1859 revival

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jambo

jambo

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This year sees the 150th anniversary of the 1859 revival that took place here in Ireland. During the same year there were also revivals in Wales, Scotland and around New York.

There is website devoted to the Ulster revival (although at that time Ireland was a united country, the revival was mainly confined to the province of Ulster and did not make a great impact in the rest of the island) which gives a lot of information.

1859 Revival

At the Northern Ireland Assembly there was actually a discussion on marking the anniversary by our politicians

1859 Revival Anniversary: 4 Nov 2008: Northern Ireland Assembly debates (TheyWorkForYou.com)

As a church we spent some time tonight thinking of the revival and its fruit and prayed the Lord would again visit this country with an extraordinary outpouring of his Spirit.

Gibsons "Year of Grace" was written in 1860 and was a contemporary account of the revival.

Amazon.com: The Year of Grace: William Gibson: Books

It is also available on line at

The Year of Grace: A History of the ... - Google Book Search

Ian Paisley's book, "The 59 Revival" is also a very good account of the revival as it outlines the events presbytry by presbytry.

Amazon.com: The Fifty Nine Revival: Ian R. K. Paisley: Books
 
Wasn't that about ten years after all the potatoes died? Pestilence does wonders to bring folks to their knees.

Theognome
 
Theognome said:
Wasn't that about ten years after all the potatoes died? Pestilence does wonders to bring folks to their knees.

Theognome
Click to expand...

The revival of 1859 was mainly within the Protestant community which was not really affected by the potatoe famine of 1845-50. During the plantations of the 17th century land was taking off the RC community and given to Scots presbyterians in the north and English anglicans in the south in order to quell rebellion. The RC became tenant farmers paying rent in potatoes to their Protestant landowners. Thus when the potatoe crop failed, no rent could be paid and they were subsequently evicted. Although great starvation occured there was plenty of food available and the Protestant community was not affected by the famine. Indeed with much of the population starving, grain was poured into the sea in order to maintain a decent price.

Although a long time ago, the famine is deep in the Irish RC pysche even today and is still one of those instances that causes resentment among the nationalist community.

Round about 1987-88 aprox, on one bitterly cold winters day I was knocking on doors in a place called Mitchelstown in county Cork. As it was cold the woman invited me in to warm up over a cup of tea. Her mother sat in the corner who was one week short of her 97th birthday and still with an alert mind. In talking with her I was astonished when she said as a young child she could remember her grandfather talking about his experiences of living through the famine. Suddenly the famine did not feel that long ago.
 
jambo said:
Theognome said:
Wasn't that about ten years after all the potatoes died? Pestilence does wonders to bring folks to their knees.

Theognome
Click to expand...

The revival of 1859 was mainly within the Protestant community which was not really affected by the potatoe famine of 1845-50. During the plantations of the 17th century land was taking off the RC community and given to Scots presbyterians in the north and English anglicans in the south in order to quell rebellion. The RC became tenant farmers paying rent in potatoes to their Protestant landowners. Thus when the potatoe crop failed, no rent could be paid and they were subsequently evicted. Although great starvation occured there was plenty of food available and the Protestant community was not affected by the famine. Indeed with much of the population starving, grain was poured into the sea in order to maintain a decent price.

Although a long time ago, the famine is deep in the Irish RC pysche even today and is still one of those instances that causes resentment among the nationalist community.

Round about 1987-88 aprox, on one bitterly cold winters day I was knocking on doors in a place called Mitchelstown in county Cork. As it was cold the woman invited me in to warm up over a cup of tea. Her mother sat in the corner who was one week short of her 97th birthday and still with an alert mind. In talking with her I was astonished when she said as a young child she could remember her grandfather talking about his experiences of living through the famine. Suddenly the famine did not feel that long ago.
Click to expand...

wow! what a great story.
 
In Iain Murray's book "A Scottish Christian Heritage", in the chapters on Chalmers and MacDonald and Bonar....he does a nice job of tracing the revival periods of the British Isles in the 1830's, 1840's and 1850's. There were significant revivals in different areas each of these 3 decades.

In the midst of this time period(1843) was the Disruption and the formation of the Free Church. Hundreds of parishes were turned out of their church buildings. Yet the revivals continued.

Did this disruption and formation of the Free Church impact the Ireland reformed church?
 
Thanks for posting this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I would love to hear more threads about revival. This was a real treat.
 
tgoerz said:
In the midst of this time period(1843) was the Disruption and the formation of the Free Church. Hundreds of parishes were turned out of their church buildings. Yet the revivals continued.

Did this disruption and formation of the Free Church impact the Ireland reformed church?
Click to expand...

The disruption just affected the Scottish church with the setting up of the Free Church from the ministers and congregations which split from the Church of Scotland itself.

There has been a lot of comming and going between Scotland and Ireland and Presbyterians who saw their ancestry as the Covenanters began the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland during the late 18th century. Today the denomination is not that big and only to be found in the province of Ulster. I know just a couple of members and their congregations are quite small. There is also a small Reformed Presbyterian college in Belfast.

The Evangelical Presbyterian church was formed in the 1920s seceding from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland over liberal trends.

The main Presbyterian church came over from Scotland during the 17th century plantations.

The only other presbyterian church is the Free Presbyterian founded by Ian Paisley a number of years ago.

The Reformed, the Evangelical and the Free Presbyterians are very reformed whilst the Presbyterian church itself although adhering to the Westminster Standards is something of a mixed bag and belief among the membership is quite broad.


Pergamum said:
Thanks for posting this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I would love to hear more threads about revival. This was a real treat.
Click to expand...

I too would love more revival threads. Revival is a topic I have a particular interest in. I find it fascinating to read of these great movements of the Spirit in touching lives, renewing Christians and converting pagans.

The writings of Jonathan Edwards are probablythe classic works but Gillies Historical Accounts of Revivals is a good volume to have. There are numerous books about individual revivals which warm the heart no end.

I do believe the term 'revival' is used in a different sense in the US than it is here to here but I would equate revival with that extraordinary work of God in converting large numbers of people in a given area and seeing real church growth.
 
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