1958 Lectures on Revival by W B Sprague

Lectures on Revival by W B Sprague (Banner of Truth) 1958

Foreword

This work was first published in 1832 by Dr. Sprague who was a minister in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. It was introduced to this country by two eminent minsters, one of whom was John Angell James, the great predecessor of Dr. R. W. Dale at Carr's Lane, Birmingham, and well-known author of “The Anxious Enquirer”, a book greatly used in the conviction and conversion of sinners in the nineteenth century. I am glad to commend such a book at the present time for the following reasons.

The first and most important reason is that I am profoundly convinced that the greatest need in the world today is revival in the Church of God. Yet alas! the whole idea of revival seems to have become strange to so many good Christian people. There are some who even seem to resent the very idea and actually speak and write against it. Such an attitude is due both to a serious misunderstanding of the scriptures, and to woeful ignorance of the history of the Church. Anything therefore that can instruct God's people in this matter is very welcome.

My second reason is that this particular book gives this instruction in an exceptionally fine manner. Dr. Sprague's own treatment of the subject is scriptural, theological and balanced. Then to supplement that there is an Appendix of twenty letters by such great saintly and scholarly men of God as Archibald Alexander, Samuel Miller, Ashbel Green and the seraphic Edward Payson dealing with their own experience in revivals. The result is a volume of outstanding merit and exceptional worth. My third reason for commending it is that I do not know of any better preparation for the meetings that are to be held in 1959 in various places to recall the great revival of 1857-59, than the careful and prayerful study of this book. My prayer is that as we read it and are reminded of "Our glorious God," and of His mighty deeds in times past among His people, a great sense of our own unworthiness and inadequacy, and a corresponding longing for the manifestation of his glory and His power will be created within us. His "arm is not shortened." May this book stir us all to plead with Him to make bare that arm and to stretch it forth again, that His enemies may be confounded and scattered and His people's hearts be filled with gladness and rejoicing.

D M Lloyd-Jones Westminster Chapel December 1958