Book Review: Holy Spirit Now Descend (Haykin)

This book review was prepared for The Banner of Truth Magazine (https://www.e-n.org.uk/).

Holy Spirit Now Descend: Thomas Davis and the Evangelical Revival in Georgian Berkshire

Michael A. G. Haykin

Ettrick Press, 2022

190pp., pbk, £5.95

While largely unknown today, Thomas Davis was a leading Particular Baptist pastor during the eighteenth century. In this succinct and stimulating work, Haykin introduces us to him and the lessons we can learn from his example. When Davis commenced his ministry in Reading, the church was bitterly divided and severely diminished. Davis himself later described it as ‘a drooping, dying cause.’ However, his passionate evangelistic preaching and prayerful ministry were used to bring about an astonishing renewal. Within a year of ordination, Davis had baptised more new believers than he had started with at Reading. As a similarly astonishing harvest continued year after year, it was clear that the Holy Spirit had descended, and revival had come. After twenty-five years of Davis’ ministry, the flock had grown to one of the largest Baptist congregations in the country. However, Haykin shows he was not only a powerful evangelist, but also a prolific church planter in the surrounding towns and villages. He was passionate about training new pastors for these works. The book traces the stories of such men, revealing the eventual fruit of Davis’ labour. His impact was even felt beyond the boundaries of the Baptist denomination. Davis resolutely held and actively promoted Baptist convictions during his ministry, including closed communion, regardless of the apparent cost to his popularity. However, he also exhibited enthusiastic engagement in the emerging evangelical movement, befriending both Anglicans and Congregationalists and working with them wherever possible. All in all, Davis is a model of the kind of men and ministries that so many congregations need today. Used for God’s glory, even if they are forgotten by human history. Read his story to remind yourself of the wonders that the Lord can work, and let your heart be stirred to prayerfully pursue the same today. May the Holy Spirit now descend!