About Mrs Mary Peckham

[extract from "The Lewis Revival (1950)"]

For three months I struggled. I saw some wonderful sights. I heard some wonderful prayers. I met some wonderful people, the people of God. Still I had no assurance of salvation. I believed that anybody and everybody could get saved, but there was some kind of something in me whereby I couldn't get the assurance of salvation. But one night, at the end of my tether, on the 24th of August, 1950, I was sitting as usual in the prayer meeting, and the men were praying one after the other, and the minister got up to close in prayer. I prayed in my heart, 'O God, I love Your people, I can't explain it, but I love Your people, and I want to be in their company. And, Lord, I want to stay in their company for the rest of my life, and then send me to Hell, for that's what I deserve.'

The conviction of sin in a season of revival is too terrible for words. Here I was, brought up in a society that was moral and religious, and yet I felt such a sinner in the sight of God that I couldn't see how He could save me. But that night, after the minister closed in a prayer, he quoted a verse, Isaiah 53:5. Suddenly it seemed as if I were transported from that prayer meeting to that place called Calvary, and I was there alone:

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

And I felt healed. Nobody needed to tell me. The Spirit of God through His Word witnessed with my spirit that, miracle of miracles, I was a child of God!

I couldn't go to bed that night. A crowd of us walked the shore, singing above the noise of the waves:

Now none but Christ can satisfy.
None other name for me.
There's love and life and joy,
Lord Jesus, found in Thee.

There was a blacksmith in Lewis named John Smith. He was very involved in the revival. In fact, before the revival, he and other elders prayed right through. They took Psalm 24, 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD or who shall stand in His holy place? He that that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.' John Smith once turned to the other elders and said, 'It's absolute humbug for us to be praying like this unless our hands are clean, and our hearts are pure.' And so they united together. They confessed before God. They got right with God and prayed on. I am so glad that when I was away in the world, not interested in the things of God, there were men like these who prayed, and who prayed through.

Does it not give us a hunger in our hearts to see what God can do? 'I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.' How many of us are thirsty? Or, are we like the Laodicean church, neither cold nor hot? I'm here to testify that God is a covenent-keeping God, and that Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd that gave His life for the sheep. The Son of Man who came to seek and to save that which is lost and saved me!

He knew the victorious life to be a fact, he had once lived it! But how to get back was the problem which was breaking his heart.

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