The Year of Grace

Rev. William Gibson

It is well known that the natives of the north of Ireland bear in their intellectual features the stamp of their Scottish ancestry. Unlike the Milesian Irish of the south and west, they are a shrewd, calculating, and eminently practical people. Superior in education to the generality of their fellow-countrymen, and abjuring the superstitions by which the majority are enslaved, they have ever had a keen appreciation of the strong points of the argument for Protestantism; and as often as a controversial disputation has arisen between the champions of the respective systems, they have looked on with eager interest, and have not failed to honour and reward the victors. The delusions, under the guise of religion, by which the popular mind in England has sometimes been taken captive, had no charm for them—their strong sense and logical discrimination being proof against the impostures of pretenders and the fervours of enthusiasts.

Says the Rev. J.A. Canning of Coleraine:

“In disposition and temperament the people are calm, thoughtful, and far from impulsive, and their habits, amusements, and usages strongly indicate their Scotch descent. Among such a people, thus circumstanced, the organisation of Christ’s Church has for many years been very complete. Church-courts have been vigilant, ordinances have been regularly and faithfully dispensed, and nothing seemed wanting but a power to bring home an offered gospel to the hearts and souls of the people. Some of God’s children have therefore been saying of late years that one of two things was likely soon to occur, namely, either that gospel doctrine, preached by ministers and professed by the people, but apparently without much life, would, like everything which becomes stagnant, sink into putrefaction, and that heresy would supplant the truth; or, that a gracious God would honour His own truth by supplying the power of the Spirit to impart to it a vivifying energy. That God has been pleased to shed abroad this power the wondrous awakening which has characterised the history of the summer and autumn of 1859 abundantly proves.”

“It is right it should be known,” says the Rev. S. M. Dill of Ballymena, “that this movement has not come upon us so suddenly as people at a distance might suppose. There has been a gradual but perceptible improvement in the state of religion throughout this district for some years. Ministers were led to speak to the people with greater earnestness about ‘the things, which belong to their peace.’ Attendance on the public ordinances of religion had considerably increased. Open-air preaching was extensively practised. Sabbath-schools were greatly multiplied. Prayer meetings were growing up in many districts. Sacred music, which had been much neglected, was cultivated with ardour and success. And altogether the people were in a state of preparation—a state which passed into one of earnest expectancy, when the glad news of the American revival reached our shores.”