II. REVIVALS AT KILSYTH, ETC.
IN last issue an account was given of the great awakening at Cambuslang in 1742. In that account it was pointed out that the Rev. William MacCulloch had preached for a whole year prior to the awakening on the doctrine of regeneration. It is interesting to observe that Rev. James Robe, minister of Kilsyth had been preaching the same important doctrine to his people for two years before he saw any fruit among the unregenerate, though the doctrine was very acceptable to the Lord’s people. “In the year, 1740,” he says, “I began to preach upon the doctrine of regeneration. The method I followed, by the divine direction, was first to press the importance and necessity of it, which I did from John, iii. 3: ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Next I showed the mysteriousness of the way and manner of the Holy Spirit in affecting it from John iii. 8: ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit,’ ” As stated already the preacher noticed that the sermons were acceptable to the Lord’s people and further that there was a seriousness in listening to them but he could not discern any signs of awakening. Years before he began these sermons, in 1733, upwards of 60 of the people were carried off by a fever in the space of three weeks among whom were many of the most God-fearing in the parish. After this the state of religion grew worse and worse. Drunkenness and other vices abounded. In the summer of 1733, Kilsyth which lies in the Kelvin Valley at the foot of the Campsie Hills about 12 miles from Glasgow was visited with a terrific thunderstorm. The floods came tearing down from the hills carrying thousands of cart loads of stones with them in the Garrel Burn. Some houses were carried away, the crops were completely destroyed, many cattle were drowned.
The people were in dire poverty. Immorality “broke forth and increased to a terrible height” is Mr. Robe’s description. Such was the state of things when he began his sermons on regeneration.
The news of the awakening at Cambuslang cheered his heart and he longed that the fallow ground in the hearts of his people would be turned up and prepared by the Holy Ghost for the good seed of the Kingdom. Mr. Robe told his people of the wonderful awakening at Cambuslang and a few of his people visited the place but he did not notice any serious impression made upon them. Then he heard that in Kirkintilloch, Calder and Campsie that there were people awakened in these parishes and he longed and prayed that some of the rain from heaven would fall on the hearts of his own people. On the 15th April, 1742, Rev. John Willison, Dundee, came to Kilsyth, and Mr. Robe asked him to preach to his people. A great multitude of people met on Friday morning. He preached from Ps. xl. 2, 3: “He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings; and put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” From this “distinct, plain and moving sermon” says Mr. Robe many traced their first serious concern about their soul’s salvation. Next Sabbath Mr. Robe preached from Gal. iv. 19: “My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” He felt deeply moved in reading his text and during the preaching of his sermon he was moved to tears. The people, too, seemed to be seriously impressed.
Mr. Robe continued his sermons on Gal. iv. 19 and the rain from heaven began to come down in copious showers. His prayers were being answered. Mr. Robe reckons that during the period of the revival about 300 were awakened. Kirkintilloch, Cumbernauld, St. Ninians, Gargunnock, Calder, Campsie, Baldernock, Muthil, Killearn, Irvine, Dreghorn, Kilmarnock, Dunipace, Denny, Larbert, and Torphichen, were also blessed with divine showers of blessing.
When at Cambuslang in August, 1742, Mr. MacCulloch suggested to Mr. Robe that the Lord’s Supper should be administered the second time that year. Mr. Robe hesitated until it was made known to him that it was the desire of some in the congregation to have the Supper administered the second time. On the 15th October the Communion services began. Services were held from Thursday to Monday. On Sabbath the services began at 8.30 in the morning and continued without intermission until 8.30 at night. The action sermon was preached by Mr. Robe himself from the text: “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ.” Fifteen hundred people communicated. When all the Tables were served the people though asked to disperse, showed keen desire to hear more of the gospel. The people were deeply moved under the preaching—some cried out, others were in great distress, while others wept as they listened to the gospel. Rev. John Maclaurin, Glasgow, who was one of the preachers at the above Communion referring to the effects on the people says: “It has given particular satisfaction to observe people’s sorrow for sin so strongly influenced by other motives than mere dread of punishment, not excluding the regard due to that likewise; even by an ingenuous sense of the evil of sin, as an offence against so just, so holy, so gracious a God; and so compassionate a Redeemer; so that their convictions appeared to be happy accomplishments of the promise of Zech. xii. 10. It was indeed their looking to Him who was pierced for their sins that seemed chiefly to make them mourn.
Reference has already been made to the various physical bodily effects which characterised so many of the awakened. Later we intend directing attention to the fact that both Mr. MacCulloch and Mr. Robe warned against these bodily effects where there was evidently nothing more. These manifestations were used by some good men as a ground of a sweeping condemnation of the awakening and some even went the length of saying that the whole movement was the work of the Devil. Mr. Robe like Jonathan Edwards discriminated between what was carnal and what was spiritual in these manifestations and in our next issue we hope to give our readers what Mr. Robe had to say in defence of what was genuine in the movement against reckless and unqualified criticism.
In addition to preaching sermons on regeneration Mr. Robe gives the following account of the kind of preaching in which he proclaimed the message to his people: “As to the doctrines I preached in the congregation or elsewhere, there was as much as possible a mixture of the law and the gospel in the same sermon, and I observed such composition most blessed of God. The formerly converted and the awakened who had made progress, were, I perceived, most affected with the sweet truths of the gospel. I have seen the congregation in tears, and crying out, when the gospel of grace from Mount Zion, without any express mixture of the law, was preached. It is true indeed, that several of the awakened have had their spiritual distress increased thereby, as also some of the secure have been awakened; but then it was from their being convinced that they had as yet no interest in these glorious blessings and so were miserable, and that it would be the worst part of their eternal misery to be deprived of them! And thus it was as terrible to them to hear heaven preached of as hell, seeing they saw themselves shut out from it by their unbelief. I observed that the far greater part of every public audience were secure, unconcerned, and fearless, and therefore I preached the terrors of the law in the strongest terms I could that is to say, in express Scripture terms. I feared to daub or deal slightly with them, but told great and small, that they were the children of the Devil while they were in a state of unbelief, and that if they continued so to the end, in our Lord’s plain terms, they would be damned. I resolved that I would cry aloud and not spare, and preach with that seriousness and fervour that became me as knowing that my hearers must either be prevailed with or be damned; and that they might discern I was in good earnest with them, and really meant as I spoke. And lest any should ascribe the effect of these sermons to the subject, I observed to my hearers frequently that they had often heard these truths preached to them with as great keenness without any such visible effect. I can instance and show sermons containing the terrors of the law that I have preached many years ago without known success which I have again preached now, in weaker terms with great success; so that all might see that it is not from man, but from the Spirit of the Lord, that there is so great a difference as to efficacy.