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 BV 3777 .18 W4 1860 
 Weir, John, fl. 1860. 
 The Ulster awakening: its 
 Shelf. origin, progress, and fruit 
 
aVALS. 
 
IRISH REVIVALS. 
 
 THE ULSTER AWAKENING: 
 
 ©rigin, Imgttss, aitif Iriiit. 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTES OF A TOUR OF PERSONAL OBSERVATION 
 
 AND INQUIRY. 
 
 BY THE EEV. JOHN WEIE, D.D., 
 
 MC«STER OF THE PBESBTTERIA^t CHURCH, ISLINGTON, AND AUTHOR OF " ROMANISM : LECTURES 
 
 FOR THE TIMES." 
 
 A PREFACE BY THE HON. AND REY. B. W. NOEL, M.A. 
 
 LONDON : 
 ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE, & CO., 
 
 25 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 1860. 
 
THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS, WITH THEIR KIND PEEMISSION, EESPECTFULLY 
 
 |itstrite!tr 
 
 TO THE BIGHT REVEREND 
 
 THE LORD EISHOP OF DOWN, CONNOR, AND DROMORE, 
 
 HE REVEREND PROFESSOR GIBSON, MODERATOR OF THE 
 GENERAL ASSEMBLY 
 
 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN IRELAND. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The following work upon the Ulster Awakening needs no 
 preface from me^ nor can I pretend to add anything to its 
 worth; but my friend, Dr. Weir, having asked me to 
 write a few lines, I thought it my duty to comply. So 
 great a work of grace ought to be known by its contempo- 
 raries, and to be chronicled for future generations. 
 
 When God displays His power and love by saving 
 multitudes, He calls all the world to examine His work 
 and to adore His goodness. This book is wanted because 
 no connected narrative of these transactions has yet ap- 
 peared : and its author has various qualifications which 
 may recommend it to his readers. He belongs to that 
 Christian body in Ulster, in the congregations of which 
 God has chiefly displayed His grace. He is a native of 
 the province, was for some years the pastor of a church 
 within it, loves its people, feels deep interest in their 
 spiritual progress, is acquainted with many of their minis- 
 ters, has visited the places which have been blessed, and 
 has conversed with numbers who have witnessed the 
 remarkable scenes which he has described. On the other 
 hand, as a minister of Christ in London, he has doubtless, 
 while rejoicing in the happiness of Ulster^ not forgotten 
 the welfare of England. 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 Having myself visited some of these towns in Ulster, 
 where I saw something of this great work, and having 
 read much about it, I rejoice to know that God has 
 '' drawn " some thousands to Jesus, who are now mani- 
 festing, by all the " fruits of the Spirit,^' the reality of 
 their conversion. Converts in every part of Ulster have 
 a simple faith in Jesus, love God for His "unspeakable 
 gift," love the Sa\dour for redeeming and saving them, 
 love each other as brethren, and feel great compassion 
 for the unsaved. They prize the means of grace, flock 
 eagerly to the house of God, industriously use the Sabbath, 
 love the Bible, delight in prayer, abound in praise, dread 
 sin, and do their duty. Thankful, and full of hope, they 
 have entered on the road to heaven ; and are an invaluable 
 addition to the company of Christ's servants, who will, 
 with their ministers, labour to promote the glory of their 
 Master, the triumph of the Gospel, the conversion of the 
 unconverted, and the happiness of all around them. 
 
 May the reading of this book lead many to work and 
 pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon England ; 
 and may God speedily bless our efforts and accomplish 
 our prayers. 
 
 B. W. NOEL. 
 
 36, Westboukne Terkace, 
 Hyde Pauk, W. 
 
THE ULSl^f^Sife^Na 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 THE ORIGIN, EAKLY HISTORY, AND PROGRESS OF THE 
 AWAKENING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 As a native of the province of Ulster, long familiar with its people, 
 and as one who was a minister for thirteen years of that branch of 
 the Church of Scotland, which, more than two centuries ago, was 
 planted among those who settled as colonists in the North of Ireland, 
 I venture to ask the attention, and to claim the confidence, of my 
 readers. I shall endeavour to lay before them the leading facts and 
 features of that Ulster Revival which is still arresting general 
 attention, and which has provoked much severe animadversion on the 
 one hand, as well as elicited hallowed joy and devout thanksgivings 
 on the other. 
 
 I write as a firm believer in the truth of Christianity, and this, 
 both in respect to its great facts, and its distinguishing doctrines. 
 I espouse and hold fast the views common to Evangelical and 
 Protestant Christians ; and while difiering with many of them on 
 questions of church government and discipline, I am emphatically 
 one with them in faith and sympathy, on all points essential to 
 life and salvation. I believe that Christianity, rightly interpreted, 
 teaches first, that man is guilty before God ; and that, in order to 
 deliver him from the everlasting penalties of his sin, there has been 
 provided for him a Saviour, trusting in whose atoning sacrifice and 
 perfect righteousness, a man is *' justified" before God, he is freely 
 forgiven, and he becomes, by adoption and grace, a member of 
 Christ, a child of God, and an heir of the kingdom of heaven. 
 Secondly, I believe that Christianity teaches the entire corruption 
 and moral helplessness of human nature, in consequence of the 
 
2 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 Fall ; and that it also reveals a remedy for this, in a supernatural 
 Agent and agency. In other words, I hold that the Holy Ghost, the 
 third person of the Blessed Trinity, is the '* Lord and Giver of life ;" 
 that He imparts, sustains, and consummates this spiritual life in 
 accordance with the Father's eternal purpose, and through the 
 mediation of Jesus Christ. This Spirit, therefore, quickens those who 
 by nature are " dead in trespasses and sins." and also " creates 
 anew unto good works," those who are "very far gone from original 
 righteousness:" so that thus the sinner saved, is not only "justified 
 by faith," and "has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," 
 but he is also sanctified by "the washing of regeneration and the 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 This Holy Spirit, moreover, I regard, as operating upon the intellect 
 in its spiritual enlightenment; on the conscience in waking it up as a 
 faithful witness and accuser, so as to lead to the conviction of guilt, 
 and of rebellion before God ; and acting also upon the afiections so as 
 to turn them towards Christ (already trusted in), as their magnet 
 and their cynosure, as the one object of the heart's supreme regard. 
 And while I believe that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are most 
 eloquently expressive ordinances, the one, of the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit in cleansing the heart from its filthiness, and the other, of 
 the body and blood of a crucified Saviour, — and while I believe also 
 that these are something more than mere signs, that, to all who be- 
 lievingly receive them, they are also seals of Divine favour, and are 
 thus the pledges and assurances of eternal life, — yet I do earnestly 
 reject that Ritualistic theory, which teaches that ex opere operatu 
 Baptism, administered by priestly hands, is regeneration ; and that 
 the Eucharist is a real sacrifice ojffered on an altar, " impetratory " 
 in its character, and essential to the application of that blood of 
 atonement w-hich was ofiered on Calvary "once for all." 
 
 Finally, I hold that the Holy Spirit is the sole author of a reli- 
 gious Revival, and this by the instrumentality of scjnptural truth. 
 Revelation, I regard as completed, in the Canon of the Old and New 
 Testament Scriptures. I reject all pretensions to new revelations, 
 under the names of Swedenborgianism, Mormonism, " and unwritten 
 tradition ;" and also those mistaken applications of Old Testament 
 prophecies, which have been said, by a very few persons, to find 
 their fulfilment, in the alleged "prophecies," or "visions," and 
 "sleeps" (or " dreams "), of "young men and maidens " in Ulster. 
 Moreover, with regard to cases of physical agitations and persons 
 " struck down," — such as I have myself seen, — while treating of these 
 affections more fully afterwards, 1 wish now to express my convic- 
 tion, that as an eminent philosopher, the Rev. Dr. M'Cosh, regards 
 
 n 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 3 
 
 them, these are but " the physiological accidents " of the Revival in 
 Ulster. He says, " I do not form my belief that it is a genuine work, 
 on the bodily manifestations ;" for " this v^'ould be as contrary to Scrip- 
 ture as to science. Scripture sets no value on 'bodily exercise;' and 
 nowhere points to any bodily effect whatever as a proof or test of the 
 presence of the Spirit of God." And from three weeks' close and con- 
 stant personal observation and inquiries over the greater part of Ulster, 
 lean also heartily, and with a good conscience, accord with Dr. M'Cosh, 
 when lie adds : "Nor have I ever heard any one who takes an en- 
 lightened interest in this work, ever appealing to this evidence." 
 
 By every believer in Divine Revelation, I shall be permitted to 
 speak of the fruits of this Revival as including not only social results 
 and a great moral reformation, but also those spiritual fruits which 
 are indicated by a holy apostle (Gal. v. 22.), and which, if Christ- 
 ianity be a reality, are the primary and essential results of the 
 presence and in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit. I know that many 
 persons speak of "Christian experience" with scorn, and consider the 
 language employed with regard to it, even though it be scriptural, 
 as "conventionalism and cant." But, notwithstanding this, and 
 cheerfully admitting that there is often a use made of scripture 
 terms, which, as Foster indicates, is a stumbling-block to *' men 
 of taste," — yet still it is never to be forgotten that the New- 
 Testament does speak of a Divine and supernatural change as " con- 
 version," as " turning to the Lord," as being " born again," as 
 receiving the gospel, " not in word only, but in power and in the 
 Holy Giiost, and with much assurance " of " love, joy, meekness, 
 gentleness, long-suffering, goodness, faith;" as well as of "joy and 
 peace in believing," of " abounding in hope through the power of 
 the Holy Ghost," and "singing and making melody in our hearts to 
 the Lord," of " praying in the Holy Ghost," of a "life of faith in the 
 Son of God," and of "holiness without which no man shall see the 
 Lord." If, therefore, our tests, when applied in due time, shall bring 
 out illustrations of all these spiritual exercises, and graces, in con- 
 nection with the movement in Ireland, — then we may logically and 
 fairly claim, that without controversy and without scorn, its Divine 
 origin shall be at once admitted by every one, who would not class 
 himself amongst those who virtually reject the inspiration of the 
 Bible, and who treat the language of Christ and his apostles, as 
 well as the recorded experience of the early Church, as the jargaa 
 of imposture, or the ravings of fanatical folly.* 
 
 * " Christian experience may be regarded as genuine — 1st. When it accords 
 with the Revelation of God's mind and will, or what he has revealed in his 
 "Word. Anything contrary to this, however pleasing, cannot be sound, or 
 
 b2 
 
4 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 We do not, then, expect sympathy with our views and feelings 
 from those who adopt and maintain ritualistic and sacramentarian 
 views on the one hand, nor from the sceptic and unbeliever on the 
 other. But from all who are willing that the Ulster Awakening 
 should be tried by what prophets have taught us to expect in the 
 last days, by what began to be realized on the day of Pentecost, 
 we do claim a candid consideration of those facts, and those scrip- 
 tural " fruits," which, in all truthfulness of statement, and honesty 
 of purpose, we shall in subsequent chapters place before them. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Model and Conditions of a Genuine Revival — Pentecost and the Early 
 Church — Periodical Outpourings of the Spirit — Historical Illustrations of 
 Revivals — Bishop Mcllvaiue of Ohio, and the Ulster Awakening. 
 
 Revival, strictly speaking, implies that spiritual life is already 
 possessed. And just as the fading flower, the drooping plant, the 
 parched cereals, by the gentle shower and the gladsome sunshine, 
 are resuscitated into fresh life — so, by the fresh communications of his 
 heavenly grace, the Holy Ghost restores from a languishing con- 
 dition that inner life which he had previously bestowed. But, as 
 commonly understood, Revival means not only the enlargement and 
 advancement of the work of grace in the regenerate, but the 
 impartation, by the quickening Spirit, of a divine life to those 
 hitherto dead in trespasses and sins. 
 
 It was thus that Christianity itself, was ushered in by a mighty 
 outpouring of the Spirit of God, in connection with the preaching of 
 the Gospel, — not by the Gospel without the Spirit, nor by the Spirit 
 •without the Word, nor yet by the gifts of tongues, otherwise as 
 attestations of the divinity of the work, and especially as essential 
 to the universal proclamation of the truth by its appointed heralds. 
 The apostles, and those with them who were already Christ's true 
 disciples, were commanded to tarry at Jerusalem till they should 
 receive "the promise of the Father," and "power from on high." 
 They were taught that, without the promised Spirit, they must 
 
 produced by Divine Agency. 2nd. When its tendency is to promote humility 
 in us; that experience which produces humility iu us, and subdues pride, 
 must be good. 3rd. When it teaches us to bear with others, and to do 
 thein good. 4th. When it operates so as to excite us to be ardent iu our 
 devotion, and sincere in our regard to God. A powerful experience of the 
 Divine favour will lead us to ackuowlcdge the same, aud to manifest our grati- 
 tude by coustaut praise and genuine piety." — Buck's Theological Biclionary 
 hy Hendsrson. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 5 
 
 remain powerless ; but for this, they were encouraged to pray with 
 confidence. Accordingly, we find that in answer to their united 
 prayers the Divine energy was vouchsafed, and when it came, it 
 operated irresistibly and mightily on the hearts of multitudes. 
 
 Thus it was that on the Day of Pentecost, not a few, but a great 
 number, and these, as Bunyan has it, "the biggest sinners" — ** Jeru- 
 salem sinners" — w^ere suddenly brought under the most awful 
 convictions of their guiltiness in having "killed the Prince of life;" 
 and that these men at once, in munbers, earnestly asked as to what 
 must be done, in order to escape the Divine wrath and curse, which 
 tliey felt they had incurred. More than this, when they were in- 
 formed of what they must do to be saved, they joyfully and at once, 
 complied with the terms. They "gladly received the word," which 
 assured them that Jesus, the despised Nazarene, was the long pre- 
 dicted Messiah, was David's Son, and David's Lord ; and that having 
 died and been laid in the tomb, the soul was brought back from the 
 state of separate spirits (Hades) — reunited to the body ere it had 
 "seen corruption" — and that this same Jesus whom they — the house 
 of Israel — had with wicked hands crucified and slain, was now 
 enthroned at the right hand of God, as " both Lord and Christ," was 
 invested with universal supremacy, and exalted to give repentance 
 and remission of sins to all who should believe on his name. 
 
 Thus three thousand, by one sermon, were suddenly " converted," 
 and their sins were immediately " blotted out," because the Spirit 
 accompanied the scriptural testimony borne to Jesus as the Christ, 
 with convincing, illuminating, and quickening power. Thus the 
 New Testament dispensation was ushered in by a Kevival, by a 
 miglity Awakening, by a glorious outburst of spiritual life. 
 
 Here, ihen^ ive have the conditions, and here also the primitive and 
 apostolic type and ?nodel of a genuine Revival. First, on the part of 
 Christ's true disciples, there was the offering up of continued, united, 
 and believing supplications for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, 
 that so God might be glorified, and men in multitudes might be 
 saved. Secondly, there was the simple, earnest preaching of the 
 truth that Jesus was the Christ. Thirdly, this was accompanied by 
 such a divine energy, that multitudes were " pricked to the heart," 
 and embraced the message of salvation with gladness. Fourthly, 
 there was on the part of the three thousand — thus arrested, penitent 
 and believing — an open espousal of the cause of Christ, and an open 
 profession of their faith in, and love to Him, by their being publicly 
 baptized in His name. Fifthly, these converts formed themselves 
 into a visible society, distinguished by firm adhesion to the teaching 
 and society of Christ's apostles, by frequent commemoration of 
 
b THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 the death of Jesus in the Lord's Su])per, by fervent and united 
 prayers, by ardent and self-sacrificing brotherly love, by "singleness 
 of heart," and thorough uprightness of purpose, and by an exulting 
 gladness, which found expression in songs of praise. More than 
 this, a solemn awe fell upon the unconverted around (" fear fell upon 
 every soul"); and in these new-born children of God such a mar- 
 vellous, glorious, convincing and genuine change had been wrought, 
 that they *' had favour with all the people." 
 
 The apostolic age thus inaugurated, was marked, and rendered 
 ever memorable and glorious, by a series of mighty awakenings. 
 Thus, after the first results among the people of Jerusalem, we find, 
 that *' the Lord added daily to the church such as should be saved ;" 
 that "many thousands (Greek, myriads) believed ;" we read also of 
 " multitudes of both men and women," and that " a great company 
 of the priests were obedient to the faith." 
 
 In like manner, when the door of faith was opened to the Gentiles, 
 the life-giving wave swept over every part of the Roman empire. 
 In Rome itself was formed a Church, so prominent in zeal, and so 
 sound in doctrine and knowledge, that its " faith was spoken of 
 throughout the whole world ;" and even in *' Caesar's household" its 
 spirit-taught members were to be found. 
 
 Over Asia Minor the fertilizing flood of truth passed on, and the 
 moral desert rejoiced and blossomed as the rose. At Ephesus, in 
 spite of the persecuting fury of those whose ''craft" was imperilled, 
 and of the blind superstition of a mob, the "great goddess Diana" 
 was abased, and Jesus was exalted. In a word, wherever the Gospel 
 was preached, men " turned from dumb idols to serve the living 
 God, and to wait for his Son from heaven." 
 
 In spite of persecution, nay, by means of it — its angry winds 
 sweeping over the Church's garden, and bearing upon their wings 
 the seeds of holy truth, to deposit them wide and far over new fields, 
 there to germinate and bring forth fresh harvests — the religion of 
 the Cross was for the first three centuries one continued manifes- 
 tation of spiritual life and power. No wonder, then, that as a 
 heathen historian records, the temples of the gods were almost 
 deserted, and that the animals intended for sacrifice could scarcely 
 find a purchaser. It was the victory of the two-edged sword of the 
 Spirit. It was the spiritual world-wide conquest which found jubi- 
 lant utterance in the " Great Heart" of primitive times, who — 
 himself a marvellous trophy of the quickening and transforming 
 grace of the Holy Ghost — like a general addressing his brave cap- 
 tains and companions in arms after a long series of triumphs, ex- 
 claimed, *' Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 7 
 
 triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his know- 
 ledge by us in every place." (2 Cor. ii. 14.) 
 
 Now, both by the analogies of nature, as well as by the peculiar 
 character of the Gospel dispensation, we are warranted to expect 
 that what took place in apostolic times, and in connection with the 
 first successes of Christianity, shall again and again be realized in 
 the history of the Church ; and this by periodic, special, and abun- 
 dant visitations of heavenly intluenee, until Christianity shall become 
 the dominant power in the world. Do we not see the analogy in the 
 kingdom of nature? "If now winter holds fast the earth in its icy 
 fetters, does not spring clothe it with its flowers, summer quicken it 
 with its heats, and autumn crown it with its fruits ? Yes ; and even 
 in winter, when death see7ns to reign, life unseen is all the while still 
 busy ; great powers are at work, with silent, secret energy, preparing 
 for a glorious resurrection and revival." 
 
 The analogy, too, is strengthened by the consideration that it is 
 that same blessed Spirit who revives the Church, and who gives life 
 to the spiritually dead, who also accomplishes the periodical renova- 
 tion of the earth. "Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; 
 and Thou renewest the face of the earth." And so there is more than 
 poetry in the apostrophe — 
 
 " To Him, ye vocal gales, 
 Breathe soft, whose Spirit in your freshness, breathes." 
 
 AVhen, therefore, we can trace the periodic working of the Divine 
 Spirit in one department of his operations, why may it not exist in 
 another ? " The history of the world," also, as has been well said, 
 " a world whose great epochs are divinely determined, and all whose 
 tendencies are guided and overruled for a supremely beneficent issue, 
 indicates periodical onward movement. What rapid starts will 
 science sometimes take ! Commerce, literature, now, will lay slum- 
 bering, and then suddenly awake and draw all minds into the vortex 
 of their influence." 
 
 So has it been in the past, and so scripture prophecy warrants us 
 to expect it shall be in the history of that divinely constituted 
 society, of which Christ is the head, and for whose sake He reigns 
 over the universe. The wondrous past, reveals a series of mighty 
 manifestations of the quickening Spirit, each of which has advanced 
 tlie Church in her onward march to supremacy and triumph. As 
 God acts, grandly, majestically, like himself, in renewing the face of 
 the earth — parched up, and " as iron," by reason of the long-con- 
 tinued drought of tropical lands — pouring out from his exhaustless 
 " river " (Ps. Ixv. 9) the copious and long-continued rains — and thus 
 
8 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 the seed having been sown, the warmth of the earth on which it fell, 
 co-operating with the rains and the unclouded sun-burst that follows, 
 all nature is green and gladsome, and plenty crowns the plains — so in 
 the spiritual world we find Him acting in might and majesty in the 
 bestowment of a divine life. It was so even under the Old Testa- 
 ment dispensation, when religion would otherwise have perished. 
 In the prophet Samuel, the Reformer of his age; in King Hezekiah's 
 days, when a whole people were recalled to pristine faith and de- 
 votedness, and *' the thing was done suddenly ;" in the time of Jehosha- 
 phat, when *' all Judah rejoiced because of the oath ;" in the reclaim- 
 ing of apostate Israel by Elijah on Mount Carmel; in the penitential 
 weeping of Judah's captives ; in the great awakenings of life in the 
 days of Ezra and Nehemiah ; — we see periodical seasons of Revival. 
 The Spirit of life was there. And so above all has it been under 
 the present dispensation. "What was the secret of the first and mar- 
 vellous success of Succath — the traditional '• St. Patrick" — when he 
 began to preach a pure and primitive Gospel among the Pagans of 
 Ireland? What else than the Spirit's teaching and quickening 
 power can explain the raising up of men like Columba and Columb- 
 kill, and the monks of lona, who, owning no homage to Rome, and 
 abjuring her yoke, were the apostles of Christianity in Britain ? How 
 do we explain that Ireland herself was once the seat both of religion 
 and learning, and that thither, in the seventh century, " the Saxon 
 youth," as Lord Coke expresses it, *' did resort as to a fair.'^" What 
 is it that explains the existence and mighty influence of Wycliffe 
 and the Lollards in England — men who were "Reformers before the 
 Reformation ? " Whence came the zeal and intense earnestness which, 
 in connection with the study of the Scriptures, early showed itself 
 in the English universities, preparing the way for the bold confession 
 of truth before kings and people, and the precursors of a host of 
 martyrs, in the days of * bloody Mary ? '" 
 
 In the successes of the preaching of honest Latimer at Paul's 
 Cross ; in the labours of John Knox for a time as an evangelist in 
 an English diocese, and afterwards as the Reformer of Scotland; in 
 the successive translations of the Bible by Tindal, Coverdale, and 
 others, and in the eager delight with which the people flocked to drink 
 from the pure well of everlasting truth ; as well as in the great 
 religious awakenings of the Puritan age, as also in those during 
 the last century in New England, under President Edwards, Whit- 
 field, and the Tennents ; in the rise of the Methodists in England ; 
 in the marvellous power attending the ministry of a Berridge, a Re- 
 main, and a Venn (a man before whom "men fell like slaked lime"), all 
 ministers of the English Church; in the wondrous results of the 
 
 J 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. » 
 
 ministry of Charles, and "Rowlands, and Griffiths, in Wales; and in 
 the outpourings of the Spirit at the Kirk of Shotts, Kilsyth, Cara- 
 buslang, and other parishes in the west of Scotland, — we behold but 
 the fulfilment of those prophecies, which lead us to expect periodical 
 visitations of the Spirit.* 
 
 When we compare and collate such predictions, — embracing as 
 they do the day of Pentecost, and pointing onwards to the glories of 
 the millennial age, — we have the true solution of those periodical visit- 
 ations of the Spirit enjoyed in the past, and to be expected in the 
 future. It is thus we explain the llevivals in Scotland, in 1839, at 
 Kilsyth and Dundee, in connection with the ministrations of William 
 Burns and Robert McCheyne; as well as the remarkable awakenings 
 in the United States in the beginning of the present century, in 1831, 
 and finally in 1858, — the last, a marvellous awakening, which (as will 
 be seen in the sequel) was largely instrumental in stirring up Chris- 
 tians in Ulster to pray for a kindred blessing. And thus, as a religious 
 writer in America last year expre;sses it — while observing, with just 
 and sober discrimination, that mere animal excitement, the stirring of 
 the emotions upon the pure principle of sj'mpathy, not unfrequently 
 passes current for the work of the Spirit — we believe that "this 
 gift is periodically bestowed. We have in grace, as well as in 
 nature, our dry and wet seasons — the time of drought and the time 
 of showers. I'he rain cotnes hy spells." 
 
 " I cannot," says Bishop Mcllvaine, '* doubt that Revivals are the 
 vrork of God ; forty-nine years ago I myself was made a subject of 
 the Gospel of the Son of God in tlie awakening of 1809, and some of 
 my dearest and best friends who are gone home to glory, were the 
 fruits of these manifestations of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 And so the same excellent and judicious prelate, addressing the 
 Bishop of Down and Connor, on August 2nd, 1859, while using words 
 of loving caution and counsel, yet fully recognising with glowing 
 gratitude the reality of a Divine agency in the Ulster Awakening, 
 and a longing for a general Revival, the fulness of the heavenly rain, 
 thus writes : — 
 
 " My dear Bishop, — Why should it be thought a thing incredible 
 that God should raise the dead ? Why more incredible that He 
 should raise the spiritually dead to newness of life by hundreds in a 
 day than, as we are too much contented to see, by one or two now 
 and then, the little gift to our great unbelief? Why more incredible 
 that He should so raise the dead as that they should come forth at 
 once, decidedly, manifestly, exhibiting immediately the most striking 
 
 * Joel ii. 23, 29. Isa. xixii. 13, 15, 16. Isa. iliv. 3. Ezek. ixxvii. 1; 
 
 xlvii. 2—10. 
 
10 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 evidences of newness of life, rejoicing in the change, not doubting its 
 reality, full of the joy of life, tlian if the work were so unmarked and 
 apparently gradual that it excited no notice, and could hardly be 
 seen ? Why more incredible that such rising from the dead sliould 
 extend over all Ireland, and Scotland, and England, than that it 
 should shake the dry bones of a few valleys of death in one of them ? 
 Oh ! let us pray — let us pray expectingly. Let us believe more in 
 the Holy Ghost. Let us escape more from our traditionary ideas of 
 what we may hope for, from what we have been accustomed to see 
 and receive ; and let us gauge our desires, and hopes, and prayers by 
 the promises — by the office of the Holy Ghost — by the fulness and 
 mightiness of the grace of God. Be sure, my dear Bishop, you and 
 all your clergy, and all the Churches of every name in Lelaiid, and 
 all that love our Lord — all that have recently been called out of 
 darkness into His marvellous light — and all that are yet in spiritual 
 death, have the prayers of a great multitude in this country of the 
 people of God. We pray that God will abound with you more and 
 more, and that the river of GOD WHICH IS NOW so GLORIOUSLY 
 MAKING YOU GLAD IN IRELAND, may revive the whole land, and all 
 Great Britain, till there shall everywhere be seen * the resurrection 
 and the life.' " 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 The Two Revivals in' Ulster — The Scottish Ministers and Archbishop Ussher — 
 The Early Colonists and the Outpouring of the Spirit — Physical Agitations 
 — Remarkable Parallel — A Line of Witnesses — The Old Field and a Fresh 
 Harvest. 
 
 Of the settlers and colonists in Ulster, in the seventeenth century, 
 some were Episcopalians from England ; others — much greater in 
 numbers — were Presbyterians from Scotland. It is well worthy of 
 remembrance, in connection with tlie theme of this volume, that a 
 great revival of religion, attended by marvellous spiritual and social 
 results, marked the early history of the Ulster colonists. Special 
 care had been taken by James I., to provide for the spread of true 
 religion by the repairing of churches and the provision of glebes for 
 the ministers, as well as by restoring the ecclesiastical possessions, 
 and endowing schools for the revival of learning. 
 
 We are not writing the history of Ulster, but it is important to 
 remark that this province — now the stronghold of Irish Protest- 
 antism, and which in the stormy times of the "Kepeal " agitation, 
 was the great link of British connection — is described by Dupin, a 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 11 
 
 Roman Catholic historian, as having once heen "the most constant in 
 maintaining its liberty and preserving the Catholic religion." 
 
 The Keformation, as such, was a failure in Ireland. Few Protest- 
 ant miiiisteis were settled in the country, and these, for the most part, 
 were ill qualified for the discharge of their duties. The government 
 aimed at the extirpation of the Irish tongue, because it was the lan- 
 guage of rebels. Books might not be printed in it. No man might 
 preach to the people in it. It was commanded that, even in those 
 parishes where English was not understood, the church service should 
 be conducted in Latin. 
 
 In Ulstei*, therefore, Romanism maintained an unbroken sway 
 over the popular mind; and by intestine wars, during the latter part 
 of the reign of Elizabeth, it had been reduced almost to a state of 
 depopulation. But in the purpose of Him who is wonderful in 
 counsel and excellent in working, this unpromising field was yet 
 destined to wave with golden harvests. Early, too, were the first 
 sheaves gathered ; for, under the auspices of the illustrious Ussher, 
 intolerance was banished from the Church of Ireland, so that many 
 of the English Puritans and Scottish Presbyterian ministers were 
 promoted to posts of honour and usefulness within its pale. 
 
 Among the most eminent of those ministers of the Church of 
 Scotland who followed their countrymen to Ulster, the names of 
 Brice, Bruce, Livingston, Blair, and Cunningham are household 
 ■words in the north of Ireland to this day. Before their arrival the 
 early colonists were in a sadly demoralized condition. " From Scot- 
 land came many, and from England not a few," writes the minister of 
 Donaghadee, in 1645, '* yet all of them generally the scum of both 
 nations, who from debt, or breaking, and fleeing from justice, came 
 to a land where there was little or nothing as yet of the fear of God. 
 And in a few years there flocked such a multitude of people from 
 Scotland, that these northern counties of Down, Antrim, and Lon- 
 donderry, &c., were in a good measure planted, which were waste 
 before. 
 
 " Yet most of the people were void of godliness ; they seemed 
 rather to flee from God in this enterprize, than to follow their own 
 mercy. Yet God followed them when they jied from Him" * 
 
 One of those eminent and holy Scottish ministers who were settled 
 over Ulster parishes, was the Rev. John Livingston, chaplain to 
 the Countess of Wigton. When quite a young man, he had 
 preached on the Monday after the Communion in the churchyard of 
 Shotts, in Lanarkshire, a sermon on Ezekiel xxxvi. 25, 26, which 
 
 * Stewart's MSS., as quoted by Dr. Reid, in his " History of the Presby- 
 terian Church in Ireland," vol. i. 
 
12 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 ■was attended with marvellous power. Of the results of this one dis- 
 course, Mr. Fleming, then minister of Cambuslang, writes — " I can 
 speak on sure grounds, that about^rc hundred had at that time a 
 discernible change wrought in them, of whom most proved lively 
 Christians. It was the sowing of a seed through Clydesdale, so as 
 many of the most eminent Christians in that country could date 
 either their conversion or some remarkable confirmation from it. 
 And the nigJd before being spent -in j)r oyer, the Monday's work might 
 be discerned as a. convincing _rei^^^^ io j^rayery 
 
 Of this great sermon at the Kirk of Shotts, coupled with the 
 labours of the Rev. Robert Bruce, — who, like l^ivingston, afterwards 
 settled in Ulster, — Mr. Gray of Chryston, a gentleman of rank, thus 
 wrote : — *' At the sermon at Shotts, a goodly number of people 
 were by grace made acquainted with the life and power of religion. 
 Many of them became eminently good men, and remarkable not only 
 for a pious, inoffensive behaviour, but also for abounding in all the 
 good fruits which pure and undefiled religion enables its sincere 
 followers to perform. Among other good fruits, a principal one was 
 a strong inclination to promote the spiritual good of others. As the 
 labourers were then few in this part of God's vineyard, He seemed to 
 have inspired these private Christians with an uncommon degree of 
 love to the souls of men — inciting them to labour by all proper 
 methods to bring others to the knowledge of that grace which had 
 produced such blessed effects on themselves ; and their labours were 
 not without considerable effect." * 
 
 In the general awakening that followed the settlement of the 
 Scottish ministers in Ulster, Livingston's spiritual success f was very 
 vemarkable in the parish of Kiliinchy, where, as will afterwards 
 appear, "floods" have been recently " poured" afresh *' on the dry 
 ground." All over the country a spirit of religious inquiry was 
 excited ; ignorance began to be dispelled ; the careless and secure 
 were aroused to a sense of their spiritual peril, and the immoral 
 were reclaimed. But it was at Oldstone, in the neighbourhood of 
 the town of Antrim, that a great awakening occurred, under the 
 ministry of Mr. Glendinning, of wliich Mr. Stewart in his MSS. 
 thus writes : — *' Seeing the great lewdness and ungodly sinfulness of 
 the people, he preached to them nothing but law-wrath and the 
 terrors of God for sin. And in very deed for this only was he fitted ; 
 for hardly could he preach any other thing. But behold the success ! 
 For the hearers, finding themselves condemned by the wrath of God 
 
 * Letter in Gillies' " Collection." 
 
 + " Being a man of a gracious, melting spirit, he did much good, and the Lord 
 was pleased greatly to bless his ministry." — Stewart. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 13 
 
 speaking in his Word, fell into such anxiety and terror of conscience, 
 that they looked on themselves as altogether lost and damned ; and 
 this work appeared not in one single person or two, but multitudes 
 were brought to understand their way, and to ask — ' Men and 
 brethren, what shall we do?'" 
 
 'J'his writer also bears testimony to physical agitations as accompany- 
 ing this early awakening in Ulster, similar to those which have 
 excited such notice in 1859 ; strong men being thus struck down under 
 the terrors of the Almighty. *• I have seen them myself," says Mr. 
 Stewart, " stricken into a swoon with the Word ; yea, a dozen in 
 one day carried out as dead; so marvellous was the power of God 
 striking their hearts for sin, condemning and killing. And of these 
 were none of the weaker sex or spirit ; but, indeed, some of the 
 boldest spirits, who formerly feared not with their swords to put a 
 ■whole market- town in a fray ; yea, in defence of their stubbornness, 
 cared not to lie in prison and in the stocks ; and being incorrigible, 
 were as ready to do the like the next day. 
 
 " I have heard one of them — a mighty strong man, now a 
 mighty Christian — say, that his end in coming to church was to 
 consult with his companions how to work some mischief. And yet 
 at one of these sermons he was so caught that he was fully subdued. 
 But why do I speak of him f We knew, and yet know, multitudes 
 of such men, who sinned and gloried in it, because they feared no 
 man, yet are now patterns of sobriety, fearing to sin because they 
 fear God. And this spread through the country, especially to that 
 river commonly called the Six Mile Water, for there this work began 
 at first." 
 
 I have been thus particular in referring to this early Ulster 
 Awakening because it is little known, and especially because of the 
 remarkable parallels which it suggests in connection with the recent 
 Revival of 1859. Both were preceded by great religious declen- 
 sion, and abounding immorality; both were ushered in by fervent 
 and united prayer, and godly conference among ministers and other 
 pious persons, as well as by the full and faithful preaching of the 
 truth — especially of the terrors of that law which is " a schoolmaster" 
 to lead men to a Saviour, that so they may be "justified by faith." 
 Both awakenings, moreover, affected large numbers, who at the same 
 time were brought under apprehensions of Divine wrath, so over- 
 powering as to affect the bodily frame ; and both were followed by a 
 general reformation of manners, the subjects of them becoming 
 *' patterns of sobriety, and fearing to sin because they feared God." 
 The work also in both cases spread through the country, to the glad 
 surprise even of Christians themselves. Finally, the birthplace and 
 
14 TUE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 the early home of both were in Antrim, in the same districts of that 
 county. And now, at the end of more than two hundred years, we 
 see a second spiritual harvest reaped from the same field, as if in 
 answer to the prayers then poured out before God. 
 
 Persecution speedily followed that early llevival. Ministers were 
 charged with encouraging- bodily prostrations, just as others are 
 wrongly accused now. But, in spite of the actual deposition and 
 banishment of ministers (whomUssher sought in vain to shelter, and 
 whom James I. only restored for a time), although under the oppressive 
 regime of Strafford many of them were compelled to flee to Scotland, 
 and thus to leave their flocks to the tender mercies of the cruel, — and 
 while, also, in the Popish massacre of 1641, not less than thirty 
 Presbyterian ministers perished in the general massacre of the Pro- 
 testants of Ireland, — yet the effects of that early development of 
 spiritual life are felt in Ulster to this day. And while also, in the 
 last century, the Arian heresy came in like a flood, and a Moderator 
 of the Synod of Ulster could be heard in his ofiicial capacity reviling 
 the Confession and Catechisms of the Church of his fathers, yet the 
 people of one district at least — that where the Revival of 1859 burst 
 forth — still held fast the " old way," and " walked therein ;" and for 
 more than two hundred years, their descendants there, have never 
 wanted a faithful and evangelical ministry. 
 
 To one who, as a licentiate of the Presbyterian Synod of Ireland, 
 preached in early days in that particular district, this fact has been 
 particularly suggestive, and it specially impressed my mind, when I 
 was permitted personally to visit some of those scenes in Antrim, where 
 more than two centuries ago, by a plenteous rain, Jehovah refreshed 
 his heritage when it was weary. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Origin and Birthplace of the Revival— Early History — Parish of Connor — 
 
 First-Fruits. 
 
 We now proceed to trace the dawn of that spiritual spring-time 
 which already is passing rapidly into the glory of summer at its noon. 
 The origin of the Awakening in Ulster has been ascribed to different 
 instrumentalities, and all are not agreed as to the particular district 
 in which it first manifested its power. 
 
 The Rev. S. M. Dill, of Ballymena, states definitely that it origi- 
 nated in the parish of Connor, and thus indicated his convictions with 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENTNG. 15 
 
 regard to its birthplace and earlier developments in a speech recently- 
 delivered by him in the city of Philadelphia, in the United States, as 
 one of a missionary deputation pleading for help in the evangelization 
 of Roman Catholic Ireland : — " It commenced in the parish next to 
 my own. There was a long work of preparation. The pastor 
 noticed his congregation increasing in numbers. He felt an impulse 
 to speak the Word with greater power. The Sabbath schools in- 
 creased. Sabbath-school unions took the form of prayer-meetings. 
 The Sabbath was better observed. Family prayer was resumed by 
 many who had neglected it, and new altars were erected in many 
 households. The prayer-meetings were multiplied, and more nume- 
 rously attended. The Catechism was more generally attended to. 
 Conversions began to take place, and thus the seed which had long 
 been sown began to spring up." 
 
 The Kev. Dr. Edgar thus gives, in a letter to the British Banner , 
 the leading features and facts of the Awakening at Connor : — 
 
 " I shall not take a wide range — I shall not deal in hearsay, but 
 confine myself entirely to my own knowledge of one congregation in 
 a country district of Ulster, that from a single example a judgment 
 may be readily formed of the whole. 
 
 " I. The congregation is one of the old, stern, Calvinistic school, 
 long in unbroken enjoyment of an evangelical ministry, yet often 
 lifeless and cold, with many mere formal professors, and many more 
 not having even a name to live. 
 
 " II. Its present minister is no Whitfield nor Irish Kirwan, whose 
 oratory might be supposed to effect wondrous changes by its own 
 power; but he is plain, honest, direct — meaning somebody, and 
 going right to the understanding and heart — in doctrinal, practical 
 preaching of the trutii which alone can save. 
 
 " III. The means which he employs are : — 
 
 " 1. Two discourses each Sabbath, such as M'Culloch preached 
 before the great Awakening at Cambuslang. 
 
 *' 2. A system of Sunday schools over the districts, the pupils of 
 which he assembles and catechises in his church every Sabbath ; and, 
 to enable their teachers to carry forward a successful course, he has 
 printed for them each week a suitable exposition of Scripture, or of 
 doctrine. 
 
 *' 3. Pastoral visitation from house to house, so that he knows every 
 one of his people, and can meet every case. 
 
 " 4. He has covered the whole district with a net- work of prayer- 
 meetings, at some five or six of which he officiates weekly (there are 
 a hundred weekly), the people themselves keeping up the religious 
 services. 
 
16 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 " 5. Religious services in the open air. Two years since, when 
 there was no public talk of Revivals, he usually had audiences of two 
 or three thousand. 
 
 " IV. The means I thus specify particularly, because I wish to give 
 prominence to the fact that God's Holy Spirit is not working by any 
 strange or miraculous means, but by the means of his own appoint- 
 ment. The truth as it is in Jesus — the truth in love — God's Spirit 
 always used, and he still uses, for the conversion of souls. ^On the 
 reading, but especially the hearing of the word, in the spirit of 
 humility and prayer, God pours out his Spirit's gracious influence, 
 and souls are saved. 
 
 "V. The agents assisting the minister in his work are: — 
 
 "1. Ruling elders, Sunday-school teachers, &c. ; the old staff 
 before the Revival began. One of these I heard leading in prayer, 
 and most primitive and patriarchal it was. Long might he have 
 sung, with the psalmist, — 
 
 " ' I waited for the Lord my God, 
 And patiently did bear ' — 
 
 because many a long year he and an aged female maintained a 
 prayer-meeting when the members uniting with them seemed hope- 
 lessly few; but against hope they hoped and prayed; and now they 
 can continue the psalm, and sing — 
 
 " ' At length to me he did incline, 
 My voice and cry to hear/ 
 
 "2. Fresh young hands which the Revival has raised. Many of 
 these are working at home; nine of these are travelling around, on 
 invitations from many parties anxious for their help. 
 
 " A meeting of such is held each Saturday, specially to ask for 
 God's blessing on the Sabbath services. I lately attended. The place 
 was a butcher's shop. The butcher, two years since, did not know 
 A from B ; God converted him ; he taught himself to read, and he is 
 now a large tract distributor at his own cost, and a chief hand in the 
 Revival work. 
 
 *' The secretary was a working shoemaker — another Carey. Others 
 present were day-labourers, a stone-breaker, and a blacksmith's boy. 
 The stone-breaker, who still sits on the road-side breaking stones to 
 earn his bread, is one of four brothers lately converted. Their 
 mother was sister to a blackguard pugilist, to whom she used to be 
 bottle-holder, and when she entered a shop she was watched as a 
 noted thief. Her sons were pests, but God's grace has made them 
 ■vessels of mercy, overflowing with goodness for not a few. I have 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 17 
 
 heard them, and others like them, speak and pray in public. I do 
 not defend their pronunciation, grammar, style, or delivery ; but I 
 say fearlessly that their addresses and prayers are scriptural, wise, 
 and powerful, and, as their effects show, most wonderfully adapted 
 to do great and permanent good to persons in humble life like 
 themselves. 
 
 " 3. Let no disgust be raised when I name, as another class of new 
 assistants, females ; for these females know their sphere, and keep it, 
 being gratefully sensible of God's goodness in having assigned to 
 woman a sphere of unbounded usefulness and honour. They conduct, 
 for example, female prayer-meetings, where, if a single male be 
 admitted, he is brother to some one present, and asked to impart 
 religious instruction. One such told me that, passing the door of a 
 prayer-meeting, he found a number of young girls engaged in prayer, 
 over one in deep distress for sins ; and a more suitable or deeply 
 interesting prayer he had seldom heard than from one of these 
 young, earnest creatures over her distressed sister. 
 
 " There is another sphere of female agency, and I illustrate it 
 thus: — A gentleman called to me a young girl weeding his garden. 
 Among other questions I asked her, ' Were you with us at the 
 
 prayer-meeting, last night?' 'No,' said she, 'I was at .' 
 
 * Why,' I replied, with surprise, ' what took you away through the 
 rain five miles to an open-air prayer-meeting ?' * I was invited,' she 
 said, ' by friends, who thought that the Lord might have something 
 for me to do.' Had I heard no more than this 1 might have deemed 
 it vanity or fanaticism ; but the explanation is this. At such 
 meetings females, as well as males, become so deeply aflPected by the 
 truth, that it is necessary to remove them, and it is most suitable that 
 some experienced, wise, Christian female, should be with such to 
 teach, advise, and pray, and comfort with the consolation wherewith 
 she herself is comforted of God." 
 
 The Rev. S. J. Moore, in his " History and prominent Characteristics 
 of the present Revival in Ballymena," writes as follows : — 
 
 " In September, 1857, was commenced, in a little school-house near 
 to Connor, County Antrim, * The Believers' FelloivsJup Meeting.^ 
 The society consisted at first of four young men — John Wallace, 
 James M'Quilkin, Robert Carlisle, and J. Meneely. The two first- 
 mentioned had lately removed from Ballymena, where, some short 
 time previously, they had seen themselves, and been found by their 
 Saviour. The special object of their society was prayer that God 
 would bless the preaching of the gospel in the Connor congregation, 
 and their own labours, and those of others, in connection with the 
 prayer- meetings and Sabbath schools throughout the district. The 
 
 C 
 
18 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 society soon ceased to be a secret one; and slowly one kindred spirit 
 after another was introduced, on the recommendation of some of the 
 original members. For a few months they had to walk by faitli. 
 The seed, however, was not long cast upon the waters till the tide 
 ebbed, and the tender blade sprung up. They wrestled on. They 
 prevailed. Surely when God's set time is come — when He in- 
 tends signally to answer prayer, He disposes the supplicant to 
 plead, and, with growing anxiety, to plead on till the blessing is 
 secured. 
 
 " The first observable instance of conversion occurred in December 
 following. A young man became greatly alarmed. After some 
 time, in answer to earnest prayer by himself and others, he found 
 peace and confidence. Early in January a youth in the Sabbath- 
 school class taught by one of those young men, was brought to the 
 saving knowledge of Christ as his Saviour. Special prayer, about 
 the same period, w'as frequently offered in the Fellowship Meeting in 
 behalf of two persons who, some three months afterwards, joy- 
 fully professed their faith in the Lord Jesus. Faith grew ; hope 
 brightened. 'The power of prayer' began to be known, and felt, 
 and seen. The Spring Communion came on. Throughout the 
 extensive parish, consisting of some thousand families, it was generally 
 known that, lately, persons had been turned to the Lord among them, 
 some moral, and some wildly immoral. A few had heard of a similar 
 triumph of Divine grace beyond the Atlantic. The services were 
 peculiarly solemn. The Master's presence seemed to be recognised, 
 and his call heard. A great impulse was given to consideration and 
 seriousness, intensifying and extending these general precursors of 
 conviction and revival. The old prayer-meetings began to be thronged, 
 and many new ones established. No difficulty now to find persons 
 to take part in them. The winter was past ; the time of the singing 
 of birds had come. Humble, grateful, loving, joyous converts multi- 
 plied. They, with the children of God, who in that district have 
 been revived — greatly refreshed by this Divine Spirit — are now 
 very numerous. There are on an average sixteen prayer-meetings 
 every night in the week, throughout the bounds of that one congrega- 
 tion — i.e., about one hundred weekly. The awakening to a sight of 
 sin, the conviction of its sinfulness, the illumination of the soul in the 
 knowledge of a glorious Saviour, and conversion to Him — all this 
 operation, carried on by the life-giving Spirit, was in the Connor 
 district for more than eighteen months, a calm, quiet, gradual, in some 
 cases a lengthened process, not commencing in, or accompanied by, 
 a * smiting down ' of the body, or any extraordinary physical pros- 
 tration more than what might be expected to result from great 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 19 
 
 anxiety and deep sorrow. Thus, it is worthy of being noticed and 
 remembered, that the present American Revival began in 1857 ; so 
 did the Revival in Connor : the one began in the month of September, 
 so did the other : one youth in each of the movements dates his con- 
 version, November, 1856 : prayer — fervent, confiding, and unceasing 
 — was, and continues to be, the prominent characteristic of the one 
 and of the other : lavmen, one or six, in the one case, and four in the 
 other, were the prominent agents, in commencing, as they continue 
 to be in carrying on, the work in the one country as well as in the 
 other. Oh, that it may become as extensive in the Old as it is in 
 the New AVorld ! 
 
 " In the beginning of this year a convert from Connor visited his 
 friends near Ahoghill ; and, through his urgency and prayers, the 
 Holy Spirit awakened nearly all the family to a deep sense of their 
 sins. These became missionaries to their neighbours and friends ; 
 and about the middle of February hundreds through the parishes of 
 Drummaul and Ahoghill were overwhelmed with convictions of sin, 
 its dangers and demerits; and during the month of March, in private 
 houses, and barns, and school-houses, and churches, prayer-meetings 
 were conducted and addressed by recent converts, attended by multi- 
 tudes in the houses, and around them. In their own private homes, 
 as well as at these meetings, many persons were violently convicted. 
 I say violently, for in the great majority of cases known to the public 
 in the Ahoghill and Ballymena districts, the process of conviction 
 has been altogether of a different type from that known in the 
 adjoining parish of Connor up till that time." 
 
 From another authentic source we have the following: — "This 
 gracious Revival has extended from the parish of Connor to that of 
 Ahoghill ; then to Portglenone, and round by Tully, Largey, Grange, 
 Strand, Slatt, Galgorra Park, Killalers, Cioughwater, Clough, and 
 Rasharkin ; nor is it yet showing any symptoms of decline — on the 
 contrary, it is moving on with amazing power. Every day, and 
 almost every hour, is bringing tidings of conviction. The interest 
 is more and more awakening and extending. 
 
 " The means by which this blessed work is carried on are in no way 
 extraordinary. Prayer and praise, the reading of the AYord, and 
 plain, pointed, solemn, and earnest appeals to the conscience and the 
 heart, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, are the only 
 means that are resorted to. These are within the reach of every 
 congregation and every religious community. 
 
 "As to the human agency by which this Revival has been begun, 
 and continues to be extended, it is not through the ministers of the 
 chui'ches alone, or even chiefly. The eai-nest and faithful preaching 
 
 C2 
 
20 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 of the AVord may have been the preparation in some degree; but 
 the chief and honoured agents in the work are the converted them- 
 selves. Not, indeed, schooled in human learning, but taught of God, 
 very many of them have gifts of utterance, in prayer and in exhorta- 
 tion that are powerful instruments for good. Speaking from what 
 they feel, they have great power in awakening slumbering souls. 
 This humble agency can be multiplied to any extent, and in any 
 locality. Their honour and success lie in this, that they are fellow- 
 workers with God." 
 
 The Rev. William Arthur, — himself a native of Kells, in the 
 parish of Connor, — in his " Beginnings of a Great Revival : The 
 Awakening in Ulster, Connor," after observing that the traces of the 
 Antrim Revival, in the IGtli century, " lasted long, spread far, raised 
 up a race of true believers who bore long witness to the power of 
 godliness, and left a luminous trace upon the history of Ulster, never 
 effaced," refers to the " dark days" that succeeded. He next states, 
 that *' for many years past a very blessed change had been passing 
 over the Ulster churches ; and by many faithful labourers the way of 
 the Lord was being prepared." He then proceeds to describe " the 
 beginnings" of the present Ulster Awakening, as follows: — 
 
 " The origin of the present movement is clearly traced to Connor, 
 a parish seven miles long, peopled by small farmers, weavers, and 
 linen manufacturers, nearly all Presbyterians, mixed with only a 
 handful of Church people, and scarcely any Roman Catholics. In the 
 centre of the parish stand two villages, Connor and Kells. For many 
 years the Rev. John H. Moore had laboured among them and not 
 fainted. He had formed Sunday schools on a new plan ; not 
 attempting to gather the children into one or two places, but at (I 
 think) thirteen different points of the parish, he had formed rather a 
 class than a school. Here scriptui'al instruction, real exercises in 
 the word of God, was carefully given. On the training of his 
 teachers he bestowed great labour. Among the topics of his preaching, 
 the revival of God's work had ofter borne a prominent part. He 
 feared not to speak of hell, or to tell sinners that a God of love was 
 sure to punish sin. Prayer-meetings had been established at different 
 times, but gradually died away, till one only remained, and that was 
 sometimes attended by but one man and one woman. 
 
 " A young man belonging to this congregation was residing in the 
 town of Ballymena, a few miles away. He was, like many, zealous 
 for religion after his manner, and stood in his own eyes as a 
 Christian. But he heard a lady from England, said to be a Baptist, 
 convei'sing with some young women, and describing true conversion. 
 She told them that they were strangers to it, and still ' in the gall of 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 21 
 
 bitterness, and the bond of iniquity.' This word reached the heart 
 of the young man. He sought the inward and holy power of religion, 
 the true and mighty regenerating grace, ' the love of God, shed 
 abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.' He 
 found clear and joyful acceptance with his Father in heaven. Full 
 of this new happiness, he returned to his own parish. 
 
 " In the month of September, 1857, — the very same month in which 
 the first noon-day prayer-meeting, the harbinger of the great Revival, 
 was held in New York, — he and three other young men joined to- 
 gether, in secret fellowship, to pray for God's special blessing on the 
 people around them. They met in a little school-house, which 
 stands alone by the way side. For three months their prayers 
 seemed to rise to an unheeding heaven. In December one conversion 
 revived their hearts. In the course of the next month one of the 
 Sabbath-school classes had the unwonted joy of a true and clear 
 conversion. Three months later two persons, who had been fre- 
 quently prayed for, were brought to know the Lord. Thus slowly, 
 silently, did the Lord at first work ; thus steadily did these disciples 
 continue to wait till His Spirit was poured out from on high. 
 
 " Among the Presbyterian churches the Lord's Supper is admin- 
 istered but twice a-year ; and, being thus rare, is made a great 
 solemnity. What is called " The Spring Communion " (1858) came. 
 The parish had been more or less filled with tidings of the prayers 
 that were being offered, and of the strange, clear, happy conversions 
 which had taken place — conversions which made the person changed 
 go on his way, ' walking, and leaping, and praising God.' Their 
 faithful minister had been preaching on the subject of a great 
 Revival, and telling what the Lord was doing for his vineyard in 
 America, with a strong desire for the like at home. The solemn 
 services of the Communion were crowned with an unwonted infl.uence. 
 Life, inquiry, deep convictions, strong crying and tears, nights spent 
 in wrestling prayer, hearts heavy, and faces mournful with the 
 burden of sin, and others, formerly as reserved upon religion as if it 
 was a life and death secret, telling as simply as babes, and as happily 
 as primitive Christians, of God's pardoning love — these became the 
 familiar tidings of that favoured parish. Prayer-meetings sprang up on 
 every hand, and wonderful was it to the staid Presbyterian folk to hear 
 out of the lips of the unlearned and ignorant, of babes and sucklings, 
 prayers of deep interest and heavenly power, which God must have 
 taught, and that his own hand seemed manifestly to answer." 
 
 And then he adds emphatically, — *' llie conversions were of thai 
 marked Bible type, ivhiclifail when the power of the Spirit is low in 
 the Church, but ever re-appear in seasons of heavenly injiuence.^^ 
 
23 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 It is also worthy of notice — as Mr. Arthur says — that " everywhere 
 faith in prayer, mighty prayer, seemed the first and deepest lesson of 
 the Revival.'' "The impression," it is added, "was very solemn 
 when one told me that two young men from America had come to see 
 if any good work was going on in the same neighbourhood ; for they 
 had heard Connor and Kells named, at tneeting in their oivn country, 
 as places for which some otie had specially requested prayer to he 
 made." 
 
 Mr. Arthur gives an equally authentic and interesting account of 
 the way in which the Revival spread beyond Connor : — 
 
 " One who had felt the joy of pardoning love filling his own soul, 
 and opening in his breast a little heaven,* longed to see his mother, 
 who lived in a neighbouring parish, across the ' Maine Water' as the 
 River Maine is called, as happy as grace had made him. He got one 
 of his comrades to join him in earnest prayer for her conversion. 
 They had seen prayer wonderfully answered in the case of those 
 around them, and why not at a distance ? After this he went home 
 to see if prayer had had any effect, and, to his joy and wonder, found 
 that just while they had been praying, deep conviction had fallen 
 upon his mother's soul ; she had sought mercy, and was now rejoic- 
 ing in hope of the glory of God. This triumph of prayer was no 
 sooner won, than came the question. Where was his brother ? Away 
 at a cock-fight. Thither he followed him: there he found him, and, 
 seizing him, he said, ' I have a message for you from the Lord 
 Jesus.' This went to his heart ; he, too, felt the pangs of deep 
 repentance; he, too, soon fled for refuge to the open arms of the 
 crucified Redeemer. His burden fell off, joy and peace in believing 
 took possession of his soul, and, warm and simple, he rushed away to 
 his minister, exclaiming, ' I am saved ! I am saved ! ' The minister, 
 at first, feared that he was only heated with some passing fervour — 
 for. Oh how slow we all have been to believe that we live in a 
 world wherein the saving of men is a work committed to an all-will- 
 ing and Almighty hand, and that, therefore, we should expect to see 
 it going on upon all sides, and at all times. But when he had fully 
 investigated the case, the minister said, * I wish we had some of 
 those young men over here to hold prayer-meetings.' 
 
 " This wish led to converts from Connor coming to tell the people of 
 Ahoghill what the Lord had done for their souls. The Awakening 
 also spread to Brougshane, a neighbouring parish teeming with a 
 
 * When the writer visited Belfast, in August, a minister told him of a young 
 man so happy iu Christ that he said, " Formerly I used to think of heaven as a 
 future state. I think less about that now, I have so much" (putting his hand 
 on his breast as he spake) " of heaven here" 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. ^ 23 
 
 Presbyterian population. Thence it was conveyed to the town of 
 Bally clare, in an opposite direction to Ahoghill. Oa a fair day in 
 that town a man from the neighbourhood of Brougshane, was brought 
 under very awful convictions. He cried aloud for mercy in the 
 presence of the wondering people. A poor slater among others 
 heard him, and he was directed to Connor and Kells for light and 
 consolation — there he found both." 
 
 At Belfast the writer conversed with a man who knew well the 
 people of Ballyclare and its neighbourhood, and who told him of the 
 marvellous and mighty operations of the Holy Spirit among them. 
 It was a lad from Ballyclare, to whose instrumentality is to be 
 traced a wonderful work of revival at Hyde Park, a village a few 
 miles from Belfast. He publicly declared at a meeting how he had 
 been converted, and seeing a boy impressed by it, fell upon his neck, 
 and " the affection of this boy seemed to breakdown the hearts of 
 the people." Thus, by unlikely instrumentality, by slight causes, yet 
 powerfully and irresistibly, because the Spirit was at work, did the 
 Divine jflame spread wide and far from the spot where first it burst 
 forth. 
 
 The sovereignty of Divine grace is, in truth, most marked in this 
 }levival of 1859. It had, indeed, its precursors and pioneers, both 
 in the great increase of light and zeal in the Irish Established Church, 
 and in the faithful and self-denying missionary labours of both 
 Wesleyan and Independent ministers. The Scriptures had been 
 widely diffused, and Sunday schools everywhere established. And, 
 especially in Ulster, such a zeal had been awakened for the " old 
 paths" of doctrinal truth, and such fidelity was exercised as to the 
 application of discipline and the excision of the unworthy, that the 
 two ^bodies — the Synod of Ulster and the Secession Synod — so long 
 apart, were united into one General Assembly in 1841. Among the 
 fruits of that union were — the rapid increase of churches in Ulster, 
 and also in the Romish provinces — the establishment of Foreign, 
 Jewish, and Colonial Missions — and a successful effort to provide 
 manses for ministers. There was a great increase of intelligent 
 piety also. Nevertheless, formalism prevailed, immorality began to 
 spread afresh, and good men mourned. Then it was that the Lord 
 the Spirit appeared in His glory. 
 
 The following is a record of spiritual and social results, as they came 
 under the notice of the Rev. Dr. Edgar, during his visit to Connor. 
 
 " The minister's wife told me that a woman had complained of the 
 brutality of her husband. He gave as his apology his wife' s drunken- 
 ness. The good minister's wife laboured for her reform, and one day 
 received a pressing invitation to attend a prayer-meeting, which this 
 
24 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 ■woman, once drunken, had opened. She went ; and when the num- 
 bers became too great she brought them to the manse, and a joyous 
 manse it was; for of the woman once drunken it could now be said, 
 'Behold, she prays.' Another woman in prayer said, ' O God, thou 
 knowest, and all here know, how wicked a wretch I have been ; ' and 
 true, indeed, it was; for, being mother of four illegitimate children, she 
 was deemed a woman exceedingly vile : and yet, to show the exceed- 
 ing riches of God's grace, He has had mercy both upon her and on one 
 of the hapless daughters, to whom, in her wickedness, she has given 
 birth. A son of that minister's helpmeet was thoughtless, like too 
 many of his age, but God's Spirit moved upon his heart ; and in the 
 struggles of the new birth he vowed that if God would give him 
 peace, he would devote himself to the ministry of the gospel. To the 
 ministry of the gospel he is devoted now. 
 
 " General effects throughout the district are, decrease of Sabbath- 
 breaking, profanity, party spirit, drunkenness, poverty ; reformation 
 from evil habits and customs ; sobriety, generosity, good neighbour- 
 liood, peace. There must be a general reformation where the reform- 
 ations of individuals are so numerous. The good minister declines all 
 attempts at general enumeration, and so well may I. Even to the 
 wife of his bosom he says : * Too soon, my dear, to talk of numbers ; 
 time will count them, time may make sad reckoning of some of them 
 yet.' Whatever be the issue, the number is large now ; I made ac- 
 quaintance with fifty, in part of two days. Every house I entered had 
 its rejoicing inmates. To both sexes thehappy change has come, and 
 over all ages of human life the Holy Spirit has claimed His power. 
 Youth is no doubt His favoured time, but hoary age of threescore 
 years and ten has not been forgotten. I visited an aged widow ; she 
 had been married to a Romanist, and, though he did not force her to 
 mass,she attended no church, and was going down to the grave with- 
 out God and w-ithout hope, when the words of a stranger, who had 
 found Christ, laid hold upon her heart. Anxious days and sleepless 
 nights she passed, but she submitted to God, took Him at His word, 
 and found peace. As she stood before me in her seventy-second year, 
 cold must be the heart, I thought, which could continue sceptical with 
 such a proof of God's work in view. There was no excitement, no 
 fanaticism, not at all ; what completely overcame me, as I gazed on 
 her aged features, was the evident struggle to restrain feeling, to pre- 
 vent the flood of feeling from rushing forth at her eyes, while she 
 talked of God's infinite kindness. Emotion she did show, but it was 
 not for herself, but for her son, her only child. ' Oh,' said she, 
 * how happy would I live, and how blessed would I die, if God would 
 show to my poor boy his wondrous loving-kindness, as He has to me I" 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 25 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Early History and First-Fruits at Ahoghill — A Spiritual " Hurricane"— - 
 Family Awakenings — The Scoffer Arrested — Precursors and Results — Multi- 
 plied Testimony. 
 
 The Rev. David Adams, in his " Revival at Ahoghill, its Narrative 
 and Nature," plainly indicating that in his opinion the Revival 
 originated in his own locality, writes as follows : — 
 
 " If by a revival of true relic/ion, we mean, as is generally under- 
 stood, that outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God bi/ which manij 
 souls are brought to Christ for their salvation^ nearly at the same 
 time and jilace, in such a suddeji and wonderful manner as to deeply 
 and religiously impress the world and the Church with a sense of 
 their need, and the value of a living Christianity, then, I think, I 
 may truly state that the present extraordinary religious movement 
 in the North of Ireland, began in the south-west part of the parish 
 of Ahoghill, County Antrim, about the commencement of this present 
 year, 1859. Two or three years before this time, there were at 
 Ahoghill, as elsewhere, several large drops of Heaven's grace seen in 
 the conversion of both old and young, indicative of the coming 
 spiritual flood; but these were, like angels' visits, 'few and far 
 between.' For a considerable period previously, there was here, as 
 at other places, a slow, silent work of salvation progressing satis- 
 factorily. Some would call this a Revival, and so it was in a sense ; 
 but the torrent-flood of God's mercy did not come till the early part 
 of this year, and then it was first manifested at Ahoghill. AYhile I 
 admit the existence of some prayer-meetings and conversions else- 
 where, I deny that they were the beginning of the Revival, properly 
 speaking. To say that the Revival, in the sense I have defined, 
 began in September, 1857, at Castlegore School-house, near Connor, 
 would be as true as to affirm that it was commenced at Ballymena, 
 in the summer of 1856, by Mrs. C, or Lieutenant A. ; and this latter 
 statement would be as true as to say that it began with the visit of 
 Mr. Guinness, to Ballymena, in the spring of 1858, or Mr. Spurgeon's 
 visit to Belfast in the summer of that year. None of these state- 
 ments are correct, not more correct than to declare that the late 
 short and sharp summer campaign in Italy, originated with the 
 Prince of Wales, because he had been at Rome in the previous 
 spring. The very same Revival phenomena which have been every- 
 where in this country so characteristically similar, and which 
 appeared first at Ahoghill, in January last, were manifested at 
 Connor and Ballymena in May last, but not till then. In making 
 this statement I have no wish to depreciate or honour any human 
 
26 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 being. I claim no merit. I merely mention what I consider an 
 historical fact, and I record it simply as such, when I state that the 
 present Revival, properly so called, began first near the village of 
 Ahoghill, about the beginning of this year. It was there and then 
 I first lieard 'the sound of abundance of rain.' While bowing my 
 knees, like the prophet on the top of Carmel, a herald of mercy told 
 me of ' a little cloud that ariseth out of the sea,' which, though then 
 not bigger than a man's hand, soon covered the heaven, ' and there 
 was a great rain,' the refreshing shower falling fast, and the 
 * streams in the desert' here overjloiving copiously." But he adds, 
 " I think the only proper account we can give of the rise of the 
 present great Revival in America, Britain, and North of Ireland, is 
 what D'Aubigne does when beautifully describing the origin and 
 progress of the glorious Reformation, nearly at the same time in 
 different countries — * As in spring-time the breath of life is felt from 
 the sea-shore to the mountain-top, so the Spirit of God was now 
 melting the ice of a long winter in every part of Christendom, and 
 clothing with verdure and flowers the most secluded valleys and the 
 most steep and barren rocks.' " 
 
 As to ^jre;:>«ra^?Ve and pioneering work, Mr. Adams says that the 
 Revival " did not come so suddenly and unexpectedly as some 
 imagine." From his ordination in 1H41, he cherished an intense 
 desire " for such a time of refreshing," and had repeatedly preached 
 to his people, and also on public occasions, with special reference to the 
 quickening of dead souls, and the outpouring of the Spirit. He had 
 also followed up the teachings of the pulpit by great diligence in 
 pastoral visitation from house to house, thus dealing closely and 
 continuously with the consciences of his people. Two discourses — 
 on " Pentecost," and on " the Conversion of the Apostle Paul," had 
 been attended with special blessing. " One said to me," says Mr. A., 
 *' * at your request I prayed to God that I might be able to say, like 
 Paul, It pleased God to reveal his Son in me; and he heard me.^ " 
 
 The institution of Sabbath schools, as well as the extensive circu- 
 lation of the Scriptures and frequent catechetical instnctions, were 
 also the means of an extensive difiusion of religious knowledge. 
 After ineffectual efforts for many years on the part of the pastor 
 to form district prayer-meetings, in 1855 three were voluntarily 
 established without his direct interference. To one which was held 
 in the place of worship in winter evenings, crowds began to repair 
 of persons both old and young; in many cases they came without 
 shoes or bonnets, and in their working clothes. 
 
 In 1856 there was an unusually large number of persons who sought 
 fellowship with Christ at his table. The congregation, also, became 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 27 
 
 so large, that the erection of a new and larger church was found 
 necessary, and it was opened in 1858. " I regard it," says the 
 pastor, '* as a singular token of God's good providence, that it was 
 just ready for the great Revival harvest. If it had not been so, 
 hundreds of devout inquirers after the truth could not have obtained 
 accommodation. Some of our people thought it folly to attempt 
 building such a large, handsome place of worship, but the Lord, 
 notwithstanding, graciously led us in the right way, as all now 
 thankfully admit." 
 
 The first great Awakening at Ahoghill manifested itself on Monday 
 the 14th March, at the Monday service which, both in Scotland and 
 Ulster, follows the celebration of the Lord's Supper.* The attend- 
 ance at this meeting amounted to 3,000 persons, and at its close 
 the people still lingered. Koman Catholics, Episcopalians, and 
 Presbyterians were present. A young convert addressed them, 
 and under the mighty influence of his appeals many fell down on 
 their knees in the muddy streets and amid chilling rain, and poured 
 forth earnest cries and prayers. ** I know," says Mr. Adams, " that 
 many date their conversion from that memorable night — a night 
 which will never be forgotten by those who witnessed that amazing 
 scene." 
 
 From that period the Revival wave swept onward over the district, 
 *' meetings for praise, prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and exhorta- 
 tion, being held every night, and frequently at mid-day in the busiest 
 season, in kitchens, barns, school-houses, churches, fields, wayside 
 and hedgeside, while secret and family prayer became very general. 
 The spiritually-impressed were multiplied daily — eight or nine of my 
 hearers being changed in a day. On a Saturday I find this entry in 
 my journal : — ' Went at eleven o'clock, A.M., to . Many con- 
 verted last night — an all night of prayer and weeping. Many care- 
 less men left work (corn- sowing and potato-planting), and crowded 
 the house. Deep impression on old and young; and several under 
 the power of the Spirit while I was speaking.' 
 
 '' In the end of April and the beginning of May the wind of the 
 Spirit calmed, but about the middle of May it blew a heavenly 
 hurricane, and the mighty wave of mercy swelled gloriously moun- 
 tain-high, sweeping across the dead sea of our rural pojnilation, and 
 washing the rocky hearts of formal ic or shipper sJ^ 
 
 It is worthy of notice, that this Awakening at Ahoghill had been 
 
 * It was on similar occasions that great Revivals began at the Kirk of Shotts 
 in 1630, under the preaching of Livingston, and at Kilsyth, near Glasgow, in 
 1839, under the preaching of the Rev. W. Burns, son of the parish minister, and 
 now a missionary in China. 
 
28 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 preceded, as elsewhere, by earnest prayer by individuals in almost 
 ever J- one of the seven hundred families of which Mr. Adams's con- 
 gregation is composed. ** In almost every one of these families," he 
 says, " there are some who diirmg the last eight motiths have been 
 waiting and j^ycigingfor the Holy Sjjirit." 
 
 As to spiritual results, the numbers awakened and converted, and 
 the modes of the Spirit's operation, Mr. Adams writes : — *' Hundreds 
 have been visibly and remarkably awakened, and many truly con- 
 verted. It is utterly impossible at present to obtain accurate statis- 
 tics of all, and the day will alone declare the real number as 
 compared with the nominal. But from my own observation, and 
 accurate lists which I have received from some of my elders, and 
 other trustworthy persons, I am able to affirm that not less than 
 seven hundred of our people" (this refers to Mr. Adams's own 
 congregation only) " have been gracioush^ awakened by the Spirit 
 of God since the Revival began, all, with a few * stony-ground' 
 exceptions, hopeful, and many of them decided Christians. 
 
 " They have been brought under the Divine influence at di£Ferent 
 times and ways, and in different places. Some at night, others in 
 the day ; some in gloomy winter, others in warm summer ; some in 
 bed, others at work ; some in the open air, either alone or at the 
 prayer-meeting, in the field or on the wayside; and others at the 
 crowded assembly, in the dwelling-house, or in the church. 
 
 " From the lists before me I find there are as many as eight in 
 one family, and so on, down to one. Within a small townland to the 
 northern section of my district, the return shows forty-four impressed, 
 varying in age from seventy-five to eleven ; while thirty-eight are 
 above the age of fifteen, and eleven of them are men. A town- 
 land in the east gives thirty-nine in all, thirteen of whom are men, 
 highest age sixty-one, lowest six, and thirty-three above the age of 
 fifteen. And a townland in the centre gives thirty-three in all, of 
 whom eleven are men, highest age sixty-one, loM'est age ten ; and 
 thirty-nine above the age of fifteen. On one day I was called to 
 visit a grandmother of eighty years of age, and a boy of eight, both 
 under deep conviction, and both very child-like in learning Christ. 
 There have been a few so young as two years of age." 
 
 Mr. Adams, in his own graphic way, gives the particular details 
 of a number of cases, which, if our space permitted, would form in 
 themselves a whole chapter of *' Revival Incidents." In concluding, 
 however, our notice of his account of the origin and early history of 
 the Awakening, w^e cannot refrain from laying before the reader the 
 following remarkable illustration of the grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ towards one who was a " blasjDhemer and injurious," and who 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 29 
 
 yet obtained mercy. Cases kindred to this have been by no means 
 infrequent over Ulster. 
 
 " Behold this mocker, how he is ' smitten.' He is aged eighteen, 
 a waif on society, a wild Arab. He never seriously attended a divine 
 service. He was a mocker and a blasphemer, and delighted to mimic 
 the awakened. On that never-to-be-forgotten Sabbath, the 22nd of 
 May last, when God's Spirit was so copiously being poured out on 
 us — (the sermon on the remarkable passage, Hosea vi. 4) — he sta- 
 tioned himself near the entrance of the church, and there, in the 
 lanffuaee of grossest obscenity, he reviled, abused, and cursed the 
 passing people. After some time he shouted ' Ha, ha ! the devil 
 will get hold of you to-day!' To others he said ' Kun fast, or 
 you'll not get the touch.* 
 
 " Shortly after, I was called to visit an * impressed one.' He 
 saw the throes of the new birth ; he heard my prayer and exhor- 
 tation to all present, denouncing him who sat in the chair of the 
 scorner. Scarcely had he left the house, and long before the 
 separation of some of the assembled worshippers, that wicked lad 
 was struck to the ground, as with lightning. He was prostrated 
 in the very scene of his iniquity. 
 
 '•' Some supposed he was dead, but the visitation was in mercy, 
 not in judgment. With restored health, came the soul-piercing 
 stings of an awakened conscience ; words and gestures manifested 
 his terror and despair. His agony reminded us of the torments of 
 hell, which doubtless were present to his mind. Then slowly came 
 awakening hope — ' Lord save me — I perish!' praying for himself 
 most urgently and earnestly. We felt that a brand had been plucked 
 out of the burning. 
 
 *' He warned sinners never to mock God's cause, or profane the 
 Lord's day; and this soul-smitten sinner now limped to every 
 prayer-meeting in the neighbourhood, spelling a little every day in 
 the New Testament, which he kept often under his pillow, and is 
 now regularly attending in Sabbath school and church." 
 
 With regard to the Originating Cause, and the Author of 
 this movement, Mr. Adams says : " Assuming that the Holy Spirit 
 operates directly and immediately on the soul in the sudden and 
 simultaneous conversion of many sinners, all the appearances, bodi/i/, 
 mental, and spiritual, connected with this Revival can be philosophi- 
 cally accounted for — that is to say, * a sufficient reason ' for their 
 existence can be given, but in no other way can they be satisfac- 
 torily explained. Sympathy, contagions, hysteria, hot atmosphere, 
 crowded meetings, the devil's agency, will not satisfy Baconian 
 philosophers — whatever literary divines, sceptics, and 7nere church- 
 
30 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 men may pretend : for, all these existed before without producing 
 present religious results, such as prove that a vial, big, not with 
 judgment, but mercy, has been poured out. 
 
 " We can only account for what has occurred among us BY THE 
 Work of God's Spirit, * whereby, convincing us of our sin and 
 misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and 
 renewing our icills, He doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus 
 Christ for salvation, as he is freely offered in the Gospel.' " * 
 
 *' There was no attempt to ' get up ' a Revival, no human machinery 
 or machination, no underhand plot : all was pure and simple, 
 undoubtedly and manifestly the work of the Spirit, blessing in a 
 most extraordinary manner the ordinary means of grace, such as 
 praise, prayer, the Word read and preached, the Lord's Supper, and 
 the circumstances therewith connected. I may also add, that a 
 large number of useful religious tracts were generally circulated, and 
 were productive of much good." 
 
 The Rev. Frederick Buick, a zealous and godly Presbyterian minis- 
 ter, who had watched the movement from its origin, furnished me, early 
 last summer, with the following summary of his impressions : — 
 
 *' It has no appearance of a work of Satan to mar a work of God. 
 I never saw such holy, heavenly scenes of prayer and praise in all 
 my life before. Characters often the most godless, and even mali- 
 ciously opposing the work, have been stricken down under terrible 
 distress, crying out for mercy from the Lord Jesus. 
 
 " Even poor ignorant children, brought up in the midst of wicked- 
 ness, are offering up prayers before the throne (such as perhaps the 
 most learned divines never offered), in language the most exalted, 
 and with amazing earnestness and power. 
 
 "l)elight in the word of God is most remarkable ; never was it so 
 sweet to the taste. 
 
 ** The Psalms of David are sung now as they never were before. 
 Whole nights are often now spent in reading the Word, and in 
 singing and prayer — especially where there are any parties in the 
 house under conviction. 
 
 " Frivolity is given up for seriousness of the whole deportment. 
 Christ is all in all. Such love for Him, such desires for Him, such 
 fresh and lofty thoughts of Him, I never witnessed before. Oh ! it 
 would do you good to hear them. But to be thoroughly convinced, 
 you must see tlie work for yourself. It is OF GOD. Never in this 
 cowitry has Satan got such a stroke." 
 
 * Westminster Assembly's Shorter CatecLism. Answer to the Question — 
 " What is Effectual CaUing ? " 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 31 
 
 From a carefully prepared report, drawn up by the writer of the 
 foregoing, and presented to the Synod of Ballymena and Coleraine, 
 it appeared that " in all directions prayer-meetings had sprung up, 
 and that without number," and that "the Spirit had descended in 
 power." lieferring to the physical excitement, Mr. Buick says, 
 " Through the instrumentality of the Word and prayer, convictions, 
 often the most powerful, even to the convulsing of the whole frame, 
 the treinhling of every joint, intense hurning of heart, and coinjjlete 
 prostration of strength, have been produced. The arrow of convic- 
 tion pierces the conscience, the heart swells nigh to bursting, a heavy 
 and intolerable burden presses down the spirit, and the burdened, 
 burning heart, unable to contain any longer, bursts forth in the 
 piercing cry of distress, 'Lord Jesus, have mercy on my sinful 
 soul!' Under such convictions, the heart finds relief in pouring out 
 its cries and tears before the Lord. 
 
 " Under the awakening of the dormant mind, the stirring up of 
 the slumbering conscience, and the powerful movement of the nervous 
 system, the imagination is often called into lively activity in pictur- 
 ing out solemn scenes of the future, and in hearing words of warning 
 and counsel. Such sights are easily accounted for, while they are 
 often sanctified, in producing saving impressions. 
 
 " Two great truths take full impression of the mind, namely, — 
 man is a sinner, under judgment unto condemnation ; Jesus is the 
 Almighty Saviour to deliver, and faith in Him is the way of obtain- 
 ing deliverance. 
 
 " Many — even hundreds — are giving the most pleasing evidences 
 of being in Christ. Of drunkards, blasphemers, card-players, Sab- 
 bath-breakers, and neglecters of ordinances, and the wicked in general, 
 it may be truly said, * They are now, new creatures in Christ.' 
 
 '• Sin — besetting sin — is crucified. One man, proverbial for curs- 
 ing and blasphemy, now declares that he never feels the slightest 
 temptation to return to his former sin. Another, notorious for his 
 love of strong drink, now says he shudders at the sign-board of a 
 public-house. The love of a third for card-playing is now transferred 
 to his Bible. Obscene songs have given place to the songs of Zion, 
 scenes of revelry are exchanged for scenes of prayer and praise, and 
 the reading of the "Word. The tone of public morals is enlightened, 
 sanctified, and elevated. Even upon that portion of the public who 
 make no claim to be religious, a deep solemnizing influence has been 
 exercised. It is like pentecostal times, when ' fear came upon every 
 soul.'" 
 
 From another paper — a Report presented to the Presbytery of 
 Ballymena — it appeared that the facts of the great American Awaken- 
 
32 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 ing of 1858, as detailed to their congreg-ations by the Ulster ministers, 
 Tjere powerfully instrumental in stirring up the people of God to 
 pray for kindred showers of blessing. During the winter Sabbath 
 evenings, also, solemn impressions were produced, and some were 
 converted and turned to the Lord, by means of brief, earnest, and 
 pointed addresses. Afterwards came " floods upon the dry ground," 
 and a writer in an Ulster journal, dating his letter April 23rd, 1859, 
 gives the following testimony : — 
 
 "I stood in the centre of a thickly-populated locality, recently a 
 careless, irreligious, and riotous neighbourhood, and from my own 
 intimate knowledge of the inhabitants I am prepared to assert that 
 every house in view, within a mile from the spot where I now stood, 
 is now a sanctuary for the worship of God at the family altar ; public 
 prayer-meetings are attended by crowds so large that no house of 
 worship can accommodate the entire number." 
 
 The population in County Antrim being chiefly Presbyterian, the 
 great majority of the converts were Presbyterians, but Episcopalians 
 and other denominations received the blessing also. More than tbis, 
 Roman Catholics attended the meetings, both public and private, 
 read the Bible, ceased to go to mass, and positively refused to send 
 for their former so-called spiritual guides. 
 
 *' Many Papists," we were told, "are included in the movement; 
 and in no case that I have heard of, will they let that enemy of God, 
 the priest, near them, but they call for the Bible, whereby they are 
 comforted." 
 
 Episcopal clergymen in the neighbourhood took an early and 
 active share in this blessed work. One of them was the Rev. D. 
 Mooney, who '* held prayer-meetings every evening in town or coun- 
 try, turning many from darkness to light, and affording solace to all 
 who attended." 
 
 Great zeal and tender compassion were manifested by the new 
 converts. No sooner did they receive comfort themselves, than they 
 began to pour the oil of consolation into the wounded souls of others, 
 and to be missionaries to the careless around. 
 
 Two eminent Belfast ministers early expressed opinions on the 
 subject of physical manifestations. One of them, the Rev. D. Hamil- 
 ton, who formerly was a beloved pastor at Connor (near Ballymena), 
 where the Revival began, spoke as follows: — "The movement in 
 Connor has, during great part of its progress, been calm, steady, and 
 onward, without any very violent physical manifestations. While 
 we should not prescribe any mode in which the Spirit should mani- 
 fest Himself, neither limit the Holy One, I consider that the calm, 
 deep feeling is the most healthful. I do not think that the feelings 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 33 
 
 could in all cases be restrained, but I do tliink that in many cases 
 they can. And while there are diversities of operations by the same 
 Spirit, I think that the violent physical manifestations are not the 
 most healthful or promising." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Cooke, after describing the facts of this Awakening 
 in the county of Antrim, — the swearer declaring he could no longer 
 swear, and the drunkard and dissolute becoming sober and indus- 
 trious, while the churches in dififerent towns became crowded, and in 
 the streets of these towns, congregations of people assembled to sing 
 the praises of the living God,* — proceeded to remark : — " There, in the 
 midst of this, when prayers were addressed to their Lord, strong men 
 became weak, and strong youths fell upon the ground; loud cries 
 were uttered, and many tears were shed, and some of those who 
 came to mock, cried out for mercy, and remained to pray. 'What 
 did he think of those outcries ? ' He believed that those who disap- 
 proved of this part of the manifestations had no solid foundation on 
 which to found their disapproval. He would, however, pronounce 
 no absolute judgment. But this he knew, that while he was assured, 
 by parties present there were cases of outcries where there was no 
 evidence of any grace of God ; yet, in other cases, there was every 
 evidence that an honest man could ask for, that although these cry- 
 ings might or might not be the grace of God, there could be no 
 question but that the grace of God was there; penitence, humiliation, 
 reformation, and love to the Scriptures were there. Let them not 
 be dogmatic, but exercise their senses between good and evil. He 
 would warn all scorners to beware." 
 
 In the same spirit the Rev. John McNaughteo, who had visited 
 Ballymena early in the summer, remarked, ** This is not a movement 
 to be made the subject of jest, ridicule, and scoff. Men had need to 
 take care lest they run their heads against the testimony of God's 
 truth." 
 
 * A person writing from Ballymeua, on the Snd of June, says : — " The 23rd, 
 40th, and 116lh Psalms seem psalms of power in the hands of the Spirit in im- 
 parting indescribable joy. They are heard at the midnight hour, sung by bands 
 of persons, old and young, returning from their prayer-meetings. Old ' Mar- 
 tyrdom,' thus accompanied, and thus heard at twelve o'clock on the mid- 
 night breeze, has a wonderfully solemnizing iufluence." 
 
34 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Town of Ballymena — Outburst of Spiritual Life — The Atmosphere of 
 Prayer — Romish Converts bearing the Cross — Sabbath Keeping, and its 
 Popish Contrast — A Scene at Ballyrashane — Coleraine Town Hall a Spiritual 
 Hospital — Two OfFicers, and their Tour in Ulster — A Labourer's Letter, and 
 a great Social Change — United Prayer-Meeting at Belfast — An Irish Clergy- 
 man's Testimony — Letter from the Rev. H. Hanna.' 
 
 At Ballymena the Awakening appeared suddenly, and in great 
 power. The whole town might be said to be filled with spiritual 
 anxiety, and every minister of Christ was called, like Whitfield at 
 Edinburgh, to hold daily, nay, hourly, a levee for wounded souls. 
 A feeling of solemn awe came over the wicked, and for one night or 
 more, sleep was withheld from the eyes of hundreds of the people. 
 Strong crying tears and prayers w^ere heard in the streets, and in 
 almost every house, there was the manifestation of a Divine agent 
 working mightily. Among the many striking results of the general 
 Awakening in this town, it was found that those once the most 
 careless, and wicked, and worldly, now crowded the different places 
 of worship. Besides this, out- door assemblies, on a vast scale, were 
 held on the Sabbath evenings, when addresses were delivered, and 
 prayers were offered by ministers and laymen. 
 
 On the evening of the 19th of June, four or five of the new 
 converts addressed the multitudes with great power. Their lan- 
 guage was characterised by the unpolished but effective eloquence 
 of nature, for they were thoroughly in earnest. 
 
 The ministers at Ballymena are well known to me, not only as 
 men of great ability and piety, but also as persons of sound and 
 enlightened judgment. The Revs. Messrs. Dill and INIoore, who 
 took a most active part in these services, did not hesitate to recognise 
 most fully •' the manifestations of God's power, and the work of the 
 Holy Spirit," as exemplified in the conversions of many souls in the 
 favoured community around them. 
 
 Prayer was the great characteristic of these gatherings. In the 
 same neighbourhood there was a mid-day field assemblage of the 
 people for united ^yrayer. A large number of persons gave up their 
 usual work, in order to be present. Mid-day meetings for united 
 prayer were also held in the Town Hall of Ballymena, on every 
 Tuesday and Friday. Episcopalians, Wesley ans, and Presbyterians, 
 led the devotions on these solemn occasions. 
 
 Meetings of the market-people were also held on the afternoon of 
 every Saturday in the open square of the Linen Hall; and thus 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 35 
 
 " the mercantile benches, designed for the use of linen buyers, -were 
 now alternately occupied by the heralds of a gospel * without money 
 and without price.' " 
 
 The Roman Catholic couTcrts in the same neighbourhood continued 
 steady in their adherence to the reformed faith, and it was a signifi- 
 cant fact, that one of them took a leading part in the business of a 
 public prayer-meeting near Broughshane. 
 
 " The whole movement," wrote a visitor to Ballymena at the 
 beginning of the Awakening, " if you will admit the word, is charac- 
 terised by this feature — that the Lord Jesus is the only object, aim, 
 end, and desire, of those who have found peace in him ; and there is 
 yet another curious and blessed thing — I did not hear of any attri- 
 buting of means to any person or persons, that is to say, it was not 
 under Mr. So-and-so, but the praise is all to God. * The Lord shall 
 work, and ye shall hold your peace.' I had a brother with me, and 
 we were both asked to speak or address a meeting to be held on the 
 morrow (Lord's-day). He half consented, our hearts were so full, so 
 I expected to be able, out of a full heart, to tell of Jesus ; but, my 
 dear brother, when I drew near to the meeting- place (a large quarry), 
 and saw about 5,000 people, my heart sank within me, and I felt as 
 if God said this to me — ' Stand back ! don't imagine you have any- 
 thing to do with this people, so just stand aside and let Me act, for 
 the work is all mine.' I thank His name I was enabled to say, * Go 
 on, Lord God, and do thine own work, and to thee, not unto us, be 
 all the praise and the glory.' And He did work; I think about 
 fourteen or fifteen souls in that meeting of three-and-a-half hours 
 were laid prostrate on the earth, crying aloud for mercy. 
 
 "When I got forward to look, a young man, a new convert, was 
 addressing the crowd in a clear voice, and most earnest deportment ; 
 he was an unlearned and ignorant man, truly, but I ' took knowledge 
 of him, that he had been with Jesus.' He was about eighteen years 
 of age, I suppose ; he could not speak five words together grammati- 
 cally, and had those five words been put together according to the 
 rules of grammar for him, he, even then, could not pronounce them 
 in plain or intelligible English, the accent and language of that part 
 being so peculiar. But oh, brother, the gospel of Christ proceeded 
 from his mouth and his heart, and power and unction accompanied 
 him. In describing this man I also describe four or five speakers 
 who followed, all burning to tell sinners of Him who forgave and 
 blotted out all their sins by his own blood. They may have varied 
 their illustrations, but all tended to the one object — to exalt Jesus — 
 not the cold technicalities of Providence, the Good Being, the Deity, 
 the Most High — all true in their way, but these are not the warm 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 expressions of loving hearts. Nothing short of Jesus, the blessed 
 Jesus, God the Father and his Holy Child Jesus, will satisfy these 
 ■wondrous men. Near the end of the preaching, one old man stood 
 up to address the multitude : he was a remarkable-looking man ; I 
 was beside him before he rose ; a dealer in rags would not have 
 given more than sixpence for all the clothes he had on his person 
 he bore the marks and tokens of a * hard liver,' a confirmed 
 drunkard. He spoke something to the following effect, as nearly as 
 I can remember: — 'Gentlemen,' and he trembled as he spoke, 
 ' Gentlemen, I appear before you this day as a vile sinner, many of 
 you know me, you have but to look at me and recognise the pro- 
 fligate of Broughshane ; you know I was an old man hardened in 
 sin ; you know I was a servant of the devil, and he led me by that 
 instrument of his, the spirit of the barley. I brought my wife and 
 family to beggary more than fifty years ago ; in short, I defy the 
 townland of Broughshane to produce my equal in profligacy, or any 
 sin whatever; but ah, gentlemen, I have seen Jesus, I was born 
 again on last night week, I am therefore a week old to-day, or 
 about ; my heavy and enormous sin is all gone, the Lord Jesus took 
 it away, and I stand before you this day, not only a pattern of pro- 
 fligacy, but a monument of the perfect grace of God ! I stand here 
 to tell you that God's work on Calvary is perfect — yes, I have proved 
 it — his work is perfect. He is not like an architect who makes a 
 drawing of a building, and then he looks at it, and he takes out this 
 line and that, or makes some other alteration, and frequently alters 
 all his plan, and even when the building is going on he makes some 
 other change, — but God drew out the plan of salvation, and it was 
 complete, and he carried it out with his blessed Son Jesus ; and it is 
 all perfect, for had it not been so, it would have been capable of 
 
 reaching the. depth of iniquity of , the profligate nailer of 
 
 Broughshane.' While listening to this speaker, various cases of 
 smiting down to the earth occurred. I looked around in the direc^ 
 tion of a small crowd surrounding a woman, and was attracted by 
 seeing a little boy of about twelve or fourteen years, standing at the 
 head of this woman : he was in earnest prayer for her, and truly his 
 shoes were off his feet, he was barefooted, and he said, * Lord Jesus, 
 you know I do not know how to pray to you — you know I do not 
 know how to say one word pleasing to you ; but you have forgiven 
 my sins, and oh, I ask you to show this woman your loving heart, 
 and that you are willing to forgive her her sins also.' 
 
 " I could tell a deal more that I saw, and I afterwards visited a 
 great many who were convjerted, and I can just say that my soul was 
 sweetly fed in being allowed to be a partaker of their joy. I asked 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 37 
 
 one poor girl, bareheaded and without shoes, ' What in the world 
 makes you appear so happy ? ' * Oh, sir,' said she, * haven't I got 
 Christ, and if he does not make a body happy, I do not know who 
 can.' " 
 
 Many seriously- disposed members of the Roman Catholic Church 
 began at this period to attend at the Revival meetings in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and did so in defiance of stern injunctions to the contrary. 
 
 " We know," said the Ballymena Observer, " of one poor boy who 
 was inhumanly beaten by his parents for his disregard of an injunc- 
 tion of this nature; and when thus compelled to obedience, he, 
 though unable to read, purchased a copy of the New Testament 
 Scriptures, and presented it to a pious old neighbour, still poorer 
 than himself, on whom he attends to hear it read on every available 
 opportunity." 
 
 Sabbath observance, as contrasted with previous Sabbath de- 
 secration, was one of the results of this Awakening. By way of 
 contrast, and as an illustration of what popery, and popish priests 
 are in Ireland, we are assured, on unquestionable authority, that on 
 the last Lord's-day of May, " a day marked by a mysterious and 
 heart-searching power in Ballymena, as well as the lightning flashes 
 of an elemental disruption," a large party was engaged in playing 
 cards, and prominent amongst them was a Roman Catholic clergy- 
 man. 
 
 The Rev. J. S. Moore thus indicates the earliest cases of Awakening 
 in Ballymena : — 
 
 " In Ballymena, the work began early in April ; the first person 
 brought under conviction of sin — I think I may truly say convert — 
 who is a resident in town, is a lad some sixteen years of age. His 
 was a purely mental process ; he was not smitten, like many, pros- 
 trate and helpless to the ground, in agonizing horror; he had deep 
 anxiety, great fear, for some weeks ; he found Jesus to be his own 
 Saviour. He rejoiced in peace, yet with trembling, for among his 
 companions he could find no kindred spirit, perhaps, for nearly a 
 month. Others had been previously struck at Ballymena, in the 
 streets and in the public-houses, on the market-days, but they were 
 from the country. The second and third persons belonging to the 
 town, and also the second and third persons whom I had seen under 
 agonizing convictions of sin, were two females of mature years, pretty 
 well instructed in gospel doctrine, and of good moral character ; 
 they continue faithful to Jesus, and I am persuaded will do so : the 
 one sighed heavily and wept bitterly, the other seemed absorbed in 
 thought, or overwhelmed in sorrow ; I engaged in very earnest 
 prayer, but I soon had to cease, and remain there for perhaps ten 
 
38 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 minutes in silent admiration of the sweetest, most intensely anxious, 
 powerful, and appropriate prayer I had ever listened to. The next 
 visit I was called to make was to an Arian family, and soon after- 
 wards to a Roman Catholic family : in none of these cases, except in 
 the last-named household, did the now common hysteric phenomena 
 make their appearance. On my return, after two days' absence at 
 a meeting of Synod, I found the town in a state of great excitement; 
 many families had not gone to bed for the two or three previous 
 nights. From dozens of houses, night and day, you would hear 
 when passing along, loud cries for mercy from persons under convic- 
 tion, or the voice of prayer by kind visitors, or the sweet soothing 
 tones of sacred song ; business seemed at a stand-still. In some 
 streets, four or five crowds of people, in houses, and before the open 
 doors and open windows, engaged in prayer or in praise, all at the 
 same time." . . . . "A goodly number of young men, in business 
 establishments in town, and not a few young workmen, shoemakers, 
 carpenters, sawyers, and labourers, who were depending for their 
 daily bread on their daily wages, gave up almost their entire time, 
 day and night, during the first week, to minister to the religious 
 instruction, and physical and spiritual comfort of the poor stricken 
 sufierers. I put this on record to the honour of these young mem- 
 bers of the church. But for them, in this crisis, I do not see what 
 would have been done, for, in their first alarm, the people of both 
 town and country would demand that a minister, an elder, should be 
 in a dozen places at once. Prayer-meetings, in town and country, 
 became very numerous : in private houses they were held all hours 
 of the day and night ; at first they were held in the principal Pres- 
 byterian churches every evening ; latterly they are held alternately 
 in these churches : at each meeting addresses are delivered and 
 prayers offered by converts, the minister presiding. In the parochial 
 School-house, in town, a weekly meeting has latterly been held, for 
 lecture and prayer ; also in the Methodist chapel there are frequent 
 meetings during the week. For four or five weeks past a union 
 prayer-meeting is held in the Town Hall, on Tuesday and Friday, at 
 noon, attended by ministers and members of the Presbyterian, Epis- 
 copalian, and Methodist churches. Persons from England, and 
 Scotland, and many parts of Ireland, were to be seen perambulating 
 the streets and lanes of Ballymena during the past month; ministers, 
 missionaries. Sabbath-school agents, and cool, inquisitive business 
 men, anxious to witness with their own eyes and ears this strange 
 thing, of which they had heard in their distant homes — a half-dead 
 soul revived by God's Spirit ! a poor lost sinner, with God's arrows 
 sticking fast in him — his crimes over him like a thick cloud — his 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 39 
 
 iniquities a burthen too heavy for him to bear — his heart sore pained 
 within him, ' the terrors of death having fallen on him ' — fearfulness, 
 and trembling, and horror overwhelming him ; now crying, again 
 shouting, screaming for mercy — again unintelligible to auditors, a 
 modern Hezekiah, * chattering like a crane or a swallow.' One in 
 twenty of these inquirers, perhaps, returned home apparently dry, 
 cold, sceptical, puzzled ; many returned having caught a spark of the 
 celestial fire, to be fanned into a flame." 
 
 At Portstewart and Ballyrashane, especially the latter, and both 
 in the neighbourhood of the Giant's Causeway, the Spirit of God was 
 now working mightily. The minister at Ballyrashane, the Rev. J, 
 Alexander, a college friend of the writer, stated that in that parish 
 nearly every family had been visited. In some cases only one 
 member, and in other instances the whole family had been brought 
 under conviction. On Sabbath the 19th of June, at the morning 
 service, '* there was a crowd of anxious and deeply impressed 
 hearers. A few persons came under the influence of conviction, 
 which occasioned a little confusion, but the effect was most extra- 
 ordinary." In the evening of the same day, there was an open-air 
 meeting of 1500 persons, addressed by some of the " Awakened." 
 Upwards of fifty persons were brought under alarming convictions, 
 and were " struck down." 
 
 Prayer-meetings are held every evening in the week in the 
 district, and " the moral effect," says Mr. Alexander, '* is beyond 
 description. The cases are numerous and important. All around 
 are, equally with myself, well acquainted with this extraordinary 
 but merciful dispensation. It is a great and ciood loork of the 
 Sjnrit of God, and I firmly believe that great and good also will 
 be the results." 
 
 At Coleraine, the New Town Hall, the mode of the celebration of 
 the completion of which, had been a subject of discussion among the 
 citizens, was thrown open, not as some proposed, to the votaries of 
 the giddy dance, but to a crowd of sin-sick inquirers. " Its. walls 
 gave back," says the Coleraine Chronicle, " the almost despairing 
 groan of the stricken sinner, the heart-felt prayer of the believing 
 penitent, and resounded with the adoring thanks of the redeemed 
 saint." 
 
 On the morning of Tuesday, the 27th of June, two Christian officers 
 sat as guests and visitors at the breakfast-table of the Religious 
 Tract Society, Paternoster Row. Both these gentlemen had just 
 come from visiting the principal scenes of the Revival, and both 
 were very deeply impressed with the conviction of its reality, ex- 
 tent, and power. 
 
40 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 Captain Hawes ^vent round the Antrim coast by Carrickfergus, 
 and onwards towards the Causeway, having first spent the Lord's- 
 day at Belfast, where he found an unusual and deep interest prevail- 
 ing on the subject of personal salvation. He also was present at a 
 remarkable meeting at Whitehouse, near Belfast, where the presence 
 of God was wonderfully displayed among the young people who 
 worked in the spinning-mill. It was delightful to hear from him an 
 account of the recent conversion of the proprietor of the mill, and 
 also of his wife, and how both were now zealous evangelists in their 
 own sphere. Here and elsewhere, he and Captain Orr his com- 
 panion, had great liberty and boldness given them to speak to the 
 people the words of eternal life. 
 
 Captain Orr found an episcopal clergyman rejoicing with exceed- 
 ing joy over numbers in his parish, who had long remained in the 
 sleep of spiritual death, but who gave the clearest evidence of having 
 passed from death unto life. The clergyman was very sceptical to 
 the movement, until it reached his own borders, and there it showed 
 itself, to his amazement and delight, to be indeed divine. At Kilrea, 
 Captains Orr and Hawes addressed a crowd of people, and favour- 
 able impressions were produced. 
 
 Other places in the county of Londonderry we pass over, to 
 mention that in the city of Derry itself, meetings for prayer 
 and praise now began to be held every evening in the week, in 
 the Victoria Market: very full expositions of scriptural truth were 
 given, and pungent appeals were addressed to the impenitent. A 
 commercial traveller, at one of the hotels in Derry, who for a time 
 suffered much mental agony, was visited and prayed with by the 
 Rev. Dr. Denham, and by another minister; and having obtained 
 peace of mind through faith in the Saviour, he went on his way 
 rejoicing. 
 
 Deputations of conyerts from Londonderry about this time visited 
 Omagh, and other towns along the line of railway to Enniskillen. 
 
 A humble man, writing to a Wesley an minister from the town 
 of M., said, " I know young men of the worst characters, drunk- 
 ards, cockfighters, and in short, the most wicked and sinful, explain 
 the Scriptures, and make prayers far superior to any minister. It is 
 not altogether confined to Presbyterians, but there are members of 
 our church (Episcopalian), and even Roman Catholics. From the 
 advice given by those seized with it, to shun drinking, there was not 
 one glass of whisky sold in this market yesterday (June 7th), for 
 
 every fifty before It is the best thing ever came to our 
 
 country, for it is the means of turning many, many wicked sinners 
 to God." 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 41 
 
 The sin of intemperance in Ulster had long been a subject of 
 mourning to ministers and others. Now, through the wondrous 
 power of the Gospel, drinking habits began to be rapidly abandoned. 
 At Balljmena, the public-houses, if not shut up, were deserted ; and 
 (as Captain Hawes assured the writer) in the town of Coleraine, on 
 a recent market-day, it was ascertained that up till three o'clock in 
 the afternoon, not a single glass of whisky had been purchased in 
 the town.* 
 
 Crowded meetings for united prayer here, now commenced in the 
 town of Belfast. At the first of these meetings at least sixty 
 ministers of various denominations were present. At the second, 
 Dr. Knox, the Bishop of Down and Connor, presided. The deepest 
 solemnity always prevailed at these meetings. 
 
 A friend, who was present at the first meeting, informed us that 
 there were several Unitarian ministers present, as " lookers on." 
 
 The Rev. E. F. F. Trench, an eminent minister of the Irish 
 Established Church, and cousin to Dr. Trench, Dean of AVestminster, 
 published about this time an account of his personal observation and 
 inquiries. He had found a number of cases of "violent affections" 
 among persons in the higher walks of life. He related the case of 
 a wealthy linen merchant, who was thus converted ; he also detailed 
 the results produced on notorious sinners, and concludes with the 
 following very weighty remarks : — 
 
 ** It has been my happiness not to meet with any ministers en- 
 gaged in this work, who have not appeared to me to be sensible men, 
 and sound in the faith. None of them attach any importance to the 
 outward bodily affections. Some of them fear that great confusion 
 and many extravagances may follow ; but up to the present the fruit 
 has been good, and almost without any root of bitterness in the 
 places where I have been. I fear this has not been the case else- 
 where, nor can it be expected where the work falls into the hands of 
 teachers who attach an undue importance to the feelings in religion. 
 
 " But the fruits are the things which will be looked for, both by 
 God and man. And what are they ? In addition to those enumerated 
 in my last narrative, I may specify a few things which I heard, and 
 believe to be true. 
 
 ** A solicitor in B. informed me that litigation had decreased ; a 
 publican, that no man could live by the trade ; and policemen, that 
 now they had less to do than usual. Beyond all doubt, the most 
 abandoned of women have forsaken the streets, and cried to Jesus^for 
 
 * One pnblican, compariDg notes with another, each declared that he had not 
 " wet a measure " that day. 
 
42 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 mercy. I have heard interesting anecdotes of quarrels made up. I 
 have seen it stated that deposits in savings'-banks have greatly in- 
 creased, and I can certify that political demonstrations, ' gendering 
 strife,' seem to be in abeyance. It is true, that the editor of a public 
 newspaper has been entirely incapacitated from collecting his thoughts 
 on any other subject. It is true, that compositors in a printing-office 
 have been unable, through strong feelings of sin and bodily weakness, 
 to go on with their ordinary work. It is true, that the business in 
 factories has been stopped through the same cause; but I believe 
 it has been already in some degree made up to their masters by the 
 return on Monday moriiings of ' hands' which used to be disabled by 
 intemperance on the Sabbath. The more I see of this work, the 
 more mysterious it appears to me; but with such fruit, what can we 
 believe but that God is using these violent affections of the body for 
 the good of souls ? "Why are we to doubt it ? The fact of the body 
 being affected by the mind is of constant occurrence ; it occurs every 
 time we laugh or cry. We read in Scripture that under religious 
 impressions Daniel * fainted,' David ' roared,' Habakkuk * trembled 
 and quivered,' John ' fell as dead,' Saul 'fell to the earth,' thousands 
 ■were * pricked to the heart.' Similar affections occurred in America, 
 and led to President Edwards's book on the * B,eligious Affections.' " 
 At this time I received a very full and interesting letter from the 
 Rev. Hugh Hanna, of Belfast, narrating the results of his own obser- 
 vations, and very large experience, in connection with the Revival 
 at Belfast. This gentleman is intimately known to me, and his letter 
 is so full, clear, and satisfactory, that I give it almost entire : — 
 
 " Belfast, June 25, 1859. 
 
 "Dear Sir, — The movement of the Spirit of God is widening 
 and deepening. We have had no such day as Thursday last, since the 
 origin of this work of grace. The cases of conviction in Sandy Row 
 during the day were very numerous. There is not the same excite- 
 ment at public meetings as there was during the first week of the 
 Revival. But the meetings are still as largely attended in Berry 
 Street Church — every evening crowded to the doors. The arrows of 
 conviction are shot by the Divine hand, and, lodging in the conscience, 
 the sinner surrenders — the next day, perhaps. He struggles against 
 the power of God, but at last he falls to the earth in the agony of his 
 soul, and cries aloud to Jesus for mercy. 
 
 *' Some soon find peace ; others are kept for days under a cloud, and 
 are sorely exercised. J have visited nearly 400 cases, and nothing 
 short of the blindest injiclelity could fail to see that a mighty loorh 
 of grace is on foot. The five-sixths of all the cases are calculated 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 43 
 
 to gladden the Church. Many of them are quite surprising. "When 
 God enters the heart, He opens the lips, and fervent exhortations by 
 the converts are addressed to all around — father and mother, brothers 
 and sisters, being specially urged to flee to Christ for mercy. 
 
 " Such touching scenes as one now daily witnesses, it would be 
 impossible adequately to describe. Every street, in some districts of 
 the town, you may discover a house full of the surrounding inhabi- 
 tants. The voice of prayer and praise resounds. Some stricken soul 
 seems to feel the very pains of hell, or with angelic rapture is pour- 
 ing forth the most beautiful tributes of gratitude and praise to the 
 Lord Jesus. *Ah! I wish,' said one, ' that I could tell you of Jesus' 
 love; I would take all sinners in my arms if I could, and lay them 
 at His feet.' One young woman acknowledged that she had often 
 assisted in the street rows, and carried stones for stronger arms, 
 wherewith to pelt the enemy. But she had no enemies now, for she 
 would be a friend to all sinners. She would tell Romanists of the love 
 of Jesus, and she could love them now even when they wronged her. 
 
 **I entered a very poor dwelling the other day; but it was like a 
 corner of Heaven. Three sisters, on one bed, were rejoicing in Christ. 
 They were in a state of heavenly rapture. An aged mother, with 
 tearful eyes, looked on her rejoicing children, and gave glory to God. 
 Many most remarkable cases of wild, profligate, and brutal characters, 
 created anew, in this gracious movement, might be adduced. They 
 would fill a volume. Tlie good clone is incalculable. The lower and 
 middle classes are pervaded by a spirit of seriousness and inquiry. 
 Churches are crowded at all services. Open-air services are attended 
 by thousands. The people seem never to have enough — they so 
 hunger for the bread of life. It is impossible to get them to retire 
 from the churches. Roman Catholics are overtaken in the mercy of 
 God; and God's grace proves itself stronger than controversy in the 
 pulling down of strongholds. I write with an interesting young 
 woman, of vigorous mind and considerable intelligence, beside me. 
 God has overtaken her. She had a great struggle with the priest; 
 she dreads the displeasure of friends — not for her own sake, but for 
 theirs. She has written to her father, who is at a distance, to tell 
 him what God hath done for her. Her letter breathes a beautiful 
 spirit; and concludes by saying, that though he should cast her out, 
 she will ever pray for him. Our hearts are full of joy. The Lord 
 hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. — I am, yours in 
 Christ, "Hugh Hanna." 
 
 When I read this letter I could not but feel that Christians, by 
 continued fervent and believing prayer, should seek for such an out- 
 
44 THE ULSTER AWAKENINa. 
 
 pouring of the Holy Spirit, that the whole United Kingdom may- 
 participate in the unspeakable blessedness of a revived Christianity; 
 specially, that they should supplicate that Ireland — so early a land of 
 light — may once more become a torch-bearer to Western Europe. For 
 that country I do anticipate a glorious future, even as she had once 
 — ere Rome enslaved her — a great past. And in believing anticipa- 
 tion of the dawning of that bright day, in a higher and holier sense 
 than was meant by Erin's bard, the Christian Irishman may even now 
 address his country and say — 
 
 "Though nations are fallen, yet still thou art young. 
 And thy sun is but rising when others have set ; 
 And though slavery's chain long around thee has hung. 
 The full noon of freedom shall beam round thee yet !" 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Early History of the Awakening in Belfast — The First Meeting and its Issues 
 — Christian Professors quickened — A quiet yet mighty Work — Overwrought 
 Labourers — Great Prayer-Meeting in the Botanic Gardens — Unitarians, 
 Romanists, and Orangemen — The Car-Driver's Logic. 
 
 The town of Belfast, the commercial capital of Ireland, was stirred 
 to its centre by the tidings of the work of grace going forward at 
 Connor. Ballymena, and in the neighbouring towns and district of 
 the county of Antrim. In the month of June a public meeting was 
 convened in Linen Hall Street Presbyterian Church, for the purpose 
 of hearing addresses from two converts from Connor. These men, 
 with extraordinary earnestness, gravity, sincerity, and power, ad- 
 dressed the multitudinous assemblage. There was nothing exciting 
 in their manner, but their words were as arrows, and ere the meeting 
 closed, an awful sense of the Divine presence filled every heart. 
 Some were stricken down, and cried out in agony and alarm of soul. 
 Thus a movement was inaugurated which rapidly spread over the 
 whole town, and which has led, it is believed, to the conversion therein 
 of at least 10,000 souls. At Berry Street, Great George's Street, and 
 other Presbyterian churches, vast crowds assembled nightly, and the 
 Spirit of God displayed his power in the conviction and conversion 
 of hoary-headed and hardened sinners, of open profligates, as well as 
 young men, maidens, and little children. The labours of Episcopalian, 
 Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Independent, and Baptist ministers were 
 incessant. Arians and Roman Catholics were led in considerable 
 numbers to renounce their errors. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 45 
 
 One early feature of the Awakening in Belfast was the truly 
 marvellous increase of spiritual earnestness and piety among the 
 members of Christian churches. In a Presbyterian church well 
 known to the author, and presided over by one of the most excellent 
 of pastors, it was found necessary to provide large additional accom- 
 modation at the Lord's table, so numerous were those who desired to 
 partake of the holy feast ; and this large additional membership was 
 wo^ the result of conversions since the Revival movement began. 
 Although these had been numerous, and there was an ardent desire 
 on the part of many to commemorate Christ's death, the pastor, who 
 is as cautious as he is earnest, desired to prove and test by a little 
 delay these persons, and dealt with them as catechumens, to be in- 
 structed in the way of God more perfectly. The increase in the mem- 
 bership, therefore, arose from a thorough Revival among the body of 
 professors themselves, or, to speak more accurately, and to give the 
 exact truth as it was conveyed to us, the addition had arisen solely 
 from the conversion of mere formal professors, and the increased spirit- 
 uality of the true children of God. This last, we hold, is the primary 
 result of a Revival in the proper sense of the term. The church prays, 
 " Wilt Thou not revive us again ? " — that is, "Wilt Thou not awaken 
 into fresh vitality the faith, the penitence, the love, the holy consecra- 
 tion of heart, and time, and talents, which Thou didst bestow at the 
 beginning of our Christian career, when all things were made 
 new ? " 
 
 The application of such a truth is obvious. In vain do we look 
 for the quickening of the spiritually dead in Great Britain, until 
 Christians themselves are revived — until formalism in the church gives 
 place to reality, and hypocrisy to truthful and loyal allegiance ; and 
 prayer, not from feigned lips, but gushing forth from hearts filled with 
 the Holy Ghost, shall bring the blessing down ; and so the dead 
 shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and hearing, they shall believe 
 and live. 
 
 Although the movement was now attracting universal attention, 
 and in its very vastness was accompanied with much of outward 
 manifestation, yet — and this we state on the very best authority — 
 there was a mighty and quiet movement going on, which those alone 
 who were mingling among the people, and who have their confidence, 
 could know. 
 
 Great was the anxiety on the part of ministers and others that 
 this blessed work should not be marred. In the Banner of Ulster 
 appeared a letter, signed by four ministers of eminence, calling special 
 attention to the probability, that Satan would endeavour to bring this 
 Awakening into contempt, or to diminish its power by counterfeit 
 
46 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 manifestations, such as should give cause to the enemies of evan- 
 gelical religion to hlaspheme. Kindred anxiety was expressed also 
 by an episcopal clergyman, who, in writing to me, spoke of certain 
 parties more ardent than judicious, who had been guilty of " excesses." 
 I found it, too, in the communication of an eminent Presbyterian 
 minister, who feared lest by unbelief or self-seeking, or the exalta- 
 tion of man, the work should be hindered. All these anxieties were 
 tokens of good. *' Forewarned, forearmed ;" these sober and un- 
 selfish Ulster ministers will, I said, be honoured of God to guide 
 the movement, with Christian discretion, to a blessed issue. 
 
 The closing week of June seems to have been the most remark- 
 able in the early history of the movement in Ulster; so said a 
 Belfast journal of June 30th : — *' Several weeks have elapsed since 
 the wonderful work of the Spirit, now effecting such momentous 
 moral changes among our community, first commenced its work in 
 Belfast and the neighbourhood. But the present week must be re- 
 garded as the great and special season of refreshing and revival — 
 the * accepted time ' to numbers who before dwelt in the shadow of 
 death. This will be sufficiently evident from the deeply interesting 
 details relative to the progress of gospel enlightenment throughout 
 our immediate bounds, and the spiritual renewing which is going on 
 silently, but with power, not only in localities where the Kevival 
 element had previously manifested itself, but also in districts widely 
 asunder — some of them even remote from centres whence the Awaken- 
 ing influence could have reached them by means of any mere human 
 agency or sympathy." 
 
 Of the " details " above alluded to, we now proceed to give a 
 summary from various sources of information. A Belfast Presby- 
 terian elder, while [modestly declaring his incompetence to furnish 
 me with a full summary of the work in that town, gave, as a second 
 reason, icard of time. He, with others like-minded, had been over- 
 whelmed with toil arising from the blessed necessities of the crisis. 
 Night and day had pious laymen been engaged, speaking with the 
 awakened, and visiting them at their own houses. ** Every one," 
 wrote my friend, " that has a heart for work is done up, the calls are 
 BO many. As the movement here has been much among the poor, our 
 Town Mission arrangements greatly increase. The Lord is doing great 
 things in our midst. In Fisherwick Place Sabbath schools about 
 forty have found the Saviour within the last few weeks." 
 
 The Awakening among young persons was also marked and exten- 
 Bive. An instance of simultaneous conviction, at this period, among 
 almost the whole children of a Sunday school at Belfast, excited much 
 attention. Can there be, I ask, an object more worthy of intense 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 47 
 
 desire on the part of British Christians than that the mighty rushing 
 wind of the Spirit should pervade and fill our Sunday schools ? The 
 pupils are numbered by millions; the teachers are a quarter of a 
 million at least, mostly all zealous and faithful ; and yet the number 
 of conversions, how few ! From the elder scholars but a small number, 
 comparatively, enter the church of Christ. It is an alarming and an 
 acknowledged fact, that the gulf between the school and the com- 
 munion table is unbridged. Is there not need, then, for instant, in- 
 cessant, fervent, compassionate entreaty for a great Revival in our 
 Sabbath schools ? 
 
 A great union meeting for special prayer had been the event of this 
 period. It had been considered highly desirable by the zealous friends 
 of the movement, that an effort should be made to bring together, 
 on one day, many persons from all the districts within a reasonable 
 distance of the metropolis of Ulster, in order that information might 
 be given, and, in connection with solemn addresses, prayer offered for 
 the abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit. From the counties of 
 Armagh, Tyrone, Antrim, and Down, these came, by railway trains, 
 which were crowded to excess, to different Belfast termini, and thence 
 repaired, with all the solemnity and order of Christian Sabbath-day 
 worshippers, to the Royal Botanic Gardens. Here, also, were gathered 
 crowds from the town and immediate neighbourhood. 
 
 It was in the beautiful grounds of the Botanic Gardens that the 
 Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, in the month of August, 1858, addressed the 
 largest audience which ever assembled to hear a minister of the 
 Gospel in Ulster. But it is calculated that a multitude four or five 
 times as great was now collected, numbering in all from 35,000 to 
 40,000 souls. 
 
 "When this vast assembly was gathered together in front of the 
 platform, and occupying every available spot of the entire ground 
 between the pavilion and the conservatory, the scene was certainly 
 one of the most striking, as well as impressive, ever witnessed in 
 the province. Crowds, however, continued to pour in through the 
 gates for more than an hour subsequently, till at last the whole 
 space in view from the platform was closely packed. "Even the 
 branches of the trees were taken advantage of by the junior members 
 of the audience, as the most suitable situations for either seeing or 
 hearing ; and there, while the sounds of praise were rising from the 
 multitudes below, these young worshippers were heard joining in 
 the song of thanksgiving. Nothing of holiday levity, nothing of the 
 thoughtless mirth of youth was manifest among them ; their atten- 
 tion to the proceedings was as marked, and their attention as well- 
 ordered, as that of any person in the vast assemblage." 
 
48 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 The Rev. John Johnston, D.D., the Moderator of the General 
 Assembly, — whose name was identified with Christian missions, Bible 
 circulation, Sunday-school instruction, when these were. little prized 
 in Ulster, and who still more recently was the leader of that great 
 open-air preaching movement which has acted as a pioneer to the 
 present work of God, — was the chairman and president on this 
 remarkable occasion. He opened with a deeply impressive prayer 
 for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon those before him. After 
 reading a portion of Scripture, he then gave out the 100th Psalm, 
 and never before, in Belfast, did so many voices unite in such hearty 
 accord in singing this favourite song in Zion. 
 
 The chairman then addressed the throng. The following is a 
 portion of his observations : — " When the destroyer of men's lives 
 was vanquished at the battle of Waterloo, the crowned heads of 
 Europe fell down on bended knees, and with uncovered heads 
 ackaowledged themselves grateful to that God who had put an 
 end to the shedding of human blood ; and when the God of peace is 
 now treading under-foot the destroyer of men's souls, and is rescuing 
 from his fatal grasp so many immortals for whom Christ died, shall 
 we be ashamed to acknowledge His goodness, and the might of his 
 Eternal Spirit, as we are this day met to do, and with one heart to 
 pray * Thy kingdom come ? ' 
 
 ' Jesus, ride on till all are subdued, 
 And the universe filled with the kuowledge of God; 
 Let the whole earth be filled with thy glory. Amen and amen.' 
 
 " But, my friends, we are in a world that lieth in wickedness. 
 There are scoffers who say, * Where is the promise of His coming P 
 for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were 
 from the beginning.' Let us not give occasion to the enemies of 
 God to blaspheme, by any levity, trifling, or impropriety, unbecom- 
 ing this occasion. Let us set the Lord God before us, and so realize 
 His awful presence in this place, that good may be done, and God 
 may be glorified. AVe are especially met to do homage to the 
 Holy Ghost, whose convincing and converting power has been so 
 strikingly manifested amongst us for tliese several months ; and let 
 us not resist the Holy Spirit, nor grieve Him, but ask unanimously, 
 earnestly, and expectingly, that He will descend upon us on this day 
 as He did on the day of Pentecost, in answer to the many prayers 
 offered up, and to be offered, and that many sons and daughters may 
 this day be born to the .Lord Almighty." 
 
 While the addresses were being delivered, and the prayers offered, 
 there were very many, who found it impossible to catch the sounds 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 49 
 
 by reason of distance. Hence it came to pass that other congrega- 
 tions were rapidly formed and collected in other parts of the gardens, 
 numbering from 500 to 1000 each. In these smaller meetings many 
 ■were " struck down " under deep conviction of sin ; some weeping 
 bitterly, but silently; some crying out piteously for mercy, and 
 others unable to utter a word. Some proceedings in one of these 
 circles — where a coloured gentleman, agent to theTemperanceLeague, 
 and three others, were offering up prayer in a manner, the vehemence 
 of which gave occasion to considerable remarks — " were," said the 
 Banner of Ulster, "not at all to our taste." 
 
 Prayer-meetings among the young formed another feature of this 
 remarkable gathering. In many parts of the gardens groups of boys 
 and girls, some of them ragged, who had evidently belonged to the 
 outcast classes, and were recently converted, prayed in language 
 most affecting and impressive. 
 
 On the same day on which the united prayer-meeting M'as held at 
 the Botanic Gardens, the regular weekly prayer-meeting was held 
 at the Music Hall, and was largely attended. Week-evening services 
 also continued to be held in the various places of worship; and these, 
 as well as services in the open air, were crowned with results truly 
 astonishing. 
 
 From Comber, Dundonald, Killinchy, and Killyleagh, in the 
 County Down, from Glenarm, and other places in Antrim county, 
 from various quarters in Londonderry, and from the city of Armagh, 
 most cheering accounts were now received. 
 
 Unitarians and Romanists also continued to be brought under the 
 power of the movement. At Carryduff, in Downshire, a woman, 
 who was a Unitarian, who never attended one of the prayer-meetings 
 — who did not believe that these revivals were of God, but mocked 
 and scofifed at them, and who had never spoken to one of the 
 " convinced," was herself brought under deep distress of mind, 
 and was led to cry to the Saviour for mercy. She refused to see 
 the Unitarian minister, and was brought the same evening to the 
 evangelical prayer-meeting, to be instructed and prayed for. This 
 was done, and she went home full of peace and gladness. 
 
 Of the Roman Catholic converts at Belfast we were told, that 
 " their firmness in holding fast by the liberty wherewith Christ had 
 made them free, was greater than that of the converts of any other 
 persuasion." 
 
 Marvellous indeed were the scenes now going forward night and 
 day. This was the season of the year which recalled to the recollec- 
 tion of the writer many an anniversary of the battle of the Boyne, 
 in connection with much that was painful as to spurious party zeal 
 
 £ 
 
50 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 among the Protestant yeomanry of Ulster, and frequently collisions 
 ■with Romanists. But now, in Jnly, 1859, party spirit seemed dead. 
 Instead of the favourite songs and airs of " Croppies, lie down ! " 
 and " The Boyne Water," and drum and fife, — in the summer 
 evenings, were heard the high praises of God from groups met in 
 holy concert, or returning to their respective homes as " a band whose 
 hearts God has touched." 
 
 The reality of this Awakening was now so unquestionable, that 
 scoffers were well-nigh silenced. A driver of a car at Belfast, who 
 had seen many in a country district " struck down," and had heard 
 them crying for mercy, was asked what he thought it was ? He 
 replied, '*Why, sure it must be the work of the Almighty. The 
 Catholics say it is the work of the devil, but I always say to them, 
 ' Would the devil teach people to pray ? Sure, if it was the devil 
 or glamourie, it's drinking and swearing they would be, and not 
 praying and doing good.' " 
 
 We find also, as one of the fruits of this work, " restitution " being 
 made, as in the days of the great Revival of Scotland, a century ago. 
 The social change in the community which was effected in two 
 months was amazing. 
 
 The Rev. William Arthur, of London, who was now amid the 
 scenes of this Revival, deliberately declared that it was a season of 
 Pentecostal power and blessing. 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 Extending Interest in the Awakening — Pilgrims from Afar — Their Testimony — 
 Belfast Toilers — General Progress — Abatement of Party Spirit — Bigotry and 
 its Contrasts — The Loving Bishop and United Prayer — A Clergyman's Visit 
 to Belfast — His Good Report — Special Cases — Special Prayer in America for 
 Ulster — Case of " Trance " at Ballymena. 
 
 Intense interest soon began to be felt in this marvellous Awakening, 
 not only throughout the United Kingdom, but also in Canada and 
 the United States, as well as over the continent of Europe. 
 
 Summer tourists repaired to Ireland, and among them, many 
 earnest Christians not only embraced in their journey the glorious 
 scenery of Killarney and the west of Ireland, but also repaired to the 
 north, to see something still more glorious than even the Giant's 
 Causeway and the magnificent headlands of the Antrim coast — even 
 the results of the mighty creative energy of God the Holy Ghost. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 51 
 
 Ulster in 1859 was in truth the scene of special pilgrimage, and, 
 having closely examined the facts, and become personally acquainted 
 with the sober-minded and judicious men who directed or co-operated 
 in this great movement, men returned to their homes, saying, *♦ It 
 Avas a true report we heard — the half was not told us." " The Lord 
 hath done great things, whereof we are glad." 
 
 Among the early visitors to Belfast, was M. Napoleon Roussel, an 
 eminent minister of the French Protestant Church, well known as 
 the author of " Religion D'Argent," and other controversial treatises, 
 which have dealt heavy blows and sore discouragement to the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 A well-known minister at Belfast wrote to me at this period, of 
 the overwhelming fatigue which he and his brethren underwent, in 
 visiting, conversing, and praying with awakened persons. Several 
 of them were thus engaged till two or three o'clock in the morning ; 
 and he himself, although just recovering from severe illness, was thus 
 occupied till twelve o'clock at night. It was only late on a Saturday 
 evening that he could snatch a little time for pulpit preparation for 
 the services of the Lord's-day. Such labour, however, was one of love, 
 and we doubt not that many faithful men throughout the kingdom 
 now almost envied the hallowed "weariness" of their Belfast 
 brothers, and would have been more than glad, to be called to 
 *' endure hardness " kindred to that of these good soldiers of Jesus 
 Christ, in fighting His battles, and in winning souls to Him. 
 
 Another correspondent at Belfast, writing to me, said, " You will 
 see by the papers that the Revival work is still going on and in- 
 creasing all over Ulster. While we cannot approve of all we see and 
 liear, yet we must not condemn ; and there is no doubt of the great 
 change wrought in the community as to sobriety, decrease of party 
 and sectarian spirit, and also as to religious feeling." In reference 
 to the usual Orange demonstrations on the 12th July, in commemora- 
 tion of the battle of the Boyne, our correspondent adds, *' I do not 
 think we shall have any party processions or displays here next 
 week, which in itself is a great matter, and a token for good." 
 
 It was stated in a Belfast journal at this period that a clergy- 
 man of the High Church school found a Presbyterian layman ad- 
 ministering consolation to a young woman who had been grievously 
 oppressed both in body and soul, that he ordered him out of the 
 apartment with words of extreme sectarianism, and intimated at the 
 same time to the father of the girl, that the landlord would be much 
 displeased with hina in not sending for his own clergyman. We 
 rejoice to say that this exclusive spirit had found no countenance 
 from this gentleman's own brethren. 
 
 e2 
 
52 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 While some stood apart from co-operation with other Protestants, 
 yet anti-Tractarian,* anti-Romish, Evangelical, is the prevailing 
 characteristic of many clergymen. 
 
 Thus it was that the Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, presided 
 at the first meeting for united prayer in the Music Hall, Belfast. He 
 opened it with an address so full of brotherly love, as to remind us of 
 that amiable predecessor of his in the seventeenth century, who, 
 when a Presbyterian ordination was being held in his diocess, asked 
 leave to be present, not as a prelate, but as ** a simple presbyter;" 
 and who put his hand on the head of the candidate, in common 
 with, and in loving recognition of, the Scottish ministers as his fellow 
 labourers, and the servants of a common Lord. We have already 
 given the testimony of the Rev. F. F. Trench, an Episcopal clergy- 
 man, as to what he saw and heard on a recent visit to Ulster. Kin- 
 dred testimony had been borne by two of his brethren — the Rev. W. 
 Marable, of Dublin, and the Rev. J. P. Garret, rector of Kellstown, 
 County Carlo w. The latter gentleman told his own parishioners that 
 he was about to visit Belfast, and that, on returning, he would com- 
 municate the results of his observations. He now " fully corroborated 
 what others had written," and desired that the facts published by 
 him might '* redound to the glory of God, from whom all these great 
 things proceed." His first visit was paid to a daily meeting for 
 prayer, held at the factory dinner hour (two o'clock) by a number of 
 young women in the schoolroom of Linen-Hall Street Presbyterian 
 Church. The local ministers were so pressed with urgent duties that 
 he was asked to preside. We give what followed in his own words : — 
 ''Having given out a suitable hymn and prayer, I then read the first 
 fourteen verses of John xvi., especially dwelling on the 7th and 13th 
 verses. I felt my heart drawn towards these people, and after using 
 expressions to stir up convictions, I assured all true subjects of con- 
 version that when the Heavenly Physician commenced His work. He 
 would perfect it, and carry on His stricken one to the rest in glory. 
 
 " Then occurred a scene I shall never forget: a strong girl sat near 
 me, named Agnes J., twenty years of age, who, throwing up her hands, 
 fell back with a suppressed moan. Three girls next her, held her from 
 falling ; her body quivered, tears fell, perspiration broke out over 
 her face, her lips moved, the names of Jesus, Saviour, and Holy 
 Spirit, were audible. 
 
 " We joined in the 40th Psalm, and after it was sung, two of the 
 converted girls, at my request, prayed in turn, and never did I hear 
 
 * " We have too much of the real thing (i. e. popery) in Ireland" was the 
 expressive reason giveiij by the Bishop of Cashel, why Tractarianism found sym- 
 pathy from few or none of the Irish clergy. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 53 
 
 a more earnest prayer — so simple, so scriptural ; beautifully they 
 expressed themselves whilst ■wrestling' with God in behalf of her 
 they now called sister. 
 
 " Not one in the whole meeting but now held down their heads, and 
 all seemed to pray as with one heart and one soul. Just before the 
 conclusion of the meeting, the Rev. Mr. Knox, the Presbyterian 
 minister, entered, and feelingly he prayed in behalf of the oppressed 
 and stricken one. She was then carried to his house, which was at 
 hand. I followed. We then praised God together, and again prayed 
 for her, and I left her with the intention of seeing her next day when 
 taken to her home. 
 
 "Another girl, aged eighteen, called Rachel 0., was stricken at 
 the same moment, but she was able to suppress outward expression 
 of what was passing within her. The next day, Wednesday, quite 
 unexpectedly I called with a Scripture-reader of Christ Church, 
 whom I had known for above twenty years, and we found Agnes in 
 bed, very weak but very happy. She knew me at once, and her 
 bright eyes bid me a joyous welcome. She told me, in answer to many 
 questions, that she had for nearly three weeks been under conviction 
 of sin ; but that assurance that 'God never commences his own work 
 in a soul but he perfects it,' went like a dart to her heart. She was 
 overpowered, and fell. She said her heart felt as if it would burst ; 
 but now the load was gone, and sin was pardoned. She was full of 
 gratitude — humbled in the dust for past sin and neglect of God, but, 
 blessed be His name and His Holy Spirit, all was now changed. 
 * Never, oh ! never,' she exclaimed, ' will I doubt ; He will never let 
 me go.' The girl who was also stricken at that meeting came in 
 while we were there, and actually rushed to the bed, and threw her- 
 self into the arms of Agnes. They felt they were new creatures — 
 one in Christ, and sisters for eternity." 
 
 Mr. Garret adds, with regard to those who have found peace and 
 joy in Christ : — 
 
 " The striking brilliancy of their eyes was extraordinary, but this 
 is observable in nearly all who are brought under this gracious work 
 of conviction and salvation. Some Roman Catholics have become 
 impressed, and I had a most interesting conversation with one. The 
 feelings of every one I visited are forcibly expressed in the following 
 lines : — 
 
 'Other refuge I have none — 
 Hangs my helpless soul on Thee ; 
 Jesus, Thou my Saviour be — 
 Sweet it is to trust in Thee ! ' 
 
 All false trusts on human aid, ail false teachers, are rejected. God's 
 
54 THE ULSTER AWAKENTNa. 
 
 Spirit has enlightened the soul, and I believe men or devils shall not 
 jjain a final ascendancy over these striclxen but now rescued ones 
 again, for nothing but Bible truths and L'ble teaching will satisfy 
 them. All sectarian and unkind feelings pass away, and their love 
 for Christ and for each other is wonderful." 
 
 This excellent clergyman called for prayer on behalf of the stricken 
 ones. " Pray for them," he said, " and for the nob.e ministers labour- 
 ing with all their strength, and some above their sirength ;" and he 
 gave as a reason for special prayer — " These stricken ones will be 
 tried; Satan and his confederates will set up hypocrites to cast dis- 
 credit on this work, and if possible keep the masses in ignorance of 
 truth and under the shadow of spiritual death." 
 
 Prayer for the north of Ireland was expressly asked for last year 
 by a Christian lady at the daily prayer-meeting in Philadelphia, at 
 the time wlien the American Awakening was in the fulness of its 
 vitalitj' and power. 
 
 I received at this time a copy of the Sunday School Times, from 
 the excellent and well-known George H. Stuart, Esq., of Philadel- 
 phia, who is the President of the Sunday School Union there; and 
 in its columns I found the fact — for the first time it may be — was 
 distinctly announced in connection with that Awakening in Ulster, 
 the tidings of which had reached America. 
 
 Surely there were many such answers to prayers thus offered for 
 America itself. But here was prayer for a locality beyond the great 
 Atlantic, and believing suppliants, could recognise and record the 
 answer in the flood-tide of blessings pouring over " the north of Ire- 
 land" — the scene so earnestly pleaded for. What a twofold encour- 
 agement was here, first, for specific prayer ; and, secondly, for humble, 
 patient, yet confident waiting for a gracious answer to the united 
 prayers of God's children ! 
 
 While the physical agitations were not by any means universal, 
 yet cases were constantly occurring. Thus, of one Episcopal church, 
 on the first Lord's day of the month of July, the Belfast News Letter 
 said, that " about nine of the congregation were brought under a 
 similar influence to that felt in other congregations and throughout 
 the province." At Berry Street and Great George's Street Presby- 
 terian churches, numerous cases occurred. '* Parties of men could be 
 seen passing in almost every street, conveying their fellow men in a 
 state of utter physical prostration to their residences. Individuals, 
 who were not so much weakened, were taken a short distance-ffom 
 the church, and on the footpath in the adjacent streets prayer was 
 engaged in with and for them, and many of them returned to their 
 homes rejoicing." 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 55 
 
 At this period all the places of worship at Ballymena were crowded 
 to excess, and in the parish church four or five eases of spiritual 
 arrest and physical agitation occurred, one of which is so strange 
 and peculiar, that we give the account as it is furnished by an eye- 
 W'itness. The case was that of a child, eight years old. 
 
 " She had earnestly besought her father's permission to accompany 
 him to church ; and, while there, had paid marked attention to the 
 devotional exercises which preceded the usual sermon of the day. 
 Some expressions of the Eev. Mr. Mooney, in his discourse from the 
 pulpit, must have arrested the child's attention, for, on two or three 
 occasions, she pressed her father's hand, and, looking upward, whis- 
 pered in solemn and impressive tones, ' God bless him ! ' Soon after- 
 wards she suddenly bowed her head upon her father's knees, and 
 instantaneously fell, speechless and motionless, into a trance — and in 
 that state she remained for a period of about four hours. With 
 respect to the extraordinary sensations experienced by this child, 
 while in a somewhat similar condition on the preceding Tuesday, a 
 correspondent bas referred us to the event recorded in Acts x. 10 — 
 ' But while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven 
 opened.' We do not presume to oflPer any opinion upon the subject 
 — our statements on every matter having reference to the present 
 Revival being limited to a simple narrative of facts. After the 
 congregation had dispersed, the girl was carried to an open passage 
 of the church, and placed in the arms of her father, who had there 
 seated himself upon the floor. In that position we had every oppor- 
 tunity of observing her for half-^n-hour. Her physical condition 
 was neither epileptic, nor in the slightest degree resembling that 
 induced by an ordinary fainting fit. The colour of her face was 
 natural — neither pale nor flushed. When previously afi'ected, her 
 eyes had remained open during the entire time of visitation, but 
 they were now firmly closed; and with the exception of an occasional 
 gentle movement of the lips, and a tremulous motion of the eyes, 
 clearly perceptible beneath the eyelids, her features were in profound 
 repose. Her pulse was full, and beat with strength and perfect 
 regularity, but considerably slower than it is usually found in 
 children. The heat of her body was natural; and, in general, she 
 breathed calmly ; but there were several momentary intervals wherein 
 her respiration became extremely hurried — a fluttering motion being 
 then perceptible about the neck and chest, accompanied by a slight 
 nervous movement of the arms and hands. She was restored to 
 consciousness in about three hours ; but for more than an hour 
 afterwards she was unable to move her lips, or articulate a single 
 syllable. Her eyes, when first opened, did not appear to be 
 
56 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 cognizant of any object within view, but they subsequently assumed 
 an expression of tranquil happiness ; and, when she regained the 
 power of speech, she did not, as on the former occasion, make 
 reference to any scenes which had been presented to her imagination 
 during the interval of visitation. The loss of speech is a new and 
 very mysterious feature in some of the recent cases where mental 
 impression is accompanied by external influence upon the body." 
 
 On this trance-like sleep, and on physical agitations generally, I 
 shall afterwards remark in a separate chapter. Meantime let me 
 quote the remarks of the Neics Letter, writing at this time. It 
 denied, with regard to the great majority of '* stricken^' persons, that 
 they had committed " extravagances." '* They have merely confessed 
 their consciousness of sin, implored mercy from God, and sought the 
 prayers of those around them. As for the cases of those rendered 
 helpless for a time, they had, after restoration, 'become new crea- 
 tures.' " It was added : — 
 
 "■ That some profess to have seen visions we do not deny ; nor are we 
 disposed to regard the sort of second sight they have assumed as any- 
 thing but a result of mental excitement leading to self-delusion. But 
 these cases are the few amongst thousands ; and again we say it is 
 utterly wrong to measure the movement by any such. That a genuine 
 revival of religion, in the best sense of the phrase, is afoot, all who 
 have calmly examined for themselves admit. It has resulted in an 
 enormously increased attendance at religious services, both on Sun- 
 days and week-days; in a decrease of drunkenness and depravity of 
 every kind ; in a more serious feeling pervading the general com- 
 munity ; in many special conversions of noted evil-doers ; in the 
 conversion, also, of numerous Roman Catholics; and, if these results 
 are to be approved, on what principle can the movement be con- 
 demned ? We have ourselves seen troops of mill girls walking along 
 the roads in the suburbs singing hymns and psalms in the most 
 serious manner, persons who used to make it a constant habit in the 
 summer evenings to go in companies singing light songs, and making 
 light jokes with every passer-by. A clergyman of a neighbouring 
 town tells us that the last fair-day there was * like a prayer-meeting,' 
 and that not one quart of whisky was sold, according to the report 
 of the publicans. That the good will abide and increase is to be 
 hoped. We shall know it better by its lasting fruits; but for the 
 present its fruits, now continued for several weeks, proclaim a work 
 in which the Spirit of God has been sensibly amongst us." 
 
\ 
 
 THE ULSTER AWAKE^JING. 57 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Irish General Assembly — Report on the State of Religion — Solemn Recognition — 
 Recommendations — Mr. Moore's Testimony — Dr. Cooke on False Peace — Con- 
 verts and their Addresses — Strength in Prayer — Opposition overruled for 
 Good — " An Overwhelming Array of Witnesses " — Lay Preaching, and Brown- 
 low North. 
 
 It is a great advantage to be able to test any movement by authentic 
 information. 
 
 This is obtained from the testimony of personal observers or actors, 
 and when to this are added the conclusions of deliberative bodies,, who 
 have sifted evidence, and Iiave carefully eliminated facts, public 
 opinion is alike enlightened and satisfied. 
 
 We are thus enabled to add to preceding statements, furnished from 
 tlie private and personal observation of trustworthy persons, the 
 solemn and deliberate estimate formed of the Awakening in Ulster 
 by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. 
 
 This, the Supreme Court, is composed of the ministers and elders 
 of more than five hundred congregations, and is the representative 
 body of nearly one half of the Protestants of Ireland. Its creed 
 is emphatically scriptural and evangelical. Its ministers preach 
 with fulness and earnestness the depravity and guilt of man, the 
 necessity of regeneration and sanctification through the truth. and 
 by the Holy Spirit, as well as of justification by faith in the obedience 
 and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, by evangelical motives, 
 they urge the people to live holy and peaceable lives in all god- 
 liness and honesty. 
 
 At its annual meeting, held in Dublin, in the beginning of July, 
 1859, the Assembly had brought before it a " Report on the State of 
 Religion," by the Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick. This document embraced a 
 review of the condition and progress of religious life throughout the 
 congregations of the church during the preceding twelve months. 
 In other years, the Committee on the State of Religion had much 
 that was encouraging and hopeful to report, as to Sabbath-school 
 instruction, a self-denying and laborious ministry, as well as increased 
 liberality on the part of the people to the cause of Christ ; and espe- 
 cially as to a great open-air preaching movement, which had brought 
 tlie Gospel to at least 50,000 persons of the ignorant and outcast part 
 of the population. Still there was much to deplore, and there were 
 few evidences of anything like an extensive quickening of the dead 
 and formal. But the Report this year opened in jubilant and thank- 
 ful strains as follows: — 
 
 " We are enabled on this occasion, for the first time since this com- 
 
58 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 mittee was formed, to report, to the praise of God's sovereign and 
 infinite grace, an awakening of many hearts to the claims of vital 
 religion. This great blessing has been long the subject of earnest 
 desires and prayers, yet it has taken us by surprise on its actual 
 arrival. We had been so long accustomed to the previous state of 
 things, that we were filled with wonder when it pleased God to 
 hearken to the voice of our supplication, and to pour out His Spirit 
 from on high. Yet it is true — it is assuredly true — the Lord hath 
 done great things for us, whereof we are glad ; and it becomes us, 
 with thankfulness and joy, to acknowledge His mighty hand, and 
 humbly and faithfully to hear the lessons which He condescends to 
 teach.'' 
 
 With regard to the pioneering and preparatory work, it appeared 
 that pastoral visitation from house to house, plain and pointed appeals 
 from the pulpit to the conscience, the increase of meetings for united 
 prayer and an expectation of a coming blessing, together with an 
 increasing respect to the Sabbath and its ordinances, a growing 
 sobriety among the masses, and the decrease of open ungodliness, 
 had been observable. *'But," adds the Report, as to the reality and 
 fulness of blessing vouchsafed, " the grand distinguishing feature of 
 our spiritual history during the past year has been the outpouring 
 of the Holy Spirit over an extensive district of our church. This 
 remarkable movement, commencing in Connor, Ahoghill, and Bally- 
 mena, ?ias spread over a large portion of the county of Antrim, and of 
 the counties adjacent. Those who are the most intimately acquainted 
 with its origin and progress, shrink from assigning any human effort 
 as even instrumentally operative in bringing about this blessed result. 
 There can be no doubt, however, that, under the guidance of the God 
 of all grace, some previous preparation had been made in addition to 
 the ordinary faithful preaching of the Word, and prayer. The reports 
 of the American Revival had tended greatly to quicken the minds 
 both of ministers and people. Many sermons were preached on the 
 work of the Spirit, and many supplications offered up for the special 
 visitation of His grace. Prayer-meetings were multiplied over the 
 district. At length there was a sudden and public manifestation of 
 the power that had been long secretly leavening the minds and hearts 
 of the people. The work of conviction and conversion having thus 
 begun, was carried forward from heart to heart, and from district to 
 district, with unprecedented rapidity." 
 
 The following summary of the leading features of the Awakening 
 is presented in the Report: — 
 
 " 1. Persons of both sexes, of all ages, of different grades of society, 
 of various denominations of professing Christians, including Unita- 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 59 
 
 rians and Homan Catholics, have been at once convinced of sin, and 
 apparently converted to God. 
 
 "2. These spiritual emotions have been accompanied, in a very 
 large number of cases, by physical impressions producing bodily in- 
 firmity, and continuing, in some cases, for hours, and in others for 
 days, and usually terminating in peace of conscience, and sometimes 
 in joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
 
 " 3. The two great truths on which the converts prominently, and 
 almost exclusively, dwell, are the sinfulness and utter spiritual help- 
 lessness of men, and the all-sufficiency of Christ as a living personal 
 Kedeemer. 
 
 "4. No heresy has been started in this new and unusual state of 
 religious excitement. The whole movement, in its various aspects, 
 tends to give striking and vivid illustration of the great doctrines of 
 the Gospel, as they are set forth in our catechisms and confession of 
 faith. 
 
 '* 5. The effect produced by this Awakening on the life and 
 character of those who have experienced it, is decidedly evangelical — 
 a deep sense of sin, especially of the sin of having neglected the 
 great salvation, fervent love of Christ, intense brotherly kindness, 
 earnest desire for the conversion of sinners, habitual communion 
 with God, and delight in His word, w^orship, and service — these 
 attributes of character are, assuredly the fruit of the Spirit, and those 
 are the characteristics of multitudes who have lately declared them- 
 selves the servants of Christ. The drunkard has been made sober, 
 the libertine chaste, the blasphemer and Sabbath-breaker devout, 
 the worldling constrained to think deeply and penitently of his sins, 
 and to flee from the wrath to come. These are surely trophies of 
 Divine grace, and many such trophies as those have been raised 
 lo the honour of God since the commencement of the present 
 Kevival. 
 
 " 6. The work has been carried forward in many districts by the 
 agency of the converts themselves. As many as have been brought 
 to know Christ have taken delight in telling to all around them 
 what a precious Saviour they have found. 
 
 "The fear of man is completely taken away; and uneducated 
 persons of humble station ai'e heard to offer up prayer to God 
 with fluency, propriety, and fervour, in the presence of multitudes, 
 and, without embarrassment or trepidation, to call on their assembled 
 fellow-sinners to repent and believe in the Gospel." 
 
 As indicating how little there was of the merely impulsive in the 
 minds of ministers throughout Ulster, and how earnestly they desired 
 not only to extend but also to give healthy vigour and permanence to 
 
60 TUE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 true godliness among the people committed to their charge, the fol- 
 lowing "suggestions" are worthy of being recorded: — 
 
 •'That increased attention be given to the observance of family 
 Avorship, to the catechising of the young, and to the formation of 
 Bible classes for the benefit of those who have passed the ordinary 
 age of Sabbath-school attendance. 
 
 " That the private members of the Church be encouraged to exer- 
 cise their various gifts for its edification and enlargement. 
 
 "That Sessions be enjoined to meet more frequently for prayer, 
 conference, and mutual encouragement of their members in the work 
 of God. 
 
 " That ministers hold meetings for the special purpose of personal 
 edification, and of increased ministerial usefulness. 
 
 " That religious intelligence be more widely circulated throughout 
 our congregations. That our people be instructed to make themselves 
 well acquainted with the Westminster Confession of faith. _ 
 
 "That circulating libraries of standard theological works be 
 established for the benefit of ministers, many of whom, from various 
 causes, find it difficult to gain access to books necessary to enable 
 them to meet the demands of this intelligent and inquiring age." 
 
 It was further recommended — 
 
 "That, in this season of spiritual awakenings, notes of cases of 
 conviction and conversion should be taken, with the view of more 
 accurately marking the operation of the Holy Spirit, and of furnish- 
 ing materials for the narrative hereafter to be drawn up of this 
 wonderful work of God. 
 
 " That wherever it is practicable and expedient, classes be formed of 
 those who have been recently converted, with the view of establish- 
 ing them in the faith, love, and hope of the Gospel." 
 
 As to the deliberate judgment of the Assembly on the spiritual 
 character of the movement, and the mingled cautions and encourage- 
 ments held out to its ministers in connection with its further progress, 
 important resolutions were adopted. 
 
 In moving the adoption of the foregoing resolutions, the Rev. 
 Samuel J. Moore, of Bally mena, who had been called to take so 
 active a part in that district, as well as to co-operate with brethren 
 elsewhere, made some valuable statements. He dwelt on the neces- 
 sity of distinguishing between mere bodily agitation and conviction 
 of sin, and the conversion to Christ — 
 
 "It is a fearful mistake that any person should be under any im- 
 pression for a few hours, or under bodily suffering or mental anguish, 
 and yet imagine that he is brought to Christ." 
 
 In the same spirit the llev. Dr. Cooke spoke of a case of great 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 61 
 
 distress followed by ** peace." But Dr. Cooke said to the woman, 
 *' Now, can you tell me of any word of Scripture, which you take as 
 God's warrant for your peace?" No, she could not. It was only a 
 feeling. ** I took the Scriptures, and endeavoured to found her feel- 
 ing upon faith, and not faith upon feeling. Vi[e should be most careful 
 of these parties." Mr. Moore mentioned that some of the true con- 
 verts held " that it was impossible to be a true child of God and not 
 to know it;" and explained that this arose from the extraordinary 
 change which had passed in themselves. "A man who had led a 
 ■wild and wretched life — a man who has requested his fellow work- 
 men to gather around him for ten minutes, to hear how he could 
 blaspheme the name of God — a man such as this, the next week but 
 one, cast down by agonizing and burning convictions of sin, and 
 feeling himself dragged down into perdition by the power of the 
 great enemy, will, on being brought to realize the grace of God, 
 realize also the deep consciousness of the change that has passed over 
 him. The very countenances of some of the converts have a luminous 
 joy, and look like the faces of angels." 
 
 Mr. Moore explained that those young, uneducated men who had 
 spoken with such power over the province, found their strength and 
 courage only in prayer. Thus were they able to tell boldly what 
 they had been, and what grace had made them. 
 
 " I find a great difficulty in getting one of these young men, at our 
 united meeting, to engage in any exercise, without first praying — 
 prayer is, indeed, the very atmosphere they breathe. The impression 
 seems to be that they could not live without praj^er. I tried, a num- 
 ber of evenings, to urge some of them to deliver an address, and I 
 found that, beginning with prayer, they became steady and ener- 
 getic." 
 
 "Family prayer, presented by converts," was also a marked feature 
 of this Revivah " They engage in it," says Mr. Moore, " until by sheer 
 persecution, or by physical violence, they are driven away from it." 
 He related the case of a family, where every member but one — and 
 this the husband and father — had gone through the usual ordeal of 
 bodily and mental struggle, " and found peace, according to their own 
 opinion, and some of them, I believe, have true peace in Christ." 
 He added : — 
 
 " On a market day, the landlady of an establishment was sitting 
 behind her counter preparing to dispose of her spirits; but the 
 Heavenly Spirit descended on her, and she was — not smitten to the 
 ground — but some darkness came over her mind, and some trembling, 
 and weakness came over her body. She struggled up-stairs, and 
 there, in her bed-room, on her knees, she continued for the remainder 
 
62 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 of the day. I was sent for to see her, and when I went in, she was 
 praying most earnestly — praying for mercy. She did not seem to 
 feel that she had found the mercy of Christ. I sat down, and allowed 
 lier to go on with her supplications ; for, as I have stated before, 
 these supplicants can pray better for themselves than I or you could 
 do. By-and-by, I observed a change in her tone and countenance, 
 and by-and-by, the wild cry of despondency passed away, and like 
 a little child, I thought I saw her, as a worm, crawling up to the 
 cross of Christ, and in humility of heart, asking and finding mercy. 
 Her language was — ' AVilt Thou not have mercy. Lord?' * I know 
 Thou wilt, for Thou hasL said it.' Now, in all such establishments 
 as these, wherever there are converts, youthful or aged, there is 
 domestic prayer." 
 
 With regard to the opposition and ridicule which had been pre- 
 sented to the Awakening, by Unitarian ministers, Komish priests, 
 and their organs of the press, the following statement, from the 
 ** Report on the State of Religion" already quoted from, is important 
 and weighty : — 
 
 " A visitation of Divine grace, so sudden and so unusual, has 
 naturally provoked the contemptuous ridicule of some, and the fierce 
 hostility of others ; but their opposition has been overruled for good. 
 It has led many persons of matured Christian wisdom and experience, 
 from various sections of the Protestant Church, to examine and to 
 judge for themselves ; and we have now an overwhelming array of 
 witnesses to testify, with one accord, that the work is undoubtedly of 
 God. It is true that the ordinary operation of the Holy Spirit is 
 slowly progressive, and almost escapes observation. Yet who shall 
 venture to say that it may not also be immediate, public, powerful, 
 and extensive as His sovereign will ? Why should we deem it strange 
 if the Holy Spirit — especially in times like these, when men are so 
 much occupied and engrossed with material objects and pursuits, 
 when the boundary between the Church and the world is so dim 
 and so little discernible, when such exaggerated importance is at- 
 tached to mere office, and ordez*, and outward ceremonial — why 
 should we deem it strange if the Spirit of God come forth in power, 
 and send such a peal of awakening through the hearts of careless, 
 worldly, self-complacent professors of religion, as shall effectually 
 rouse them from their slumbers, and enable them at once to dis- 
 criminate between truth and error, between right and wrong, between 
 shadow and substance, between the form of godliness and the power 
 thereof? Further we find that, in point of fact, the history of the 
 Church of Christ, both before and since the Christian era, has been 
 marked by signal and extensive manifestations of Divine grace j and 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKEXING. 63 
 
 that in the community of the people of God, as well as in the indivi- 
 dual believer, the life of religion has been forwarded by impulses 
 rather than by continuing progress." 
 
 In reference to lay preaching also, the Irish Assembly cordially 
 united in its recognition, as has already been done by the Free 
 Church of Scotland. An eminent Episcopalian gentleman, Brown- 
 low North, Esq., of Aberdeen, once wild and reckless, now full of 
 Christian zeal and compassion, had been preaching in the Pres- 
 byterian pulpits of Belfast, and a vote of thanks to him was passed 
 by the Assembly in Dublin, On this Dr. Cooke made some remarks 
 of a vei-y judicious character : — 
 
 " I know myself full well, sir, that Mr. North neither wishes nor 
 needs our thanks, and, rather than moving the thanks of the house 
 to him — although that is the form in which it is — I return my thanks 
 to Almighty God that he has raised up such a man to go forth as an 
 evangelist. I have always been one of those who saw no objection to 
 allow laymen to preach. I would not put a layman to rule the 
 Church ; but I think, if a man has any knowledge of the things of 
 God, the more he proclaims it the better. I know that the kings of 
 Israel and the nobles of that land, in some of the reformations they 
 enjoyed, became the harbingers of the Gospel, as it was then under- 
 stood, in the types and prophecies of the Old Testament, and were 
 lay preachers in their days. I have often been delighted to hear 
 Lord Roden preach a sermon. I have heard other noblemen and 
 laymen — gentlemen like Mr. North — preaching sermons, and I have 
 been delighted with them." 
 
 The resolution adopted on the occasion was as follows : — " That 
 this Assembly has heard with much satisfaction the address just de- 
 livered to them by Brownlow North, Esq. That we acknowledge the 
 singular grace of God, in raising up such an eminent evangelist. 
 That we recommend all our ministers to avail themselves of his 
 ministerial services, so far as he may be enabled to visit, and that we 
 pray he may be long spared to labour in the advancement of the 
 kingdom of Christ." 
 
 The address of the Moderator to Mr. Brownlow North was also 
 marked by a loving and enlightened spirit : — 
 
 " We esteem it a happy circumstance in our ecclesiastical consti- 
 tution, that it is so broadly Catholic that we can not only hail you as 
 a brother in the midst of us, but bid you, from the heart, * God 
 speed' in your evangelistic mission. AVe would see in you a living 
 illustration of the great truth, obscured though it may have 
 been by the conventionalisms of men, that a God-made ministry 
 is the only ministry, and that the spiritual Church is, strictly 
 
64 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 speaking, the only Church of Christ — the Church for the sake of 
 which all prophecies, promises, types, services, and ministrations 
 have been given and ordained. Let me, in the name of this Assembly, 
 return our grateful acknowledgments for your faithful admonitions 
 and fraternal counsels. Let me also invite you to the cultivation of 
 a still more intimate relationship, even to the occupancy of our pulpits 
 and the hospitalities of our homes. You have come among us at a 
 season of blessed in-gathering, and happy shall we be if you thrust 
 in the sickle, and mingle with us in thereaping-time, with its songs; 
 but whether you abide in L-eland or return to other fields now 
 whitening to the harvest, be assured that we shall not readily forget 
 the hallowed interest which your presence has diffused; and that 
 among the incidents of this Assembly, this shall not be the least 
 memorable — that we have seen your face and grasped your hand, and 
 been encouraged by your sympathies, your exhortations, and your 
 prayers." 
 
 The Assembly devoted a whole day to mutual and devout confer- 
 ence on the Awakening, and the Rev. Dr. Begg, in referring to this 
 afterwards in an address to his own congregation at Edinburgh, de- 
 clared that it was one of the most solemn meetings ever attended 
 by him. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Guinness was now preaching at Belfast to great 
 multitudes. 
 
 The general progress of the movement in Ulster was also very 
 cheering. The Banner of Ulster wrote thus : — " Our reports with 
 regard to the work of the Spirit in our borders continue as favourable 
 and gratifying as at any former date. Outward and visible excite- 
 ment may be somewhat less intense ; but the silent and penetrating 
 influence of the revival element becomes more powerful as the other 
 passes away. The labours of the ministers, lay assistants, and recent 
 converts, in carrying forward the work in every locality and in what 
 ever manner these services can be rendered, are truly indefatigable. 
 Numbers of Scottish ministers and laymen have during the pasc week 
 arrived in Belfast, in order to ascertain for themselves the nature, 
 progress, and results of this great movement. We have heard (says 
 the Banner) more than one of them state that the reports they had 
 heard of the work, fell far short of the reality when witnessed by 
 them." 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 65 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Eapid Progress — The Ministers absent, the Master present in His Power — 
 The Keclaiined Infidel — Prayer and Blessing — A Children's Gathering — 
 Decay of Party Spirit — The Romish Priests— The Irish Wesleyan Conference 
 — Spiritual Marvels at Newtonards — Episcopal Sermons and Labom-s — 
 Mr. Chichester on "Epidemic" — Unitarian Synod and the Awakening. 
 
 Solemnity and spiritual earnestness now prevailed in Ulster. The 
 outward manifestations were not so numerous as at the commence- 
 ment of the Awakening- ; but the conviction and conversion of 
 sinners, by the "still small voice" of Divine mercy, had made 
 amazing progress. *' In proof of this," said the Banner of Ulster, 
 " we point to the unceasing anxiety of multitudes to become 
 acquainted with the plan of salvation, who have hitherto been 
 living without God and without hope in the world ; to the number of 
 persons who are to be met, who are weary and heavy laden with sin ; 
 and to that increasing throng, whose countenances, radiant with joy, 
 proclaim that they have washed their robes, and made them white 
 in the blood of the Lamb." 
 
 In the absence of nearly all the Presbyterian ministers from Belfast, 
 during the meeting of the Irish General Assembly in Dublin, the 
 usual meetings were held on week-days and evenings, in churches 
 and in the open air, and the attendance was not in the least 
 diminished. The open-air meetings were chiefly conducted by 
 converts. 
 
 Not the least interesting of these meetings was that held at 
 Queen's Island, Belfast, during the dinner hour, by the men engaged 
 at the iron-works. A hasty meal was taken, a large number of the 
 employes assembled on the central lawn, a psalm was sung, a portion 
 of the word of God read, and some practical observations were 
 made, after which the meeting was closed with praise and prayer. 
 
 The discourses of the Rev. H. G. Guinness at this period were 
 characterized by a clear, simple, and earnest enforcement of the 
 truth. Frequent allusions were made during their delivery, to the 
 great work going on in Belfast and other places, laudatory of the 
 work, so far as it was God's, and condemnatory of it, so far as it 
 was man's. 
 
 In Great George's Street — where the Rev. Thomas Toye has, for 
 years past, ministered the word of truth with unusually quickening 
 power, and whose knowledge and beautifully appropriate use of Holy 
 Scri])ture in preaching, have seldom been equalled — the Awakening 
 had displayed itself in marvellous extent and energy. Not only was 
 
 F 
 
66 THE ULSTER AWAKEKING. 
 
 the house of worship crowded nightly to excess, but outside a multi- 
 tude was always collected, and a garden in the rear was filled. 
 
 Among those who had recently addressed the throng, was a young 
 man, who publicly acknowledged that he had been an infidel; but 
 now felt the sacred influence of Bible truth upon his heart. Another, 
 a foundryman, who was converted by means of a little girl inviting 
 him to come to Jesus, said that he had been acockfighter, a gambler, 
 a drunkard, a swearer, and a Sabbath-breaker; that l)e had re- 
 nounced his former course of life; that his body was strong, and 
 that he had resolved to devote that strength to the service of his 
 Saviour. 
 
 In a neighbourhood well known to us (Lepper Street, Belfast) 
 prayer-meetings had been held almost every evening for some weeks, 
 apparently without results. About the middle of July, at an evening 
 meeting for united prayer, "the first drops of the genial shower were 
 observed to fall upon the people, upwards of twenty persons being 
 brought to feel the hardness and sinfulness of their hearts by 
 nature." "These eases," it was added by a local journal, " have, we 
 are informed, resulted in genuine conversion." 
 
 Next morning (the Lord's-day) *' at an early hour, another meeting 
 took place, which was largely attended, and greatly blessed of God. 
 At half-past nine, when the Sabbath school assembled, it was evident 
 to the teachers that there was a solemnizing influence in their midst. 
 It was pleasing to observe the expressions of love interchanged 
 among scholars who had found peace in Jesus." 
 
 Also at this period a mid-day children's meeting was held in 
 Berry Street Chuich, Belfast. About 300 were present, and pro- 
 bably one-third of them had been awakened to a sense of sin, and 
 had found peace in Christ. President Edwards records how little 
 children were brought to Christ in numbers, in the days of the 
 New England Revivals ; and Robert McCheyne gives cases of similar 
 early conversions in connection with the Awakening at Dundee, in 
 1839. Children need conversion, and when the Spirit comes in 
 power, as it did now in Ulster, we see that they too share in the 
 blessing. At the above meeting, *' two of the boys in very poor 
 attire, one of them barefooted, prayed. They were both but barelv 
 able to read their Bibles; they poured out their souls before God, 
 with a fervency that the Spirit of God can alone kindle in the 
 heart." 
 
 The decay of party spirit, as indicated on the anniversary of the 
 battle of the Boyne, has already been noticed. But the following is 
 a further pleasing illustration of one of the happy fruits of the 
 Revival. " A young man, driving a bread cart down Durham Street, 
 
THE ULSTER A^VAKENING. 07 
 
 the scene of last year's unhappy party excitement, "was, a couple of 
 days ago, silly enough to exhibit an orange lily on the horse's head. 
 This very foolish act would formerly, of course, have created a 
 tumult in the neighbourhood. A very different result followed on 
 this occasion. A number of young lads (Protestant converts) stand- 
 ing at a corner, seeing the driver pass, consulted as to the proper 
 means of putting a stop to the party exhibition. Two of their 
 number were deputed to follow him to the first shop at which he 
 might stop ; they kindly remonstrated with him as to the impru- 
 dence of displaying the obnoxious emblem, asking him to have the 
 goodness to remove it, with which request he at once complied." 
 
 The Komish priests were greatly alarmed and enraged at the 
 numbers of their flocks, who had been arrested and converted, and 
 who steadfastly resisted all solicitations addressed to them to return 
 to their old faith. In one case, a young Presbyterian girl, under 
 conviction of sin, had knelt down in a field to pray. She was 
 observed by three Romish priests, and the following was the issue, 
 — disgraceful to the priests, and strongly illustrative of what 
 Romanism is: — 
 
 " While on her knees, she was observed by three persons in 
 clerical costume, who turned out to be Roman Catholic priests, and 
 who entered into conversation with her. She was asked if she 
 would cross herself, but declined, stating that she did not believe in 
 the efficacy of crossing. Another inquired whether she believed 
 in the efficacy of good works to save her. She answered, 'No;' 
 that her conviction was, that works, when really good, were evidence 
 of the work of God in the believer's heart. The colloquist told her 
 that if she would do as he desired her, he would enable her to do 
 good works. Her reply was, that none but Jesus Christ possessed 
 such power. A proposal was next made, and insisted upon, that a 
 car should be got to remove her, for which the priest would pay. 
 To this she firmly refused to consent. One of them then said that 
 he had a mixture in a bottle, suitable to her case, and a portion of 
 which would revive her. Being very weak in body, she was per- 
 suaded to swallow a small quantity of the liquid, and the consequence 
 was, that she became partially stupefied. While the three persons 
 were endeavouring to induce her to allow them to remove her, two 
 young men approached and overheard some of the conversation, and 
 the girl praying, ' Lord Jesus, forgive them, they know not what 
 they do.' The young men then drew near, and warned the priests 
 not to attempt to remove her — that if they did so, they (the young 
 men) would resist force by force. Their reverences then left the 
 spot ; and a Christian woman, who chanced to be passing a few 
 
 r2 
 
68 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 minutes afterwards, took compassion on the suflFerer, and, with 
 assistance, conveyed her to her liouse, where she has remained and 
 been kindly treated since, and, we are informed, has found peace in 
 believing." 
 
 An interesting young Roman Catholic convert had been visited by 
 two priests. One of them engaged the owner of the house in con- 
 versation, while his coadjutor endeavoured to re-convert the girl. 
 He even proposed to forgive her sins, but without effect. She re- 
 mains steadfast in her resolution, and. was present in Townsend Street 
 Church on the next Lord's-day. 
 
 The Wesley an body ^ave taken a very active part in advancing 
 the cause of Christ in Ulster, and in Ireland generally, for many years. 
 In the revival season of earnest labour for Christ and the souls of 
 men, they were among the most active, and their work of faith and 
 love was largely blessed. A blessing also attended the visits of 
 ministers and others to " stricken" ones in their houses, in the 
 awakening of friends and relatives who are present. Scoffers were 
 thus arrested; and spectators mention the astonishing and sudden 
 change that passed on their countenances, " indicating an equally 
 rapid change of opinion with regard to the Revival movement ; and 
 this change reaches its height, when they hear the persons affected 
 bitterly condemn themselves for having mocked some of their neigh- 
 bours when in the same state." 
 
 Here is a sketch of what was going on at Newtonards, in the 
 county of Down, and is a fair sample of the then wide-spread Ulster 
 Revival : — 
 
 " A minister was lately called to visit a person under conviction. 
 He was directing his attention solely to the party in distress, point- 
 ing out the desert of sin and the way of escape, when a person 
 standing behind him dropped suddenly on her knees, and with her 
 clasped hands lifted up above her head, and the tears literally 
 streaming down her cheeks, she cried out in agony, ' May the Lord 
 have mercy on me for my sins!' Prayer was immediately offered 
 on her behalf ; and, when the benediction was being pronounced, 
 another individual leaning against the door instantly assumed the 
 same attitude, and began to utter a similar cry. They have both 
 since found peace in Christ. In one case the person affected was 
 asked to remember that, though our sins were red as crimson, Jesus 
 could make them white as snow. The words fell like a thunderbolt 
 on the ears of a poor sinner, who was standing in the middle of the 
 room, and, falling instantly into an attitude of prayer, she cried aloud 
 for mercy. Interesting cases sometimes occur of several members of 
 the same family coming under the power of saving grace, and in 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 65 
 
 some of these there is a fine illustration of the different ways in 
 which the Spirit works on different persons. In one instance three 
 memhers of the family had been long exercised with the most acute 
 convictions before they found peace, while the Spirit fell on another 
 member of the same family like dew, descending noiselessly and 
 gently on the tender herb. A number of Roman Catholics have been 
 privileged to find the true cross. It is scarcely necessary to add that 
 the Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Methodist ministers, the elders 
 and other office-bearers of the several churches, with the Town 
 Missionary, are so constantly occupied as to need much the fulfilment 
 of the singularly appropriate prayer of one of the stricken, ' that 
 they might run and not be weary, and walk and not faint.'" 
 
 While some Episcopal clergymen expressed doubts on the reality 
 of this movement, it was all the more gratifying to find a number 
 of evangelical clergymen thoroughly agreed with their Presbyterian 
 and Weslevan brethren, in the conviction that the work was Divine. 
 Their own labours were very abundantly blessed. The Bishop of 
 Down and Connor preached in the month of July two sermons in 
 Ballymena, and made repeated references to the Awakening as a 
 genuine work of the Holy Spirit. The Rev. Mr. Mooney, Rector at 
 Ballymena, with other clergymen, continued to labour with much 
 success. The Rev. G. V. Chichester, curate, of Portrush, County 
 Antrim, writing to a friend in Scotland, dwelt with delight on 
 the movement, saying, " Every day's experience only tends more 
 and more to confirm my belief in the reality of what I see." With 
 regard to the aspersions cast upon the Awakening, he added, " It 
 is easy to sit at a distance and theorize ; but I am unable to conceive 
 how any rational person could be in the presence of those converted, 
 without acknowledging them to be epistles of Christ. All the fruits 
 of faith are there: such a sense of sin, such self-abasement, such 
 rejoicing faith in Christ, such peace w-ith God, such glowing love 
 to Him and to His saint, I have almost never witnessed before, 
 and this is not onl}^ in grown people, but in children. These are 
 things so plain and undeniable, that no one could presume to argue 
 the point, unless he belonged to that class of persons who would 
 deny that Christ was risen from the dead even while looking into 
 the empty sepulchre." 
 
 Then as to this being " only an epidemic," Mr. Chichester 
 says : — 
 
 "I do not remember any epidemic producing deep and agonizing 
 conviction of sin. I do not read of any epidemic developing itself in 
 a new power of utterance, and in the most intense and fervent 
 prayers. I do not remember that the symptoms (or at least the re- 
 
70 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 suits) of an epidemic have hitherto been those of faith in Christ, 
 peace with God, joy in the Holy Ghost, love to the great Head, love 
 to every member of His body, earnest deshe and the most self- 
 denying exertions to bring others into the same membership — to 
 save them, as many of them most justly and truly express it, from 
 the burning lake. Do epidemics produce thirst for the Scriptures, 
 and an eager application to all the means of grace ? Do they make 
 drunken men sober? blasphemers men of prayer? thieves honest? 
 deceivers truithful ? sensual men spiritual? vindictive men patient 
 and forgiving ? Do they cause the maid to forget her ornaments and 
 the bride her attire, and to put on the adorning of a * meek and quiet 
 spirit?' Is it, in short, the usual result of epidemics to bring men, 
 \Nomen, and children from darkness to light, and from the power of 
 Satin unto God ? It so, let us henceforth rejoice in the prevalence of 
 epidemics. Yea, let special prayers be introduced into our public 
 services, that we may long experience this happy atmospheric 
 pestilence." 
 
 And yet, after all this, we find the Remonstrant Synod, and the 
 Unitarian Association, at their annual meetings at Belfast, ridiculing 
 the work, denying that the fruits of the Spirit were in any measure 
 its results, and saying that it was an unmixed evil and an abomination. 
 Unitarianism decreases in Ulster; the Revival has robbed it of a 
 considerable body of adherents. The system is one which has never 
 flourished in the atmosphere of a spiritual and apostolic Christianity. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Coleraine and its Press — The Convert's Address — Growth in Grace — Drunk- 
 enness Disappearing — Crowded Sanctuaries — United Prayer — Rev. John 
 Graiiara — The Clergyman's "Caution" — Address by Mr. Guinness — A 
 Kevival Scene — An Edinburgh Minister's Testimony — Blessings carried to 
 Scotland — An Antrim Minister Rejoicing — Continuance in Prayer — Converts 
 Baptised — Multiplied Meetings — Browulow North's Sermons — A Physiciaa 
 on the Awakening — A Market-day "like a Sabbath" — A Scene of Weeping — 
 Theory and Fact as to "excitable Celts" — Summary of Results by a 
 Clergyman. 
 
 At Coleraine the Awakening continued to manifest itself with 
 great power. Of the weekly narratives contained in llie Coleraine 
 Chronicle, a literary gentleman on the staff of the Glasgow Guardian 
 said with great truth and justice — "They have been largely instru- 
 mental in arresting the attention of the careless, and in stirring up, 
 by way of remembrance, the pure hearts of God's people. If the 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 71 
 
 influence of the press were uniformly put forth in the same direction, 
 there would be an instrumentality for good in our land second only 
 to the preaching of the Word." Here is an extract from the address 
 of a young convert, delivered in an open-air meeting, as reported in 
 the Guardian ; — 
 
 '* ]Jear friends, I vs'as a great sinner, but Christ has been a great 
 Saviour to me. Thanks be to God, He has brought me from dark- 
 ness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. If there be an 
 unconverted soul before me, I would just ask you to seek Christ this 
 night. Let it not pass without finding him. Oh, let it not pass 
 without finding Christ to be precious to your souls, for oh ! He is 
 lovely, altogether lovely to them that find Him, Ah, what is hinder- 
 ing j'ou from finding him this night ? What is hindering you ? Is 
 it not your unbelief? Will you not believe Christ's word ? He says, 
 * Come to me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give 
 you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek 
 and lowly, and \e shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is 
 easy, and my burden is light.' Ah, yes, the burden of Jesus Christ 
 is easily borne; ah, yes, it is easily borne, dear friends, besides the 
 burden of sin. Ah, yes, some of us here felt the burden of sin, and 
 Ave know the change now, God be thanked. I would just ask you 
 this night to seek Him who can take away that burden of sin, who 
 can enlighten your minds, and bring you from Satan's bondage, and 
 set you free. Is there any one here this night who would refuse 
 Christ's offer? Ah, I think not. Surely I do not look upon one 
 who would say, I refuse Christ ; Christ is all and in all to them that 
 believe. I would ask you to come wliile it is day, for the night 
 comes when none can work. Work now, come now. Do not wait 
 till to morrow ; perhaps to-morrow will be too late. The devil's time 
 is to-morrow ; he told me to-morrow ; and he is telling many here 
 that you are too young to come to come to Christ, that you are time 
 enough yet. But, ah, friends, heed not the devil. Seek Christ, seek 
 Christ this night; seek Him, for He is precious, He is precious. Oh, 
 my friends, how long will you be slaves to sin ? How long? Oh, 
 think for a moment what it is to be under Satan's power. Will you 
 not turn? 'Turn ye, turn ye,' says the Lord, ' why will ye die i'' 
 Will you choose to die, and go down to destruction, rather than seek 
 God, and go to happiness? There are two classes of people here, 
 the believers and the unbelievers. Ah, think of this, think of this. 
 There are one of two places we must go to, just the two places; 
 there is no third place. And there are but two roads. Which of 
 the two will you choose ? AVill you take the broad road that leadeth 
 to destruction, or will you choose the narrow road which leads to 
 
72 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 everlasting life ? Will you choose to go to destruction, or to heaven ? 
 AVhich, which? You have your choice this night; now which will 
 you choose ? Ah, think for a moment, dear friends, is there any of 
 ns would choose that road, that leads to destruction, any of us that 
 ■would take hell for our portion ? Oh, think of that, my dear friends ; 
 be VFarned this night, and flee from the wrath to come. Oh, the 
 wrath of God, the wrath of God. abiding on you : what an awful 
 thing ! The wrath of God abiding on you, morning, noon, and night, 
 in your lying down and. in your rising up. Picture to yourselves, 
 any of you that have a master : picture to yourselves that he should 
 be angry with you, and his wrath abide upon you day and night. 
 AVould you find happiness? I am sure you would not. But, ah, 
 what is the wrath of man to the wrath of God ? Oh, think of this, 
 my dear friends, and flee from the wrath to come. Oh, seek Christ, 
 seek Christ now, for now is the accepted time, and now is the day of 
 salvation." 
 
 The manner and spirit of the young speaker were in beautiful 
 accord with his address, and are thus described : — 
 
 "We must just add that the reporter's art can give little idea of 
 the power of an address which owed so much of its effect to the intense 
 earnestness of the speakei\ There could not have been a finer speci- 
 men of natural eloquence — the eloquence of the heart — than were 
 afforded by this young disciple of Christ. There was no enthusiasm, 
 no shrieking or vociferating, but melting appeals addressed with the 
 tenderest affection to fellow-sinners. The speaker appeared as if he 
 could not bear to part with his hearers until he had prevailed on 
 them to come to the Saviour, who had done such great things for 
 liim. He saw so clearly, and felt so powerfully that there were 
 peace, joy, and salvation in none but Christ, that he seemed as if he 
 could not believe that his hearers would hesitate to take Him for all 
 their salvation, and all their desire, when he was freely offered to 
 them." 
 
 Growth in grace and in knowledge was now evident among the 
 converts. In addition to this, drunkenness had almost disappeared 
 at Coleraine. One who was much among the lower classes, and who 
 was looked upon by them as a " friend," to whom they could success- 
 fully apply on a Monday morning for as much money as would 
 relieve their thirst, declared that "since the Awakening began, no 
 professing Protestant has presented himself in that condition which 
 formerly so frequently followed a Sabbath evening debauch." 
 
 Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Wesley an ministers were extremely 
 active and faithful in the advancement of the work. The places of 
 "worship were crowded on every Lord's- day, and, "indeed, few in- 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 73 
 
 ducements, save the certainty of hearing the Gospel preached in its 
 purity, were now needed to induce as many to leave their homes as 
 to fill all the open churches with devout worshippers." 
 
 At the ordinary morning service in the New Kow Preshyterian 
 Church, on Sunday, the 24th of July, a case of special conviction 
 occurred. " The individual affected was a very intelligent man, and 
 quite the reverse of excitable. He was not prostrated, but in an 
 agony of mind remained fervent in prayer for a long time." 
 
 At the Union Prayer-meeting, on the 25th July, presided over by 
 the Rector of Coleraine, the Kev. John Graham, of Craven Chapel, 
 London, delivered an impressive address, and concluded by express- 
 ing the gladness of heart which he had experienced when he first 
 heard what God was doing in Ulster, and said that he had seen more 
 of God's work in Coleraine since he came than he had expected. 
 
 A collection had been made at Mr. Canning's church the previous 
 day, for the purchase of a Bible, to be kept " as a memorial of the 
 work of the Lord in Coleraine." Mr. Graham offered some money 
 to aid in this, which was respectfully declined; but it was ultimately 
 handed over to Mr. White, to assist in the distribution of Bibles and 
 Testaments in the town. 
 
 The Rev. F. F. Trench, an Episcopal clergyman, from whose state- 
 ments of what he had himself witnessed we have made extracts in 
 a former chapter, was present on Wednesday, July 27th, at a great 
 meeting in Coleraine, and gave "a beautiful and persuasive address." 
 He cautioned the people not to cry *' Peace, peace," when there was 
 " no peace." On the evening of the same day an immense assembly, 
 numbering 7,000 persons, was brought together to hear an address 
 from the Rev. H. H. Guinness. " During the progress of his sermon 
 several people were convicted, and carried away." 
 
 " In the afternoon of the same day," says the Coleraine Chronicle, 
 *' we were privileged to witness a Revival scene of intense interest. 
 In a small house in a neglected portion of the outskirts of the town, 
 a child, some eight years of age, was made the instrument in God's 
 hand of awakening three others — all members of different families; 
 and one of them, a young man, who the ca ening previous had * sat in 
 the scorner's seat,' and who was loud in his scoffs at any whom he 
 heard ascribing to God's Spirit the work of Awakening which he 
 derided. Now the hand of God in mercy broke in pieces the hard 
 heart, and laid the young man prostrate at the feet of Jesus. He 
 belonged to the 59th Regiment, but is now discharged, and in all 
 the abandon of earnest seeking after spiritual things, the uniform of 
 his earthly sovereign was soiled unheeded, while he sought on his 
 knees the garment of righteousness, provided for all who in sincerity 
 
74 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 own allegiance to the heavenly King. By him sat a young woman 
 who an hour or so previously had found peace and joy in believing; 
 and in the same house two other young women experienced saving 
 knowledge of Jesus." 
 
 As an illustration of the numbers on pilgrimage at this time to the 
 North of Ireland, it may be mentioned that at one meeting in Colt- 
 raine there were present ministers from India, Malta, Edinburgh, 
 Glasgow, London, and from many other places. *' Hosts of laymen 
 are also among us, all deeply interested in the work of Kevival. The 
 ministers and others visit in the houses of many of those who have 
 been converted, and take away interesting accounts of their inter- 
 views." 
 
 The Rev. Moody Stuart, of Edinburgh, after a short visit in Ulster, 
 gave a statement: at a public meeting, of what he had witnessed. 
 He said that the 40th Psalm was a favourite psalm amongst the 
 converts and others, and that it had been sung by publicans, harlots, 
 and blasphemers. He then described the effect which had been pro- 
 duced upon J(oman Catholics who had attended some of the meet- 
 ings, and said that he had seen a young man belonging to this per- 
 suasion completely borne down with grief on account of his sins. 
 He was much struck with this when in Ireland, — that there was a 
 constant appeal to tlie mighty power of Jesus to save them, and at 
 the same time a constant waiting for the Holy Spirit with the whole 
 heart, so intense were the feelings. At a meeting at which he was 
 present, attended by 300 or 400 persons, in Coleraine, there arose a 
 bitter cry of '' Lord Jesus, have mercy on me!" from one of the 
 most abandoned women in the whole town. This was a cry often 
 heard ; and it would be followed by " He will come," so great was 
 their confidence that He would graciously reveal Himself. He then 
 described how, after being in intense anguish of spirit, joy would be 
 seen beaming upon the countenance — perhaps it was after a week, 
 sometimes sooner, and sometimes^ longer — and they would declare 
 that Jesus had taken away all their sins, and that they had found 
 peace. Another thing that struck him was, that when they found 
 ])eace themselves, they began to interest themselves about others. 
 Referring to the Oiange anniversary on the 12th July, Mr. Stuart 
 said, it was a very saddening thing, to find a minister in Scotland 
 ascribing this Revival work to the cause which he did ;* and when 
 he spoke about it stirring fierce fanaticism, he was guilty of great 
 ignorance, for in the Orange districts of Beltast, and in other parts 
 of Ireland, all had passed over quietly, and instead of the usual 
 
 * The Rev. G. GifilUan, of Dundee, had ascribed the movement to satauic 
 iufluence, but has since withdrawn the statement. 
 
TUE ULSTER AWAKENING. 75 
 
 scenes of fighting and drunkenness, the sounds of praise and prayer 
 had been lieard. Surely nothing was more striking than to find 
 tliat all had been peaceful in Ireland, while bloodshed, and even 
 the loss of life, had occurred in Scotland in connection with the 12th 
 of July. Instead of leading to fierce fanaticism, this lievival created 
 a love to the Koman Catholics; and those who were its subjects were 
 solicitous about their eternal welfare, and were to be seen going 
 about comforting their neighbours. Love for the Lord Jesus and for 
 one another, were the characteristics of the blessed work now in 
 operation in Ireland. Mr. Stuart then mentioned one or two cases 
 where a wonderful reformation had been produced in individuals 
 who were formerly notorious drunkards and profane swearers ; and 
 concluded by saying that they in Scotland ought to be much in 
 prayer, that they might be sharers in the blessed work of lievival. 
 
 It is here worthy of notice that some Scottish visitors to Coleraine, 
 after their return to Glasgow, had become the instruments of com- 
 mencing an extensive Awakening in that city. 
 
 Keturning, however, to Ulster, a minister in County Antrim, who 
 ministers the Word of God with great usefulness to crowds of people, 
 wrote thus to a religious journal : — "I have been quite delighted to 
 see among the audience many who scarcely ever entered the house of 
 God before, and being so deeply affected with the offers of a free 
 Gospel, that tears stream down the bronzed cheeks of men unaccus- 
 tomed to weep. In the experience of the oldest minister, there never 
 was a time when people engaged in praise with the same heart, and I 
 trust with the same understanding. You cannot go out to walk in the 
 stilly eve, without the voice of psalmody falling upon your ear, like 
 the sound of many waters, echoing from hill to valley. The whole 
 country district is vocal with the song of redemption. No gathering 
 now to laugh, and jest, and sneer, and sing profane songs ; no 
 mocking at holy things, as was too frequently the case formerly." 
 
 The weekly union prayer-meeting was still held in the Music-hall, 
 Belfast. The Eail of Koden was among those who were present. 
 The attendance was very numerous. " There was a solemn stillness 
 over the whole house during the three minutes set apart for secret 
 prayer (as is the custom), towards the close of the meeting." A 
 number of youthful converts were at this time baptized by the Baptist 
 minister at Belfast. It was a very solemn and impressive service. 
 While at Belfast physical prostrations still occurred, " yet," says the 
 Banner of Ulster, " the work of conviction and conversion is now 
 principally making way without any exterior signs of the change, 
 which is being wrought silently in the heart; other than an increased 
 gravity and solemnity of manner, an avoidance of light and frivolous 
 
76 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 conversation and amusement, and of tliouglitless companions, and an 
 anxiety to mingle and commune with those who have experienced 
 the Spirit's influence in refreshing their souls." 
 
 At Comber, Portaferry, Dundonald, Rathfriland, and other places, 
 in the county of Down, meetings were being constantly held, 
 and with marked results. At Ballymena, Brownlow North, Esq., 
 delivered four impressive discourses to densely crowded congre- 
 gations in the Presbyterian churches, and also addressed an 
 open-air assemblage, numbering 11,000 persons. In the parish 
 church extra services v^'ere held, and some of the Presbyterian 
 churches were open every evening. Here as well as elsewhere 
 physical prostrations occurred, in some cases accompanied by a con- 
 tinuous, trance-like unconsciousness. Dr. Wallace, Scottish medical 
 missionary at Parsonstovvn, King's County, having written a series 
 of articles on the subject of the manifestations, while attempting to 
 account for them, on the principles of mental emotion reacting on the 
 nervous system, wound up as follows : — '' Of the deep, glorious, ever- 
 spreading, ever-swelling river of God's manifested grace, on the sur- 
 face of which these manifestations are but froth, I have said nothing, 
 because I feel that the fittest attitude in reference to it is to stand by 
 and adore." We are persuaded that this is the "attitude" towards 
 this wondrous movement which should have been assumed, from the 
 first, by all earnest lovers of Christ and of perishing men. 
 
 A person now writing from Cookstovvn, County Tyrone, said, " A 
 solemn impression seemed at this time to rest on almost every one. 
 The great bulk of the people left the weekly market long before the 
 customary hour ; and, as a sensible man observed, ' it was more like 
 a Sabbath than a market-day.' This is, indeed, God's work, and 
 marvellous in our eyes." 
 
 The movement was now spreading into the county of Down, the 
 Yorkshire of Ireland. On the 30th May, an immense assemblage 
 was addressed at Comber, by converts from the neighbourhood of 
 Ballymena, and a deep impression was made. On Thursday, 9th 
 June, strong agitation showed itself, while the pastor, Mr. Killen, 
 addressed a crowded prayer-meeting. On Sabbath, 12th June, " at 
 the morning service, the church was a verj- Bochim ; the people 
 seemed so bowed down as to be able only to give vent to their feelings 
 in sobs and tears; some cried out, and others had to be removed. Mr. 
 K. was employed constantly, when not preaching, in visiting the 
 converts, or those under conviction of sin." 
 
 It is not to be forgotten that this Awakening appeared mainly 
 among a Presbyterian population, the calmness of whose tempera- 
 ment, even in matters of religion, presents a striking contrast to the 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 77 
 
 old Celtic race among- whom they dwell, but with whom they have 
 never interming-led. And when I found such spiritual budding-, and 
 blossoming as the rose, in places where a cold orthodoxy had long- 
 reigned, I could not but recognise adoringly the Spirit's presence and 
 power, given in answer to the continued prayers of a faithful remnant 
 of God's people in Ulster, It seemed but the beginning of a glorious 
 extension of Christ's kingdom. The heart's aspiration was. '* Oh, that 
 the living and life-giving wave may spread over the whole of a land 
 which once was full of scriptural light above all the countries of 
 Western Europe, and that, as in the days of Columba and Colunibkill, 
 Ireland may be called, and may become, 'the Island of Saints' 
 
 airain 
 
 t" 
 
 The following conclusions as to reality and results, as arrived at by 
 the Kev. C. Seaver, an Episcopal clergyman at Belfast, who had 
 watched the movement from the beginning, are worthy of attention. 
 *' 1. There has plainly been an outpouring of the Holy Ghost in 
 answer to prayer. 2. This has not been in the usual way of human 
 agency, but is the direct work of the Spirit Himself. 3. Physical 
 manifestations have accompanied, but have not necessarily been 
 connected with it. The number of those seriously impressed has been 
 far more than of those physically affected. 4. Its tendency is to unite 
 in closer bonds the members of Evangelical churches. 5. It has 
 pervaded all classes of society. 6. The abiding fruits of the Spirit 
 have been manifested in the altered lives and conduct of those under 
 gracious influence, the careless and ungodly becoming anxious, the 
 drunkard sober, the profligate abandoning his vices and becoming 
 pure." 
 
PART 11. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Personal visit to Ulster — Oue day's Observations and Inquiries — Visit to the 
 Minister's study — The Countryman's Account — A Roman Catholic Judge on 
 the Fruits of the Revival — The Mill Girls' Prayer- Meeting — A Mourner in Ziou 
 — The Town Missionaries — The worst saved — A week-evening Congregation 
 — The " Evangelical Union " Chapel — The Ministers' Counsel to the Anxious 
 — The first Sabbath in Belfast — Two memorable Scenes — Mr. Hanna's Letter 
 on the Belfast Awakening — A "Sleeping" Case — A Young Convert — Great 
 George's Street Church — Testimony of Converts — Rev. T. Toye — Hon. and 
 Rev. H. Ward. 
 
 When, after an absence of three years, my eyes rested upon the 
 beautiful hills on either side of the Belfast JiOugh, bathed in the 
 light of early morn, and when I ti'od once more the streets of the 
 great town itself, I felt that kind of glad relief from metropolitan 
 heat and long-continued toil, which many clerical brethren realize at 
 the ** holiday" season of the year. But my thoughts were mainly 
 fixed on one subject — the Ulster Awakening. The providential oppor- 
 tunity was now furnished me, for inspecting with my own eyes, 
 some of those scenes throughout the province which had been made 
 sacred by the recent footprints of the Divine Saviour Himself. 
 
 One day's observations and inquiries, let me now furnish. My first 
 visit was paid to the suburban dwelling of the excellent minister 
 of the Presbyterian Church, York Street, Belfast. Independent 
 of old friendship, I could not have visited any one who was better 
 qualified to satisfy my preliminary inquiries. For here was a man 
 of ripe -experience in the Christian ministry, calm, cautious, and 
 discriminative. Here too w as one who in his earlier days was a pastor 
 at Connor, in the county of Antrim, the birthplace and home of the 
 Awakening, and who had recently visited his old fiock, and had been, 
 ■with the present pastor, dispensing the Lord's Supper to a great 
 company of disciples, many of them the genuine and living fruit of 
 the movement. Moreover he himself, as a pastor, was in close con- 
 tact with souls in the various stages of anxious inquiry, of trembling 
 hope, of settled peace, of exulting gladness. He had also seen 
 " strange things," for which he did not profess his ability to account, 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 79 
 
 but which he promised that I myself should see them, and form my 
 own opinion. 
 
 All that I learned from my dear friend at two interviews on the same 
 day, it would be impossible to detail. As to physical agitations, he 
 has always deprecated and discouraged them. Whil« by no means 
 saying that they were always the result of injudicious stimulants ap- 
 plied by zealous spectators to those already under terrors of conscience, 
 he always judged them by their fruits, not regarding the " peace" 
 that followed after hours or even days of prostration and weakness 
 as worth anything, save when it was clearly produced by a believing 
 and intelligent trust in Him whose blood, applied to the conscience, 
 can alone give " the peace of God." 
 
 My friend, after an extended observation over a period of more 
 than two months, and over wide districts, gave it as his deliberate 
 and solemn conviction, that in its main features the work was 
 Divine; and that it was marked by a depth, extent, and power, to 
 which the history of religion in Ireland could furnish no parallel. 
 In another church he had been an eye-witness of what might be re- 
 garded as the first case of awakening, marked by such mental distress, 
 as to prompt the loud outcries of a soul almost despairing of mercy, 
 nothing being uttered by the preacher at the moment. The time 
 was evening ; the place was the Berry Street Presbyterian Church, 
 and a large congregation was assembled. Suddenly a strong, power- 
 ful man raised in the midst a loud and bitter cry, and fell down. He 
 was carried speedily out of doors. There were no appearances of 
 epilepsy, nor of any contortions of the face, or loss of consciousness. 
 Indeed, as he lay helpless on the ground, extended on his back, and 
 the people gathered around, some one remarked that " he was quite 
 conscious." " Yes," he said, with a look of unutterable horror of 
 soul, " yes, awfully conscious ! " 
 
 This case was a remarkable one. It was not that of one who had 
 been of profligate habits. He had been for some years a recognised 
 member of a Christian church, and a teacher in the Sabbath school. 
 But he had been led to the deep and awful conviction that he had 
 been a formalist and a self-deceiver. My friend visited him during 
 the period when by bodily weakness he was confined to his house. 
 He had no doubt whatever of the reality of the change, and on his 
 relating the whole circumstances to a body of ministers soon after, 
 one of them a Professor of Theology, they unanimously declared 
 that this was nothing else than the special work of the Holy Spirit 
 of God. 
 
 In my friend's own congregation, a case of deep anxiety of soul, on 
 the part of the professor, had recently led to a request in writing by 
 
80 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 the party thus distressed, that meetings should be lield (in addition 
 to the evening prayer-meetings in the church) for conversation witli 
 any who might desire it. Tiie announcement was made accordingly. 
 Two such meetings were held during the following week, attended 
 by unexpected numbers, — not the poor only, but the better classes 
 also, — not scarcely at all the profligate and outcast classes, but tho&e 
 who observed the decencies of life, regularly attended on divine 
 ordinances, and professed Christ before men. In some cases my 
 friend regarded it as a deepening of the work of grace in the hearts 
 of those who were already God's children, but in others tliat it had 
 been the Spirit acting, as a detector of unsuspected formalism, Avhich, 
 if undisturbed, must have ended in death eternal. This secret agitation 
 and softening of men's souls was now general in Belfast and over Ulster. 
 Backsliders were arrested in large numbers, and after passing through 
 a '• horror of thick darkness," received the seal and the earnest, the 
 Avhite stone, the new name, the baptism of the Holy Ghost afresh. 
 It was re-vival; new, fresh life for those already alive, but who were 
 *' ready to die." This must surely be regarded as the w ork of God. 
 It affected ministers themselves. It filled them with deep self-search- 
 ings; it led repeatedly to the cry, "Deliver me from blood-guiltness." 
 One minister of reputation, I was informed, had publicly related 
 how, when a student, he once saved a companion from a dread- 
 ful death by seizing his garments, and dragging him back just 
 as he sprang lightly over what appeared to be a fence dividing 
 from another field, but which really skirted, while it concealed, 
 an awful precipice on the coast of the County of Down. This 
 minister, publicly referring to this, said with tears, that he feared 
 that he had not been as earnest in seeking to save souls from death 
 eternal, "pulling them out of the fire," as he had been on that 
 memorable day, when with a loud cry and eager haste he seized his 
 companion, and saved him from death temporal. Has this confession 
 no voice of suggestive warning for ministers everywhere .^ 
 
 After making an appointment with my friend, to the fulfilment of 
 which I shall refer afterwards, I proceeded towards the town. As 
 I walked along the road, I overtoook a plain countryman, and we 
 speedily fell into conversation, which almost at once glided into the 
 subject of the present Awakening in Ulster. He was himself a 
 resident at Stoneybridge, not far from Crumlin, but he had relatives 
 and connexions in the neighbourhood of Connor, whicii he had 
 recently visited. He was very rapid and voluble in his utterances, 
 had a wonderful knowledge of Scripture, and somewhat hesitatingly 
 inquired of me what I thought of these things now going forward. 
 He evidently had formed his own convictions from what he had seen, 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 81 
 
 and he had told me much to confirm the testimony of other witnesses. 
 Encoura<i^ed by my answers, he went on to tell of publicans who had 
 given up their business altogether, and how they, Avith other con- 
 verts, would have no fellowship with persons whom they regarded 
 as ungodly, not even speaking to their old neighbours. After some 
 conversation, we agreed on two points — that we were not to judge 
 rashly as to physical agitations ; and further, that while Christians 
 were not to have social fellowship with the ungodly for the sake of 
 sinful enjoyment, they mistook the prohibitions of their Master, and 
 did not follow His example, if they left the ungodly around them 
 to perish without warning or entreaty, or if they declined to associate 
 and eat and drink with them with the object of doing good to their 
 souls. The social changes which this man had seen were precisely 
 such as have already been indicated as witnessed elsewhere as the 
 fruit of the Revival. And I may here add that Chief Baron Pigot, 
 in his charge to the grand jury of the County Down, had, a few days 
 previously, expressed his delight and satisfaction at these results of 
 the movement, including the decline of party spirit, and the diminu- 
 tion of crime, and expressed his hope that it would penetrate the 
 very depths of society. This recognition was an emphatic rebuke 
 to the Unitarian mockers and to angry Roman Catholics, and was all 
 the more remarkable as it has come from the lips of a judge who is 
 himself a member of the Romish Church. 
 
 At two o'clock, P.M., I attended the daily united prayer-meeting 
 of young women employed in the adjoining factories. It is always 
 held in the school-room attached to Linen-hall Street Presbyterian 
 Church. I found, at the foot of the staircase, the pastor, the Rev. 
 R. Knox, who, from excessive labours in the holy cause, both in Bel- 
 fast and throughout Ulster, was almost voiceless, and well-nigh broken 
 down. He was, however, handing to each young person as she 
 passed to the room, a handbill tract. The service was conducted by 
 A. D., Esq , a Presbyterian elder, with great solemnity. There were 
 no outcries, but tliere was deep feeling, and tears flowed. At the 
 close of the half hour, the young people went to their accus- 
 tomed toil. One young woman remained, in deep distress, and 
 Mr. Knox, and an American minister, conversed with her. Pier 
 face was indeed the picture of woe. She had, as she supposed, found 
 pardon, but now she deplored her want of assurance, and feared that 
 she was not among the saved. What could be done but speak 
 forth the free Gospel to such a " bruised" one ? I could not believe 
 that she would be permitted to continue " comfortless." 
 
 In the afternoon I met two town missionaries, and also the elder 
 who spoke at the prayer- meeting at Linen-hall Street; and from all 
 
 G 
 
82 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 these parties received most valuable information. The missionaries 
 are educated young men, licentiates of the General Assembly, and 
 devoted to the work of their Master. While opposed to all excite- 
 ment, and condemning the movement of a number of ministers 
 (from different parts of Ireland, meeting here at an annual gathering), 
 who had almost dragged the people to " anxious seats " in the open 
 streets, these young men clearly recognised God's hand in the move- 
 ment, and testified very fully to its power over the worst of the 
 population. It appeared also to them as if the "striking down" of 
 the very wicked was permitted, in order to arrest those companions 
 in sin, who, under all other means, had been unmoved, but who 
 were thus filled with terror, and, in many cases, brought to true 
 repentance. 
 
 Next day, I proceeded with the Eev. D. Hamilton to visit a 
 " sleeping " case, attended by circumstances and " visions " so very 
 peculiar, that I shall specially notice it again in this chapter. 
 Afterwards I went to the evening meeting held at Berry Street 
 Church, which, I found, was a special preparatory service in con- 
 nection with, and in prospect of, the celebration of the Lord's Supper 
 on the Lord's-day. The minister, the Kev. H. Hanna, sat in the 
 pulpit, while (when I entered the gallery) a discourse on Isaiah 
 xl. 31, was being brought to a close by the Rev. Mr. Denham, of Holy- 
 wood. The language was weighty and well chosen, and the senti- 
 ments were striking and impressive. Earnest appeals were made to 
 the unconverted. Warnings were also addressed to those who 
 had recently found peace in Christ, against self-confidence, re- 
 minding them that the Christian life was a conflict, and that their 
 only safety was " waiting on the Lord." A congregation of about 
 1,000 persons was present, chiefly, if not entirely, working people. 
 Deep seriousness prevailed, and the closing song of praise struck me 
 as peculiarly jubilant and animated. This church had been the 
 spiritual birth-place of hundreds recently, and was " holy ground." 
 
 It was now growing late, and as I wended towards my domicile 
 for the night in the southern suburb, I saw a lighted building, and 
 heard the sound of a human voice. I entered, and found a minister 
 in the desk addressing about sixty persons, mostly men, and en- 
 couraging those who were anxious about salvation not to be timid, 
 as too many were, in making known their case to the ministers of 
 Christ. He himself had once been thus backward, but he had 
 found the servants of God willing, frank, and affectionate coun- 
 sellors, and so would they. This, I was told, was an Independent 
 Chapel ; more properly it is connected with " the Evangelical Union," 
 or Morrisonian denomination. As I left, two tracts were put into 
 my hands, one of them improving, in a series of stanzas, the subject 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 83 
 
 of the "Life Boat," to urge Christians to zeal and compassion in the 
 great work of rescuing sinners from destruction. 
 
 I shall append to this chapter a letter, received since my return, from 
 the Rev. Hugh Hanna, of Belfast, giving a clear and accurate account 
 of the origin and early history of the Awakening in that great town: — 
 
 " Dear Sir, — When we heard, during the last year, that the Lord 
 had visited and refreshed his heritage in America, the church here 
 ■was moved to more earnest prayer for a time of refreshing ; but 
 especially when we heard of the Lord's doings in Connor, Ballymena, 
 and Ahoghill, — how that He was prosecuting his glorious march from 
 district to district of the county of Antrim, our expectation was in- 
 creased, and our hope and faith acquired fresh energy. On the 
 first Sabbath in June, a meeting was held in Linen-hall Street Church, 
 and was addressed by two lay converts from Connor. The meeting 
 was very large. The converts were intelligently acquainted with 
 the Bible, and had felt the power of grace in their hearts : they 
 possessed little learning beyond their knowledge of Divine truth, and 
 but for their great earnestness would not for five minutes have been 
 listened to by any assembly in Belfast. But God hath chosen the 
 foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and the weak 
 things and things that are despised hath God chosen to overthrow 
 the mighty. And God owned them. He signally put his approba- 
 tion on their testimony. One woman fell down in a pew as if she 
 had suddenly been smitten by an invisible but resistless energy. She 
 cried out for mercy. The meeting was impressed indeed; but the 
 impression was not very deep. Incredulity, despite our expectations, 
 was very great. The woman may have been excitable. She may 
 not have been a person of very strong mind, and other imaginations 
 started up to account for her prostration, independently of the Spirit 
 of God. And so the meeting dissolved. 
 
 " On the following Tuesday evening a Revival meeting was held in 
 the Berry Street Church. It was addressed by the Rev. Mr. Knox, 
 of Belfast, and the two converts before alluded to. Another soul was 
 brought down at Jesus' feet, and constrained to cry for mercy. After 
 the meeting was formally dissolved, the people were reluctant to depart. 
 The meeting was reconstituted, prayers were offered, and two others 
 were brought to a deep conviction of sin, and expressed their feelings 
 in such a way as made a profound impression on the audience. The 
 hand of God was visibly at work, and acknowledged in our midst. 
 
 *' The next evening was that of the congregational prayer-meeting, 
 conducted by the elders and other praying people in the congrega- 
 tion. There was no minister present; there was no exciting address; 
 
 g2 
 
84 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 but God made bare his arm in a most marvellous way. l\fany 
 •were convinced and converted. The meeting was large, and great 
 fear fell upon all the people. It was resolved to continue every 
 evening the meetings that God had thus signally owned. 
 
 " There had been, formany months, in Great George's Street Church 
 (the Rev. Mr. Toye's) a faithful band who, on every evening of the 
 week, besieged the throne of grace. They waited, like the believers 
 of old, for the ' Consolation of Israel.' With the exception of these, 
 the meetings in the Berry Street Church were the first assemblies 
 identified with the Revival movement in Belfast. And so they con- 
 tinued for six weeks on every evening of the week. The church 
 was literally crammed ; every available spot within and around it 
 was occupied. Many thousands of souls must have been brought 
 within the influence of the truth under the most solemn circum- 
 stances during those six weeks. Not only from the population of 
 the town were their audiences drawn, but many earnest souls came 
 from great distances in the country. It was now no uncommon thing 
 for persons to travel forty miles for the sole purpose of seeking God 
 where he was pleased so marvellously to manifest himself, and an 
 incalculable good was done. During that period nearly eight 
 hundred souls were visited at their own houses by the minister and 
 oflfice-bearers of the church — all brought under conviction of sin at 
 the Revival meetings. Many more, and by far a larger multitude, 
 there is reason to believe, were overtaken by the grace of God, and 
 brought to Christ by the silent inspiration of the Spirit. We are 
 receiving proofs of this every day. 
 
 " The whole population was aroused. The Lord's people rejoiced 
 greatly. The churches were opened to accommodate the thousands 
 that thronged with deepest earnestness to hear the word of God. 
 And so the wondrous movement continued until flesh and blood 
 could stand it no longer. The great excitement that worked the 
 first stage of the Revival subsided, and the gracious work continued, 
 but under a quieter aspect. The world that walks by sight thought 
 it external, and said it was so. Tlie irieligious press gloried in 
 preaching the fiction to be a fact, as it had done all it could to dis- 
 parage and misrepresent it during its more active manifestations. 
 But the work continues very auspiciously still. In the churches of 
 Townsend Street, Eglinton Street, Great George's Street, Berry Street, 
 among the Presbyt rians ; in Christ Church, Trinity, St. Paul's, and 
 St. John's, among the Episcopalians, where faithful ministers labour ; 
 Donegal Place, Wesley Place, and Salem, among the Methodists, the 
 Spirit of God has been mightily manifested. Many trophies have 
 been rescued from the hands of Satan. In Belfast alone some tens of 
 thousands have been brought under serious impressions. There is 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 85 
 
 probably no evangelical church in the town where the attendance is 
 not greatly increased at all the services. It was somewhat diffi- 
 cult once to get the ear of the people for the Gospel. But it 
 is open now, and hearts are open also. Wherever a minister chooses 
 he may have a congregation in a short time, the great majority of 
 whom will listen to him with the most reverent attention. It is un- 
 deniable that a mighty change has been effected in the character of 
 society ; that a mighty good has been accomplished. Multitudes, I 
 believe, have been savingly converted to God, and the gracious work 
 is progressing still. Every day we are accosted by some in tones 
 and terms of heavenly rapture, as they tell of the same struggles of 
 soul they had heard of in others, and of the precious Saviour they 
 have found. Sincerely yours, " HUGH Hanna." 
 
 With Belfast, as the scene of continued observation and inquiry, I 
 shall now refer to two scenes which makes memorable to me the 
 7th of August, 1859. It was the evening of the Lord's-day— I had 
 addressed to a crowded congregation, in the church of my friend 
 and brother D. H., the word of life and reconciliation. The last 
 psalm had been sung, and the parting benediction had been pro- 
 nounced. Amid the soft shadows of the " gloaming," I accompanied 
 my friend up a narrow street, and stopped with him at the door of 
 No. 29. He lifted the latch — the apartment was nearly full of 
 people. We entered — the pastor asked a question which scarcely 
 required the answer, " She is asleep again." 
 
 In this apartment we had stood together two days before. There, 
 in a low bed, with a wooden framework around, sat up, a young girl 
 of twenty-one years of age. Her face was radiant with joy, her 
 language was of heaven and the Saviour, of the angels, and their 
 song before the throne. She had been " away," and while absent, 
 she had seen and heard, as she believed, the glories of the upper 
 sanctuary, and Jesus as the central attraction there. My friend the 
 minister had been with her conversing the night before, and she told 
 him and all around that she would " go away" at ten o'clock the same 
 night. He waited till the hour came, and she fell at once into a 
 profound trance- like sleep, and had "come back" (woke up) at the 
 precise hour which she herself named the night before. More than 
 this, while "away," she had seen, she said, J. N., a girl in 
 an adjoining street; and when she awoke, she said that the latter 
 had " come back" before her. On inquiry, it was found that this 
 was true; and also that J. N. had had a corresponding vision, and 
 knew the time when her friend was to "come back." 
 
 Calling again, as I have said, on the Sabbath evening, we found 
 
86 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 her, as her father stated it, "asleep the seventh time." She had 
 "gone away" precisely at the hour previously mentioned by her. 
 During the waking intervals she took some light food. There was 
 no sickness or faintness, nor the least appearance of derangement of 
 the mental faculties. 
 
 I expected that the sight of the trance-stricken one would have 
 been something painful. On the contrary, it was peculiarly pleasing. 
 Never did I see an infant's slumber more soft or undisturbed. There 
 she lay on her side, the parting liL;ht of day coming through the 
 casement and falling on her head — that head almost pillowed on the 
 open hand. The face was tranquillity itself : no shudder nor smile 
 passed over it. I felt the pulse — it was slow% healthy, and regular; 
 the skin was cool and unfevered. I twice placed my ear to the 
 mouth and lips — there was no respiration to be detected ; and but 
 that I knew from the pulse and saw from the cheeks' warm hue 
 that the heart was in action, I might have supposed her dead. 
 
 I asked, " Is there nothing which could awake her?" "No, sir." 
 "What, if she was lifted up and shaken violently — or if loud cries 
 were raised in her presence ?" " No," 
 
 Here was a solemnized circle, and in its midst the father of the 
 maiden, once under my own pastoral care, and a true cliild of God. 
 There sat, in the background, a young girl, his step-daughter. A 
 peculiar gladness, mingled with humility, rested on her face, as the 
 minister took her hand and said, " I was hearing of you to-day, and 
 was glad." The explanation of this will give some insight into the 
 quiet, yet powerful and penetrating work of the Spirit, now going 
 forv.ard all over Ulster, amid exceptional scenes of strangeness or 
 agitations. The last time but one that the minister had been here 
 to see the afflicted girl, he had offered prayer, and before going away, 
 he asked her sister, in a subdued tone, " Have you found Christ ?" 
 An answer indistinct, but apparently assuring, was given, and he 
 left. That question was the Spirit's arrow, and all the more as the 
 young girl accused herself of having deceived the minister as to her 
 real spiritual condition. Her soul w'as now tempest-tossed. She 
 went to the sanctuaiy on the Lord's-day, and during the morning 
 service she was so wretched that she was compelled to leave ere the 
 close. She went home, and entering the closet, threw herself on her 
 knees, cried to the Saviour for mercy, and she found it. And now 
 she sits here before me on this Sabbath evening, as one of the saved. 
 Oh ! how hap})y her aspect, and, oh, how meek and lowly too ! 
 
 Keturning to the case especially described, I have to state that 
 whatever this "sleep "was, it was not an attempt at imposture. 
 The vision which the girl related in my presence — of having been 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 87 
 
 in heaven, seen the Saviour, and mingled with angels — I explain 
 hy the joyful frame of soul into which she had passed after a seaso7i of 
 terror. She was thus led to believe that she was in heaven. She 
 had previously scriptural knowledge, and therefore heaven, as set 
 forth in harps, crowns, and songs, naturally presented itself to her 
 imagination. To hold that in this, or in any similar case, the Spirit 
 of God was fixing the truth on the mind by symbols, seems to me 
 altogether inconsistent with the sufficiency of the Bible as a Divine 
 revelation. 
 
 The Sunday evening service was over in Great George's Street, 
 but the building was still lighted up, and when I entered, I found 
 a large congregation standing and singing a verse of the 69th Psalm 
 (Rouse's translation). These lines had been read out by the pastor, 
 the Rev. Thomas Toye, and sung by his people as the short but 
 emphatic utterance of a redeemed and grateful soul. On the morning 
 of this day, the Lord's supper had been celebrated, and the number 
 of communicants was threefold larger than on any former occasion. 
 Such was one of the evidences of the mighty operation of the Holy 
 Ghost in this place, and it had parallels elsewhere. 
 
 Mr. Toye, standing in the pulpit, read from one of the Gospels the 
 account of the ten lepers healed by the Saviour, and their subsequent 
 conduct. He then addressed himself to the members of his church 
 thus: — *' Communicants, there is one of two courses open to you this 
 night. You may either imitate the ingratitude of the nine lepers, 
 who received a bodily cure at the hand of Christ, and yet did not 
 return to thank Him ; or you may imitate the one leper, who received 
 both a bodily cure and a soul cure, and who with a loud voice glori- 
 fied God. I am not about to-night to call on any one by name but 
 whosoever of you feel tlie love of Christ in your hearts, be not ashamed 
 of Christ, but rise up and declare what He hath done for your souls." 
 
 After a short pause, a young man stood up in a pew in the centre 
 of the church, and a second and a third followed. Each of them, in 
 fervid language (marked, indeed, by occasional provincialisms and 
 grammatical blunders) briefly addressed the people. One spoke in 
 solemn warning, instancing the case of a young, gay, and godless 
 woman whom he had known, but who had been cut off suddenly. 
 Another, standing at the foot of the pulpit stairs, said, "I am 
 not ashamed of Christ or His cause; this (holding up a pocket Bible), 
 this word of Truth is His cause. I am not afraid to own what Jesus has 
 done for me ; 1 am always sorry when I have only a few to tell it to 
 — I would like to have millions." He went on to tell of the exceeding 
 great joy of heart which had been his at the Lord's table on that day, 
 and urged others to come to Christ for salvation without delay. 
 
88 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 This praj'er-meeting had been opened by a venerable minister 
 from Wick, in the north of Scotland. A middle-aged man rose up 
 after two or three younger men had spoken, and, alluding to the 
 ministers prayer, referred gratefully, as a seaman, to deliverances 
 wrought for him from danger and sudden death, in other days, off 
 the northern Scottish coast. 
 
 After remaining about half an hour, I retired. I observed another 
 young man waiting for an opportunity to speak, and I learnt after- 
 wards that two women, who had been Roman Catholics, ere the 
 service closed (it lasted two hours), bore testimony for Christ, and 
 against the errors of Popery. I may add, that sometimes the meet- 
 ings in this church have been protracted till early next morning. 
 On the week previous, after the benediction had been twice pro- 
 nounced, and the people still lingered, it was found necessary to 
 close the doors upon them. There is no doubt whatever but that 
 this place has been the birthplace of many souls. Still it was 
 the impression of some of the most judicious and earnest, that, at 
 times, there had been a little too much excitement. Nevertheless, 
 there is special adaptation in Thomas Toye to a particular class. He 
 is a "free lance" among the Presbyterians; he is not like them of 
 the calm Scottish temperament ; and if any English tourist in 
 Ireland wishes to hear the real rich brogue of the southern Irish in 
 its perfection, and to listen to a discourse, marvellous in its Scrip- 
 tural fulness, and direct appeals to the conscience, let him repair, 
 on the Sabbath morning or evening, to Great George's Street Presby- 
 terian Church, Belfast. 
 
 I shall reserve for another chapter an account of an intensely 
 interesting visit paid to a district in the county of Down, where the 
 word of God grew mightily and prevailed. Meantime, let the reader 
 peruse the following letter from a Presbyterian minister to his 
 brother in London, as furnishing a fair illustration of the glorious 
 scenes then realized in Ulster : — 
 
 '* God has been pouring out His Holy Spirit upon us here very 
 abundantly. We have an Awakening in my congregation, I think 
 I may say a Ilevival, that is most cheering. I have a meeting for 
 prayer and exposition nearly every night in the week. Hundreds 
 have been awakened ; in some instances, strong bodily manifesta- 
 tions. The individual falls down, or gradually sinks, clasps the 
 hands, or lifts the eyes, or both, and cries, ' Oh, my sins ! Lord, 
 have mercy on me ! None but Christ,' &c. A gradual desire for 
 prayer, and an increased anxiety about spiritual things, have been 
 visible for more than eighteen months liere; but we had no bodily 
 manifestations till about one month since. For the last three 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 89 
 
 Sabbatlis the meeting-house has been crowded to suffocation, and on 
 each of these many had to be helped out who were either stricken 
 down, or likely to be so, under a sense of sin. Our week-day 
 evening services are sometimes even better attended. Last night 
 we held our meeting, by appointment, in the open air. I had a 
 number of clergymen to assist ; among the rest, the Hon. and Rev. 
 H. Ward, rector of Killinchy, who has taken a lively interest in 
 the movement all along. 
 
 " Dear brother, I am not nearly grateful enough to God. I believe 
 it is all of God, and must redound to His glory. What hath God 
 wrought ! Dear brother, I will supplicate a throne of grace for 
 such an outpouring on your church and congregation. I am satisfied 
 we have nothing to do but ask and have. Prayer-meetings are 
 starting up in all districts. Four female prayer-meetings in one 
 evening. You would be delighted to hear the prayers of those who, 
 a few weeks since, were only blasphemers and mockers." 
 
 In reference to what the Presbyterian minister in Downshire 
 says in the foregoing letter, of the co-operation of the Hon. and 
 Rev. H. Ward, rector of Killinchy, the following testimony borne 
 by that excellent gentleman, which appeared at this time in a 
 Dublin journal, will be read with interest: — 
 
 " I am the incumbent of a large parish, and having laboured 
 among the people for five-and-thirty years, I know them well. The 
 great majority of them are Presbyterians, living scattered over a 
 district exclusively agricultural, and not congregated, as in towns. 
 They are intelligent, industrious, well and scripturally taught, calm 
 and reserved in their disposition, and, as regards the reception of 
 Divine truth, would be considered by strangers, perhaps cold. The 
 spirit of Revival visited us not very long after it made its appearance 
 in the county of Antrim. In reference to the results of these Revival 
 meetings, which have been continued now for three weeks, it would 
 be impossible to speak with any accuracy. The grand total of good 
 already done must be left unreckoned until * the day shall declare 
 it;' but 150 persons of all ages and conditions are known as having 
 been, in an extraordinary manner, brought under conviction of sin. 
 I have met them in a class for special instruction, and have visited 
 many of them in their houses. 
 
 •* I may add, that the spirit of these newly-awakened persons is 
 all gentleness, teachableness, and humility; while the fruits of the 
 Spirit — love, joy, peace — rule in their hearts most manifestly. The 
 spirit of our meetings throughout the week is all harmony and love 
 — the Presbyterian not annoying the Episcopalian, the Episcopalian 
 not vexing the Presbyterian. The labour being divided betweei^ 
 
90 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 the ministers of the two denominations, no distinction is made, and 
 the hearts of all are knit together in one holy bond of Christian, 
 fellowship. There is no exaltation of man or means — no novelty, 
 no unnatural excitement, no confusion ; all order, solemnity and 
 devotion. 'J'here can be no imposition practised here; such a thing, 
 from the deep feeling of seriousness which pervades this part of the 
 country at the present time, would not be tolerated by the people. 
 Now that this work, so far as it has come under my observation, 
 is the work of God, I have no more doubt than of the truth of the 
 Philippian jailer's conversion." 
 
 1 have to add that I (ound that the movement was rapidly spread- 
 ing into new districts, and that, although it was more quiet in 
 its manifestations, it was not arrested. The word of God — the 
 good seed — took root, grew up rapidly, and fresh spiritual harvests 
 were gathered daily. 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 An Unexpected Change in the Journey — A Visit to a well-remembered Scene — 
 Lurgan, Wariugstown, and Douacloney — Early Days — The Staid People deeply 
 moved — First Sight of one Stricken — Publicans abandoning their Trade — 
 Visit to Native Parish — Banbridge, Glascar, and a Great Revival. 
 
 In a beautiful rural district, familiar to the writer since childhood, — 
 an ancient seat of the linen manufacture, irrigated by the Lurgan 
 and the Bann, with Lurgan, Waringstown, and Banbridge, as its 
 principal towns, — there was a mighty work (5f real awakening now 
 in full progress. I had not expected to be able to visit this part of 
 the country, however desirous to do so. I was preparing to leave 
 Belfast, and to pass along what some one has called the " trunk 
 line" of the Kevival — ^y Ballvmena and Connor, to Ballymoney, 
 Coleraine, Portrush, and the Giant's Causeway, and from thence to 
 Londonderry. But a minister well-known in days past, the pastor 
 of the congregation where 1 had been brought up, meeting me in 
 the street, so moved me by a stirring tale of the " great things " 
 going on at Donacloney, that I seemed to see a Divine hand beckoning 
 me away to that well-iemembered region. 
 
 I am thankful that I went thitlier; the recollection of what I saw 
 and heard will always be sweet and grateful. Arriving by railway 
 at J-urgan, we drove across the country southward. At Warings- 
 town we were joined by a godly young Presbyterian minister, who 
 told me of the spiritual marvels that had been wrought in Lurgan, 
 and in his own district. Very many had been "stricken down " in 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 01 
 
 agony of body, and, said he, " The people around me — the weavers 
 at their looms — are at this moment almost unable to go on with their 
 work, by reason of the spiritual distress which they suffer." 
 
 " I have," he added, " living opposite my own house, a man who 
 was recently a notorious infidel — who, a short time since, told me 
 that the Bible was a fable, and that he had books to ])rove it to be 
 such. But now, he is awfully convinced of the reality of God's wrath, 
 and of the truth of His word, and is earnestly asking what he must 
 do to be saved ? The same is the case with his brotiier-in-law, who 
 was an infidel and a wicked, hardened man, like himself." 
 
 Passing rapidly to the old and venerable place of worship whither 
 we were bound, the pastor ascended the pulpit, and commenced the 
 devotional meeting, for which — as on every other night in the week, 
 except Saturday — a large number of persons, of all ages and both 
 sexes, many of them coming from great distances, had assembled. 
 In this gathering I saw a fair specimen of what had been common, 
 and I might almost say universal, in nearly every part of Ulster, 
 during the last two or three months. Prayer was the characteristic of 
 the movement, and were there no other proof of the divinity of its 
 origin, this were alone sufficient. 
 
 Here, for example, was a place where, for nearly 100 years the 
 old truths of the Gospel — brought hither by the followers of Ralph 
 and Ebenezer Erskine of Scotland, when Pelagianism and Arianism 
 had come in like a flood — had been fully and faithfully preached 
 by faithful men. But meetings for united prayer, as distinct from 
 the devotions of the great congregation at the regular services of the 
 Lord's- day, were almost unknown. 
 
 Here also was a people peculiarly unimpressible, in the emotional 
 sense of the term. They held fast the truth, with a comprehensive, 
 intellectual grasp, and many of them were truly devout ; but, true to 
 their Scottish blood and origin, they were not wont to shed tears, or 
 to be demonstrative in any sense, in their devotions. What a change 
 presented itself to my eyes in that old familiar place ! Here was a 
 large body of people, who on a week evening had come together, not 
 expecting an address from a stranger, knowing who would address 
 them, and tliinking mainly, if not entirely, of praise and prayer. 
 And when the prayer of the pastor (the Ptcv. J. Moorhead) — full 
 of solemnity and unction — was over, I could not help marking, 
 with glad surprise, the eyes of strong men wet with tears. A 
 psalm was sung, and I then entered the pulpit. It was to me 
 a solemn moment, and a very solemn place, and all the more did 
 1 feel this, because I had come thitlier so unexpectedly to myself. 
 1 could not help giving expression to the deep and strong emotions 
 
92 TEE ULSTER AT^'AKEKING. 
 
 which filled my breast, by some opening references to the former 
 pastor, George Hay (once a student of John Brown, of Had- 
 dington), by whom I had been baptized, and to the family pew 
 where I had sat by the side of father, mother, sisters, and brothers 
 in boyhood's days, and from which I had stepped forth and sat 
 down side by side by a mother (now in heaven), to commemorate 
 for the first time a Saviour's dying love. By such references 
 and allusions my feelings were relieved, and my mind was pre- 
 pared for speaking to the people the word of life. Wiiat could 
 one say amid such a people, but tell them of sin and. its penal- 
 ties, and of pardon, peace, life, and healing, through faith in a 
 Saviour's name, and by the grace of His Holy Spirit ? As words of 
 tliis import were spoken, my ear was startled by a suppressed cry 
 proceeding from a pew to the left of the pulpit. I looked and saw 
 a young woman in great agitation, but there sat by her side one of 
 the elders of the church, who took her hand in his, and calmed her. 
 But a little time later, her emotions and physical sufferings were so 
 great that it was found necessary to remove her. 
 
 The address was closed: prater was offered by the young minister 
 of Waringstown, the closing psalm was sung, and the benediction was 
 pronounced. Proceeding to the adjoining session-house or vestry, I 
 found a crowd of persons gathered before the door. Entering the 
 house, I found the young woman in a state of great prostration and 
 weakness on one of the benches, her head leaning on tlie breast of 
 an elderly female. Words of instruction and consolation were 
 spoken to her. I found that she was an orphan girl in humble cir- 
 cumstances. I asked her, had she felt anything of this kind befuie ? 
 She replied, " Yes, once or twice ; " but thei-e had been no external 
 manifestation till that evening. She gradually revived, and spoke 
 of going homeward. She was taken into the open air, but she 
 found herself so weak and oppressed, that a chair was placed for her, 
 and the people gathered around her. 
 
 The Kev. Mr. McMurray standing near, prayed very earnestly, 
 and all the people bowed their heads, and worshipped with him. I 
 then proposed a song of praise — the first verses of the 40th Psalm.* 
 
 * These verses are now called " The Convert's Song," all over Ulster. They 
 run thus in Rouse's metrical version of the Psalms : — 
 
 " I waited for the Lord my God, 
 And patiently did bear : 
 At length to nie He did incline, 
 My voice and cry to hear. 
 
 " He took me from the fearful pit, 
 Aud from the miry clay : 
 
 And on a rock He set my feet. 
 Establishing my way. 
 
 He put a new song in my mouth, 
 
 Our God to magnify : 
 Many shall see it, aud shall fear, 
 
 Aud oa the Lord rely." 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 93 
 
 The poor girl hailed the idea with delight, crying out, " Oh yes, do 
 sing ! " and the soft sweet swell of that song of a redeemed soul, rose 
 up on the evening air and died away. It seemed to act on the suf- 
 ferer as did the harp of David on King Saul. 
 
 In this, the first case of " conviction " which I had witnessed, there 
 were precisely the two characteristics which I had heard of as 
 being universal. 
 
 First, there was great distress of countenance and aspect, accom- 
 panied by a burning sense of pain in the chest, and by great difficulty 
 of breathing. Secondly, along with this, and evidently the cause of 
 this, was deep horror of soul, by reason of a sense of guilt and 
 exposure to the wrath of the Almighty, which could only find relief 
 in sighs, and supplications for mercy. 
 
 It was not for m.e, then and there, to pronounce on the genuineness 
 of conversion in this case, because I was leaving the neighbourhood; 
 but time has since attested its reality by fruits. 
 
 I was struck with the fact that the sole source of comfort (ap- 
 parently found ere I departed) was Christ trusted in. An increased 
 clearness of apprehension marked the last utterances which I heard 
 from this young person, as contrasted with those ^rs^ expressions as 
 to the way of salvation (correct but obscure) which had reached 
 my ear. 
 
 Many such cases had occurred in this district, but it was the first 
 I had seen, and I could thus begin to understand why (if these 
 physical agitations were indeed from a Divine influence) such manifes- 
 tations were permitted. For, by this one case occurring on that 
 evening, an emphasis and an application peculiarly solemn were 
 given to the words of warning and invitation which had been spoken ; 
 and more than this, the sight of this girl thus "stricken" brought 
 again within the sound of Gospel truth the careless and the unde- 
 cided, and compelled them to think of eternal things. 
 
 It was thus that all over Ulster, God seemed to be using these agita- 
 tions for the glory of His name, and for the awakening and con- 
 version of very many, including tJie worst and vilest of society, as 
 well as formalists and hypocritical professors. 
 
 I had afterwards satisfactory replies to inquiries made as to the 
 progress of the work of grace going on in this district. 
 
 In the town of Lurgan the Episcopal, Wesleyan, and Presby- 
 terian ministers went hand in hand, and were "abundant in 
 labours." So numerous were the cases of persons "stricken," that it 
 was found necessary to summon by telegraph the Rev. Mr. Barklie, 
 the Presbyterian minister, to return home immediately from the 
 meeting of the Irish Assembly in Dublin. 
 
94 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 An intelligent, pious master of a national school, mentioned to me 
 that he had been conversing with a man who kept two public-houses 
 on the roads leading from Waringstown to Banbridge. The man 
 said, '* If these times continue, our trade will be done up, and I shall 
 never take out another licence ; and, indeed," he added, " at this I 
 am not sorry, as I think it will be better for the country that the 
 people give up whisky drinking." 
 
 Giving it up, they certainly were. All along the road-sides of the 
 County Antrim, publicans were about to take down their sign- 
 boards, — some from conscientious feeling, and all agreeing that the 
 business could not pay. 'J'hat was an illustration of a great social 
 change in Ulster, not affecting the Roman Catholic population. 
 They still drank freely at markets and fairs. But their priests and 
 their men of business could not but acknowledge that the Protestant 
 population were becoming very sober. They ''hated the change" while 
 recognising it, and were greatly enraged at other results of the Re- 
 vival as trespassing on their domain. The priests were quite awake 
 to their own interests, and when Romanists were "stricken down," 
 their spiritual advisers went to them with bottles containing a 
 healing mixture. As these bottles were often renewed before the 
 "cure" was complete, and a sum of money was demanded and paid 
 for each, the profits of the Roman Catholic Church, even under 
 circumstances otherwise adverse, must have been very consider- 
 able. 
 
 Thank God, the many Romanists convicted and converted, were 
 now able intelligently to give a reason for the new-born peace and 
 hope which were theirs. They could also say to their former blind 
 guides, who now would have "healed" them by false teachings and 
 consolations, " Physicians are ye of no value — miserable comforters 
 are ye all." 
 
 At Tullylish Presbyterian Church, where the venerable John 
 Johnson, D.D. (the father of the Irish open-air preaching movement, 
 and late Moderator of the Irish General Assembly), has been pastor for 
 nearly half a centurj', I addressed a very large assembly. This was 
 to me an affecting scene, for outside the walls, in the family burying- 
 ground, lay the dust of my parents and sisters, of whom I could say 
 with truth, " These all died in faith." Since the period of my visit, 
 the Awakening has made great progress in this district. The Rev. 
 Mr. Bewley, curate of the parish, writes, " Hitherto ministers had 
 considerable difficulty in persuading the people to attend public 
 worship : now the difficulty is to find room for the multitude 
 who press forward both on Sunday and week-days. The badness of 
 the weather has absolutely no effect in diminishing their numbers. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENIXa. 95 
 
 The coraraunicants in the parish church have been doubled within 
 the last few months." 
 
 At Banbridge — an important manufacturing town — and in the 
 neighbourhood, the Awakening displayed itself suddenly with great 
 power. It began at an open-air gathering, in a bleacli-tield, on 
 Thursday the 21st July, and on the following evening, at another 
 meeting addressed by three students of theology, sixty-four cases of 
 prostration occurred. Many of those present on this occasion had 
 come from a distance. Tlius the influence of the Awakening was 
 diffused far and wide, and fresh missionaries were raised up to call 
 friends and neighbours to repentance, faith, and newness of life. 
 
 At this town I was taken to see two cases of the convicted. One 
 had been an " unfortunate." A Christian gentleman found her at 
 ten o'clock, P.M. (after the meeting already alluded to, but not one 
 of those who had been present), lying on the ground near the bridge, 
 and in awful distress both of body and mind. Her despairing and 
 warning cry was, " Let all sinners of my class beware!" It after- 
 wards appeared that her conscience had been upbraiding her. I 
 was taken to see her. She had been placed in the house of a 
 pious family till she should recover. Her first anxiety, after finding 
 relief, was to implore that efforts should be made to save her two 
 younger sisters, still uncontaminated, from the perils that surrounded 
 them. 1 felt deeply in looking on that thoroughly subdued, humble, 
 penitent one. 
 
 The next case was that of a young woman of blameless life, but 
 led to Christ after deep agitation. The radiant joy of her counten- 
 ance, coupled with a beautiful meekness, was just what was to be seen 
 in the converts everywhere. A young person here resident also, who 
 had been a confirmed Unitarian, and who had not attended any public 
 meeting, had been stricken down. She was in a respectable position 
 in life, and very intelligent. Her former faith in the hour of distress 
 was found worthlei-s; she turned to an Almighty Redeemer, and 
 cried out, •* My Lord, and my God ! " This was the town in which 
 ministers a Unitarian pastor, who had recently, at Belfast, poured 
 ridicule and contempt on those manifestations which marked the 
 Revival. 
 
 There were not wanting instruments in the hand of God in pre- 
 paring the way of the Lord in Banbridge. Many of the young men 
 of the town had been gathered into Bible classes, and several of 
 them were truly converted to God. These converts became willing- 
 hearted workers in the evangelization of the neglected and outcast 
 population. They established cottage prayer-meetings, and also local 
 Sabbath schools, and there was thus aa extensive sowing of the 
 
96 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 good seed of the kingdom ere the Awakening appeared in its power. 
 To crown all, prayer, united, continuous, and believing, had been 
 lonff offered in faith and fervour by this band of young men, and by 
 other associated Christian friends. In addition to this, evangelical 
 truth had been long and faithfully preached in the town and neigh- 
 bourhood. "The public mind here," a friend wrote me soon after 
 my return home, " was never in such a prepared state for the recep- 
 tion of the good seed, and I feel that he who has thus prepared it by 
 His Spirit, will satisfy the desire he has created " The confident 
 expectation thus expressed has been since largely realized. 
 
 I visited the house of the Rev. James Rogers (an old college friend) 
 in this neighbourhood, and found him from home. His wife told me 
 that he would not return till a late hour in the evening, from visiting 
 cases of persons who were " ill " from the agitations through which 
 they had passed. This is the district of Glascar, County Down. A 
 more sober-minded pastor, and a more staid people, are not to be 
 found anywhere, and yet here also the Sovereign Spirit caused strong 
 men to " cry out for fear." ** Anything like the earnestness," wrote 
 Mr. Rogers on the 17th September, " manifested by the people gene- 
 rally on the subject of religion has never been witnessed in our day. 
 jNlultitudes who never attended a place of worship in times past, now 
 rush to every meeting, and can with difficulty be got to leave. In my 
 own congregation we have men who had grown grey in the neglect 
 of ordinances, who are now waiting regularly, and with all attention 
 and seriousness, on the means of grace. The appearance of the 
 congregation is entirely changed. 2'hey come into the sanctuary as a 
 jpeojjle prejjared for the Lord, and the attention paid to the Word, and 
 the spirit of the worship, are as different as it is possible to conceive. 
 The singing is like the sound of many waters." 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 97^ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 A Student Convert — His Testimony as to a Great Awakening — The Town of 
 Newry — Scots and Celts Meeting, but not Mingling — The Irish Language — 
 The " Big Sunday" at Newry — Protestantism Revived, and the Sabbath Ho- 
 noured — Decrease of Intemperance — A Romish Magistrate on the " Revival " 
 — A Solemn Meeting — The Alarm and Cry — An Address to Awakened 
 Ones — A Union Meeting, and Addresses — A Rector's Testimony — The Voice 
 of Psalms — The Indian Colonel's Plea. 
 
 A STUDENT of the General Assembly at this time gives an impressive 
 account of the Avs'akening, as it had manifested itself in a district 
 about seven miles north-west of Newry. His letter was put into my 
 hands by Alexander Dickey, Esq., of Belfast, and is as follows : — 
 
 •' Cremore and Tyrone's Ditches. — The first prayer-meeting at 
 this place was held on the 7th of July, and was conducted by the 
 minister, no converts from other places, addressing any of the meetings 
 in the neighbourhood. The writer, a student of the General Assembly, 
 ■was one of those blessed by the Lord at the first meeting. There 
 could not have been less than fifty cases of conviction on that night. 
 The people did not leave the church, till four or five o'clock in the 
 morning. Since then, the work has been advanced with astonishing 
 rapidity. Meetings are held every evening in various places, and 
 though the physical manifestations are not so numerous as at first, 
 the meetings are still croveded. These have been conducted by the 
 local ministers and some Presbyterian students, and no strangers 
 have yet visited the place. There are some unbelievers in the move- 
 ment, but they cannot deny the great change that has taken place 
 in the country ; they cannot deny that intemperance, Sabbath break- 
 ing, blasphemy, &c., are now almost unknown; they cannot deny 
 that more than one public-house has been closed. This neighbour- 
 hood was notorious for its religious sectarianism, but God has broken 
 this heartless bigotry into ten thousand pieces. You can now see 
 Covenanter, Seceder, Assembly-man, Episcopalian, and Methodist, 
 sitting side by side listening to the story of the cross, when formerly, 
 they would scarcely have looked at one another. Many Roman Catho- 
 lics have been converted, and the last person the writer spoke to, as 
 he entered the train for Belfast, vras a converted Unitarian." 
 
 At Rathfriland, seven miles to the east of Newry, in Downshire, 
 the power of the Holy Spirit had been displayed continuously for 
 many weeks together. Strong and stalwart men had been prostrated 
 to the dust, and large numbers of true penitents had been brought 
 to the Saviour's feet. In other districts of the County Down, as in 
 
 H 
 
98 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 the neighbourhoods of Hillsborough and of Saiiitfields, as ■well as 
 at Droinura and Boardiiiills, the same triumphs of grace were now 
 witnessed. 
 
 The Kev. G. II. Shanks, of Boardmills, a minister well-known to 
 the writer, has been permitted to gather an abundant harve^st of pre- 
 cious souls. In August, a devotional meeting of 1,000 persons 
 was held in his district at a place called " The Temple," which had 
 been long infamous as the scene of cock-fighting and other abomina- 
 tions. A missionary from India, who had been present, described 
 the gathering to me as intensely interesting. An entire revolution 
 of habits and morals has passed over this district, and j)robably no- 
 where has the visible and moial reformation been more decidedly or 
 more extensively the direct and immediate fruit of the operations of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The town of Newry is the barrier town between the province of 
 Ulster in the north, and the ])rovince of Leinster in the south-east 
 of Ireland. Its site amid hills and mountains is picturesque, and 
 the scenery of Kostrevor and Carlingford Bay, in its vicinity, is 
 "beautiful exceedingly." Here, too, you may study the native 
 Celtic population, and the descendants of the Scottish and English 
 colonists of the seventeenth century ; and mark and ponder a striking 
 contrast in face and form, and even in language and religion. 
 
 In the market-place, mutual bargains are made in the Irish tongue 
 by the peasantry of the county of Louth; and from the Romish 
 chapel door, you could have watched with interest, a crowd of real 
 native Irish people — men in their frieze coats, and women with their 
 blue or red cloaks — issue forth, after a mass in honour of the "Assump- 
 tion" of the Virgin Mary. 
 
 Were there any tokens of the presence and power of the Awakening 
 in such a town as this? We reply, Yes; but it had not reached the 
 Koman Catholic population of the town or neighbourhood, nor has 
 it told upon their social habits. This, however, it had done on the 
 Protestant population of the town, and especially among the farmers 
 and peasantry northward. In proof of this, I was told, when at 
 Newry, that on the *' big Sunday," the 14th of August (an anni- 
 versary and holiday among Komanists), there had been 400 fevver 
 pleasure excursionists to Warrenpoint this year, as compared with 
 the corresponding day of 1858, and this a Ruman Catholic magistrate 
 of the town, in the hearing of a personal friend of my own, expressly 
 attributed to the "Revival." 
 
 In like manner, the use of ardent spirits is much diminished in 
 this neighbourhood among Protestants, and drunkenness is scarcely 
 known. I had no means of ascertaining the decrease of excise 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 99 
 
 revenue in this district, as I had afterwards with regard to that of 
 Coleraine, where the collector reported a diminution of receipts for 
 the quarter, of £400. 
 
 At Newry, I attended two meetings, marked by deep and peculiar 
 interest to myself. The first was on a Monday evening, in a house 
 of prayer which I had been the instrument of building for the 
 worship of God and the preaching of His word. Here I stood up 
 in the presence of a large assembly of various evangelical denomi- 
 nations, and surrounded by many to whom for years I had ministered 
 the word of life, and intioduced into the church of Christ. The 
 pastor, the Rev. J. Dodd, opened by solemn prayer; and not without 
 mucl^motion did I address the assembly. 
 
 While speaking, there was a noise in the gallery, and the sound 
 of footsteps of parties hastily retiring. Immediately afterwards, I 
 heard a loud cry outside, twice at least repeated. The sound was 
 peculiar ; a lady afterwards described it as a " wail." But to me 
 it suggested the idea that some intoxicated person, or a Romanist, 
 had got into the grounds surrounding the church, and had raised 
 this cry in mockery. 
 
 After the service was over, the pastor came to me, and informed 
 me of the true cause of this strange outcry. A young man sat in the 
 gallery that evening, who had received a religious education, but 
 who had wandered from God and His ways. A companion sat in 
 the same pew, and about the middle of the service, his friend sud- 
 denly turned to him, and said, " I am very ill. Come out with me." 
 They then hastened forth, and as soon as the area in front was 
 gained, the young man, unable to control his feelings any longer, 
 gave utterance by agonizing cries to the fear and agitation which 
 oppressed him. 
 
 He was afterwards conducted to his father's house, and there I 
 visited him. I am not able to say tliat this was a case of real con- 
 version, but I give it as a specimen of the e£ftcts produced by an 
 alarmed and an awakened conscience, and in illustration of those 
 physical agitations w'hich, in the great majority of cases, have been 
 preceded by deep feeling. They are marked by an intensifying 
 of the sense of guilt and misery to an anguish intolerable, and 
 are generally followed by a true change of heart, in connection 
 with repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Immediately after this service, a meeting for awakened persons 
 •was held in the vestry, which was addressed by the Rev. R. 
 Lindsay, minister of a large Presbyterian congregation at Drum 
 banagher, three miles to the north-west of Newry. There, as well as 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 at Bessbrook, numbers had been brought under conviction, and — as 
 Mr. L. believed and declared — had been hopefully converted. 
 
 The second meeting at Newry was one for united prayer, presided 
 over by Dr. Bagot, Dean of Dromore. Here, five clergymen of the 
 Church of England, three Presbyterian ministers, and an Inde- 
 pendent pastor, were lovingly associated. Although the rain fell 
 heavily, the large room of the savings'-bank was crowded to excess, and 
 a most solemn and devout feeling reigned to the close. Among the 
 speakers was the Hon. and Rev. H. Ward, rector of Killinchy, a 
 clergyman remarkable for his piety and zeal in every good cause, as 
 well as for his catholicity of spirit. His striking testimony as to 
 the reality and power of the great Awakening, as witnessed in 
 his own parish of Killinchy, in the county of ])own, has been already 
 quoted. From his own lips, however, I learned much more. He 
 stated that there had been about 260 cases of persons " stricken," the 
 great majority of whom (and he is a man of exceeding caution, and 
 of ripe years and experience) he now regarded as the genuine 
 children of God. There had been no attempt at excitement; no 
 "converts" were brought from a distance; no young persons were 
 encouraged to address the assembled people. The Presbyterian 
 minister and himself had been present together at each meeting, 
 and all things were conducted in perfect order. At the public 
 meeting in Newry, Mr. Ward dealt with objections and objectors to 
 the movement, in a very powerful manner, and at the same time 
 appealed to the hearts and consciences of his audience. I know not 
 any man, in whose judgment and opinion I would place greater 
 reliance, and his testimony, therefore, was all the more valuable. 
 It was very solemnizing to hear his statement about a notorious 
 infidel in the parish, whose soul had been shaken with terror to 
 its centre. And touching was it, to hear his descri])tion of the 
 breaking up of each evening meeting, the people marching in a 
 body to the cross-roads, singing psalms and hymns all the way ; and 
 when compelled to part, each band departing by a separate road, 
 and the still night and the starlit skies made vocal with their 
 anthems of praise. 
 
 An excellent gentleman residing in the neighbourhood of Newry, 
 and a retired Colonel of the Indian army, published at this period 
 "A Few Plain Words to Objections" in reference to the lievivals in 
 the North of Ireland. 
 
 He deals with the three classes of objectors — such as unreservedly 
 vilify and repudiate ; such as object to the physical accompani- 
 ments, and while they admit that there may be, to some extent, 
 good in it, say they must wait for more permanent results; and those 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. lOl 
 
 who declare its author to be Satan " transforming himself into an 
 angel of light." As to the first class, he regards reasoning and 
 argument with them to be futile, as they are mockers who disregard 
 the operations of God's hand. To the second class. Colonel R., who 
 is an Evangelical churchman, addresses himself in the following 
 weighty words: — "I would say. How long will you halt between 
 two opinions? Does the friend of the convalescent postpone his joy, 
 saying, I must wait to see if your cure is permanent? Does he 
 condemn him if, having passed from a state of depression and pain 
 to the enjoyment of health and life, he gives expression to unwonted 
 feelings of thankfulness and delight ? 
 
 " Are men to be cast down when an earthly calamity befalls them, 
 and is there to be no manifestation of alarm, no mental or bodily 
 depression, when the realities of the eternal world are brought 
 suddenly before them in all their vivid signification, when the 
 awakened soul feels itself hanging over an unfathomable abyss of 
 horror ? 
 
 " May the emotions of the prodigal's heart be rapturous when his 
 earthly parent's arms are outstretched to receive him, and is the 
 spirit to be unmoved when it feels that it is reconciled to God, and 
 that the terrors of hell are removed ? 
 
 " As regards waiting for further evidence, how long does the 
 historian of the Acts of the Apostles declare the interval to have 
 been between Peter's first sermon, and the conversions which 
 followed it ? * The same day/ he says, ' there were added unto them 
 about three thousand souls.' The willingness and power of the 
 Holy Spirit are the same now as then, and this is evidenced in the 
 altered conduct and dispositions of those upon whom He now 
 operates. Vicious habits are abandoned, a desire for services in 
 which intercourse with God may be enjoyed, is exhibited to an 
 extent unknown before, and which all previous human efforts had 
 failed to excite. 
 
 " Marvellous fluency in prayer is possessed by the most illiterate, 
 and often by very young persons. A boldness in acknowledging 
 what God had done for them is shown, and an ardent desire to make 
 known to others the love of God in Christ. These things cannot be 
 gainsaid, for whole districts proclaim their existence. How is it 
 that you know them not ? Is it because you are unwilling to know 
 them, and will not take the trouble ? 
 
 ** What if God should refuse you further evidence, leaving you to 
 the performance of frigid rites and the possession of barren hearts?" 
 
 To the third class he says — " Though Satan can transform liiraself 
 into an angel of light, he cannot make men produce fruits of the 
 
103 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 character just mentioned, nor would he if he could, as he would then 
 be working against himself. 
 
 "In estimating this work to be evil in its origin and operation, 
 take heed that j'ou are not committing the unpardonable sin ' blas- 
 phemy against the Holy Ghost,' and beware lest the words to you 
 are applicable, ' Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish, for I 
 work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, 
 though a man declare it unto you.' Whether you believe or dis- 
 believe, the woik will go on, and souls will be gathered into the 
 garner of Christ, with a rapidity proportioned to the shortness of 
 the interval remaining for its completion. The joy of angels over 
 one sinner that repents must spread until heaven's arch is filled 
 wuth the reverberation. The kingdom of God has long been offered to 
 those who heed it not; it is time, therefore, that the inhabitants of 
 the highways and hedges of the eartli should be gathered in to enjoy 
 for eternity, the rich provision God has prepared for them." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 Visit to Ballymena— The Minister and his Gnest — Hospitality — The Ahoghill 
 District — The Rich Man's Conversion — 'i'he Bible Class — The Evening 
 Gathering — The Young Preacher — Cases of Deafness and Dumbness — The 
 Converts' Joy — Mr. Moore, and the Power of Prayer. 
 
 The town of Ballymena, in the county of Antrim, as we have 
 already indicated, has peculiar interest clustering around it in con- 
 nection with the history of the Kevival. Within a few miles of it 
 on the one side — to the north-east — is Connor, where the Awakening 
 liad its origin ; and on the other side — to the west — is Ahoghill, where 
 its development became truly marvellous in the early months of the 
 present year. But in Ballymena itself — a prosperous market town, 
 the seat and centre of the linen manufacture in Antrim — the 
 Awakening has been so marked and manifest, that no Christian 
 tourist could with propriety, or without a great deficiency in his 
 records of ascertained facts in connection with the Revivals, pass 
 it by. 
 
 It was on the afternoon of Thursday, the 18th of August, that I 
 found myself able to realize my purpose of visiting Ballymena. It 
 was the first ])lace which, after an examination of the spiritual con- 
 dition of Belfast, I had marked down on my programme. But 
 Providence ordered it otherwise; and I shall always be thankful 
 that, by strange and unexpected causes, I was led to visit other 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 103 
 
 scenes dear to me from childhood's associations and family ties, as 
 "well as the town where I first ministered the word of life. 
 
 Parting at the Ballymena station with an Indian missionary, who 
 "was passing on to Coleraine, to snpply, on the coming Lord's-day, 
 the pulpit of a minister whose health had broken down under 
 excessive toil, I penetrated speedily into the town. I inquired my 
 -way to the manse of the Rev. S. M. Dill, by whom I was most hos- 
 pitably received. Here I found myself at once in the atmospliere 
 of Ciiristian life and activity. First of all I found at Mr. Dill's 
 house the brother of the Rev. J. H. Guinness, the well-known evan- 
 gelist. This younger brother, in his vacation recess (he is a student 
 at New College, St. John's Wood, London), was now on a visit to 
 his native country, and was preaching almost daily. The evening 
 before, he had addressed an immense audience at Carrickfergus, and 
 this evening was about to preach in Mr. Dill's church. Meanwhile, 
 "we three were driven out to dine with — Y., Esq., at a beau- 
 tiful mansion, which had originally belonged to the noble family of 
 Mountcashel. Our route lay along the highway which leads to 
 Ahoghill, in which village I had, years before, preached for several 
 Sabbaths. I tried to recall the features of the neighbourhood, but, 
 in doing so, I was irresistibly led to ponder with thankfulness on the 
 blessed change which, not without some hopeful antecedents and 
 providential preparations, had passed over this district. In itself, it 
 presents as fair a specimen of prosperity as Ulster can supply. The 
 soil is rich, the population is numerous, and yet not squalid, but in. 
 comfortable circumstances, while the dwelling-houses, with tlieir 
 "white-washed walls and their superior size, tell how the linen trade 
 has long been the source of wealth to this special locality. It was 
 to the top of one of the round hills of this neighbourhood that, as 
 related in a previous chapter, an inhabitant not long ago took a 
 Christian visitor, and pointed out to him a particular district, 
 studded with its farm-houses, into which the Spirit of God had 
 come with such regenerating power during the present year, that 
 almost every family had undergone a social revolution. 
 
 Returning into town for the evening service, there was pointed out 
 to me a large suburban house, or rather mansion, occupied by a 
 ■wealthy merchant. He had, up till a recent period, been living 
 "without God in the world, but very soon after the work of grace 
 displayed its presence in Ballymena, was privately brought under 
 conviction of sin, — whether accompanied by physical agitation or 
 not was not known, — and his resolve, as soon as he was led to 
 the Saviour's feet, was that of Joshua — " As for me and my house, 
 ■we will serve the Lord." This is not the only instance of persons 
 
104 THE ULSTER AWAKENINa. 
 
 in the higher walks of life having been converted during this 
 awakening time. Many such there are in various districts of 
 Ulster. 
 
 At eight o'clock, P.M., Mr. Dill's church began to be rapidly filled 
 by a congregation comprising almost every grade in society, and 
 including working-men and youths, just as they had come from their 
 toil. Previously Mr. Dill had met a large Bible class of young 
 •women, nearly all of whom were recent converts, and many of whom 
 had been physically afifected. He laboured to build them up in the 
 faith, and, as a good shepherd, to feed them with knowledge and 
 understanding. This, in truth, is the special care of almost all the 
 Ulster ministers with regard to the young disciples, and is as apos- 
 tolic in its spirit, as it is full of promise for spiritual stability and 
 permanent results. 
 
 With these young people, at Mr. Dill's request, I engaged in 
 prayer ; and here, as well as elsewhere, found it very sweet and 
 joyous to give thanks to God on their behalf, while yet asking special 
 guidance and guardianship for them. And could you, dear reader, 
 have looked on them as they rose from their knees, you would have seen 
 the gladly-tearful and glistening eyes of many of them, ere they 
 moved away to take their places in the church at the evening service. 
 Mr. Guinness, jun., was the preacher in the evening, but I was 
 asked to take the introductory services. The view from the pulpit 
 "was indeed heart-stirring. At least 1200 persons were present, and 
 in song and prayer, in reading and briefly expounding, it was 
 impossible to feel aught of the isolation of a stranger, in a pulpit 
 surrounded by a people so thoroughly alive and earnest. 
 
 Mr. Guinness preached from the text, *' Be ye reconciled to God." 
 His sermon was a series of scriptural pictures, ending with the 
 Agony and Crucifixion, illustrated by anecdotes, and, based on these, 
 was an appeal to sinners at the close. His appearance and manner 
 were winning, and marked by gentleness and goodness. There was 
 little direct teaching in this discourse. Its import and aim, how- 
 ever, were evangelical ; and next evening a fuller message was 
 delivered — from the words, "Come unto me all ye that labour," &c. 
 — to an equally numerous audience. No doubt Mr. G., after mature 
 study and further experience, will prove, like his brother, an evan- 
 gelist indeed. His spirit is very amiable, .and it is impossible to 
 know without loving him. 
 
 On Friday morning I paid several visits to young persons who 
 had been physically affected, and some of them in a very remarkable 
 manner. One girl with whom I conversed in her father's house had 
 been twice, for days together, both deaf and dumb. Unlike others 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 105 
 
 ■who had suffered from hlindness (in the sense of having the eyes 
 constantly closed, and of inability to open them), she saw perfectly 
 during the whole period of these visitations, one of which, if I 
 mistake not, continued a whole fortnight. 
 
 During all that time, she was able to go about the house, but 
 could neither speak nor hear. She told me that she had suffered 
 from a choking sensation in her throat, and in saying this, she 
 grasped her throat midway with her hand. Her father, a shoe- 
 maker, seated at his work, confirmed her statement. 
 
 With a little band I had previously united in prayer in the 
 house of a Christian widow, whose husband had been a pious elder 
 in the congregation of Connor for years, and whose daughters, 
 forming part of the circle, had all been brought into subjection to 
 the Saviour's authority. 
 
 Passing to a third house, whither I was conducted by a little 
 female guide, I was again permitted to see and share in the joy of 
 young persons who had recently passed from death unto life, after 
 severe conflict, both bodily and mental in its character. The warm- 
 heartedness, the simplicity, and godly sincerity of these converts were 
 most evident, and, in truth, but the counterparts of what I had 
 already seen and was yet to witness in others throughout Ulster. 
 
 Happiness beamed in every eye. Each had suffered agonizing 
 convictions, "As if an accusing angel held the candle of the Lord 
 to the record of their deeds. The idea of little sins, excuses for sin, 
 or hopes of self-redemption, could not live in that awful light. 
 Guilty, guilty, guilty! Unclean, unclean, unclean ! Lost, lost, lost! 
 This was the feeling." But here at Ballymena, as at Coleraine and 
 Portrush, as well as at Connor, " clear, happy conversions had taken 
 place;" as the Rev. William Arthur expresses it — "conversions 
 ■which made the person changed go on his way, walking and leap- 
 ing, and praising God.' No longer now the spirit of bondage, but 
 that happy, holy cry, * Abba, Father ! ' burst as naturally as a 
 child's greeting for an unexpected, long absent parent, from the 
 unwonted and wondering lips of recent disciples." 
 
 At one o'clock, p.m., I attended a daily prayer-meeting intended 
 for the higher classes of society, which was presided over by a leading 
 physician of the town. At this meeting, wliich lasted an hour, 
 several tourists (strangers) were present, and two ministers from a 
 distance took part in the exercises. 
 
 Leaving Ballymena on Friday afternoon, I had just time to shake 
 hands at the railway station with the Rev. J. S. Moore, one of the 
 ministers of the town, who has been remarkably blessed in his 
 labours in connection with the Revival. He "was returning from. 
 
106 
 
 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 the County Down, where he liad addressed large public meetings. 
 In the few words which he uttered, ere we parted, he dwelt earnestly 
 on the power of believing prayer. He expects great things, and, 
 "according to his faith," so has he found the results lobe. Oh, for 
 a wide difiusion of this spirit ! 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 Coleraine — The Labouring. Man and his Converted Son — Bellaghy and its 
 Minister— Colerai DC and the First Awakening there — The Town Hall — The 
 Irish Society's School — Piayer-nieetings — Dr. Mitchell's Address — A Band 
 of Converts— Daily Morning Prayer-meeting. 
 
 I ARRIVED by train at Coleraine, reluctantly passing by Ballymoney, 
 in the evening, and proceeded at once to the house of the Ptev. 
 Joseph Macdonald, about one mile north-east of the town, on the 
 road which leads to the Giant's Causeway. As I left the station, I 
 saw before me on the road a labouring man, and with the familiarity 
 of a brother Ulsterman I called out, "Will you not wait for com- 
 pany ? " The man stopped till I came up to him, and ere we had 
 "walked side by side three minutes we were conversing about the 
 Revival. It was to him a delightful topic. He had been a Chris- 
 tian indeed before its blessed advent, but his soul, as a father, had 
 been filled with gladness because of it. His dress was mean, and his 
 aspect rugged, yet here was a " brother beloved, partaker of the benefit," 
 at once found and recognised. He spoke of the wonderful scenes that 
 had occurred in the Town-hall of Coleraine, and throughout the place 
 generally, at the outset. He was a labourer in a farmer's service, but 
 with awe-struck tones and reverent air he said to me, *'I did not work 
 for several days then ; I didn't think it quite right to do so." " You 
 felt that God was specially near ? " " Yes." " Were you at the Town- 
 hall on that memorable night, when so many were struck down?" 
 " Yes; and I had one of my sons with me." " Did it make a great 
 impression on him ? " " Yes ; he said to me next day, « I feel as if I 
 was to have it to-night!'" This implied that the youth had the 
 beginnings of conviction of sin within him, and that he had a 
 glimmering hope of meicj. He then described how the youth went 
 to the prayer-meeting, and how next day he had borne testimony, 
 before all the men in the farm-yard, to what God had done for his 
 soul. He added, " When my boy came home that evening he looked 
 at me very solemnly, and said, * Father, will you let (allow) me keep 
 family worship ? ' I said to him "—(and here the father was deeply 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 107 
 
 moved, as he spoke) — " ' Well, James, I am very glad to hear such a 
 word as that from you.' And so he took the book (the Bible) and 
 read ; and then he knelt down and prayed — such a prayer I" 
 
 Such was the substance of this wayside, casual converse \Nith a 
 poor working-man. Thank God, there are thousands like him in 
 Ulster at this hour. 
 
 I had passed by the village of Bellaghy, on my journey this after- 
 noon, but cast a glance of deepest interest upon it and the district 
 around. For — as indicated by a letter from the Kev. A. Hunter, 
 printed in Dr. Massie's " Facts and Documents " with regard to the 
 Kevival — this is truly the " transformed village," above most others 
 in Ulster, by reason of the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon 
 the people. It was in this neighbourhood that a member of parlia- 
 ment, and a nephew of a late statesman, attended with his wife an 
 open-air meeting. He had made no profession of religion previously 
 (more, perhaps, might be said than this implies), but so powerful was 
 the impression made on his mind, by what he saw and heard, that 
 he declared that now he believed that religion was a reality, and his 
 household can now testify with gratitude, to the blessed results of 
 the change. 
 
 It was from this village of Bellaghy, in the county of Derry, that 
 the Rev. Mr. Pennefather, incumbent of Barnet, invited Mr. Hunter 
 to pay him a visit with the express object of doing good in his parish. 
 Mr. Hunter was present at the Conference of Christians at Barnet, 
 which extended over three mornings. 
 
 On one afternoon, Mr. Hunter gave an address to 500 persons in. 
 the school-room, illustrated by incidents from the Irish Revival ; and 
 at an evening meeting he gave an account of the Awakening in his 
 own neighbourhood, and " the transformation of wlat had been one 
 of the must wicked districts in the nurth of Ireland." '■ The interest 
 attached to the report of one who had been on the spot from the 
 beginning," writes Beta, in " Evangelical Ciiristendom," " was 
 enhanced by the fiery energy, and the air of truth and reality with 
 which he spoke." 
 
 I heard much that was interesting about Mr. Hunter, while in 
 Ireland, and of the glorious change wrought in a district where, by 
 the desperate wickedness of the people, he had been almost driven 
 to despair. 
 
 Coleraine was a town where, as I previously knew, great things 
 had been done. The beginning of the Awakening is thus described by 
 the Rev. W. Arthur : — " The town of Coleraine is beautifully seated 
 on the banks of the Bann, and, like Bally mena, was prosperous. 
 Here the spiritual power of the Revival seems to have been mani- 
 
108 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 fested, in a degree, perhaps, surpassing any other place, at least up 
 to that time. INIuch prayer had been offered, and when the work 
 came so nigh as Ballymena, faith and hope grew stronger. At length 
 united meetings were held, in-doors and out of doors, of Churchmen, 
 Presbyterians, Methodists, Independents, Baptists, — all classes who 
 preach salvation by grace through failh, — working together, with one 
 heart and one soul. A mighty power of the Spirit was shed down. 
 If they had often wondered at the barrenness of their utmost eflbrts, 
 now, looking on the blessed results of every meeting, they were as 
 men that dream. When I asked a friend how matters were going 
 on in the town, his reply was, ' For the last three weeks, it has 
 been one continual Pentecost.' Conviction of sin had appeared to 
 be granted to hundreds of the people at once, and that in the clearest 
 and most awakening form. In cottage after cottage, groups were 
 gathered to pray around penitents, or to read the Bible, and sing 
 psalms and hymns. One day the newspaper had to delay its publi- 
 cation, for the convincing Spirit had touched the hearts of the com- 
 positors, and, instead of being at w^ork, the}- were wrestling in 
 agonies of prayer. A new town-hall had been built, and was to be 
 opened by a ball; but such a power of repenting grace came down 
 upon the people, that place must be sought on all hands for mourn- 
 ing penitents to meet and seek mercy. The court-house, in another 
 part of the town, was filled ; and instead of the dancing throng, the 
 new town-hall was thrown open to a company of the weary and the 
 heavy laden, who were resolved to wait at the feet of Jesus till He 
 bade them ' go in peace, and sin no more.' The Coleraine Chronicle 
 says : ' Instead of the joyous dance and the stirring music of the 
 ball-room, the walls of the hall gave back the almost despairing 
 groans of the stricken sinner, the heartfelt prayer of a believing 
 penitent, or resounded with the adoring thanks of a redeemed saint. 
 So hour after hour of that memorable night passed away. One after 
 another, ministers and good men, who had prayed with and com- 
 forted the mourners, retired worn out.' But the editor saw one 
 whom no time or toil could weary : — * In the niche of a window,' 
 sat a mother, ' for six long hours,' holding m her lap the head of a 
 son, a wicked son, who now lay prostrated under the awful power of 
 conviction. Would not God, who had borne with her boy in his 
 years of waywardness, vouchsafe to him 'a sight of the cross?' 
 Her patience was rewarded ; before his dark soul a clear light dawned 
 upon the great atonement, and he went heme ' rejoicing that even 
 such a sinner as he could be received by the Lamb of God.'" 
 
 " At one period it seemed as if it was no lonyer a slioiver hut a fall 
 of aivakening influence. On all hands were men and women seek- 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 109 
 
 ing God, pressed with an overwhelming- sense of their sins, and 
 resolved not to rest till, * being justified by faith,' thej' had * peace 
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' A Methodist minister, 
 coming down the town about midnight, worn out with his own share 
 in the blessed labour of pointing penitents to the Cross, found upon, 
 the street a group, among whom a Presbyterian minister was earn- 
 estly discharging the same office." 
 
 Mr. Arthur also describes the remarkable awakening which took 
 place in a large school, belonging to the Corporation of London, or 
 that body connected with it, known as the Irish Society, who are the 
 landlords of Coleraine, and of much property around. " In it, a boy 
 ■was observed under deep impressions. The master, seeing that the 
 little fellow was not fit to work, called him to him, and advised him 
 to go home, and call upon the Lord in private. With him he sent 
 an older boy, who had found peace tiie day before. On their way 
 they saw an empty house, and went in there to pray together. The 
 two schoolfellows continued in prayer in the empty house till he who 
 was weary and heavy laden felt his soul blessed with sacred peace. 
 Kejoicing in this new and strange blessedness, the little fellow said, 
 
 *I must go back and tell Mr. .' The boy, who, a little while 
 
 ago, had been too sorrowful to do his work, soon entered tiie school 
 with a beaming face, and, going up to the master, said, in his simple 
 way, ' O, Sir, I am so happy : I have the Lord Jesus in my heart.' 
 Strange words, in cold times! Natural words, when upon the 
 simple and the joung the Spirit is poured out, and they feel what is 
 meant by ' Christ in you the hope of glory,' and utter it in the first 
 terms that come! The attention of the whole school was attracted. 
 Boy after boy silently slipped out of the room. After a while, the 
 master stood upon something which enabled him to look over the 
 wall of the playground. There he saw a number of his boys ranged 
 round tne wall on their knees in earnest prayer, every one apart. 
 The scene overcame him. Presently he turned to the pupil who had 
 already been a comforter to one schoolfellow, and said, 'Do you 
 think you can go and pray with those boys?' He went out, and, 
 kneeling down among them, began to implore the Lord to forgive 
 their sins, for the sake of Him who had borne them all upon the 
 cross. Their silent grief soon broke into a bitter cry. As this 
 reached the ears of the boys in the room, it seemed to pierce their 
 hearts : as by one consent, they cast themselves upon their knees, 
 and began to cry for mercy. The girls' school was above, and the 
 cry no sooner penetrated to their room, than, apparently well know- 
 ing what mourning it was, and hearing in it a call to themselves, 
 they, too, fell upon their knees and wept. Strange disorder for 
 
110 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 schoolmaster and mistress to have to control ! The united cry 
 reached tlie adjoining streets, and soon every spot on the premises 
 was filled with sinners seeking God." 
 
 I shall not dwell at any length on the memorable evening spent 
 at Coleraine. First of all I accompanied my host, Mr. Macdonald, 
 to his own church, to a meeting for united prayer. The building is 
 comparatively modern, and its erection was the result of the strenuous 
 and self-denying zeal and devotedness of a former venerable pastor, 
 the Rev. James Hunter. Of the company here assembled, the pious 
 elders arrested my special attention. Nearly all were aged and 
 experienced Christians, who, when spiritual religion was low in 
 Coleraine, had been earnest and faithful. 
 
 I might dwell also on other prayer-meetings held that evening 
 in different places of worship, at which addresses were delivered by 
 various ministers from a distance. But sweeter still was the closing 
 and special meeting with converts, in a large upper school-room 
 connected with one of the Presbyterian churches. It was crowded 
 to the doors. A pious citizen presided, and around and immediately 
 before him were gathered ministers and lay gentlemen — pilgiims to 
 Ulster, that they might see what God had wrought. As I had 
 marked elsewhere, so at this meeting, the sweetness and jubilant 
 exultation of the song and shout of praise was delightful, and pro- 
 ceeding as it did from a host of recently awakened and rescued ones, 
 it was like the echo of the blessed symphony of adoring gratitude of 
 the upper sanctuary, " Salvation unto our God that sitteth on the 
 throne, and unto the Lamb." 
 
 Mingled with the prayers and singing was a very impressive and 
 touching address from Dr. Murray Mitchell, Free Church nnssionary 
 at Bombay. He said that he had been about to leave, for his field 
 of toil, but could not go away without first visiting the scenes of the 
 Revival. He blessed God that he had come, and for what he had 
 seen, adding, very naturally and beautifully, as well as with deep 
 emotion, that he would go back to his labours greatly encouraged by 
 the knowledge that many new supplicants would henceforth be plead- 
 ing before God for the heathen world. In connection with this, he 
 dwelt on the 67th Psalm, " God be merciful to us" — the church seek- 
 ing mercy, and quickening for herself; — why ? " That I'hy way may be 
 known on earth, and Thy saving health among all nations." Never 
 did I feel so strongly or perceive more clearly, that the revival of the 
 church itself, and the awakening and conversion of the dead in sin, 
 are the destined presages and pioneers of the salvation of the race. 
 
 I left Coleraine that night with deep emotion. As my friend 
 and brother, Mr. M'D., conducted me towards his house in the 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. Ill 
 
 country, there suddenly fell on my ear the sound of singing at a 
 distance. I thought, from old rememhranees, that it must be a 
 band returning from a drinking party, who were singing Baccha- 
 nalian and party songs. But my friend knew better, and as we 
 ascended a rising-ground on our way, distant, clear, solemn, and 
 beautiful there was wafted us from the valley westward, the choral 
 harmony of an air, familiar as it was sacred. The words could not 
 be distinguished, and night threw her sable mantle over the singers. 
 I longed to come in contact with them, and so traversing a country 
 lane rapidl}', and just as we reached the cross-yards, lo ! we came 
 upon the head of a column of about thirty young men, marching 
 four or five deep, with steady, regular tramp, and filling the listening 
 woods around, and the solemn starlit heavens above, with the 
 high praises of Jehovah. This was a band of " United Irishmen," 
 indeed. In 1798 such a band might have been seen marching in 
 military order, with firm tread, with gleaming pikes, in silence, 
 under the stimulus of mistaken love of country. But now the 
 Author of peace and Giver of concord had been welding all hearts 
 together by the grace of his Holy Spirit, and inspiring these hymns 
 of praise. These are some of the converts whom I saw two hours 
 ago in the upper room at Coleraine. They are returning home, and, 
 like thousands more over Ulster, they beguile the way with songs of 
 rejoicing. And see! there is a coloured young man (who had been 
 at the meeting, and who had since addressed them seperately), and 
 two of them, with their arms entwined in his, bear him on to a 
 night's hospitable reception and repose. 
 
 At our invitation, the young men stop their homeward march and 
 joyous song, and they gather around us. They are then briefly ad- 
 dressed as to the importance of watchfulness, prayer, and holy self- 
 denial, that so they may retain the fervour and freshness of " first 
 love." They are reminded that while they may — in the present glow 
 of ardent affection to the Redeemer — suppose that the decay of this 
 love is impossible, yet that the Church at Ephesus did lose it (Rev, 
 ii. 4), and that they need a constant supply of the Holy Spirit's grace, 
 otherwise they may yet dishonour their profession, and deny their 
 Lord. Very touching is it to meet the upturned, thoughtful eyes of 
 the young converts, as words like these fall on their ears. We then 
 sing a part of the 103rd Psalm, which is followed by prayer and the 
 benediction. All of us linger on a spot which is to us as " the house 
 of God, and the gate of heaven." At length we part, to meet, I trust 
 in glory. That scene I can never forget — those voices still ring in 
 my ears. Here was one of the many bands, who all through the 
 summer and autumn, have nightly, and ofttimes till near the 
 
112 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 dawn, poured out their gratitude to God with a kindred fervour and 
 continuance to those seraphs before the tlirone, 
 
 " "Who all night long unwearied sing 
 High praise to their eternal King." 
 
 Next morning, at half-past nine o'clock, was held the daily half- 
 liour meeting for united prayer, in the New Town-hall of Coleraine. 
 Here the Spirit of God had displayed His marvellous power at the 
 opening of the movement, and here this morning was gathered an 
 assembly, of all ranks and ages, including an ex-M.P., strangers from 
 a distance, and many of the labouring classes and the very poor of 
 the town, who had been brought to Christ. There knelt beside me 
 an aged man, evidently poor, with patched clothing, and with worn 
 and rugged face. Oh, with what fervour and importunity, yet in 
 subdued undertones, did he back the petitions ofiered up by the 
 successive suppliants ! Here — as he rose up, and I grasped his hand 
 — I felt was one of those "secret ones," who in Ireland have long 
 been waiting for and expecting the blessing which now gladdens 
 their hearts, and who continue to wrestle for blessings greater still. 
 Fain would I linger over my reminiscences and impressions in con- 
 nection with this thrice-favoured town of Coleraine, where ministers, 
 press, and people, have all been baptized with the Holy Ghost. But 
 other scenes are yet before us, and other reminiscences, gladdening 
 and delightful, are to be recorded. Portrush, ])unluce, Herry, and 
 other places, have yet to unfold some of tliose wonders of life, light, 
 and power which shall always make so memorable to me the month 
 of August, 1859. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS A^D INQUIRIES. 
 
 Carriclcfergus — Bushmills — The Giant's Causeway — Buuluce Castle — A Sabbath 
 at Portrush— Remarkable Conversion of an Old Waterloo Soldier — The 
 Young Maiden's Prayer — The Press and the Revival. 
 
 Along the coast of Antrim, so magnificent and bold, by the shores 
 of the Lough of Larne, at Glenarm, and the mountainous region 
 round about, and stretching onward by Carrickrede and its famous 
 suspension-bridge, spanning an awe-inspiring gulf on the sea-shore, 
 and also in the inland belt of Antrim County lying behind, the 
 Awakening has exercised a powerful influence. Nearer to Belfast, 
 however, at the old town of Carriclcfergus, where the French landed, 
 about the middle of the last century, and where the military chap- 
 lains of Scottish regiments, in the service of King Charles I., in 1G41, 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. Il3 
 
 formed the first presbytery of a church which now numbers nearly 
 600 ministers, and nearly half a million of people ;— the power of the 
 Lord has been present to heal and save many souls. 
 
 Night after night meetings had been held at Carrickfergus, 
 and the people had come in crowds to the places of worship 
 and elsewhere. The conversions had been very numerous, and 
 the moral and social change wrought on the community had been 
 marvellous. 
 
 My respected friend, the llev. J. AVhite of Carrickfergus, has 
 given a striking account of the daily prayer-meetings held by the 
 workers in the salt-mines, many hundred feet underground. Here, 
 it may be interesting to mention that a brother of this gentleman, 
 the Rev. Verner M. White, LL.D., a minister in Liverpool, and a 
 native of Ulster, since his return home, has been holding meetings, 
 almost every evening, in his own church, and that there is good 
 reason for believing that a real revival of religion is progress- 
 ing in that great town. It is thus we trust that other visitors 
 and eye-witnesses of the Awakening in Ulster, have been honoured of 
 God to stir up the people of England and Scotland to pray believ- 
 ingly, penitently, perse veringly, until shall be heard from heaven 
 *' the sound of abundance of rain." 
 
 Immediately after the morning prayer-meeting in the Town-hall 
 of Coleraine had broken up, I was joined by two friends from Totten- 
 ham, and proceeded with them on an excursion to the Giant's Cause- 
 way. The Irish jaunting-car, with its fast trotting horse, bore us 
 speedily onward to our destination. The day was bright and beau- 
 tiful ; the sun poured its golden tide on fields white to the harvest, 
 and on those farm-houses and white-washed cottages, which met the 
 eye on every side. 
 
 As we slowly descended the steep hill which leads into the town 
 of Bushmills, a gentleman came up from the town and passed us. 
 It struck me that this was one who would prove a brother, and who 
 could give us some information. I spiang from the car, and, ap- 
 proaching him, found this was the Rev. AV. Oliver, Presbyterian 
 minister of Dunluce. 
 
 His work on *' Home Duties," has been reviewed in periodicals 
 and journals, in terms of warmest commendation. Here, at all events, 
 was one who was discriminative and cautious — one, moreover, who, 
 at the beginning, looked doubtfully, if not suspiciously, on the 
 Revival movement. But the Spirit of God came down on his people, 
 and on the neighbourhood around, with such sudden and awful 
 power, that he was bowed to the dust in adoration and astonishment. 
 His church on the top of the hill had been the scene of glorious 
 
 I 
 
114 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 manifestations, and in our necessarily brief interview, information 
 Avas given as to the spiritual resurrection of whole families together, 
 and of the moral and social change, which (including the town of 
 Bushmills) had passed over the district, such as caused us again to say, 
 " What hath God wrought ! " I felt a yearning wish to have remained 
 here over the next day (the Sabbath), but that might not be, and so 
 we pressed on to the Causeway. In a written communication with 
 which I have been favoured, Mr. Oliver animadverts on the open and 
 pertinacious opposition manifested towards the Awakening by certain 
 ministers and professors of religion. He also says, " Christians are 
 apt to test all by their own moderate standard. Feelings livelier 
 than their own, tears gushing, the voice loud and earnest as if to 
 pierce heaven, no matter who may be near us, the heart throbbing 
 with a sense of sin^ the whole frame convulsed as in a death agony, 
 and then scenes of conviction followed by thrilling transports of 
 joy, as if Jesus was seen descending, clothed with a garment of light, 
 carrying a glorious pardon in his right hand, — these are deep and 
 rapturous feelings that soar far above the languid joys of the dwarfish 
 Christian, and lead him either to doubt the reality of his graces, or 
 to asperse the work as the result of epilepsy, hysteria, or madness." 
 To those who, after calm consideration, believe the Awakening to be 
 the work of God, Mr. Oliver appeals thus : " If you are convinced 
 that it is a genuine work of God, why not carry out your convictions? 
 Is it not the highest honour put upon man, that God takes him into 
 His councils, and makes him His fellow worker?" 
 
 I shall not occupy the reader's time or thoughts with a description 
 of that glorious scene, the Giant's Causeway. We might dwell 
 on the boat borne over the long swell of the Atlantic billows, as they 
 rushed on the iron-bound coast; or might tell of the lurid darkness 
 of those giants' caves, where ocean's tides rave incessant, and into 
 whose chiaro-obscuro our boat was guided by the stalwart and hardy 
 crew. One might become descriptive and semi-scientific in tread- 
 ing over again those hexagon and pentagon stones, hewn out so accu- 
 rately, which might almost lead a Sir Roderic Murchison to doubt 
 whether it was not after all man's art and device. But no; even at 
 the Causeway, we could not dissociate our thoughts from that work of 
 the " Creator Spirit," of which we had already seen much, and before 
 which the grandeur and sublimity of the material became compara- 
 tively little in our eyes. 
 
 And so was it at Dunluce Castle. There was here the recognised 
 guide, an elderly man who rents the place from the Earl of Antrim. 
 We listen, not uninterested, to his fluent rehearsal of the legends of 
 the castle. He traces for us its different courts and chambers, and 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 115 
 
 indicates their probable design and original purposes. He leads us 
 to the narrow bridge, over the fearful gulf below, and which we do 
 not cross. Beyond it, on the topmost rock, are the chief ruins of the 
 stronghold, including the banqueting-hall. There the Macdonalds 
 and the Macquillan chiefs, long at deadly feud, were reconciled by a 
 marriage union between tlie two houses — thus laying the foundation 
 of the noble house of Antrim. But ere we leave, inquiries are made 
 of the 'old man about the Awakening. He tells what a change has 
 passed over the people's habits, and how many he knows who have 
 been " stricken." Conscience evidently has been busy with him, and 
 he yields assent to the duty pressed on him, of attending to his own 
 salvation ere it be too late. 
 
 My friends, intending to spend the Sabbath in Londonderry, set 
 me down near the town of Portrush, and press on themselves to 
 Coleraine, to catch the train at five o'clock, p.m. I wend my solitary 
 way for about the space of an Irish mile, and enter Portrush. It is 
 a village watering-place, beautifully situated, and becoming every 
 year more popular. Yonder, to the east, you see Dunluce Castle ; 
 and, further still, the bold majestic Causeway Head. Here, in front, 
 the Skerries island rocks rise out of the water about a mile from 
 the coast ; beyond is the mighty Atlantic, and at your feet the gently- 
 flowing tide kisses the silver strand. 
 
 With a letter of introduction from an Episcopal clergyman at 
 Newry, I soon find my way to the residence of one of his brethren 
 here (the Rev. Mr. Ffoliott), who was associated with the Rev. G. V. 
 Chichester, in the cure of the parish. Both are perfectly joined 
 together in the same mind and the same judgment about the Awaken- 
 ing. They had watched with interest its early birth in this parish, 
 and speedily joined most heartily with the Rev. J. Simpson, Pres- 
 byterian minister, in hailing it as indeed the Lord's doing, and 
 wondrous in their eyes. 
 
 These three excellent men have laboured together in season and 
 out of season. The spirit of brotherly love reigned in the town and 
 neighbourhood. It found practical expression in united meetings for 
 prayer, and in the delivery of short addresses every morning, as well 
 as in special Saturday evening prayer-meetings, convened to implore 
 the Divine blessing on the services of the Lord's-day. 
 
 Joyfully and thankfully, did I take part in this last-named meet- 
 ing, as well as in another on the following Monday morning. I asked 
 for *• prayer for London," and urged its claims for the myriads of its 
 population, from the perishing condition and abounding wickedness 
 of multitudes, from the dishonour done to God, from the considera- 
 tion that if the "mighty heart" of the world were purified by the 
 
 I2 
 
116 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 Holy Spirit, all nations would realize the blessing and the benefit, 
 and that the pulsations of spiritual life would be felt at the extremi- 
 ties of the globe. Very heartily was the appeal responded to, and 
 it is pleasing for me again to remind the reader that in several 
 places when social prayer is being statedly o£Fered in Ulster, the 
 Lord's " remembrancers " (Isaiah Ixii. 6) are pleading for an out- 
 pouring of the Holy Spirit on London. 
 
 The Sabbath which I spent at Portrush will always be memorable 
 to me, as one of the happiest in my life. The weather was beautiful, 
 the sea was calm, the sky was cloudless. A holy tranquillity marked 
 the fair morning, only broken by the sudden and sweet outburst 
 of psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, from the pious captain 
 and crew, of a Welsh coaling vessel in the harbour. 
 
 It was my privilege to be present at three public services on 
 the Lord's-day. The first was in the church of the Ptev. J. S. Simpson, 
 whose guest I was, and whose venerable father (an elder at Cole- 
 raine) I had heard so clearly expound the Scriptures, and so 
 earnestly plead with God in a congregational prayer-meeting, on the 
 Friday evening before. Very sweet was it to sit among the wor- 
 shippers this morning, and to join in their songs and prayers, as 
 well as in hearing the word. Many strangers of the upper classes 
 (visitors at the watering-place) were here. But the interesting part 
 of the audience was that made up of the embrowned and stalwart 
 farmers, labourers, fishermen, and their families. Many of them 
 had recently received the truth in the power and love of it, and, with 
 the hallowed earnestness of the new-born and newly-rescued, they 
 came to worship the Lord in the beauties of holiness. 
 
 The place was crowded to excess. Forms were placed in the 
 aisles and vestibule, and were all occupied. The sermon (evan- 
 gelical, earnest, and impressive) was preached by the Rev. William 
 McCaw, of Manchester (Moderator of the English Presbyterian 
 Synod), from the words of our Lord, " Except ye eat the flesh," &c. 
 The minister of the place off'ered the closing prayer with great 
 fervour and faith, like a man who had proved ofttimes in that sanc- 
 tuary the power of believing supplication and intercession. And 
 such had been the case. For example, during the first prayer 
 offered here on a Sabbath morning (August 12th), two persons were 
 brought under agonizing convictions, and were afterwards led to the 
 Saviour's feet, and to an entire surrender of themselves to His 
 blessed service. One of these persons was an old soldier, belonging 
 to a regiment of militia, which was disbanded after the battle of 
 Waterloo. He had lived a life of ungodliness. He was in the 
 church that morning, and the arrows of the Almighty pierced his 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. Il7 
 
 heart There was no external agitation or outcry at the time ; but 
 very early on Monday morning liis wife came into Portrush, and 
 entreated the minister to come and see lier husband, as he was 
 in great distress of mind. Mr. Simpson immediately went out to 
 his residence. 
 
 " He was," writes Mr. Simpson in his memoranda (as taken down 
 by me at his house), "in a most awful agony of prayer. He was 
 sitting up in bed with hands clasped and tears falling from his eyes 
 in torrents — tears which he made no attempt to wipe away. He at 
 once grasped both my hands in his, and held me for a length of 
 time. He exclaimed repeatedly, ' What a wretched sinner I have 
 been ! ' And soon after relaxing his grasp, he poured out a prayer, 
 of which the following are some sentences: — 
 
 " ' Oh, blessed Saviour of this world, melt this hard heart, this 
 wretched heart. It is a hard heart, a wretched heart. Oh, blessed 
 Saviour, pour out the Holy Spirit on every wretched sinner like me.' 
 And then he said, ' Oh, a heart pressed down ! ' I asked him, 
 ' What is it that presses down your heart ? ' He replied, ' Sin, 
 Satan ! ' 
 
 " He then resumed his supplication thus : * Oh, Saviour, free me ! 
 Oh, wash me in the fountain opened ; oh, plunge me in it. I know 
 that— 
 
 " ' He will not put my soul to shame, 
 Nor let my hope be lost 1 ' 
 
 " ' Oh, blessed Saviour, I will not distrust thee one jot ! Oh, dear 
 Saviour — dear Lord and Saviour — forsake me not ! ' " 
 
 Was not this a prayer of the Spirit's own prompting? Let it be 
 remembered that this man was, and is, unable to read. He had, indeed, 
 frequently heard of Christ, and of the way of salvation. When 
 asked wliat enabled him to pour out such a prayer, his reply was, 
 "It is nothing but the work of heavenly love by the Holy Ghost." 
 He then exclaimed, " Oh, heavenly Love, subdue me ! Oh, He will 
 be my friend ! " 
 
 The minister, before kneeling at his bedside, asked what he was to 
 pray for? He replied, " For the abundant outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit on this wretched heart." He then exclaimed in broken 
 accents, "Oh, relief!" and as if resuming his petition, and longing 
 for the Holy Spirit, he added, " and for all that desire Him." 
 
 Reserving further notices of Portrush Sabbath services (in the 
 afternoon in the open air, in the evening in the parish church) at 
 which I was present, I shall conclude the present chapter with the 
 following record of the prayer of the second person brought under 
 
118 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 conviction on the 12th of August, at public worship. This was a 
 young girl, and thus she pleaded : — " Oh, Jesus, let thy Spirit come 
 as a dove — let Him fold me in His wings. Oh, blessed Jesus, didst 
 thou not say in thy Sermon on the Mount, ' Blessed are they that 
 hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled ? ' Oh, 
 Jesus, have mercy — oh, have compassion ! My heart is empty — do 
 thou fill it! Oh, thou wert empty on earth, but art full in heaven. 
 Oh, give me of thy fulness ! Oh, Jesus, if I perish, I perish at thy 
 cross ! 
 
 * Rock of ages, cleft for me, 
 Let me hide myself in Thee ! ' " 
 She then added — 
 
 " I lay my sins on Jesus, 
 
 The spotless Lamb of Ood ; 
 He bore our sins, and frees us 
 From the accursed load." 
 
 And yet, prayers like these, abounding all over Ulster at this time, 
 the Saturday JRevieiv, in its haughty ignorance of facts, and writers 
 at the press, who neither knew what they said, nor whereof they 
 affirmed, were ascribing to hysteria and epidemic fanaticism ! As 
 for the Irish Protestant press generally, it either sustained the 
 movement^ or regarded it — as the Earl of Carlisle expresses it — 
 " with reverent watchfulness." This is surely a most weighty fact, 
 and comes out more distinctly when I add, that those Irish papers 
 which have misrepresented, opposed, and ridiculed the Revival, are 
 either under Popish or Unitarian influence. 
 
 Others, including the Romish priests, have said that the devil 
 was the author of this movement. The best reply to this irreverent 
 folly is to be found in the words of the Rev. J. S. Moore, of Bally- 
 mena, in his "History and Prominent Characteristics of the present 
 Revival." " Very learned and philosophical Christians ascribe many 
 of the results mentioned to excitement, nervousness, and * epidemic' 
 The Jews ascribed Christ's works to Beelzebub; and, alas! there are 
 those now who, ignoring the all-sufficiency of Christ, and the existence 
 and power of the Holy Ghost, proclaim the Spirit's work to be a 
 work of the devil. 
 
 " Every honest inquirer after truth would examine before he 
 decides ; and he would form his opinions on the whole, not a part 
 of the evidence. One who had witnessed much, and felt a little, of 
 the salutary change, returning lately from an altar lecture, in which 
 his Satanic majesty got all the credit of the 'Revival,' and its 
 results, said to his companions — ' My friends, all I have to say is, 
 if the devil has done this, there must be a neiv devil, for I'm very 
 sure the old one wouldn't do it at all ! ' " 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 119 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 Sabbath at Portrush — Meeting on Kathmore-hill — Revival Sermons, Episcopal 
 and Presbyterian — The Welsh Sailors and Hymn Singing — Monday Morning 
 Prayer- Meeting— The English Servant — Summary of Results — Mr. Simpson's 
 Testimony — Mr. Hanna's Letter. 
 
 Resuming our notices of Portrush, and Sabbath services there, I have 
 pleasure in recalling the three services which were held in the 
 afternoon, and during the evening. The first of these was at three 
 o'clock, P.M., and had only been proposed and resolved upon late 
 on the Saturday evening. But by the aid of a few written placards, 
 and by announcements made at the Episcopal and Presbyterian 
 churches, full publicity was given, and on the sides of the romantic 
 bill of Rathmore, overlooking " the sounding sea," about 500 persons 
 were brought together. Amongst them were many of the upper 
 classes of society, including several magistrates and barristers. The 
 service occupied one hour and a quarter, and was commenced by the 
 Rev. Mr. Ffoliott, who delivered an address often minutes in length, 
 argumentative and earnest. Addresses were also delivered by four 
 other ministers of religion present, and singing and prayer were 
 appropriately intermingled with those words of exposition and appeal 
 which were spoken. 
 
 The weather was very fine, and the scenery around sublime. With 
 the songs of praise mingled the deep diapason of the ocean, as its 
 billows rushed in upon the rocky shore. 
 
 At five o'clock the evening service commenced in the parish 
 church, and I was pleased to see the building entirely occupied. 
 Here is always found a spiritual band of worshippers, led to the 
 throne of grace by two godly ministers of the Lord Jesus. In this 
 church some physical agitations have occurred, one person, for ex- 
 ample, being struck down during the reading of the Apostle's Creed. 
 But here, with and without such manifestations, the word has 
 often been with power. So also has it been in connection with 
 the Sunday schools of this parish. To this awakening among the 
 young, in contrast with the past, the Rev. G. W. Chichester bears 
 striking testimony in his weighty letter to the Daily Neios. 
 
 " However hopeless," he says, " we may have been in our Sunday- 
 school labours, feeling that all our attempts to impress Scripture upon 
 the mind, have been only like writing on the sand; yet when the 
 heart has been thus powerfully awakened, the conscience convinced, 
 and the spiritual eye opened, how copiously do long-forgotten pas- 
 
120 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 sages rush into the mind, and how many words and verses, which have 
 liitherto only knocked inejSectually at the door of the outward ear, 
 are received and welcomed within, from Avhence they soon pour 
 themselves forth in prayer, or praise, or exhortation from the tongue." 
 Mr. C. also refers, in the same letter in the Daily News, to mar- 
 vellous beauty and fulness in prayer, on the part of those converts 
 who have come under his notice — a beauty and a fulness of which we 
 have given two examples, from among the flock of the Presbyterian 
 pastor, the Rev. Jonathan Simpson. Mr. Chichester's testimony is 
 the following : *' The working of the Spirit is also evidenced by the 
 wonderful power of prayer, and new gift of utterance which seems to 
 be imparted, not onlj' to the most illiterate, but also to young chil- 
 dren. 'J'hose who are highly educated, and have long been habituated 
 to such exercises, may well form a humble estimate of their extem- 
 pore powers, when they hear such sounds as th^se proceeding from 
 minds hitherto dull, and from tongues hitherto dumb." 
 
 But, returning to the parish church, the evening sermon was 
 preached by the Rev. Mr, Ffoliott, and to me it was both suggestive 
 and profitable. It was founded on our Lord's parable of the unclean 
 spirit — driven out of a man previously demon-possessed — "seeking 
 rest and finding none," returning to his original abode, so that the 
 last end of the miserable man was worse than his former condition. 
 The preacher gave the text a threefold application and illustration : 
 — first, the expulsion of idolatry from the Hebrew mind and heart, 
 after or rather by reason of the judgment of the Babylonish captivity : 
 for that was a sin to which they never returned ; but in the days of 
 our Lord, the evil spirit did return — the nation, "possessed" with 
 many devils, blasphemed the Son of Man, crucified the Lord of 
 Glory, and, because of this, "wrath came upon them to the uttermost." 
 Mr. Ffoliott applied the subject, secondly, to the case of the pro- 
 fessedly Christian church, which had been exorcised of idolatry and 
 superstition by the Reformation, but afterwards fell into corruption 
 and heresy, and which (according to his estimate) is likely to become 
 worse and worse in these last days, so that when the Son of man 
 Cometh He shall not find faith in the earth, save in a little remnant. 
 But the third and last portion of this thoughtful discourse was what 
 pleased us best, inasmuch as it was both practical and seasonable. 
 It was a direct dealing with tliose who had either professed to be truly 
 converted during the present Awakening, or who had been so awed 
 and subdued by a sense of God's presence and power in the midst of 
 the i>eople around, that they had at least given up open sin, and 
 begun with apparent earnestness to seek God in the sanctuary. 
 Weighty were the warnings and solemn the appeals thus urged, and 
 
TEE ULSTER AWAKENING. 121 
 
 awful, it was shown, would be the doom of those who should appear 
 to run well, and yet draw back to perdition. 
 
 A later service was held at the Presbyterian Church. Here — 
 after finding a seat with some difficulty, so crowded was the place — 
 I heard a striking sermon from an able and earnest young minister, 
 the llev. H. Osborne, of Rathfriland, County Down, on the words, 
 " Elias must first come." The leading ideas of the sermon were, that 
 conviction must precede conversion, and that as the ministry of John 
 the Baptist preceded and prepared the way for that of Christ — so, 
 as the Puritan divines have it, "law work" must make the heart 
 ready for the reception of the Gospel of the grace of God. 
 
 The shadows of evening were falling, as I retired from the sanc- 
 tuary, and accompanied a Belfast merchant and his family to their 
 lodgings. Soon after entering the house, the sound of sacred song 
 burst on my ear. I sallied forth, and passed rapidly round to the 
 harbour. There I stood on the shore, while side by side, the same 
 Welsh captain and crew who had saluted the Sabbath morn with 
 jubilant praise, hallowed its eve and filled the air with song, now 
 plaintive, now joyous. 
 
 Mingled together (in a tongue unknown to me, but understood and 
 heard and accepted by the common Father of His dear children) 
 ■were the rich, full voices of full grown men, and the soft sweet treble 
 of a fine boy, who not long since had left his Welsh mother's side 
 to begin his service before the mast. One thought, at such a moment 
 as this, of coincident Welsh Revival and Irish Revival, and how also 
 that (oh ! that it may be soon) " the abundance of the sea" shall yet 
 be turned to the Lord. 
 
 And so passing back to the hospitable tea-table of the worthy 
 Belfast merchant and elder, we closed this happy day with reading, 
 exposition, and prayer. 
 
 Next morning (Monday) brought a goodly company of the upper 
 ranks to Lord Antrim's school-room. Here prayers were offered 
 afresh for London and for myself, and I was permitted to say a few 
 words to those assembled. These meetings, with their occasional 
 addresses from strangers, have been divinely owned and blessed. It 
 was only the previous week, that the simple exposition of the 53rd 
 of Isaiah by a minister from Cheshire, was the means of arresting and 
 converting the English servant of an Irish lady, sojourning at Port- 
 rush. In her case, there was bodily as well as mental agitation; 
 although she did not cry out aloud, physical weakness oppressed her 
 for a time. But her soul had been truly awakened from the sleep 
 of spiritual death; and, ere long — visited, instructed, and led to the 
 
122 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 Saviour's feet — hers -were the peace, and hope, and holy love of a 
 new-born, trusting soul. 
 
 A forenoon visit was paid by invitation to the vicarage, and 
 profitable conference with Mr. C. and Mr. F. was held. Thus were 
 my latest hours at Portrush filled up ; and early in the afternoon, 
 departing from the hospitable Presbyterian manse, I bade Portrush 
 farewell. 
 
 All round this neighbourhood, it is emphatically true that the 
 Word has been with power — that the Divine Spirit has put forth 
 His might to awaken, convert, and renew — that sinners of every 
 class have been blest, and that God has been abundantly glorified. 
 
 The Kev. Jonathan Simpson, at the time of my visit, had conversed 
 with no less than 229 persons who had been brought under the 
 conviction of sin. Many of these had been under physical agitation. 
 Mr. S. considered that by far the greater number of these persons 
 truly believed, and had turned unto the Lord. He kept an accu- 
 rate record of all the cases of anxious inquirers who came under his 
 notice. 
 
 Mr. Simpson, in a lengthened and most interesting written com- 
 munication lately received, gives a striking account of the origin 
 and early progress of the Awakening at Portrush, and closes as 
 follows : — " The number of cases of conviction coining under my 
 notice, or which I have been called to visit in this neighbourhood, 
 are close upon three hundred. Of these, a few have gone back, but 
 they are, thank God, venj few. The physical prostrations bear but 
 a small proportion to the whole number. The evidences of real con- 
 version are, increased attendance on the means of grace (our places 
 of worship are too small), and the abandonment of vicious habits, 
 such as drinking, swearing, &c. The worship of God is established 
 in many families, and the blessed day of God is better observed. 
 
 " In my own church, I see in attendance on public worship, some 
 who had been most abandoned drunkards, whom I never expected 
 to see in the house of God. One man, a railway labourer, who 
 when he came to me, under deep conviction of sin, said, ' There is 
 no sin I have not been guilty of but murder and robbery,' now can 
 say, *I obtained mercy.' His wife and grown up daughter have 
 been visited and blessed. He is now, with his daughter, seeking 
 admission to the Lord's table. He worships God in his family, and 
 a prayer-meeting is held in his house once a week." Mr. Simpson 
 adds, " The whole country is studded with prayer-meetings, and the 
 whole face of society is changed." 
 
 I insert here a letter, from the Rev. Hugh Hanna, of Belfast. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 123 
 
 It is all the more valuable, as the Romanist and Unitarian press 
 in that town had from the first misrepresented the movement, and 
 heaped abuse upon the ministers most active in its advancement. 
 The reader will observe what Mr. Hanna says on misrepresentations 
 and bitter opposition, how that whatever is human and evil is made 
 prominent, while the abounding good is concealed or denied : — 
 
 "Belfast, Sept. 15th, 1859. 
 
 "Dear Sir, — The work of the Lord goes prosperously on. The 
 meetings this week have been very largely attended. A Roman 
 Catholic convert appeared at one of these, and delivered his testi- 
 mony for the truth of God, and against the errors of Rome. Three 
 years ago he was unable to read ; now he not only reads, but he is 
 an intelligent young man, a very fair speaker, and is able to take 
 up his Greek Testament and examine the original for himself. His 
 presence excited great interest among the Romanists, and many of 
 them attended. It is to be hoped that the seed of truth has not 
 been sown in vain. 
 
 " On Tuesday evening a Roman Catholic girl was brought under 
 conviction. Her relatives are all Roman Catholics also. Most of 
 the converts from Romanism have great difficulties to endure — many 
 of them much persecution from their relatives. I visited this girl 
 on the day after. She is fortunately a servant in a Protestant 
 family, and enjoys their protection. She was happy and hopeful, 
 anxious to enjoy more of Christ. 
 
 " Another Roman Catholic convert, an exceedingly interesting 
 girl, was moved the other evening to make a visit to an aged 
 Romanist, who comes from her part of the country. The old man 
 was furious. This bigotry burst out into a storm of fierce invective, 
 but the girl remained calm and firm. He had heard she was afraid 
 to visit him since her conversion, and he was quite determined to 
 make himself a terror to such apostates. But no : she replied that 
 she was not afraid. She would be happy to visit him if he retained 
 his composure. She had done nothing but what was enjoined in 
 the word of God. She believed the Bible to be the word of God, 
 that it was her duty to read it and obey it. Therefore, she was a 
 Protestant, and such, by the grace of God, she would remain. Her 
 attitude and arguments were not without impression on the vener- 
 able bigot, and he at last relented, and even admitted that she ought 
 to obey her own convictions of the right. 
 
 " The Lord has done great things in Berry Street among the 
 Romanists. Consequently, the priests and their sturdiest adherents 
 are exceedingly mad against us. The press teems with the vilest 
 
124 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 productions that Romanism can engender. Many of them are grossly- 
 libellous — all of them abominably filthy, with the purpose of dis- 
 paraging the Revival, and warning Romanists against attendance at 
 any of the meetings. To a large extent they are successful in 
 kindling the hatred of the masses, and I cannot traverse any of the 
 streets without encountering insults, which evince the desperate 
 demoralization of Belfast papacy. I believe it never was so bad. 
 The devil seems to be preparing himself against the truth, by more 
 mischievous efforts among the Romanists. But the Lord knoweth 
 them that are His, and God's people shall hear His voice, saying, 
 ' Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
 plagues.' 
 
 " We have now about forty weekly meetings for scriptural in- 
 struction and prayer connected with my congregation, and scattered 
 over all the town. We have chosen the most necessitous localities 
 for their establishment. They are working well. They are managed 
 by the active and godly people, chiefly the young people of the 
 congregation. The average attendance at each may be about fifty. 
 I attended one of them the other evening, and I never breathed a 
 more heavenly atmosphere than that which pervaded it. 
 
 "The converts are maintaining their profession with hopeful con- 
 sistency. Of many of them we have now three months' proof. I 
 do not know, within my own sphere of observation, a single case of 
 backsliding. The Lord is putting His seal on the work in such a 
 manner as to call forth the gratitude of the churches. The testimony 
 from all parts of the country is uniformly to the credit of the young 
 believers. God has gotten to himself great glory by so marvellous a 
 work. 
 
 '* Human infirmity will appear and somewhat mar the work in 
 which God employs man as an instrument. Hence the irreligious 
 press here makes a great outcry against a few evils that have arisen. It 
 speaks as if there Mere nought but evil. It refuses to make honest 
 acknowledgment of the mighty good that has resulted from the 
 Revival. The good so vastly preponderates, that the evil is as 
 nothing to the good. ' The Lord hath done great things for us, 
 whereof we are glad.' Sincerely yours, 
 
 " Hugh Hanna." 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 127 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. ^^^ ^^^^ 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. ,(J 
 
 Letter from a Minister on Furlough — Conversion of Romanists — Companions in 
 Travel — Derry : its Memorable Past and "Glorious Present" — Meetings — 
 Marvellous Revival Issues — An Exclusive Spirit at Derry, and its Contrasts 
 Elsewhere — Testimony of the Rev. R. Smyth of Derry. 
 
 Referring to over-taxed yet willing workers, I found several such, 
 absent from their posts when I visited Ulster. But they did not 
 leave till compelled to do so, by being absolutely broken down. 
 The comfort of such toilers is, that they had already filled their 
 bosoms with the sheaves, and that they left behind them such life, 
 and zeal, and fire in the new converts, and such spiritual eagerness 
 and earnestness on the part of all, that they had no grounds to fear 
 that the cause of Christ would suffer serious detriment by their 
 absence. 
 
 One congregation (that of Ballycarry, in the county of Antrim), 
 finding its pastor fast failing in health, insisted on his leaving for a 
 time, in order that by rest and change of scene he might regain 
 his strength. For this end, in the greatness of their love, they at 
 once provided him with ample means, and he left home accordingly. 
 Little did I expect him to turn his face towards the metropolis; but 
 early one morning in September, when passing the General Post- 
 office, I suddenly came upon the good minister of Ballycarry, the 
 Rev. John Stuart. He was sauntering round the building, and bore 
 the plain trace of a bronzed and veteran soldier, whose campaign in his 
 Lord's service had well-nigh cost him his life. His heart was still at 
 home, although his footsteps tended towards France; and ere he left 
 London he furnished me with the following deeply interesting and 
 most gladdening account of what the Lord had done in a wide 
 district of Antrim County. Let this letter (and I write this ad- 
 visedly) be received not only as an authentic statement, but as 
 furnishing a sample of what God has done, in wondrous grace, in 
 many districts of Ulster. Mr. S. has been for a quarter of a century 
 an ordained minister, and is a man eminent for zeal, piety, gravity, 
 sincerity, and conscientiousness. His communication is as follows: — 
 
 " I do not think that any locality has been more favoured witli 
 the outpouring of God's Spirit than our own. Ballycarry is the 
 cradle of Irish Presbyterianism. Here Bryce" (one of the ministers of 
 the Church of Scotland who followed the early colonists to Ulster) 
 •* commenced his labours in 1613. 
 
 " Before holding our communion in May last, a feeling of solemnity 
 pervaded the great mass of the people. Our week-day services were 
 
126 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 more largely attended than heretofore, and on the Sabbath we had 
 one hundred communicants above any former occasion. 
 
 " Immediately after, as we then commenced prayer-meetings every 
 evening, God poured out his Spirit largely on the people. In the 
 course of about six weeks about one hundred and fifty persons 
 were * stricken down.' These were mostly young people, but since 
 that time many elderly persons, some as old as seventy, have been 
 converted. 
 
 " Of nearly three hundred persons awakened, I form the most 
 sanguine hopes as to their future faithfulness. There have been no 
 backsliders. Once I found it difficult to tell where family prayer 
 was observed; the difficulty now is to tell where it is not. 
 
 " ' Oh, Mr. S.,' one woman said to me, * if you knew how happily 
 we (the family) live now ! We have family worship morning and 
 evening. John, or Isabella, or Jane, as the case might be, has 
 conducted it.' 
 
 *' Five Arian families have joined my communion, and also a 
 considerable number of the younger branches of Arian families. All 
 over an extensive district of fifty-four square miles meetings, attended 
 by hundreds, are conducted by converts. 
 
 " And then such prayers! No circumlocution, no ! Earnest crying 
 and tears. 'Lord, give me the faith of the dying thief! Lord, give 
 me the faith of the centurion.' 
 
 " Our Sabbath school has been quadrupled since June, and my 
 Bible class contains one hundred and fifty converts. The church is 
 filled — pews, aisle, vestibule, and pulpit stairs. I expect on my 
 return nearly one hundred candidates for communion in October.* 
 
 " Truly a cloud of mercy, surcharged with blessings, has poured 
 down a copious shower upon us. Oh ! what love, what life, what zeal ! 
 
 " Some of my most gifted converts were men apparently on the 
 broad way to hell. The females of the congregation have their 
 prayer-meetings also. Their prayers are peculiarly beautiful, scrip- 
 tural, and sublime. The first female convert, who was for three 
 days under deep conviction, is incessant in her prayers for the con- 
 version of a regardless father. In travelling over this extensive 
 district, I have often seen girls turn off into some side path lest they 
 should see me ! Now they run to meet me, look me straight in the 
 face, like educated females, and, their eyes sparkling with delight, 
 
 * Since his return home, Mr. Stuart writes ire that the work of grace had 
 progressed with marvellous power in his absence, and that not less than two 
 hundred additional members have been added to his church. Drunkenness had 
 ceased. At Ballycarry fair, not a single member of the church went into a 
 pubUc-house. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING 127 
 
 are the first to introduce religious subjects, and tell me of their love 
 to Jesus. 
 
 " One young- girl, a Romanist, whom her father brutally beat and 
 turned out of doors, said she would sufiPer her body to be burned 
 before she would worship saints any more." 
 
 The Rev. Robert Sewell, Independent minister at Derry, was a 
 sojourner at Portrush during the time of my visit there. He was 
 obliged, in order to save his life, to abandon the field of delightful 
 yet overwhelming labour which he had been called so unexpectedly 
 to cultivate, in connection with the sudden influx of the mighty Re- 
 vival wave upon that old Protestant city. To the results of the great 
 Awakening at Derry, in connection with a visit thither, I shall have 
 occasion immediately to refer. Pleasant and profitable was it to con- 
 verse with this excellent man, who has testified his opinion as to the 
 present state of the Irish Roman Catholic mind in Ulster in the follow- 
 ing published statement: — "I have no fear of successful contradic- 
 tion when I express my solemn belief that there have been more 
 Romanists converted in Ulster — truly converted to God — since this 
 Awakening commenced, than have been converted in Ireland for the 
 last half century ; and that the Romanists of Ulster are more willing 
 to hear the Gospel now, than they have been since the days of 
 Bedell." 
 
 Bedell was a bishop in the days of Elizabeth, who at fifty years of 
 age set to himself the task of acquiring a knowledge of the native 
 Irish language (the mother tongue of the population, to which they 
 clung, the use of which England foolishly proscribed), and preached 
 to the natives with great acceptance. 
 
 Mr. Sewell's statement, let it be observed, refers to " the Romanists 
 of Ulster." It is strictly correct, save as to the Romanists of 
 Belfast, whose " desperate demoralization " and priest-produced rage 
 against the Revival, was indicated by Mr. Hanna in his recent 
 letter. Mr. Sewell could not say so much of the Romanists in 
 the other provinces of Ireland. The Awakening among the Protes- 
 tant population in Ulster first attracted the attention, roused the 
 inquiries, and next impressed the minds, hearts, and consciences of 
 many Romanists. They could not but see the social change ; they 
 acknowledged that it, at least, was good ; some of them mingled in 
 crowded meetings, the arrows of the Spirit pierced their hearts, and 
 to " Jesus only " they cried for mercy. 
 
 \ In the train which conveyed me, on a bright and beautiful after- 
 noon in August, from Coleraine to Londonderry, I found myself in 
 the same carriage with the excellent Mr. Hargreaves (a well-known 
 English Wesley an minister), and also with Mr. Budgett, of Bristol, son 
 of the " successful merchant." I had previously met these gentlemen 
 
128 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 on their journey northward. On the morning of the day on which I 
 was brought into their pleasant and profitable society once more, 
 they had paid a visit to the Giant's Causeway. There they had 
 improvised a little congregation in the open air, and had spoken to 
 the people on eternal realities, and on life and salvation through a 
 Saviour's name. 
 
 Mr. Budgett expressed himself more than surprised with what he 
 . had already seen in Ulster, especially at Belfast. He very nobly and 
 honestly acknowledged that he had been more than once staggered 
 by attempts in England at getting up Revival excitement as a part of 
 machinery and means — well intended, but dubious in their character 
 and results. But with regard to this movement in Ireland, he con- 
 sidered that it was indeed Divine, and that human appliances had 
 not been the means of kindling the flame. 
 
 The magnificent cliffs of Downhill are passed ; the sea-shore, with 
 its beautiful sands, is no longer nigh at hand ; Malin Head, the 
 northernmost promontory of Donegal, comes out into bolder promi- 
 nence. Yonder is Lough Foyle, debouching into the ocean ; and the 
 river Foyle, up which the relieving ships sailed in 1690, during the 
 memorable siege of Derry. That portion of the river, with its villa- 
 crowned banks, is pointed out to us where the boom had been broken 
 through by one of the ships, under the impetus of a broadside. 
 
 We at length arrive at the railway station. The " Maiden City" 
 is before us, pictorial in its culminating streets on the hill-side, and 
 gloriously historical and heart-stirring too to every Protestant patriot, 
 in the reminiscences of a successful struggle here waged by a handful 
 of brave men against the army of the bigoted James II. 
 
 Yonder stands out against the luminous western sky the monument 
 of Governor Walker, who, through famine and treachery within, and 
 amidst onslaughts and incessant cannonades from without, rung out 
 from day to day cheery words, which were to the besieged as the 
 breath of the trumpet. And yonder, too, is the spire of the vener- 
 able cathedral, within whose walls, during the siege. Episcopalians 
 and Presbyterians worshipped alternately, and in whose burial- 
 grounds around, sleeps the dust of those heroes who perished. Let 
 any Christian read Lord Macaulay's chapters on the siege, and 
 he cannot but acknowledge that God's great power interposed there, 
 to })ut an end to arbitrary power, and to secure to England the 
 inestimable blessings of civil and religious liberty. 
 
 And has the *' Lord of all power and might " been visiting this 
 place, by manifestations of His special grace ? Is the great Awaken- 
 ing in Derry ? Has the spiritual revolution — by which Ulster gene- 
 rally has been turned upside down — come hither also? "Yes," we 
 reply ; " it is even so, and the evidence and proof are at hand." 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 129 
 
 I cross the bridge of Derry, and enter the city, under promise 
 and engagement to supply the pulpit of the Kev. J. Sevvell, whom I. 
 have left at Portrush, in enforced silence and necessary absence from 
 home. 
 
 Here I am hospitably received by a Christian merchant, R. 
 McCorkle, Esq., and afterwards make my way to the earliest daily 
 evening services. The hour is a little after six o'clock, and, accom- 
 panied by a minister from Bristol, I enter the Victoria Market. 
 Here I find a congregation of several hundred persons gathered under 
 a covered roof (the place open at the sides), with the Rev. Dr. Den- 
 ham presidingon a platform, and Mr. Hargreaves standing in front, 
 and earnestly and aflfectionately speaking to the people. There is 
 deep solemnity, as well as profound attention, but no visible excite- 
 ment. At the close of the address, a psalm is sung — with what 
 heart and voice ! — and after prayer and the benediction, the people, 
 according to nightly custom, hurry away to the various places of 
 worship for additional services. Dr. Denham carries ofi" my friend, 
 the Bristol pastor, while I repair to fulfil my promise to the disabled 
 Independent brother, at his new and handsome chapel. Dr. Den- 
 ham's church is exactly opposite, and yet there is no antagonism 
 here. Both places have been, during the summer, the scenes of 
 marvellous mercy. Dr. Denham has been one of the most suc- 
 cessful, in the best sense, of the Ulster Presbyterian ministers; 
 singular evangelical fulness and unction have marked his public 
 career in Derry, and he has been made the spiritual father of many 
 souls. And yet, compared with the present — the glorious present — 
 the past was so dwarfed into littleness, that Dr. Denham has de- 
 liberately declared that during the last summer he had seen more real 
 conversions, a large number of sinners truly brought to believe in 
 the Redeemer, and to walk in newness of life, than during the whole 
 period of his pastorate in Derry, extending over twenty years. 
 
 As for Mr. Sewell, by the blessing of the Lord of the harvest, he, 
 too, had filled his bosom with sheaves. The chapel, where I 
 officiated at night, was indeed " holy ground." There had been " seen " 
 Jehovah's " goings in the sanctuary." Under that roof the arrows 
 of the Spirit had flown numerous and swift from the " bow " of 
 that great King, who goetli forth " conquering and to conquer." 
 (Rev. vi. 2.) 
 
 ♦' The 12th of June," writes Mr. Sewell, " is the time from which 
 we date this great Awakening in our city. On that day, on the 
 invitation of one or two churches, some of the newly converted were 
 brought from Ballymena to address meetings. A united meeting 
 was held in the first Presbyterian Church, when some of their young 
 
 K 
 
130 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 men spoke. !Many were moved to tears, while some had to be taken 
 into the vestry to prevent their disturbing the congregation. Next 
 day a general feeling of solemnity was manifested by all classes, and 
 many under conviction were spoken to in their houses or places of 
 business. United meetings were appointed to be held daily in the 
 Corn Market and Corporation Hall, to be conducted by ministers of 
 several churches, who all heartily joined, except Episcopalian minis- 
 ters, who held aloof. Besides these were meetings for prayer every 
 night." 
 
 Referring to meetings for prayer held at Derry, Mr. Sewell 
 mentions a half-hour thus spent at the dinner hour by working 
 men ; and next the meeting held in the Corn Market at *7 p.m., at- 
 tended by numbers varying from 500 to 5000 persons. This was 
 succeeded by meetings for prayer in the several churches, which con- 
 tinued till 10 P.M. ("the people would not leave sooner"), and 
 then "the anxious remained for direction." "Seldom have I got 
 out of the vestry before twelve o'clock, and sometimes not without 
 difficulty till long after midnight." 
 
 As to the effects on ministers, churches, and the world, Mr. 
 Sewell bears the most striking testimony. '* Ministers are greatly 
 quickened, realizing more than ever their interest in Christ, getting 
 more confidence in the power of truth, the effects of prayer, the 
 presence of the Spirit ; and they preach if not better, yet more ap- 
 propriately and earnestly." And as to " churches," we are told that 
 there had been " stirred up among members, an anxious inquiry about 
 personal salvation, and the principle of purity of communion ;" and 
 " the dormant energies of many true Christians have been called 
 forth. In not a few cases we have persons leading in prayer, ex- 
 pounding the Scriptures, ministering to the careless, and directing 
 the anxious. These persons had been members of Christian churches, 
 but previous to the Awakening had been merely anxious as to their 
 own salvation." Alas ! is not this the spiritual condition of many 
 Christian professors in all our churches at this moment ? 
 
 As to effects "on the community at large," Mr. Sewell said, "they 
 are equally marked. There is no class, from the highest to the 
 lowest, whatever may be their creed, who have not been influenced 
 to some extent. Even Romanists stand in awe, and many of them, 
 to my own knowledge, have professed conversion ; whilst among 
 Protestants there are few persons who have not been arrested and 
 brought to Christ. Our police-courts, our streets at night, and the 
 comparative absence of drunkenness on our market-days, attest how 
 widespread and powerful is the reformation. If need be I could 
 adduce facts to prove this, and more. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 131 
 
 Keferring to the state of ''the streets at night," I have here to 
 mention a remarkable fact as to the effect of the Revival on the *' great 
 social evil." In the city of Derry, by reason of the famine of 1846-7 
 driving many poor creatures to extreme vt^ant, and also exposing 
 them to the influx of foreign sailors coming with grain ships from the 
 Mediterranean, the social vice had become rampant. 
 
 There was up to a recent period a far larger proportion here of 
 " unfortunates " than is'usual. But mark the effects of the Awakening 
 as related to me by a Christian merchant in Derry. " One half of 
 them," said he, " are in the penitentiary by their own desire, the 
 other half have almost all left the town !" 
 
 Mr. Sewell's most interesting statement concludes thus: — *' I thank 
 God for what is done at large, especially for what / have witnessed. 
 At least 300 have been converted in my own chapel, or in connection 
 with my own efforts. Many of them may not join my church, as 
 they belong to other congregations. Some have joined; others 
 would have joined had I been at home. The building up of a sect 
 is to me, however, of less importance — much, less — than to see Zion 
 in all her branches prosperous." 
 
 Would to God that in Derry all Protestant ministers had shown 
 like catholicity of spirit ; but it will be observed that Mr. Sewell 
 states that the Episcopalians did not join the united movement. 
 The Archdeacon of Derry published an address to the clergy, which 
 was approved of by the Bishop, in which the good work of the 
 Spirit was clearly acknowledged. But (alas ! that there should have 
 been a hut in the matter), inasmuch that the Church of England 
 clergy could not join other denominations, " except on the prin- 
 ciples " of the latter, he recommended that they should keep aloof, 
 and hold meetings of their own. 
 
 The effect of this had been (as stated to me by several parties) 
 damaging to the best and highest interests of the Church of 
 England in Derry. Services were held in the cathedral and in 
 school-rooms ; but they were thinly attended, and there was little 
 life. The law of love had been violated, and the result was that 
 the Episcopal fleece is almost dry, while that of the Evangelical 
 Nonconformists — who had asked for Episcopal co-operation in vain 
 — was wet with the dew of Hermon. 
 
 Oh, how different in the parish of Portrush, where Mr. Chichester 
 and Mr. Ffoliott went lovingly hand in hand with Mr. Simpson. How 
 different in the parish of Killinchy, where the Episcopal rector, the 
 Hon. and Rev. H. Ward, co-operated zealously and lovingly with his 
 Presbyterian brother, and where his family readily worship at 
 times, on week-days or Lord's-days, in the Presbyterian church. 
 
 k2 
 
132 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 And how pleasant and delightful to contemplate the beautiful union 
 of mind and heart at the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at 
 Belfast! The Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr. Knox, presided at 
 the opening, and the Moderator of the Irish General Assembly- 
 delivered the inaugural address; its burden, " a flock divided into 
 many bands, and led by many under-shepherds ; but fed in the 
 same ample pastures — knowing, owning, and following the one great 
 Shepherd of souls." 
 
 At a subsequent session of the Alliance, the Bishop spoke thus 
 of the Revival : — *' I rejoice to think that this movement has taken 
 nothing of a sectarian aspect, but that, like the dew of heaven, 
 it has fallen on all the !and, and blessed the increase." 
 
 In my visit to Londonderry, I found one of its most valued 
 ministers absent — his health having given way in consequence of 
 overwhelming labours in connection with the Awakening. Sub- 
 sequently I addressed some special inquiries to him, and I have now 
 the pleasure of laying his reply before the reader. This letter traces 
 the antecedents and precursors of the Revival in ])erry, and furnishes 
 a fresh glimpse of that preparatory work in Ulster, by which " the 
 way of the Lord" was made straight. It is emphatically true that 
 the faithful and extensive sowing of good seed, accompanied by 
 intense desire and by earnest and united prayer for a blessing, did 
 precede and pioneer the Revival : — 
 
 "Londonderry, Oct. 17, 1859. 
 
 " My dear FiilEND,^In the midst of very pressing congregational 
 duties, I snatch an hour to reply to your letter, and give you what 
 must of necessity be an imperfect sketch of the great religious Revival 
 which God has graciously vouchsafed to us during the past summer. 
 As you will most probably avail yourself of the experience of brethren 
 in other parts of the province, I shall confine myself to that portion 
 of the field where I have myself laboured and rejoiced. I shall 
 thus avoid giving hearsay evidence on this momentous question, 
 and by keeping within the limits of personal observation, 1 cannot 
 be ensnared into any statement for whose authenticity I cannot 
 vouch. 
 
 •* Perhaps the time has not come for writing a complete narrative 
 of the Revival, as we are hardly yet out of the blaze of spiritual 
 visitation ; but sufficient time has elapsed to enable us to form a 
 tolerably correct estimate of the results, actual and probable, of this 
 marvellous movement— a movement without any parallel in the 
 history of Ulster. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 133 
 
 "Ever since the news of the American Revival of 185*7 reached 
 our shores, ministers and people felt motions at their hearts impelling' 
 them to renewed earnestness at a throne of grace, that God would 
 stretch out his arm for some great spiritual deliverance in this 
 country. The pulpit sounded forth sermons on the work of the 
 Spirit, on the necessity of a new birth, and kindred subjects, whilst 
 the glories of the cross were set face to face with the consciences of 
 the hearers. Presbyterians met for special consultation and prayer 
 on the subject of 'Revival;' and at the annual meeting of our 
 General Assembly in Derry, in 1858, two sessions were set apart for 
 conference and addresses on this question. The addresses were 
 listened to by an audience of two thousand persons, and the deepest 
 solemnity pervaded the vast assembly. Members of all evangelical 
 churches were present, and a very general impression was produced 
 that there was something more in religion than mere * bodily exercise, 
 which profiteth nothing.' Nine months passed, and then we began 
 to hear that an unprecedented earnestness pervaded certain districts 
 of Antrim County. 
 
 " The next news was that cases of sudden conversion, attended by 
 strange, bodily affections, were taking place every day and every night, 
 at prayer-meetings in churches, in private houses, in school-houses, 
 barns, and even in the open air. It soon became a subject for news- 
 papers. God used the secular press as a vehicle for the marvellous 
 tidings, and before many weeks had elapsed, the Antrim Revival was 
 the topic of conversation in railway carriages, in news-rooms, clubs, 
 firesides, and streets ; and even merchants laid down their pens in 
 counting-houses, to talk of the wonderful 'manifestations.' Ministers 
 and others visited the localities where the work was going on, and 
 came back baptized and fired with fresh zeal for Jesus. The tide 
 flowed northward, eastward, and westward, and early in June, the 
 waters of life had reached us in the city of Derry. 
 
 " The secondary agency employed by the Holy Spirit in com- 
 mencing the work here was that of four young converts from County 
 Antrim, brought here by the Rev. Jackson Smyth, of Armagh, all 
 of whom addressed a united meeting in the First Presbyterian 
 Church. Three persons cried out for mercy during the meeting. 
 A thrilling sensation passed through the great assemblage, as these 
 mourning cries were uttered, and the thousands present felt each for 
 himself and herself, ' I have a soul to be saved.' God had touched 
 some mighty spring at His own throne, and the vibrations were felt 
 in our meeting that nijjht. Hundreds went home with an arrow ia 
 their heart. The « Revival' had begun in Derry. Perhaps never 
 since Derry was a city, — and it has seen stirring and awful days in 
 
134 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 its eventful history, — did so many souls ache upon sleepless beds as 
 on that mysterious night. They rose in the morning unrefreshed, 
 viith. the hand of God heavy on them. Some have told me how 
 they struggled during the silent watches ; some wept for hours, 
 others felt an awful petrifaction in their bosom, and others, in wild 
 frenzy, muttered blasphemy upon their beds. Monday passed, and 
 another united meeting was held in the First Presbyterian Church 
 that evening. The building was crowded to excess. Several minis- 
 ters addressed the meeting in calm and unimpassioned solemnity. 
 The meeting felt still as a grave ; the stillness was fearful : those 
 who were present will never forget it. At length the silence was 
 broken by unearthly cries, uttered simultaneously by several in dif- 
 ferent parts of the church, and in the course of a few minutes the 
 vestry of the church was filled with individuals who lay in mental 
 agony and absolute bodily prostration. 
 
 *' Socialists may talk of 'hysteria' and 'catalepsy;' but I can 
 testify that, so far as I know, not one of those who were stricken 
 that night, and who professed to have found peace in Jesus, has gone 
 back to the world. If hysteria produce such results as these, then 
 I pray that every man, woman, and child in Ireland may become 
 ' hysterical' before the end of the year. 
 
 " It would be impossible to enumerate the cases of conviction and 
 conversion that occurred that evening. In one pew no less than four 
 young men were stricken in soul, and afterwards found peace. One 
 of these (a merchant in the city, and a man of good education, 
 morality, and high intelligence) told me his experience. He thought 
 he saw hell opened before his eyes, and that there' was an irresistible 
 power forcing him headlong into it. He looked round, and said to 
 himself, * I know where I am ; this is the church where I usually 
 worship; I am under a delusion.' But still he looked down, and 
 there was hell. He rose fr(»m his seat, and convulsively seized hold 
 of the back of the pew ; but hell was sending forth its smoke in his 
 very face. A shudder passed over him, and his heart sighed the 
 awful words, ' My sins ! — my sins ! I am lost ! ' He staggered out of 
 the meeting, and went homewards. In describing his feelings on 
 the way home, he told me, * Had any one asked me, Where are 
 you going? I would have answered, in calm despair, I am going 
 to hell!' Making hie way to his room, he sought relief in cries. 
 This continued for an hour or two, and then a heavenly radiance 
 overspread his soul, the promises of grace came flooding his now 
 sanctified memory ; he seized them joyously, and rose a Christian. 
 His first race in the dark dead of night, was to his partner in 
 business, to urge him to flee from the wrath to come. ' Tap, tap, 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 135 
 
 tap/ at his friend's door. ' AVho's there ? ' ' I must come in ! ' ' Come 
 in.' The door opens, and the happy convert cries out, ' I have found 
 Christ, and I have come to tell you.' Prayer went up from that bed- 
 room to heaven, and three days after the other had fled for refuge, 
 and laid hold of the-hope set before him. 
 
 "This is one case — the type of hundreds in the city of Derry. I 
 could fill a volume with them. I am almost sorry I have given you 
 this one case, for I feel such a desire to go on, and give you more. 
 But I must deny myself, and have consideration for you and your 
 readers. 
 
 " Drunkards have become sober, profligates have turned into the 
 fold of Jesus, worldlings have ceased to go _^on their knees to gold, 
 and now worship the living and true God ; swearers have ceased to 
 burn their lips with blasphemy ; some publicans have given up 
 their unsanctified calling ; altars are erected in families where no 
 incense burned for years; ceremonial professors have thrown aside 
 aids to family devotion, and refuse now to be hampered by forms of 
 prayer, but give vent to the simple feelings of their souls at a throne 
 of grace ; our churches are crowded with eager worshippers, who 
 now understand what we mean when we preach on Christian expe- 
 rience; prayer-meetings are frequented thrice a day still in the city; 
 Bible-classes are now of unwieldy size, and are more like what our 
 congregations used to be ; our Sabbath schools are nearly doubled ; 
 and, in short, there is now everywhere a reality in worship and 
 in life. 
 
 " On Saturday last I was talking to an intelligent man, who was 
 imbued with Unitarian principles, and he said to me, ' Mr. Smyth, you 
 know I did not agree with the doctrines of the Westminster Confes- 
 sion, but I have been thinking that the system cannot be bad that has 
 produced results, such as I have witnessed during the last five 
 months.' That is one of the most valuable testimonies I have heard 
 in this city. This man attends the prayer-meetings, is honest and 
 earnest, and I regard him as in a most interesting state of mind and 
 soul. 
 
 " I am, my dear friend, still wondering at God's great love to the 
 city of my dwelling. My own soul has been watered, and now, when 
 I preach, I feel that there are hundreds of hearts in unison with my 
 own. God bless you, and your beloved people, and your great city. 
 
 " Excuse great haste, as I have written this just before going out 
 on Monday morning to pastoral visitation. 
 
 " Ever yours, affectionately in the Lord, 
 
 " RlCHAED SmTTH." 
 
136 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 A Morning Visit to Deny Walls — The Onward Journey — Donagheady, and its 
 Pastor — The Wesleyan Chapel — Adam Clarke and his First Sermon — 
 District Awakenings — Strabane and Raphoe — Oraagh and the Revival 
 Gathering — The Diocess of Clogher — Enniskillen : its Protestantism and 
 Prosperity — The Work Inaugurated — A Missionary Deputy, and a Good 
 Report. 
 
 Rising early, and having a lengthened day's journey hefore me, 
 I emerged into the streets of Derry just as the smoke began to ascend 
 from the peat- lighted morning fires, and as the small dealers and 
 grocers were taking down their shutters. I passed rapidly towards 
 the city proper — having slept outside the old historic boundaries — 
 and ascended the hill up which pressed so often the surging wave of 
 James's invading army, ciose to the famous " Water Gate," from 
 thence as frequently to be victoriously repelled by the indomitable 
 garrison within. Soon I am on the city walls, commanding a 
 delightful view of hill, and tower, and town, with the Foyle flowing 
 onward through rich demesnes and villas towards the Atlantic. I 
 pause at Governor Walker's monument, and look with a strange 
 feeling of respect at " Roaring Meg" — that piece of ordnance, which 
 to every Derry Protestant is so suggestive of stirring memories, and 
 which — silent and voiceless all the year beside — on the anniversary 
 of the shutting of the gates, makes its voice to be heard in echoing 
 thunder-tones. 
 
 Next, I pass onward towards the Cathedral. It is early, and the 
 gates are shut ; but I look through them, and see the piled-up 
 mounds of human dust, and think how sleep there, the defenders who 
 died because of " the straitness of the siege," or from the hostile shot 
 of the Papal foe without. But this day of grace, in August, 1859, 
 tells me of a glorious present in Derry — 
 
 *' No war or battle's sound 
 Is heard the place around ; " 
 
 and yet here, during the last two months, a siege against a band of 
 rebels against the Everlasting King has been successfully crowned, 
 and multitudes of hearts have surrendered to the rightful claims of 
 Emmanuel. For Protestantism political, there is now Protestantism 
 living, loving, unselfish, charitable, earnest, and spiritual. True, 
 the Romanists of this tow'n are very numerous — as these sign-boards 
 in the humbler streets testify, and as the very physical aspect and 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 137 
 
 social squalor of piany men, women, and children of the humbler 
 classes declare too plainly ; but yet even from among these, trophies 
 have been won, while over the dry bones of an orthodox yet dead 
 Protestantism, the breath of the Lord God has passed with resurrec- 
 tion power. 
 
 After a hasty breakfast, and the deposit of a goodly parcel of tracts 
 in the hands of my host, E.. M., Esq., who is just the man to dis- 
 pose of them aright, I wend my way to the railway station, and 
 "Enniskillen," to the south-west, is my destination. Here I find 
 myself once more with the Tottenham gentleman and his worthy 
 pastor, in whcjse pleasant society I had visited the Causeway. As 
 we sweep rapidly onward, Mr. W., the pastor, points out to me an 
 opening in the hills, to the left, where, the previous evening, with 
 his friend, he had visited a Presbyterian elder, at his mansion, and 
 where he found a glorious work of Revival in progress. The Pres- 
 byterian minister is the Rev. Francis Porter, and the congregation 
 derives its name (Donagheady) from the district so called. Mr. 
 Porter is a man of much energy both of mind and body, and has 
 always preached with ability and fulness ; but, like others of his 
 brethren, he has found a blessed illustration of the truth that it is 
 not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts. 
 Now, his hands were more than full of work, and we afterwards read 
 with great interest his very striking appeal, addressed to the London- 
 derry Standard, asking for help to the Ulster pastors from those who 
 have time on their hands. For, although visitors did, and do give 
 help as they pass along from place to place, yet this is chiefly on, 
 what may be called the " trunk line " of the Revival. There are 
 very many other districts where the work of God has gone on with 
 such power, and that silently, that the ministers are overwhelmed 
 with toil. Are there not some, yea, many, in England, who are 
 without pastoral charges, who have both time and means to respond 
 to the cry from Ulster, "Come over, and help us?" To give an 
 Ulster pastor a holiday, would be a doubly seasonable service ren- 
 dered to the cause of Christ by any English minister who has leisure 
 on his hands. Mr. Porter also argued powerfully in favour of lay 
 agency, of which he was judiciously and wisely, making extensive 
 use in his own district. 
 
 But — returning to my journey — what is that little building in the 
 middle distance ? It is a Wesleyan Chapel, and memorable as the 
 spot where Adam Clarke preached his first sermon. My fellow- 
 traveller has been there the night before, and has heard from the 
 yillagers how that chapel is now, to many, the house of God and 
 the gate of heaven. On the Sabbath evenings, over those eastward 
 
138 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 hills, and from the region around, come troops of peasantry — includ- 
 ing many who hitherto were utterly indifferent to Divine ordinances 
 — and amongst them the arrows of the Mighty fly swift and fast, as, 
 under the blue canopy of heaven, earnest prayers are offered, and 
 there is addressed to them the Word of life. Truly, Londonderry 
 County, generally, has participated largely in the refreshing showers 
 of the Spirit. The London Religious Tract Society has received and 
 responded to many applications from that county. In the letters 
 thus forwarded, was one from Faughanvale, as follows : — 
 
 " If you could favour me with a grant of tracts immediately, you 
 would confer a great boon on this neighbourhood. Such anxiety 
 about the *one thing iieedful' was never manifested before. Hun- 
 dreds in this place, who were hitherto careless, are asking, ' What 
 must we do to be saved ? ' " 
 
 In like manner, the Rev. Mr. Smyth, rector of Errigal, wrote from 
 near Garvagh : — 
 
 "I have been twenty-seven years rector of this parish, and never 
 before witnessed even the most remote approach to what is now 
 going on. Vice and immorality, of every sort, lessened to an incre- 
 dible extent, and oaths scarcely ever heard, or drunkenness seen ; 
 the houses of religious worship well filled, both on the Sabbath and 
 week days. Even the Roman Catholics now seem afraid to speak 
 against the work, which at first they ascribed to the devil. I have 
 witnessed persons of all ages, from five years to nearly eighty, 
 awakened to a sense of their sins, and calling for mercy through a 
 crucified Saviour; and in no instance have I seen one backslider." 
 
 These are but specimens of what had been done in that favoured 
 county. Along the southern bank of the Lower Bann, through the 
 linen and agricultural districts of Ahagdowey, at Garvagh and the 
 neighbourhood, and in the town of Strabane and Raphoe, as well as 
 ill a Avild mountainous district called Kilmore — where " the people, 
 almost all Protestants," were '' stirred to the very depths of their 
 hearts" — the Lord had done great things. 
 
 And here — in our progress — we are at Strabane station, and there 
 is the town itself, on the left ; and in the valley opposite, to the west, 
 is Raphoe, which helps to complete the ecclesiastical title of the 
 Bishop of the diocess, who is " Bishop of Uerry and Raphoe ;" and 
 of that town of Raphoe I heard much that was very deeply interest- 
 ing, but on which I may not further dwell. 
 
 A few stations onward, we arrive at Oraagh, and here the police 
 point out to us a large covered building, which, the previous week, 
 had been filled by a great congregation, gathered together to hear 
 Revival addresses, and to engage in prayer. '^ 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 139 
 
 Omagh is the county town of Tyrone. There, in olden times, 
 I have been on deputation for the Bible Society, with one who is 
 row a Dean of the Established Church ; and there Protestantism is 
 strong. But into it new life has been infused ; and all over Tyrone, 
 including Dungannon, Cookstoom, and other districts, the Awakening 
 has exercised more or less influence. Thus, at Gortin, County Tyrone, 
 a correspondent of the Derry Standard reported : — 
 
 *' The good work is still progressing steadily in this locality. The 
 meetings are not, however, so large on week-day evenings as 
 formerly, on account of the harvest operations being proceeded with, 
 and the Protestant population being sparely scattered over a large 
 district of country, I am sure that as soon as the harvest is over, 
 the week-day evening services will be better attended than ever, 
 from the deep impression which the Revival movement has made on 
 all classes. The physical manifestations have decreased, but the 
 great work of sinners turning to God is progressing as rapidly as 
 formerly. The change effected on the great mass of the Protestant 
 community is truly wonderful. As remarkable instances of this, there 
 were two marriages lately in the neighbourhood, and the guests, 
 after attending the wedding, in the morning, were at the prayer- 
 meeting in the evening ; formerly, on such occasions, the guests 
 remained drinking all night. What is still more remarkable is, the 
 change that has taken place at wakes. A respectable Protestant 
 farmer died in this neighbourhood on the 28th August, and, instead 
 of the disgraceful scenes which usually take place, there was pray- 
 ing, reading of Scripture, and singing ; the religious services not 
 ceasing for the two days and nights of the wake. The number at- 
 tending this wake was so great, that on the evening of the 29th they 
 liad to go out to an adjoining field to sing and pray, during which 
 time a young girl, a daughter of the deceased, was brought under 
 conviction of sin, and it is hoped truly converted. This has been 
 the means, I believe, of doing a great deal of good ; the exclamation 
 of all who attended was. What a change ! Several families in the 
 district between whom a deadly feud existed, and where the mem- 
 bers would not speak to each other, were now on the best terms. In 
 the neighbouring districts of Cappagh, Glenelly, Corick, and New- 
 tonstewart, the work was progressing rapidly, and at nearly all the 
 meetings in these districts there have been numbers of convictions, 
 accompanied by prostration." 
 
 The number of persons brought under the power of the Holy Spirit 
 in the County Tyrone since I passed along its western borders, has 
 very greatly increased. In October last the Religious Tract Society 
 received an application for tracts and books from an Episcopal clergy- 
 
140 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 man in the diocess of Clogher, who stated that six "weeks before 
 a case of visible conviction was witnessed in his parish, and that 
 fifty cases of similiar physical agitation afterwards occurred during 
 service on successive Lord's-days. Throughout the parish 250 
 persons had been brought to Christ, and " new life" was the clergy- 
 man's emphatic description of the blessed change which had been so 
 suddenly accomplished. 
 
 Another clergyman writing from the same diocess stated, that 
 there was a population of 5,000 persons in his parish, and that tiiere 
 was scarcely a family in which one person at least, and often more, 
 had been truly awakened. 
 
 The hour of noon is at hand as we approach Enniskillen, a frontier 
 Protestant town. Its inhabitants fought a successful cavalry 
 action with King James's forces in 1690, and saved the place from 
 plunder and massacre. Entering it we find all the appearance of 
 temporal prosperity. With my Tottenham friends I make an ex- 
 cursion in a wherry-boat up the beautiful Lough Erne to the island 
 of Devenish, and visit the ruins of an ancient abbey church. We 
 also find one of those " round towers of other days," which have so 
 puzzled and perplexed antiquarians, in perfect preservation there. 
 We inquired of the boatman about the Kevival, and he stated that 
 large meetings had been held in the town. Still we perceived 
 that we are getting a little beyond the boundaries of the great Revival 
 wave, and that as yet the people of County Fermanagh were not, as 
 elsewhere in County Derry, " stirred to the very depths of their 
 hearts." Since the period of our visit to Enniskillen, a special 
 Revival meeting has been held in the pleasure-grounds surrounding 
 the striking monument of General Cole — an East Indian officer of 
 reputation, and the member of an ancient Enniskillen family. Of 
 ministers of religion, there were present at this meeting, one Episco- 
 palian, two Presbyterians, and a number of Wesleyans. One of the 
 latter gave a narrative of what he had witnessed in Derry, previously 
 to which the Rev. Mr. Dill, Presbyterian minister of Dromore, ad- 
 dressed the people — about 1,000 in number — from Ezekiel xviii. 32, 
 " I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth," &c. In his 
 introductory remarks he spoke as follows : — 
 
 '* My dear friends, I have seen so much of the power of the Spirit 
 of God within the last two months, that I am willing to speak — any- 
 where and everywhere that I may be called upon to speak — a word 
 for Christ. My own heart has been revived. And if 1 ever had a 
 failing of faith before, blessed be God I have none now ; if ever I had 
 a doubt in my mind regarding the power of God's Spirit, I have 
 none now j if ever I had a doubt on ray mind regarding the willing- 
 
THE ULSTEJi AWAKENING. 141 
 
 ness and love of the Lord Jesus Christ to save the uttermost, I have 
 none now ; and if ever my heart was cold to Christ and His cause, 
 there is no coldness now, but my feeling is that, like the apostle, I 
 am willing- to spend and be spent, yea, even to die for the Lord 
 Jesus Christ." He then proceeded to address a few appropriate 
 observations on the passage of Scripture selected by him. 
 
 To Ennisklllen I was accompanied by a worthy young minister of 
 the General Assembly at Sligo. He was returning from an extended 
 tour on behalf of Home Missions, and after his return home — agree- 
 ably to my request — he furnished me with a letter introducing results, 
 social and spiritual, which came under his notice, which cannot fail 
 to be interesting to the reader. 
 
 "Sligo, August 30th, 1859. 
 "After spending some weeks in Ulster, I reached home a few days 
 ago. Being one of a deputation appointed to advocate the claims of 
 the Assembly's Home Mission, I had to visit many districts of the 
 counties of l)erry and Antrim. I set out, fully convinced that a 
 work of grace was going on ; but I soon found that the half was not 
 told me. At some of the meetings which I attended, there were 
 instances of bodily prostration. It was truly dreadful to see some of 
 these. To hear at intervals the agonizing cries for mercy, and to 
 see the terror depicted on every feature of the countenance, were 
 truly awful. But how delightful it was to observe the sin-stricken 
 souls resting on the Saviour, and finding all the promises of the 
 Gospel Yea and Amen through him ! Words can convey no idea of 
 the heavenly joy that beams from the eye, or of the calm assurance 
 depicted on the countenance when Christ is realized as ' the chiefest 
 among ten thousand,' and * the altogether lovely.' The physical 
 manifestations are not now so numerous as they were. They seem 
 to have answered the purpose of drawing attention to the Spirit's 
 work. The cases, however, of conviction of sin and of conversion 
 unto God are, I believe, increasing rapidly. The movement is 
 extending to new districts, carrying with it floods of enriching 
 blessing wherever it is felt. Thousands of God's people have been 
 literally revived and refreshed by it. They are nerved with fresh 
 courage and determination to carry on the Lord's work. All the 
 persons with whom I had an opportunity of conversing, concur in 
 declaring that so far as they are aware there are no instances of 
 awakened ones relapsing into sin. On the contrary, in every case 
 of which they are cognizant, a consistent walk and conversation are 
 maintained. One of the most striking results of the Revival is the 
 removal of long existing enmities between families and individuals. 
 
142 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 At the hour of midnight, faults have been confessed and forgiveness 
 asked by men who a little before were sworn and irreconcilable foes. 
 When the spirit of love and peace was poured out upon them, tliey 
 could not rest satisfied until mutual explanations were given and 
 received. The west of Ireland has not yet been visited with any of 
 these gracious influences. Some of God's people here and elsewhere 
 are anxiously awaiting them. They are pleading earnestly at a 
 throne of grace for a blessing. Their language is that of Jacob, 
 when he wrestled with the angel : ' We will not let thee go unless 
 thou bless us.' ' Hast thou not a blessing for us — even for us, also ?' 
 is their plea at the mercy-seat. May Jehovah carry on his own 
 work until every part of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the world, 
 rejoice and blossom as the rose. May the time speedily come when 
 the declaration will go forth that ' the kingdoms of this world are 
 become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.' 
 '* Believe me, yours very faithfully, 
 
 " Moffat Jackson, 
 
 " Ilinister of the Assembly T 
 
 My day's journey was not completed at Enniskillen ; I visited 
 both Monaghan and Armagh, ere I slept, and had yet to hear or 
 witness much of deepest interest : but for the present I pause in the 
 narrative of '* Personal Observations and Inquiries." 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 The Irish Car-Driver — "Wayside Tract Distribution, and Cheerful Accepiance — 
 The Autumn Evening Prayer-Meeting — The Minister and the Awakening — 
 Its Early History at Monaghan — Physical Prostrations— "Arrow-heads" — 
 The " Hysteric Note," and Preaching in Ulster— From Monaghan to Armagh 
 —Evening Meeting— Awakening in a School — Red-rock — The Aged Minister, 
 and the Might of Prayer. 
 
 It was on a beautiful afternoon that I left Enniskillen, in order to 
 proceed on my journey. Through a populous and highly cultivated 
 district the train swept onward. I passed by Clones and other 
 places, where, as I had heard, the Awakening had begun to manifest 
 itself, and left the train, whose destination was Dundalk and Dublin, 
 at the station called ** Monaghan Road," because it was the nearest 
 station, on the Enniskillen line of railway, to— the county town — 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 143 
 
 Monaghan itself. Here I found an Irish jaunting-car, not so elegant 
 in structure, or ornamental in harness and equipments, as you see in 
 Belfast. A genuine Celt is the driver ; the face and figure indicate 
 that he has no affinity with the " Black North," or its semi-Scottish 
 population. For, this is debateable ground. Although Protestantism 
 in this county, as well as in that of Cavan adjoining, is strong, and 
 morally and socially dominant, yet Romanists are still very numerous. 
 The adscrijjti glehae, the old Celtic adherents, who cling to the wilder 
 and less cultivated regions, occupy small holdings, excavate the 
 quarries, are farm-servants, car-drivers, et hoc genus omne. 
 
 And so the car-driver is in his chosen place, and aspires after no 
 higher post than driving to and fro through summer's heat and 
 winter's rains and frosts, and gloomy nights, over those six Irish 
 miles which separate " Monaghan Station" from Monaghan. 
 
 On this occasion I am his only passenger, and we proceed onward, 
 slowly but surely, across a semi-mountainous region. I have a parcel 
 of tracts, including some of the " Monthly Messenger," and others 
 with large print for old people, and, Romanist though he is, the 
 driver takes quite an interest in my distribution of them as we pass 
 along. He causes the horse to go slowly as the children run after the 
 car, and drives it close to the farmer's cart as he and his family return 
 from Monaghan, so as to allow me to drop the little messengers of 
 truth and mercy into the hand or lap of one of the party. And then 
 he cheerfully stops altogether, as an aged woman comes along the 
 road, and permits me to speak to her a few kindly words, and ofler 
 her one of my illustrated " Messengers" or large-typed tracts. 
 
 Nearly all whom I meet in the first half of that evening's ride 
 are Romanists, yet none refuse the tracts. No sullen, priest-inspired 
 scowl of suspicion falls upon me, Protestant and heretical propagan- 
 dist though I be. One old woman is certainly taken a little aback 
 by the address of a stranger, and, as she stands in the sunlight, 
 gazing at me, she is quite a study, hesitating as to whether she 
 will take the tract or not. But after a little parley and doubt ' 
 whether she could read it, I tell her that some one can read it to 
 her, if she was not able to do so herself, and she receives and takes 
 it away. 
 
 My stock was nearly exhausted as I drew near to Monaghan. I 
 was now coming into a more cultivated district, and the Anglo-Saxon 
 type of countenance, as well as farm-houses of a better order, and 
 Lord Rossmore's magnificent demesne, now began to present them- 
 selves to my eye. 
 
 I w^as passing a road-side cottage of the more comfortable class, 
 and as I ofiered some of my few remaining tracts to a little girl. 
 
144 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 there emerged from the cottage two or three young women neatly 
 dressed, and each with Bible in hand. 
 
 I began to feel at home, and felt that I was once more within the 
 blessed scenes of the Ulster Awakening. 
 
 These young persons, I said to myself, are going to some school- 
 house, where a meeting for prayer and scriptural exposition is to be 
 held. And when I asked the question whether it was so, I received 
 at once an affirmative and smiling reply. 
 
 " Is the Rev. Mr. Blakely, of Monaghan, at home ?" 
 
 "Yes, he is coming to the school-house this evening, you will 
 likely meet him on the road as you go towards the town." And so 
 it was. This venerable minister of Christ, nearly seventy years of 
 age, for many weeks past has been incessantly engaged in public 
 and private labours in connection with the Revival. A¥hen absent 
 in Dublin, in the first week of July, during the sitting of the General 
 Assembly, he was suddenly summoned home by tidings that the 
 work had begun. And with rare prudence, and with a very abun- 
 dant blessing, had he been enabled to guide the movement so as to 
 avoid undue excitement, and to gather fruits most precious. Mr. 
 Blakely arriving from Dublin on a week-evening, found his church 
 crowded to excess, and the greatest possible spiritual anxiety and 
 earnestness pervading the throng. During the address and devo- 
 tional services, physical manifestations — similar to what had occurred 
 elsewhere — showed themselves. The people remained in the church 
 " till near morning," and they included all denominations. 
 
 Mr. B., in a letter which soon after my wayside interview he 
 addressed to me, wrote thus as to the further early development, as 
 well as to the judicious measures adopted by him : — 
 
 " I announced a prayer- meeting for nine o'clock the next Sabbath 
 morning, and at four in the evening. At these I delivered addresses 
 recommending that the stricken should be kept calm, should pray by 
 themselves, and that no singing or loud praying should be allowed. 
 I referred to Saul's three days by himself at Damascus, with only 
 a promise which he was permitted to plead and pray, and not till 
 after that time did he appear in the church or speak to others. This 
 meeting was largely attended. I. believe it contributed much to the 
 quietness of our after operations. Any one stricken afterwards, was 
 removed quietly to the session-room, and only one or two friends or 
 judicious Christians being admitted, we had no after confusion. 
 
 " I may add that not one of those affected the first night, belonged 
 to us ; being mostly, if not all, of the Established Church. 
 
 " Our weekly and Sabbath prayer-meetings continue to be largely 
 attended, although now there are many others. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 145 
 
 " The Wesleyans have adopted the same hours on Sabbath morning 
 and Friday evening. They have also a meeting every evening. 
 
 ** The Established Church has service on Wednesday evenings. Mr. 
 Rankin has a meeting at the second Presbyterian Church on Thurs- 
 day, and I understand that next Sabbath he vcill also have a similar 
 meeting at nine, A.M. 
 
 " I have for these three weeks preached every evening in the 
 country to crowded audiences, always taking some place, distant from 
 the regular prayer-meeting of any other church. With regard to 
 prostrations, so far as I have seen them (for there have not been 
 many among my own people), they have been confined to the igno- 
 rant; I should rather say to the ill-instructed in the doctrines of the 
 gospel. The cases of deep prostration and loss of consciousness for 
 hours have all been of that class. 
 
 " With others, there may be for a season, an hour or two, deep 
 distress, from a sense of sin, and then, gradual trust and bright hopes 
 of salvation — agonizing prayer passing into adoring praise." 
 
 Mr. Blakely then goes on to tell of the marvellous illustrations 
 furnished hira of the convincing power of Scripture truth, when 
 accompanied by the agency of the Holy Ghost. It appears most 
 clearly from this narration, that the shafts of the mighty Archer had 
 been lodged and were rankling in the consciences of many, long be- 
 fore the Revival movement began. One and another now came and 
 told the minister how in such a sermon, and in such an address, at the 
 Lord's table or elsewhere, such and such texts had been brought home 
 with power, and how these had never ceased to agitate their souls, 
 until at length, when the Spirit was poured out suddenly, they had 
 been led to the Saviour, and had found joy and peace through faith 
 in His name. Mr. B. is wont to call such texts '* arrow-heads," and 
 is making a collection of those passages of the Bible, which the 
 Holy Ghost has specially employed in the conviction and conversion 
 of sinners. 
 
 He also wrote me that there was scarcely one of his household 
 who had not been more or less physically agitated, in connection 
 with solemn and saving impressions made on their minds and hearts. 
 This included his servants and the labourers on his farm, and also 
 the young lady who accompanied her father to the prayer-meeting 
 on the evening when I met him. 
 
 Mr. B, is the Presbyterian chaplain of the jail at Monaghan, and 
 is, besides, thoroughly competent, from long knowledge of the people's 
 habits, to give an accurate and trustworthy account of the social 
 change that has come over society in this district. His strong testimony 
 on that subject will be found in its proper place, near the close of 
 
 L 
 
146 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 this volume. Mr. Blakely specially refers also in his letter, to the 
 alleged use of the " hysterical note " employed in preaching by 
 Ulster ministers. He emphatically declares that, so far from this 
 being the case, the manner of the ministers, as a body, was more sub- 
 dued than usual. The people needed no artificial stimulus like this, 
 and the simplest truths, spoken in the most quiet tones, were received 
 and relished as the very food of their earnest and hungering souls. 
 Oh, vphat a blessed thing is it to preach and teach among such a 
 people ! For, multitudes knovr vrhat that scripture meaneth, " Thy 
 word was found of me, and I did eat it ; and it was the joy and 
 rejoicing of my heart." 
 
 After the interview detailed in the present chapter, with the re- 
 spected minister at Monaghan — unable to accompany him to the 
 country school-house in which he was about to preach, or to accept his 
 prospered hospitality for the night — I hurried to the railway station, 
 and thence proceeded by the latest evening train to the city of 
 Armagh. I passed by the various stations of Clontibert, Tynan, &c., 
 and I was reminded by what I had read, and from what I heard 
 from a fellow-passenger, that the work of Revival had spread wide 
 and far in these localities. 
 
 It was at a comparatively late hour that I reached Armagh. As 
 I passed from the railway station into the city, through one of the 
 oldest and most populous streets, I could plainly discern that the 
 majority of the young people and others seated at the doors, in the 
 soft light of parting day, were Roman Catholics. But even here, 
 there was a witness for the Revival, who, amid jibes and scoffing 
 laughter, was courageously asserting his faith in it as truly of God. 
 
 On arriving at the house of a beloved brother, the Rev. J. McAl- 
 ister, about nine o'clock, P.M., I was told that he was at a meeting in 
 the second Presbyterian church, and that such meetings were now 
 held nightly at Armagh in different places of worship : and so after a 
 little rest and refreshment, I proceeded to the place of assembly. 
 Here I found a numerous congregation, which increased as the night 
 advanced, until, when I was retiring about ten o'clock, I found 
 many persons of the humbler class standing in the vestibule and 
 near the door. The minister of the church, Mr. Henderson, presided 
 on the occasion, and the Congregational minister was also present, 
 after having conducted a separate service of his own. The Episco- 
 palians (Mr. Wade, the rector, is Evangelical), while they stood apart 
 from other sections of the Church of Christ, held occasional meetings 
 of their own. But to return to my narrative. A Scottish minister 
 of great earnestness and piety was delivering a solemn address on 
 " things revealed to us and our children," and concluded by fervent 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 147 
 
 appeals to the ungodly and undecided. Then my friend Mr. M. 
 ascended the pulpit, and informed the people of a manifestation of 
 Divine grace which had appeared in the forenoon of that very day 
 among the children of his day-schools. It appeared from his state- 
 ment, and from what I more fully learned from him afterwards, that 
 a scene similar to what had been realized at Ballymenaand Coleraine 
 among school-children, had occurred that day at Armagh. The pious 
 monitor of the girls' school had previously noticed an increasing ten- 
 derness and solemnity of feeling among the children, as she spoke to 
 them of sin, of Christ, and of eternal things. The Spirit was pre- 
 paring the soil for a special shower of blessing, and that morning a 
 little girl came into the girls' school, and with joy sparkling in her 
 eyes she threw up her arms and exclaimed, "I have found Jesus !" 
 Instantly an electric sympathy ran from heart to heart, and a large 
 number of the children fell down on their knees weeping over their 
 sinfulness, and crying to the Saviour for mercy. Mr. M. and his 
 Scottish friend came speedily, calmed, instructed, and comforted the 
 children. Some of them were heard ere long, pleading with their 
 parents to repent and turn to God. Since that period Mr. M. has 
 written me to say that they hold prayer-meetings of their own, when 
 supplications are offered up by them with affecting earnestness and 
 beauty. 
 
 The Revival had but begun to display its energy in Armagh when 
 I visited it, but in the country districts around, at Moy, at Market- 
 hill, at Rich-hill and Red-rock, great numbers had been brought 
 under alarming convictions of sin, and many truly converted. 
 
 The name of the latter place, Red-rock, vividly recalled to my mind 
 a solemn scene (years before) when, at a Synod meeting in Coleraine, 
 an Ulster Presbytery solemnly '* licensed " a student, according to 
 the forms of the Church of Scotland, to preach the everlasting 
 Gospel. On that occasion the preliminary examination was con- 
 ducted by the Rev. J. Hervey, a man of primitive and Puritan mould. 
 He afterwards offered up a prayer on that young man's behalf, 
 remarkable for its unction and fulness — such as he can never forget. 
 This man, all his life — and he is now verging on four-score — has 
 been mighty in prayer. At one of the Revival meetings in his own 
 church — as Mr. M., of Armagh, informed me — he had poured forth 
 a torrent of importunate supplication for a whole hour. The king- 
 dom of heaven was besieged and taken — large numbers over whom 
 he had long watched, and for whose souls he had apparently cared 
 and toiled in vain, were now as "a willing people," submitting them- 
 selves to their rightful King. Methinks such an aged Simeon as 
 Mr. H. — with two godly and gifted sons in the ministry, and w ith his 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 church filled with living worshippers, formality gone, love, and ligh , 
 and song abounding — may well exclaim, '' Lord, now lettest thou 
 thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes 
 have seen thy salvation." 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 Spurious " Statistics" — The true State of Things — False Statistics about Lunacy 
 in Ulster — Mr. Hanna's Letter — Great Prayer-Meeting at Armagh — The 
 Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel's Address. 
 
 I SHALL here prefix to my continued narrative of " observation," the 
 result of *' inquiries," addressed to the Rev. Hugh Hanna, with 
 regard to statements made and published on the " immorality of the 
 Revival." 
 
 Certain " statistics," so called, published by the Northern Whig, 
 ■were copied into the Times, with the remark that they were suf- 
 ficient " to stagger the staunchest Revivalist." The result of the 
 alleged statistical inquiry was, that the number of criminal cases 
 brought before the Belfast magistrates during the four months of the 
 Revival, beginning with May and ending with August 1859, were 
 considerably larger than in the corresponding period in 1858. The 
 true reply to this statement is as follows: — 1st. A large number of 
 the cases adduced as "criminal" were not of that character, being 
 mere actions for wages and other *' civil" matters, including also 
 desertions from the army. 2nd. It was found that there had been 
 added over and over again the cases of notorious offenders, drunkards, 
 &c., who almost every week were brought up before the magistrate. 
 In this way the array of figures w-as made formidable. 3rd. In a 
 populous commercial town and seaport like Belfast there is a large 
 class still remaining whom the Awakening has not yet morally 
 affected, as a whole, although many of the worst class have been 
 converted and morally transformed. 4th. The Roman Catholic 
 population of Belfast is very numerous, amounting to 40,000; and as 
 a class they continue, in contrast with the Protestants, to drink 
 freely, and thus they furnish a large quota to the numbers brought 
 before the Petty Sessions as " drunk and disorderly." 5th. It is 
 known that up to the period of the Awakening, offences against the 
 law had been rapidly increasing in Belfast. This period did not begin 
 with the month of May, as alleged, but in the middle of June in 
 Belfast. As the result of the Revival, the Clerk of the Peace stated in 
 September, that there '* was little crime now in Belfast," while the 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 149 
 
 criminal calendar of the Quarter Sessions in October was the smallest 
 known for a long period. 6th. From that district of Connor, where 
 the Kevival first manifested itself, and once somewhat notorious for 
 crime, there had not been a single instance of a person charged with 
 criminal offences being sent to the county jail. 7th, and most con- 
 clusive of all, there had not been one person of those " convicted " or 
 "converted" at Revival meetings, or who had attended such meet- 
 ings, who has ever been brought before a magistrate. It is a painful 
 fact, that while some of the journals have copied such "statistics" 
 as those now exposed and contradicted, they liave not admitted 
 into their columns any counter-statements as to the real facts of the 
 case. 
 
 While correcting misrepresentations, I may also refer to allega- 
 tions as to the number of cases of lunacy caused by the Awakening. 
 No less than twenty-two persons were said to have been admitted 
 from the neighbourhood of Larne alone, into the county jail and 
 Belfast lunatic asylum. Accurate information furnished by the 
 Batmer, shows, that instead of these statements being true, only 
 five cases were admitted from Larne into the lunatic asylum, and 
 " it was not clear in any one of those cases that the disease was 
 traceable to the Revival movement." And whereas it had been 
 affirmed that twelve were received into the county jail as "dan- 
 gerous lunatics," only seven, and five of them from Larne, had been 
 received during three months and somewhat longer, labouring 
 " under religious delusions," not at all an unusual proportion, nor at 
 all distinctly traceable to the Revival movement. More than this, it 
 was asserted that *' within the space of three months, sixteen persons 
 were committed to the jail as dangerous lunatics, in a single town" 
 — Belfast, of course. " The plain and indisputable truth is, that not 
 one single case of religious insanity in Belfast, from religious causes, 
 liave been admitted within the time specified into our county prison." 
 
 As to the social results of the Awakening in Belfast, the following 
 letter from Mr. Hanna is important. He writes thus : — 
 
 "Belfast, Sept. 20th, 1859. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I am not able to refer to any statistics of undoubted 
 character, and constructed on any considerable scale, to show the 
 social results of the Revival. I am able only to inform you of such 
 facts as have come under my own observation, or have been attested 
 to me by reliable authority. 
 
 " 1st. Drunkenness was a prevalent vice. The use of distilled 
 spirits was very general, and the custom was fast recruiting the 
 v/astiug ranks of the confirmed drunkards. 
 
150 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 " Our temperance societies were numerous and active, but they 
 made small progress in reclaiming the masses. But the Gospel has 
 annihilated the temperance societies — not all, but many of them. A 
 higher argument and influence than they can wield, has regenerated 
 the masses, and the absence of drunkenness from our streets — in 
 markets, fairs, and on fair-days — is as marked as it is gratifying. 
 You rarely see a drunken man now; brawling and disorder are con- 
 sequently rare ; and our police hardly know what to do with them- 
 selves. An officer in the county prison here, remarked the other day 
 on the extraordinary decrease of prisoners for trifling offences. 
 
 ** The l^evival has elevated the moral character of the whole com- 
 munity, and the social effects must necessarily be equally gratifying. 
 
 " I am myself aware of four publicans who abandoned their trade, 
 partly from the fact that their sales had fallen off so greatly that it 
 was not worth their while to continue the trade, and partly because they 
 considered that such a trade is a sin against society. In other parts 
 of the country, similar facts are reported. Where worldly prudence 
 and conscience regulate the spirit-seller's occupation, he will exhaust 
 the time covered by his license, and sell off his stock. When that is 
 done, I expect that many publicans over Ulster will renounce their 
 licenses, and betake themselves to callings more consistent with the 
 public good. 
 
 " On our social relations the Revival has exerted the happiest 
 influence. The party feuds of Ireland have been exceedingly mis- 
 chievous. The anniversary of the battle of the Boyne stirred up all 
 the bad blood of the country, and Protestants and Romanists were 
 disposed to engage in bloody strife. But on the last 12th of July 
 there was not a blow struck over all the country. Perhaps since 
 that important historical transaction itself, there was not a more 
 peaceable anniversary of it in Ireland ; a new spirit animates the 
 Protestant mind. Love, (the fruit of the Revival) has taken the 
 place of rankling enmity, and although the Romanists do not re- 
 ciprocate in the same spirit, they are quiescent from the utter absence 
 of all provocation. Ulster is now the most peaceable province in the 
 British empire. 
 
 " 2nd. There is a marked change in the homes of the working 
 classes. Many of them were thoughtless and improvident. Many 
 of them were destitute of any very commendable notions of domestic 
 comfort and taste. A great change for the better has taken place. 
 I attended yesterday evening several classes open for instruction in 
 the lowest parts of the town. About 750 persons were present in 
 these classes, and the neatness, cleanliness, and appearance of comfort; 
 which marked them, were most gratifying. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENINa. 151 
 
 " 3rd. The thirst for education is another feature in the results of 
 this movement. A larger number of people unable to read, has been 
 found than was supposed to exist among us. They have laid aside 
 the habits which prevented them from learning, and you now see the 
 old men sitting in the class with children, spelling out the precious 
 truths of the Bible. 
 
 " 4th. The great social evil, the unblushing profligacy that infects 
 the streets of large towns, was felt in Belfast, as elsewhere. It was 
 a great affliction to contemplate it. Christian people did not know 
 how to deal with it. But this movement has entered the haunts of 
 the worst wickedness, and many a Magdalene has come to sit at 
 Jesus' feet. Ministers will now, in such places, get a congregation 
 of attentive and tearful listeners. About fifteen of these unfortunate 
 women have, to my own knowledge, abandoned their evil ways, and 
 have returned to the paths of virtue. Other ministers can speak of 
 similar results. Sincerely yours, 
 
 " Hugh Hanna." 
 
 A man of business, writing me from Belfast, Oct. 13th, after 
 stating that the Revival meetings were still kept up, and that the 
 united weekly prayer-meeting was very largely attended, added : — 
 
 " There can be no doubt that a great improvement has taken place 
 all over the country in the morals and conduct of the people, and one 
 that seems likely to be permanent." 
 
 I also received information, at the same period, of many publicans 
 throughout Ulster giving up their licenses, or simply asking for a 
 temporary renewal, in order to make final arrangements for giving 
 up the trade. In the town of Crumlin no less than ten publicans 
 had given up their licenses, and " others made a final application 
 for renewal, simply with the view of winding up what they con- 
 sidered was a ruined trade." 
 
 On Wednesday, 16th September, the second day after I left Ar- 
 magh, a multitudinous meeting was held there by the friends of the 
 movement in that and in the adjoining counties. In order that a 
 concentrated effort might be made for full attendance, there were 
 special trains from Monaghan, J)ungannon, and Belfast. While the 
 crowded train was on its way from Belfast, the sound of voices singing 
 well-known hymns arose from almost every carriage, while at the 
 several stations, large numbers of tracts were extensively circulated. 
 
 The meeting was held in a capacious field near the Armagh 
 railway station. Very many laymen from England and Scotland 
 were present, as well as clergymen and ministers from different 
 districts of Ireland. Two of the chaplains of the Lord Primate were 
 
152 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 on the ground. The chair was occupied by J. M Lynn, M.D. The 
 
 chief speakers were the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel, his son, Ernest 
 Noel, Esq., and the Rev. J. S. Moore, of Ballymena. The Banner 
 of Ulster gives the following outline of the Hon. and Rev. B. W. 
 Noel's address : — 
 
 " He took for the basis of his address the fact that the Lord Jesus 
 Christ was ready to save the immortal souls of sinners, and that 
 they only were to blame, if they did not ultimately obtain salva- 
 tion. Upon this topic he spoke with an amount of fervent simplicity 
 which we have rarely heard equalled. He expressed the great 
 delight which he felt in being privileged to attend such an immense 
 meeting as that was, and he thanked God that the souls of the people 
 had been awakened to a sense of their position. If in the multitude 
 (he said) that was before him there was one unconverted soul — and 
 he was sure there were many — now was the time to approach the 
 throne of grace — now was the time to approach to that heavenly 
 Father, who, through the intercession of the Saviour, was willing 
 and ready to forgive the transgressions of their past lives, if they only 
 appealed to him in the true spirit. He addressed himself to the young 
 and to the old — he addressed himself to those who were upon the noon- 
 tide of life, and to those who were upon the brink of the grave ; and he 
 earnestly besought them to avail themselves of this glorious oppor- 
 tunity to make their peace with God. He trusted that, with the 
 blessing of God, this movement would not be confined to Ireland; 
 that it would spread itself among the great intellects of England, 
 and that men would see, at length, in a true and sincere spirit, that 
 they had souls to be saved. It might be a straTig€ thing that the 
 north of Ireland, and its people, should become the great heralds of 
 this movement ; but he believed that, if they exercised their influence, 
 they might do much to extend the cause of God's kingdom and 
 glory. He prayed that the mind of this country might be made to 
 thrill with the name of the great Evangelist, and that Ireland might 
 really become, in the sight of Heaven, the * Isle of Saints.' " 
 
 The Banner adds of " an English clergyman" who was present: — 
 "He informed us that a member of the constabulary force, who 
 attended the meeting, stated that in the constabulary station at 
 Armagh there had been no less than seven cases of conversion, and 
 that all of them bore evidence of a truly permanent character." It 
 is pleasing to know that similar conversions have taken place among 
 the constabulary elsewhere. For example, two of the constabulary 
 at Lisburn, in County Down, on Sabbath, the 18th Sept., stood up 
 before the minister and congregation in the Wesleyan chapel, and 
 avowed themselves Christ's loyal subjects and servants. This came 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 153 
 
 under the personal observation of Benjamin Scott, Esq., Chamberlain 
 of the city of London, who has in private conversation related it to 
 me. I cannot help adding that the Christian public are under 
 obligations to Mr. Scott for those valuable public addresses and 
 lectures in which he gave the results of his own personal observation 
 in Ulster, and in the face of multiplied misrepresentation, testified 
 to a " reality " of life and power, which exceeded all his antici- 
 pations. 
 
 The Times' " Special Correspondent" was present at the Armagh 
 meeting. While writing respectfully of the addresses of Mr. Noel, 
 Mr. Moore, and others, he found fault with parties who, in dif- 
 ferent parts of the field, harangued separate bands in a vehement 
 manner. The Banner' of Ulster also deprecated some things which 
 occurred on the outskirts ; but, on the whole, the meeting seems to 
 have been attended with real and lasting benefits. A Presbyterian 
 minister, from Rochester, was present on this occasion, and wrote 
 thus : — 
 
 " At Armagh I attended the great gathering (upwards of 20,000), 
 and took part in the service. Truly it reminded you of a field of 
 battle, so many were the slain by * the sword of the Spirit.' " 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 Return to Belfast— Second Union Prayer-Meeting— Dr. Edgar's Address— Visit 
 to Berry Street — Intercessory Prayer a Special Feature of the Awakenings — 
 Specimens and Illustrations at Berry Street and the Music- Hall, Belfast — 
 Cottage Prayer-Meetings — Social Prayer the Special Feature of the Ulster 
 Revival. 
 
 I RETURNED from my long circuit to Belfast a day too late to be 
 present at the second union prayer-meeting, held in the Royal Bo- 
 tanic Gardens. The first of these meetings was held on the 29th 
 June, and the second on the 17th August. The Banner of Ulster 
 stated that at one period of the day there were 20,000 persons 
 present: — " From remote portions of Antrim, from far away districts 
 in Down, from portions of Armagh, where the sickle was busy, 
 from Tyrone, were seen numerous groups, all apparently earnest in 
 the cause which had concentrated them at the same point. These 
 consisted mostly of young people, respectable in dress and demeanour, 
 evidently of the better class of tenant farmers' families, attended by 
 fathers, brothers, or husbands. A better, a fairer, or more honest 
 specimen of the descendants of these Scottish settlers has never before 
 
154 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 been presented upon a field in Ulster, or upon an occasion when they 
 could be seen to such advantage. 
 
 *' There were numbers of persons present from Scotland — ministers 
 and laymen of various congregations. Some of these took part in 
 the devotional exercises, and all expressed themselves delighted and 
 astonished by a work which is now sowing its seeds in the mother- 
 land " (Scotland), *' producing, we trust, good fruits." 
 
 There were also present Episcopalians and Wesleyans, Presby- 
 terians and Independents, (including Geo. Pritchard, formerly mis- 
 sionary at the Sandwich Islands, and afterwards British Consul at 
 Otaheite), with Baptist and other ministers and laymen from every 
 part of the United Kingdom. The Rev. Robert Knox discharged 
 the duties of president. The Revs. Messrs. Seaver and Hanna, and 
 Mr. McQuilkan — a convert from Connor, whose addresses have been 
 so signally blessed — together with Dr. Edgar, addressed the people. 
 Dr. Edgar spoke as follows : — 
 
 " Brethren, I am very desirous of impressing upon the minds of all 
 here, that by such meetings as this, by the news of these revivals, 
 which has been spread through the newspapers, we have brought 
 upon ourselves great responsibility. For example, I have recently 
 been visiting about twenty meetings in the south and west of this 
 country, and wherever I have been, it has been my anxiety to hold 
 out you and the people of this province as furnishing an example 
 worthy of imitation. I have been told that such is the wonderful 
 change that has been exhibited in Ulster, that, in one single Presby- 
 tery, conversions have been computed at no less than 1000 persons ; 
 that in one single congregation sixty young men have been brought 
 in a few weeks to God ; and that, in another congregation, out of 209 
 families, 207 now regularly observe family worship. Now, 1 tell you, 
 you are pledged ; we are before the world, and we must show to the 
 world that our actions are equal to our words — that this is not a mere 
 evanescent movement. I believe that now there is a greater demand 
 for Gospel truth than there ever has been in our day — that there is 
 a greater demand for Bibles than we have heretofore known — that 
 our colporteurs never had their labours so much called upon. It is 
 our duty to keep this work going on ; to endeavour especially to 
 supply Bibles with Psalms to your brethren. I have told how, during 
 the course of this movement, members of one family felt for the con- 
 version of others of the same family — how sisters have sat up all 
 night praying for the conversion of a brother. It is your duty to see 
 that such statements as this shall not be made in vain ; and that to 
 take care the work of sobriety, which this movement has so singularly 
 encouraged, will continue to progress. I have said that where this 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 155 
 
 work has gone on, spirit-sellers have been compelled to abandon 
 their trade ; and I trust this principle will be established to still 
 greater extent, and that your band of union will be still greater than 
 before." 
 
 The Rev. Duncan Long, incumbent of St. Paul's, Bermondsey, 
 London, forcibly expressed the great happiness which he experienced 
 in attending that meeting, which was so eminently calculated to 
 extend God's kingdom. This clergyman was present at many of the 
 united prayer -meetings held at Belfast and throughout the provinces, 
 and always asked for special intercessions on behalf of his " new 
 parish " in the metropolis. 
 
 Agreeably to previous arrangement, I proceeded on Wednesday 
 evening, August 24th, to Berry Street Church, to deliver an address 
 to the assembled congregation. The Rev. Hugh Hanna began the 
 service ; and before offering the first prayer, called on the crowded 
 congregation to engage in silent prayer. The stillness and solemnity 
 were most impressive. I observed that very many of the people 
 turned round and fell on their knees, instead of standing at prayer, 
 as has been usual in Presbyterian churches in Ulster. 
 
 Immediately before the prayer, Mr. Hanna read out a series of 
 requests for intercessory supplication. This was usual at every service 
 held in the church, is not infrequent at Ulster prayer-meetings gene- 
 rally, and was a marked feature of the union prayer-meetings held 
 in the Music-Hall, Belfast. 
 
 One of the requests intimated by Mr. Hanna was "prayer for 
 London ;'' another was from " a soldier," another from an " aged and 
 anxious inquirer and his family," another from '* a voyager," another 
 asking prayer for " Scotland," another for '' Pentland." Such requests 
 for prayer are so very suggestive, that I subjoin some of those pre- 
 sented by Mr. Hanna, on the evening when I occupied his pulpit. 
 Here is a request forwarded from Canada : — 
 
 "Rev. and dear Sir, — Knowing the sympathy and love which, 
 as a Christian and minister of the Gospel, you have for all men, 
 especially for those who are, or are seeking to be, of the household 
 of faith, I feel that you will forgive the liberty which I, an entire 
 stranger, and living many hundred miles away from you across the 
 sea, take in addressing you this letter. Having read with longing 
 interest the accounts of the wonderful work which God is carrying 
 on in your district, and in others near and around you, 1 have prayed 
 that it might please the Lord to begin such a work here, in this part 
 of this country — here, where there seems to be 'no truth, no know- 
 ledge of God ;' and on reading in our Witness of Montreal the last 
 
156 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 accounts, the thought suddenly occurred to me, 'write and ask the 
 converts to pray for yourself and your family.' Longing to know 
 God again, and to worship Him in spirit and in truth, I eagerly took 
 the advice thus suggested, and now, perhaps foolishly, hut respect- 
 fully and earnestly ask, if the spiritual interests of those among 
 whom you labour do not forbid, that you would kindly lay our case 
 before some one of your dear converts, who, having tasted of the 
 mercy and exceeding grace of God, desires and prays that others may 
 receive of His fulness also. We are a family who have, indeed, the 
 * form of godliness,' but, alas ! * deny its power.' We are far, very 
 far, from God, but we (at least several of us) who have a faint idea 
 of the work, long to be brought nigh through Jesus Christ. then, 
 dear sir, lay the matter before some of God's people, that they may 
 supplicate Him for us and all around us. Trusting that you will 
 pardon this intrusion of a stranger upon you, and praying that God 
 may continue to pour out upon you all the precious gift of His Holy 
 
 Spirit, I am, reverend and dear Sir, yours in wishes Godwards, 
 
 (( * * * 
 
 " Rev. Mr. Hanna, Belfast." 
 
 The next letter was from a person living in the neighbourhood of 
 Greenock : — 
 
 " Rev. Sir, — Permit me to address to you a few lines on a very 
 important subject; that is, to request the prayers of your congrega- 
 tion for myself and my wife, that God, in His infinite mercy, may 
 be pleased to convert our precious souls, as we feel ourselves to be 
 still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. I went to 
 Ireland lately for a few days, and was in your church on Sabbath, 
 the 14th inst. ; I was also in the Botanic Gardens on the following 
 Tuesday, and felt convinced that God is working mightily among 
 you by His Holy Spirit. I was at the same time much impressed 
 with the happiness enjoyed by all true Christians, and the fearful 
 danger of all who are stili out of Christ ; and as I am an old hardened 
 sinner, who have long resisted the strivings of the Holy Spirit, I 
 much fear He has withdrawn altogether, and that my heart maj' 
 become more hardened than ever, after the solemn scenes I witnessed 
 in Ireland. It is also my misfortune to live in a dry, barren part of 
 the country, under a cold and formal ministry, so that my case is a 
 very critical one, being now above fifty years of age, and having a 
 young family to provide for, and ought to train up for God's service. 
 My business also (that of a merchant) is too engrossing for the wel- 
 fare of my immortal interests. 
 
 " Will you, therefore, remember me and my partner in your meet- 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 157 
 
 ings at a throne of grace ? Nothing is impossible to Him, who has 
 our hearts and our future destiny in His Almighty power. 
 
 " Hoping that the Holy Spirit will answer your fervent petitions, 
 and make you the honoured instrument of bringing many souls to 
 find rest and happiness in the blood of the Lamb, I remain, Rev. Sir, 
 yours sincerely, " * * * " 
 
 Since my return, Mr. Hanna has sent me the originals of two 
 other written requests, presented at a period later than my visit. 
 The first runs thus : — 
 
 " The prayers of God's praying people are earnestly requested for 
 Scotland, and especially for the town of Paisley." 
 
 The second is from a lady, intensely longing for the conversion of 
 her kindred : — 
 
 " Rev. and dear Sir, — A stranger from the south of Ireland, who 
 has heard of and rejoices in the great things which the Lord has 
 done and is doing amongst you, and how He specially manifests 
 Himself as a prayer-hearing and answering God, earnestly solicits 
 the prayers of united Christians on behalf of herself and her family, 
 her father and mother, her brothers and sisters, that the God who 
 delighteth in mercy will show mercy on each of them, bv renewing 
 them in the spirit of their mind, and giving them the power of god- 
 liness instead of its form ; that He will vouchsafe to unite them in 
 the love and service of Christ, and make them instrumental in bring- 
 ing others to Him ; that, if it be His holy will. He will be pleased 
 to restore bodily health to one of that family now lying apparently 
 very near to death, but that, if not, He will vouchsafe to prepare 
 him for that great change which seems so near, and will give him 
 repentance unto life. Oh, dear Sir, do not cast aside the prayer of 
 a stranger : it comes to you in the name of Jesus — that name so 
 precious to all His people ; and if you know (as I believe you do) 
 the happiness of loving Him, will you not ask Him that we may 
 love Him too? 
 
 " I have prayed these things myself, I do pray them ; but all my 
 prayers seem so cold and heartless, I never feel to get a bit nearer 
 to Him : still the veil between us ; still the hearing of the ear, instead 
 of seeing Him for myself. And in connection with this family, your 
 prayers are besought for an old man of eighty-four, who, as far as 
 man can judge, seems unconscious how much he needs the Saviour's 
 blood and righteousness. As a stranger I feel an apology is due for 
 this intrusion on your notice ; but as one anxious for the saving 
 knowledge of Christ for herself and family, I hope I may meet with 
 sympathy, and that you will not refuse to remember us in your 
 
158 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 meetings for prayer ; and may God's blessing and presence be with 
 you." 
 
 And here let me again record my joy and thankfulness at the 
 glorious spectacle of fraternal love presented in that weekly united 
 prayer-meeting in the Music-Hail, which three times I had the 
 privilege of attending. There, as elsewhere in Ulster, the spirit of 
 intercessory prayer prevailed ; prompted into daily exercise and 
 earnestness by written requests laid before the chairman, this spirit 
 of intercession continues. My excellent friend, the Rev. Charles 
 Seaver, incumbent of St. John's, Belfast, joint secretary with the Rev. 
 Dr. Morgan, of the united prayer-meeting, has forwarded to me the 
 following specimen of requests thus presented : — 
 
 " The prayers of the meeting are requested for the conversion of 
 the eldest son of a clergyman, placed in circumstances of temptation. 
 Also for the conversion of a Roman Catholic female, on whose behalf 
 special exertions have been made." 
 
 " One who loves Jesus desires the prayer of the meeting on behalf 
 of three brothers, whose case is described in 2 Timothy iii. 4 — 
 * Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.' " 
 
 *' A daughter asks the earnest prayers of the meeting for her 
 mother and four members of her family, that they would feel their 
 sins and live closely to Jesus." 
 
 ** The prayers of all the Lord's children in attendance on the union 
 prayer- meeting, on Wednesday afternoon, are earnestly requested 
 for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the several sections of the 
 Christian Church in Newcastle-under-Lyme (England)." 
 
 '* The prayers of this meeting are requested for a family, that each 
 individual of it may experience the quickening power of the Holy 
 Spirit, that they may be awakened and stirred up to see and feel 
 more deeply the love of Christ, and follow Him more closely." 
 
 " A person requests the prayers of the meeting for herself, all the 
 members of her family still unconverted, her unconverted Sabbath 
 school children, also for her minister, that * he may be strong in the 
 Lord, and in the power of His might.' " 
 
 *' A lady, a widow, asks the prayers of this meeting for the con- 
 version of her son, a youth exposed to temptation ; and she would ask 
 the Lord to choose for him the profession in life that will be for His 
 glory. She refers this to God, and asks His blessing on it." 
 
 The reader will observe how suggestive are the whole of these 
 requests, and will be reminded afresh that Ulster is now^ " studded" 
 (as one minister expresses it) with daily and nightly meetings at 
 which the weapon "all trayer" is wielded with power. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 159 
 
 Some of these meetings are held in cottages, and a clergyman of the 
 Church of England at Portrush (the Rev. H. Ffoliott) writes me with 
 regard to one of them, which he says is usually conducted entirely by 
 the labourers or small farmers themselves. " The exercises consist of — 
 1st, a few verses of a psalm, sung with great fervour ; 2nd, prayer 
 by one of the young men ; 3rd, a chapter of the Holy Bible, read by 
 all present, veise about; 4th, each verse is taken up and made the 
 subject of conversation or inquiry; 5th, psalm as before; 6th, a 
 concluding prayer by one of the older members." 
 
 *' This," adds Mr. F., " appears to me a rational, calm, and profit- 
 able mode of spending the evening." Verily it is so. Oh that it 
 were prevalent in Great Britain ! Mr. F. goes on to say : — " It may 
 help one in judging of the extent to which religious feeling prevails, 
 to know that within a circle of a mile from John's cottage " — where 
 the clergyman had been present at a meeting — " there are ten 
 such meetings in the week, 7iot including those held on the Sabbath. 
 I know of these ten, and there may be others of which I have not 
 heard. 
 
 " Although there was another meeting within a short distance last 
 night, there were as many present as the cottage could contain, 
 i.e. from forty to fifty. Cases of strong impression often result from 
 these simple readings. One young man a few weeks ago was so 
 much stirred up, that on returning home he commenced family prayer, 
 and has continued it ever since. Twelve months ago nothing but a 
 dance, or one of their rustic * singings,' could have induced these men 
 to leave their homes in cold and wintry nights, such as we have had 
 the last fortnight, and walk a mile or two after their day of toil." 
 
 Let me then leave the distinct impression on all English friends 
 whom my communications reach, that prayer is the grand charac- 
 teristic, the life and essence of the Irish Awakening. With it also, 
 be it remembered, are always associated holy song, and the exposition 
 and study of the Word of God. The cottage meetings are emphatically 
 " fellowship meetings," such as in times of spiritual declension in 
 Ulster the Covenanters — the straitest sect of the Ulster Presbyterians 
 — have always kept up, and by reason of which their singularly 
 intellectual, vigorous grasp of theological truth, as well as their 
 healthful piety, have been secured and maintained. Little did my 
 esteemed friend, the Rev. Dr. Houston, of Knockbracken, Belfast, 
 when he published his excellent work on " Fellowship Meetings " a 
 few years ago, expect to see the day when Ulster would night after 
 night abound with such gatherings. Well may he and all good men 
 there, and here also, exclaim, " What hath God wrought ! " 
 
160 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES. 
 
 " Stricken " Cases at Berry Street — C h and a Marvellous Change — The 
 
 Pastor Sowing in Tears, and Reaping in Joy — Conversion of a Hardened 
 Transgressor — Farewell Visit to Towusend Street — Homeward Bound — Song 
 and Prayer on the Quarter-deck. 
 
 The address at Berry Street was hortatory in its character, and 
 especially addressed to converts, urging upon them the duty of 
 " following on to know the Lord," in humility, self-denial, watch- 
 fulness and prayer. Nothing exciting was said on this occasion ; 
 but near the close of the service two persons were removed from the 
 church to the vestry, crying out in wailing tones. After the service 
 I repaired to the vestry, and found there a young girl, in a pros- 
 trate condition, not able to speak, and with eyes closed. Persons, 
 ]iowever, in this condition are not unconscious ; " awfully conscious," 
 as one of them said, they generally are, under a sense of guilt and 
 peril. There was also a boy, of about twelve years old, sitting on 
 a form, and leaning against the wall pallid and ghastly. His eyes 
 were closed, but I put my ear to his lips, and heard the words 
 repeated again and again, " Jesus, have mercy!" Both were after- 
 wards removed to their homes, and I found it impossible next day 
 to visit either of them, as I had wished to do. But ere they left, 
 those who were present — including some ladies from Scotland — 
 united in singing and prayer. 
 
 Great and tender care is taken of all such " stricken" cases, both 
 in reference to physical restoration to health, and their instruction 
 in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 
 
 Mr. Hanna has a large staff of visitors, as well as of elders, who 
 are most diligent in ministering to those under physical and mental 
 distress, as well as in instructing converts in the way of God more 
 perfectly. 
 
 At the house of a friend, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, I 
 
 met the Kev, ])r. G., the able and esteemed minister of C h. 
 
 Three years before I had found him anxious — so many and peculiar 
 difficulties were in his path, and such was the apparent deadness 
 of the great mass of the people. But now, what a blessed change! 
 It is as life from the dead over the whole district. His church is 
 overflowing, a minister's manse is about to be built, and all is 
 spiritual prosperity. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 161 
 
 Since my return from Ireland I have received a letter from Dr. G., 
 detailing the spiritual results of the Awakening in his congregation. 
 The following extract strikingly indicates the power of the Holy 
 Spirit in the moral transformation of a stout-hearted sinner : — 
 
 " I met him on the road, and although on many a former occasion 
 he had passed me with a cold how of recognition, or an angry 
 look, this time he was determined not to let me pass. As soon as 
 I approached him, he took off his hat directly, and began to pray. 
 Persons were near at hand, or passing, but he did not mind that. 
 The earnestness of his manner, and the fervency of his petitions, were 
 remarkable. His oft repeated cry was, ' Lord, have mercy on me, a 
 sinner ! Lord, take away this hard and stony heart, and give me a 
 heart of flesh.' Turning to me, he said, * It is the Lord that has 
 wrought this change in me — such a careless man as you know I 
 was.' By his desire I had prayer with him on the road-side. Next 
 day, being the Sabbath, he was amongst the first I observed coming 
 to church after many long years of sinful neglect. The same night 
 he felt the pardon and peace he had been seeking. The Saviour 
 thus overtook him in his carelessness, and saved him from his sins. 
 For several months I have never missed him from the Sabbath and 
 week-day services. His conduct and conversation adorn the doctrine 
 of God our Saviour. Every one that knew him marks the change. 
 This was tYieJirst case of conversion in my congregation. Thank 
 God, very many have occurred since then, some of them in public, 
 others in private, all of them I believed truly genuine." 
 
 I was induced to remain in Belfast a day or two longer than was 
 (in point of convenience in reaching home) in itself desirable. But 
 ere I left I felt desirous of paying a visit to the people of Townsend 
 Street Church, where, amid the many changes by death or otherwise 
 which had taken place in twelve years since I left, there was still 
 many remaining to whom I had ministered the word of life. 
 
 This congregation is mainly composed of the artizans who are em- 
 ployed in forges, foundries, mills, and factories, and of their families, 
 as well as large numbers of young persons engaged in the flax-spin- 
 ning mills which abound in that particular district of Belfast. Its 
 numbers have been always great ; the results of the Gospel ministry 
 among the people have ever been encouraging. Here for at least 
 sixteen years the work of daily and Sunday-school teaching — during 
 the pastorates of the late Josias Wilson and myself, as well as that of 
 my zealous successor, the Rev. William Johnson (who is son of the 
 Rev. Dr. Johnson, Ex-Moderator of the General Assembly) — has been 
 most diligently and successfully pursued. Hugh Hanna (now the 
 minister of Berry Street Chuich, Belfast), when at the head of the 
 
 M 
 
162 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 Townsend Street Congregational day-school, raised its reputation 
 very high, not only in respect to a sound and practical English edu- 
 cation in all its branches, but also as to the habits of diligence, 
 thoughtfulness, and cleanliness amongst the children; fancy needle- 
 work and useful sewing being practised under an excellent female 
 teacher, who remains still in charge of her own department. Best 
 of all, scriptural instruction, both on week-days and the Lord's-day, 
 accompanying intellectual instruction, were crowned from year to 
 year with a special blessing. The intelligence of young persons 
 passing from the Bible-classes to the communion-table was always 
 marked and gratifying. In connection with the public preaching of 
 the word, there was always a greater or less degree of the presence 
 and power of the Holy Spirit manifest ; and it might be justly said 
 that this congregation was gathered together under the saving and 
 sanctifying power of a true Revival preacher in the best sense of the 
 term, the lamented Josias Wilson. 
 
 But it was reserved for the year' 1859 to manifest a more enlarged 
 bestowment of spiritual life than had been realized at Townsend 
 Street before. For a time the pastor was laid aside by a severe illness, 
 which threatened his life. Previously, he had written me that all 
 the ministers of Belfast were visiting pei'sons brought under convic- 
 tion almost night and day, and that not until a late hour on Saturday 
 night was he able to sit down to make a hurried preparation for 
 preaching on the Lord's-day. But in his case, and in all such cases, 
 "the joy of the Lord" was the minister's strength; his heart was 
 filled, and therefore his pen indited and his lips gave forth " good 
 matter," and as all the people pressed on the Master to hear the word 
 of God, so was it now — so is it still, thank God — with regard to His 
 servants. "Oh, what a heaven," writes one of them to me, "to 
 minister to a revived people ! " Yes ! it is so indeed ; would to God 
 that it were so everywhere, in this London, this England of ours ! 
 Surely all the ministers of Christ should wrestle with God, night and 
 day, for such a '* revived people ! " 
 
 I shall not dwell on the address delivered at Townsend Street, the 
 aflfectionate greetings of old friends, and the tearful eyes of a dear 
 little orphan girl, whose father and mother I had known so well, and 
 towards whom my heart yearned. I look back to Townsend Street, 
 to Belfast itself, to Newry — my first choice and scene of toil — with 
 " fond affection and recollection," not only in remembrance of old 
 times, but also of my recent visits to them; and for all who love and 
 labour for Christ and souls in Ulster, be they Episcopalians, Presby- 
 terians, Independents, "VVesleyans, or Baptists, I earnestly desire and 
 crave the continued outpouring of the Spirit of life, light, comfort, 
 love and holiness. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 163 
 
 Even on board the swift steamer, that bore me away from 
 Belfast and Ulster homeward, I still saw the traces of the Revival. 
 Seated in the cabin with a London merchant, I suddenly heard the 
 voice of song-. We found that it was sacred song, and speedily re- 
 paired to the quarter-deck, whence it proceeded. Here we found, 
 dimly discerned in the shadows of night, a band of men whose hearts 
 God had touched, and whose lips His Spirit had made vocal with 
 praise. The leaders in that harmonious singing (for all the parts 
 were given with accuracy and fulness) were Primitive Wesleyan 
 gentlemen from Manchester. One of them was a merchant, aged 
 and venerable, another a minister. They had been two days before 
 at the great united prayer-meeting at Armagh. Their hearts were 
 full of gladness by reason of what they had seen and heard. 
 
 Other passengers gathered round them — English, Irish, Scotch— 
 and we poured forth together to Him who sits King for ever, as the 
 ship glided swiftly through the calm and star-lit waters, songs of 
 rejoicing. Some of the crew and second-class passengers, with the 
 steward and stewardess, drew near. At last we said, " Why not 
 pray also?" "Oh," said the old gentleman, "the captain does not 
 like it. We came over last Monday night, and he forbade our pray- 
 ing, and shook the minister by the collar in order to stop him." And 
 then the old man went away to try and talk over the captain to give 
 his consent. Fresh hymns were sung, and again the question was 
 put, " Why not pray ? " to which it was added, " We talk quietly — 
 we can pray quietly. Let us pray." And so hats were taken off, 
 and without waiting for or asking leave from any man, our joint sup- 
 plications ascended to heaven. 
 
 So ended a three weeks' visit to my native province — now dearer 
 to me than ever, because the footprints of the Saviour are every- 
 where visible, and the land is full of life, and love, and praise. Oh, 
 what a marvellous display have I been privileged to witness, in con- 
 nection with the Ulster Revival of 1859, of the might and grace of 
 Him who " only doeth wondrous things!" 
 
 M 2 
 
PAET III. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The "Physical Accidents" of the Awakening — Difficulties and objections 
 
 considered. 
 
 The physical manifestations which have appeared in connection 
 with the Ulster Awakening, although already noticed and virtually 
 accounted for in our narrative of facts and incidents, seem to 
 demand separate consideration. For, not only have these physical 
 affections been adduced, by writers who are the avowed foes of 
 evangelical religion, as proofs that the entire movement in the 
 work of Ireland is nothing better than fanaticism and extrava- 
 gance, but they have awakened doubts as to its reality and genuine- 
 ness in the minds of many sincere Christians. These last are wont to 
 feel and say, that inasmuch as the American Revival of 1858 was 
 quiet and unattended with nervous excitement, that doubts may 
 well be entertained with regard to the genuineness of the Awakening 
 in Ireland. 
 
 Leading articles in medical and other journals have appeared on 
 this question, and most of our reviewers have " pronounced" on the 
 subject. Thus the Lancet has used such language as the following, 
 which, from its most calumnious charge against honourable and 
 upright men, it is difficult — for one who knows how unjust it is — 
 to quote without indignation : " All means are employed by the 
 organizers of the agitation to increase its violence. The blasphemous 
 ravings of half-mad girls are quoted and recited, and the utmost 
 excesses of language and demeanour are favoured as the special evi- 
 dences of peculiar inspiration." 
 
 The readers of the Lancet are also told of " msatie and indecent 
 follies," which are held to be " indicia of conversion ;" that these are 
 *' such as evidence a temporary unsettling of reason among the 
 duped, and a high degree of rascalitg among the knaves who en- 
 courage the evil." 
 
 In like manner, a '* vSpecial Correspondent" suddenly landing on 
 the shores of Ulster in the month of September, 1859 (very speedily, 
 however, silenced and withdrawn by his employers), denounced, 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 165 
 
 what he called, "dangerous agitation." On the faith also of state- 
 ments made by enemies of the movement, a London morning paper, 
 professedly Protestant and Conservative, " thanked God" that " our 
 church" (the Church of England) " had been saved from a corrupt 
 Revival." 
 
 A daily liberal journal, of large circulation, after having admitted 
 that if what the Earl of Koden had testified as to the social changes 
 in his own district of Ulster were true, that the Revival should be 
 spoken of " with respect," a few weeks later so far forgot its admis- 
 sion and its self-respect, as to speak of modern Revivals — that in 
 Ulster included — as but the resurrection of " the monstrous absurdi- 
 ties and impious jargon of the Anabaptists ; " as "disgraceful ex- 
 hibitions invading one part of the empire after another, rendering 
 women forgetful of the modesty which belongs to their sex, and 
 men of the reason for which they ought to be distinguished." The 
 journalist classed these Awakenings with the " superstition" of which 
 " corpses and human bones are the insignia," which loves above 
 all things to mark its track by slaughter," and as precipitating a 
 *•' reaction to infidelity" and ** libertinism !" 
 
 " The foaming preacher " also — we were told — was the means of 
 awakening "the lowest emotions of our nature;" the subjects of 
 the Awakenings are classed with the '* Adamites who grazed the 
 fields, &c. ;" and the conclusion arrived at was, that what " in the 
 nineteenth century is called a religious Revival, is in truth only 
 a revival of the Isiac mysteries, of the festivals of the Bona Dea, 
 and of the orgistic extravagances of the Bacchanals ;" and that it is 
 to be "reckoned" with those "abominations" which have "debased 
 multitudes of men and women to the condition of the maspausan 
 and chimpanzee." " It helioves society, therefore, to put a stop to 
 them in time." 
 
 It is a significant fact, that on the day after the appearance of this 
 article, a virtual apology, in the shape of a modified defence, was 
 made for it, coupled with the admission that " more than one hun- 
 dred letters " of remonstrance had been received. But, unhappily, 
 ere this second article was concluded, the outrage on truth and 
 decency was repeated. "Outbreaks of paganism" were "now in 
 operation in Wales, in Ireland, and to some extent in England." 
 And as for Scotland, " they (these outbreaks) have been domiciliated 
 there for ages." A hint was given in conclusion, that after the 
 example of " the most tolerant of governments " (the Roman Re- 
 public), " the magistrate should interfere !" 
 
 Language, if not as coarse, yet virtually as unjust and bitter in 
 spirit as the foregoing, has been employed by various public writers on 
 
166 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 this side of the Channel. It is well to rememher that they have 
 written without a personal examination of the facts of the ease, and 
 that they have presented the melancholy spectacle of confounding 
 a glorious spiritual movement with its mere "accidents;" that the 
 ministers of religion and others, who have identified themselves with 
 this movement in Ulster, are accused as a body of what they are 
 altogether innocent ; and, in a word, that a position has been taken 
 by many English writers at the press, such as in Ireland is occupied 
 by Unitarian and Romanist organs only. 
 
 Corrections of " statistics" as to the alleged *' immorality of the 
 Revival " have been also refused admission into the columns of the 
 same journals which copied them ; and so it has come to pass that 
 the English public is misinformed. Thus, like the Rev. William Arthur 
 (whose letter was shut out of a leading journal), I too, " who knew 
 the people, and believed my own eyes^'' had to come back to London 
 " to learn that all that had been told me in Ireland of the improve- 
 ment going on, was all a conspiracy of friends, strangers, and 
 appearances to deceive one I" 
 
 The physical agitations, in the estimate of many who claim to be 
 philosophic to a degree, are ** hysteria" or " epidemic" — the nervous 
 excitement, and its reaction, of popular fanaticism : nothing less, 
 nothing else, and nothing more. But what if true philosophy, 
 while recognising nervous excitement and its reaction, can by a 
 Baconian induction of facts, trace in a large majority of cases, the 
 cause to powerful internal emotions of which the Divine Spirit is 
 the author ? What if there should be still occasion to apply to " the 
 spruce philosopher" of our own day, the language of William Cowper 
 to the sciolist of his own time ? 
 
 " He has found 
 The source of the disease ; oui' good town feels 
 Hysterics, nervousness, clairvoyance. Hence 
 He bids the world take heart, and banish fear. 
 Thou fool ! Would thy discovery of the cause 
 Suspend the effect, or heal it ? 
 Go dress thine eyes with eye-salve — ask of Him, 
 Or ask of whomsoever he has taught, 
 And learn, though late, the genuine cause of all." 
 
 There are also those who avow themselves to be the friends of 
 Evangelical religion, and of the "work "of Genuine Revival, who 
 yet maintain that physical agitations are the " counterwork" of man, 
 and if so, it follows of Satan, acting through him, a prominent 
 agency. Among these, and pre-eminent, is the Archdeacon of Mealh. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 167 
 
 Now, that " the cries, moans, and other inarticulate sounds of 
 hysteria are merely expression of diseased physical feeling" is a 
 statement of Archdeacon Stopford's,* which no " ohservant person" 
 can dispute. It is equally true that *' the words and expressions 
 used in these hysterical aflFections, upon the most important topics 
 of religion, require care and thought to discriminate their real value." 
 It is also cheerfully granted to the Archdeacon that it is not true 
 that in the cases of persons " stricken," conviction of sin has been 
 universally expressed, or the cry for mercy universally raised ; still 
 let it be remembered that the Archdeacon says, " I acknowledge 
 that the burden of sin is bemoaned and the cry for mercy oflfered, 
 and the shout of victory and thanksgiving raised, in a great majority/ 
 of cases by these bodily affections." 
 
 Here then, with this acknowledgment, comes the vexed question to 
 be grappled with, " whether these expressions indicate the real affec- 
 tion of the soul?" Here the Archdeacon, treating of, and calling, 
 each of such cases a " paroxysm of hysteria," takes ground which I 
 respectfully submit cannot be maintained. First of all let us inquire 
 what medical authorities who have carefully examined such cases, 
 say on this subject. In so far as their counter-reasonings and adverse 
 conclusions are valid, then, the Archdeacon's statement — that words 
 which have been used in that (a hysterical) state, even while ex- 
 pressing *• real son-ow and mourning for sin," are worthless as proofs 
 of genuine feeling — is found inapplicable in many cases of persons 
 who have been " stricken" in Ulster. The following statement of an 
 eminent physician, Dr. Motherwell, of Castlederg, County Tyrone, 
 was read at the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in Belfast : — 
 
 "Like many other medical men, on reading of the 'cases,' or 
 hearing descriptions of them, I thought they were hysterical, and 
 that close rooms or meeting-houses, exciting language, sympathy, 
 imitation, &c. &c., had much to do in producing the physical 
 manifestations. Observation, how'ever, soon dispelled such an idea. 
 In the first place, the more prominent and distinctive symptoms of 
 hysteria were not present. There was no ' globus,' and many more 
 of the usual hysterical symptoms were absent. As to epilepsy 
 and catalepsy, out of the dozens of cases I saw, there was not one that 
 any medical man could for a moment mistake for either of these 
 affections. In many of the cases the countenance was pale, in 
 others flushed, being a dull or dusky red, the voice feeble in speaking, 
 or attempting to speak, the pulses low and weak." 
 
 Dr. Motherwell, remarking the great muscular relaxation which 
 attends the " cases," states that this, with " slow, weak pulse, pale or 
 
 * " The Work and the Covuiterwork." Dublin : Hodges and Smith. 
 
168 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 dusky red face, indicates deficient action of the heart." Then as to 
 the complaint of the *' load" of sin, as the stricken say, at the region 
 of the heart, on which the patient's hand is often placed, the falling 
 down, the scream, &c. &c., Dr. M. says, all seem more analogous 
 to nightmare than any other affection. The scream seems to be the 
 instinctive effort of the respiratory organs to supply air to the blood, 
 which is insufficiently aerated, apparently from the partially sus- 
 pended action of the heart. Let the reader mark what follows : '' When 
 I say that the heart seems the organ most affected, you may say — 
 expect me to say — what causes the diminution of its action. Now 
 this is not easily done. I must say, and say truly, that it is owing to 
 a diminution of a poruon of the nervous power, essential to the 
 nominal action of the heart. But then, ivhat ivithdraivs the nervous 
 power ? In fact, he who would ascribe the physical phenomena, 
 and the whole religious movement to merely physical and ordinarily 
 moral causes, would place himself very much in the same dilemma 
 as the Hindoo mythologist, who said the world was supported by an 
 elephant, that the elephant stood on a tortoise, but what supported 
 the tortoise he could not say. . . . 
 
 *' Although at jirst, before I saw any cases, I was physiologically 
 sceptical, esjiecially respecting the physical manifestations, after 
 making all due allowance for other influences; I think any logical 
 mind must come to the conclusion that the preseiit religious movement 
 is owing to a direct out-pouring of the Spirit of God, and whatever 
 doubt may have existed is, I think, removed by the good effects that 
 have been so universally observed and acknowledged." 
 
 Archdeacon Stopford declares, in reply to those who assert the 
 universality of the conviction of sin, the cry for mercy, and the 
 feeling of peace as a proof of the spiritual origin of the affection, 
 that *' in a great number of cases it is already proved by the lives 
 of the persons, and the subsequent confession of the persons them- 
 selves, that there never was any real influence of the Spirit of God 
 in their hearts." '* And this," he says, '* I have to account for from 
 what we know of hysteria." Whereupon he proceeds to show how 
 hysteria produces what is called " self-feeling ;" and argues that 
 because " guilt has been felt in some small degree by all, and sus- 
 pected to a still greater extent as a possible cause of unknown 
 suffering," accompanied, moreover, as it is, by a popular " expecta- 
 tion of a new form of distress arising from this very cause, a cry for 
 mercy suggests itself as its remedy." 
 
 But what if the statement — made by one who spent only ten days 
 in the north of Ireland, and whose inquiries were only confined to 
 Belfast— that it is "invariably acknowledged," that "in a great 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 169 
 
 number of cases," and '* in very many instances," stricken persons 
 turn out to be unrenewed, stands opposed to other more matured 
 and more extended observation ? I have the solemn testimony of a 
 minister, even in Belfast itself, both by personal assurances and by 
 letter, that *' five out of six of all the cases " (400 at least) " which 
 have come under his personal observation and examination, have 
 manifested tokens of genuine conversion, and are '' such as may well 
 gladdeji the Church of God" Now, admitting that " hysteria" might 
 account for one-sixth of these cases, or that such proportion of 
 cases indicated mere ** conviction" without ''conversion," what can 
 Archdeacon Stopford say of ihe Jive-sixths ? Let himself give the 
 reply. 
 
 "The existence of such real feelings" (of sorrow and mourning 
 for sin) " can only be believed in evidence of previous feeling or 
 subsequent conduct." Let us then test the cases by the Archdeacon's 
 own standard. Granting, as we do, that animal emotion has nothing 
 in it of a religious character, yet if "previous feeling" and "sub- 
 sequent conduct" both attest that there has been something more 
 than the physical in a vast majority of cases of prostration, can 
 the Archdeacon deny that a Divine influence has been present ? 
 
 We do admit, with him, that " ivords sjjoken ichile in that state" 
 (hysteria), namely, " of sorrow and mourning for sin, afford no proof 
 that such feeling is genuine or real, however sincerely it may be 
 believed in by the patient at the time;" and we grant, moreover, 
 that in some (not " very many") it has subsequently appeared that 
 "there never was any real influence of the Spirit of God in their 
 hearts," even after professed conviction, and cries for mercy. But what 
 if '* real feelings " are proved to exist on '* evidence of previous feel- 
 ing or suhsequetit conduct ;" must not the effect correspond with the 
 cause ? Can " the paroxysm of hysteria" account for the ** antea" or 
 the '^ post hocf" And if not, where is the "counterwork" in 
 those physical affections which are preceded by genuine conviction 
 of sin, and followed by real conversion ? What have such cases to 
 do as parallels with " sympathy," or " self- feeling," or " the expec- 
 tation of a new form of distress," or with the case of a child in 
 its first illness, crying out again and again under a new and 
 strange form of physical distress, *' I am very hungry ?" Are such 
 cases of real conversion but *' a re-adaptation " of the child's case 
 "founded on mere experience ?" The Archdeacon himself says no; 
 he also qualifies, in the Appendix of the fourth edition of his 
 pamphlet, the statement that " all the cases he saw in Belfast were 
 unmistakably hysterical," and that such, so far as he could judge, 
 was every case described to him. He did not mean to say that " all 
 
170 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 the bodily affections in the Revival movement are hysterical." Yet, 
 even after a medical friend in Belfast had assured hira that he was 
 forced to look on them as something different, the Archdeacon 
 still defends his position as tenable with regard to " the great majo- 
 rity of cases." He declares that he " did not see one of the 'non- 
 hysterical affections.' " He also appeals to *' inductive philosophy " 
 to support his views. 
 
 Accepting, therefore, this Baconian standard of inquiry, we pro- 
 ceed in another chapter to inquire what have been the general 
 spiritual results of stricken cases throughout Ulster. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Physiological Affections, and their Solution. 
 
 We have already given one authority as to Belfast Itself, and that tes- 
 timony could be indefinitely multiplied. The Archdeacon's examina- 
 tion did not extend to the province at large, and here *' facts" become 
 " stubborn things" indeed. In his former parish in County Tyrone, 
 a mighty work of Awakening has been in progress, accompanied by 
 physical manifestations. The correspondent of a public journal, in 
 sending an account of the movement for publication, remarks that 
 if the Archdeacon paid a visit to his former scene of labour, he 
 would find mighty SJ^^r^^wa/ changes there in connection with nervous 
 agitations. 
 
 The Hon. and Rev. H. Ward has given his solemn written testi- 
 mony that in nearly all the cases of " striking down " in the parish 
 of Killinchy, in Downshire, has issued a real conversion ; and has 
 in my own hearing, at a public meeting at Newry, in very solemn 
 tones, condemned those who attempted to account for these agita- 
 tions on the "hysterical" theory. The Rev. G. V. Chichester, 
 curate of Portrush, in a letter written to me after he had read a 
 review, with extracts of the Archdeacon's pamphlet, says, " I 
 think some counter statement is absolutely needed." He says of the 
 tendency of the review, and of the extracts from the pamphlet, that 
 he fears it is "calculated to shake the minds of many who live at 
 a distance, and lead them to resolve the whole thing into that 
 wonderful disease, hysteria." 
 
 " I have seen," he adds, " (and the other clergy of my neighbour- 
 hood) very little of such hysteria as Archdeacon Stopford describes, 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENINC. 171 
 
 iliough I have seen whole parishes in which a work of grace seemed 
 apparetit in one or more 7nembers of almost every family ' visited.'" In 
 like manner this clergyman virtually sets aside the Archdeacon's state- 
 ment that Presbyterians "struck" are often little else but "Presby- 
 terians turned Methodist; class-meeting is their future worship." 
 Mr. Chichester points out to me the error of the English Churchman, 
 when it asserts that one effect of the Revival is to divert the people 
 from jmblic worship, and to depreciate our Christian ministry. 1 
 myself can also testify from wide observation that the very opposite 
 is the case. Never were places of worship in Ulster so crowded as 
 now, or ministers so honoured as now. One brother, writing me from 
 Boardmills, County Down, on the 26th October, expresses the uni- 
 versal feeling among the Presbyterian people, "Never was THE 
 
 MINISTERIAL OFFICE SO MAGNIFIED AS NOW." 
 
 Mr. Chichester, also, in a letter to the Daily Netvs, dated Sept. 12th, 
 says, " I cannot but feel, in conjunction with the great majority of 
 those who, like myself, have personally witnessed and shared in the 
 movement, that Archdeacon Stopford's pamphlet is calculated to 
 leave a wrong impression on the public mind. It is quite incorrect 
 to say that sensitive women are the only " (Archdeacon S. speaks, 
 however, of "men capable of becoming hysterical " also, but they 
 are not the " strong men " of Mr. C.) " subjects of the change, for 
 there are a great number of strojig meti affected in every locality, 
 and sometimes more violently than the women. It is also unjust 
 to give the impression that all the cases of conversion can be reduced 
 to hysteria. By far the greater number of cases are either without 
 hysteria, or soon lose the symptoms ; and the genuineness of their 
 religion is proved by its fruits." 
 
 Another Episcopal clergyman writes from the county of Antrim, 
 of " some men openly ' stricken,' and almost without exception these 
 have continued steadfast, notwithstanding that the antecedents of 
 some of them were such as would not bear the light." 
 
 The Rev. Flavel Cooke, incumbent of Millbrook, Devonport, writing 
 to an officer at Woolwich, after saying, that with the exception of 
 one woman and one man, we "found next to no excitement" in 
 Ulster, refers to the woman physically affected, as one in whom, 
 along with the nervous agitation, was clearly to be discerned " a line 
 of spiritual operation affecting her soul." He pertinently asks, 
 " Can hysteria alone leave, as an after effect, faith in Christ ? Can 
 hysteria sweep over the frame of a sinner, and develop in its passage 
 the fruits of the Spirit?" 
 
 The Rev. Charles Seaver, incumbent of St. John's, Belfast, after 
 referring to cases of persons physically affected, says : — " Undoubt- 
 
172 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 edly there is not any necessary connection between the bodily ail- 
 ment, whatever it be, and the spiritual work ; but neither is it to he 
 I'iolently deprecated, as if its direct and necessary tendency were evilJ' 
 He remarks, first, that the number thus affected bears a small pro- 
 portion to that of those aroused to spiritual things ; secondly, that 
 the " cases " are divisible into two parts : one, and the much larger, 
 those who are excited to tears and trembling ; the other, and smaller, 
 in which complete prostration of the nervous system ensued ; thirdly, 
 that bad bodily results seldom ensue, unless under injudicious treat- 
 ment, or prolonged and improper excitement. He then adds — " We 
 see, then, no cause for the alarm pronounced by some. With pru- 
 dence and caution, such as we believe and knoiv are used by the great 
 majority of those engaged in the movement, evil effects are guarded 
 against, tohile we see clearly the plainest and happiest results in count- 
 less instances.'^ Let the reader observe that Mr. Seaver has been 
 referring solely to persons stricken, and also weigh well what fol- 
 lows : — " The impressions on the individuals themselves have been 
 deepened and rendered lasting, and the careless have been awakened to 
 deep spiritual anxiety." * 
 
 These are " facts," which, on the principles of " inductive philo- 
 sophy," warrant a general conclusion. 
 
 The twofold result also thus produced — first, on the converts 
 themselves,and, secondly, on the ungodly around — is specially worthy 
 of thoughtful attention, as suggesting reasons why the physical 
 affections should have been permitted to accompany the Ulster 
 Awakening. In particular, the striking down of the wicked, I was 
 assured by two of the town missionaries of Belfast, was the means of 
 arresting the attention of the very ivorst of the population. On this 
 class of men and women, continued persuasions and entreaties had 
 been tried in vain ; but when one of their number was prostrated 
 before their eyes, when his agony and despair found vent in loud 
 cries, they were filled with awful apprehensions of the reality of 
 Divine wrath, of judgment to come, and of hell ; and gathering, 
 moreover, around the stricken ones, they heard — it may be for the 
 Jirst time — those Gospel statements which, applied by the Holy Spirit, 
 brought them also to the Saviour's feet. In direct confirmation of 
 this, I have to submit the following extract of a letter addressed to 
 me by the Rev. Hugh Hunter of Bellagny, in the county of London- 
 derry, on the 25th of October, 1859 : — 
 
 " I think about two months ago the prostrations in this place 
 ceased. I don't regret the absence of them. We were glad to take 
 
 * A paper read by the Rev. C. Seaver before the Evangelical Alliance at 
 Belfast, Septemberj 1859. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 173 
 
 the blessing in any way the God of grace was pleased to bestow it, 
 but the physical sufferings which were evidently the unavoidable 
 accompaniments of the great movement are, in themselves, consi- 
 dered by no means desirable. 
 
 " Theij tuere sent by God to serve a special end, and when that 
 purpose was served they ceased. They were sent — in my mind — 
 fully as much for the benefit of others, as for those who were the 
 subjects of them. Every prostration I firmly believe was a sermon, a 
 thrilling appeal to the profligate and a solemn warning to those who 
 icere at ease in Zion, who, because they had a name and a place in 
 the church, seemed to think that all was well with them for time 
 and eternity." 
 
 To the same effect a sober-minded Christian layman writes me 
 from Banbridge, County Down, — " We have still occasionally some 
 cases of 'prostration,' but they are becoming less frequent, and this 
 we do not regret. They appear to have served the purjjose of arous- 
 ing the minds of the ignorant and careless to thinh of their salvation, 
 in a way which no other instruinentality (humanly speaking) could 
 have done." 
 
 As io genuine fruits following in the cases of persons thus stricken, 
 a medical gentleman, in the same town, writes: — "A very large 
 number have been visibly affected, and so far all have persevered in 
 the right way. All have been influenced by it more or less, even 
 those opposed to it. We have scarcely any drunkenness or quarrel- 
 ling. . Vice of every kind has hid its head, or been altogether 
 banished. The public-houses are empty, and in place of drunken 
 brawlings or noise in the streets, the singing of psalms and prayer." 
 
 In the preceding narrative I have given the testimony of many 
 ministers and others as to great numbers stricken, whose cases had 
 turned out well. Witness the statements of the Rev. J. Stuart of 
 Ballycarry, of the Rev. Messrs. Adams and Buick of Ahoghill, of 
 the Rev. H. Hunter, the Rev. James Rogers, and the testimony of 
 ministers at Ballymena and Coleraine, and elsewhere — all person- 
 ally known to me. All these Presbyterian ministers entirely accord 
 with the Episcopal clergy already quoted from, and whose lan- 
 guage so strongly contrasts with the views and statements of Arch- 
 deacon Stopford. While, therefore, the value of his pamphlet, as a 
 warning against extravagance, excitement, and attempts to create 
 hysterical emotion, is not to be despised, yet it undoubtedly leaves a 
 wrong impression as to the results of stricken cases in Ulster, considered 
 in a moral and spiritual point of view. We leave to his severe de- 
 nunciations any one Presbyterian or other minister who has prayed 
 that persons might be stricken, and also denounce, as he does, any 
 
174 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 preachers who have " given countenance to the persuasion that they 
 are persons all safe and right, because they have gone through a 
 diseased state of physical feeling." Let the guilty parties at Belfast, 
 or elsewhere, bear the blame. Let Methodism, which, as " a system," 
 says the Archdeacon, '* needs the warning more than any other," 
 take the warning if it has transgressed. Let the " sava indignatio " 
 not be written on our tombs, but go forth in righteous denunciation 
 now. But while follies have doubtless been committed by a few, 
 we deny that any preacher (such as that one described by the Arch- 
 deacon) ever intended by his preaching to perpetrate "an outrage 
 on the moral nature of woman ;" and also refuse to believe that the 
 result (of hysteria) is very commonly intended, with deliberate preme- 
 ditation of the means. I also protest against the description of a 
 professed mill girl convert, w ho was dressy and vain, as at all applicable 
 to that class of converts, at Belfast. From having been nearly two 
 years the minister of a Belfast congregation, containing a large body 
 of " mill girls," I can confidently say that " showy bracelets, several 
 rings on the fingers," do not characterise them as a class. Nor yet could 
 I say — after having visited the house where one young girl, who fell 
 into •' sleeps," and\vho related, on herawakening, supposed " visions " 
 (the supernatural character of which I totally reject) — that ** the 
 company were highly amused," and that, " from first to last, there 
 was not one trace of anything like reverential, religious feeling." I 
 saw parents and acquaintances stand by solemnized and awe-struck. 
 The joy of true conversion, after severe agitations of body, and terrors 
 of soul, had in that young girl's peculiar nervous condition so acted 
 on her imagination that she really believed she had been in heaven, 
 and had seen the Saviour there. 
 
 I believe that those who have countenanced the idea that the 
 gift of prophecy was revived, have no sympathy with the ex- 
 pression of an eminent minister, that however the Miriams might fret 
 and fume, in a certain town, " a very large number of the people 
 were turned into ^;;'0/jAe^s and precentors," if that was intended to 
 mean anything more than as afterwards stated, that the converts 
 " ministered to the religious instruction " of persons who had been 
 stricken, and " were the readiest and most efiicient agents for the 
 diffusion of religion." 
 
 I know also that ministers generally in Ireland discourage as 
 much as possible all physical manifestations, and are thoroughly in 
 accord with Archdeacon Stopford, to " direct emotional feeling 
 according to the will of Christ." I did indeed hear in Ireland of 
 one minister who seemed disappointed after an address given by a 
 friend that no cases of " striking down" had occurred, but that this 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKEJJING. 175 
 
 is common there is no good reason to believe; certainly not. And 
 then as to " the sermons in frightful contrast to the Gospel of love," 
 which Archdeacon Stopford " heard," — sermons wanting in " any 
 appeal to reason and to conscience, and divested in their application of 
 any connection with the love of God through Christ," all Ulster will 
 rise up and say, that not one such sermon has been preached among 
 a thousand. 
 
 The Archdeacon's design to warn against encouraging or creating 
 nervous excitement is praiseworthy ; but unhappily the impressions 
 left by his pamphlet, as a whole, on the mind, to any one who has not 
 seen and examined the real state of the Ulster Awakening, are most 
 unfavourable. Enemies of all religion have eagerly seized upon it, 
 and not all the explanations, alterations, and apologies in a fourth 
 edition can undo the mischief. His main position, moreover, is 
 untenable. Hysteria does not account for those physical prostrations 
 so numerous over the north of Ireland, in which — although quiet 
 conversions have far outnumbered them — as attested by fruits 
 following, the Spirit of God has been working in His irresistible 
 might and glorious majesty. 
 
 Giving, then, full credit to the Archdeacon's desire to write in the 
 cause of truth as his sole object, and acknowledging that abuses have 
 been committed, the repetition of which may have been prevented 
 by his counsels and warnings, yet we respectfully submit that the 
 true theory of physical agitations remains yet to be explained. That 
 explanation I shall not attempt in language of my own, but submit 
 it in the weighty words of men of great sobriety of mind, and men 
 also of remarkable philosophic acumen, who have written on the 
 subject. Bishop M'llvain of Ohio, in a letter to the Bishop of Down 
 and Connor, says : — 
 
 " At the great Revival in the parish of Cambuslang in 1742, in 
 which Whitfield took part, and at which, among others, the eminent 
 mathematician, and also the author of the " Cross of Christ," Mac- 
 laurin of Glasgow, was present, cases of prostration or " falling" fre- 
 quently occurred, and profane persons called it ' the falling.'" 
 
 One feels as if reading a chapter out of the history of the present 
 Revival, and fiinds also a true solution of the similar prostrations, in 
 the following language employed by the historian of the Cambuslang 
 Revival : — 
 
 " As for what these young men termed * the falling,' it was a way 
 of speaking among scoffers at the time, occasioned by the bodily dis- 
 tress, which in many instances accompanied conviction. The word 
 was much objected to m consequence; but when the intimate con- 
 nection of soul and body is considered, it will not appear surprising 
 
176 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 that great outivard agitation should mark the emotions of a soul fully 
 aivakened to the dread realities of judgment and eternity. 
 
 " The loss of a dear relative and many of the other painful vicissi- 
 tudes of life, when suddenly forced on the mind, affect the bodily 
 constitution so powerfully as, in some instances, to occasion even 
 death. And if such is sometimes the effect of things merely temporal, 
 need we wonder that a vivid sense of a sinner's salvation out of 
 Christ, with nothing but the brittle thread of life between him and 
 everlasting destruction should overpower the body ? The wonder 
 rather is that the preaching of the solemn truths of God's word is so 
 rarely followed by such consequences ; and we can account for this 
 only by supposing that the Spirit of God does not make the sinner 
 at once alive to all the terrors of his condition."* 
 
 In the " Evidence of Revivals," furnished by ministers of the 
 Church of Scotland in 1840, the Rev. Robert McCheyne of Dundee 
 gives the following testimony : — 
 
 "I have myself frequently seen the preaching of the word attended 
 with such power, that the feelings of the people could not be re- 
 strained. I have heard individuals cry aloud as if pierced through 
 with a dart." And when " tender Gospel invitations " have been 
 given, " every sentence has been responded to by the bitterest agony. 
 At such times J Aat'e seen persons so overcome that they could not 
 walk or stand alone." 
 
 Dr. Merle d'Aubigne, in an address delivered on the 3rd of October, 
 1859, at the opening of the School of Theology at Geneva, spoke as 
 follows : — 
 
 " We would ask," he said, " the adversaries of this movement if it 
 is surprising that a strong emotion of the mind should also act upon 
 the body ? Are, then, these two parts of man two separate beings ? 
 Are they not, on the contrary, most intimately united ? Psychology 
 teaches us the different systems invented to explain this close union. 
 Whether we subscribe to that of a pre-established harmony, or to 
 some other system, it matters little ; according to them all, the mind 
 and body form one and the same being. And yet some are now to 
 be found who would affirm that one part of this being cannot, and 
 ought not, to feel that which passes in the other. What ! is it not 
 a fact, that an eloquent orator, a great actor, a skilful physician^ 
 sometimes even the simplest person, can in certain cases work upon 
 those who are quite strangers to them, and affect them with the most 
 
 * " Narrative of Revivals of Religion in England, Scotland, and Wales," p. 7. 
 Glasgow: W. Collins, 1840. "With regard to the Revival at Cambuslang," 
 says the writer, " the greater member were not under bodily distress " — in exact 
 accordance with the Ulster Awakening now. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 177 
 
 powerful emotions ; and is this influence to be considered inadmis- 
 sible when it refers to the mutual action between two parts of the 
 same being ? 
 
 "I was present lately at a meeting in an important continental 
 town where several learned doctors, as well as many fervent Chris- 
 tians, were assembled. I brought before them the principal features 
 of the Kevival in Ireland. One of them, a man of great experience, 
 said, ' Tlie influence of the mind upon the body is a palpable truth 
 which ought to be recognised by every one. I can give an example 
 to prove it. About forty years ago I was a young man of twenty- 
 five years of age, full of strength and vigour. I had been separated 
 by tlie sea from my father for about sixteen years, but had reason to 
 hope that he would soon come to see me, or that I might go and visit 
 him. One day the servant entered my room, saying, ' Your father is 
 here.' The sensation produced upon my mind had such an effect 
 upon my body that I fell powerless to the ground. Ah, if that joyful 
 announcement, ' Your father is here,' could make such an impression, 
 what might not be produced upon a newly-awakened conscience by 
 the double tidings, ' Sin is in thy heart — thou art lost!' Then, 
 • Behold thy Saviour — thou art saved ! ' 
 
 "After he had done speaking, a pious layman asked leave to relate 
 an incident from his own experience. * I had been converted,' said 
 he, * about fifteen years, but had become cold and indifferent. One 
 day, my conscience accusing me, I shut myself up in my room, and 
 falling on my knees, I reviewed my life during the past fifteen years. 
 This retrospect brought my sins vividly before my mind, and I was 
 so terrified at the thought of them that I fell down insensible, and 
 remained in that state for some time.' 
 
 "I myself remember, gentlemen, having been, thirty-five or forty 
 years ago, at a Swiss village on the Rhine, of which the excellent 
 Spliess was pastor. That learned and pious man died not long ago 
 Antistes (President) of the church of Schaffhausen ; his biography, 
 which has lately been published in German, I beg to recommend to 
 your notice. His preaching produced, at the time I speak of, a 
 remarkable Awakening, which was accompanied in many cases by 
 physical affections, even more extraordinary than those which are 
 witnessed in Ireland. The converts were sometimes seen passing 
 their hands rapidly over their body, as if to drive away the evil 
 spirit. Well, after forty years that work still subsists, in the canton 
 of Schaffhausen, free from all excess, and is manifested — amongst 
 other ways — by charitable institutions of the most interesting cha- 
 racter. This last objection, therefore, which has arisen from the 
 state of those who have been stricken in Ireland, cannot, any more 
 
178 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 than the others, he brought forward as a charge against the Tlevival. 
 The bodily affections only prove one thing — the existence in the soul 
 of a deep and powerful feelina." 
 
 The Rev. G. V. Chichester says, " All attempts to account for this 
 great movement on natural principles are futile." He then adds : — 
 "Is it an epidemic — something working in the air? The ' Prince 
 of the power of the Air' does not usually produce such orthodox 
 results from his atmospheric experiments. But it may easily be 
 resolved, it is said, into sympathetic excitement. Are souls saved 
 by * sympathy ? ' Is a change equal to that of the creation of light, 
 or of calling a world out of chaos, produced merely by one nervous 
 mind acting upon another ? 
 
 " Again, we are told that such a movement has its origin in nothing 
 more than the natural excitability of the Irish character. If this be 
 so, why has it originated in that especial part of Ireland where the 
 population are half Scotch ? Not in the south or west, or in those 
 places where they are purely Celtic, but in the extreme north, where, 
 owing to the reason mentioned, they possess a larger amount of the 
 unexcitable element of character than in any other province. 
 
 *' And if it be said that exciting scenes, and sermons, and prayer- 
 meetings are the producing cause, how then are we to account for 
 such cases as these ? A person was struck down during the reading 
 of the Apostles' Creed in the Church of England service. There is 
 nothing very exciting in the Apostles' Creed, notliing very much 
 calculated to evoke hysteria. And this is only one out of number- 
 less instances of cases daily occurring during the Church of England 
 service. Many are affected in the quiet Sunday-school class, many 
 on the road-side, in the field, and in their own houses ; and at a small 
 religious meeting in a cottage in a mountainous parish of the county 
 of Derry, no less than nine persons were struck down with deep and 
 genuine convictions, while the rector of the parish, a sober-minded 
 and experienced Christian minister, was cautioning his hearers 
 against identifying bodily manifestations with the work of conver- 
 sion. 
 
 " That there are painful circumstances attending this movement it 
 is impossible to deny. Pamphlets have been published — clever, and 
 eloquent, and scientific; letters have been written, and sermons have 
 been preached, especially by persons at a distance, in order to en- 
 lighten the public mind on this great subject. We read of hysteria, 
 for instance, and hear many strange and interesting things about it, 
 especially its counterfeit symptoms of religion. But whatever of 
 important and cautionary truth such treatises may contain (and I do 
 not at all depreciate them), yet I only turn away from them as much 
 
THE ULSTEK AWAKENING. 179 
 
 confirmed as ever as to the reality of the movement. Does it dis- 
 prove the fact that the tide is going out, or coming in, because a 
 counter-current may be pointed out along the shore? or are we to 
 conclude that there is no good money in the Bank, because there 
 are a number of bad notes, and light sovereigns, and copper shillings 
 to be found there ? 
 
 " So in this instance, supposing that we meet with false cases, 
 fanatical cases, cases of paralysis, of derangement, of hysteria, of 
 catalepsy (and these are only the exception), what do they prove, 
 even if they were more numerous than they are ? Nothing but the 
 truism, that evil will always be found mixed up with good." 
 
 In reply to the statements of the Saturday Review and the Lancet, 
 a very able writer, in the " News of the Churches " for September, 
 1859, says : — 
 
 "The Saturdaij Review is evidently ignorant of the details of the 
 work which it caricatures. It rushes into the subject with brilliant 
 daring, but in its reference to facts, it shows that it has no 
 acquaintance either with the Irish Revivals, or with those earlier 
 Revivals to which it refers. In its comparison of the movement to 
 the excitement of a great public assembly, such as that at Ephesus, 
 when the people cried out about the space of two hours, * Great is 
 Diana of the Ephesians,' it shows that it regards it as proceeding 
 from great camp-meetings at which multitudes have become sud- 
 denly prostrate after being wrought up to a high pitch of excite- 
 ment. The great meetings, such as those in the Botanic Gardens of 
 Belfast, have, however, been the consequences, and not the cause of 
 the movement. The movement has originated in the quiet work 
 going on in individual souls, and, amidst all its extent, there is no 
 man who has stood forth prominently as a Revival preacher. It has 
 been pre-eminently, as in America, a work of the people themselves, 
 and has manifested its power chiefly through the instrumentality and 
 by the desire of prayer. The writer displays striking inaccuracy when 
 he says that this Revival arises from ' the tendency which exists 
 in all crowds and large assemblies to act upon sympathy, quite 
 apart from reason and conviction.' If one feature more than another 
 has characterised this Revival, it has been the mental action which 
 has been apparent in almost every case. Even the Roman Catholics 
 have been able in general, though attaining to previously unknown 
 or distorted truths, to state explicitly the causes of their violent 
 emotion, viz., the sense of the burden of sin in the presence of a just 
 and holy God, and the recognition afterwards of Christ as an all- 
 sufficient Saviour. There is not one of the converts who does not 
 state positively, that the physical effects produced in what is called 
 
 XT O 
 
180 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 the * striking down ' did not proceed from a mysterious bodily im- 
 pression, but from the oppressive burden of a mind agonized under 
 the overwhelming sense of guilt in the sight of God. Nothing, 
 therefore, could be more contrary to the truth than to speak of this 
 as a movement in which reason and conviction have had no part. 
 The Review, in accepting the medical explanations of the Lancet, 
 shows again that he has thought it of no importance to investigate 
 the facts of which he treats. 31edical men who have exajuined the 
 symptoms on the spot, are, as far as we know, unanimous in regarding 
 with contempt the theories of the ' Lancet.' We have seenit stated in 
 numerous letters written hy them, that the account of the phenomena 
 adapts itself in no measure to the facts. Nothing, besides, could be more 
 unguarded than to make, without support from the previous evidence, 
 the assumption that catalepsy is a contagious disease, and may at 
 once spread over large districts of country. The Saturday JRevietv, 
 in depending on such precarious support, gives an example of the 
 bias which affects even ingenuous minds when dealing with facts on 
 which conclusions had been previously formed." 
 
 Peter Bayne, Esq., the philosophic editor of the Edinburgh Witness, 
 after stating his desire to discuss '* the matter" (of physical agitations), 
 " divested as far as possible of all evangelical phraseology," thus 
 grapples boldly with the question : — 
 
 " The point now requiring our attention is that of the bodily 
 appearances which have accompanied these admittedly great changes 
 upon the conduct of these people. We assume at once that, as the 
 effect, so the cause, is a work of God ; for to suppose that the actual 
 results in question are from either the devil or man, each or both 
 together, is in direct contravention of all reasoning. Nay, more, we 
 affirm that it is God's work in a direct, special way. Everything is 
 admitted that can be arrogated to the side of natural causes; and full 
 indulgence is granted to that sort of shirking compromise, — ripe and 
 plenteous in these latter days of mechanics' institutes and constitu- 
 tions of man, — which tries, with all imaginable self-complacency, to 
 hold at once by Scripture and by a philosophy altogether anti- 
 scriptural. Notwithstanding all this, we at once affirm it to be a 
 psychological impossibility to reconcile the phenomena referred to by 
 any other than distinct evangelical theory. We rather suspect that the 
 scriptural theory of conversion obtaining now-a-days, among some of 
 our younger preachers especially, is deeply tinctured by certain vague 
 notions on intuitioti and secondary causation, and that the work of 
 God's Spirit, as disclosed in the Scriptures, is very quietly glossed 
 over, if not altogether ignored ; and further, that a very similar state 
 of things exists among men who would feel high offence if they were 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 181 
 
 recognised as belonging to any other than the class of sound orthodox 
 Christians. For our own part, we are satisfied to abide by the old 
 landmarks of the inspired Word ; and find them amply sufficient to 
 guide us in this, as in all like difficulties. It is quite true that God 
 acts in the natural world by natural causes ; but, as we are told by 
 admitted authority, the conversion of a sinner belongs not to this 
 natural world, but is a supernatural act, and therefore demanding 
 supernatural means to produce it. On either the Calvinist or the 
 Arminian theory, this act requires the direct, special agency of God. 
 Now, starting from this ground, we are ready to take up the opera- 
 tion of secondary causes : their existence has not been denied, but 
 only the necessity of keeping them in their proper sphere asserted. 
 As in the primordial act of creation — to borrow an illustration — the 
 direct, special work of God was essential (for clearly there could 
 be no secondary causes in operation tlieyi), while His after-work 
 was carried on according to the operation of causes, the nature of 
 which He had by his primordial act defined ; so in our present case, 
 the primordial act in the effectual conversion of a sinner is the work 
 of God's Sjjirit on the intellectual and emotio7ial parts of his nature ; 
 and as these, along with the other faculties of his mind, hold a very 
 distinct relation to his nervous system — the brain — loe at once per- 
 ceive how this system must he influenced under the circumstances 
 referred to. Between the brain and the mind there is an intimate 
 state of action and reaction, whether we admit this to proceed the 
 length which some physiologists hold, or only to a modified extent. 
 This being the relation, it is evident that, other things being equal, 
 the greater the mental cause so much greater ivill be the consequent 
 nervous effect, and vice versa. 
 
 '* Now, admitting, on the very lowest explanation, that the cause 
 acting on the converted man was, though moral in its nature, an 
 altogether humanly produced conviction of sin, it will still be seen 
 how terrible must be the efifect that is wrought upon his nervous 
 system. This effect ivill, of course, be vastly modijied in its external 
 features by the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the man. And more abund- 
 antly will this effect be expected to appear outwardly in the case of 
 a poor, ig7iorant man, ivhen we recollect the everyday fact that 
 mental emotion is alivays the most powerfully indicated inuncultwed 
 minds. It is not necessary, neither is this the place, to state fully the 
 enormous extent of that influencing cause of mental, and hence of 
 nervous, manifestation which the case under discussion supposes; but 
 if every page of the Scriptures, the every-day preaching from the 
 pulpit, and all our missionary exertions, be not a mere farce and a 
 sham, then surely that cause were enough, and more than enough, 
 
182 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 to produce all the phenomena in question. AVe very much fear that 
 men who are immersed daily and hourly in all the harassing cares 
 of worldly business, but dimly realize — with rare exceptions — man's 
 present state and future prospects, as involved in the phrase 'con- 
 version.' But here, aynong these persons, has this realization been 
 effected ; and strange ivould it he if such realization did not shoio 
 itself hy outward signs, too obstrusive, perhaps, to please fastidious 
 tastes or rose-water sentimentality. It is, of course, quite true that 
 these bodily manifestations, as such, prove nothing more than that 
 an all-pervading and overwhelming emotion has been produced ; but 
 it does prove that. The nature of that emotion remains to be inferred 
 from its after-consequences. And here the conditions of the question 
 granted are fully up to the demaiids of the argument, — the after-life, 
 so far as it has gone of these people being, with perhaps but few 
 exceptions, in sound accordance with the assumed cause and origin of 
 their conversion. 
 
 " As to those instances reported where disease of the nervous system 
 has been the physical result, — the moral result being quietly left 
 out of view, — such melancholy results are perfectly explainable on 
 the theory we have ventured to lay down. The act of God's Spirit 
 in 'conversion' influences the mind, and thus reacts on the very 
 delicately organized brain ; and if that brain, either by self-inflicted 
 or by hereditary causes, be in an abnormal state, that is, over- 
 sensitive or otherwise diseased, then clearly such a brain cannot 
 receive any powerful shock whatever without suffering more or less 
 in its integrity. 
 
 "Without attem.pting here to give explanations, consistently with 
 our present theory, of every fact connected with these religious 
 Revivals, it may be well, before concluding, to notice one objection 
 which has been made by even the friends of the movement. Ke- 
 specting these cases of disease, they either deny the fact of disease 
 being produced, or affirm that the agency at work has not been 
 really and truly Divine. Now, we object to this one-sided view of 
 the whole fact ; and maintain that the agency may be Divine in the 
 strictest sense of the word, and yet the result physically be disease. 
 These timid friends should remember that God does act confes- 
 sedly in this manner. In the thunder-storm, the hurricane, the 
 tempest, the famine, and the pestilence, we have instances to show 
 how inseparable is the connection between His work and the opera- 
 tion of these secondary causes, so productive of misery and affliction. 
 Doubtless it will be found in the case now under our review, as in 
 all others, that out of seeming evil He ever educes good." 
 
 Finally, we refer to the masterly paper, read before the Evangelical 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 183 
 
 Alliance by the Rev. Dr. McCosh (a distinguished philosopher, 
 author of "The Method of the Divine Government"), on "The 
 Ulster Revival, and its Physiological Accidents." He commences by 
 observing — " A strong prejudice has been entertained against the 
 Revival, because it has been accompanied by bodily manifestations 
 in the case of some. I am first to address mj'self to that preposses- 
 sion which is keeping many from acknowledging it to be a true 
 work of God." He then tells how formerly as a minister on the 
 eastern coast of Scotland, and standing on the shores of the German 
 Ocean, he saw a ship trying to make the harbour during a furious 
 storm ; how the ship struck on a rock and rebounded ; how a mother 
 who had a boy in that ship suddenly fell down convulsed and 
 prostrate ; how, carried to her dwelling, she continued long, now 
 unconscious, and anon in terrible agony, till her son — saved — was 
 brought to her. He then adds — 
 
 ** Suppose that this mother, instead of fearing that her son was 
 about to be drowned, had been led suddenly by the truths of God's 
 word, applied by the Spirit, to apprehend that her soul was about to 
 perisii because of sin, I am convinced that the very same bodily 
 eflPects would have taken place, and I believe she would not have 
 found peace, until Jesus, the Son of God, had been presented to her." 
 
 Still more suggestive as to the class of temperaments who manifest 
 bodily agitation under strong mental emotion, and as explaining 
 philosophically the true cause of physiological prostration in connec- 
 tion with the Revivals, is the following : — 
 
 " At one part of my life, it was my painful duty to intimate to 
 many a poor woman, who thought herself a sailor's wife, that she 
 was a widow, for that her husband had perished in the waters of 
 the Baltic Sea. I laboured to convey the sad intelligence in the 
 most delicate manner. I sought to prepare her mind for its coming, 
 and often began a long way off, but whatever the plan I took, I 
 had at last to speak plainly, and as the awful truth did burst upon 
 her, what a scene had I to witness ! The effects differed in the case 
 of different individuals. Some struggled with their terrible emotions, 
 and kept themselves wonderfully composed, and this not because they 
 did not sorrow, but because they controlled their feelings. Some 
 could not shed tears nor utter a cry, hut felt like a tree struck with 
 lightning, and withered on the instant. Others gave way to frightful 
 cries, tears, and convulsions, ending in bodily prostrations, and to 
 such it was useless to speak for a time; I committed them to their 
 friends, and returned after an interval to administer to them the 
 consolations of religion. Now, suppose that these same persons had 
 been assembled to hear the preaching of the Word, and that by a 
 
184 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 gracious movement of the Spirit of God, they had been led to see 
 their sin in its true colours, I apprehend that precisely similar bodily — 
 or, as they should he called, physiological — effects would have followed, 
 and that these would have varied according to the nature, and depth, 
 and intetisity of the sorrotv for sin cherished, AND ACCORDING TO 
 
 THE PECULIAR TEMPERAMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL. — This was ex- 
 pressed to me by a simple-minded woman, who had never attended 
 any Revival meetings, but who was one day struck down with a 
 sense of sin in her own dwelling. When she had recovered her 
 composure, she said to me — ' I am not a strong woman in body. I 
 have been in this same state of body before, but on former occasions 
 it was because I had lost a child, or suffered some temporal calamity ; 
 now I trust it is because I have been led to see my sins and my 
 need of a Saviour.' In this present state of things, mind and body 
 are closely connected ; and whatever deeply affects the mind, be it 
 from the earth or from above, must also affect the bodily frame. 
 Man cannot think without the co-operation of one part of his brain ; 
 and as little, I believe, can he have a mental feeling or emotion, 
 without an action in another part of his brain. It would be out of 
 place in such a paper as this, to enter into minute physiological 
 discussions. It will be quite enough to state, that it is the opinion 
 of eminent physiologists, that as thought acts on the higher parts of 
 the brain, so feeling of every kind acts on organs towards the base 
 of the brain. These organs are near the place where all the nerves 
 of the five senses terminate, and near the place whence the delicate 
 nerves start toward the face, chest, and heart. Wherever there is 
 strong feeling, there is action in this part of the brain, which pro- 
 duces an effect on the nerves, reaching over the frame. But it is 
 not necessary for my purpose to enter into such discussions. Every- 
 body knows that strong feeling produces certain effects on the body. 
 In particular, a keen fear of approaching evil, or sorrow for evil 
 arrived, agitates the nerves, and through them certain parts of the 
 body. Man is fearfully and wonderlully made; and the general 
 fact to which I have referred, while an evidence that man must 
 suffer because he has sinned, may also be a provision for good, as a 
 warning of danger, and an outlet for feeling which should not be 
 for ever cherished. But we have not the full truth unless we add, 
 that all feelings which contemplate the good — such as love, con- 
 fidence, faith, and hope — have no tendency to agitate or prostrate 
 the body, but have rather a stimulating, bracing, and health-giving 
 influence. On grounds which I am immediately to state, I believe 
 that this work of Revival in Ulster is a work of God. It has been 
 characterised by deep mental feeling. Now, I suppose that the fear 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 185 
 
 of the wrath of God, will produce the very same effects on the body, 
 as any other deep fear, and that the sorrow for sin will have the 
 same influence on the bodily frame, as the sorrow for the death of a 
 son or a husband. This I apprehend it must do, unless God were 
 to interfere to prevent it by special miracles — that is, to interfere 
 with His own laws, which He is not wont to do in ordinary cir- 
 cumstances." 
 
 Then with discriminating wisdom Dr. McCosh says — " But I do 
 not found my belief in the work as a genuine work on the bodily 
 manifestations. This would be as contrary to Scripture as to science ; 
 Scrij)ture sets no value on bodily exercise, and nowhere points to 
 any bodily effect whatever, as a proof or test of the presence of the 
 Spiiit of God. Nor have I ever heard any one who takes an en- 
 liyhtened interest in this work, even appealing to any such evideiice. 
 
 " All that these bodily affections prove, is the existence of deep 
 feeling. As to whether this feeling is genuine or not — as to whether 
 it is spiritual or not — this is to be tried by far different tests; it is 
 to be tried by the truths of God's word. The Bible and science, 
 truly so-called, are in this, as in every other respect, in beautiful 
 harmony. Physiology can say this is a proof of deep feeling ; 
 physiology cannot say whether the feeling is spiritual or carnal. 
 "We are brought back to the law and the testimony ; by them and 
 by nothing else are we to try the spirits, whether they be of God." 
 
 Dr. McCosli then proceeds to show that " the galaxy of graces" 
 (Gal. V. 22) have all been realized in cases of persons physically 
 affected. To these spiritual as well as to social results, we shall refer 
 in another chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SPIRITUAL AND SOCIAL FRUITS OF THE AWAKENING. 
 
 Letters of the Bishop of Down and Connor, and the Rev. T. Campbell — 
 Drunkenness disappearing — Spiritual Fruits in Ulster — Varied Testimony — 
 Increased Missionary Zeal and Liberahty. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. McCosh, referring to the spiritual fruits of the 
 Awakening, asks : — " On what, then, it will be asked, do I found 
 my conviction that this work is divine? I answer, on the fact 
 that I have found every one of the blessed effects which are re- 
 presented in Scripture as being peculiarly the fruits of the Spirit. 
 
186 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 Every one who has taken but a cursory glance at the work, has 
 noticed the conviction of sin — sharp, and penetrating, and deep; 
 and every one who has at all looked beneath the surface has seen 
 how the persons thus impressed will hear of only one object. Talk 
 to them of anything else, very possibly they will not understand 
 you — certainly they will feel no interest in what you say; but 
 speah of Christ, and their attention is gained and their heart is won. 
 This has always been to me an evidence that the work is a genuine 
 one, as it so powerfully draws men's regards to our blessed Saviour. 
 This preparatory work has issued in a vast multitude of cases in yet 
 better, and riper, and richer fruits. Let us look at that galaxy of 
 graces set before us (Gal. v. 22 — 24) : ' The fruit of the Spirit is love, 
 joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
 temperance : against such there is no law. And thev that are Christ's 
 have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.' 1 have rejoiced 
 to recognise in not a few all of these graces, glittering like the stones 
 on Aaron's breast-plate ; and in every one who possesses them I 
 acknowledge a genuine priest of God, who has been at the mercy- 
 seat, and is entitled at all times to enter into the holiest of all, to com- 
 mune with God. As to love, that, man cannot know what love is 
 who has not seen it flowing forth like a flowing fountain from the 
 hearts of our genuine converts — flowing forth towards God and 
 towards all men. The embrace of the mother and son, as the son is 
 in the mother's arms after years of separation, is not closer nor 
 warmer than I have seen the embrace of two strong, stalwart men, 
 as they met for the first time after each had passed through the trial 
 of triumph, and rejoiced to find that his friend had done the same. — 
 The joy of converts has in very many cases been, truly, the joy of 
 the espousals of the soul to Christ ; and this, in most cases, has ter- 
 minated in a settled peace, clouded it may be at times, but yet a 
 peace with God, in which His love is ever shining, though the person 
 may not at all see it. With what long-suffering have the converts 
 usually borne the scoffs and jeers with which they have been assailed, 
 seldom answering back or returning reviling for reviling ! Some of 
 the bitterest scoffers have been won, as they found all their reproaches 
 answered only by prayers. Many a mother blesses God for the 
 gentleness which they have discovered in a son or daughter, so 
 unlike their former character ; and 1 have known impetuous blas- 
 phemers, and bold female viragos, the terror of the neighbourhood, 
 made gentle unto all, and struggling with every rising temptation to 
 passion. A spirit of goodness or benevolence has been one of the 
 characteristics of the work, leading the converts to do good to all 
 men as they have opportunity ; and I trust it will grow in fervour, 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 187 
 
 till it burn up and destroy all uncharitableness of man to man, or 
 sect to sect. I do trust that all sectarian bitterness is being con- 
 sumed in the glowing heat of this season. As to faith, it was by it 
 they were led to Christ, and by faith they stand. Many are not only 
 daily, but hourly, feeding on the Word, and calling on God in prayer. 
 They are, therefore, meek and submissive to whatever God may be 
 pleased to send. It is, I trust, temperance, in the Bible sense — that 
 is, the government, of tlie passions — which is leading to the careful 
 abstinence from intoxicating drinks ; they avoid them as temptations 
 by which the inhabitants of this province have been led into terrible 
 evils ; and this Revival has cured many drunkards who have stood 
 out against all temperance societies. Whatever men may say for or 
 against bodily excitement, I am sure that against such there is no 
 law. I believe, in regard to many at this time, that they are Christ's, 
 because they seem to me to be crucifying with all their might — God 
 giving them grace so to do — the flesh, with its affections and lusts. I 
 speak of numerous cases in this great town in which I usually reside, 
 and in a quiet country district in which I preached and laboured for 
 two months in summer, and I am fully persuaded in my own mind 
 that I have seen, in great numbers, these gracious fruits. 1 confess 
 that sometimes when I attended public assemblies and heard foolish 
 statements, made in an indelicate spirit, by men who seem to have no 
 awe of tenderness on their spirits in the midst of such awful scenes, 
 I have been tempted to doubt of the work ; but these doubts have 
 ever been dispelled when, without seeking out the cases which the 
 neighbourhood were wondering at (but rather carefully avoiding 
 such), 1 mingled freely with those who were cast in my way in 
 Providence, and got into their confidence, and had their experience 
 poured into my ears and bosom. But the physician of wide and 
 diversified experience tells me — * Oh ! I have, in my visits, seen 
 precisely similar bodily effects, and these have no connection with 
 religion.' I freely, and without reserve, admit all this to the phy- 
 sician, and I would feel ashamed of myself if 1 appealed to these 
 physiological phenomena as proofs of this being a work of Revival. 
 But let the physician look beyond the bodily affection to the spiritual 
 experience, and he will discern in many, I do not say in all, a mental 
 and spiritual effect which he may not have been in the habit of 
 meeting with in his ordinary patients. He may discern a faith, a 
 newness of life and conduct, wliich must have proceeded from far 
 other sources than from nervous affection." 
 
 The Bishop of Down and Connor subsequently addressed the 
 following letter to an English gentleman, who had been present at 
 the Belfast meeting of the Evangelical Alliance. The Bishop had 
 
188 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 informed the Christian Knowledge Society that his " confirmations 
 for the year would be more than four times the average. Before this," 
 he adds, *' the young men would have spent their evenings in public- 
 houses." 
 
 "Palace, Holywood, Oct. 3, 1859. 
 
 "Sir, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, and will 
 oflfer a few suggestions, which, 1 trust, will be deemed a satisfactory 
 explanation of the returns to which you allude. 
 
 " Presuming that the police returns, quoted by the Times, are 
 correct, and which I see no reason to doubt, still the deductions drawn 
 from them against the happy results of the present religious Awaken- 
 ing are most erroneous. 
 
 '' In the first place, there are in Belfast about 25,000 lloman 
 Catholics, a large proportion of whom are of the lower class, and as 
 the * Revival' has not, I regret to say, affected them, it is no lack of 
 charity to presume that to the same extent that they furnished the 
 criminals at the police-courts before the 'movement,' to tlie same 
 extent they do so now ; and this should be borne in mind in the 
 absence of all religious criminal statistics. Again, the religious 
 Awakening has been most marked, and attended with the happiest 
 results, among a larger class of the nominal Protestants of the different 
 denominations, who were before careless and ungodly persons, ac- 
 customed too often to spend their Sundays in the public-houses, or 
 drinking at home, but still seldom criminal drunkards in the eye of 
 the law, as they committed no public breach of it. Now, their 
 reformation — and I thank God that a great and salutary change has 
 been wrought among many of them — did not in the slightest degree 
 affect the police returns. 
 
 " But the most gratifying change wrought under the • Revival' by 
 the awakening influence of the Spirit of God, is among the young of 
 both sexes just growing up into maturity. Their seriousness, deep 
 religious impressions, anxiety to read the word of God, and to attend 
 public worship, all testify to a change of lieart, and 'by their fruits 
 ye shall know them.' Now, as few of this class were brought before 
 the magistrates for an open violation of the laws, here again the 
 police statistics are uninfluenced by the religious improvement which 
 has taken place among them. Nor must it be forgotten that many 
 of the committals at the Sessions in Belfast, are of the same parties 
 who are again and again brought before the bench, and among 
 whom, I fear, little good impressions have been made. Besides 
 all this, a town with a population of 120,000 inhabitants, with 
 thousands of strangers and sailors coming and going each day. 
 does not afford so correct a field for tracing the social and moral 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 189 
 
 improvement of the people as the country districts supply, and 
 which Chief-Baron Pigot distinctly admitted in his observations at 
 our last Assizes, and which the testimony of various country magis- 
 trates fully corroborates. Still there is a marked improvement in 
 the character and conduct of the inhabitants of Belfast since the 
 * Revival' appeared ; and can I prove this better than by pointing to 
 the total cessation of those disgraceful party riots which were of 
 frequent occurrence, and which were the subject of a Government 
 Commission of Inquiry ? My own experience in the discharge of my 
 official duties gives me abundant evidence of the great and holy work 
 now leavening my diocess, and points it out too clearly to be mistaken 
 for natural causes, but leads me to recognise the source from whom 
 and through whom 'all holy desires, good counsels, and just works 
 do proceed.' I am, yours faithfully, 
 
 {Signed) *'11obert Down and Connor." 
 
 The second testimony is from the Rev. Theophilus Campbell, a 
 highly esteemed Episcopalian clergyman, well known to me, who 
 writes as follows : — 
 
 " With regard to the social evil, some of the unfortunate women 
 have come to my house imploring me to do something to take them 
 off the streets. One woman of herself specified the Revival as the 
 cause; and a companion (a Roman Catholic) joined her in this. 
 They are both of them so far reclaimed. I know of six others who 
 have given up their unholy calling. I have been requested to go to 
 a house where three young women of this class lived — one a Church 
 girl, and the other two Roman Catholics. I have visited them more 
 than once, and, when speaking to them of the Gospel, the tears have 
 flowed down their cheeks. One has left the house, another has nearly 
 made up her mind to follow her example. Indeed, she says she 
 would, if she had any certain means of support. This is, I find, the 
 difficulty. I have helped a little in this way, but great caution is 
 necessary. I rather object to gratuitous aid, unless under very 
 peculiar circumstances. 
 
 "A young woman who was living with a man, having one child, 
 her mother and a foundling being also supported by him, has within 
 the last month dismissed him, thus depriving four individuals of their 
 sole means of support. She was led to this by the text introduced 
 into a sermon of mine : * He whom thou hast is not thy husband.' 
 It came like an arrow to her conscience, and now, after weeks of 
 penitence and reading of the Scriptures, she is able to look up to Him 
 who did not spurn the woman of Samaria, as her Saviour. 
 
 " As to profanity — I inquired of the proprietor of a large mill what 
 
190 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 results he could witness from the Awakening, among the workers 
 in the mill. His answer was, 'From one end of it to the other 
 you will not now hear an oath or an indelicate expression.' Another 
 mf!l-o\vner has borne to me a similar testimony. A third was com- 
 pelled to think favourably of ' the movement,' from the effects he 
 perceived among his people. 
 
 " It is a gross calumny to say that either directly or indirectly the 
 Revival has led to drunkenness, prostitution, and profanity. I know 
 the reverse. I have seen it in all its phases ; I have watched those 
 who came within the sphere of my duty who have been affected by it, 
 and I have been unable to detect aught to which the finger of morality 
 might point as objectionable. I do not connect the gross imposition 
 practised by sleepers and others with the movement, any more than 
 I do the unchristian opposition of the infidel and the worldling." 
 
 The liev. Hugh Hanna has written a second letter on the same 
 subject as follows: — 
 
 " Whatever difficulty may attend the exposition of the Belfast 
 police returns, I am thankful to be able to state that a decided check 
 has been given to ungodliness. Sixteen outcasts have to my own 
 knowledge been reclaimed. I do not say that they have all been 
 converted ; I believe that several of them have been converted. 
 I have seen them, like Magdalene of old, weeping tears of peni- 
 tence and joy at Jesus' feet. But some of them have told me that 
 they were constrained to think of amended lives and return to 
 the paths of virtue, by the distress to which they had been reduced. 
 The wages of unrighteousness would no longer adequately sustain an 
 ungodly life. Some have returned to employment at manufactures ; 
 others have consented to go into a reformatory until their re-esta- 
 blished characters shall recommend them to domestic service, to which 
 they were accustomed. 
 
 " The Protestant population of Belfast exceeds eighty thousand ; 
 they contribute but very few to the police returns; they are indus- 
 trious and moral. But we have a Popish population of nearly forty 
 thousand ; the vast majority of our paupers and criminals are Mo- 
 manists. The adverse press has conceded this fact. The Revival has 
 had a wide field of operation amidst the eighty thousand professing 
 Protestants of Belfast, and its results have been of a very prodigious 
 and varied character. Our churches are crowded with attentive and 
 earnest worshippers. Our Sabbath schools are crowded. Prayer- 
 meetings are held on every evening of the week in all the Protestant 
 parts of the town. The Bible and religious books have sup- 
 planted the corrupting trash which, scattered over the land by certain 
 periodicals, were too largely read in Belfast. Attendance on worship 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 191 
 
 is increased greatly ; society has a new aspect ; the church is bap- 
 tized, with a new spirit. It is like life from the dead." 
 
 At the October sessions for Belfast, the total number for trial was 
 seven ; last year, fourteen. At Connor, the birthplace of the Tle- 
 vival, the constabulary prosecuted thirty-seven persons for dis- 
 turbances ; in the ten months of this year, only two of the Connor 
 people were brought before the magistrates. 
 
 In 1857, Connor had one-sixth part of all the paupers in the Bal- 
 lymena workhouse ; in 1859 it had only the thirty-third part ! 
 At the Ballymena quarter sessions, October, 1859, the assistant bar- 
 rister said there were only four cases, all of ordinary description, on 
 the calendar, and congratulated the grand jury on the high moral 
 tone which now pervaded the district. So much for the revived 
 north of Ireland. Contrast with this the charge of Mr. Serjeant 
 Howley, at the Thurles quarter sessions, in October ; the offences 
 consisting of nine grievous assaults and burglaries. Intemperance 
 was increasing every day; human beings were being savagely 
 beaten. At three funerals there were twelve, seventeen, and forty 
 gallons of whiskey consumed ; and in one case they fought over the 
 dead body. " Public demoralization had increased to a painful extent ; 
 the Roman Catholic clergy did what they could " (how morally power- 
 less is popery !) " to check the growing evils : their potver had been 
 unavailing, and the law must now step in and punish the offenders." 
 
 As to spiritual results, the Banner of Ulster says : — 
 
 " It gives us pleasure to turn aside from this view of the question, 
 which mainly concerns the moralist and the social reformer, and to 
 direct attention to another class of facts, which the religious world 
 will appreciate. We know, for example, that in one Presbyterian 
 Church of Belfast, no less than 340 persons have been added to the 
 membership of the church in four months, and in other churches the 
 membership has been increased by 250, 150, and 100. The Scottish 
 minister, to whom we have already referred, reports to us that, in 
 Coleraine, he found seventeen persons in twenty houses who pro- 
 fessed to have received peace, and he was assured that one-jBfth of 
 the whole population of the town had been converted. In New- 
 tonlimavady, he was informed by one of the Presbyterian ministers 
 that he could now procure a hundred persons to conduct prayer- 
 meetings, while formerly there was a great lack of persons competent 
 to such a work. A gentleman in Ballymena told him that he had 
 come in contact with upwards of 300 persons who had come under 
 Christian influences, and there were only three or four — if indeed so 
 many — with regard to the reality of whose impressions there existed 
 any doubts." 
 
192 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 The Rev. "W. Arthur, in a letter which was refused admission to 
 the columns of the Times, and which appeared in the Daily News, 
 makes the following weighty statement of facts, as an *' eye-witness 
 willing to vouch for them by his name: " — 
 
 " During three weeks spent in the midst of the E^evival, it was my 
 conviction that, after having travelled in the four quarters of the 
 world, and used some care to observe moral symptoms, I had never 
 witnessed anything to be compared with what I found from Coleraine 
 to Belfast, in evidence of a great and sudden improvement in the 
 lives of a population. I was not a stranger to the district, and, as 
 your special correspondent said, 'ought to know something' of the 
 people. 
 
 " My favourite informants were not parsons, religious men, or new 
 converts, but boys in the street, working-men, car-drivers, policemen, 
 and strangers, picked up here and there. As to all other things con- 
 nected with the Revival, I found much difference of opinion ; but as 
 to the moral results, none, except that some would ask — will this 
 reformation last ? Many Roman Catholics spoke of it with dread and 
 aversion, but all took it as a settled point, that the love of whiskey, 
 and the habit of cursing the Pope and ' Papishes,' had got such a 
 check as never was known in Ireland. In the electoral district of 
 Kells, where it first began, I was told on the spot by Mr. Robert 
 Brown of Greenfield, that last year they had twenty-six paupers in 
 the union, and this year only four. He also said that he had, a few 
 days before, asked a policeman if he was * of any use at all now?' 
 and the reply was that they had sometimes to * march on ' a prisoner. 
 In Ballymena a carman told me that whereas before the Revival 
 
 * a dacent man couldn't walk the streets of a Saturday (the market) 
 night, for fellows drunk and cursing,' now, on the last Saturday, 
 he could count only four men, and on the Saturday before, five, the 
 worse for whiskey. The very day before he spoke to me he had 
 pointed out to a gentleman whom he was driving, and who, he said, 
 
 * knew them as well as I did,' two of the worst women of the streets 
 
 * going to the fields to earn their bread honestly by work.' In Bel- 
 fast, a friend of mine, who had sent his servant for change, received 
 this answer : * I can't get it. Sir ; at the public-house where I always 
 used to get it, they say since the Revival came they don't get any.' 
 No topic of conversation seemed more common, in the second and 
 third class carriages, than the wonderful change in the country. 
 'Do you really believe,' I asked a woman from Ahoghill, 'that the 
 Revival has made any change for the better?' She replied, 'I've 
 lived there ten years, and it's no more like the place it was, than this 
 is like Africa.' A policeman in Sandy Row, Belfast, the hotbed of 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 193 
 
 miscliief, told me that now there is not a quieter place in the 
 world. 
 
 " The way the 12th of July passed over astonished the most san- 
 guine ; and to any one who knows the people, it must appear, beyond 
 comparison, the most striking effect produced upon national manners 
 in our day, in these islands, by the sudden influence of religion. I 
 saw people coming away in streams from a fair (at Craigbilly), where 
 before they would have been reeling by dozens, and I could only 
 discover one man who walked unsteadily. I attended a prayer- 
 meeting in a public-house. I heard masters tell of the change in 
 their men, boys of that in their comrades, women of that in their 
 brothers : heard gentlemen, doctors, merchants, shopkeepers, tailors, 
 butchers, weavers, stonebreakers, dwell with great wonder on the 
 improvement going on amongst their neighbours. I knew the people 
 and believed my own eyes ; but I come to London to learn that it was 
 all a conspiracy of friends, strangers, and appearances to deceive one. 
 
 •' Our national condition can tell much of the moral effect of Re- 
 vivals, if properly interrogated. 
 
 "What were the mining districts in Cornwall before the great 
 Revivals there occurred ? Now, where is any mining district to be 
 compared with them in point of morals or of respectability, in pro- 
 portion to the people's earnings ? Some light might be obtained if 
 two districts were selected from each of four classes — urban, agri- 
 cultural, manufacturing, and mining — in one of which Revivals have 
 been known, in the other unknown, and the present moral condition 
 of all compared." 
 
 There are vast masses among the population of the great metro- 
 polis, as well as in our large towns and rural villages, whom 
 hitherto the Gospel has not reached at all. City missionaries and 
 Scripture readers have co-operated with Episcopal clergymen and 
 Nonconformist pastors in seeking to evangelize these " baptized 
 heathens," but with comparatively small success. Even the " aggres- 
 sive" Christianity which a Chahners pleaded for, and a Guthrie 
 illustrated in the Grass-market of Edinburgh, has left many still 
 callous, criminal, drunken, and vile. A great Revival, however, would 
 supply the remedy. Thus a gentleman writing me from Ulster says, 
 *'The class from whom the drunkards and criminals formerly came 
 are now crowding to the places of worship which before they never 
 attended; they were rude and wicked before, but now they are 
 quite kindly and civil. He adds that ' more has been done hy the 
 movement for the masses through the Divine energy of the Gospel, 
 both as to spiritual and social effects, than could have possibly been 
 produced by all the appliances of secular philanthropy J " 
 
 o 
 
194 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 A minister at Boardmills, County Down, the Rev. G. H. Shanks, 
 has also %Yritten me. He was from the first sternly opposed to the 
 encouragement of " sleeping " cases, and *' visions," and he condemns 
 emphatically " the indiscretion of some over-zealous friends, who by 
 •writing and publishing most silly things about the ' sleeping cases,' 
 and the * spiritual potency of somnolency,' do more harm than 
 avowed enemies could do." This gentleman tells how a public-house, 
 notorious as a scene for drunkenness, cock-fighting, and quarrelling, 
 is turned into a shop, and that the people hold large prayer-meetings 
 there. He specifies the case of a drunkard completely reformed, who 
 had often been before the magistrates. He dwells on the comparative 
 absence of sickness and mortality, the decent and comfortable clothing 
 of the poor, and their persons and dwellings as clean and comfortable. 
 Sectarian bitterness has been swept away. There is an insatiable 
 "thirst" for tracts, books, and Bibles,* and an increasing love for 
 sacred music. There is also a general desire for mental improvement. 
 Young men (who were ignorant) have contrived to get to school. Several 
 catechetical classes are held every day. One is taught by a married 
 woman, and in her class is a young mother who is learning to read. 
 
 And then, as to family life, " mothers are happy with their kind, 
 obedient children ; wives with their kind, sober husbands ; and 
 husbands with their wives." The refining as well as elevating 
 influence of the Awakening on the manners of the people is strongly 
 dwelt on : poor peasants are now truly " gentle," and understand the 
 home application of the apostolic lesson, " be courteous." 
 
 The Rev. Edward Maguire, the incumbent of the parish of 
 Muckamore, near Antrim, and brother to the incumbent of the 
 parish of Clerkenwell, London, thus replies to queries which I took 
 the liberty of addressing to him : 
 
 1. Party spirit? None at all. 2. Criminal offences. Nevermore 
 free from such. The chairman of the county congratulated the com- 
 munity of Ballymena (nine miles from hence) last week, on the 
 almost total absence of crime. 3. Family bickerings ? I do not 
 know of a single instance in my parish. 4. Strife and feuds among 
 neighbours ? None ; all quiet. 5. Intemperance ? It is many 
 months since I saw a case here, though formerly it was a common, 
 sight. 6. Dishonesty and fraud? No complaints. 7. The great 
 social evil ? Three cases of reformation since summer last ; two of 
 them I believe to be sincere penitents. 
 
 Mr. Maguire, in a separate communication, writes me as follows : — 
 
 * The circulation of the Scriptures has immensely increased during the Re- 
 vival period. In four months the editions published with the Scottish versirn 
 of the psalms were sold to the extent of more than 14,000 copies, being an 
 increase of 9,000 over the four corresponding months in 1858, 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENINa. 195 
 
 " My parish is very small in every way : a diameter of two miles 
 and a half would take in the entire districts. The population is entirely 
 rural, with the exception of two linen-bleaching establishments, 
 which, however, are not sufficiently extensive to create even a village 
 in our midst. 
 
 " Old Stone is a very ancient village : it is waxing old, and ready to 
 decay, so far as the houses are concerned. It comprises about twenty- 
 four cabins — no)ie good — most of them extremely bad." 
 
 After referring to vices that had "from time immemorial" pre- 
 vailed, and saying, " in my own time I have seen and heard of all 
 these things," Mr. Maguire adds : — 
 
 " At the commencement of the present gracious Revival, I began to 
 hold open-air meetings on Old Stone Hill, and they were iiumerously 
 attended. I then and there spoke earnestly and faithfully (I trust) 
 to the people — told them what had been so often reported about them, 
 and urged the necessity of becoming neiv creatures, and getting 
 a new name. I even suggested that the place should take the name 
 of ' New Stone,' &c. And, I can call God to witness, most earnest 
 were our prayers — both in public and private — that the Holy Spirit 
 would visit us, and revive our spirits, as in other places. 
 
 " In the course of the summer, many found great comfort and 
 benefit from these meetings. Some were openly stricken, and, almost 
 without exception, these have continued steadfast, notwithstanding 
 that the antecedents of some of them were such as would not bear 
 the light. 
 
 " Up to the present, though the weather is inclement and the 
 nights extremely dark (and you must make great allowance for a 
 scattered people in a rural country, where no ^/rts-lights were ever 
 seen), my Tuesday evening meetings are very numerously attended, 
 and the people take delight in attending them. Several Avians have 
 left their heresy, and have united themselves either to my congrega- 
 tion, or to the orthodox Presbyterian." 
 
 The Rev. H. Venn, rector of Hereford, writes to the Daily News 
 as follows, after a month's visit to Ulster : — " My impressions, or 
 rather firm convictions, are as follows : 
 
 *'l. Within the last five or six months vast numbers of men, 
 women, and children, have been truly converted to God, and become 
 ' new creatures in Christ Jesus.' 
 
 " In all the places I have visited, those ministers and Christian 
 friends with whom I conversed, spoke of ' hundreds' whom they 
 could name as having been lately converted, and as having given 
 satisfactory proofs of their conversion by their altered life and con- 
 versation. 
 
 o2 
 
196 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 *' 2. A very general interest in the subject of religion has beeti 
 lately awakened throughout that whole district. 
 
 " The attendance at the regular places of worship ; the multitudes 
 of prayer-meetings held in the towns and villages, both in public 
 rooms and in private houses and cottages ; the prayer-meetings held, 
 in several instances, exclusively by children ; the readiness with 
 •which numbers would assemble together at almost any time, and at 
 almost any inconvenience, on any special occasion ; the earnest 
 attention with which all — even children — would listen to any serious 
 address ; the numbers and the ages of those who attended the Sunday 
 schools; the formation of so many adult schools and Bible-classes; 
 the increased sale of Bibles, and the interest with which those 
 ■whom I casually met with everywhere entered into conversation 
 upon religious subjects ; all indicated a general Awakening to the 
 importance of things unseen, but eternal. 
 
 " 3. Crime and open immorality have been exceedingly diminished. 
 
 "At Lisburn, the inspector of police assured me, that from 
 
 Saturday afternoon till late at night, there used to be incessant 
 
 disturbances from drinking and quarrelling: since the Revival, 
 
 however, everything, he said, had been comparatively quiet. 
 
 "At Belfast, a policeman told me that whereas in his district 
 there used to be several cases of drunken and disorderly persons 
 every night, during the last fortnight there had been scarcely a 
 single case. The same policeman assured me, that one morning he 
 saw fourteen women of bad character going in a body to the peni- 
 tentiary. They had attended a prayer-meeting the previous evening. 
 There were twenty other women also, he said, of bad character, who 
 were being supported in private lodgings by the congregation to 
 which he belonged, until they could be received into the penitentiary. 
 I had every reason to give credit to the assertion of this experienced 
 and Christian policeman. 
 
 " The stipendiary magistrate for the county of Antrim told me 
 that there were twenty-three petty sessions with which he was 
 connected; and that the number of cases brought before them had 
 most materially decreased since the Kevival — especially cases of 
 assault. He knew, he said, of some instances in which Orangemen, 
 who had been struck down, had gone to some of their Roman 
 Catholic neighbours whom they had ill-used, and begged them to 
 forgive them. 
 
 " In Baliymena and Coleraine, in Portrush and Armagh, the cases 
 of drunkenness were so very rare, that the decrease could only be 
 accounted for on the supposition that a feeling of awe had come over 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 197 
 
 the whole population, and had restrained them from all gross and 
 open excesses." 
 
 The following are the weighty testimonies as to the fruits of the 
 Awakening, which have been borne by the Earl of Roden and George 
 Macartney, Esq., late M.P. for Antrim County: — 
 
 " Hyde Hall, October, 1859. 
 " It affords me extreme satisfaction to bear my testimony to the 
 effects which have been produced in my neighbourhood — at Tolly- 
 more Park — since God has been pleased to send this wonderful 
 Revival into Ulster. A solemnity pervades the population which is 
 most remarkable. The general subject of conversation in the cottages 
 is the great blessing which has come upon so many, and an ardent 
 desire for the extension of these effects to the whole of their neigh- 
 bourhood. In many parts the public-houses are nearly deserted. I 
 am told that some are shut up. I visited one where the occupant 
 had washed out over his door the words * Licensed to sell Spirits' 
 from the board, and declared that 'another drop of spirits should 
 never be sold in his house.' Many quarrelsome characters are 
 anxious to be reconciled to those with whom they have long differed. 
 Prayer-meetings are established in many of the houses of the most 
 respectable farmers on the mountain side, attended in great numbers 
 by their neighbours, who, in their turn, have similar meetings ; even 
 those who are not subjects of the movement are astonished at the 
 change they witness, and are silent. But those who have been 
 awakened, give the praise and glory of these things to Him to whom 
 it is due, and who alone could have effected them. The ministers in 
 our neighbourhood of all denominations are using their best endea- 
 vours to suppress undue excitement, and are anxiously leading their 
 flocks to the word of God, as the only infallible guide to real 
 conversion. I hear that the bodily affections have almost entirely 
 ceased amongst us, without any diminution of interest in the im- 
 portant work. We ought indeed to be most thankful for having 
 been permitted to witness what we have, and more especially tliose 
 fruits tvhich have sprung from this Revival, and which have appeared 
 in the moral effect produced upon all who have been brought under its 
 influence. " I am, &c., 
 
 '• RODEN." 
 
 "Lissanore, Ballymoney, October 24tb, 1859. 
 " My deak Sir, — Confining my observations to the parishes of 
 Loughguile, Kilraughts, and part of Ballymoney, I have no hesi- 
 tation in stating my conviction that a great social moral and 
 
198 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 religious improvement amongst the small farmers and labouring 
 classes has been the result from about the month of May last, and of 
 ■which I find no abatement after an absence of two months from the 
 district. The use of ardent spirits almost entirely abandoned both 
 in public and private ; frequent meetings after the hours of work in 
 one or other of the neighbours' houses to hear a chapter in the Bible 
 or Testament read and explained ; occasional prayer-meetings in the 
 Presbyterian places of worship, where the minister or one of his 
 brethren presides; and some public-houses about to be closed, the 
 owners not seeking a renewal of their license. 
 
 ** Geoege Macartney." 
 
 In further illustration of the results of the Awakening at Bally- 
 money, to which Mr. Macartney specially refers, I have the pleasure 
 of submitting the following letter, addressed to me by the Rev. 
 Robert Park, Clerk of the Irish General Assembly, and minister of 
 the first Presbyterian Church, Ballymoney : — 
 
 " Ballymoney, November 3rd, 1859. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I can assure you, first, that the religious move- 
 ment throiujhout Ulster during these last six or eight months, and in 
 my own district particularly, has been a great reality, to be ascribed 
 gratefully to the special outpouring of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 " Second. That God's sovereignty has hee7i most sti'ikingly marked 
 in the subjects on ivhom the Holy Spirit acts; often the most pro- 
 fligate, most reckless, most opposed to religious things before their 
 first affection — the young and the ignorant. God, almost literally, 
 * out of the mouths of babes and sucklings ' has perfected praise. 
 
 " Third. The mode of the S2nrifs acting has been varied. In some 
 scarcely discernible ; in others quiet, yet marked ; in others, great 
 nervous excitement, striking down, «fec., with all the excitement of 
 great muscular energy j these all appearing more the accidental, than 
 the essential portion of God's work. 
 
 *' Fourth. The immediate consequences are, almost invariably, 
 liberty from a heavy load over the region of the heart ; freedom 
 in prayer; love of praise; expressions of thankful dependence 
 on the Saviour, and devoted attachment to Christ and to his 
 truth. 
 
 " Fifth. An intense love for sotds, and anxiety for the salvation of 
 immediate relations, connexions, acquaintances, friends, first, — ex- 
 tending also to all within their reach. No labour too great, no 
 sacrifice too severe ; no opportunity to be slighted or neglected to 
 proclaim to perishing souls around them the love of Jesus. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 199 
 
 " Sixth. A most marked change in the countenances and appearance 
 of the people; no levity, no jesting nor foolish talking . One subject 
 appears to occupy thought and to engage attention. Even where 
 there had not appeared the sjjecial working of the Lord, the tone 
 and manner of society more serious, thoughtful, and anxious about 
 spiritual things. 
 
 "Seventh. A most decided imj^rovement in thehahitsof the people. 
 More progress in temperance than since the beginning of ' the tem- 
 perance reformation.' Sabbath sanctification greatly improved ; 
 personal and family enmities subdued and removed ; comparatively 
 few offences requiring the aid of the civil power. No blasphemy nor 
 profane spirit — all serious and solemn. 
 
 " Eighth. Religious ordinances more loved and attended on ; 
 family prayer in almost every house ; prayer-meetings in every dis- 
 trict, sanctuary crowded, communicants much increased. The Bible 
 prized and read, and its high and holy doctrines believed and 
 maintained. 
 
 " Ninth. The intercourse of the minister and his people is delightful ; 
 warmth and interest mutually felt, leading to more unreserved, 
 more profitable comn\vimox\, 2)rofitahle to both sides. 
 
 " Tenth. The style of preaching has undergone a complete change. 
 Appeals to the mind, plain, personal, home. Ministers alive in manner, 
 I had almost said, in matter. The great doctrines of the Gospel are 
 now made to take their proper place in the ministrations of the pulpit, 
 and are pressed home with earnestness, faithfulness, and affection. 
 Quite corresponding to all this is the attention of the people. Most 
 cheering and encouraging to see the eyes fixed, the countenance 
 attentive, the earnest desire not to lose a word, making the minister 
 to know that what he had brought before the people had formed the 
 subject of conversation, was meditated on, prayed ovef, and pressed 
 home on souls around. 
 
 " In one word, / have had more real enjoyment, and more cause of 
 grateful acknowledgment to a kind God, for what I have seen amongst 
 7ny people for twelve mo7iths past, than for all the preceding part of my 
 now lengthened ministry. The well-instructed, steady, church-going 
 people have had a quickening truly, deserving the name of ' Revival,^ 
 whilst the outliers from ordinances have been brought to their right 
 mind, and a large number have been, I believe, truly ' added to the 
 Lord.' 
 
 " Our Assembly meetings, both in Dublin and Belfast, afforded 
 opportunities to tell and hear of God's doing in the length and 
 breadth of our northern province. There was no difference of opinion 
 as to the /ad of the Spirit's work, though opinions varied as to the 
 
200 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 mode of His operation ; and each member appeared anxious to 
 encourage and strengthen the hands of the others to carry on the 
 glorious movement. 
 
 " Doubtless there have been some in every district who have gone 
 back, or some who have relapsed into drunkenness and coldness ; 
 doubtless, too, the great excitement has more or less subsided, but 
 there is still a going on of * cases,' and a rich harvest is being reaped 
 of many truly converted, of hundreds changed by the grace of 
 God." 
 
 Mr. Park subjoins to his letter a copy of the resolutions adopted 
 by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, 
 held at Dublin, July 6th, 1859:— 
 
 "I. That we desire to express profound thankfulness to God 
 that it has pleased Him to pour out His Spirit on so many of our 
 congregations; and that we magnify with reverence and awe, and 
 at the same time with inexpressible joy, that sovereign and infinite 
 grace, which, notwithstanding our shortcomings, has bestowed on us 
 such evident and abundant tokens of the Divine favour. 
 
 " n. That in the new and unprecedently solemn circumstances in 
 which the Church is placed, this Assemblj- deeply feel the need of 
 having direction by the wisdom from on high, and would therefore 
 now call on Him, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not, to bestow 
 the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, that we may 
 know what we ought to do in this time of special visitation. 
 
 ** ni. That while the Assembly leaves to ministers to deal in 
 Christian wisdom with individual cases as they arise, we would 
 earnestly remind the brethren of the necessity of guarding, on the 
 one hand, against cherishing undue suspicions of the reality of the 
 work of the Holy Spirit; and on the other, of adopting any course of 
 procedure whereby our people may be led to mistake bodily im- 
 pressions, or even convictions of sin, for genuine conversion to God. 
 
 *' IV. That whilst gladly recognising as one of the most marked 
 evidences of the genuineness of this work, the fact, stated by all 
 the brethren, that it has been originated and promoted by means 
 of that system of saving truth, set forth in the standards of this 
 church, we would earnestly entreat all our ministers and members to 
 watch against the introduction, from any quarter, of error, either in 
 doctrine or practice, lest Satan should get an advantage over us, and 
 the Spirit of truth be provoked to withdraw." 
 
 In the course of my tour of observation in Ulster, I visited 
 Monaghan, and from a venerable man, the Kev. John Blakely, who 
 has been not only a pastor there for nearly half a century, but also 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENINa. 201 
 
 one of the chaplains of the county jail, I have since received the 
 following communication, dated September 26th, 1859 : — 
 
 " You ask what are the social effects ? 1. Universal sobriety. 
 The police state that the most troublesome of their duties, the taking 
 up of drunkards who are either quarrelsome or incapable, has nearly 
 ceased. Two publicans near my own residence have taken down 
 their sign-boards and have given up the trade. They have done so 
 from the belief that the traffic is sinful. Others will soon follow 
 their example, finding the trade unprofitable. 
 
 " 2. Crime is very much diminished. 
 
 "3. Party feuds have ceased, just because Protestants feel that 
 they ought, as much as lieth in them, to ' live peaceably with all 
 men ;' and partly because there is a kind of awe upon the minds of 
 Romanists, felt, though perhaps not acknowledged. 
 
 " On the 12th of July, the Orange Lodge No. I., well known in 
 the history of our unfortunate party fights as one of the most deter- 
 mined, as also the earliest formed, held a prayer-meeting, and raised 
 a subscription for the Bible Society. Similar prayer-meetings have 
 also taken place in other lodge rooms, 
 
 "4. Quarrels have ceased. Reconciliations have taken place where 
 enmities had long existed. In many families, whence, from this 
 contentious spirit of husband or wife, or perhaps of both, comfort had 
 fled, there are now harmony and afiection. 
 
 " Of such results I hear every day. 1 have conversed with intel- 
 ligent men from difierent parts of the country, and from different 
 grades in society, and the same is the testimony of all. That such a 
 change in so short a time, and from such silently operating causes, 
 should have occurred, they could not have even fancied in their 
 most sanguine imaginings, and they can hardly believe it even 
 though it is now before them, the experience of every day. 
 
 " The steward of a neighbouring demesne says he has no trouble 
 with the labourers ; the Protestant portion of them are so quiet, so 
 orderly, and so faithful, that the others seem influenced by their 
 example. 
 
 " To-day I was in conversation with two magistrates: their state- 
 ments were very similar. One said that near his residence were two 
 public-houses, where, on Sunday evenings especially, there was much 
 drunkenness, followed by quarrellings, and waylayings, and that he 
 had been obliged to direct the attention of the police to them. Now. 
 there is perfect quietness in those places, no drinking, no disorder. 
 
 ** My own field of observation extends over four or five miles 
 around Monaghan, and such a state of kindly feeling towards Roman 
 Catholics on the part of the Protestant population I never witnessed 
 
202 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 before. I often hear prayers offered up for them ; indeed, the persons 
 known as 'converts ' scarcely ever conclude a prayer without a peti- 
 tion for them." 
 
 Mr. Blakely has favoured me with a second letter, dated 
 October 18th,*1859:— 
 
 " The work is going on here steadily ; no great excitement, 
 but the same crowded attendance on the preached word, the same 
 breathless stillness during the service, the same anxiety for books of 
 earnest devotional and religious instruction. 
 
 " Fifty copies of the 'Anxious Inquirer' were sold in one morning. 
 Many persons of mature years, who had not in youth learned to 
 read, are diligently learning to read now, and are patiently surmount- 
 ing the first difficulties. 
 
 " Of the anxiety to hear preaching, I may give you one evidence, 
 and I could give many similar. I had the week before last an- 
 nounced a service at Lydavenet, about four miles from my residence. 
 A day or two previous to the day appointed a respectable farmer, 
 living a mile or two nearer than the place fixed on for the service, 
 called to ask me at what hour I would pass his residence. I said, 
 ' about four o'clock in the afternoon.' The day was fine, and it 
 was the hurry of the potato-harvest, yet on arriving at the farmer's 
 house at four o'clock, I found a large congregation assembled. 
 
 " They said as my appointed service elsewhere was at seven o'clock, 
 I could surely stay two hours with them. 
 
 "After preaching in this place, the greater part of the congre- 
 gation went forward to the other preaching station, and waited 
 there for a service which was to continue till nearly ten o'clock. 
 
 " There is an interest deepening and extending among the gentry, 
 and even our highest aristocracy. Of this I have many proofs most 
 encouraging. This shows not only that the converts are commend- 
 ing the truth, but that the blessings of this Revival are being diffused 
 in spheres which at first it did not reach. 
 
 " In m.any cases, without any public notice, the change in families 
 and neighbourhoods goes on so extensively, you could scarcely believe 
 they were the same people." 
 
 Among the eminent services to the cause of religion rendered by 
 Mr. B., not the least has been his training at his classical Academy 
 . many youths who now preach the Gospel, not only in Ireland, but 
 in various parts of the British empire. It is delightful to find that 
 a real vpork of grace is now going forward among his present pupils. 
 On this point he says : — 
 
 " Among my young people (you know I still conduct a boarding- 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 203 
 
 school) a most blessed and delightful change has taken place. No 
 prostrations, no crying out ; but deep earnestness. Every leisure 
 hour is given to reading the Bible or some religious book. On going 
 round the dormitories, after bed-hour, I have found a little cluster of 
 boys kneeling together, or seated on one of the beds, round a candle, 
 each with some religious books. 
 
 " I have used no authority as a master. I have not even requested 
 any boy to go to the weekly prayer-meeting on Friday, or to the 
 meeting of the young on Sabbath mornings at nine o'clock (still 
 largely attended), until the expressed wish came from himself. Yet 
 now nearly all are up and dressed early on the Lord's-day, in order 
 to attend, and have lessons all prepared in time to go to the church on 
 Friday evenings." Would to God that similar outpourings of 
 the Holy Spirit might be realized in every public school throughout 
 the United Kingdom ! 
 
 The Rev. Alexander Strain, D.D., an experienced and sober- 
 minded minister, and intimately known to me for many years, after 
 detailing the origin of the remarkable Awakening at Cremore, in the 
 county of Armagh, where he is pastor, in describing the results, 
 both social and spiritual, writes as follows : — 
 
 " A marvellous change has taken place in the habits of the people, 
 in almost every house family worship is observed. Some of the 
 people who never crossed the threshhold of the house of God are now 
 regular in their attendance. As to the number in this locality im- 
 pressed and truly converted, taking in TuUyallen, Market-hill, and 
 Mount-Norris, I should suppose they would exceed 1,C00. 
 
 " The Sabbath schools are now crowded ; psalms are sung in the 
 public roads, the sectarianism of the neighbourhood has got a marvel- 
 lous shock. A Koman Catholic girl, who at the first was 'stricken,' 
 has been a regular hearerwith us on Sabbath days. Multitudes of un- 
 godly sinners, who were living without God and without hope in the 
 world, have been brought to bow low before the all-conquering power 
 of the Spirit, and God's own children have had their Christianity 
 intensified. This is the Lord's doing, and marvellous in our eyes." 
 
 The Kev. J. P. Wilson, writing me from Cookstown, County 
 Tyrone, says : — " The Belfast distillery is for sale, and cannot find 
 a purchaser. In Coleraine district, the duty on spirits has fallen 
 fully one-half. The consumption of spirits in the Cookstown district 
 is less by one-half than it was last year. 
 
 " The cases of drunkenness that come before the bench of magistrates 
 are only about half the usual numher. Public-houses are closed on 
 market days(/. e. Saturdays) two hours earlier than formerly, the people 
 leaving- the town so much sooner than formerly. Many are now 
 
204 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 regular attendants on public Trorship who formerly never entered 
 a church. Some have been received as communicants, who up to 
 this year were utterly careless. Those who have been ' struck down' 
 are acting far better than was generally expected. We have very 
 \\X.\\e party spirit in this locality." 
 
 The Rev. G. H. Shanks, writing me on the 16th November, says: — 
 " Since I wrote you I have no reason to change the opinion then ex- 
 . pressed, as to the social and religious results of the Great Revival. 
 So far as my observation extends, these are good, and increasingly 
 good. Last Lord's-day we had a communion here — the second since 
 the Revival began, *I call it my second Revival Communion,' for I 
 feel disposed to date now from the Revival, it has seemed such an 
 epoch — a sort of moral resurrection. I saw two ministers meeting 
 just after the Revival had broken out in their congregations, and their 
 congratulations and joys resembled what I could suppose will take 
 place when brethren shall meet on the morning of the Resurrection 
 day. Theirs were resurrection joys and resurrection congratulations. 
 
 " At the communion in August last there were seventy additional com- 
 municants, and on last Lord's-day, there were thirty more, although 
 on both occasions more than ordinary care was taken in selecting, 
 and several were recommended to wait. My congregation is a small 
 one. In large congregations the increase in communicants and 
 church-goers has been much greater. In the first Presbyterian con- 
 gregation of Ballynahinch there were 200 additional persons at the 
 Lord's table, and the number at Kilmore was nearly doubled. 
 
 "Two or three miles from this place, a dilapidated school-house has 
 been repaired, and is lighted with parafin lamps — a weekly prayer- 
 meeting is held in it, attended by 250 persons. My congregation 
 has built a capacious and elegant school-room, and is repairing the 
 place of worship. A woman from this neighbourhood lately returned 
 from Scotland, sajs, that she had heard much in Scotland about the 
 Irish Revival, but the report came far short of the reality. "We are 
 praying for you, and for the great metropolis." 
 
 The Rev. Charles Seaver, incumbent of St. John's Church, Belfast, 
 and one of the secretaries of the united prayer-meetings, has kindly 
 furnished me with valuable and important information in the follow- 
 ing letter : — 
 
 " St. John's, Belfast, November 2, 1859. 
 
 " My dear Friend, — I am glad to find that you intend publishing 
 an account of the Lord's gracious dealings in Ulster ; many such have 
 appeared, but all will be useful, and may be instrumental in leading 
 to Awakenings elsewhere. I have written so frequently on the sub- 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING- 
 
 ject before, that I will not repeat what has already appea 
 rather give the aspect of affairs now. 
 
 *' In the united dioceses of Down and Connor, and Dromore, com- 
 prising the counties of Down and Antrim, the gracious work has 
 made considerable progress, commencing in the month of January- 
 last, and continuing to the present day. I am in a position to state 
 that above seventy i)arishes in these dioceses have felt the power of the 
 Holy Ghost. Vice and immorality have greatly decreased, Sunday- 
 schools have had the attendance nearly doubled, the houses of God 
 have been crowded, and the communicants greatly increased; this 
 state of things continues, very few of the persons seriously affected 
 having relapsed. I may state that I have met many persons who 
 entered on the investigation of this work prejudiced against its reality 
 and truth, but who, on their return from a tour of inquiry have de- 
 clared to me that these prejudices had all disappeared, and that the 
 half had not been told them. In Belfast we had confirmations 
 recently, and in consequence of the numbers coming forward, as well 
 as for other reasons, the Bishop held them in each church, instead of 
 all in the parish church, as in former years. In Trinity Church 
 above 120 were confirmed, the average having been twenty; in my 
 church fifty-three, the average having been ten; in the Magda- 
 lene Chapel above sixty, the average in former years being under 
 twenty ; in Ballymacarret ninety- five, the average thirty : these only 
 have been held, and the numbers preparing for confirmation in the 
 other churches are in the same proportion. In my own church, 
 which is, as you are well aware, in an out of the way place, my 
 communicants average now above one hundred ; in former years under 
 fifty. The poor throng the church, whereas since it was opened I 
 could scarcely get above twenty of them to attend. My prayer- 
 meetings, which I had to give up, for want of attendants, are now 
 well and largely attended ; my classes are more than doubled — ' the 
 Lord has done great things for me, whereof I am indeed glad.' I 
 find also an increased demand for Bibles and religious books every- 
 where, but especially among my own people. 
 
 " In various ministers' houses here, and in several schools, there are 
 prayer-meetings held by the young men and women, and by the boys 
 also, which are well sustained and productive of good; and I have 
 known men and boys to saA e up their pence for the purpose of pur- 
 chasing tracts for circulation among their acquaintance. As to the 
 physical manifestations, about which so much has been said, and at 
 which so much offence has been taken, my view is this, they are 
 divisible into two parts — 
 
 " 1. In some they have been caused by the sudden view of sin and 
 
206 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 danger given to the mind, which, as in the case of any strong and 
 sudden emotion, has been overpowering to the frame, which has given 
 way. 
 
 " 2. In other cases they have resulted from mere sympathy ; per- 
 sons witnessing these have, as will frequently happen, fainted from 
 mere sympathy, without any deep mental emotion whatever. There 
 is little doubt, I think, that a nervous epidemic existed, and that 
 many were seized by it who were not present at any religious meet- 
 ing, nor had any religious feeling whatever. I do not think that, as 
 a rule, any bad bodily effects resulted, unless when injudicious treat- 
 ment had been resorted to ; for instance, frequent return to meetings 
 of an exciting character, or a keeping up of the excitement on the 
 frame by singing, praying, &c., while the person was in that state. 
 I may also add, thai there has been a drawing together of ministers 
 and members of various Evangelical churches, as witnessed by the 
 late meetings of the Evangelical Alliance held here, and by the 
 prayer-meetings held here twice a week, as well as in most other 
 parishes where the good work has gone on, conducted by ministers 
 of various Evangelical churches. 
 
 " In considering this glorious movement, we should, I think, 
 remember, that it is only part of a great work going on at present 
 in all parts of the world, in a variety of ways suited to the character 
 and disposition of the people among whom it takes place. It is, I 
 have no doubt, preparatory to the winding-up of the present dispen- 
 sation, and is for the purpose of calling out God's people everywhere, 
 and giving to those already called out, that spiritual comfort and 
 refreshment, which will fit them to bear the dark days — for seducers 
 will abound, and the love of many grow cold, wicked men grow 
 worse and worse. Meantime, it is our clear and bounden duty to 
 take advantage of the circumstances of the times to preach Christ's 
 Gospel everywhere, to redouble our exertions, and fn crease our 
 prayer, that ' God would shortly accomplish the number of his elect, 
 and hasten his kingdom, that we may have our perfect consummation 
 and bliss, both in body and soul, in his eternal and everlasting 
 glory.' '' Yours, ever truly, 
 
 " Charles Seaver." 
 
 The Rev. William Craig, minister of the first Presbyterian congre- 
 gation of Dromara, in the county of Down, has also most fully 
 replied to the queries which I addressed to him. Mr. Craig has for 
 many years presided over one of the largest congregations in Ulster. 
 His letter is as follows : — 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 207 
 
 "The Manse: Dromara, 10th November, 1859. 
 
 " My deae. Sir, — I sit down to answei* the queries contained in 
 your letter, and I have no objection that you make use of my name 
 in any way you please. The work is still going on over my entire 
 congregation as prosperously as it ever did, and the most extensive 
 and blessed change over the entire country is the delightful result. 
 
 " 1st. Formalism has been succeeded by earnestness and devout- 
 ness. 
 
 " 2nd. Family worship, ere the Revival commenced, was confined 
 to a comparatively few families, noiv it is very general. 
 
 " 3rd. 'J'here is a very extensive and blessed Revival, of what I 
 believe to be true piety ; and many who had deserted the house of 
 God, neglected the Saviour's dying command, and were like Gallio, 
 caring for none of these things, are now in regular attendance on 
 all the ordinances, and never absent from prayer-meetings. 
 
 " 4th. The fruits of the Spirit are happily manifest among all classes. 
 
 " 5th. Innumerable copies of God's word have been purchased 
 lately, and we have Bible-classes in the evening, and on the Sabbath, 
 all over the country. 
 
 *' 6th. My elders, the teachers of our national schools, and the 
 converts, are almost every night out holding prayer-meetings in my 
 own congregation, and over the surrounding country — they never 
 tire. Our collections for missions are greatly increased, and in some 
 cases doubled. 
 
 ** I cannot give any special cases of power by the preached word, 
 but the people attend more numerously, are apparently more atten- 
 tive, and many have confessed they never went from proper motives, 
 or heard God's word from right principles, until now; and, although 
 I cannot give any special cases, I believe the preached word has 
 produced blessed effects. 
 
 II. SOCIAL RESULTS. 
 
 " 1st. Crimes greatly decreased. 
 
 " 2nd. There is no party spirit now — no Orange parades — no 
 beating of drums — no exclamations, to hell with the Pope or King 
 William, and on the part of the Protestants, no wickedness towards 
 the Roman Catholics ; but the Roman Catholics ridicule the Revival, 
 and I fear, are embittered against it, and against the subjects of the 
 Revival. 
 
 " 3rd, As to dishonesty, I cannot say from knowledge, I am 
 certain the people are greatly improved on that point ; and although 
 I have heard of some instances of restitution, we have had no cases 
 here that I have known or heard of. 
 
208 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 " 4th. I believe there have been very many instances, vrhere quarrels 
 have been made up both in families and among neighbours, and the 
 scriptural statement has been extensively verified, ' Behold these 
 Christians here, they love one another.' 
 
 *' 5th. The most remarkable and satisfactory evidence of the reality 
 and blessed efifects of the Kevival, is to be seen in the sobriety and 
 temperance of the people; we have almost given up our temperance 
 and total abstinence addresses, they are not required tiow ; many 
 public-houses have closed, and many, very many more, will follow 
 their example — some through inclination, and some through neces- 
 sity : if they don't give up their trade, it will give them up. 
 
 ** 6th. I do believe that impurity, which was remarkably pre- 
 valent, and was eating up religion, the crying sin of the age and of 
 this county, is greatly decreased ; and in my congregation I know 
 several Magdalens, penitent and reformed. In a word, such a blessed 
 change I never expected to see, — so unexpected, so sudden, so exten- 
 sive, and producing such blessed results. 
 
 " The communicants in all our congregations are greatly increased, 
 in many cases one-third : some were in my own congregation ; we 
 had, on last occasion, 712 who sat down to the Lord's Supper — 
 seven long tables full, 140 more than we have had for several years. 
 I had at one time more than this, but not for the last fourteen years. 
 
 " I have answered all your questions ; you requested me to be 
 brief, and so I have. I could have written a dozen of pages, giving 
 you remarkable cases of conversions, but you have seen so many in 
 the several accounts, that I have deemed it unnecessary. With my 
 kind, Christian regards, ever believe me, 
 
 " My dear Sir, respectfully and truly, 
 
 " Wm. Craig." 
 
 " P.S. — I could not tell the exact number in my own church that 
 has been brought under the influence of the Spirit, but I should 
 suppose four or five hundred. In one townland alone, fifty-two — in 
 some others, even more." 
 
 In support of the reality of the Irish Awakening, the following is 
 the testimony of W. S.Darkin, Esq., Sub-Inspector of Factories, dated 
 Lisburn, October 7th, 1859 : — 
 
 "My duties bring me in constant communication with the manu- 
 facturing population of Ireland. In the three months ending the 
 oOth ult. I travelled between three and four thousand miles, to inspect 
 Irish factories, and I was invariably told by masters and managers 
 that drunkenness had greatly decreased among their workpeople — in 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 209 
 
 fact, that they had become wholly changed. This applies more par- 
 ticularly to the rural districts, but I have been frequently told the 
 same in Belfast. Early last June, Mr. Davison, of Roughshane (a 
 large employer of labour, au active magistrate, and brother to one of 
 the members for Belfast), told me that usually four or five drunken 
 cases were brought before him every Sunday morning, but that for 
 the previous month he had not had one. I saw him again last week 
 at his factory, when he told me he had not had a single drunken case 
 since I was there in June, either on Sunday or on any other day. 
 This week another magistrate, and perhaps a still larger employer 
 (Mr. McMaster of Gilford), made a similar statement to me ; and the 
 same morning an employer in another county, told me that his work- 
 peo'ple had not only improved in sobriety, but in conscientious atten- 
 tion to their duties. I have also been repeatedly assured that some 
 whisky-shops had been closed, and that others must close, for want 
 of custom ; while an intelligent officer of the constabulary told me he 
 knew of twelve or fourteen prostitutes who had left their haunts, and 
 who he believed had reformed their lives." 
 
 Ever since the resuscitation of Evangelical life, thirty years ago 
 and upwards, both in the Irish Established, and Presbyterian Churches, 
 the one throwing off its coldness and formalism, and the other ex- 
 truding Arianism from its borders, and uniting its divided bands on 
 the basis of the Confession and Catechisms of the Church of Scotland, 
 which had been forsaken for a time, there has been a marked ad- 
 vance in the missionary spirit, and an increasing consecration of gold 
 and silver to the cause of Christ.* The Awakening has greatly 
 enlarged and intensified this liberality, and in many places, like the 
 poor, yet living, and earnest Macedonian Churches of old, Ulster 
 Christians, though many of them poor, " to their power, and beyond 
 their power, are willing of themselves." Thus, the Kev. James 
 Spears, one of the Secretaries of the General Assembly's missions, 
 writing on the 5th of November, says — " The Revival, so far, A«s had 
 a marked effect in augmentinij the contributions of the people for mis- 
 sionarij objects. The collections taken two months ago show that in 
 those portions of the Church, blessed by the outpouring of the Spirit, 
 the hearts of the people have been moved to great liberality. Some 
 congregations which used to send us £2 have given £10. Others, 
 
 * The writer recollects the time when the Presbyterians of Ireland did not 
 contribute more than £200 yearly to missions, and this was for the extension of 
 the Gospel in Ireland only. Now there are Foreign, Jewish, Colonial, and Home 
 IVIissions, and the missionary income last year (1859) was £13,690. Besides, 
 £60,000 has been raised within a few years for the Church and Manse Fund, 
 and the stipend of ministers has been increased £6,000 per annum. 
 
 P 
 
210 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 twice or three times the ordinary sum. This refers to the localities 
 graciously visited ; in other localities we see no great change." 
 
 On Tuesday, the 15th of November last, agreeably to an invitation 
 addressed by the Moderator to all the ministers and congregations of 
 the General Assembly, a day of thanksgiving was generally and 
 devoutly observed throughout Ulster. 
 
 We shall conclude this chapter with two letters, one from the 
 Bev. Dr. Givan, Castlereagh, Belfast, and the other from the Hon. and 
 Kev. Henry Ward, of Killinchy, Down. 
 
 "Castlereagh, Nov. 21st, 1859. 
 
 " My deah Dr. Weie, — You will, no doubt, think me remiss for 
 not replying sooner to your kind note of last month; but just then 
 it was our communion here, which, in consequence of the gracious 
 work of Awakening still going on in this district, was an unusually 
 solemn and interesting occasion. The number of communicants, 
 which has been steadily on the increase for the last five years, 
 exceeded by nearly one hundred any previous roll of membership. 
 Since the communion, 1 have been engaged in several matters requir- 
 ing much of my time, in addition to my ordinary duties, but con- 
 ducing materially to the interests of the congregation. The chief 
 reason, however, of my not replying earlier is, that though I might 
 be able to furnish you with interesting details of many indivi- 
 dual cases of revival, yet I do not feel myself in a position to answer 
 your queries as to the several effects of the Awakening. It appears 
 to me that sujBicient time has not yet elapsed to testify in a satis- 
 factory manner those effects ; neither is ray experience in this respect 
 sufficiently extensive to justify me in forwarding statistics of the 
 social results compared with large towns, or even many of the 
 country districts. There is, I conceive, very little of the iniquities 
 embraced in five of the headings specified in your letter, that is, 
 * crime, party spirit, family strife, the social evil, and dishonesty ;' the 
 only one on which I can speak with correctness is * intemperance,' 
 and with respect to the effect of the Revival in doing away with the 
 fearful prevalence of this sin, I can speak, both from personal obser- 
 vation, and the experience of several members of my congregation, 
 who are the advocates of temperance. Now, the expressed experience 
 of those persons coincides exactly with my own observation in the 
 matter, and both convince me that the drinking habits of the 
 people are decidedly and greatly on the decrease. All in this 
 locality who have been reached by the Revival, seem to entertain an 
 utter abhorrence of drunkenness. They eschew the evil themselves, 
 and frown upon others who might be disposed to indulge, or in any 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 211 
 
 way countenance it. Marketings and bargain-making, once so bene- 
 ficial to the public-houses, are now, for the most part, concluded in 
 other, and more suitable places. Those moral pest-houses are in a 
 rapid decline, and dissolution quick and decisive must soon, in many- 
 cases, inevitably ensue. As matters even now stand, not a few of 
 them are dragging out a decayed existence, being reduced to a mere 
 beggarly array of empty barrels, bottles, and kindred etceteras, 
 while the poor tavern-keeper is really an object for commiseration. 
 There he is ! poor man, he always looked stupid, nor did he look it 
 more than he was, but now he seems perfectly doltish and vacant — 
 his arms are folded, his air listless ; his craft is clearly gone, and his 
 household gods shivered around him. Oh, how it must cheer his 
 heart when some desperado enters, some one who has been accus- 
 tomed to defy God and despise man, and who is resolved to stand 
 by Satan till the last, swearing though all should forsake him, he 
 will not. That drunken desperado, the tavern-keeper, and their 
 master before mentioned, now form in places not a few, the miserable 
 wreck of a once jolly companionship. Truly, times are changed, and 
 changing fast. When we consider this single item of reformation 
 apart from all others — when we observe the seriousness that over- 
 spreads the surface of society — when we reflect on the religiousness 
 that goes yet deeper down — when we see the real fruits of vital 
 godliness, where, to say the least of it, extreme carelessness prevailed 
 before — above all, when we find hundreds awakened, convinced of 
 sin, and most, if not all, converted to God, surely we are bound in 
 gratitude to acknowledge that God hath done great things for us, 
 whereof we are glad. A very striking case of Revival occurred 
 here last week ; space and time prevent me entering into the details, 
 sufl&ce it to say, it was the case of a man strong in body and stubborn 
 in spirit, who had been living for years in gross sin : three months 
 ago I observed him become weak in my church at the morning 
 service, but took no further notice of him, except remarking him 
 more frequently than formerly at our several meetings . Since then 
 he has been struggling against convictions ; impressions, as he him- 
 self expresses it, came and went : at length, one day last week, they 
 returned with overwhelming power ; he was completely overcome. 
 I was sent for, and I never saw a man so ill in my life — no bodily 
 disease I ever witnessed was so bad : his tongue was protruded, he 
 foamed at the mouth, he could not speak, occasionally he uttered a 
 wild roar, he laboured under a sort of unnatural panting. — 1 could 
 only compare him to the poor demoniac, who was torn and prostrated 
 by the spirit of evil when making the last fearful struggle before 
 being ejected. He told me in the first interval of his agony, that he 
 
 P 2 
 
212 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 had felt as though his heart were being rent and torn out of him. A 
 few days after he was able to say, calmly, coolly, and clearly, 'This 
 was a glorious morning ; when I rose early this day all things seemed 
 new. If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature : old things 
 are passed away, behold all things are become new.' That man is 
 now clothed, and in his right mind, and at Jesus' feet, very humble, 
 very contrite, very thankful, penitent for the past, and promising for 
 the future. In haste, yours truly, 
 
 ''John I. Givan." 
 
 The Hon. and Rev. H. Ward writes thus : — 
 
 '* You ask me about God's work of Revival in this place, and inquire 
 concerning its progress. If some time ago, while labouring amidst 
 much discouragement, it had been told me that, hereafter, I should 
 see the heavens open, and the angels of God ascending and descend- 
 ing upon the people of my parish, I could more readily have antici- 
 pated the literal accomplishment of such an event, than of that of 
 which, through the mercy of God, our eyes are now permitted to 
 see, and our ears to hear. 
 
 " That Jesus is in the midst of us, in power and manifestation, 
 dwelling in the hearts of many delivered from sin and converted to 
 God by His Spirit, is a truth which every day's experience more and 
 more fully confirms. I have conferred with my fellow-labourer, and 
 I agree with him that not one case, once regarded as hopeful, has 
 as yet disappointed us. None have gone out from us who have at 
 any time been received as of us. 
 
 " You ask for fruits and their extent. What fruits would satisfy 
 you ? Would you consider the following as trustworthy witnesses 
 for God in the heart and life, viz., hatred of sin and love of holiness, 
 testifying of grace reigning within — love, joy, peace, exhibiting 
 grace radiant without ? If we are permitted to speak of these things 
 as fruits meet for repentance, it must be manifest to all present 
 amongst us, who have senses exercised to discern spiritual things, 
 that in this neighbourhood there is a goodly number who, having 
 experienced a saving change, are continuing steadfast and unmovable 
 in the ways of the Lord. 
 
 " As to extent, in former times we were most thankful to be able 
 to count such monuments of mercy by tens, or even by twos; but 
 now, blessed be God, they can be counted by hundreds. And this I 
 am persuaded is an understatement rather tlian an exaggeration. 
 
 " You inquire in respect to crime and drunkenness. In rural dis- 
 tricts we have not the same facilities for procuring information upon 
 these matters as in towns, neither do I consider them at best very 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 213 
 
 reliable data upon which to form an opinion as to the moral influence of 
 the Revival movement. Before coming to any conclusion in reference 
 to this question from statistics furnished by police-courts, I think we 
 should take into consideration that the casting out of the devil from 
 the hearts of God's people is one thing, and the casting him out of 
 the world is another : the work of Revival contemplates the former, 
 but not the latter. And need we wonder if in the assault made 
 upon the dominions of the wicked one, to make ready a people pre- 
 pared for the Lord, that vice should grow rampant, and iniquity 
 assume a bolder attitude of defiance than formerly ? The roaring 
 lion, disappointed of his prey, may be expected to rage the more 
 furiously. 
 
 " Nevertheless, I have reason to believe that all our converts are 
 honestly striving to lead a godly and a Christian life : they hear and 
 receive the word of God with a relish I never before witnessed ; 
 meetings for prayer are multiplying on every side, and although 
 many of these meetings are conducted by persons but recently added 
 to the Church, the prayers of such for fervency and sobriety — for 
 spiritual tone and thought — for variety and edification, are by no 
 means inferior to those of others who have been longer under the 
 teaching and discipline of the Spirit. 
 
 "Not a few of those who formerly were content to spend their 
 lives in ungodliness, and have as yet shown no signs of a converted 
 state, seem now to be influenced by a better spirit ; a higher standard 
 of morality is now adopted ; a deeper religious feeling pervades the 
 community at large; a greater reverence for religious ordinances is 
 more manifest than ever I remember before to have existed. 
 
 •' I have observed a discrepancy in the reports given of this work 
 by those who have visited us. This may be in part accounted for 
 by the object with which the visit of inspection is undertaken. Those 
 yvho come to see signs and wonders only, whether it be to speculate 
 and philosophise upon them, or to find occasion to speak evil of the 
 work, not seeking Jesus, they do not find Him ; their eyes are holden, 
 they would not know Him if they saw Him. But those who come 
 seeking Jesus are not disappointed ; they see Him girt with His 
 sword upon His thigh, and in His majesty riding prosperously. 
 
 " Henry Ward." 
 
214 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 URGENT NEED OF REVIVAL IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Facts, Inferences, and Lessons. 
 
 While we magnify and praise the holy name of Him who has so 
 •greatly increased piety in our day, as contrasted with a dark and 
 dismal past, and while we rejoice in the encouragements recently 
 afforded of the growing willingness of the masses to attend to religious 
 instruction, yet the lamentable fact remains that, both in the social 
 and spiritual condition of millions of our population, there is much 
 to deplore. Notwithstanding the efforts of social reformers and 
 Christian philanthropists, crime is still rampant in the land. From 
 a recent authentic statement of "judicial statistics," it appears that, 
 in England and Wales, the number of committals, in the year 1858, 
 amounted to 139,457. *' It is," we are assured, *' from the neglected, 
 uncared-for masses, that the habitual criminals spring, and to these 
 must be added those who lapse into crime from drunkenness, idleness, 
 and vicious indulgence." 
 
 The gross total of judicial expenses for 1858 amounted to 
 £2,381,054 : this immense sum being paid by the nation for police, 
 prisoners, prosecutions, and reformatories. The number of criminal 
 classes at large is estimated at 135,000 persons, who live by the 
 plunder and vices of the community. It has been estimated that the 
 expense of these, at £25 each, added to the costs of police, prisons, &:c., 
 amounts to not less than ten millions sterling annually, which is 
 more than one-third of the interest of the national debt. Is there 
 any system of curative means to be found for such a state' of things, 
 independent of the leaven of a genuine apostolic Christianity, instinct 
 with purifying life and power, pervading our home population ? 
 
 Again, let it not be forgotten that the desecration of the Lord's- 
 day, and the total neglect of public worship, prevail to an extent 
 truly alarming. 
 
 According to evidence (recently published) before the Lords' select 
 committee on church-rates, which sat towards the close of last session, 
 and from calculations based upon accurate data, it appears that there 
 are 7,546,948 actual church-going men of the Church of England, 
 or 42 per cent, of the gross population ; and 4,466,266 nominal 
 churchmen, hut practically of no church, or 25 per cent, of the gross 
 jwpulation. 
 
 Again, we find from the same evidence, that the total number 
 of worshipping bond Jide Protestant Dissenters, including in the 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 215 
 
 number Jews and Mormons, is 5,303,609, or 29^ per cent, of the 
 gross population. 
 
 Further, there is an alarming picture presented of the irreligion 
 in which large masses of the population are steeped. For example, 
 in Southwark there are 68 per cent, of the people who attend no 
 place of worship ; in Lambeth, 60|^ ; in Sheffield, 62 ; in Oldham, Ql^ ; 
 in Gateshead, 60 ; in Preston, 59 ; in Brighton, 54 ; in the Tower Ham- 
 lets, 531; in Finsbury, 53; in Salford, 52 ; in Manchester, 511; in 
 Bolton 51i; in Stoke 51|; in Westminster, 50 ; and in Coventry, 50. 
 " So that in all these places, except in the two last-named cities, the 
 odds are on the side of those who absent themselves from every 
 habitual service whatever. 
 
 '* Of thirty-four of the great towns of England, embracing an 
 aggregate population of 3,933,467, 2,197,388, or 52j per cent, are 
 wholly non-worshipping . 
 
 " The Rev. Dr. Hume, the incumbent of a parish populous but 
 poor, in Liverpool, and a witness before the committee, expressed 
 his conviction, founded upon long experience and observation, that 
 the large masses of the population who attended no place of worship 
 •whatever, are in danger of being lost not only to the Church, but to 
 religion altogether. 
 
 ** The population of the country, always on the increase, is becom- 
 ing more and more a town population. In 1851, there were 9,000,000 
 living in towns, of 10,000 people and upwards, and only 8,000,000 
 living in smaller towns, in villages, and districts. Dr. Hume appre- 
 hends that at the close of the present century 70 per cent, of the 
 gross population will be located in large towns ; and therefore he 
 adds, if our large towns are left to themselves, practical heathenism 
 must inecitahly outgrow Christianity.^^* 
 
 Are not such statistics as these very alarming ? Is there any hope- 
 ful means of arresting this onward, downward tendency to the 
 dominance of "practical heathenism" in England but the gospel 
 of Jesus Christ, accompanying with the quickening, converting, 
 sanctifying energy of God, the Holy Ghost ? Is not this the 
 cause why the mining population of Cornwall have given up their 
 '* heathenism," and, as a class, are a church-going and chapel-going 
 people? Is it not this that has conserved Christianity in AVales, 
 and that now is leavening afresh the masses there ? And have we 
 not seen that that class in Ulster who attended no place of worship, 
 many of whom, as one correspondent says, " had grown grey in the 
 neglect of ordinances, ^^ and from whom, as another correspondent has 
 stated, " the drunkards and criminals came," are now, because of a 
 
 * Times, Nov. 5th, 1859. 
 
216 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 mighty spiritual Awakening, crowding to the house of God as devout 
 worshippers and earnest hearers of that word which, in its power 
 and love, always purifies ? And what God has done thus in Belfast, 
 in Ballymena, in Derry, and in other towns in Ireland, — among the 
 men in the salt-mines at Carrickfergus, among weavers, farmers, 
 labourers, artizans of every kind in Ulster, — can He not do in England ? 
 " The Conversion of all England " is the theme of a noble and stir- 
 ring tractate,* by one who Z;nozrs what the Gospel has done for Ulster, 
 and who believes — and seeks to kindle a similar faith in all Christian 
 hearts — that our English masses can and shall be evangelized, if the 
 Church of God be bat true to her vocation of united, believing, 
 persevering prayer, and earnest self-denying effort. He has faith 
 and hope to expect a " great Revival" — that the Divine breath shall 
 come with the word of the Lord, and that the *' dry bones shall 
 live." (Ezekiel xxxvii. 10.) May God grant his people so to believe 
 — so to expect — so to pray ! For with God all things are possible. 
 
 God Himself is " the Worker most wanted." And so let us cry, 
 " Come, Holy Spirit, come ! We want something we have not — 
 something more — something mightier — something we cannot create 
 — something we cannot do — something diviner — a work done that 
 is above us ; — we want, O God, Thee to work ! It is time. We 
 thought we could prevent men making void Thy law by our working, 
 by law-making, and penalty-making, and book-making, and school- 
 making, and church-making, and minister-making, and Sabbath 
 observance, and moral and social reformation : but our success has 
 been partial and our failures great. 'It is time for Thee, Lord, to 
 work ! ' Ye wh(t make the complaint adopt the appeal. Henceforth 
 let there not be less work, but less of lawless work, and mo7'e 
 prayer y-\^ 
 
 Far be it from us to depreciate or deny the presence and power of 
 the quickening Spirit in timespast in ourchurches, in our Sunday, daily, 
 and ragged schools, and in the pious pains of godly parents in training 
 up their children for Ciirist. We adoringly recognise the Almighty 
 Agent in the days that are past, in the thorough cleansing of hearts 
 once foul, in the happy and peaceful death-beds of many who have 
 been taken away from amongst our flocks, and schools, and families, 
 and in the earnest and loving piety of many who are now members of 
 Christ's visible Church, who, through the power of the Spirit of God 
 are daily adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. 
 
 But yet do not the m.ost earnest of our ministers, teacliers, and 
 parents, long for a more abundant manifestation of Divine influence ? 
 
 * By the Rev. W. Arthur, M.A. f Rev. S. Martin, Westminster. 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENINQ. 217 
 
 Do not we all want a fresh baptism of fire, that our hearts may glow 
 and our lips may be purified ? Have we not been prone to trust too 
 much in our machinery and means? Have w^ not, also, been too 
 ready to reckon up successes by secular and moral results, achieved 
 by increasing congregations, as well as by additional annual 
 revenues and resources, and by fresh ground occupied each succeed- 
 ing year. What, if we have been proud of our preaching, of our 
 skill, of our management, of our mechanism, of our triumphs over 
 opposition, of the recognition of our usefulness by the press and the 
 country ? Have we given God all the glory ? Or have we kept con- 
 stantly and steadily in view the highest and noblest end of our 
 operations, namely, the education of immortal spirits for a holy 
 heaven and a blissful eternity ? 
 
 And have we not sometimes grown weary of our work and war- 
 fare, as well as weary m it ? Or, if most have been steadfast and 
 persevering, yet, when the ranks were thinned by death or desertion, 
 or withdrawment by the hand of Providence, have volunteers in 
 plenty stepped forward to fill up the gaps in the battle line ? While 
 we have laboured, have we been tender, and pitiful, and forbearing 
 to the fro ward ones under our charge ? Or have we sometimes 
 unbelievingly despaired of success, as if " anything" was too hard 
 for the Lord ? Have we, indeed, felt that friends were nothing ? an 
 unmutilated Bible nothing, willing teachers and faithful preachers 
 nothing, unless God's own Spirit should put breath upon the bones in 
 the valley of vision, and cause them to stand on their feet, clothed 
 not only with skin, but instinct with a life divine ? 
 
 And what if we, who have been instructors of others, have not 
 watched over our own vineyards, and cultivated personal piety to 
 the uttermost ? What, if ours has been too much the spirit of offi- 
 cialism, and formalism, or, at least, of lukewarmness, in the best of 
 causes ? What if we have not habitually risen to the height of the 
 great argument as to the worth of souls, the urgent peril of their 
 loss, the necessity of redeeming the time ? 
 
 One thing is certain, that there are vast multitudes both in London 
 and out of it, in great towns and rural districts, whom our instrument- 
 alities, have not reached, but whose case is just as desperate as was 
 that of those already rescued, and who must grow up in ignorance 
 and vice, and perish at last in their guilt, unless arevived and extended 
 Christianity supply the agents and the means necessary to their 
 rescue. Each succeeding year, in the report of accelerated progress, 
 is but a rebuke of the lethargic and imperfect past. Have we yet 
 reached the true standard of liberality or zeal in the cause of Christ ? 
 Would many sanctuaries be embarrassed with debt, would there be 
 
218 THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 
 
 found so frequent that" scandalous maintenance" for the pastorate, 
 ■which, as MattheNT Henry says, leads to ''a scandalous ministry" — 
 or could there be any ineflBciency in our public instructors or our 
 bands of voluntary teachers of the young, if the Church of Christ 
 ■were really and thoroughly revived ? There is of gold and silver more 
 than enough in the visible church for every kindred enterprise of 
 Britain ; but have -we laid to heart — by the teaching of the Holy 
 Spirit coming ■with a -weighty and awakening po-wer — that solemn 
 statement, " The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the 
 Lord ?" If it please the great Head of the Church to quicken and 
 revive his people, -we shall not want anything needful as to spirit, 
 zeal, unity, liberality, consecration of talents, and prayerful energy, 
 necessary to ensure a "wondrously enlarged success. 
 
 We invite then, in conclusion, an intelligent and earnest attention 
 to the great themes -which we have so imperfectly dwelt upon. The 
 outpouring of the Holy Ghost is the " promise of the Father ;" it 
 is dispensed in answer to the prayer of faith by the enthroned 
 Saviour as water upon the thirsty, and as floods upon the dry ground, 
 out of His own inexhaustible fulness. We ■would stir up ourselves 
 and all our fellow- workers in the Christian ministry, to a deeper 
 sense of the need of an ahundant supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 
 for our own souls, for our flocks, the true believers committed to our 
 charge, as -well as for those outcast classes of society for whose souls 
 as yet no man has cared. We vrould urge the continuance of that 
 united prayer, ■which we rejoice to believe is now so generally observed. 
 " Is there," says the Rev, C. H. Spurgeon, '^ any limitation in the Spirit 
 of God ? Why should not the feeblest minister become the means 
 of salvation to thousands ? Is God's arm shortened ? My brethren, 
 when I bid you pray that God would make the ministry quick and 
 powerful, like a two-edged sword, for the salvation of sinners, I am 
 not setting you a hard, much less an impossible task. We have but 
 to ask and to get. Befoi-ewe cry, God will answer; and while we are 
 yet speaking, he will hear. From this moment you may pray more ; 
 from this moment God may bless the ministry more. From this hour 
 other pulpits may become more full of life and vigour than before. 
 From this moment the word of God may flow, and run, and rush, and 
 get to itself an amazing and boundless victory. Only wrestle in 
 prayer, meet together in your houses, go to your closets, be instant, 
 be earnest in season and out of season, agonize for souls, and all that 
 you have heard shall be forgotten in what you shall see ; and all that 
 others have told you shall be as nothing compared with what ye shall 
 hear with your ears, and behold with your eyes in your own midst." 
 One blessed result will be. an increase of personal piety ; another, of 
 
THE ULSTER AWAKENING. 219 
 
 liberty and delight in the Lord's service ; a third, of greater sym- 
 pathy and warm love among the scattered builders round the wall ; 
 and a fourth, that — unless we are indeed hindering the great Miracle- 
 Worker by our unbelief — we shall assuredly, ere long, behold such 
 spiritual results in Great Britain, as shall fill our hearts with thank- 
 ful joy. And shall there not also be holy activity and earnest indi- 
 vidual toil on the part of the members of the Church of God ? Chris- 
 tian fathers and mothers ! with unconverted children on the brink of 
 perdition, will you not begin to speak to your offspring about their 
 souls' salvation, as well as speak and plead for them at the throne of 
 grace ? Christian brethren and sisters ! are there not many with whom 
 you come in daily contact, whom you know to be ungodly and under 
 Divine wrath, yet whom you have not even once warned or entreated 
 to flee from the coming storm of God's anger. Saved yourselves, 
 and feeling that you are saved, will you not unceasingly labour to 
 save others ; and labour, too, in the confidence that the end is sure 
 and the reward inconceivably glorious ? 
 
 Art thou content ? Hast thou no higher aim, 
 
 Than just to gain admittance at that door; 
 In faintest characters to trace thy name 
 
 Among the list of those who die no more ? 
 
 Saved from the wreck, reach out a saving hand — 
 Thousands are sinking 'neath the waves of sin ; 
 
 Stay not thine efforts till God bids thee land — 
 Thy task accomplish'd. He will steer thee iu. 
 
 Dost thou not know, that in thy diadem. 
 
 The souls which owe their heaven-sent light to thee 
 
 Shall form, each one, a bright, immortal gem, 
 Gracing thy brow through all eternity ? 
 
 THE END. 
 
 JAMES S. VIRTUE, PBINTEB, CITy ROAD, LONDOX. 
 
GENEEAL CATALOGUE 
 
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