• My other Lenten Reflections
• My posts on Lent & the Resurrection
• True Calvinism is NOT . . .
• Bible Reading: Things To Look for in a Church: What We Find in Solomon's Temple, #2: God's Sovereignty in Salvation
• no glory to me, o my Savior ~ only because You chose to favor | a spiritual birthday celebration
• All of Your grace, All to Your glory (this day in 1982)
• "Salvation unto Us Has Come by God's free grace & favor"
• I am a leopard - Christ is a lion ~ The Resurrection Celebration
• we did not choose, He chose us, worthy the Lamb, solus Christus
• Wake up and tremble, rightly ascribe
• All ye who hear ... Lazarus, come forth! Lazarus, take heed!
• The Gospel: Penal substitution? Really? Yes, really!
• A little child shall lead us: Christ died for our sins (precious penal substitution)
• the priest shall make atonement
• the only true way of peace (Postcards from God in England)
• Letter 7 on assurance and fighting for joy (remember His love for us while we were sinners)
• Advent #2 WHY HAS JESUS COME? to give his life as a ransom for many
• Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
• Advent # 7 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might be satisfied with Him
• Linger, linger, linger – so you might know God's love
• Lenten Reflections: "all that is talked about the sufferings of Jesus" (Joseph Hart)

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Work found at http://artbible.info./art/large/103.html / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

The following is an excerpt from R.A. Torrey's book "How to Pray," Chapter XII - The Place of Prayer before and during Revivals, which was published in 1900 (boldface mine):

“Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?” They were stricken into a swoon by the power of His Word. A dozen in one day were carried out of doors as dead. These were not women, but some of the boldest spirits of the neighborhood; “some who had formerly feared not with their swords to put a whole market town into a fray.” Concerning one of them, then a mighty strong man, now a mighty Christian, say that his end in coming into church was to consult with his companions how to work some mischief.”

This work spread throughout the whole country. By the year 1626 a monthly concert of prayer was held in Antrim. The work spread beyond the bounds of Down and Antrim to the churches of the neighboring counties. So great became the religious interest that Christians would come thirty or forty miles to the communions, and continue from the time they came until they returned without wearying or making use of sleep. Many of them neither ate nor drank, and yet some of them professed that they “went away most fresh and vigorous, their souls so filled with the sense of God.”

This revival changed the whole character of northern Ireland.

Another great awakening in Ireland in 1859 had a somewhat similar origin. By many who did not know, it was thought that this marvelous work came without warning and preparation, but Rev. William Gibson, the moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland in 1860, in his very interesting and valuable history of the work tells how there had been preparation for two years. There had been constant discussion in the General Assembly of the low estate of religion, and of the need of a revival. There had been special sessions for prayer. Finally four young men, who became leaders in the origin of the great work, began to meet together in an old schoolhouse in the neighborhood of Kells. About the spring of 1858 a work of power began to manifest itself. It spread from town to town, and from county to county. The congregations became too large for the buildings, and the meetings were held in the open air, oftentimes attended by many thousands of people. Many hundreds of persons were frequently convicted of sin in a single meeting. In some places the criminal courts and jails were closed for lack of occupation. There were manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s power of a most remarkable character, clearly proving that the Holy Spirit is as ready to work to-day as in apostolic days, when ministers and Christians really believe in Him and begin to prepare the way by prayer.

Mr. Moody’s wonderful work in England and Scotland and Ireland that afterwards spread to America had its origin on the manward side in prayer. Mr. Moody made little impression until men and women began to cry to God. Indeed his going to England at all was in answer to the importunate cries to God of a bed-ridden saint. While the spirit of prayer continued the revival abode in strength, but in the course of time less and less was made of prayer and the work fell off very perceptibly in power. Doubtless one of the great secrets of the unsatisfactoriness and superficiality and unreality of many of our modern so-called revivals, is that more dependence is put upon man’s machinery than upon God’s power, sought and obtained by earnest, persistent, believing prayer. We live in a day characterized by the multiplication of man’s machinery and the diminution of God’s power. The great cry of our day is work, work, work, new organizations, new methods, new machinery; the great need of our day is prayer. It was a master stroke of the devil when he got the church so generally to lay aside this mighty weapon of prayer. The devil is perfectly willing that the church should multiply its organizations, and deftly contrive machinery for the conquest of the world for Christ if it will only give up praying. He laughs as he looks at the church to-day and says to himself:

“You can have your Sunday-schools and your Young People’s Societies, your Young Men’s Christian Associations and your Women’s Christian Temperance Unions, your Institutional Churches and your Industrial Schools, and your Boy’s Brigades, your grand choirs and your fine organs, your brilliant preachers and your revival efforts too, if you don’t bring the power of Almighty God into them by earnest, persistent, believing, mighty prayer.”

Prayer could work as marvelous results today as it ever could, if the church would only betake itself to it.

There seem to be increasing signs that the church is awakening to this fact. Here and there God is laying upon individual ministers and churches a burden of prayer that they have never known before. Less dependence is being put upon machinery and more dependence upon God. Ministers are crying to God day and night for power. Churches and portions of churches are meeting together in the early morning hours and the late night hours crying to God for the latter rain. There is every indication of the coming of a mighty and widespread revival. There is every reason why, if a revival should come in any country at this time, it should be more widespread in its extent than any revival of history. There is the closest and swiftest communication by travel, by letter, and by cable between all parts of the world. A true fire of God kindled in America would soon spread to the uttermost parts of the earth. The only thing needed to bring this fire is prayer.

It is not necessary that the whole church get to praying to begin with. Great revivals always begin first in the hearts of a few men and women whom God arouses by His Spirit to believe in Him as a living God, as a God who answers prayer, and upon whose heart He lays a burden from which no rest can be found except in importunate crying unto God.

May God use this book to arouse many others to pray that the greatly-needed revival may come, and come speedily.

* * *

Zechariah 4:1 And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, 2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: 3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. 4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? 5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. 7  Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. 8  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 9  The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. 10  For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth. (KJV)

Related posts on prayer and revival:

• Naphtali News: the Ministry of the Word & Prayer
• my holy ambition
• God uses men with "no outstanding abilities" (an account of revival in 18th century Scotland))
• blogging, view count, comments, numbers and the glory of God (the story of Gideon)
• Naphtali News: update on tent of meeting
• postcards from England: "The Burden for Revival" (ML-J)
• postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck?
• Postcards from England: do you care?
• Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? (a call to prayer)
• 492 years later: You say you want a reformation? (my theses and a call to prayer)
• Do you see the trouble we are in? A call to prayer for revival (Bible reading - Nehemiah)
• Can anything good come out of Xanga?
• the lost treasures of Christianity & the call to pray for revival (Bible reading: Ezra 1)
• Are you storming heaven – or are you sleeping?
• by my God I can leap over a wall (Psalm 18:29b)
• Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
• Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful
• trusting the eagles' wings (reliance on the Holy Spirit)
• Blessed dependence ~ "Leaning upon her beloved"
• His Spirit ... His people
• "Dependence" by William Cowper
• Birthday reflections ~ "Keep me an infant" (Isaiah 46:1-4)

Reference:  ¹Rob Mackenzie, "David Livingstone: The Truth Behind the Legend" (Ross-Shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 1993), 365-366. Mackenzie used the account of Livingstone's death as recorded in "The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa 1865-1873," by Horace Waller & John Murray (London: 1880), 308). For more on Livingstone, please see the Biography of David Livingstone at the Gospel Fellowship Association.

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:David_Livingstone.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0/ {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

  
From the "History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, Volume Fifth" by Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigné, trans. by H. White, 151, 153-157 (italics original; boldface mine):

Shall we be told that a reform effected by any other principle than the established authorities, both in church and state, would have been a revolution? But has God, the lawful sovereign of the church, forbidden all revolution in a sinful world? A revolution is not a revolt. The fall of the first man was a great revolution: the restoration of man by Jesus Christ was a counter-revolution. The corruption occasioned by popery was allied to the fall: the reformation accomplished in the sixteenth century was connected therefore with the restoration. There will no doubt be other interventions of the Deity, which will be revolutions in the same direction as the Reformation. When God creates a new heaven and a new earth, will not that be one of the most glorious of revolutions? The Reformation by the word alone gives truth, alone gives unity; but more than that, it alone bears the marks of true legitimacy; for the church belongs not unto men, even though they be priests. God alone is its lawful sovereign.

And yet the human elements which we have enumerated were not wholly foreign to the work that was accomplishing in England. Besides the word of God, other principles were in operation, and although less radical and less primitive, they still retain the sympathy of eminent men of that nation.

And in the first place, the intervention of the king's authority was necessary to a certain point. Since the supremacy of Rome had been established in England by several usages which had the force of law, the intervention of the temporal power was necessary to break the bonds which it had previously sanctioned. But it was requisite for the monarchy, while adopting a negative and political action, to leave the positive, doctrinal, and creative action to the word of God. . .

The great work of the 16th century was about to begin. A volume fresh from the presses of Basle had just crossed the channel. Being transmitted to London, Oxford, and Cambridge, this book, the fruit of Erasmus's vigils, soon found its way wherever there were friends of learning. It was the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, published for the first time in Greek with a new Latin translation— an event more important for the world than would have been the landing of the pretender in England, or the appearance of the chief of the Tudors in Italy. This book, in which God has deposited for man's salvation the seeds of life, was about to effect alone, without patrons and without interpreters, the most astonishing revolution in Britain.

When Erasmus published this work, at the dawn, so to say, of modern times, he did not see all its scope. Had he foreseen it, he would perhaps have recoiled in alarm. He saw indeed that there was a great work to be done, but he believed that all good men would unite to do it with common accord. "A spiritual temple must be raised in desolated Christendom," said he. "The mighty of this world will contribute towards it their marble, their ivory, and their gold; I who am poor and humble offer the foundation stone," and he laid down before the world his edition of the Greek Testament. Then glancing disdainfully at the traditions of men, he said: "It is not from human reservoirs, fetid with stagnant waters, that we should draw the doctrine of salvation; but from the pure and abundant streams that flow from the heart of God." And when some of his suspicious friends spoke to him of the difficulties of the times, he replied: "If the ship of the church is to be saved from being swallowed up by the tempest, there is only one anchor that can save it: it is the heavenly word, which, issuing from the bosom of the Father, lives, speaks, and works still in the gospel."

These noble sentiments served as an introduction to those blessed pages which were to reform England. Erasmus like Caiaphas, prophesied without being aware of it.

The New Testament in Greek and Latin had hardly appeared when it was received by all men of upright mind with unprecedented enthusiasm. Never had any book produced such a sensation. It was in every hand: men struggled to procure it, read it eagerly, and would even kiss it. The words it contained enlightened every heart. But a reaction soon took place. Traditional catholicism uttered a cry from the depths of its noisome pools (to use Erasmus's figure). Franciscans and Dominicans, priests and bishops, not daring to attack the educated and well-born, went among the ignorant populace, and endeavoured by their tales and clamours to stir up susceptible women and credulous men. "Here are horrible heresies," they exclaimed, "here are frightful antichrists! If this book be tolerated it will be the death of the papacy!"— "We must drive this man from the university," said one. "We must turn him out of the church," added another. "The public places re-echoed with their howlings," said Erasmus. The firebrands tossed by their furious hands were raising fires in every quarter; and the flames kindled in a few obscure convents threatened to spread over the whole country.

This irritation was not without a cause. The book, indeed, contained nothing but Latin and Greek; but this first step seemed to augur another—the translation of the Bible into the vulgar tongue. Erasmus loudly called for it. "Perhaps it may be necessary to conceal the secrets of kings," he remarked, "but we must publish the mysteries of Christ. The Holy Scriptures, translated into all languages, should be read not only by the Scotch and Irish, but even by Turks and Saracens. The husbandman should sing them as he holds the handle of his plough, the weaver repeat them as he plies his shuttle, and the wearied traveller, halting on his journey, refresh him under some shady tree by these godly narratives." These words prefigured a golden age after the iron age of popery. A number of Christian families in Britain and on the continent were soon to realize these evangelical forebodings, and England after three centuries was to endeavour to carry them out for the benefit of all the nations on the face of the earth.

The priests saw the danger, and by a skilful manoeuvre, instead of finding fault with the Greek Testament, attacked the translation and the translator. "He has corrected the Vulgate," they said, "and puts himself in the place of Saint Jerome. He sets aside a work authorized by the consent of ages and inspired by the Holy Ghost. What audacity!" and then, turning over the pages, they pointed out the most odious passages: "Look here! this book calls upon men to repent, instead of requiring them, as the Vulgate does, to do penance!" (Matt. iv. 17.) The priests thundered against him from their pulpits :f "This man has committed the unpardonable sin," they asserted; "for he maintains that there is nothing in common between the Holy Ghost and the monks—that they are logs rather than men!" These simple remarks were received with a general laugh, but the priests, in no wise disconcerted, cried out all the louder:  "He's a heretic, an heresiarch, a forger! he's a goose ...... what do I say? he's a very antichrist!"

It was not sufficient for the papal janissaries to make war in the plain, they must carry it to the higher ground. Was not the king a friend of Erasmus? If he should declare himself a patron of the Greek and Latin Testament, what an awful calamity!......After having agitated the cloisters, towns, and universities, they resolved to protest against it boldly, even in Henry's presence. They thought: "If he is won, all is won." It happened one day that a certain theologian (whose name is not given) having to preach in his turn before the king, he declaimed violently against the Greek language and its new interpreters. Pace, the king's secretary, was present, and turning his eyes on Henry, observed him smiling good humouredly. On leaving the church, every one began to exclaim against the preacher. "Bring the priest to me," said the king; and then turning to More, he added: "You shall defend the Greek cause against him, and I will listen to the disputation." The literary tribunal was soon formed, but the sovereign's order had taken away all the priest's courage. He came forward trembling, fell on his knees, and with clasped hands exclaimed: "I know not what spirit impelled me." — "A spirit of madness," said the king, "and not the spirit of Jesus Christ." He then added: "Have you ever read Erasmus ?" — "No, Sire." — "Away with you then, you are a blockhead." — "And yet," said the preacher in confusion, "I remember to have read something about Moria" (Erasmus's treatise on Folly.) -— "A subject, your majesty, that ought to be very familiar to him," wickedly interrupted Pace. The obscurant could say nothing in his justification. "I am not altogether opposed to the Greek," he added at last, "seeing that it is derived from the Hebrew." This was greeted with a general laugh, and the king impatiently ordered the monk to leave the room, and never appear before him again.

Erasmus was astonished at these discussions. He had imagined the season to be most favourable. "Everything looks peaceful," he had said to himself; "now is the time to launch my Greek Testament into the learned world." As well might the sun rise upon the earth, and no one see it! At that very hour God was raising up a monk at Wittemberg who would lift the trumpet to his lips, and proclaim the new day. "Wretch that I am!" exclaimed the timid scholar, beating his breast, "who could have foreseen this horrible tempest!"

Nothing was more important at the dawn of the Reformation than the publication of the Testament of Jesus Christ in the original language. Never had Erasmus worked so carefully. "If I told what sweat it cost me, no one would believe me." He had collated many Greek MSS. of the New Testament, and was surrounded by all the commentaries and translations, by the writings of Origen, Cyprian, Ambrose, Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril, Jerome, and Augustine. Sic sum in campo meo! he exclaimed as he sat in the midst of his books. He had investigated the texts according to the principles of sacred criticism. . . He had corrected the amphibologies, obscurities, hebraisms, and barbarisms of the Vulgate; and had caused a list to be printed of the errors in that version.

"We must restore the pure text of the word of God," he had said; and when he heard the maledictions of the priests, he had exclaimed: " I call God to witness I thought I was doing a work acceptable to the Lord and necessary to the cause of Christ." || Nor in this was he deceived.

From the Preface to the History...:

The Reformation is Jesus Christ.

"Lord, to whom shall we go, if not unto thee?"

Let others follow the devices of their imaginations,

or prostrate themselves before traditional superstitions,

or kiss the feet of a sinful man......

O King of glory, we desire but Thee alone!

Please note: If you are distressed and burdened over the current state of the Church today, if you have had your eyes opened to how she is so far from her Biblical moorings, please do not panic, but rather look back to and embrace the ordained means God has already provided for us for reformation and revival of His Church: prayer and the ministry of the Word. Psalm 127:1 Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

I would encourage you to read my post, Ministry of the Word & Prayer and visit my other sites: tent of meeting (devoted to prayer for revival) and deerlife (ministry encouragement). Also, please feel free to comment below and/or message me.

Related posts:

The church reformed, always being reformed, lest we become deformed
492 years later: You say you want a reformation? (my theses and a call to prayer)
Reformation Rebels: Are you willing to be a rebel for the sake of the Church?
Reformation Sunday: Luther-"Just an individualist who never co-operated" or Contender for the truth?
O, Church, to whom are we listening: the frogs or the nightingale
Combatting the creepy guys (Sola Scriptura + priesthood of believers)
the shepherds' confession: may Christ and His Gospel become a joy and delight to us once more
dedication 2010 (reflections on God's Word & God's grace)
Here I stand & from here I cast (devoted to prayer & the ministry of the Word)
God uses men with "no outstanding abilities"
Postcards from England: do you care?
postcards from England: "The Burden for Revival" (ML-J)
postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck?
Revival resources, etc.
More revival resources: opportunity and eyes to see the ruins, a burden from God
the lost treasures of Christianity & the call to pray for revival (Bible reading: Ezra 1)

Labor Day: Do you know the blessedness of not working? (Romans 4:1-8) (about penance)
Reformation Day: Martin Luther on "How One is Justified before God, and of Good Works"

Photo credits:

Porträt des Erasmus von Rotterdam am Schreibpult (1523) by Hans Holbein the Younger (1498-1543) found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hans_Holbein_d._J._047.jpg - {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aivasovsky_Ivan_Constantinovich_storm_on_sea_1899_IBI.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0 - {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}