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The experience and understanding of religious revival in Ulster Presbyterianism, c. 1800–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Andrew Holmes
Andrew Holmes*
Affiliation:
Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University of Belfast
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Extract

The phenomenon of religious revival has attracted considerable attention from scholars working in a variety of disciplines. In the Irish context, this is especially true in the case of Presbyterianism whose origin is often traced to the Six Mile Water revival of 1625 and is closely associated with the spectacular revival of 1859. The term revival is usually understood as describing a situation in which religious concerns and feelings acquire a new urgency and which may result in large numbers of conversions and unusual physical and emotional behaviour. An older tradition of interpretation saw religious revivals in terms of fanaticism or mass hysteria, stimulated by political and economic upheaval.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 34 , Issue 136 , November 2005 , pp. 361 - 385
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2005

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References

1 For a variety of perspectives on the nature of religious revival see Walker, Andrew and Aune, Kristin (eds), On revival: a critical examination (Carlisle, 2003)Google Scholar.

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3 For example, the Marxist historian, Gibbon, Peter, adopts this view of the 1859 revival in his The origins of Ulster unionism: the formation of popular Protestant politics in nineteenth-century Ireland (Manchester, 1975), p. 49Google Scholar.

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9 Holmes, Religious revivals, p. 3.

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42 Christian Freeman, iv (1836), p. 348; see also ibid., i (1833), p. 196.

43 McKee, David, Some remarks on conversion (Belfast, 1836)Google Scholar.

44 There is an increasingly sophisticated literature on the relationship between evangelicalism and the Enlightenment. See, for example, Bebbington, , Evangelicalism in modern Britain, ch. 2, and Stanley, Brian (ed.), Christian missions and the Enlightenment (Grand Rapids, Mich., 2001)Google Scholar. The discussion of the following two paragraphs is based upon: Denham, James, Revivals of religion and means of obtaining them: a sermon, preached before the General Synod of Ulster, July the 7th, 1840 (Belfast, 1840)Google Scholar; Morgan, James, The foundation, character, and security of the Christian church: a sermon, preached before the General Synod of Ulster, at Monaghan, upon the 26th June, 1832 (Belfast, 1832)Google Scholar; Christian Freeman, i (1833), pp 109–19; iv (1836), pp 348–50; Orthodox Presbyterian, i (1830), pp 59–63; ii (1831), pp 116–19; iii (1831), pp 5–11; vii (1835), pp 54–62; n.s., ii (1839), pp 134–9, 169–72, 371–7; n.s., iii (1840), pp 7–11.

45 Orthodox Presbyterian, vii (1835), p. 61.

46 Christian Freeman, i (1833), p. 110; Orthodox Presbyterian, n.s. iii (1840), pp 9–11.

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49 Minutes of a General Synod, held at Belfast, 1838 (Belfast, 1838), pp 42-3Google Scholar; Orthodox Presbyterian, viii (1837), pp 217–23.

50 Orthodox Presbyterian, n.s., ii (1839), p. 171; Holmes, Shaping of Ulster Presbyterian belief & practice, ch. 11.

51 Quoted in Berkley, J. M., ‘A history of the ruling eldership in Irish Presbyterianism’ (M.A. thesis, Queen’s University Belfast, 2 vols, 1952), ii, 212Google Scholar.

52 Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (henceforth M.G.A.), i [1840-50], p. 23Google Scholar.

53 Ibid. [1844], pp 327–8; Missionary Herald (1844), p. 146.

54 Missionary Herald (1845), pp 244–6; M.G.A., i [1845], p. 405.

55 For an overview of the key developments in these decades see Scott, A.R., The Ulster revival of 1859 (Belfast, 1994), ch. 2Google Scholar.

56 Missionary Herald (1849), p. 716; (1851), p. 966; (1852), p. 1086; Dill, E. M., The mystery solved: or, Ireland’s miseries; the grand cause, and cure (Edinburgh, 1852), pp 277–94Google Scholar; Edgar, John, ‘Ireland’s mission field’ in Select worfa of John Edgar, D.D. LL.D., ed. Killen, W. D. (Belfast, 1868), pp 542-68Google Scholar.

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59 Irish Presbyterian, vi (1858), p. 173.

60 Ibid., p. 171.

61 M.G.A., ii [1858], p. 678.

62 Missionary Herald (1858), p. 209.

63 Gibson, William, The year of grace: a history of the Ulster revival of 1859 (Edinburgh, 1860), pp 39-40, 131, 138Google Scholar; Missionary Herald (1860), p. 631.

64 Gibbon, Origins of Ulster unionism, p. 44; Hill, Myrtle, ‘Ulster awakened: the ‘59 revival reconsidered’ in Jn. Ecc. Hist., xli (1990), pp 443-62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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66 Wright, Frank, Two lands on one soil: Ulster politics before home rule (Dublin, 1996), p. 227Google Scholar. For the geographical spread of the revival see Carson, God’s river in spate, pp 15–16.

67 Gibbon, Origins of Ulster unionism, p. 58.

68 Liam Kennedy, ‘The rural economy, 1820–1914’ in idem and Philip Ollerenshaw (eds), An economic history of Ulster, 1820–1939 (Manchester, 1985), pp 10–13.

69 Hill, ‘Ulster awakened’, p. 458.

70 These observations are confirmed by a trawl through the official account of the revival compiled by Gibson, Year of grace. See also Hill, ‘Ulster awakened’, pp 457–8; Holmes, Religious revivals in Britain and Ireland, p. 6; Sibbett, R. M., For Christ and crown: the story of a mission (Belfast, 1926), ch. 11Google Scholar.

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74 Carson, God’s river in spate, pp 56–9.

75 Wright, Two lands on one soil, p. 231; Brown, ‘Presbyterian communities, transatlantic visions & the Ulster revival’, p. 98.

76 Nelson, Isaac, The year of delusion: a review of ‘The year of grace’ (Belfast, 1862), pp 37–8Google Scholar.

77 Hempton & Hill, Evangelical Protestantism, p. 158; Holmes, Janice, ‘The “world turned upside down”: women in the Ulster revival of 1859’ in eadem and Diane Urquhart (eds), Coming into the light: the work, politics and religion of women in Ulster, 1840–1940 (Belfast, 1994), pp 126–53Google Scholar.

78 Stewart Brown makes the point that there was little attempt to convert Catholics (‘Presbyterian communities, transatlantic visions & the Ulster revival’, p. 97). For the broader impact of the revival on sectarian relationships see Wright, , Two lands on one soil, pp 223, 232–40Google Scholar; Hirst, Catherine, Religion, politics and violence in nineteenth-century Belfast: the Pound and Sandy Row (Dublin, 2002), pp 123–31Google Scholar.

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81 For example, Wright, Two lands on one soil, pp 224–5, 227–8; Gibbon, Origins of Ulster unionism, ch. 3; Brooke, Peter, Ulster Presbyterianism: the historical perspective (2nd ed., Belfast, 1994), pp 156-9Google Scholar.

82 Gibson, Year of grace, pp 291–2.

83 Thompson, Joshua, ‘Irish Baptists and the 1859 revival’ in Ir. Baptist Hist. Soc. Jn., xvii (1984—5), pp 4–10Google Scholar; Henry, J. M., ‘An assessment of the social, religious and political aspects of Congregationalism in Ireland in the nineteenth century’ (Ph.D. thesis, Queen’s University Belfast, 1965), ch. 10Google Scholar; Latimer, W. T., A history of the Irish Presbyterians (2nd ed., Belfast, 1902), pp 495-7Google Scholar. Unfortunately no academic study exists of the mission hall culture in Ulster. For a popular account see Maxwell, Victor, Belfast’s halls of faith and fame (Belfast, 1999)Google Scholar.

84 Carson, God’s river in spate, pp 76–7; Brown, ‘Presbyterian communities, transatlantic visions & the Ulster revival’, p. 98. An overview of the various manifestations and the debate about them may be found in Donat, J. G., ‘Medicine and religion: on the physical and medical disorders that accompanied the Ulster revival of 1859’ in Bynum, W. F., Porter, Roy and Shepherd, Michael (eds), The anatomy of madness: essays in the history of psychiatry (3 vols, London, 1988), iii, 125-50Google Scholar.

85 Richey, Connor & Coleraine, p. 205; Presbyterian Magazine, n.s. i (1859), p. 209; Wright, Two lands on one soil, p. 231; Brown, ‘Presbyterian communities, transatlantic visions & the Ulster revival’, pp 101–2.

86 Gibson, Year of grace, pp 254—5.

87 Ibid., p. 128; McCosh, James, The Ulster revival and its physiological accidents: a paper read before the Evangelical Alliance, September 22, 1859 (Belfast, 1859)Google Scholar; Richey, Connor & Coleraine, ch. 17; Presbyterian Magazine, n.s., i (1859), pp 145, 270.

88 Gibson, Year of grace, p. 232; Nelson, Year of delusion, ch. 3; Latimer, History, pp 492–3.

89 Nelson, Year of delusion, p. 51.

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92 Missionary Herald ( 1860), p. 636.

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94 Bebbington, Evangelicalism in modern Britain, pp 80–86, 167–9.

95 Holmes, Religious revivals, p. 174.

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98 Ibid. (1865), p. 586.

99 Evangelical Witness, >x (1871), p. 57.

100 Ibid., iv (1865), p. 105.

101 Holmes, Religious revivals, p. 55; Long, Revival of 1857–8, chs 4, 7.

102 Missionary Herald (1874), p. 293.

103 For an outline of the campaign see Thompson, Joseph, ‘The influence of D. L. Moody on Irish Presbyterianism’ in Patton, (ed.), Ebb & flow, pp 122-9Google Scholar.

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108 Ibid., pp 133–40.

109 Barren, Robert, Memoir of the Rev. William Rogers M.A., LL.D. minister of Whiteabbey Presbyterian church, Ireland (Belfast, 1898), p. 123Google Scholar. For the broader British context see Bebbington, Evangelicalism in modern Britain, ch. 5.

110 Thompson, ‘Aspects of evangelisation’, p. 117; Barren, Memoir of William Rogers, ch. 7; Addley, W. P., ‘A study of the birth and development of the overseas missions of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland up to 1910’ (Ph.D. thesis, Queen’s University Belfast, 1994), ch. 15Google Scholar.

111 Barren, Memoir of William Rogers, p. 96; Missionary Herald (1887), pp 196–206; ibid. (1888), pp 232–43.

112 Thompson, ‘Aspects of evangelisation’, pp 103, 107; Missionary Herald (1888), p. 234.

113 Missionary Herald (1885), p. 34; Latimer, History, p. 525.

114 Sibbett, For Christ & crown, pp 269–70.

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116 Quoted in Carson, J. T., ‘Rev. Dr F. C. Gibson: man of the maintained glow’ in Bulletin of the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, xvi (1987), p. 8Google Scholar.

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118 Thompson, ‘Aspects of evangelisation’, chs 3, 4.

119 Figures from ibid., p. 168. For political developments see Hempton & Hill, Evangelical Protestantism, ch. 9; Holmes, R. F. G., ‘“Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right”: the Protestant churches and Ulster’s resistance to home rule, 1912–14’ in Sheils, W. J. (ed.), The church and war (Studies in Church History xx, Oxford, 1983), pp 321-35Google Scholar. For intellectual developments see Livingstone, D. N. and Wells, R. A., Ulster- American religion: episodes in the history of a cultural connection (Notre Dame, 1999)Google Scholar.

120 Allen, Robert, The Presbyterian College, Belfast, 1853–1953 (Belfast, 1954), pp 184–8Google Scholar. The reasons for the decline of postmillennialism are discussed in Holmes, Andrew, ‘The uses and interpretation of prophecy in Irish Presbyterianism, 1850–1930’ in Gribben, Crawford and Holmes, A. R. (eds), Protestant millennialism, evangelicalism and Irish society, 1790–2005 (forthcoming, Basingstoke, 2006), ch. 7; pp 30–36Google Scholar; see also Presbyterian Churchman, n.s., vi (1889), pp 201–4, 261–3, 321–2.

121 Missionary Herald (1875), pp 644–5.

122 Magee, Present religious awakening, pp 9–15.

123 For example, Christian Banner, ii (1874), pp 1–2; iii (1875), pp 41—4, 189–92; Houston, Thomas, Plymouthism and revivalism: part second, on regeneration, justification and sanctification, scripturally stated, in opposition to Plymouthist and revivalist errors (Belfast, n.d.)Google Scholar.

124 Presbyterian Churchman, vii (1883), pp 21–3.

125 Coffey, John, ‘Democracy and popular religion: Moody and Sankey’s mission to Britain, 1873–1875’ in Biagini, E. F. (ed.), Citizenship and community: Liberals, radicals and collective identities in the British Isles 1865–1931 (Cambridge, 1996), ch. 4Google Scholar.

126 Christian Banner, iii (1875), pp 162-6Google Scholar; xix (1891), pp 17–18; Latimer, W. T., Л lecture on the doctrines of the Plymouth Brethren (Belfast, 1883)Google Scholar; Gribben, Crawford, ‘“The worst sect that a Christian man can meet”: opposition to the Plymouth Brethren in Ireland and Scotland, 1859–1900’ in Scottish Studies Review, iii (2002), pp 34–53Google Scholar.

127 Presbyterian Churchman, vi (1882), p. 10.

128 Scott, John, Modern evangelistic missions and their abuses (Belfast, 1889)Google Scholar.

129 Ibid., p. 5.

130 Ibid., p. 13.

131 Thompson, ‘Aspects of evangelisation’, p. 189.

132 Holmes, Our Irish Presbyterian heritage, pp 151–3.

133 Barnes, Stanley, All for Jesus: the life of W. P. Nicholson (Belfast, 1996)Google Scholar; Livingstone & Wells, Ulster-American religion, ch. 5; Murray, S. W., W. P. Nicholson: flame for God in Ulster (Belfast, 1973)Google Scholar; Wells, R. A., ‘Transatlantic revivalism and Ulster identity: the career of W. P. Nicholson’ in Fitzgerald, Patrick and Ickringill, Steve (eds), Atlantic crossroads: historical connections between Scotland, Ulster and North America (Newtownards, 2001), ch. 7Google Scholar.

134 Nicholson, W.P., The evangelist: his ministry and message (London, n.d.), ch. 5.Google Scholar

135 Ibid., pp 30–31.

136 Cited in Wells, ‘Transatlantic revivalism & Ulster identity’, p. 106.

137 Nicholson, The evangelist, p. 102.

138 Smith, David, ‘Sacred learning: its evangelical necessity’ in The Witness, 27 Oct. 1922, p. 4Google Scholar; Strahan, James, ‘What Ireland needs’ in Irish Presbyterian, n.s., xxvii (1921), p. 2Google Scholar; idem, ‘Spiritual revival’ in The Witness, 3 Nov. 1922, p. 5.

139 The Witness, 10 Mar. 1922, p. 4.

140 Murray, Nicholson, pp 15–16.

141 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Reports and accounts (Belfast, 1923), p. 20Google Scholar; Thompson, ‘Aspects of evangelisation’, pp 189–92.

142 Quoted in Sibbett, For Christ & crown, p. 321.

143 Ibid., pp 331–9.

144 Carson, , God’s river in spate; I. R. K. Paisley, The 59 revival: an authentic history of the great Ulster awakening of 1859 (Belfast, 1959)Google Scholar.

145 Two examples have been published by Ambassador Productions with forewords by a Congregational minister, Shaw, Tom: Gibson, William, The year of grace (Belfast, 1989)Google Scholar; and Weir, John, Heaven came down: the revival of 1859 (Belfast, 1987)Google Scholar. The latter is a reprint of Weir, ’s The Ulster awakening: its origins, progress and fruit (London, 1860)Google Scholar.

146 I wish to thank David Bebbington, Crawford Gribben, David McMillan and Mark Smith for comments on an earlier draft of this article. Needless to say, the author alone is responsible for any errors of fact or interpretation.