1905-1906 India Revivals VII (9 Locations)

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:

Background to These Revivals
The nine revivals recounted here occurred among the Christian and Missionary Alliance missionaries and their mission stations, which were operating in the central and western part of India.

The Revival’s Development in Bhusawal
There were signs of a coming revival in the autumn of 1905 when a missionary in Bhusawal was reading the Bible and had this experience:

I opened my Bible for my morning portion and asked the Lord for a special message direct to my heart. At once Haggai 2 opened before me, verses 18 and 19. At first the words, ‘From this day will I bless you’ attracted me.

Later that day, one of the Indian Bible teachers came to this missionary, filled with so much joy he could hardly contain himself. He shared that he had opened a new school to teach the Bible in a village that was previously indifferent, and that the school already had 40 adults and almost 50 children enrolled. In addition, the people:

eagerly drank in the word, and sent for a request for a preacher to come every Sunday morning.

Revival at Chandur
The missionaries in Chandur invited workers from Amraoti (Amravati) to come and assist them with a special gathering they were conducting. It was at Chandur that the missionaries and national believers learned a valuable lesson about the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. In just one hour of being in the presence of God, more was accomplished in the lives of the people than what years of teaching and preaching had been able to produce.

It was in November of 1905 when the Holy Spirit fell upon this gathering at Chandur, producing a powerful effect, convicting the believers of sin and transforming their lives.

Carl Ericson

Revival at Amraoti
It was in November of 1905 that revival also came to Amraoti. A missionary there, Carl Ericson, shared the following about what he witnessed:

The spirit of conviction came on a meeting. Men fell on the ground and cried and groaned in agony. Later the Lord gave courage to a number to make humble confessions. Some young men from Ahmednagar and other places did not know much about salvation; but when convicted of sin, confessed and put things right. It will take some of them months to pay back what they have stolen.

Afterwards some came into the fulness of the Spirit and were so happy they could not sleep.

One had seen a vision and heard a voice saying, ‘You have now received the Holy Ghost. I am preparing you for My service. Ask what you need and I will give it.’ He thought it was a dream, and sank into sleep again. After a while something smote him and he awoke in tears. Five others had similar experiences, they all woke and began to weep and pray. The Spirit of God was upon the whole place. I also began to weep, and the ladies in the house arose and began to pray.

Typical home of the Bhil people group

Revival at the Swedish Mission Station among the Bhil
Prior to the death of Carl Ericson, which occurred in December 1906, he was a speaker at a conference at the Swedish Mission among the Bhil people group. It was there that a “great outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place.”

Revival at Khamgaon
India has disproportionately suffered from famine, resulting in tens of millions losing their lives. In the context of this revival account, the most recent famine occurred in 1899-1901, and physical and economic recovery took years. Victims of these famines were often taken in by Christian mission orphanages, schools, and hospitals. It was at one of these girls’ famine orphanages, in the city of Khamgaon, that a revival occurred.

A female missionary had just returned from furlough in America and told the girls at the school that although a donation was promised for the construction of a church on their property, it wasn’t enough to complete the project. At this time, church services were held from the front porch of the missionary’s home.

Wanting to see the church building constructed, the children asked how they could participate. This missionary told them to think for themselves how they could be part of the work, and the missionary wrote what their response was.

Then the children began to read how the Jews offered at the time of the building of the Tabernacle… I wish you could have heard all the suggestions from those eager, generous little hearts!

In response, the missionary appointed an “offering night,” in which each person could give what they felt God would have them give. The gifts included,
► Small amounts of money.
► Gold wedding rings from ancestors (heirlooms).
► Expensive dresses that could be sold.
► A doll that was received from a donor in America.
► A tin trunk which had a lock and key.

Bethany Chapel—constructed by 86 schoolgirls and 7 men

The amount given reached 129 rupees, and it was enough to start the project. Eighty-six girls agreed to offer their labor for free, so with the hiring of 4 masons and three other men, the construction work commenced. Though there were delays, the work was completed on Bethany Chapel, and a dedication of the building was scheduled for September 30, 1906. The Annual Convention of the Alliance Missionaries working in the region was to be held at this same time, so they decided to hold it in Khamgaon at Bethany Chapel, to coincide with the dedication of the new building.

On the Sunday evening, the first night of the convention and dedication of the building:

Girls and widows occupied the center of the building, and on either side and on the platform sat the prominent, educated, non-Christian men of Khamgaon, listening for two hours to the old, old story of the Cross, in song and sermon.

One missionary, who had served in India for 14 years said:

This is the best night I have spent in India.

The next morning and the days following, they experienced the following:
► 18 were baptized.
► A young man made a recommitment of his life to the Lord.
► There were numerous conversions of widows and girls.

During the Wednesday night service, during the testimony time:

A modest quiet girl arose to pray, and stretching out her hands to heaven, poured out her soul in intense earnest petition. Suddenly, like a tidal wave, something swept over the entire company, and with a mighty cry, all fell on their faces before the Lord, weeping and wailing for sin. All who witnessed the spontaneous outburst of confession, praise, and prayer, were constrained to say: “We have never seen it on this wise.” [Mark 2:11-12]

All work on the mission station at Khamgaon stopped, and the school was closed so that church services could continue day and night as the believers rejoiced in the blessing of such an outpouring of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Locations mentioned in this account

Revival in Gujerat (Gujarat)
In 1906, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit among the Indian workers in the State of Gujerat. Some of these workers had only been working because of their salary, but after having an encounter with the God of revival:

now they are going forth filled with God’s love because they have seen Gethsemane, and the agony that Jesus had for a lost and dying world.

Revival at the Kaira Orphanage
Revival also came to Gujerat at the Christian and Missionary Alliance’s Kaira Orphanage for girls and the Dholka Orphanage for boys.

At the girls’ orphanage, in late 1905, there was evidence of a deep work of revival occurring among the 400 girls. About the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, one missionary wrote that:

He had seldom seen a deeper work than among the 400 girls and young women at Kaira.

The result of this outpouring was that:

A wonderful quickening has passed through the whole school.

Some of the results were:
► Hard hearts were broken.
► Confession and restitution were made.
► Quarrels were ended.
► Lives were overflowing with love and joy.

Second Wave of Revival at the Kaira Orphanage
Another wave of revival came in September 1906 after a group of the older girls at the orphanage began spending entire nights in prayer for the younger ones.

The revival’s power was poured out on October 2, when some of the girls were praying in a dark room, and the room lit up with the glory of God. It was at that time that visions of Jesus were seen, including:
► His agony in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
► His struggle under the weight of carrying His cross.
► His agony while on the cross.

The effects of what they experienced were said to have been indescribable.
► Several girls fell unconscious and had to be carried out of the room.
► Prayers continued all day as God revealed Himself to them in visions.
► Dozens lay on the ground, powerless under the influence of God’s presence.
► Sceptics entered the room, but they also came under God’s power and either fell unconscious or began crying out in agony due to the severe conviction of their sins.
► Girls as young as 5 years old were having visions, in which:

they saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove come and rest upon each head as they were praying together.

The greatest effect of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the new love they had for Jesus’ suffering, as well as the reception of a burden of prayer for the lost. This led to evangelistic groups being formed and the preaching of the Gospel in neighboring villages, where their efforts were blessed with a harvest of souls.

Some of the boys at the
Christian & Missionary Alliance orphanage in Dholka

Dholka Orphanage Revival
The revival at the Dholka Orphanage for boys received its spark when three missionaries and five Indian believers returned from participating in the 1906 Sialkot Convention. Two of the Indians were older boys at the orphanage (see the 1904 Sialkot, India Revival for context).

Similar to what had happened among many who visited the annual Sialkot Conventions, these eight individuals returned to Dholka, carrying revival fire in their spirits.

On August 26, 1906, cries of repentance were heard at the Sunday prayer meeting. That same night one of the older boys who had been to the Sialkot convention started to pray with a few others his age. Before long, younger ones woke up and joined them, and boys from other dormitories united with this group. What followed were days and nights of successive meetings, filled with repentance, confession, and restitution.
► Stolen money was returned.
► Stolen objects were returned, including blankets, sheets, coats, and even things as small as a needle or pen.
► Some students restored four times the amount stolen, following Zaccheus’ example.
► Not a single one of the 300 boys and young men in this orphanage was left untouched by the revival’s power.

On September 27 another powerful and fresh manifestation of the glory of the Lord was experienced. The meeting on this day continued till midnight. Two boys remained behind praying, one of them being in bondage to demonic oppression. For the next several days, link after link of demonic chains were broken, and the boy was set free. The following week, another battle with demonic oppression was experienced with another boy, but it too ended with victory and freedom from the chains of darkness.

A female missionary at the time, Miss Ballentyne, wrote the following about how impactful this revival was to her and others:

When one realizes that only ten short years ago none of these boys knew anything of Jesus, it makes one feel most humble…

Primary Sources
► Our Bheel Mission in India by Olof Anton Dahlgren
► Revival in India by Helen S. Dyer
► Bhil by Wikipedia

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

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