Letters From Grandpa #489

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 489

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will be condensed from an article in the Christian History Institute by Mark Galli. It is about a famous revival that took place at Cane Ridge Kentucky. It began on Friday, Aug. 6, 1801 and continued until the following Thursday. Estimates of attendance ran between 10,000 and 25,000. Between 1,000–3,000 had some supernatural experience. Between 800–3,000 took communion. From 1,000–3,000 were converted to Christ. According to Vanderbilt historian, Paul Conkin, it was “arguably...the most important religious gathering in all of American history.” It ignited the explosion of evangelical religion, which soon reached into nearly every corner of American life. For decades the prayer of camp meetings and revivals across the land was “Lord, make it like Cane Ridge.” Someone quipped that real revival is “prayed down” and not “worked up”. Regardless of whether or not you believe in God, history is undeniable that something unusual happened at Cane Ridge, Kentucky.

As we mentioned in our last letter, the years preceding this great revival were characterized by the abandonment of Christianity. Vice of ever kind abounded and secularism caused most churches to shrivel. James Smith, after traveling through Kentucky, wrote, “I trust he [God] will yet bring good out of this evil, and that the glory of scriptural religion, [though] obscure for the present, will shine forth hereafter with redoubled luster.” Just as Pentecost was preceded by prayer so also was Cane Ridge. In addition to fasting and prayer, church discipline began to be practiced. Purging the church of those who refused to repent promoted a pure religion that fanned the flames of evangelism. The great revival at Cane Ridge grew out of repentance. James McGready who came from North Carolina to pastor three small congregations observed that the “glory of scriptural religion” began to “shine forth” in Kentucky. The revival began on Friday, August 6, 1801. The Spirit of God was manifest from the very first meeting. When McGready tried to dismiss the services nobody wanted to leave.

It even rained that night but the rain did not put out the flames of revival. People continued to come by the thousands on muddy roads. Sleeping on the wet ground, in tents and wagons, under trees, and wherever they could find a place these religious pilgrims were searching for God with a passion. Preachers were shouting their sermons all day long and far into the night. Some were singing, some were shouting, some were clapping, and many were hugging one another in the bonds of brotherly love. Some were laughing for joy and others were weeping in repentance.

Early Sunday morning, relative calm reigned, though some had been up most of the night. The central purpose of the gathering—the Communion Super—took place as scheduled in the meetinghouse. The minister of a nearby congregation preached the traditional sermon outside, and then those with Communion tokens went inside for the sacrament. The tables, set up in the shape of a cross in the aisles, could probably accommodate a hundred at a time. As we have said, some estimate that as many as 3,000 partook of the Lord’s Super. There were several centers of activity, including a tent, the meetinghouse, and also an assembly of blacks that met separately. In addition, dozens of informal prayer groups spontaneously appeared. Although only ministers preached official sermons, literally hundreds of others also spontaneous began to preach and exhort. Everyone seemed excited about sharing a testimony, and giving spiritual advice with tearful warnings. Almost anyone—including women, children, slaves, the shy, and the illiterate—were not just observing, but participating.

By Monday, food and supplies were running short. A few were forced to leave because of prior commitments, but more and more arrivals kept coming. The news of the revival spread rapidly and some hurriedly came to Cane Ridge from great distances. Ministers who had gone home to preach at

their churches on Sunday returned to minister to the many people who were seeking God as never before. Religion suddenly became the talk of the region and spread throughout the nation. Traveling to Lexington a year later, one man reported that he heard “little else than the great revival of religion.”

Historians cannot help but make the association between what happened at Cane Ridge and the events of the “Great Awakening” that happened in America in the 1740s. Similar revivals had also occurred in medieval Europe. These spiritual awakenings all harkened back to what happened on the day of Pentecost in first-century Jerusalem (Acts 2). All of these revivals were characterized by encounters with God that transcended tradition. It seems that during these revivals people no longer saw God through a glass darkly, but face to face.

French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) is reported to have predicted in 1776: “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker.” In an ironic twist of Providence, the very house where Voltaire once lived and published his atheistic writings was later used by the Evangelical Society of Geneva as a storehouse for Bibles and Gospel tracts. In fact, the very printing press Voltaire used to print his irreverent works was later used to print Bibles. For years some disputed the validity of this story, but Rev. William Acworth of Queens College, Cambridge, verifies that it was true. Acworth was appointed an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1829. In 1836 he visited Switzerland and saw in person the stored Bibles and Gospel tracts in the very home in Geneva where Voltaire once lived. Voltaire’s prophecy about the Bible was proved wrong only 58 short years after his death.

The church began with common people without money, prestige, or power. They were constantly persecuted, first by the Jewish hierarchy, and the by the Roman government. In fact these lowly Christians were persecuted by eleven different emperors of Rome. Against all human wisdom, the government of Rome is gone and the church of Jesus Christ is alive and well throughout the entire world. Remember! “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25) We should be willing to do the same! Also remember that no matter what the Devil does, the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church! (Matthew 16:18)

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce