Something that I found out only recently, was that in some of their meetings Wesley and Whitefield experienced people laughing, falling to the ground, and apparently even barking like dogs. Wesley wasn't too keen on this, but Whitefield said it was fine if it was from God.
I thought those things were marks of the Toronto blessing, a fairly recent manifestaion of the Spirit.
I didn't realise the Spirit had been moving in that way in the 1700's.
You know I checked up on revival history through the years, many stopped or were cut short because those manifestations were taking place and folk were scared of them.
There were plenty of such instances in the 18th-century awakenings. During an extemporaneous lecture in 1741, for example, a Scottish minister asked, "Where is the fruit of my poor labours among this people?" At this some of his parishioners cried out, in the most public manner, of their lost and undone condition, saying, they now saw hell open for them, and heard the shrieks of the damned and expressed their agony not only in words, but by clapping their hands, beating their breasts, terrible shakings, frequent faintings and convulsions; the minister often calling out to them, not to stifle or smother the convictions, but encouraged them." At a communion service during the next year in Scotland attended by some 30,000, "some of both sexes, and all ages, from the stoutest man to the tenderest child," wrote a participant, "shake and tremble, and a few fall down as dead."
Revivals listed here.
http://www.christianword.org/revival.shtml
1. Eighteenth Century
1727 - Wednesday, 13 August - Herrnhut, Germany (Nicholas von Zinzendorf)
1735 - January - New England, America (Jonathan Edwards)
1739 - Thursday 1 January - London (George Whitefield, John Wesley)
1745 - Thursday 8 August - Crossweeksung, New Jersey (David Brainerd)
1781 - Tuesday 25 December - Cornwall, England
2. Nineteenth Century
1800 - June-July - Red & Gasper River, Kentucky (James McGready)
1801 - Cane Ridge, Kentucky (Barton Stone)
1821 - Wednesday 10 October - Adams, America (Charles Finney)
1857 - October - Hamilton, Canada (Phoebe Palmer)
1858 - March - New York, America (Jeremiah Lanphier)
1859 - Monday 14 March - Ulster, Ireland (James McQuilkin)
3. Early Twentieth Century
1904 - Monday 31 October - Loughor, Wales (Evan Roberts)
1906 - Saturday 14 April - Azusa Street, Los Angeles (William Seymour)
1907 - January - Pyong-Yang, Korea
1914 - Belgian Congo in Africa (C. T. Studd)
1921 - Monday 7 March - Lowestroft, England (Douglas Brown)
1936 - Sunday 29 June - Gahini, Rwanda (East African Revival)
4. Mid-twentieth Century
1949 - Hebrides Islands, Scotland (Duncan Campbell)
1951 - Monday 4 June - City Bell, Argentina (Ed Miller)
1965 - Sunday 26 September - Soe, Timor (Mel Tari)
1970 - Tuesday 3 February - Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky
1970 - July-August - Solomon Islands (Muri Thompson)
1971 - Wednesday 13 October - Saskatoon, Canada (Bill McCleod)
1973 - September - Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Todd Burke)
1973 - Sunday 16 September - Enga District, Papua New Guinea
5. Late Twentieth Century
1977 - Thursday 10 March - Min District, Papua New Guinea (Diyos Wapnok)
1979 - Wednesday 14 March - Elcho Island, Australia (Ginijini Gondarra)
1979 - Sunday 13 May - Anaheim, Los Angeles (John Wimber)
1984 - Thursday 14 June - Brugam, Papua New Guinea (Ray Overend)
1988 - North Solomon Islands Province, Papua New Guinea (Jobson Misang)
1988 - Thursday 4 August - Kambaidam, Papua New Guinea (Johan van Bruggen)
1988 - Madruga, Cuba
1989 - Henan and Anhul, China
6. Final Decade, Twentieth Century
1993 - Sunday 2 May - Brisbane, Australia (Neil Miers)
1994 - Thursday 20 January - Toronto, Canada (John Arnott, Randy Clark)
1994 - Sunday 29 May - Brompton, London (Eleanor Mumford)
1994 - Sunday 14 August - Sunderland, England (Ken Gott)
1995 - Sunday 1 January - Melbourne, Florida (Randy Clark)
1995 - Sunday 15 January - Modesto, California (Glenn and Debbie Berteau)
1995 - January - Pasadena, California (John Arnott)
1995 - Sunday 22 January - Brownwood, Texas (College Revivals)
1995 - Sunday 18 June - Pensacola, Florida (Steve Hill)
http://www.christianword.org/revival/cart.htm
Campmeeting fire
by Peter Cartwright 1785-1872
Peter Cartwright was a Methodist circuit rider. The following excerpts describing the events of the Cane Ridge Revival are taken from Autobiography of Peter Cartwright (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984).
"The power of God was wonderfully displayed; scores of sinners fell under the preaching, like men slain in mighty battle; Christians shouted aloud for joy." (p. 38)
"I have seen more than a hundred sinners fall like dead men under one powerful sermon, and I have seen and heard more than five hundred Christians all shouting aloud the high praises of God at once; and I will venture to assert that many happy thousands were awakened and converted to God at these camp meetings......
"There were many other strange and wild exercises into which the subjects of this revival fell; such, for instance, as what was called the running, jumping, barking exercise. The Methodist preachers generally preached against this extravagant wildness. I did it uniformly in my little ministrations, and sometimes gave great offense; but I feared no consequences when I felt my awful responsibilities to God" (p. 46).
The experiences of Pensacola and Toronto are not new.
