13. The Revival at Cambuslang 117
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The Revival at CambuslangWhitefield reached Edinburgh on June 3, 1742. Seven months had passed since his last visit to Scotland, and during that time amazing things had taken place at two parishes near Glasgow: Kilsyth and Cambuslang.
For some time the work of God in these parishes had been at a low ebb. The Rev. William McCulloch of Cambuslang and the Rev. James Robe of Kilsyth had declared, "Things had become so bad with us that there were few that we, as ministers, could comfort as believers in Christ when we found them a-dying."
McCulloch and Robe possessed no outstanding abilities in the pulpit, but sensing their spiritual responsibility they began, in 1741, to perform their labors with increased earnestness. They declared with new fervor the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man, the atonement of Christ, and the need of the new birth.
Then came Whitefield's first visit to Scotland. He preached for a week at Glasgow, and after he left, among the people of Cambuslang and Kilsyth there remained a deeper recognition of the underlying truths of the Scriptures, and a new interest in prayer. This condition continued, and on February 18, 1742, McCulloch reported that at the close of the Bible lecture some fifty people who had come into a state of "considerable distress" went into his dining room, and he "exhorted them throughout the night." Before two months had passed he spoke of the awakened ones as numbering three hundred.
At the same time a similar work was taking place at Kilsyth. Robe reported that on Sunday, May 16, 1742,
An extraordinary power of the Spirit accompanied the word preached. There was a great mourning in the congregation. Many cried out, and these riot only women, but some strong and stouthearted men. . . . The number of them was so great that I was obliged to convene them in the Kirk. . . .1
Like McCulloch, Robe saw many of these people brought to "a saving closure with Christ" and their lives transformed. Overjoyed he exulted,
O praise Him, and tell everyone to praise Him for His mercy to us and that He will stay a long time with us after this sort. O it is a precious visit: He hath wounded and will heal. O let Heaven and earth praise Him!2
The news of these events caused several experienced ministers to visit Cambuslang and Kilsyth, seeking to discover if this was merely a burst of emotion or was truly a work of God. One who inspected this activity was Dr. John Hamilton of Glasgow, and he reported that he witnessed "a repentance that arose, not from a fear of punishment, but from a sense of dishonour done to God." Dr. John Willison stated, "I conversed with many, both men and women, young and old, and could observe nothing enthusiastic [fanatical] about them. Upon the whole I look upon the work at Cambuslang as a singular and marvelous outpouring of the Holy Spirit."
Thus Cambuslang and Kilsyth and in turn much of southern Scotland was prepared for Whitefield's further ministry. Mrs. Whitefield accompanied him. They traveled by coastal vessel, and he wrote, "On board I spent most of my time in secret prayer. . . . Pray that I may be very little in my own eyes, and not rob my dear Master of any part of his glory."
He immediately launched into his ministry, preaching twice a day in Edinburgh's Orphan House Park and expounding each evening. He also visited Glasgow, where he was welcomed "in the name of 20,000," and both there and at several towns en route he witnessed spiritual results.
Whitefield also wrote to Ebenezer Erskine. "I highly value and honour you," he said. "I applaud your zeal for God, and though in some respects I think it to be levelled against me, yet I feel no resentment, and would joyfully sit down and hear you and your brethren preach.... I earnestly pray for you. I could drop a tear. O when shall the time come when the watchmen will see eye to eye?"3
The arrival of Whitefield at Cambuslang provoked a still greater enthusiasm among the people. Services were held outdoors in a large natural amphitheater, and during the first day he preached three times. He reported,
Such a commotion surely was never heard of, especially at eleven at night. . . . For about an hour and a half there was much weeping, so many falling into deep distress and expressing it in various ways....
Mr McCulloch preached after I had ended, till past one in the morning, and then could scarce persuade them to depart. All night in the fields might be heard the voice of prayer and praise. Some young ladies were found by a gentlewoman praising God at break of day. She went and joined with them.4
On the following Sunday the Lord's Supper was observed. It will readily be seen that the scores of persons who had recently been converted would participate with the strongest fervor in this ordinance since it spoke, as McCulloch expressed it, "of Christ as their loving and beloved Lord, reigning in them, reigning over them and reigning for them." Several ministers came also, and two platforms were set up for preaching. The people who intended to partake of the Lord's Supper were examined by pastors, and admission to the Table was by metal tokens, given only to those who gave evidence of being born again.
Services were held throughout the Saturday, the Communion, together with preaching, was conducted on Sunday, and a great final service closed the celebration on the Monday. In a letter to John Cennick Whitefield reported,
On the Sabbath day there were undoubtedly upwards of twenty thousand people. The holy sacrament was celebrated in the fields.
When I began to serve a table the people so crowded upon me that I was obliged to desist and go to preach, whilst the ministers served the rest of the tables. There was preaching all day by one or another, and in the evening, when the sacrament was over, at the request of the ministers I preached to the whole congregation.
On the Monday morning I preached again, but such a universal stir I never saw before. You might have seen thousands bathed in tears . . . mourning over a pierced Saviour.5
Such circumstances moved McCulloch to say, first concerning the work before Whitefield's arrival at Cambuslang,
I have reason to believe that upwards of five hundred souls have been awakened, brought under a deep conviction of sin, and a feeling sense of their lost condition. Most of these have also, I trust, been savingly brought home to God. I do not include in this number such as have been found to be mere pretenders, nor such as have had nothing in their exercise beyond a dread of hell.
And concerning the period of Whitefield's ministry he stated that he did not include them in the number, "because I cannot pretend" to compute them.
Whitefield then went on to preach in other parts of Scotland, and in a month's time he returned to Cambuslang for another Communion service. People came from various sections of the country, many of them walking immense distances, and the total attendance was estimated at thirty thousand. Worship began at 8:30 on the Sunday morning, and the last table was being served at sunset. There were three platforms erected this time, and preaching was conducted throughout the day.
One of the pastors who took part was the very elderly John Bonar—the great-great-grandfather of the now well-known Horatius and Andrew Bonar. He was very frail, and it took him three days to ride the eighteen miles from his home in Torphichen. But being "helped to get up to the platform, he preached three times and with great life."
Again the expression of strong emotions at Cambuslang caused various ministers to examine the persons who experienced them. Dr Alexander Webster reported,
They spoke under a painful sense of sin, not only as the ruin of the creature, but as dishonouring to a kind and loving Saviour.. .. They cannot bear the thought of having so long rejected the Son of God, and despised his endearing calls as set forth in the Gospel.
Being persuaded that he is the only Redeemer they breathe after him under every character; as a king upon his throne, clothed with authority to reign, as well as a priest on the cross, endowed with ability to save. . . . Sensible of their utter inability to believe, how earnestly do they pray, 'Open the everlasting doors of our heart: Come in, thou blessed of the Lord: Be our God and our portion.'6
Certainly some persons suffered extreme emotions during this work at Cambuslang, some in prolonged weeping and almost losing consciousness, but James Robe pointed out that these were only one in five of the number whom they considered to have experienced conversion at this time. The experience of most was much less severe, and the reports of these events were marked by such phrases as "a good deal of decency and regularity," "the spiritual glory of this solemnity," and "profound reverence on every countenance."
Moreover, the Scriptures used in the preaching were not those that particularly speak of judgment. At this second Communion Whitefield preached from, "If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me," and Robe from, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him." Old Mr. Bonar's text was, "Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?," and the other men used such texts as, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?," "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace," and "The friend of the bridegroom rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." Here were Scriptures that depict the glory of the believer's association with Christ, and the phrase "joy unspeakable and full of glory" occurs frequently in the Cambuslang records.
Nevertheless, even while Whitefield was thus experiencing the blessing of God he still met opposition. The men of the Associate Presbytery issued a thirty-two-page pamphlet, The Declaration, Protestation, and Testimony of the Suffering Remnant of the anti-Popish, anti-Lutheran, anti-Prelatic, anti-Whitefieldian, anti-Erastian, anti-Sectarian, true Presbyterian Church of Christ in Scotland. They asserted that "his foul, prelatic hands" had administered the Sacrament to Presbyterians, and that "He is but a scandalous idolater, being a member of the idolatrous Church of England. He is a limb of Anti-Christ, a boar, and a wild beast. . . ,"7 And they asserted the old canard that the money he claimed was for the orphans went largely into his own pocket.
Whitefield made no reply to these men, but in a letter to a friend he stated, "The dear Messrs. Erskine have dressed me in very black colours. Dear Men, I pity them."
Likewise seven pamphlets written in Scotland appeared, each of them caricaturing him. But two that were written in America also gained circulation in Scotland. They asserted that harmful fanatical practices had sprung up in the Colonies in the wake of Whitefield's ministry and that several young men had authorized themselves to preach and were gathering hearers and working them into a frenzy. In view of the extreme emotions experienced at Cambuslang, there were many Scotsmen ready to believe these charges.
But despite such assertions, the great spiritual value of the revival at Cambuslang was evident for all to see. It was not the fruit of sensationalism, showmanship, or entertainment. Rather, as McCulloch stated, ". . . this work was begun and carried on under the influence of the great and substantial doctrines of Christianity." These were the truths preached by McCulloch and Robe, by the various men who took part at Cambuslang, and, above all, by Whitefield.
Nine years later McCulloch again assessed the movement he had witnessed, and he wrote,
This work embraced all classes, all ages and all moral conditions. Cursing, swearing and drunkenness were given up by those who had come under its power. It kindled remorse for acts of injustice, it won forgiveness from the vengeful. It bound pastors and people together with a stronger bond of sympathy. It raised an altar in the household. It made men students of the Word of God and brought them in thought and purpose and effort into communion with their Father in heaven.
True, there was chaff among the wheat, but the watchfulness of ministers detected it, and quickly drove it away.
And for long years afterwards, humble men and women who dated their conversion from the work at Cambuslang, walked among their neighbours with an unspotted Christian name, and then died peacefully in the arms of One they had learned in the revival days to call Lord and Saviour.8