Some of the many revivals that spread across India from 1904-1906
Background to this Series of India Revivals
From 1904-1906, revival swept across India, touching every mission station and church, regardless of the denomination. Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Brethren, Anglicans, Christian and Missionary Alliance, London Missionary Society, and the YMCAs and YWCAs, wherever the revival was welcome, blessings came. In addition, it fostered significant unity, breaking down previous barriers between denominations.
The 1904 Sialkot, India Revival appears to have been the spark that ignited the sweeping fires. Subsequently, upon receiving reports of the 1904-1905 Welsh Revival, prayer for revival intensified to such an extent that revival in India seemed unstoppable. The outcomes are documented in the following accounts:
- 1904 Sialkot, India Revival (Over 5 locations)
- 1905 Khasi Hills Revival (Dozens of Locations)
- 1905 Mukti Revival (5 Locations)
- 1905 Revival at Dohnavur (2 Locations)
- 1905 India Revivals I (20 Locations)
- 1905 India Revivals II (8 Locations)
- 1905 India Revivals III (5 Locations)
- 1906 India Revivals IV (10 Locations)
- 1906 India Revivals V (8 Locations)
- 1906 India Revivals VI (8 Locations)
- 1905-1906 India Revivals VII (9 Locations)
- 1905-1906 India Revivals VIII (14 Locations)
- 1906 India Revivals IX (8 Locations)
- 1906 Aurangabad, India Revival (5 Locations)
- 1906 Mizo, India Revival (13 Locations)
Background to these Revivals
The eight revivals recounted here occurred among missionaries and their mission stations in and around the southeastern Indian city of Madras (Chennai).
Extraordinary Prayer at Madras
In Madras, India (Chennai), a missionary professor at the Madras Divinity School, Rev. H.D. Goldsmith, who was associated with the Church Missionary Society (Anglican), reported that toward the end of 1905, many in Madras had been praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Goldsmith also noted that a number of the divinity students at the school were experiencing a genuine revival, and this blessing was received through Zion Church. These students’ pursuit of a blessing from God was so intense that Goldsmith paused teaching on a given day to allow the students time for prayer. Goldsmith said:
One day, so great was the spirit of heart-searching that we gave up an hour and a quarter to confession of sin and prayer in a way we had never witnessed before.
Revival in Madras
The revival at Madras (Chennai) was evidently driven by the leadership of the Indian pastor, Rev. W. E. Clarke, of Zion Church. For months, Zion Church had been praying for revival, and in Clarke’s words:
In answer to prayer the clouds gathered, and we are now having occasional showers on individual members and families. A few men and women have been truly touched by the heavenly fire. Revival meetings are being held in the Satthianadhan Memorial Hall, night and morning, and also in the houses of members.
Revival in Royapuram
The Christian Missionary Society to the north of Madras, in the city of Royapuram, indicated that revival had come to that location, stating:
Some of the wildest young men have been reached.
A.W. Rudisill
Methodist Episcopal Printing Press
The Methodist printing press in Madras was instrumental in printing millions of Bible booklets and other pieces of literature, greatly enhancing the spread of the Gospel in India and in other countries.
The missionary supervisor of the printing press was A. W. Rudisill, who, along with his wife, ministered as evangelists in Madras.
One of their evangelistic ministry trips took them to a Tamil mission orphanage, where they achieved great results. These results were supported by a group of intercessors who had been spending 8-10 hours per day in prayer. This team also visited several other mission centers, greatly enhancing the spreading of the revival.
A helper at one of these mission centers wrote:
One lad of about eighteen became so overcome that he fell unconscious on the floor, and remained in that state for three days, without food and with very little sleep. He told of beautiful visions of the sufferings of Christ; and of the heavenly host.
It was also reported that at this same location, a woman possessed by an evil spirit was delivered through the prayers of God’s people.
Methodist Episcopal Memorial Publishing House, Madras, India
Locations of revivals in this account
Revival at Chingleput and Melrosapuram
Revival was experienced at the boys’ and girls’ orphanages in Chingleput (Chengalpattu). Revival also came to the believers seven miles to the north, in Melrosapuram.
Revival at Bezwada
The revival that came to Bezwada (Vijayawada) greatly affected the zenana ministry, which reached secluded women in homes of the Hindu upper class.
The Gospel also began taking root in Muslim homes. Some of the children expressed fear upon hearing the Gospel story, evidently due to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. One young boy told a missionary his response to hearing the Gospel message:
It makes me afraid to hear you tell about it.
Some of the children described how, when they heard the story of the cross, it felt like a knife piercing them.
When Muslims heard about what was occurring with the accompanying release of spiritual power when the Gospel was shared, it created curiosity and interest among them, inclining them to want to hear the story for themselves.
Revival at Chittoor and the Kolar Gold Fields
In October, 1906, the revival at Chittoor involved nightly meetings for two weeks. During those weeks and afterward, they experienced the typical manifestations that accompanied revivals throughout India at this time, which included:
► A great breaking down under the conviction of sin.
► The usual accompaniments of manifestations of the Spirit (trances, visions, exuberant joy)
► Witnessing through lifestyle change and through their words.
► Joy in studying the word of God and spending time in prayer.
► A greater consciousness of sin.
► More love for one another.
► A greater sense of responsibility for the salvation of others.
The Wesleyan missionary Charles H. Monahan made a two-day visit to Chittoor after the two weeks of meetings concluded. His comments on the lingering effects of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring were as follows:
What most struck me was the fact that men who before were all too ready to spend the time in talk, whose fluency was perhaps its saddest feature, seemed now to be possessed with the one desire to spend all the time of the meeting in the study of the Word of God and prayer.
As Charles Monahan made another visit for a week at the Tamil Church in the Kolar Gold Fields, he recognized that the reason for past ineptness in evangelism was due to impurity and division among Christians. When the Holy Spirit’s power fell, and conviction of sin drove people to confession, repentance, and reconciliation, it was then that evangelistic power was released.
Inside the Mukti church
Mukti Mission, the Spreader of Revival
An Indian medical missionary, Dr. P. B. Keskar of Sholapur (Solapur), made a visit to the Mukti Mission compound. Of that visit, he said:
I spent twelve days at Mukti, and during that time I saw the glory of the Lord, and came hence in renewed strength of body and soul.
As Dr. Keskar returned to Sholapur, revival fires fell upon the church, orphanage, and those in the leper asylum, leading to many transformed lives.
A common practice of the Mukti Mission was to send teams to different locations, spreading the revival. They couldn’t send a team to Sholapur, so they invited 100 boys, girls, and teachers from Sholapur to visit Mukti for 16 days. During the stay:
The converted were revived, and most of the unconverted saved; while some of the elder ones stayed ten days longer and received further blessing.
Dr. Keskar wasn’t the only one who went to Mukti to receive the blessing of revival. Many others did the same and carried the revival from there back to the city or village where they were ministering. Here are two examples of visits to Mukti by missionaries from distant cities:
Mr. Handley Bird, of the Godavary Delta Mission, in a most inspiring account of seventeen days at Mukti, in May, 1906, calls them ‘days of blessing’ that will leave their mark on all his future life.
Rev. R. J. Ward, of Coonoor, says: ‘I shall thank God for all eternity that ever I was led to visit Pandita Ramabai’s Homes [leader of the Mukti Mission]. The Lord met me there in a wonderful way, and ‘He remaineth.’
Girls coming out of the Mukti church
The Indian Revivals Touched Every Denomination
There was not a single branch of the Christian Church working in India that this revival passed by without touching.
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, Brethren, and Quakers, wherever the Revival has had right of way, have been equally blessed, and the unity evoked by the Spirit of God has blessedly overflowed the usual boundaries and destroyed much of the aloofness even of the most exclusive.
Primary Sources
► Abraham Rudisill by Lycoming College
► Christian Peoples of the Spirit: Minnie Abrams by Stanley M. Burgess
► Revival in India by Helen S. Dyer
► Subrahmanyam by Charles H. Monahan
► The Christian Advocate by Methodist Episcopal Memorial Publishing
Secondary Sources
► A History of Missions in India by Julius Richter
► Abrams, Minnie F. (1859-1912) by Boston University School of Theology
► Christian Missions and Social Progress by James S. Dennis
► Evangelical Awakenings in Southern Asia by J. Edwin Orr
► Indian Pentecost: Christianity Today by Edith Blumhofer
► Memoir of Anthony Norris Groves by His Widow
► Minnie Abrams: Lessons from the Pentecostal Revival in India by Darrin Rodgers
► Pandita Ramabai: Her Vision, Her Mission and Triumph of Faith by Helen S. Dyer
► Pandita Ramabai, the Mukti Revival and Global Pentecostalism by Allan Anderson
► Pandita Ramabai: The Story of Her Life by Helen S. Dyer
► Scattered Seeds by Mrs. Malcolm Ross
► The Flaming Tongue by J. Edwin Orr
► The High-Caste Hindu Woman by Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati
► The Pandita Ramabai Story by Pandita Ramabai
► They Were Men Sent by God by Eustace Blake Bromley
► Walker of Tinnevelly by Amy Wilson-Carmichael
► World Atlas of Christian Missions by James S. Dennis
► Zenana Missions by Wikipedia
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