APRIL 29
Psalm 85:6, “Will you not revive us again?”
The heartfelt cry of the psalmist — “Will You not revive us again?”—has echoed through the generations as the enduring plea of God’s people. In 1863, William Paton MacKay (1839–1885), a Scottish doctor, Presbyterian minister, and hymn writer, captured this longing in his well-known hymn, “Revive Us Again.” His own story of personal revival is both remarkable and deeply encouraging.
Raised in a devout Christian home, William was grounded in the faith by his godly mother. However, upon entering the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, he drifted into moral decline and heavy drinking. His spiritual descent reached a low point when he pawned the very Bible his mother had lovingly given him.
As a physician, MacKay regularly witnessed the contrast between patients who died with peace through faith in Christ and those who passed without hope. Yet, by his own admission, he was becoming a “thorough infidel.” That path changed when a critically injured young laborer was brought into the hospital.
MacKay later recalled: “My dear mother… had been a godly, pious woman, quite often telling me of the Savior… But nothing had made a deep impression on me. The older I grew, the more wicked I became….”
The dying man, fully aware of his condition, asks only to see his landlady—to settle a small debt and to request “The Book.” MacKay visited him daily and was struck by the man’s peace: “What struck me most was the quiet, almost happy expression constantly on his face….”
After the man’s passing, the nurse held up a book and asks, “‘What shall we do with this?’… ‘The Bible of the poor man…. As long as he was able to read it, he did so, and when he was unable to do so anymore, he kept it under his bed cover.'”
To MacKay’s astonishment, the Bible was his own: “My name was still in it, written in my mother’s hand….” Gripped by conviction, he reflected: “It had given comfort… in his last hours… a guide… into eternal life… And this Book… I had actually sold for a ridiculous price…. Be it sufficient to say that the regained possession of my Bible was the cause of my conversion.”
“Revive us again, fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.”—William Mackay
Application Questions: What would revival look like in your own life? In what ways can MacKay’s story encourage you regarding the influence of your life on the others around you?
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