Articles
A Lost And Found Bible
We praise Thee, O God!
For the Son of Thy love,
For Jesus Who died,
And is now gone above.
Revive us again;
Fill each heart with Thy love;
May each soul be rekindled
With fire from above.
Refrain:
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Hallelujah! Amen.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Revive us again.
In the annals of hymnody, few stories are as compelling and transformative as that of “Revive Us Again” and its author, Dr. William MacKay. Born in 1839, William Paton MacKay was raised in a spiritual environment by his devout mother. Despite this foundation, his transition to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine marked the beginning of a departure from the principles he was raised on. The pressures and temptations of academic life may have led him down a path of heavy drinking and moral decline, to the point where he even pawned the very Bible his mother had given him as a keepsake and spiritual guide.
MacKay’s professional life as a doctor brought him face-to-face with human suffering and the stark differences between those who had faith in Jesus Christ and those who did not. Despite recognizing these differences, MacKay continued on a path that he feared would lead him to become a “thorough infidel.” However, the course of his life was irrevocably altered by an encounter with a young mason’s helper who was brought into the emergency room with life-threatening injuries. While lingering for some time before his passing, the young man clung to his Bible, reading it until he could read no longer. Once he passed, it was asked what they would do with his few possessions, including the Bible. When MacKay picked it up, he realized it was his own Bible that he pawned away so many years before! In his own words:
It was my own Bible! The Bible which my mother had given me when I left my parents’ home... My name was still in it, written in my mother’s hand….
With a deep sense of shame I looked upon… the precious Book. It had given comfort and refreshing to the unfortunate man in his last hours. It had been a guide to him into eternal life, so that he had been enabled to die in peace and happiness. And this Book, the last gift of my mother, 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.
