Findlater himself preached in Lawers on the Sabbath following “the great sacrament” at Lochtayside, to one of the largest congregations he had seen, except at communion seasons. People were still very much impressed. Many were in tears, a few noticeably so. The preacher spoke to one of them and noted that he “seemed to be deeply convinced of his lost situation”. But aware of the danger of sinners turning back, he added, “We must join trembling with our mirth”. Awakenings continued for many months, and large numbers of people from four other parishes came to listen to Findlater’s preaching; in particular more than 100 came from Glenlyon, some of them walking 15 miles each way. Most of the people from Glenlyon were present even when Findlater was preaching in Ardeonaig, on the far side of Loch Tay, and they came even in bad weather.
Scarcely a Sabbath passed without one or two souls being awakened. In early 1817 Findlater preached for more than one Sabbath on the verse: “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of My people recovered?” (Jer 8:22). Among the many who received a blessing from these sermons was Duncan Campbell from Glenlyon, who for the first time was awakened to a sense of his need of the Saviour. Duncan Campbell was to become a minister, latterly in the parish of Kiltearn, where Findlater had been brought up. Campbell’s brother David also became a minister; he spent his final years as Free Church minister of Lawers.2
John Macdonald returned to assist Robert Findlater at the communion season in September 1817. There were signs of God’s blessing at all the services, but particularly on the Monday, when Macdonald preached from Ruth 1:16: “And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee . . .”. The sermon was described as “one of the most powerful and effective” that he ever preached in the district. His words “seems to move and to constrain even the most careless. Many were deeply affected and agitated both in mind and body.” Findlater’s brother and biographer expressed the hope that there were a number of conversions that day. He also noted that “seldom did a Sabbath pass without one or more being brought to ask the way, with their faces Zionward” (pp 196-7) – under Robert Findlater’s preaching.
In late November of the same year, John Macdonald was expected to preach at Lochtayside on his way back from a visit to Edinburgh. A large congregation gathered for the Sabbath to hear the noted preacher, but because he had sprained his ankle, he could not come. Findlater had to take his place, somewhat unprepared. He spoke on: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). He preached with a particular degree of unction and the people listened with interest. There was less crying aloud than was sometimes the case under Macdonald’s preaching, but the greater part of the congregation was moved to tears. Wisely, no figures are given of the number who received a blessing for their souls that day, but “it was truly a time of reviving and refreshing to many from the presence of the Lord” (p 198) – a statement which suggests that the blessing fell more on those who were already converted. In any case, the Lord was demonstrating His sovereignty as to which instrument He would use when pouring out His Spirit.
Findlater himself wrote that, on the Sabbath morning, he was obliged to go out “and address about 4000 people met to hear the dear man [Macdonald]. It was a solemn scene, to me at least, in the first instance, and I trust it was solemn to others, though our disappointment was great. The Lord was with us indeed. The scene was melting; it was a Bochim (see Judges 2), for I have never witnessed such a scene under my own poor preaching. Thus the Lord helped me, and I trust countenanced His own Word. There was nothing violent, but a general lamentation; and really I could not discover a wandering or careless eye. It almost overpowered me, and it was all under the free offers of the gospel, for I had little or none of the threatenings that day” (pp 206-7).
Indeed he wrote on another occasion: “It is remarkable that almost all of [the converts] have been brought under concern by the free offers of the gospel; and I have often observed, when the terrors of the law have been declared, they seemed rather to harden the hearers more . . . Such, however, is the influence of the cross, when accompanied with divine power, that it brings down the most stout-hearted . . . it was when they viewed their punishment in the cross of Christ that their sin was exceeding sinful in their eyes.” Yet it would be easy to push these observations much too far by suggesting that there should be very little preaching of the law. Findlater also noted the great concern of those awakened “lest they should return again to their former careless way of living, and lest they should be given up to themselves, as they so justly deserved”. He noted also their fear “that their concern is not of the right kind and [they] are much afraid they may turn back to the world and become a reproach to the cause of religion” (pp 214-5).
God’s blessing on His Word was to continue in the district until Findlater left for Inverness. “One now and then was brought under concern,” we are told, “and such as were previously awakened [were] growing in grace, and edified and encouraged” through his preaching. His ministry, it is added, was particularly suited to lead sinners “to the only true source of solid peace, and to their establishment in the faith of the gospel” (p 199).
In a letter, which he emphasised was private and confidential, Findlater referred to “the number of hopeful converts”. He did not feel able to give an exact figure for the whole period of revival, but said that “there appear to be upwards of 100 persons with whom, we trust, the Lord has dealt in a gracious manner . . . including all ages, from eight years old to the advanced age of 80” (p 212). It was acknowledged that some who appeared to have experienced a saving change were in fact stony-ground hearers; whatever they initially appeared to be, they did not endure. And it was observed that “the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life have been the principal causes of their falling from their steadfastness” (p 200). Yet, besides true conversions, there was a significant change in the outward behaviour of people generally, most noticeably in their keeping of the Sabbath, in attending public worship and reading the Bible. Such sins as drunkenness and swearing disappeared from the district. It seems that the greatest effects of this revival were to be seen in Glenlyon, which was not actually part of the district to which Findlater had been appointed.
His efforts were not confined to Lochtayside. At the end of 1817 John Russel, the minister of Muthil, near Crieff, wrote to invite him to the communion season to take place the following March. John Macdonald was also to be invited and, in his letter to Findlater, Russell referred to the previous such occasion when both these ministers took part. He believed that their work had “been blessed to many” during that former visit. Since then, Russell had “observed a new edge put upon the attention of my people to divine things” (p 193).
In early 1818 Findlater was writing, “There is indeed a thirst for the gospel here, and I trust the effects of it are seen – though, alas, it is to be lamented there is some falling away among some in Glenlyon. This is what might be expected, and it is wonderful there is not more, but it is grieving when the cause of God is traduced on account of the inconsistent conduct of some false” professed Christians. He went on: “There are many truly exercised Christians in Glenlyon who are acquiring knowledge and wisdom by the experience of others. . . . Let us be earnest at the throne of grace that the influences of His Spirit may be poured out in an abundant manner; then there is nothing too hard to be accomplished” (p 217).
Yet by 1819 Findlater was afraid that the Lord’s work had come to a standstill, though he was occasionally seeing some who professed to get good from the gospel. That year he was summoned to appear before the Presbytery of Dunkeld, along with other ministers employed by the SSPCK, to answer charges related to the revival; many of these charges were particularly directed against John Macdonald. This was the result of the Moderatism that was prevalent in the Presbytery. The SSPCK ministers, not being parish ministers, were not members of Presbytery, but Findlater, who acted as spokesman for the SSPCK men, was able to convince the Presbytery that the charges were without foundation.
At the beginning of 1820, Findlater was reporting, with thankfulness, that a spirit of inquiry still existed: “Though we have to lament that the eagerness of desire manifested two years ago is not so visible, yet most of those who profess to receive the gospel are adorning its doctrines by a becoming life . . . . And though there may be some who have lost these impressions under which they were, yet except a very few instances, we have heard of none who have returned to the open practices of sin.” In those who were following Christ, he noted “a striking tenderness of conscience . . . in avoiding the follies to which they were formerly so much addicted; and a deep concern for not only knowing more of the gospel, but also for feeling its power and growing into a conformity to the image of Christ” (pp 227-8). But after 1818 Findlater’s ministry was largely used in comforting those who had already shown evidence of a saving change, and establishing them in the faith – “urging upon them the necessity of holiness, growth in grace, warning them against backsliding, and exhorting them to the cultivation of the Christian temper” (p 334).
In 1818 someone recorded the experience, in their own words, of 10 people who professed conversion during the revival. All of them had witnessed a good confession, but some of them were still alive when Findlater’s Memoirs was completed in 1840; accordingly no names are given. They are only distinguished by letters. What follows are summaries of some of these accounts.
The first was AB, outwardly an upright woman, who was aged about 45. She had often experienced some serious concern for her soul and felt moved when hearing Christ offered in the gospel. But when listening to John Macdonald preach at Ardeonaig at the communion season in September 1816, she was convinced that she was still unsaved; she felt the words, “Our God is a consuming fire”, pierce her heart. “I wonder”, she said, “He did not take vengeance on me that instant, as I richly deserved it.” On the Monday, a woman said to her, “It was a mercy that ever Mr Macdonald came to these places”. AB could not answer but thought to herself: “That indeed may be a mercy to others, but I cannot see it a mercy”; she was so taken up with her “miserable state”.
Around three weeks later, she heard that Findlater was to preach, probably in her district. Then she heard that he was not to preach and she concluded, foolishly, that there was no mercy for her. Eventually she began to read near the end of Acts and continued on to 1 Corinthians 12:3: “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost”. These words delivered her from her anguish. Five or so days later, she states, “I was led to an exceedingly clear view of my interest in Christ. At this joyful sight, I was so much enabled to exercise faith in Him that, if I had ten thousand souls, I would, without doubt or scruple, put them all to Him.”
She assumed that every convert would have as clear a sense of having been converted as herself and avoided everyone whom she considered unregenerate. She said, “All sinful thoughts were banished. Nothing occupied my mind but thoughts about redemption, eternity, grace and glory. But since that time, with what strength have those former inhabitants re-entered to take full possession of my heart!” She even concluded that her experiences “were all a strong delusion and [I] wished a thousand times that I never made such a profession”. Yet she could not deny that she had “often been relieved either by a passage of Scripture or at the throne of grace” (pp 235-40).
1The previous section of this Theological Conference paper appeared last month and told of Findlater moving to Lochtayside, in Perthshire, as a missionary minister and the beginning of a spiritual awakening in the district. It told particularly of the communion season which became known locally as “the great sacrament”, when the main preacher was John Macdonald, Ferintosh. All page references that are otherwise unidentified are from: William Findlater, Memoir of the Rev Robert Findlater, Glasgow, 1840.