When God Came Down
Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Lewis revival: 1949-52
This month – December 2024 – marks the 75th anniversary of the beginning of one of the UK’s most loved spiritual awakenings. While Scotland has played host to a vast array of religious revivals over the course of five remarkable centuries, unquestionably, the best known of them all is the Lewis revival of 1949 to ’52.
Famed in revival history
Indeed, this awakening has found its place as one of the most famed spiritual movements in world history. This is a staggering achievement. As a result, hundreds of ‘revival pilgrims’ from all over the globe make their way, every year, to the island where it all began.
Reasons for the revival’s popularity are easy enough to find. Everyone loves a good story, and a great many stories associated with the Lewis revival quickly capture people’s imaginations – the impactful account of the two elderly sisters who prayed the awakening into being; the ministry of the evangelist at the fore of the movement; the dramatic testimonies of many who came under its influence; exciting accounts of the supernatural; the revival’s advance in the face of intense opposition; and its lasting impact on many island communities.
The siblings’ hidden ministry as infirm intercessors has endeared them to successive generations of believers.
But the title, ‘The Lewis Revival’ is contentious, for believers on Lewis are well-aware that their island has played host to numerous moves of God’s Spirit. Ask many a Christian in Lewis their thoughts on the Lewis revival and you may just receive the teasing response; 'Which Lewis revival are you talking about?' (Although, in truth they will have little doubt which awakening you are referring to).
Revival praying
To a great many people, the real heroes of the Lewis revival were the Smith sisters – Peggy and Christine, then aged 84 and 82 respectively, the one badly affected with arthritis, the other totally blind. These two siblings were known to be serious intercessors – housebound due to infirmity and therefore of little further ‘use’ to society, they knew full well how to be useful in the spiritual realm, spending much of their time bowed in intercession before the Lord, engaging in spiritual warfare and pleading with Him to rend the heavens and visit their district once again with showers of divine blessing. The siblings’ hidden ministry as infirm intercessors has endeared them to successive generations of believers.But believers from Barvas who remembered those stirring times like to point out that the Smith sisters were by no means the only ones who lived lives of prayer – indeed Barvas was known as a community at prayer – with saints of God all over the bleak landscape constantly calling on the Lord to pour out His Spirit upon the parish.
Revival begins
The revival had its beginnings in the districts of Shader and Barvas, on the Westside of Lewis, in mid-December 1949, when mainland Scotland evangelist Duncan Campbell was invited to hold an evangelistic campaign in Barvas Church of Scotland. The first few nights were good, but hardly spectacular. Then on Monday 12th December, a spiritual break occurred, and the Spirit was poured out on the congregation.
From that night on, every meeting was packed, and the whole community appeared to be in the grip of a powerful awakening.
Soon Campbell could record in his diary, ‘We are in the midst of a glorious revival. God in His great mercy has been pleased to visit us with showers of blessing, and the desert is rejoicing and blossoming as the rose. Some of us will live to praise God for what our ears are hearing and our eyes are seeing these days in Lewis. Meetings are crowded, right up to the pulpit steps.'
Remarkably, within around ten days of commencing his mission, Campbell could report around seventy adults having professed conversion. From that night on, every meeting was packed, and the whole community appeared to be in the grip of a powerful awakening.
Revival extended
From Barvas, the revival spread round the islanaroundrth to the parish of Ness, eastward to Point and Lochs; south along the Westside to Arnol and Carloway; south-west to Bernera and the parish of Uig, and extending; andis and even the small isle of Berneray. It was a truly remarkable movement by any standards, ultimately sweeping several hundred folk into the kingdom of God. As the movement intensified, people became convicted, not just in church, but as they worked in the fields, in the peat-banks or at their weaving looms, or even as they walked by the roadside. A few were converted before ever listening to a sermon or attending a meeting.
​Duncan Campbell
The sense of the presence of God seemed to pervade the community. ‘It seemed as if the very air was electrified with the Spirit of God’, noted one convert.
Nearly every convert was keen to emphasise the awareness of the presence of God as the outstanding feature of the revival. The sense of the presence of God seemed to pervade the community. ‘It seemed as if the very air was electrified with the Spirit of God’, noted one convert.
Another of the revival’s most salient features was the singing of praises to God. Believers sang in the churches; they sang during times of family worship in their homes; they sang as they walked to and from meetings; they sang in buses and on boats; in the peat banks, and as they wove at their looms. A lot of new revival hymns were composed at this time.
Some other notable features of the revival included:
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The awakening’s influence on children;
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The essence of prayer, not just prior to revival breaking out, but throughout its progress;
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The importance of fellowship – believers constantly meeting and sharing together – being bound together in the love of Christ.
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Revival phenomena – the more unusual manifestations of God’s presence in people’s lives, including, on occasion, trances, the hearing of heavenly choirs, prophetic words and premonitions. But the Lewis revival was not, as such, a Pentecostal or charismatic revival – physical healing, for example, was not a prominent feature.
Revival myths
But the revival was not without its share of controversy. The movement was opposed by some of the leaders of the largest denomination on the island – the Free Church of Scotland – as well as by the smaller Free Presbyterian Church. On this staunchly Calvinist island, many were deeply wary of what they saw as the ‘Arminian’ teaching of Duncan Campbell and the organisation he worked for – the Faith Mission. In some localities the opposition was staunch, churchgoers were dissuaded from attending meetings, and Campbell’s health suffered for it
In some localities the opposition was staunch, churchgoers were dissuaded from attending meetings, and Campbell’s health suffered for it.
Additionally, Campbell was accused of exaggerating stories of the movement. Sadly, this charge is not unfounded. The tendency of Campbell to both embellish and even fabricate revival stories is both baffling and disconcerting. It becomes essential to deconstruct a number of popular stories of the Lewis revival, stories that turn out to be mythical in nature, either in part or in whole. It’s only in stripping back the untruths that the glorious truths of this famed movement become truly revealed – truths that are every bit as inspiring and faith-building as the myths they replace.
In my book, Island Aflame, I offer a possible explanation as to why the evangelist might have told untruths about the revival that he played a central part in – an explanation that in no way seeks to denigrate the man, but rather one that is ultimately helpful in maintaining the overall integrity of the evangelist.
Many other untruths about the Lewis revival have arisen over the decades, including the more recent claim that Peggy and Christine Smith were none other than the great aunts of the 45th President of the United States of America – one Donald Trump (whose mother did indeed hail from the Isle of Lewis).
It is essential, then, to remove that cloak of sensationalism that has enshrouded the Lewis revival for far too long. To help set the movement in perspective - in the proper context of the remarkable legacy of spiritual awakenings on Lewis and indeed, across Scotland.
Conclusion
Even with the removal of exaggerated and far-fetched stories, the evidence is overwhelming – a highly significant spiritual revival took place on Lewis and Harris between 1949 and 1952. It was a revival characterised by powerful Bible-based preaching. A revival that exposed sin and revealed the life-changing truth of the gospel. It was a revival replete with remarkable, life-transforming testimonies, revealing the unbridled joy that relationship with Jesus brings. It was a revival that led to a life of witness for hundreds of individuals, and full-time Christian ministry for many.
It was a revival replete with remarkable, life-transforming testimonies, revealing the unbridled joy that relationship with Jesus brings
It was a revival of premonitions, prophecies and many other supernatural occurrences. A revival that has stirred up faith and hope in the lives of thousands of Christians around the world, among believers hungry to see God move in their own communities.
The Lewis revival will continue to stir hungry hearts, build faith and inspire hope in believers. Revival tourists will continue to flock to the island and parish where it all began in December 1949, to visit the kirk where Duncan Campbell delivered his hellfire sermons, to be shown the site of the cottage where the saintly Smith sisters lived, the Shader meeting hall where the first conversion took place, and the large Arnol farmhouse that allegedly shook.
There’s great inspiration to be gained in such pilgrimage. The Lewis revival has had phenomenal influence around the world. May the Christian world never forget, and never fail to be inspired and awed by genuine, true stories of the glorious Lewis revival of the mid-1900s.
The house that 'shook'
‘Island Aflame: The Famed Lewis Awakening that Never Occurred and the Glorious Revival that Did (Lewis & Harris 1949–52)’ seeks to offer a comprehensive and sensitive reassessment of the Lewis revival. Published by Christian Focus, it is available from Amazon for £11.25 inc p&p.
Additional Info
Author:
Tom Lennie