In regard to the Awakening in this District the work is still going on in Lismore but not so successful in Appin. The work has fallen entirely on Mr Munro the Independent Missionary and myself. I have not been free one night since the 16th September except when detained by storms or professional work. The meetings have been kept on every night since that date in Lismore and in Appin since the first week of January. I believe about the fourth of the whole population of Lismore have professed to have undergone a saving change.
In Appin very few have professed, there is an organised resistance and it is telling against the work. Unfortunately the ministers have held aloof and left us to do as we liked. Mr Ross kept meetings in connection with his own congregation but no one came out on the Lord’s side. He is coming to the meetings in Portnacroish also when he has time but is not in touch with the work. In one sense I think it is well that they have left the work alone as they seem to have no faith in the work or in the power of God coming through themselves to their hearers, and do not relish personal dealing with the anxious which is the means God seems to use.
There are many young men in Lismore who are very promising and quite able to carry on the work alone. It is the most blessed work that I ever had the privilege of being engaged in and I believe God would do a great deal more for us were it not for the apathy and opposition of God’s professing people.
The longer I live the more astonished I am that it is those who are paid to preach the Gospel that seem to be devoid of faith in their work and in the power of God to save. There is something wrong in all our churches or in the training of our ministers when such is the case.
A Mackay