FIRST! Again

Sounds from Heaven is a book by the late Colin and Mary Peckham. It sets the 1949-52 Lewis revival in the context of history and the island culture.
The book includes previously unpublished weekly reports from Duncan Campbell to the Faith Mission Headquarters, and vivid testimonies from those who lived through the revival and were forever changed by it.  
It is very apt that we should be reminded that the same God who worked in Wales in the nineteenth century, and in Lewis in the twentieth, is still able to break through in power today!  Here is a brief selection of extracts from Sounds from Heaven to build our faith and stimulate our longing for revival in our generation. - Editor

 From Duncan Campbell’s reports

25th January 1950
This has been another week of ‘God’s right hand’.  Meetings have been larger than ever; hundreds have been crowded in, and many turned away.
I am now at it night and day, and just getting sleep when I can. The largest meetings are now in the parish of Ness.  This is part of Lewis that is thickly populated and, praise God, it is gripped by revival. Among the men who sought God last night there were two pipers who were to be playing at a dance in Carloway that night. At the beginning of this week, buses came to collect people for a concert in the town; they had to return empty for not one person went.

1 February 1950
In my last report I mentioned two pipers being saved, who were to have been at a concert and dance that night. A minister from the district where the dance was held, and who was in the meeting, felt led of God to go home and visit the dance and tell what had happened.  He did so, arriving there at 3 o’clock in the morning. 
After some opposition from the leader he was allowed in; he there and then gave out Psalm 50, the last three verses. God’s Spirit fell upon the gathering and in less than ten minutes men and women were crying for mercy. The first to be saved was the leader of the concert party.  This is just another incident of the many wonderful things happening here just now. 
 
 The canopy of His presence
 
It was a revival; I have no doubt about that. It was God working in our midst. Numbers came to the Lord at that time. Wherever you went, you could not get away from the presence of God.
This is the one thing that I will ever take with me, the abiding memory of that time – the presence of God. You were in God’s presence wherever you went. It was just like a canopy over the whole island.
Sometimes that presence and power of God was almost overpowering. I remember being on the island of Berneray, Harris, for communion services before Mr. Campbell went there. The Spirit of God was working in an unusually powerful manner.
In some of those meetings, if you wanted to say anything about the Lord, you would have to sit down, or you would fall. If you started to sing, you would have to sit, or you would fall. The singing was so powerful! No-one came to the Lord then, but God prepared the hearts of the people so that when Mr. Campbell arrived they were all ready to receive the Word of God. Even before he came – and he was undoubtedly God’s instrument on Berneray – it was just like heaven on earth. People were open, convicted, ready to receive and ripe to be plucked. God went before and prepared the ground.   -  Rev Kenneth MacDonald
  
Singing
 
It seemed that everybody went to church. They could not stay away. It was a wonderful time!  Whatever we were doing and wherever we were, we were conscious of the presence of God. We had no desire to go to sleep. Even though we had so little sleep we were not tired.
I recall one night when a few of our friends came to our house and on their leaving we accompanied them to the main road. Such was the bond between us that we did not want to part with them. We were not dressed for the weather and on our return my mother said, ‘My goodness- you are soaking wet!’ But we were not even aware of the rain!
In the small hours of the morning, on returning from a meeting, we stood on
the street, loathe to part company, and we would sing and sing and sing! (This is how they got their name -The Shader Singers.)
We recalled a visit by Mr. Reid and Mr. Bell of the Faith Mission some years before. They were staying in a home next door to us and they taught us hymns from Songs of Victory, the Faith Mission Song Book. That is how we were able to sing English Hymns. [Ed: The people usually sang psalms in Gaelic]
Who will ever forget the strains of singing, as young voices joined in, spontaneously giving expression to their new-found faith?  – Agnes Morrison

Sounds from Heaven is priced £7.99 from the Faith Mission Bookshops online.

You can also visit a website dedicated to the work of Dr and Mrs Peckham at www.revivals.org.