Without a doubt, one of things most needed today in the church in the west (America and Europe) is revival. In the eyes of many, we are a cross between the church in Ephesus (she was busy but had lost her first love) and the church in Sardis (she thought she was alive, but Jesus pronounced her dead). True revival is not a week of messages in the spring from an itinerant evangelist! It is a supernatural pouring out of the Holy Spirit that humbles a person … or a church … or a community … or a culture, with at least these three things:
- a deep sense of sin (repentance)
- a passionate love for Jesus (faith)
- a widespread return to biblical principles of life (holiness).
Today’s cries for social justice (which is too often a substitute for the biblical gospel) cannot be accomplished by human agency. It will only come as a result of biblical revival.
Church history records a number of occasions of glorious revival. Some of these were in biblical times, occasions when the Holy Spirit worked powerfully, even though we’re not accustomed to calling them revivals. Think of the times of Moses and of Elijah in the Old Testament, and the day of Pentecost in the New Testament. Through the centuries we would certainly include major revivals such as the 16th century Protestant Reformation and the 18th century Great Awakening. But there have also been revivals on a smaller scale, but just as powerful, such as the 19th century Welsh Revival, chronicled in Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons published in the book Revival.
A good case could be made that in the history of hymnody, a new style of congregational song arose at each time of revival. All of these dimensions of revival came as God’s answer to the prayer of Psalm 85:6, “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” Similar words are found in Habakkuk 3:2. One of the clearest connections to that scripture in our hymnals is one of the seventeen hymns written by the 19th century Scottish Presbyterian minister, William Paton MacKay. It begins with the words, “We Praise Thee, O God,” but is best known by the conclusion of the refrain, “Revive Us Again.” Here is the story, as written for This Day in Presbyterian History by David Myers.
Reared in a Scottish home, William Paton MacKay was born on May 13, 1839. We know nothing of his family except that his mother was a godly Scottish woman. All during his younger years, she endeavored to place the principles of biblical Christianity into his heart but was met with only resistance by her son. When the latter went away to Edinburgh to attend the university, she handed him a Bible with his name on the inside cover which she had written, followed by John 3, verse 16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (KJV) She obviously commended him to the God of redemption.
Upon arriving at the University, William soon fell into the company of some aggressive unbelievers, joining the local infidel’s club, and began to live a godless life. To feed his drinking habit, he even sold the Bible which his mother has given to him, using the money to buy whiskey.
Fast forward to his graduation from the University of Edinburgh and his subsequent training to become a medical doctor. Now engaged in his medical practice, William was using those gifts of healing in a local city hospital when a dying man entered the hospital as a patient. The patient knew he would soon die and began to urgently request that the hospital staff get his landlady, as he yet owed her money for his rent. But also weighing heavy on his mind is a book in his apartment; he needed that book brought to him. “I need my book,” was his dying request. But alas, he perished without the book.
Curious, Dr. MacKay went to the apartment and asked the landlady about his patient’s great desire for this book. So they searched the apartment and found his Bible. But it was not just any Bible. It was the very same Bible which Dr. MacKay’s mother had given to him when he left for the university years before! Evidently, the dying man had bought the Bible from the pawn shop where young William had sold it years before.
Returning to his office at the city hospital, Dr. MacKay found his mother’s familiar writing in both his name and the text of John 3:16 on the inside cover. The pages were worn and weathered, but he could still note the texts which his mother had marked for him to read. The medical doctor read them that whole night in his medical office, and at the end of it the next morning, his life was changed for good from a state of sin to a state of salvation. He left the medical profession, went to a theological college, and became a minister. He served the Prospect Street Presbyterian Church, in Hull, Scotland, as their pastor. To the blessing of the wider Church, he wrote 17 hymns, always full of gospel truths. He departed to heaven on this day, August 22, in 1888.
This hymn was used by Ira Sankey in some of Dwight Moody’s evangelistic meetings, and was included in songbooks published for those meetings. It continued to be a staple in evangelistic crusades of the 20th century as well as a favorite selection in the singing of evangelical congregations. The tune (“Thine the Glory”) had been composed by an English-born musician who migrated to Philadelphia, PA, John Jenkins Husband (1760-1825). It first appeared early in the nineteenth century, around 1815 to 1820, and seems to have been used with some other song, perhaps a secular ballad. In Bliss and Sankey’s 1858 book, it was originally used with “Rejoice and Be Glad” by Horatius Bonar. Mackay’s text was given as an alternate, but in later editions Bonar’s hymn was discarded and Mackay’s words became inseparably wedded to this music.
Typical of 19th century gospel songs, each stanza concludes with a refrain. In large evangelistic meetings, the song leader (such as Ira Sankey) would sing the stanza as a solo, with the audience joining in singing the refrain. In this case, the simple refrain combines great joy in the Lord (“Hallelujah!”) with the prayer of Psalm 85:6 (“Revive us again”). Most hymnals today include only four of the original six stanzas. Here is the complete set of lyrics, followed by a link to hear the song being sung by the Gaither Vocal Band.
Stanza 1 points to Jesus who died for us.
We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love,
For Jesus who died and is now gone above.
Refrain:
Hallelujah, thine the glory! Hallelujah, Amen!
Hallelujah, thine the glory! Revive us again.
Stanza 2 points to the Spirit who brings light to our spiritual night.
We praise Thee, O God, for Thy Spirit of light,
Who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night.
[Refrain]
Stanza 3 points to the Lamb slain in our place to cleanse us from sin.
All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain,
Who has borne all our sins and has cleansed ev’ry stain.
[Refrain]
Stanza 4 points to the grace of God who has purchased us and now guides us.
All glory and praise to the God of all grace,
Who has bought us, and sought us, and guided our ways.
[Refrain]
Stanza 5 points to the longing of our hearts for that revival fire in our souls.
Revive us again – fill each heart with Thy love;
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.
[Refrain]
Stanza 6 points finally to revival which alone can raise the spiritually dead and bring them to Jesus.
Revive us again, rouse the dead from their tomb;
May they now come to Jesus, while yet there is room.
[Refrain]