? Are we showing a concern? Are we gripped by fundamental convictions that unless a man is born again he will be doomed and damned forever? My dear people, how many of us believe in hell? I am glad you are going to discuss it. How many of us believe it? It seems to me that few in the Christian church today really believe in the doom of the damned. Could we sleep if we did? Could we rest if we did? Would the prayer meeting be so empty? And listen, you do not judge the life vitality of any congregation by what you see on Sunday morning. Of course you don't. That is not the evidence of spirituality. You go to a prayer meeting on Wednesday or Thursday. That's the evidence. That's the evidence. That's the measure of your impact. That's the measure of your interest in revival. That's the measure of your vision relative to the desperate need of the country. That's the measure. Oh, let's face it this morning. Let's face it with honesty and sincerity. Listen to the words of Scripture I send thee to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. My dear people, this is the conviction. Oh, this is the conviction that gives purpose and gives direction to the true child of God. I read somewhere, I think it was from Boston's Fourfold State, that great book that comes down to us from the Puritan period. This is what Boston said. No man is born into the world whose work is not born with it. Suggesting that God has a plan. Young folk, are you listening? That God has a plan and that God has a purpose. Why is it that so few young men today are offering for a mission work? Why is it that so few young men are willing to go out to the villages and the country districts of Canada to proclaim the unsearchable riches of the cause they know or a heaven-given direction? They are not aware of the fact that God has a plan and that God has a purpose. But every man's life is a plan of God. No, I'm not prepared to depart. Let the multitudes go to hell. My ambition. My security. My stated salary. God help us. God help us. Is that the spirit of a Christian? Is that the spirit of a man who is willing to face the implications of... No. The cry of his heart is take the world but give me Jesus so that the day will come when through my sacrificial giving of myself I shall come before him with jewels that will sparkle as diamonds in the coronet of his eternal glory. And there because there came an hour in my experience when I faced reality stood before the implications of Calvary and cried, I am going through Jesus. I am going through. I will pay the price whatever others do. I will go the way of the world because despite a few I started out Jesus. I'm going through. I was in a room one day. A young woman came into the room and she knelt at the couch beside me. She was weeping bitterly. Weeping bitterly. And she cried, Mr. Campbell, I'm in my Gethsemane. I'm in my Gethsemane. What was it? She was engaged to a young minister. A young minister that certainly will make his name in the church. He had asked her hand in marriage. One night she's kneeling in prayer in her own room. She couldn't tell me whether she fell asleep or fell into a trance. She couldn't. But she heard the wail of the damned. The wail of the masses. Of the masses in Congo. In Congo. And that night in her Gethsemane she said no to the hand of her king. And gripped the hand of the man of Calvary. Since then that young girl has been instrumental in leading hundreds to... He's waiting for Congo to open to her. Back there the moment the door opens the many others out waiting. Why do I tell you that story? Was it easy? Was it easy to put that hand aside with all that it meant and all that it promised? God may not ask you to... ask you to face the implications of Calvary. Oh, we're so unwilling to face the cross. We want an easy path. Was the path of the Master easy? I often think of him there in that struggle in the wilderness. The enemy comes to him. The kingdoms of the world demonstrate your power. Throw yourself down. Turn the stones into bread and the world will follow you. And I sometimes wonder if Jesus at that moment was a force for us. And then he looked down toward Gethsemane and he saw the bitter cup. He lifted his eyes and he saw Calvary with it. But I venture to say that his eyes rose higher and he saw a city but half foundations whose builder and maker is God. He saw the redeemed hosts. He listened to their singing, their singing the songs of Moses and of the Lamb. And he knew that if he failed in that hour that song would never be sung. Get thee behind me, Satan! And he set his face steadfastly to go to making possible the good tidings. I lay beside at least a few yards from a Highlander, a young man of the 42nd Highlander at the Battle of Passchendaele. He is wounded, badly wounded. He is doing his best to stem the flow. Indeed I saw him tear his shirt to try and bandage the wound. But as he works at this wounded arm he's looking across that bloody field. And there in front of him he saw a young man with the tartan of the 42nd Highlander, the black watch. I heard him say, Boys, I'm sure that's Chock-Fla-Flair-Gowrie. I'm sure that's Chock-Fla-Fla-Flair-Gowrie. And then as I watched that wounded comrade out there, I saw a hand being lifted, a soul beckoning for help, a beckoning for someone to give him a drink. And then I saw this young man springing to his feet and in face of the enemy's fire cry, That's Chock-Fla-Flair-Gowrie And I'll save him or die in the attempt. And he saved him. He saved him. Oh, for that spirit. Oh, for that character. Oh, for that sense of purpose and conviction. I'll save them. Take the barrel, but give me Jesus. Take ambition and security. Oh, take it. Take it. Take it all. But let me be instrumental in saving souls that will stop. This is a day of glad tidings. And we hope of peace. The cry. Oh, the cry of being silent. Am I speaking to criminals today? Am I speaking to criminals in face of the need, in face of the desperate situation, silent? Oh, may God forgive. I'm sure some of you must have heard of the great Dr. Thomas Chalmers, the leader of the disruption from the Church of Scotland in 1843 when the great free Church of Scotland came into being but became the great missionary church of our beloved land. This movement was led by Thomas Chalmers. They left their mansions because they refused to bow to the establishment or partners. They came right out. Hundreds of them founded the church. Dr. Chalmers is visiting the northeast of Scotland in the interest of the church and on this occasion is staying in one of our country hotels in that part of our land. After supper, the proprietor came to the doctor and said, Dr. Chalmers, will you lead us in worship? It was their custom, of course, as it is the custom there to have worship after supper even in hotels. He was asked to take the book as it is commonly referred to and while reading the chapter he was suddenly gripped by the conviction that he should speak to the proprietor about his soul. The proprietor was a God-fearing man. He wasn't a Christian but he was a man who read the Bible and insisted upon family worship every evening. Something said to Thomas Chalmers, now speak to the man. They went on their knees and Chalmers prayed and as he prayed, he was convinced. But another voice spoke and the other voice said, and the staff are very busy including the proprietor himself. Just wait for a more opportune moment. You'll be back again in the near future and you can take time to talk to him there. Now this is in Chalmers' diary. He went to his room and retired to rest, sleeping until about midnight when a disturbance in the hotel woke him. He couldn't understand it. But on coming down to breakfast, he was told that the proprietor had died. Dr. Chalmers tells us that he went back to his room, couldn't think of breakfast, buried his head in the pillow and cried, It was, my God, an opportune moment. It was. This is a day of glad tidings. Oh, are we missing the opportunity that is ours? I believe that God is calling for men, especially young men, who will get into the battle. With this battle cry, I'll save them or die in the attempt. I'm sure that was the thought in the mind. When he penned the words, Give me men to match my mountains. Give me men to match my plains. Men with empires in their purpose. Men with eras in their brains. Give me men to plead for nations like Elijah on his knees who in hours of death-like stillness waits to catch that heavenly breeze. Give me men of faith and vision stripped of every earthly gain to let cross our parched valleys. Dark will roll God's throne. Oh, give us. Give us. And unto all generations wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? It was suggested to me that I should tell you a little this evening of the gracious movement of God's Holy Spirit that began in the northwest of Scotland in December of 49 and continued for over three years. The movement known as the Hebridean Revival. Now let me say right at the beginning that that revival did not begin by my going to Lourdes. It agreed with me again and again that we are reference made to him as the man that brought revival to Lourdes. Now I don't carry revival with me in my pocket. Revival began in Hebrides before I ever set foot on the island. And tonight I'm going to tell you how that gracious movement began. It began in a prayer burden. And that prayer burden came to two elderly women living in a little cottage in the parish of Barber on the island of Lourdes. Two sisters, one 82 and the other 84 years of age. They were led to the Lord 60 years ago through one of our workers laboring then on the island of Lourdes by the name of Miller who for many years was a director in the African inland mission and is still closely associated with it. They, one evening, were led to Joseph and God in prayer. They had been burdened for quite a while because of the stream stream of genuine vital Christianity being running so low in the parish. It was a fact that hardly a young person attended a public worship. It's true that they led their wives, led family worship in their homes that seldom darkened the door of a church. And this was very disturbing to the two sisters and also to the minister and his office there. They had special efforts. Special evangelists were brought to the parish. Missions were conducted over the years. But that forever and ever became with a sense of baffling and frustration. This particular night, while the two sisters waited upon God in prayer, a vision came to one of them. Now strange things happen in revival. Things that you cannot explain on the basis of the human. A vision came to one of the sisters. She couldn't tell me whether she had fallen asleep on her knees and the vision came to her then or whether she fell into a trance during the prayer period and the vision came then to her. She couldn't be sure about that. But this is the vision that she had. She saw the church of her father crowded with young people. She saw a strange minister in the pulpit and through that vision she was convinced that God was speaking to her and revealing that revival was going to visit not only their parish but the whole of the Western Isles. She sent for the minister and told the minister her story and suggested to him that he and his audience there should get themselves to waiting upon God in prayer. Wait, she said, upon God until God reveals why revival is not coming to the parish. The minister, a wise man, listened to the word and thought that he and women are real prophets. He called his audience there together and it was decided on the suggestion of one of his sisters that two nights a week should be spent waiting upon God in prayer. They would meal in the little cottage at Vargas Cross Road and the minister and his audience there at the other end of the parish on Tuesday and Friday night. Oh, they gave themselves to waiting upon God in prayer. Week passed, month passed and nothing happened. The churches were as empty, the young people of the parish are indifferent, the drinking houses closed, prisons of entertainment are closed, but very little thought of God until one night, miracle, miracle, a young man in the group of Orvis Vera stood up and read from Psalm 24, Who shall ascend the hill of God? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn to foolishness shall receive these lessons of the Lord, not just our blessing. There are a great many people and they're after our blessing. You may be here this evening and you're after our blessing. But here were men, at least one young man, seeking the blessing of the Lord. He looked down at the minister and the other Orvis Vera. They're kneeling among straw in a barn. And in very crude language they addressed him. They don't appear so crude in the Gaelic language. It's a little softer than your English. He said this, It seems to me just so much to come back. To me pain is real pain. To be waiting as we are waiting is we ourselves are not rightly related to God. He lifted up his arms toward the heavens and cried, God, are my hands clean? Is my heart sure? That young man looked no further with his prayer. He knelt and then a strange thing happened. Something that strikes at the minister that has never been before. This young man fell into a trance. Now as I frequently say, please do not come to me after this evening and ask me questions about the physical manifestations of this moment. Because I cannot answer your questions. I could not understand the physical manifestations. But of this I am certain God was in there. When that young man fell into this trance a power was let loose in the parish. That shook the hebrides. Though I wasn't there, there was no public information of any meetings to be held in any of the churches. But on the following day the churches were crowded. Crowded by whom? Crowded by men and women seeking after God. The miracle had happened. God had taken the field. This is not a special effort. This is not a crusade. This is not an evangelistic campaign organized and sponsored by men and by churches. This is God getting into the field. The God of miracles and the God of revival. On the following day the minister called on the two sisters. And they knew that something had happened just to at that particular hour when this was happening in the barn they were strangely moved by a threat in the village of the Holy Ghost. 82 and 84 years ago who was the strange minister that we saw in the pulpit asked Vanessa. The minister replied Sure, I cannot tell you. But a certain minister from Glasgow had suggested that we invite a certain man. I had just been on the phone with this minister in Glasgow and he referred to a man who saw a gracious movement in the city of Glasgow some little time ago. Well, I happened to be that man. This is something, dear people, that I just cannot understand. Why God is merciful to have so directed that I should be called to visit the island of Lourdes at that particular time. But I was glad that the college had prepared to release me for ten days. It was agreed that I should go to a parish revival for ten days to conduct the summons. Yes, they told me on the phone that there was a movement that the churches were crowded with people but as yet nothing had broken out that would favour or revive it other than an interest was created among the people for the house of God. Well, I found myself on the pier in Stornow met by the minister and two of his office bearers. Just as I stepped off the gangway one of the office bearers came over to me and said might I ask you a question before you go any further. Are you walking with God? This is one of the men that prayed in the barn. This was one of the men to whom God had spoken. And he was afraid about the ark of God in the parish. Are you walking with God? And I was glad that I was able to say to him well I fear God energy. If I had time I would have told you of the gracious experience that I had in my own study when God in his mercy met with me after seventeen years of frustration and baffling as a minister tired of it all at the end of my service at the end of all human resource being so very little accomplished then God stepped into my life. He didn't come to me with a clue for this service and tell me that there's nothing in this course about the baptism of the Holy Ghost. My dear people, to me it's the most real thing. God comes down and God gives a session until the body so trembles that one with a slave, a human slave could not contain God. Well, that is what happened to me and did not realize Gatian and consciousness. I went to Louis lined up with the peers and the ministers talking to me that we're sure you're tired Mr. Campbell and possibly hungry well there's a supper waiting for you at the man but we wonder if you will address a meeting in the parish church at nine o'clock tonight just on our way to the man it will be a short meeting we just want the people to know that you've come and that you're the minister to us for ten days. Well, it would interest you to know that I never got that supper and that instead of meeting on the island for ten days I was there for almost four years. We went to the church a congregation of approximately three hundred had gathered it was a good meeting there was a gracious sense of God I preached for about an hour and a half you see, in the whole entirety we believed in Lord Sermon I mustn't forget that I'm in Canada tonight and less late before midnight when I gave the address to the minister of plans for benediction the congregation in the church and I'm walking down the aisle with this poor young man who fell into a trance in the bowels walking towards the door of the church when he screamed and looking up towards the heavens he cried God, you did not kill him could you say that, sir? could I say ah, here was a man nearer to God than the man who stood in the church here was a man who knew the secret of eternal God, you made a promise and I believe that you're a covenant-keeping God that must be true to your covenant engagement and I'm looking to you now to fulfill your promise to pour water on the cross and blood upon the dry ground with pain and continued pain for half an hour and then I saw the door of the church open and the session clock of the church coming in Mr. Campbell come to the door and see what happened see what happened his eyes were surely closed there must be anything between six and seven hundred standing outside a crowd of young people that were at a concert and dance in the village hall are outside here and many of them are crying to God for help open the church again open the church again and let them in and the church was opened again and this congregation got in, crowded the church in every corner, pulpit, steps, aisles in the pulpit itself so that I had difficulty in getting to the pulpit when I got there I found a young woman, a schoolteacher a graduate of Aberdeen University lying flat on her face in the pulpit and asking is there nothing for us in our blessed need she was one of the partners in the concert last night but now on her face crying to God for help that meeting continued until four o'clock in the morning that's why I didn't get my text four o'clock, I'm leaving the church a young man comes to me a God-fearing young man, but not a Christian as I have said again and again you can be God-fearing and not be a Christian there are thousands of God-fearing people in the highlands of Scotland who are not Christians they've been told and that's entirely right they've been told that they're not Christians oh there's a difference let me say that you could gather all the natural goodness in the world into one grand whole and you wouldn't have that which would constitute one Christian experience natural goodness is not a Christian experience a Christian is one who knows the experience of the Holy Ghost bringing the personality of God to be incorporated into his personality and suddenly discovering that Heaven has invaded us all and is supernatural this young man was a good living fellow he came to me and said Mr. Campbell there's something wonderful happening in the party there's a call of the people at the police station there must be anything between three and four hundred I don't know where they've come from other than that a bus is here from another party and we can't understand it we are all in the police station and some are weeping and some are moaning by the roadside and some are crying to God for mercy we cannot understand it why did they go to the police station? it's always possible there's a God-fearing man next to the police station the cobbler where the two elderly citizens live was that the magnetic power that drew them to the police station I cannot say that they were there so I went along and saw a sight that gladdened my heart young men old men middle-aged men and women grieved by God moved by the Holy Ghost that convicts of sin of righteousness and of judgment there there on their faces men cried to God for mercy for interest to the Lord that seven of the young men who were saved that night are parish ministers today Amen.