Anecdotes on Revival Manifestations
Manifestations not always present
And as there has been no room for any plausible objection against this work, in regard of the means; so neither in regard of the manner in which it has been carried on. It is true, persons’ concern for their souls has been exceeding great, the convictions of their sin and misery have risen to a high degree, and produced many tears, cries, and groans: but then they have not been attended with those disorders, either bodily or mental, that have sometimes prevailed among persons under religious impressions. --There has here been no appearance of those convulsions, bodily agonies, frightful screaming, swooning, and the like, that have been so much complained of in some places; although there have been some who, with the jailer, have been made to tremble under a sense of their sin and misery, --numbers who have been made to cry out from a distressing view of their perishing state, --and some that have been, for a time, in a great measure, deprived of their bodily strength, yet without any such convulsive appearances.
David Brainerds Journal, General Remarks On Part First, Comment 5
Prostrations in Hebrides Revival
I have seen this happen over and over again during the recent movement in the Western Isles. Suddenly an awareness of God would take hold of a community, and, under the pressure of this divine presence, men and women would fall prostrate on the ground, while their cry of distress was made the means in God's hand, to awaken the indifferent who had set unmoved for years under the preaching of the gospel. p33.
I have known men out in the fields, others at their weaving looms, so overcome by this sense of God that they were found prostrate on the ground..... Physical manifestations and prostrations have been a further feature. I find it somewhat difficult to explain this aspect, indeed I cannot; but this I will say, that the person who would associate this with satanic influence is coming perilously near committing the unpardonable sin. Lady Huntingdon on one occasion wrote to George Whitefield respecting cases of crying out and falling down in meetings, and advised him not to remove them from the meetings, as had been done. When this was done it seemed to bring a dampener on the meeting. She said, 'You are making a great mistake. Don't be wiser than God. Let them cry out; it will do a great deal more good than your preaching. p29-30
Duncan Campbell, The Lewis Awakening, 1949-1953, p29-30, 33
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