Sounds From Heaven

Title: Sounds from Heaven
Authors: Colin and Mary Peckham
Publisher: Christian Focus Publications, UK
Available from: Good Christian bookshops in the UK and from the authors. Available in selected outlets in USA and South Africa.
ISBN: 1-85792-953-5

Extact from the book: Chapter One

The Hebrides is a series of islands forty miles west of the most northerly part of Scotland. Lewis is the most northerly island and Harris is attached to it in the south, forming one island about sixty miles long with a population of about 25,000 people. South of Harris the line of islands extends southwards: North Uist, Benbecula, Grimsay, South Uist and Barra as well as smaller inhabited islands such as Bernera (Lewis) and Berneray (Harris). Ths islands are the first to face the might of the Atlantic gales and their bleak, windswept treeless topography bears witness to the effect of the severe weather.

The stretch of water between the mainland of Scotland and the Hebrides is called the Minch and the currents there are such that the seafaring men of Lewis would say that it is one of the choppiest waters to negotiate. At the time of the 1949 revival the sailings to Lewis were from Kyle of Lochalsh and Mallaig to Stornoway and these journeys would take about seven hours. Seven hours on a small rollowing and pitching vessel is something to be endured not enjoyed, so the Hebrides were not the popular desitnation of tourists and they retained their isoltaed position. Today there are several sailings to and from different ports and the sailing time has been enormously reduced. The ease of roll-on, roll-off car ferries makes travel there so much more accessible.

Stornoway, with a population of about 10,000 is the only town on Lewis. Although there are very rural and lonely places on Lewis and Harris most of the folk kive in more or less compact villages, mainly in the coastal areas. In several places these villages are so near to each other as to constitute a large community within the compass of a few miles. The general area of Ness in the very north, for instance, has fourteen villages, one of which is Port-of-Ness. It is here that Mary gre up in a home overlooking the harbour and a stretch of beautiful sand.

At the time of the 1949 revival the people were largely occupied in working on their crofts (small-holdings of about siz acres) and weaving on looms in sheds on their property, and it is here that the famous Harris tweed is produced. Because very few people owned cars, folk were not able to travel freely and the communities were very much self-contained units where many people knew each other.

Many of the men wntered the merchant navy or some other branch of shipping, and Lewismen were to be found on ships all over the world. This was much more so in the fifties than today when many young people migrate south to the cities to find work. Lewis people are instincively and traditionally relogious, with reverence for God, His Word and the ordinances of the church.

Parts of Scotland spoke Gaelic in the eighteenth century. There was a period when the language was actually banned because of political strife, but it quickly recovered and was retained in some parts of the Highlands. All the country areas of Lewis and Harris speak Gaelic, shile Stornoway is much more English-speaking. To a large extent Gaelic has died out in most of the Highlands. At present there is a concerted attempt to save and propgate the language through the media and through a few Gaelic-medium schools springing up in various parts of the country.

The 1949-53 revival took place in the country districts of Lewis, so it was conducted wholly in the Gaelic language, using the Gaelic Bible. To the unitiated, Gaelic is not simple a Scottish dialect of English, it is an entirely different Celtic language, no word of which would be intelligible to an English-speaking person.

The great Uig revival of the early nineteenth century was known on the mainland of Scotland. Many of the revivals which followed in Lewis were also known but because of its isolated position these were not fully investigated nor recorded by the churches nor by any of the local population. The revivals followed one another in different places, bringing great blessing to the people but were not proclaimed abroad in any great measure, lest the people would be deemed to be boastful and would feel that they were grieving the Spirit.

The difference with the 1949 revival was that the man who was greatly used in this movement, Rev Duncan Campbell, was from the mainland of Scotland. The wonder of it was that although he was from the English-speaking mainland, he also spoke Gaelic, and those spoke to the hearts of the people in their mother tongue, giving him acceptance with the people far more so than if this had not been the case. When he returned to the mainland, he took with him the story of the revival and this news then burst upon the world scene. It was hailed as "The Lewis Revival" as if this were the only revival that Lewis had known, which of course is far from the truth.