Riots Revivals and Scars

I've noticed when I study historical revivals, I see a common denominator in many of them. I see riots, revival, and I see scars. Allow me to explain, friends.

When a George Whitfield or a John Wesley came to town, there were riots. Charles Wesley recorded in his journal, Today, my brother John was attacked by a mob and dragged through town by his hair for preaching the gospel. George Whitfield, while preaching in Ireland, was attacked by an angry mob who stoned him, almost killing him.

Years later, while in America, he was introduced to a minister from Ireland. Whitfield bowed, and removing his beaver cap, he pointed to a Lord's scar on his forehead, to which he replied, This, sir, is a wound I received in your country for preaching Christ. When evangelists like Sam Jones and Mordecai Ham came to town, they transformed the very life of the town with the gospel.

Saloons were closed, crime decreased, and thousands were converted. In one town, when Mordecai Ham set up a meeting hall in the red-light district, all the brothels had to close their doors, because the girls had been converted in the meetings. Sam Jones could hold the attention of eight thousand people at a time, for a month at a time.

In the cities he labored, and many saloons would go out of business for lack of customers, but there was a price to be paid. One day, Sam Jones was standing at a train depot, when a man approached him, asking if he was Sam Jones. He replied, That is my given name.

The man took his cane, and began to beat Sam Jones violently about the face. And when I visited Sam Jones's home in Cordesville, Georgia, I saw a poster of him, advertising one of his meetings, and on it, at the bottom, an enemy had scrawled in big letters, Hang Him. Mordecai Ham would face riots in towns, as he fought the liquor trade.

Once, he was pistol-whipped. Then, on another occasion, he was attacked by a man with a whip in the lobby of a hotel. He was run over by a car, and almost killed with a skull fracture.

And in a small town in Texas, a mob of angry men broke into one of his meetings, kidnapping Ham, and dragging him down the railroad tracks. And they were carrying a bucket of tar, a bag of feathers, and a rope to hang him. The mayor saved his life by calling in the cavalry to rescue Ham.

I see, friends, and all these men greatly used a God that each of them had to pay a personal price. They endured hot persecution on the battlefront for the Lord. When the Apostle Paul came to town, mob riots ensued.

But amidst all the persecution, he managed to plant churches all over Asia Minor, to the glory of God. Listen, friends, to the Apostle Paul's laundry list of scars for preaching the gospel. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths soft, of the Jews five times, received I forty stripes, save one.

Thrice I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck.

A night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides these things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Listen, friends, what counts costs, and what costs counts.

Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.