In this sermon transcript, the speaker recounts a powerful experience where young people were crying out to God for mercy. As they sang Psalm 50, one young man fell to the floor and began pleading for mercy, leading others to join him. The conviction was so strong that the hall quickly emptied as people sought God's forgiveness. The speaker also shares another experience where a man prayed fervently for God to pour out His Spirit, leading to a powerful encounter with God and the manifestation of the Bible breaking out. The transcript concludes with a story of a crowd of people gathering at a police station, moved by God's presence and seeking His mercy.

Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. Each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers of the Christian faith and powerful sermons from modern preachers too. This week we have Duncan Campbell with his message, When God Stepped Down from Heaven. Now before I begin the story I would like to say one thing and that is that I did not bring Revival to Louis. It has grieved my heart again and again to read articles about the man that brought Revival to Louis. Notices on church boards, come and hear the man that brought Revival to Louis. My dear people, it's not true. I don't carry Revival about with me in my pocket. Revival broke out in Louis sometime before I went to the island. I thank God for the privilege of being in its midst for over three years. I went at the invitation of one parish minister for 10 days but God kept me there for three years. Now I'm thankful to God for the privilege of perhaps in some small way leading that movement and teaching the young converts in the deep things of God. Now having said that I want to read you a few lines from this little book, The Louis Awakening. It will give you an idea of the desperate state of this island prior to this gracious movement. The presbytery of Louis met to consider the terrible drift away from the ordinances of the church. Especially the drift away from the church by the young people of the island. Now here are words from a declaration that was read in all the congregations. The presbytery affectionately plead with their people especially with the youth of the church to take these matters to heart and to make serious inquiry as to what must be the end should there be no repentance. My dear people take that to heart. Should there be no repentance and they call upon every individual as before God to examine his or her life in the light of that responsibility which pertains to us all. That happily in the divine mercy we may be visited with the spirit of repentance and may turn again unto the Lord whom we have so grieved with our iniquities and waverness. Especially would they warn their young people of the devil's man traps the cinema and the public house. That was a declaration by the presbytery read in on all the congregations and published in the local press. Now you might ask me what do you mean by revival? There are a great many views held by people today as to what revival is. So you hear men say are you going out to the revival meetings? We're having a revival crusade and so on. There is a world of difference between a crusade or a special effort in the field of evangelism. My dear people that is not revival. As I already said from this platform I thank God for every soul brought to Christ through our special efforts. This season of blessing at our conferences and at our conventions we praise God for such movements. But is it not true that such movements do not as a general rule touch the community? The community remains more or less the same and the masses go past us to hell. In revival the community suddenly becomes conscious of the movings of God beginning among his own people. So that in a matter of hours not days in a matter of hours churches become crowded. No intimation of any special meeting but something happening that moves men and women to the house of God. And you'll find within hours scores of men and women crying to God for mercy before them at near a church. You've read the history of revivals. The Jonathan Edward revival in America that was what happened. The Welsh revival that is what happened. And the more recent Lewis revival that is what happened. When God stepped down men and women all over the parish were gripped by the fear of God. This to me is an interesting story and I want to tell it in full. Eighty-four years of age and blind. Ask me to explain this vision because I cannot. But strange things happen when God begins to move. And this dear old lady in the vision saw the church of our fathers crowded with young people young people and she saw a strange minister in the pulpit. Impressed by this revelation because a revelation it was she sent for the minister. The parish minister was a God-fearing man. A man not long to see God working. Oh he had tried ever so many things to get the youth of the parish interested but not one single teenager attended the church. It was a situation. Well what of this dear old lady to say for Mr. Mackay that you're longing to see God working. His bearers together and suggest to them that you spend two nights a week waiting upon God in prayer. You've tried missions. You've tried special evangelists. Mr. Mackay have you tried God? Wonderful old woman. Oh he meet to your aid and said yes I'll call the session together and I will suggest that we meet on Tuesday night and Friday night and we'll spend the whole night in prayer. I told you dear people here were men that meant business. The dear old lady said well if you do that my sister and I will get on our knees at 10 o'clock on Tuesday 10 o'clock on Friday and we'll wait on our knees till four o'clock in the morning. I tell you this puts us to shame. So they went to prayer and I want to mention that they had but one promise from God and that promise they pledged. I will pour water on him that his thirsty floods upon the dry ground. That's God's promise and in their prayers according to the minister they would say again and again God you're a covenant keeping God and you must be true to your covenant engagements. The praying and the meetings continued for several months until one night a very remarkable thing happened. They're kneeling among straw in the barn the barn of a farmhouse when suddenly one young man rose and read part of psalm 24. Then the hill of God who shall stand in his holy place he that hath clean hands and a pure heart to have not lifted up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing of the Lord and he studied his Bible and then looking down at the minister and at the other men who were kneeling there he said these rather crude words not so crude in Gaelic but this is what he said. Brethren it seems to me just so much humbug to be praying as we are praying to be waiting as we are waiting if we ourselves are not rightly related to God. Oh my dear brethren let's take that to heart. He began to pray God are my hand and that dear man no father. He fell and then on his face among the straw in a matter of minutes three of the elders fell into a trance. Now please don't come to me at the end of this meeting and ask me what did I really mean by men falling into a trance. I cannot answer that question. I know is this that when that happened in the barn now it happened in the Jonathan Edward revival remember that not peculiar by any means to Lewis it happened in America it happened in the 59 revival in Wales not the 1900 revival but the 59 revival but this I can see the moment that that happened in the barn a power was let loose in Barbers that shook the whole of Lewis I say shook Lewis. The spirit began to move among the people and the minister writing about what happened in the following morning said this you met God on Meadow and Moorland. You met him in the homes of the people. God seemed to be everywhere. What was that revival revival not an evangelist not a special effort not anything at all organized on the basis of human endeavor but an awareness of God that gripped the whole community so much so that work strong what was happening that people were meeting in groups young men would gather in a field and begin to talk about this strange consciousness of God that had gripped the community. In a matter of days I received a letter inviting me to the island. I was at that time in the midst of a very gracious moment on the island of Skye. It wasn't revival but men and women were coming to Christ and God was glorified in the number of prominent men who found the Savior at that time but it wasn't revival. I imagine that in Canada or in America they would refer to it as a big revival but it was definitely a move of God. So I received this invitation to come to Lewis for 10 days and I wrote back to say that it wasn't possible for me to do that because I was involved in a holiday convention on this island and the speakers were arranged and accommodation in the different hotels for the people that were coming from all over Britain. I cannot take time to tell you how that convention had to be canceled largely because the tourist board took the hotels over my head for a special Skye week that they were going to have so I had to cancel everything. However the minister received the letter and he went to the old lady with him and read the letter to her and this is what she said, Mr. Mackay that is what man is saying but God has said something else and he'll be here within a fortnight and I told you the convention wasn't canceled then but she knew. Oh my dear people listen the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and she knew God's secret. When I was on the island within 10 days I just spent 10 days among the people. I was met at the pier by the minister and two of his of his bearers. Just as I stepped off the boat an old elder came over to me and faced me with this question, Mr. Campbell may I ask you this question, are you walking with God? Oh here were men who meant business. Men were afraid that a strange hand would touch the ark. Are you walking with God? Well I was glad to be able to say well I think I can say this that I fear God. The dear man looked at me and said well if you fear God that will do and then the minister turned and said we're sure Mr. Campbell that you're tired and you must be longing for your supper and supper will be ready for you in the manse but I wonder if you would address a meeting in the parish church just on the way to the manse to to show yourself to the people. There'll be a fair congregation I'm not seeing a great number but oh anything between two and three hundred I expect. You see there's a movement among us well it will interest you dear people to know that I never got that supper because I didn't arrive at the manse until 20 minutes past five in the morning. I went to the church now this is the interesting bit because it deals with the outbreak of God in supernatural power the God of miracle revealing himself in revival. I preached in the church to a congregation of about 300 and I would say a good meeting a wonderful sense of God something that I hadn't known since the 1921 movement in Middergyle but nothing really happened and I pronounced the benediction and I'm walking down the aisle when this young man came to me and said nothing has broken out tonight but God is hovering over us he's hovering over us and he'll break through any moment well I must be perfectly honest I didn't feel anything but you see he was a man much nearer to God than I was oh he knew the secrets we're moving down the aisle and the congregation is moving out they're all out now except this man and myself he lifted his two hands and started to pray God you made a promise to pour water on the thrusty and lands upon the dry ground and you're not doing it and he prayed prayed and prayed again until he fell again onto the floor in a trance he's lying there I'm standing beside him for about five minutes and then the door of the church opened and the session clerk came in Mr. Campbell something wonderful has happened revival has broken out will you come to the door and see the crowd that's here 11 o'clock Matthew 11 o'clock and I went to the door and there must have been a congregation of between six and seven hundred people gathered around the church this dear man stood at the door and suggested that we might sing a psalm we give out psalm 102 when Sion's bondage God turned back us men that dreamed were we then filled with laughter was our mouth our tongue with melody and they sang and they sang and they sang and in the midst of it I could hear the cry of the penitent I could hear men cry into God for mercy and I turned to the elder and said I think we had better open the doors again and let them in and within a matter of minutes the church was crowded at a quarter to 12. Now where did the people come from how did they know that a meeting was in progress in the church well I cannot tell you but I know this that from village and hamlet the people came were you to ask some of them today what was it that moved you they couldn't tell you only that they were known by a power that they could not explain and the power was such as to give them to understand and see that they were healthy serving sinners and of course the only place they could think of where they might find help was at the church and here they were between six and seven hundred there was a dance in progress that night in the parish and while this young man was praying in the aisle the power of God moved into back dance and the young people over a hundred of them fled from the dance as though fleeing from a plague and they made for the church and I endeavored to get up into the pulpit I found the way blocked with young people who had been at the dance when I went into the pulpit I found a young woman a graduate of Aberdeen university who was at the dance and she's lying on the floor of the pulpit crying is there mercy for me is there mercy for me is there mercy for me God was at work and Peggy's vision now actual and real a church crowded with young people as well as old well that meeting continued until four o'clock in the morning as I was leading the church a young man came to me oh he's not a christian but he's a God-fearing young man and told me this story Mr. Campbell there must be anything between two and three hundred people at the police station they're gathered there and some are on their knees now I can't understand this now he wasn't in the church you see but here a crowd of men and women from a neighboring village five and six miles away were so moved by God that they found themselves moving to the police station because the constable there was a God-fearing and well-saved man and just next to the door Peggy's caught it they were there and this young man begged of me to go along to the police station and I went along and I shall never never forget what my ears heard and my eyes saw that morning young men were kneeling by the roadside I think just now with a group of half a dozen one of them under the entrance of drink and his old mother kneeling beside him and saying oh Willie Willie are you coming at last Willie Willie are you coming at last and Willie today is the parish minister of Oogie from the group of young men who sought the Lord that night there are nine in the ministry today God moved my dear people that's revival that's God at work and I'm excited to see him passing that is the crying need of the Christian church in Canada today but not this effort and not effort on the basis of human endeavor but a manifestation of God that moves sinners to cry for mercy before they go near a place of worship my dear people that was how it began then that was how it began and then it left over the bounds of the parish at the neighboring parishes we are now addressing meetings through the day we're addressing meetings right through the night I can remember once within 24 hours addressing eight meetings crowded churches five times twice out in a field once down at the shore where men had come across a lot there old men and they were so moved that night so many of them found a savior that we followed them to the shore and there we sang the songs of Zion at two o'clock in the morning before they left for their homes oh my dear people that's God at work that's God at work that's revival I remember one night a man coming to me and saying would it be possible for you to visit our parish well I said it all depends on when I could visit the parish I think it would be possible for me to go if you could have me between one at two o'clock in the morning so it was decided that I should go at one o'clock half past one I arrived there to find a large church one of the large churches in Lewis crowded to capacity with us many outside and I spoke there for an hour and then left the church with hundreds crying to God I say hundreds crying to God for mercy I left the church and another young man came to me and said Mr. Campbell there must be between three and five hundred people on a field down here and they're wondering the elders there are wondering if you could come down and address them and I went down and I found this crowd oh it was easy to address them because the Spirit of God was hovering over us the Spirit of God moving and I see a man lying on the ground oh he's in distress of soul in terrible distress then four young girls I would say about 16 years of age they came over and they knelt beside him and I hear one of them saying listen the Jesus that saved us last night can save you now and that man was saved as the four young lassies prayed around him my dear people that's revival but I think I ought to tell you a rather amusing incident we weren't uh in favor with all there was a certain section of the Christian church that bitterly opposed me oh I was a mad Armenian and I was teaching strange doctrine when I was proclaiming that the baptism of the Holy Ghost was a definite subsequent experience to conversion now my dear people I believe that may cross your path but there it is I want to say this in passing that I believe it was because the people of Lewis grasped that truth that we can say today we know practically nothing of backsliding from that gracious movement of years ago it is because they entered into the fullness because of that a stream of men and women going out into full-time service well we're singing at this meeting when I saw the door of a cottage opening and I saw an old woman coming out with a black shawl on her and she walked over and she got a hold of one of the elders a tall man a strong man a heavy man and she said to him I wish you people would go home and let people sleep I can still see that dear man going over to her and taking her by the shoulders and shaking her and saying woman get away home you've been asleep loud enough but from that meeting I went back back to Barber and when we arrived at the manse the minister was with me we found an elder waiting us to say that a farmer was in great distress of soul now this man hadn't been near a church for 12 years he just lived for his cattle and horses he lived for the earth but he had a godly wife and a godly daughter and they were concerned about him he invited me prior to this incident to the farm and I spoke to the old man and he said oh well I may turn up at the church sometime a day or two after that he was seen walking down the road to the church and one of the elders said that he thought the suit he had on was the suit that he married it wasn't certainly a mother-in-law he went to the church at any and the church was so crowded that he had to sit on the pulpit steps just quite near to me and God spoke to him oh he was in a fearful state crying and repeating God hell is too good for me hell is too good for me oh but we could see conviction there is one thing that I've been crying for after this conference that conviction of sin that'll get men and women prostrate in the presence of God oh give it to us give it to us but that night after being at this field meeting I along with the elder and the minister went to the farm we found every room in the farmhouse was people praying oh they were praying for the farmer they were afraid that he would go mental so I said to the wife where is Donald oh he's down in the room there he's in a terrible state oh that God may have mercy on the mighty sinner oh she was speaking truth may God have mercy on the mighty sinner so we went down the passage and she gently opened the door and there's a farmer on his knees and again he kept repeating God can you have mercy on me can you have mercy on me I seem to feel that hell is too good for me and there he is we're standing at the door he's quite unconscious of us being there and then the wife spoke now you needn't laugh at this I'm just stating a fact the wife spoke and this is what she said there's the mightiest sinner and may he take his tummy full of it oh that wasn't the word she used may he take his tummy full of it what does she mean oh she was crying to God that God would so shake him out and thin that his experience of God would be real let him stew in his conviction in the words of Mary Morris let them stew in their conviction leave them there oh how often I heard her say that during the U.S. revival leave them there that God deal with them know that I sometimes feel dear people that we take things out of the hand of God by your counsel oh that we might get to the place where with implicit confidence in God we leave the work to him the following night he asked for a meeting in the house in the morning God met with him in a glorious deliverance and he asked for a prayer meeting do you know that out of that prayer meeting there are four ministers in the church today Donald McLeod's prayer meeting well now I could go on talking to you about incidents and how it began but I think I ought to mention one of one or two of the supreme features of the movement first of all of course it was the awareness of God that to me was the outstanding thing this sense of God the fear of God in the parish and in the neighboring parishes you could speak to any person and you would find them thinking about God and crying for mercy now that is a fact that cannot be disputed God was everywhere and because of this awareness of God the churches were crowded crowded through the day right on through the night to five and six o'clock in the morning in revival time does not exist you see the presence of God puts to flight progress and how often I've cried to God to so move in our midst that the program will go on the present take the place well that was not happen but perhaps one of the main and outstanding features was this deep deep conviction of saving now I can't explain this you would have to be there to see but here are two incidents that dear old lady came to me one day and she said I feel led to ask you to go to this particular part of this parish there are mighty sinners there that need salvation well I said to her you know I have no leadings to go there there are men there that are bitterly opposing me and I don't suppose I could get any place to hold a meeting and she looked at me and said this Mr. Campbell if you were living as near to God as you ought to be he would reveal his secrets to you also and I took that as a rebuke and I went back to the manse and I said to the minister I think we ought to spend the morning with old Peggy and wait upon God with her in the room so she agreed and she and her sister knelt with her in their little room and that dear woman began to pray and I can give you her prayer Lord you remember the conversation we had this morning at two o'clock and you told me you were going to visit this part of the parish with revival and I've just spoken to Mr. Campbell about it but he's not prepared to think of it you better give him wisdom because the man badly needs it well that was what the dear woman said and when we rose from our knees I said to her well Peggy now where do you wish me to go and where is the meeting to be held oh you go and God will provide the congregation and the meeting place well Peggy I'll go oh you better you better and I went on the following evening and there must have been a congregation of anything between three and four hundred gathered around this bungalow a seven room bungalow and the bungalow was so packed and so many young people anxious to be in that the man of the house who wasn't a Christian but a God-fearing man suggested that they should get into the bench in rows of threes take off their shoes and pack themselves like Harry now that was what they did rows of threes on their knees in the different beds not one of them could tell you but moved by a sovereign God they were there I spoke for about 10 minutes when one of the elders came to me and said Mr. Campbell will you come round to the end of the house some of the leading men in the village are crying to God for mercy and if you go there we'll go to the peat sack over here when you see those women crying to God underneath I went round to the end of the house and there they were the men that old Peggy saw that would become pillars in the church of our fathers and today those men are pillars in the church my dear people that's the revival that I believe in but in the midst of those crying to God for mercy there were two pipers I think most of you know that I was a piper and playing the bagpipes at a concert and dance when God met with me and spoke to me and saved me miracle working God well two of them are there now those two pipers were advertised to play at a concert and dance in a neighboring parish and the minister of that parish was there he was a man who spoke to me and said go to the end of the house and he and his wife were looking at the two pipers oh they're there crying to God for mercy he turned to his wife and he said look here we'll go back to the parish and we'll go to the dance and we'll tell them where what is happening in Barber so off we went 50 miles arrived when the dance was in progress went to the door and was met by the son of a schoolmaster what are you wanting here Mr. McLennan oh I've just come to the dance oh but we know you haven't come to the dance to to dance but as parish minister he claimed the right and went in they're dancing then there was a lull he stepped onto the floor young men young women I've an interesting story to tell you the smith pipers aren't with you they're not with you they're crying to God for mercy in Barber a stillness oh the stillness of eternity and quoting the words of the minister came over the dance and then he said young folk listen I would like you to sing a psalm with me and I think we ought to sing psalm 50 where God is depicted as a flame of fire they began to sing he's leading it himself when they came to the second verse suddenly there was a cry the young man fell on the floor and began to cry to God for mercy in five minutes the hall was empty and they're now in three buses coaches that brought young people from other parishes and they're in the coaches on their knees crying to God for mercy and listen the young man who fell on his knees that night was inducted to a parish church just before I came across to Canada that's God at work the spirit of God so moved the conviction was so terrible that we could only leave them there I suppose you've read about the most remarkable movement the acts of the apostles repeated again it's in the village of Arna a young girl who was with you here for several years and came to us last year she was up there just now and she was over at the house that shook when the elder prayed now that was what happened about midnight situation was difficult again bitter opposition bitter opposition he's teaching error so it went on but at midday midnight this man got up to pray and I still recall his words God do you know that your honor is at stake do you know that they made a promise that they're not fulfilling now there are five ministers here along with Mr. Campbell I don't know where any of them stand not even Mr. Campbell but if I know anything at all about my own poor heart I think I can say that I'm thirsty I'm thirsting for a manifestation of your power and then about a quarter to two in the morning he stood up and said this God on the basis of your promise to pour water on the thirsty I now take it upon myself to challenge you to fulfill your covenant engagement and when that man said that the foremost supplically an elder or rather a minister said to me I said yes but I in my own thoughts and when John Smith stopped praying I pronounced the benediction and went out of the church to find the whole community alive the whole community alive opposition had fled and the gracious movement broke out but he's spoken of in Scotland today at the Arno revival one of the mighty movements in the midst of this gracious visitation you know that the drinking house was closed that night and it's never been open since never been open since the men who used to drink there and spend the evening fair are now praying in our prayer meetings and one of them is a minister in southern Arabia Donald McPhail well I could go on but that was how the movement began conviction distress of soul 14 young men standing at a hall discussing the amount of beer that was to be brought to the parish for a dance on Friday suddenly one of them turns to the others and says boys let us increase the amount I believe that this is the last time that beer is going to come to this party another young man said Angus are you suggesting that the revival is going to come to this godless parish I cannot say what is going to happen of what is going to come but something is happening to me that was all that he said but listen dear people 14 young men fell on their knees in front of the public hall and were there for over an hour and all of them saved and 11 of them are office bearers in that church today and that is one community after that gracious movement when you couldn't find a single unsaved soul in the parish or in that party my dear people did your good folk understand what revival means have you a conception of what it means to see god working the god of miracle sovereign supernatural moving in the midst of men and hundreds swept into the kingdom oh that we might see it that we might see it now my time is gone but you ask now what are the fruits of it you've already said that you know nothing about backsliding now that is true I could counter my five fingers all who dropped off from the prayer meeting you see in louis and in the highlands generally they would no more believe that you were a christian than they would believe that the devil was a christian if you don't attend the prayer and i agree with me i certainly agree with me when a soul is born again suddenly there is created a hunger to be among the praying people of god and the prayer meetings become crowded you couldn't find a parish in louis today that hasn't five prayer meetings local press stated in the midst of the movement there are more people attending the prayer meetings now than attended public worship on a communion sunday now that's true well that is one of the outstanding features relative to the fruit that remains and from those prayer meetings now get a hold of this from those prayer meetings a movement has began now that is sweeping through louis where is it among whom among the teenagers among young men and young women that some time ago would be making their way to town to the picture or to the dance or to the drinking houses in the town but today in their scores now i'm not seeing its revival not in the sense that we witnessed it some years ago but in parishes tonight you will find perhaps half a dozen prayer meetings in progress they were in the church and from the church they go for a bite of supper and then to houses here and there to wait upon god till two o'clock in the morning and in those prayer meetings young people young men and women teenagers and others are coming savingly to christ your miss bengal was among them recently and she has a story to tell perhaps when she comes back to prairie she'll tell you all about it not easy if we let her go uh i think i said to mr maxwell if you can give us half a dozen other miss bangles we'll welcome them with open arms in the work of the mission in pagan england but in paris well it may drop a seat somewhere but that is true the movement continues and perhaps another feature relative to the fruits is a number of men and women that have gone forth into full-time service in the ministry and in the foreign fields you've been listening to from the pulpit classic sermon series this week you heard duncan campbell with his message when god stepped down from heaven tune in next week to hear jay glenoa talk about it is the last hour i'm from the pulpit classic sermons