THE CAMBUSLANG REVIVAL by Arthur Fawcett.
Published by the Banner of Truth Trust, 256 pages, £6.95. Obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom, 133 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3 6LE
This account of the Scottish Evangelical Revival of the 18th century is said by the publishers to have “thrilled readers when first published in 1971”. It is as interesting today as it was then, and we recommend it as enjoyable and most profitable reading.
The Cambuslang Revival is a well documented work and the author quotes freely from contemporary accounts of the remarkable events in Cambuslang, Kilsyth, and other centres of revival. Among these sources are the Kirk Session records of Cambuslang; a record of cases of conversions written by the Rev. William M’Culloch, minister at Cambuslang at the time of the revival; and A Faithful Narrative of the Extraordinary Work of the Spirit of God at Kilsyth by the Rev. James Robe of Kilsyth. Fawcett comments in the introduction, “I have taken care to preserve quotations exactly with all the colourful variety of spelling, grammar, capital letters and so on.” This approach to the subject brings the reader nearer to the events and the people involved in them, and helps to bring the narrative alive.
Though our generation has not known such a work of the Holy Spirit which revived believers and awakened spiritually dead sinners in large numbers, it is heart warming to read an account of it. We would do well to remember that God is the same God still. One heartening aspect of this account of God’s sovereign work in the Cambuslang revival is that the author emphasises that it was effected by the use of the ordinary means of grace. “The work,” he says, “was no foreign importation but had issued from the faithful preaching and labours of a somewhat colourless parish minister.” The Scottish revivals of the 18th century were not the result of modern-style evangelistic planning and organising, but a display of the power of God, quickening whom He would. This is highlighted by the fact that the parish where the work began was not the most spiritually promising when Mr. M’Culloch came to it in 1731, and where he laboured for eleven years with little obvious fruit.
When we read that in July 1742 a crowd of about twenty thousand gathered at Cambuslang on the communion Sabbath, and an estimated 1,700 communicants sat at the Lord’s Table; and when we add to this the recorded experiences of sinners truly convinced of sin and then brought to joy and peace in believing; and the great and lasting changes in lives, congregations and communities, we can only say that it was the wondrous doing of the Lord.
The author brings out the care exercised by the ministers, who were the Lord’s instruments in the work, to avoid the extremes and excesses which at times accompanied and marred some revivals. He comments shrewdly, “Religious opinion in Scotland was inexorably bound up with the Bible, the Psalter and the Shorter Catechism. Devotees of the mystic way, hearers of the inaudible and those who saw great lights were regarded with suspicion. Everything had to be tested by and brought to the plain words of Holy Writ.” An indication of the searching nature of Mr. M’Culloch’s own preaching is seen in his saying that “they that had got a light within them and joy, and trusted therein more than in Christ’s righteousness, were free to shake hands with the Quakers”. The same discretion was used in assessing the abiding results of the revival. The low place the ministers took in the midst of the work is shown by Mr. Robe’s words: “Ministers are but instruments… no praise was due to the rams’ horns, though Jericho’s walls fell down at their blast.”
Dr. Fawcett has written a very readable and carefully researched account in which the details of the revival are well authenticated. Such a thorough examination is not only useful in its own right but serves to highlight the hollowness and lightness of much of what has passed for revival since then.
The book deals not only with the work at Cambuslang but also that at Kilsyth, drawing largely on Rev. James Robe’s Faithful Narrative. Also referred to are smaller movements in such diverse places as Golspie, Nigg and Rosskeen.
What an untold blessing it would be if the reading of this book were the means of stirring up many to pray for another such outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon poor sin-darkened Scotland. It is recommended reading for all who long and pray for the reviving of the cause of Christ in Scotland.
(Rev.) D. J. MacDonald
REVIVAL YEAR SERMONS — Preached in the Surrey Music Hall 1859 by C. H. Spurgeon.
Publishers: Banner of Truth Trust. Paperback, 150 pages, £2.95. Obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom, 133 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, G3 6LE
This book, Revival Year Sermons, has five sermons preached by C. H. Spurgeon when only twenty-four years old to vast congregations, between March and December 1859, and which are entitled; The Story of God’s Mighty Acts (Ps 44:1), The Blood of the Everlasting Covenant (Heb 13:20), The Necessity of the Spirit’s Work (Ezek 36:27), Predestination and Calling (Rom 8:30) and The Minister’s Farewell (Acts 20:26, 27). It also has a ten-page introduction by the publishers.
The book is a reproduction of material initially issued in 1959. The publishers, in remembrance of the stirring events of 1859, are endeavouring to foster a renewed desire for religious revival, promote a return to Calvinistic preaching, and counter hyper-Calvinism on the one extreme hand and Arminianism on the other.
The sermons are described as being typical of Spurgeon’s ministry at the time. Each one centres upon Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of the elect, and the Saviour of sinners. Spurgeon abhorred Christ-less preaching: “That is no gospel which has not Christ in it, and the modern idea of preaching THE TRUTH instead of Christ is a wicked device of Satan” (page 82). His preaching discloses a heart full of Christ, and longing that many vile and wretched sinners would savingly find Christ as He offers Himself directly in the Scriptures.
The sermons are also clearly Calvinistic. The five points of Calvinism: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Definite Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Final Perseverance, permeate each one. Also, the humanly irreconcilable Biblical doctrines of Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are discerningly presented. He says, “But he is not faithful to God – I say it solemnly, I do not believe that any man is even faithful to his own conscience, who can preach simply the doctrine of sovereignty, and neglect to insist upon the doctrine of responsibility. I do assuredly believe that any man who sinks into hell shall have himself alone to curse for it. . . The apostle Paul knew how to dare public opinion, and on the one hand to preach the duty of man, and on the other the sovereignty of God. . . God hath absolute and unlimited power over men to do with them as He pleases, even as the potter doth with clay. . . But when I preach concerning man, and look to the other aspect of truth, I dive to the utmost depth. I am, if you will so call me, a low-doctrine man in that, for an honest messenger of Christ I must use His own language and cry: ‘He that believeth not is condemned already, because he believeth not on the Son of God’ I do not see that the whole counsel of God is declared unless these two apparently contradictory points are brought out and plainly taught” (page 84).
During that period many people became candidates for baptism and church membership (page 15). However, none of the eligible infants in the congregation were baptised because of Spurgeon’s antipaedobaptistic stance. It is “a great sin to condemn and neglect this ordinance,” says the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF). He also failed to appreciate the distinction between an accredited and an uncontradicted profession of faith in Jesus Christ (page 15). As well, he advocated that the proper mode of baptism was total immersion exclusively (pages 21, 22, 56, 58). The Confession scripturally states that “dipping of the person into the water is not necessary; but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person” (W.C.F. 28:3).
Regrettably, fifteen quotations from man-made hymns are used to support various observations, (the use of Scripture instead would have been more effective), and the heathenish term Sunday is employed on several occasions in preference to the Scriptural word Sabbath. Some misquoted Scripture verses and spelling errors detract a little from the general presentation.
Nevertheless, we wish the book a wide circulation. The sermons are instructive, stimulating and refreshing. They provide a timely reaffirmation of the free offer of the gospel in opposition to its many enemies. The remembrance of revival may stimulate some to be pleading in prayer for the return of preaching which, by the power of God, will have a saving effect upon many.
(Rev.) B. Whear
We rejoice in hope. We have many and express assurances in the Scriptures of the general and universal spread and reign of Christianity, which are not yet accomplished. Nothing has yet taken place in the history of Divine grace, wide enough in extent,…. magnificent enough in glory, to do anything like justice to these predictions and promises. Better days, therefore, are before us, notwithstanding the forebodings of many.
William Jay, 1769-1853