When Sun Breaks the Darkness

J.C. Rowell said of George Whitefield, The plain truth is that the Church of England of that day was not ready for a man like Whitefield. The Church was too much asleep to understand him and was vexed at a man who would not keep still and let the devil alone. Well, it's true, friends, and it's important to our understanding of revival to know the season preceding a revival.

Often the darkest chapters in Church history are soon followed by glorious visitations from above. Such was the case in the days of Wesleyan Whitefield. Sir William Blackstone, the eminent jurist, remarked that he had visited all the London churches, and he heard not one discourse which had more Christianity in it than the writings of Cicero.

In the days of Wesleyan Whitefield it was a time of unconverted ministry, and the greatest curse of the age was drunkenness. The established church was the owner or held investments in many of the breweries and distilleries, and most of the clergy were addicted to the drink habit, and many drank to excess. Drunkenness in London was so prevalent at this time that every sixth house was a gin house, and the Prime Minister and members of Parliament often came to work dead drunk.

This was the dark background before John Wesley and George Whitefield appeared in the nighttime sky like blazing comets. When things often look the bleakest in society, as it spins into moral chaos, and when the churches are fast asleep on pillows of conformity and compromise, then God can raise up a man to spearhead revival, and this will be a time when the sun breaks the darkness. We live in a day of spiritual decline in the church and moral decline in society.

Things are so bad, gross evil struts around in broad daylight, and an immoral cesspool spills out over the land. You'd be hard-pressed, friend, in our present climate, to find a pastor who speaks against sin and warns about hell, and who preaches man's duty of repentance and his necessity of regeneration. The words of Jonathan Edwards are true in our day.

Edwards observed, We see that God is faithful and never will forget the promises that he has made to his church, and that he will not suffer the smoking flax to be quenched, even when the floods seem to be overwhelming it, but will revive the flame again, even in the darkest times. And it's true, friends. When things are the bleakest before the dawn, we should pray with the psalmist, This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob.

When the sun breaks the darkness, then revival will come. Heaven will open, and the plentiful effusions of grace will burst the darkened sky with a ray of glorious sunshine. The very times in which we live should be enough proof to drive us to our knees in prayer and cry out to almighty God to turn and revive us once again.