Revival - Part 7: Revival at the Kirk O’Shotts

A great crowd had gathered in the churchyard at Shotts near Edinburgh on June 2, 1630. A pale nervous young man of seventeen years of age made his way to the front and announced his text from Ezekiel 36:25and 26. The sermon continued in an unremarkable way for about one and a half hours and was coming to its conclusion when a shower of rain caused the people to put on their cloaks and seek any available shelter.
When the sermon was resumed there was a new note in the preacher's voice that now riveted the attention of the congregation. If a few drops of rain could cause such a commotion how much greater would be their discomfort, horror, and despair if God was to deal with them as they deserved. They deserved that God should rain fire and brimstone upon them as he had done on Sodom and Gomorrah. He then turned to the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ as a shelter from the wrath of God and pleaded with them to fly to him. So the sermon continued for about an hour.
That day five hundred people were saved and the surrounding district was revived in a remarkable and unexpected way.
At that time in Scotland communion was celebrated very infrequently and was regarded as a great occasion. In the days before the Sunday the people gathered from a wide area to listen to preaching and to prepare themselves to take part in the service. On this occasion it was decided to have a final preaching service on the following Monday which was quite unusual. A young man John Livingston was called upon but who only consented after much persuasion. He was at that time a chaplain to the Countess of Wigtown and was not yet ordained to the ministry. From his diary we learn of what happened before the service.
Much of the Sunday night was spent in prayer and preparation but when morning came he was so overwhelmed with feelings of unworthiness and weakness that he started to run away and was only drawn back by his conscience. The sermon that followed was never to be repeated in his life and by the following week all power had left him. When he preached at Irvine on the following Monday he felt so deserted that he was unable to get out the words that he had prepared. In despair he decided to give up preaching and was only dissuaded by the advice of some godly minister friends. He wrote in his diary, “So it pleased the Lord to counterbalance his dealings and to hide pride from man".
The revival at the Kirk O’ Shotts is an example of the sovereignty of God in revival. A previously ordinary man, from whom little was expected, was used on this one occasion to bring revival to God's people. This should give us expectancy that God can at any time use our faithful preachers to accomplish great things. Let us pray that we will know something of such occasions in our own days.