This sermon shares a personal testimony of a profound spiritual awakening during a time of revival in the Hebrides Islands. It describes the deep impact of the preaching, prayers, and presence of God during this revival, leading to a transformative experience of salvation and a newfound love for God's people. The speaker recounts the intense conviction of sin, the overwhelming sense of God's presence, and the joy and assurance that came with surrendering to Christ amidst the revival atmosphere.

Well, it's good to be with you. We're still getting accustomed to being in America instead of being in Scotland. I feel as if I've gone back in time. Just a little bit five hours, isn't it? And then we're getting used to your accent. And I'm going to inflict you with mine this evening. Now, Colin, in the morning, he quoted John 3, 16 in Zulu and in Afrikaans. Would you like to hear it in my language? It's not broad Scots. Now, see if you can understand any of it. In this language, I want to tell you that if you want to learn a language, you have to understand it. Hands up, those who understood that. Well, you did look intelligent. Well, that's the language that I grew up with in the Hebrides. That's the language that I speak still to my people there. And I went to school to learn English, so I'm inflicting you with my English this evening. Now, the pastor suggested that maybe I should sing first of all, and I was a little bit reticent about singing without music until I heard Paula this morning. Now, if she can do it, I'll try to do it too. Traditionally, this is the way we sing in the Hebrides, in Gaelic, not in English. Because this song that I'm going to sing to you has a bearing on what I'm going to say this evening. So listen carefully to the words. Oh, how well I remember in the old-fashioned days When some old-fashioned people had some old-fashioned ways In the old-fashioned meetings as they tarried there In the old-fashioned manner how God answered their prayer T'was an old-fashioned meeting in an old-fashioned place Where some old-fashioned people had some old-fashioned grace As an old-fashioned sinner I began to pray And God heard me and saved me in the old-fashioned way There was singing, such singing of those old-fashioned days There was power, such power in those old-fashioned prayers An old-fashioned conviction made the sinner pray And the Lord heard and saved him in the old-fashioned way Well, they say it is better things have changed, don't you know And the people in general seem to think it is so And they call me old-fashioned when I dare to say That I like it far better in the old-fashioned way If the Lord never changes us, the fashions of men If he's always the same, why, he is old-fashioned then As an old-fashioned sinner saved through old-time grace Oh, I'm sure he will take me to an old-fashioned place T'was an old-fashioned meeting in an old-fashioned place Where some old-fashioned people had some old-fashioned grace As an old-fashioned sinner I began to pray And God heard me and saved me in the old-fashioned way I'm going to read to you now from Psalm 126 It's a well-known psalm, it only has six verses in it When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion We were like them that dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter And our tongue with singing Then said they among the heathen The Lord hath done great things for them The Lord hath done great things for us Whereof we are glad Turn again, our captivity, Lord As the streams in the south They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth Bearing precious seed Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing Bringing his sheaves with him Just a word of prayer Our Father, we pray that thou will still our hearts in thy presence And we pray, Heavenly Father, that the anointing of thy Spirit Might be upon us this evening Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire Let us thine influence prove Source of the old prophetic fire Fountain of light and love Come, Holy Ghost, for moved by thee The prophets wrote and spoke Unlock the truth Thyself the key Unseal the sacred book In Jesus' name Amen As has been said I was born and brought up In the Hebridean Islands I hope you've got your geography right And that you know exactly where that is You know where Great Britain is And if you take the most north-westerly point of Scotland It is called Cape Wrath Well named And forty miles into the sea west of that Is a string of islands And the topmost island is called the Island of Lewis And two miles from the lighthouse At the very top of the Island of Lewis I was born and brought up In a fishing village I want to give you a little bit of background In as far as the church is concerned Was concerned there I was accustomed to Being on family worship In the morning Not only in our own home But in the home of Friends Whom I called on in the morning And my grandparents And it was the normal thing In every home in the village As far as I know To have family worship That doesn't mean that all the people In the village were Christians But they had promised In the church to bring up their children In the nurture and fear And admonition of the Lord And they felt that this was Part and partial Of the fulfilment of that promise That they had made in public And so my unconverted parents And other unconverted parents In the village Felt it was right To read the word of God To their family And to pray The prayer was always the same Amongst the unconverted They probably had learned it From their parents and so on So we were well versed In the scripture I can't say that I listened very carefully To the reading of the word In our home I used to count the tax The protectors in my father's shoes When he knelt there To say the prayer I wasn't at all attentive To what was happening It was just part of life And then in the day school In the curriculum of the day school We started the day with the Lord's prayer And then we went on To Bible stories And then we Were drilled In the Presbyterian Shorter Catechism And as a child I used to come home struggling to learn Repentance is a saving grace Whereby a sinner Out of a true sense of his sin And apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ Doth with grief and hatred Turn from it to God With full purpose of and endeavour After new obedience That's a mouthful for a child, isn't it? And then The hymn book of the church was The Psalms The metrical version of the Psalms As we sing them in Scotland So we had to learn them in school And most days We came home from primary school We came home to learn Another verse of a Psalm So you can see we were Well versed in the scripture We knew the Ten Commandments We could recite them off by heart We knew Isaiah 53 In two languages We could recite them off by heart And Isaiah 55 And the Beatitudes And Corinthians 13 And so on So you could find Unconverted people Who could quote the scripture Now the reason I'm telling you that Is because when the spirit of God Fell upon the island There was fuel there to burn The people knew The word of God They weren't strangers to it Something else That will be of interest to you Is the fact that there were those Among the people of God Who were still dissatisfied And who were craving and longing For a movement of the spirit of God In the islands And before that time It was about every ten years There was an outpouring of the spirit of God In 1939 There was an outpouring of the spirit of God Greater than in 1949 And so there were people Who had lived through not only one revival But two revivals It's a healthy sign When a child or an adult Is hungry And the people of God were hungry I was on the mainland of Scotland When the revival broke out And I wasn't particularly Interested in church I only went once To Sunday school And the elder prayed too long a prayer for me And I didn't go back again So that's a little word Of warning to the elder from the deacons Or whoever But I was on the mainland When the revival broke out And my immediate reaction was I'm not going back to Lewis Until this revival Is over They were religious enough already And I don't want to become involved I had my own life I had my own ambitions I used to sing at the Gaelic concerts And so on And my world was full of pleasure And it didn't include the church I saw nothing in it Oh I knew that there were people Who were converted I knew there were children of God And I believed that they were children of God And I believed furthermore That I was going to hell But there were so many people Going to hell with me That it didn't concern me too much That was my attitude Okay if God would come At some time or other In my life and save me Well that was his business But as far as I was concerned I had no desire For the things of God A phone call Changed all that A phone call to say that my parents Were ill and I must come immediately To Lewis I came concerned about them They were soon better And they were soon going to church With the others And it seemed that the whole conversation Of the village Revolved around what was happening In these meetings And I hated it I didn't want to have anything to do with it I felt inwardly disturbed When they started to talk about meetings And started to talk about conversions And people who had been drunkards Who were now praying in the prayer meeting I I resisted and I resented Talking Because basically I was afraid Now the Bible says The sinners in Zion Are afraid Fearfulness encompasses The hypocrite So there I was afraid of the supernatural Afraid that God would Come to my life That God would speak to me Because that was an area that was foreign to me And I didn't want to have anything to do With the things of God I hoped that maybe at the end of life I might be saved But not now I had too much on My parents were strict And one night they found me out And they said they weren't going to the meeting Unless I would go too And I went in a rage And you know where folk like Me would sit in a meeting Like that Right at the back As far back as I could in the church The church was packed Now I want to give you a little insight Into what was happening The church was crowded The atmosphere was Indescribable One sensed as one came in The drive towards the church A silence already falling upon The people And as they went into the church itself They moved Slowly into their pews And they sat And sometimes before the service Began at all The tears were flowing And for a person who was unconverted To be in such a situation Was not a very comfortable Thing But as I listened to the singing Of the psalms And that was all they did sing The psalms They were singing the word of God And they were singing As if their hearts would burst And the singing sent shivers Down my spine I felt I was being as it were Hounded into a corner And when the preacher Got up The late Duncan Campbell I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt That this man was in earnest He stormed up and down Sometimes down the pulpit steps And The perspiration rolled Down his face He didn't preach a soft gospel Though the wicked join hand in hand They shall not go unpunished The wicked shall be turned Into hell And all nations that forget God Hell was made real to us And sin Was made a reality And our condition Out of Christ Was such As ought to make us fear And we did fear Well I went home that evening In a daze after that meeting And as I entered the door My father said well Mary How did you enjoy that I said I didn't enjoy it at all No that was true I didn't enjoy it But I wanted him to know That I found no delight at all In what happened In that meeting But strangely the following night I was there again They didn't have to ask me to go anymore Because of the Drawing that I didn't know That was what it was at the time You know there's a word that says And you know it well The son of man Has come to seek And to save That which is lost And I was lost And the son of God was seeking me Although I didn't know it I went again and again And again It seemed In a way that I was going against my will But my feet were taking me there Even though It meant a walk of Two and a half miles Sometimes In wintry weather But we walked And we went And everywhere around us He didn't need to go to church To sense what was going on When the spirit of God Is out poured Why it seemed as if God was everywhere I listened at the door Of my father's bedroom And I could hear That hardened sailor Crying out aloud The prayer of the public And oh God be merciful to me A sinner One night in the meeting I kept my eye on my mother And I thought well if this New birth business If this conversion Doesn't come to our home It won't be so bad I can put up with it It's in the lives of others But there's something that I can't resist And this night as I looked at my mother I saw her taking out her handkerchief And the tears coursed down her cheeks And I thought Oh my What are we going to say to mother tonight And our house Was very quiet that night We moved around As if we were moving in a dream Nobody wanted to talk You know sometimes That awareness of the presence of God Comes to us in church It was in our homes It was there It was in the neighborhood I walked the street And it seemed as if A record was going around in my mind Walking the village street Oh everyone that thirsteth Come ye to the waters And he that hath no money Come ye buy and eat Yea come buy wine and milk Without money and without price Wherefore do you spend money For that which is not bread And your labor for that which satisfies not Hearken diligently unto me And eat ye that which is good And let your soul Delight itself in fatness Incline your ear and come unto me Here and your soul shall live And so it would go on To the end of the chapter Then who hath believed Our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed I shall grow up before him As a tender plant and as a root Out of a dry ground He hath no form nor comeliness And when we shall see him There is no beauty that we should desire And he is despised and rejected of men A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Are we hid as it were our faces from He is despised and we esteem him not And so it went on And on to the end of the chapter And there was I An ungodly young girl Who had no interest in church I was in my teens And I'm walking the street And the word of God is pounding Through my consciousness Then it came again I remember the word of God coming to me Walking along a dust road From another village But off thy shoes from off thy feet For the place whereon thou standest Is holy ground And instinctively I stepped off the road On to the verge And I felt I shouldn't be there either And I went back and I felt I shouldn't be there either I felt I didn't belong I had no right to trample God's creation It was a case of where every prospect Pleaseth and only man is vile I went out with dad in the boat Looked down into the depth Of the sea Watching the fish as they swum And all I could think of was God made them God did it This is God's creation God is everywhere I wish I could transport you Back in time To these services To sense that solemnity Of eternity You know what's wrong with us today In our services is there's no awareness Of eternity No awareness of eternity And may I say sometimes There is no relationship in our Christianity To eternity It's all in time And it's all what will benefit me And it's all to do with me And with other people But it's divorced From eternity But it seemed as if At that time Eternity was Sonya And the prayers of the people of God Can you imagine an elder Standing up to pray With his hands uplifted to God And praying for the young people Of the community The tears Coursing down his cheeks And I'm sitting as a teenager Holding on to my seat With the fear of God in my heart Seeing myself as he described us On the slippery paths of darkness Slipping down Slipping down Slipping down to an endless hell It is a fearful thing To fall into the hands of the living God In the midst of revival One is so concerned about oneself That one doesn't observe Very much Of what is happening in other people's lives But one night I observed it And I saw What it meant to be saved I saw what happened When Christ saved a life For the first time I went to one of the cottage meetings That happened after the services In the church were over And these cottage meetings Went on into the night I've come home at six o'clock in the morning From these cottage meetings People didn't want to part The one from the other And the presence of God was so wonderful But so So fearful to others And so fearful to me And this particular night They made some kind of appeal For those who were exercised About their souls That they should come to a room That was cleared for that purpose And the preacher would pray with them I thought it's another meeting In my ignorance I thought It's another meeting And I want to go to meetings now I want to You see the drawing power of the Spirit of God The Son of Man has come to seek And to save that which is lost I went into that meeting And I was horrified When I saw that it was just Those who were anxious About their souls who were there Two of my childhood friends Were there Two girls from the village And they sat and wept their hearts out I didn't feel quite like that yet And Duncan Campbell asked the one Are you really in earnest About seeking Christ as your Saviour And I thought Wow, he's going to ask me that What shall I say I can't say to the good man No Then he said well why am I here And I said yes But oh I felt so convicted I felt such a hypocrite But God knew my heart And God knew that in my ignorance I did desire Something I didn't know what And I was now being drawn Irresistibly To the things of God After he had prayed With us and for us I thought well It's wonderful to hear Someone praying for me I've never heard anyone praying for me Personally like this before And my heart responded to it But I felt Duncan Campbell can't save me He can't He can give me all the promises in the book But God must witness In my heart For myself I want something that can't be Explained on a human basis I want God to do it for me And so After he had prayed with us We went out onto the street And that night I saw what God had done To my teenage friends There they were out on the street At two o'clock in the morning Arms linked singing Take the world but give me Jesus All its joys Are but a name But as love abideth ever Through eternal years the same Oh they sang the height And depth of mercy Oh the length and breadth Of love Oh the fullness of redemption Pledge of endless Life above I looked at the faces of these young people I looked at one girl in particular And I saw Something that I desired more than anything In my life I felt you've got Something that I haven't got And I can never be at rest Until I find it Remember the psalmist said Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us And establish thou The work of our hands I saw The beauty of the Lord In the face of that young girl Three o'clock that morning I was on my knees by the old stove In the kitchen praying Oh God And I meant it Be merciful to me the sinner As if there was no other sinner in the world The sinner I didn't feel that anything happened I went up to my bed Don't know whether it was that night Or the following night I wept myself to sleep I was lost, lost, lost And I didn't know how to get saved And I didn't feel that God Was under any obligation to save me Had left him out of my life Had left him out of all my days I had no interest in his house In his people All my days How could I now ask God To give me a ticket to heaven To save my soul The following night I was at the church An hour before the service started There were others too there Oh the hunger In the hearts of men and women And young people after God How they hungered How they longed The preacher preached an hour long every night Nobody looked at the watch Nobody looked at the clock And we felt when he came to the benediction We felt disappointed That he should stop And even the benediction Spoke to our hearts Even the benediction Then off we would go In search of another meeting And another meeting And for three months I struggled and struggled I saw some wonderful sights Some wonderful sights I heard some wonderful prayers Earnest prayers I met some wonderful people The people of God There was no generation gap None whatsoever The young people And the old people Went together There was no consciousness of age How we longed for these old people To tell us more and more We used to go visit a saint Who was ninety years of age And she used to admonish us And instruct us In the word of God We used to read to her And pray with her And There we were In the midst of the people of God But I had no assurance of salvation Not for myself I believed that anybody And everybody else could get saved But there was some kind of Something in me Whereby I couldn't get the assurance Of salvation But one night At the end of my tether On the 24th of August 1950 I was sitting as usual In the prayer meeting And the men were praying One after the other And the minister got up to close In prayer I prayed in my heart Do you know what I said? I said, oh God I love your people I can't explain it But I love your people And I want to be in their In their company And Lord I want to stay in their company For the rest of my life And then send me to hell For that's what I deserve You know the conviction of sin In a season of revival Is too terrible for words Here was I Brought up in a society That was moral Religious And any immorality would have been Frowned upon And yet I felt such a sinner In the sight of God That I couldn't see how He could save me But that night As the minister closed in prayer He quoted A verse that I have already quoted to you Isaiah 53 And verse 5 And suddenly it seemed As if I was transported from that Prayer meeting to a place called Calvary And I was there alone He was wounded For your transgressions He was bruised For your iniquities The justicement of your Peace was upon him And with his stripes You are healed And I felt healed Nobody needed to tell me The spirit of God Through his word Witnessed with my spirit That miracle of miracles I was a child of God I couldn't go to bed that night A crowd of us Walked the shore Singing above the noise of the waves Now none but Christ can satisfy None other name for me There's love and life And lasting joy Lord Jesus found in thee The following day At my loom Weaving Harris's tweet Of which you probably have heard The loom was rattling away And the shuttle flying And the pattern unfolding And I was conscious That God had a pattern For my life I felt I'm not my own I've been bought with a price Calvary was so real Calvary was so fresh Therefore glorify God In your body and in your spirit Which are God's But again the question came But who am I? That all these fine young men Who are being saved in the revival They can go They can go to the ends of the earth They can go into the ministry And so on But they closed the service With the psalm again and again Psalm 45 and verse 10 Heart and O daughter And consider And incline thine ear Forget thine own people And thy father's house And this Thundered in my Inner consciousness And It seemed As if I was being estranged Even from the revival And I would leave my room And go upstairs And I would pray And travel through the whole village Every family, every home Every person And then to the ends of the earth God had opened my eyes I wasn't my own anymore I was bought with a price But the arguments continued We travelled here and there Throughout the island Nothing was a bother No place too far away Sixty miles We would go in an old lorry Clicking on in the back And walking through the snow Two, three miles As the winter came in We would go to the meetings Our hearts aflame We were filled With laughter Our tongue was filled With singing Hymns were being composed All over the place People who were all Deliberate Found themselves Floating in Verse after verse After verse Of spiritual songs Singing Making melody in our hearts To the Lord Glory filled the land And the people of God Were rejoicing They could hardly contain themselves There was so much joy Yet the tears were never far away As the burden Would come upon them For others Someone wrote from London A young girl To her parents Why didn't you tell me About Jesus I would have found him Here in London Somebody else From the island Away at sea Why didn't you tell me About Jesus I would have found him Here in London From the island Away at sea And came To Christ God wasn't Confining To Children Wasn't Confining To describe Some scenes After these meetings Of young people Gathering together I remember one night A crowd of young men Struttled down The island When the Meeting was over And there Were four of them Sitting on a couch With their white Handkerchiefs Spread over their Faces and Faces And sobbed And sobbed In the presence Of God One night A young man Who could Hardly hear The Discussion Of the people At the back of the house In the kitchen Was full of Young people And We In the kitchen Young people Who were In the presence of God There they were repenting of their sins I remember another night Duncan Campbell coming into A room And it was There was a bed in the room And the room Was filled With people There in the Homes The people Sitting on The stairway up And sitting In the rooms upstairs As it was And there Were very young Men Whole Crowd And Their hands In their knees And And What a Beauty