The Calvary Road | Page 3

of them at one sitting.
It must not be thought that this pamphlet represents a purely personal
contribution on our part. The things recorded in this book have been
learnt in fellowship with others in various parts, who have begun, like
ourselves, to walk the Way of the Cross in a new way. Any others in
that fellowship might have written these chapters. It is a fellowship, too,
which is continually growing, for an ever-increasing number of lives
are being quietly influenced and blessed by the movement of Revival in
this country now. This fact, we think, adds to the strength and
significance of what is here written.
Now a word about Revival itself. The conception of Revival contained
in the following pages may come as a surprise to many. The common
conception of Revival is usually that of a spectacular religious
awakening, in which large numbers of the unconverted are convicted of
sin and brought to Christ amid a good deal of excitement. Such a
visitation of God's Spirit, while greatly to be desired, is thought to be
largely unaccountable. It is something for which one can only pray and
we must wait for it in God's good time. Meantime we must go on being
defeated and the Church must somehow contrive to continue her
witness without New Life. Some of us are finding in actual fact that
true revival is often the very reverse of all this. Revival need not be
spectacular at all (it is certainly no spectacle to the one who is facing up
to his sins in the light of the Cross!). Indeed where there is evidence of
the spectacular, it is often the least important part of revival. Our
missionary friends seemed studiously to avoid reference to the
spectacular side of what they had been through, lest it might obscure
the real challenge of what God was saying to us. Then, too, revival is
not something that God does firstly among the unconverted, but among
His people. Revival simply means New Life, and that implies that there
is already Life there, but that the Life has ebbed. The unconverted do
not need revival, for there is not any life there to revive. They need
vival. It is the Christians who need revival. But that presupposes that

there has been a declension. You only revive that which has grown
weak. And they only are candidates for revival who are prepared to
confess that there has been a declension in their lives. And the more
specific the confession, the more definitely will God revive. And when
that happens among us Christians, God will be able to work among the
lost in new power and we shall see a new work of grace there. One of
Evan Roberts' mottoes in the days of the Welsh Revival was "Bend the
Church and save the people." And the two are always linked. The world
has lost its faith, because the Church has lost its fire.
One last thing needs to be said about the necessary attitude of heart of
the reader. If God is to bless him at all through these pages, he must
come to them with a deep hunger of heart. He must be possessed with a
dissatisfaction of the state of the Church in general, and of himself in
particular--especially of himself. He must be willing for God to begin
His work in himself first, rather than in the other man. He must,
moreover, be possessed with the holy expectancy that God can and will
meet his need. If he is in any sense a Christian leader, the urgency of
the matter is intensified many times over. His willingness to admit his
need and be blessed will determine the degree to which God can bless
the people to whom he ministers. Above all he must realise that he
must be the first to humble himself at the Cross. If a new honesty with
regard to sin is needed among his people, he must realise it must begin
with himself. It was when the King of Nineveh arose from his throne
and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes as a sign of his
repentance, that his people repented.
Let not, however, those readers who are not leaders be tempted to look
at those who are and wait for them. God wants to begin with each one
of us. He wants to begin with YOU.
May God bless us all.
Roy HESSION. January, 1950.
CHAPTER I
BROKENNESS

We want to be very simple in this matter of Revival. Revival is just the
life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts. Jesus is always
victorious. In heaven they are praising Him all the time for His victory.
Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, He is