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Evangelists and Their Hearers: Popular Interpretation of Revivalist Preaching in Eighteenth-Century Scotland
Author(s): Ned LandsmanReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of British Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Apr., 1989), pp. 120-149Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The North American Conference on British
Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/175592 .
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Evangelists
and
Their
Hearers:
Popular
Interpretation
of
Revivalist
Preaching
in Eighteenth-CenturyScotland
Ned Landsman
The
most
persistentdifficultyconfronting
historical
nterpreters
f
popularreligionin the early modernworld is that of establishing he
relationship
between
ideas enunciated
by
religious
leaders
and those
held
by
their hearers.
The
causes of
that
uncertainty
are
obvious;
where
historical materials for
the
former are
plentiful,
sources that
address the latter
are
far more
difficult
o obtain. The
great
majority
of
evidence that we have
concerning
ay
religiosity
derives
from
clerical
rather
than
lay
sources,
and most of
it
tells
us
more about
religious
behaviorthan belief.
Even
those
rare
accounts
we have that
purport
o
narrate the
spiritualexperiences
of
ordinary people
tend to be
both
unrepresentative
nd
stylized,
to the
point
where the ultimate
mplica-
tions
of
such materials
for
understanding
popular
belief
often are
far
from certain.1
Problems of documentation
lead
to
equally
significant
but less
often
noted distortions
in
perspective.
Where
they
have lacked
ade-
quate
source materials
for
recovering
the
mental world of
the
laity,
NED
LANDSMANs
associate
professor
of
history
at the State
University
of
New York
at Stony Brook.
1
For
some useful
general
discussions
of
the
problems
of
interpreting opular
re-
ligiosity,
see
Natalie
Zemon
Davis,
Some
Tasks and Themes in the
Study
of
Popular
Religion,
in
The Pursuit
of
Holiness in
Late Medieval
and
Renaissance
Religion,
ed.
Charles
Trinkausand Heiko A. Oberman
(Leiden,
1974),
pp.
307-36;
Peter
Burke,
Popular
Culture
in
Early
Modern
Europe
(New
York, 1978);
Stuart
Clark,
French
Historiansand
Early
Modem
Popular
Culture,
Past and
Present,
no. 100
(1978),
pp.
62-99;
Jon
Butler,
Magic,
Astrology,
and
the
Early
American
Religious Heritage,
1600-1760,
American
HistoricalReview 84
(1979):317-46;
David
Hall,
The Worldof
and
Collective
Mentality
n
Seventeenth
Century
New
England,
n
New
Direc-
tions in
American Intellectual
History,
ed.
John
Higham
and Paul M.
Conkin
(Baltimore,
1979),
pp.
66-81;
and
JohnVan
Engen,
The Christian
Middle
Ages
as a
Historiographic
Problem, American Historical Review 91 (1986): 519-52.
Journal
of
British
Studies
28
(April
1989):
120-149
?
1989
by
The North American
Conference
on British Studies.
All
rights
reserved. 0021-9371/89/2802-0002$01.00
Evangelists
and
Their
Hearers:
Popular
Interpretation
of
Revivalist
Preaching
in Eighteenth-CenturyScotland
Ned Landsman
The
most
persistentdifficultyconfronting
historical
nterpreters
f
popularreligionin the early modernworld is that of establishing he
relationship
between
ideas enunciated
by
religious
leaders
and those
held
by
their hearers.
The
causes of
that
uncertainty
are
obvious;
where
historical materials for
the
former are
plentiful,
sources that
address the latter
are
far more
difficult
o obtain. The
great
majority
of
evidence that we have
concerning
ay
religiosity
derives
from
clerical
rather
than
lay
sources,
and most of
it
tells
us
more about
religious
behaviorthan belief.
Even
those
rare
accounts
we have that
purport
o
narrate the
spiritualexperiences
of
ordinary people
tend to be
both
unrepresentative
nd
stylized,
to the
point
where the ultimate
mplica-
tions
of
such materials
for
understanding
popular
belief
often are
far
from certain.1
Problems of documentation
lead
to
equally
significant
but less
often
noted distortions
in
perspective.
Where
they
have lacked
ade-
quate
source materials
for
recovering
the
mental world of
the
laity,
NED
LANDSMANs
associate
professor
of
history
at the State
University
of
New York
at Stony Brook.
1
For
some useful
general
discussions
of
the
problems
of
interpreting opular
re-
ligiosity,
see
Natalie
Zemon
Davis,
Some
Tasks and Themes in the
Study
of
Popular
Religion,
in
The Pursuit
of
Holiness in
Late Medieval
and
Renaissance
Religion,
ed.
Charles
Trinkausand Heiko A. Oberman
(Leiden,
1974),
pp.
307-36;
Peter
Burke,
Popular
Culture
in
Early
Modern
Europe
(New
York, 1978);
Stuart
Clark,
French
Historiansand
Early
Modem
Popular
Culture,
Past and
Present,
no. 100
(1978),
pp.
62-99;
Jon
Butler,
Magic,
Astrology,
and
the
Early
American
Religious Heritage,
1600-1760,
American
HistoricalReview 84
(1979):317-46;
David
Hall,
The Worldof
and
Collective
Mentality
n
Seventeenth
Century
New
England,
n
New
Direc-
tions in
American Intellectual
History,
ed.
John
Higham
and Paul M.
Conkin
(Baltimore,
1979),
pp.
66-81;
and
JohnVan
Engen,
The Christian
Middle
Ages
as a
Historiographic
Problem, American Historical Review 91 (1986): 519-52.
Journal
of
British
Studies
28
(April
1989):
120-149
?
1989
by
The North American
Conference
on British Studies.
All
rights
reserved. 0021-9371/89/2802-0002$01.00
Evangelists
and
Their
Hearers:
Popular
Interpretation
of
Revivalist
Preaching
in Eighteenth-CenturyScotland
Ned Landsman
The
most
persistentdifficultyconfronting
historical
nterpreters
f
popularreligionin the early modernworld is that of establishing he
relationship
between
ideas enunciated
by
religious
leaders
and those
held
by
their hearers.
The
causes of
that
uncertainty
are
obvious;
where
historical materials for
the
former are
plentiful,
sources that
address the latter
are
far more
difficult
o obtain. The
great
majority
of
evidence that we have
concerning
ay
religiosity
derives
from
clerical
rather
than
lay
sources,
and most of
it
tells
us
more about
religious
behaviorthan belief.
Even
those
rare
accounts
we have that
purport
o
narrate the
spiritualexperiences
of
ordinary people
tend to be
both
unrepresentative
nd
stylized,
to the
point
where the ultimate
mplica-
tions
of
such materials
for
understanding
popular
belief
often are
far
from certain.1
Problems of documentation
lead
to
equally
significant
but less
often
noted distortions
in
perspective.
Where
they
have lacked
ade-
quate
source materials
for
recovering
the
mental world of
the
laity,
NED
LANDSMANs
associate
professor
of
history
at the State
University
of
New York
at Stony Brook.
1
For
some useful
general
discussions
of
the
problems
of
interpreting opular
re-
ligiosity,
see
Natalie
Zemon
Davis,
Some
Tasks and Themes in the
Study
of
Popular
Religion,
in
The Pursuit
of
Holiness in
Late Medieval
and
Renaissance
Religion,
ed.
Charles
Trinkausand Heiko A. Oberman
(Leiden,
1974),
pp.
307-36;
Peter
Burke,
Popular
Culture
in
Early
Modern
Europe
(New
York, 1978);
Stuart
Clark,
French
Historiansand
Early
Modem
Popular
Culture,
Past and
Present,
no. 100
(1978),
pp.
62-99;
Jon
Butler,
Magic,
Astrology,
and
the
Early
American
Religious Heritage,
1600-1760,
American
HistoricalReview 84
(1979):317-46;
David
Hall,
The Worldof
and
Collective
Mentality
n
Seventeenth
Century
New
England,
n
New
Direc-
tions in
American Intellectual
History,
ed.
John
Higham
and Paul M.
Conkin
(Baltimore,
1979),
pp.
66-81;
and
JohnVan
Engen,
The Christian
Middle
Ages
as a
Historiographic
Problem, American Historical Review 91 (1986): 519-52.
Journal
of
British
Studies
28
(April
1989):
120-149
?
1989
by
The North American
Conference
on British Studies.
All
rights
reserved. 0021-9371/89/2802-0002$01.00
1202020
This content downloaded on Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:59:52 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
7/23/2019 Landsman, Hearers.pdf
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/landsman-hearerspdf 3/31
REVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
historians
almost
by
necessity
have
had
to
approach
their task as
one
of
ascertaining
the
portion
and
proportion
of
the
expressions
of
the
ministry that lay men and women adopted. Thus deviations from cler-
ical
orthodoxy
can
only
be understood as indicative
either of a
lack of
intellectual
sophistication
on
the
part
of the
laity,
or,
at
best,
of
a
latent
folk
worldview
that remains almost inaccessible
to
historical
de-
scription.
Yet there
is
ample
documentation
in the
historical record
that
the
laity
possessed
a
rather remarkable
capacity
to
integrate
seem-
ingly
disparate
beliefs and
actively forge
their own
understandings
of
the
delivered
message
and create
their
own
religious symbols.
The
question ought
to
be less whether or not
the
laity
was
hearing
that
message
than how
they
heard it. To
date,
historians have been much
more
persuasive
in
delineating
the
gulf
that
existed between
clerical
and
lay
cultures than
they
have
in
elucidating
the latter.
Only
in
the
rarest
of circumstances
have
they
been able to
examine the actual
process by
which
laypersons engaged
the
religious message
and
adapted
it
to suit
lay
needs.2
Problems
of
this sort
are nowhere
more
apparent
than in the his-
tory
of the transatlantic
revivals of the
eighteenth century,
in which
charismatic evangelists traveled across Britain and its American col-
onies,
spreading
a bold
new
religious style.
Their
revivals often oc-
curred
during
times of
pronounced
social
upheaval,
yet
because of the
scarcity
of
lay
sources
and
the
extensive attention devoted to
the
per-
sonae
and
styles
of the
evangelists,
the
relationship
between social
and
religious
developments
has
remained
substantially conjectural.
Historians
working
from
the
same source materials
have been led to
virtually
opposite
conclusions,
and the
precise
fit
between
religious
experience
and social
transformation
has
rarely
been detailed.3 While
2
A
striking
xample
s Carlo
Ginzburg,
The
Cheese
and the
Worms:
The Cosmos
of
a
Sixteenth
Century
Miller
(London, 1976).
Also see Keith
Thomas,
Religion
and the
Decline
of Magic
(New
York, 1971);
Gerald
Strauss,
Success
and Failure
n
the Ger-
man
Reformation,
Past and
Present,
no. 67
(1975),
pp.
30-63;
Emmanuel
Le
Roy
Ladurie,
Montaillou: The Promised Land
of
Error
(New
York,
1978);
Robert
Muchembled,
Popular
Culture and
Elite Culture
in
France,
1400-1750
(Baton
Rouge,
La.,
1985).
In
contrast,
see
Clark.
3
Contrast
E. P.
Thompson
(The
Making
of
the
English
Working
Class
[London,
1963],
chap.
11)
with E. J.
Hobsbawm
( Methodism
and the
Threatof Revolution
n
Britain,
in
Labouring
Men:
Studies
in the
History of
Labour
[New York, 1964])
and
BernardSemmel (The MethodistRevolution
[New
York, 1973]);also Alan Heimert
(Religion
and
the
American Mind: From
the Great
Awakening
to the Revolution
[Cambridge,
Mass.,
1966])
with
Nathan
O.
Hatch
(The
Sacred Cause
of
Liberty: Repub-
lican
Thought
and
the Millennium
in
Revolutionary
New
England
[New
Haven, Conn.,
1977])
and
Harry
Stout
( Religion,
Communications
nd the
Ideological
Origins
of the
American
Revolution,
William
and
Mary
Quarterly,
d
ser.,
34
[1979]:519-44).
There
historians
almost
by
necessity
have
had
to
approach
their task as
one
of
ascertaining
the
portion
and
proportion
of
the
expressions
of
the
ministry that lay men and women adopted. Thus deviations from cler-
ical
orthodoxy
can
only
be understood as indicative
either of a
lack of
intellectual
sophistication
on
the
part
of the
laity,
or,
at
best,
of
a
latent
folk
worldview
that remains almost inaccessible
to
historical
de-
scription.
Yet there
is
ample
documentation
in the
historical record
that
the
laity
possessed
a
rather remarkable
capacity
to
integrate
seem-
ingly
disparate
beliefs and
actively forge
their own
understandings
of
the
delivered
message
and create
their
own
religious symbols.
The
question ought
to
be less whether or not
the
laity
was
hearing
that
message
than how
they
heard it. To
date,
historians have been much
more
persuasive
in
delineating
the
gulf
that
existed between
clerical
and
lay
cultures than
they
have
in
elucidating
the latter.
Only
in
the
rarest
of circumstances
have
they
been able to
examine the actual
process by
which
laypersons engaged
the
religious message
and
adapted
it
to suit
lay
needs.2
Problems
of
this sort
are nowhere
more
apparent
than in the his-
tory
of the transatlantic
revivals of the
eighteenth century,
in which
charismatic evangelists traveled across Britain and its American col-
onies,
spreading
a bold
new
religious style.
Their
revivals often oc-
curred
during
times of
pronounced
social
upheaval,
yet
because of the
scarcity
of
lay
sources
and
the
extensive attention devoted to
the
per-
sonae
and
styles
of the
evangelists,
the
relationship
between social
and
religious
developments
has
remained
substantially conjectural.
Historians
working
from
the
same source materials
have been led to
virtually
opposite
conclusions,
and the
precise
fit
between
religious
experience
and social
transformation
has
rarely
been detailed.3 While
2
A
striking
xample
s Carlo
Ginzburg,
The
Cheese
and the
Worms:
The Cosmos
of
a
Sixteenth
Century
Miller
(London, 1976).
Also see Keith
Thomas,
Religion
and the
Decline
of Magic
(New
York, 1971);
Gerald
Strauss,
Success
and Failure
n
the Ger-
man
Reformation,
Past and
Present,
no. 67
(1975),
pp.
30-63;
Emmanuel
Le
Roy
Ladurie,
Montaillou: The Promised Land
of
Error
(New
York,
1978);
Robert
Muchembled,
Popular
Culture and
Elite Culture
in
France,
1400-1750
(Baton
Rouge,
La.,
1985).
In
contrast,
see
Clark.
3
Contrast
E. P.
Thompson
(The
Making
of
the
English
Working
Class
[London,
1963],
chap.
11)
with E. J.
Hobsbawm
( Methodism
and the
Threatof Revolution
n
Britain,
in
Labouring
Men:
Studies
in the
History of
Labour
[New York, 1964])
and
BernardSemmel (The MethodistRevolution
[New
York, 1973]);also Alan Heimert
(Religion
and
the
American Mind: From
the Great
Awakening
to the Revolution
[Cambridge,
Mass.,
1966])
with
Nathan
O.
Hatch
(The
Sacred Cause
of
Liberty: Repub-
lican
Thought
and
the Millennium
in
Revolutionary
New
England
[New
Haven, Conn.,
1977])
and
Harry
Stout
( Religion,
Communications
nd the
Ideological
Origins
of the
American
Revolution,
William
and
Mary
Quarterly,
d
ser.,
34
[1979]:519-44).
There
historians
almost
by
necessity
have
had
to
approach
their task as
one
of
ascertaining
the
portion
and
proportion
of
the
expressions
of
the
ministry that lay men and women adopted. Thus deviations from cler-
ical
orthodoxy
can
only
be understood as indicative
either of a
lack of
intellectual
sophistication
on
the
part
of the
laity,
or,
at
best,
of
a
latent
folk
worldview
that remains almost inaccessible
to
historical
de-
scription.
Yet there
is
ample
documentation
in the
historical record
that
the
laity
possessed
a
rather remarkable
capacity
to
integrate
seem-
ingly
disparate
beliefs and
actively forge
their own
understandings
of
the
delivered
message
and create
their
own
religious symbols.
The
question ought
to
be less whether or not
the
laity
was
hearing
that
message
than how
they
heard it. To
date,
historians have been much
more
persuasive
in
delineating
the
gulf
that
existed between
clerical
and
lay
cultures than
they
have
in
elucidating
the latter.
Only
in
the
rarest
of circumstances
have
they
been able to
examine the actual
process by
which
laypersons engaged
the
religious message
and
adapted
it
to suit
lay
needs.2
Problems
of
this sort
are nowhere
more
apparent
than in the his-
tory
of the transatlantic
revivals of the
eighteenth century,
in which
charismatic evangelists traveled across Britain and its American col-
onies,
spreading
a bold
new
religious style.
Their
revivals often oc-
curred
during
times of
pronounced
social
upheaval,
yet
because of the
scarcity
of
lay
sources
and
the
extensive attention devoted to
the
per-
sonae
and
styles
of the
evangelists,
the
relationship
between social
and
religious
developments
has
remained
substantially conjectural.
Historians
working
from
the
same source materials
have been led to
virtually
opposite
conclusions,
and the
precise
fit
between
religious
experience
and social
transformation
has
rarely
been detailed.3 While
2
A
striking
xample
s Carlo
Ginzburg,
The
Cheese
and the
Worms:
The Cosmos
of
a
Sixteenth
Century
Miller
(London, 1976).
Also see Keith
Thomas,
Religion
and the
Decline
of Magic
(New
York, 1971);
Gerald
Strauss,
Success
and Failure
n
the Ger-
man
Reformation,
Past and
Present,
no. 67
(1975),
pp.
30-63;
Emmanuel
Le
Roy
Ladurie,
Montaillou: The Promised Land
of
Error
(New
York,
1978);
Robert
Muchembled,
Popular
Culture and
Elite Culture
in
France,
1400-1750
(Baton
Rouge,
La.,
1985).
In
contrast,
see
Clark.
3
Contrast
E. P.
Thompson
(The
Making
of
the
English
Working
Class
[London,
1963],
chap.
11)
with E. J.
Hobsbawm
( Methodism
and the
Threatof Revolution
n
Britain,
in
Labouring
Men:
Studies
in the
History of
Labour
[New York, 1964])
and
BernardSemmel (The MethodistRevolution
[New
York, 1973]);also Alan Heimert
(Religion
and
the
American Mind: From
the Great
Awakening
to the Revolution
[Cambridge,
Mass.,
1966])
with
Nathan
O.
Hatch
(The
Sacred Cause
of
Liberty: Repub-
lican
Thought
and
the Millennium
in
Revolutionary
New
England
[New
Haven, Conn.,
1977])
and
Harry
Stout
( Religion,
Communications
nd the
Ideological
Origins
of the
American
Revolution,
William
and
Mary
Quarterly,
d
ser.,
34
[1979]:519-44).
There
1212121
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
the
inadequacy
of such
approaches
is
obvious,
the
solution is
not,
since
historians have
rarely
uncovered
sources
adequate
to
speak
with
au-
thority about the actual rather than the presumed beliefs and experi-
ences
of
even
orthodox
laymen
and
women,
or to trace
lay
involve-
ment in
their
development.
Fortunately,
we
do have available a
source
that
permits
us
to
examine
in
depth
the
religious
experiences
of
a
substantial
group
among
the
laity:
the
manuscript
conversion
narratives collected
by
the
evangelical
clergyman,
William
McCulloch,
of
the
parish
of Cambus-
lang
near
Glasgow during
the
Cambuslang
Revival
of
1742-45,
a
movement
similar
to,
and
closely
connected
with,
the
coincident
Wes-
leyan
revivals
in
England
and
the
American Great
Awakening.
McCulloch's
notebooks,
located in the
New
College Library
in
Edin-
burgh,
comprise
two
large
volumes in the form
of
a
casebook.
Included
are the
spiritual
narratives of
more than
a
hundred
persons
from
parishes
all
over western
Scotland,
from
many
walks of life.
At the
time,
the minister
was
hoping
to
publish
some of the
narratives,
and he
selected
some
forty-six
of
them,
bound
together
as
the
first volume of
the
manuscript,
which he
circulated
among
some
of Scotland's
leading
theologians, asking for their comments, revisions, and deletions, which
were all
too
readily
offered. All are
still visible in the
manuscript.
McCulloch's
notebooks
provide
a wealth
of data on
many
aspects
of
religious
life,
and
they
offer an
almost
unparalleled opportunity
to
explore,
rather than
simply
posit,
the
development
of the often-
divergent
views
of
the
revival
experience
held
by
preachers
and their
hearers.
They
tell
us
much about
lay
input
into the
conversion
process
as
well.4
Although
McCulloch
copied
most
of
the
narratives into his own
hand, there is much to suggest that the transcriptions were faithful to
what the
narrators
had written.
Fragments
of several
originals
that the
have been
several recent
attempts
to fit
evangelical
religion
into its
social
context; see,
e.g.,
James
Obelkevich,
Religion
and Rural
Society:
South
Lindsey,
1825-1875
(Oxford,
1976);
Robert
Moore, Pit-Men,
Preachers and
Politics: The
effects
of
Methodism in a
Durham
Mining Community
(Cambridge,
1974);
and
Rhys
Isaac,
The
Transformation
of
Virginia,
1740-1790
(Chapel
Hill, N.C.,
1982).
4
William
McCulloch,
Examination of
Persons under
Spiritual
Concern
at
Cambus-
lang
during
the
Revival in 1741-42
by
the Revd. William
Macculloch,
2
vols.,
New
College Library, Edinburgh. Excerpts from the manuscript were published in D. McFar-
lan
(The
Revivals
of
the
Eighteenth
Century,
Particularly
at
Cambuslang [Edinburgh,
1846]),
and
it
has
been cited
extensively,
although
for
rather different
purposes,
by
Arthur
Fawcett
(The
Cambuslang
Revival:
The
Evangelical
Revival Movement
of
the
Eighteenth
Century
[London,
1971])
and
by
T. C. Smout
( Born
Again
at
Cambuslang:
New
Evidence on
Popular
Religion
and
Literacy
in
Eighteenth-Century
Scotland,
Past
and
Present,
no.
97
[1982], pp. 114-27).
the
inadequacy
of such
approaches
is
obvious,
the
solution is
not,
since
historians have
rarely
uncovered
sources
adequate
to
speak
with
au-
thority about the actual rather than the presumed beliefs and experi-
ences
of
even
orthodox
laymen
and
women,
or to trace
lay
involve-
ment in
their
development.
Fortunately,
we
do have available a
source
that
permits
us
to
examine
in
depth
the
religious
experiences
of
a
substantial
group
among
the
laity:
the
manuscript
conversion
narratives collected
by
the
evangelical
clergyman,
William
McCulloch,
of
the
parish
of Cambus-
lang
near
Glasgow during
the
Cambuslang
Revival
of
1742-45,
a
movement
similar
to,
and
closely
connected
with,
the
coincident
Wes-
leyan
revivals
in
England
and
the
American Great
Awakening.
McCulloch's
notebooks,
located in the
New
College Library
in
Edin-
burgh,
comprise
two
large
volumes in the form
of
a
casebook.
Included
are the
spiritual
narratives of
more than
a
hundred
persons
from
parishes
all
over western
Scotland,
from
many
walks of life.
At the
time,
the minister
was
hoping
to
publish
some of the
narratives,
and he
selected
some
forty-six
of
them,
bound
together
as
the
first volume of
the
manuscript,
which he
circulated
among
some
of Scotland's
leading
theologians, asking for their comments, revisions, and deletions, which
were all
too
readily
offered. All are
still visible in the
manuscript.
McCulloch's
notebooks
provide
a wealth
of data on
many
aspects
of
religious
life,
and
they
offer an
almost
unparalleled opportunity
to
explore,
rather than
simply
posit,
the
development
of the often-
divergent
views
of
the
revival
experience
held
by
preachers
and their
hearers.
They
tell
us
much about
lay
input
into the
conversion
process
as
well.4
Although
McCulloch
copied
most
of
the
narratives into his own
hand, there is much to suggest that the transcriptions were faithful to
what the
narrators
had written.
Fragments
of several
originals
that the
have been
several recent
attempts
to fit
evangelical
religion
into its
social
context; see,
e.g.,
James
Obelkevich,
Religion
and Rural
Society:
South
Lindsey,
1825-1875
(Oxford,
1976);
Robert
Moore, Pit-Men,
Preachers and
Politics: The
effects
of
Methodism in a
Durham
Mining Community
(Cambridge,
1974);
and
Rhys
Isaac,
The
Transformation
of
Virginia,
1740-1790
(Chapel
Hill, N.C.,
1982).
4
William
McCulloch,
Examination of
Persons under
Spiritual
Concern
at
Cambus-
lang
during
the
Revival in 1741-42
by
the Revd. William
Macculloch,
2
vols.,
New
College Library, Edinburgh. Excerpts from the manuscript were published in D. McFar-
lan
(The
Revivals
of
the
Eighteenth
Century,
Particularly
at
Cambuslang [Edinburgh,
1846]),
and
it
has
been cited
extensively,
although
for
rather different
purposes,
by
Arthur
Fawcett
(The
Cambuslang
Revival:
The
Evangelical
Revival Movement
of
the
Eighteenth
Century
[London,
1971])
and
by
T. C. Smout
( Born
Again
at
Cambuslang:
New
Evidence on
Popular
Religion
and
Literacy
in
Eighteenth-Century
Scotland,
Past
and
Present,
no.
97
[1982], pp. 114-27).
the
inadequacy
of such
approaches
is
obvious,
the
solution is
not,
since
historians have
rarely
uncovered
sources
adequate
to
speak
with
au-
thority about the actual rather than the presumed beliefs and experi-
ences
of
even
orthodox
laymen
and
women,
or to trace
lay
involve-
ment in
their
development.
Fortunately,
we
do have available a
source
that
permits
us
to
examine
in
depth
the
religious
experiences
of
a
substantial
group
among
the
laity:
the
manuscript
conversion
narratives collected
by
the
evangelical
clergyman,
William
McCulloch,
of
the
parish
of Cambus-
lang
near
Glasgow during
the
Cambuslang
Revival
of
1742-45,
a
movement
similar
to,
and
closely
connected
with,
the
coincident
Wes-
leyan
revivals
in
England
and
the
American Great
Awakening.
McCulloch's
notebooks,
located in the
New
College Library
in
Edin-
burgh,
comprise
two
large
volumes in the form
of
a
casebook.
Included
are the
spiritual
narratives of
more than
a
hundred
persons
from
parishes
all
over western
Scotland,
from
many
walks of life.
At the
time,
the minister
was
hoping
to
publish
some of the
narratives,
and he
selected
some
forty-six
of
them,
bound
together
as
the
first volume of
the
manuscript,
which he
circulated
among
some
of Scotland's
leading
theologians, asking for their comments, revisions, and deletions, which
were all
too
readily
offered. All are
still visible in the
manuscript.
McCulloch's
notebooks
provide
a wealth
of data on
many
aspects
of
religious
life,
and
they
offer an
almost
unparalleled opportunity
to
explore,
rather than
simply
posit,
the
development
of the often-
divergent
views
of
the
revival
experience
held
by
preachers
and their
hearers.
They
tell
us
much about
lay
input
into the
conversion
process
as
well.4
Although
McCulloch
copied
most
of
the
narratives into his own
hand, there is much to suggest that the transcriptions were faithful to
what the
narrators
had written.
Fragments
of several
originals
that the
have been
several recent
attempts
to fit
evangelical
religion
into its
social
context; see,
e.g.,
James
Obelkevich,
Religion
and Rural
Society:
South
Lindsey,
1825-1875
(Oxford,
1976);
Robert
Moore, Pit-Men,
Preachers and
Politics: The
effects
of
Methodism in a
Durham
Mining Community
(Cambridge,
1974);
and
Rhys
Isaac,
The
Transformation
of
Virginia,
1740-1790
(Chapel
Hill, N.C.,
1982).
4
William
McCulloch,
Examination of
Persons under
Spiritual
Concern
at
Cambus-
lang
during
the
Revival in 1741-42
by
the Revd. William
Macculloch,
2
vols.,
New
College Library, Edinburgh. Excerpts from the manuscript were published in D. McFar-
lan
(The
Revivals
of
the
Eighteenth
Century,
Particularly
at
Cambuslang [Edinburgh,
1846]),
and
it
has
been cited
extensively,
although
for
rather different
purposes,
by
Arthur
Fawcett
(The
Cambuslang
Revival:
The
Evangelical
Revival Movement
of
the
Eighteenth
Century
[London,
1971])
and
by
T. C. Smout
( Born
Again
at
Cambuslang:
New
Evidence on
Popular
Religion
and
Literacy
in
Eighteenth-Century
Scotland,
Past
and
Present,
no.
97
[1982], pp. 114-27).
1222222
This content downloaded on Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:59:52 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
7/23/2019 Landsman, Hearers.pdf
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/landsman-hearerspdf 5/31
REVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
minister
copied
remain
in the
manuscript,
and
those match
their tran-
scriptions
in
almost
every
particular.
Although
many
of the narrators
appear to have responded to a common set of questions that had proba-
bly
been
posed
by
the
minister,
the
experiences they
described were
so
diverse,
so different
from
clerical
prescriptions,
and so rich
in
detail,
that
they
would seem to
provide,
nonetheless,
an
unusually
effective
window
into
lay
religiosity.
Indeed,
if we assume that those
accounts
were
necessarily
influenced
by
clerical
interrogations,
we
only
suggest
that
actual
lay
experiences
differed
from clerical models even more
starkly
than the narratives
portray.
That
McCulloch's notebooks record
the
impressions
of Scottish
Presbyterian
hearers makes that
divergence
especially
significant,
for
the
Scottish
populace long
had the
reputation
for
being
a
priest-ridden
people.
Ministers of Scotland's
national
church
were
long
famous for
their
emphasis
on doctrinal
orthodoxy
and
religious
instruction,
so
that
Scottish
parishioners
were,
to an unusual
extent,
a catechized
people.
Scottish men
and
women had achieved
a
high degree
of
literacy, chiefly
from
their
ability
to
read the Bible
and the
catechism.5
In
Scotland's
southwest,
in the
area around
Cambuslang, Presbyterian
laymen
for
more than a century had stoutly defended their religion with near una-
nimity,
and
many
thousands had
suffered
fines, torture,
imprisonment,
and
occasional executions
for
their
fidelity
to
Presbyterian orthodoxy.
During
the
revival,
Scottish
ministers
would strive
to maintain
un-
usually
close
supervision
of
the
beliefs
and
experiences
of the
partici-
pants.
That even
in
such
an environment ministers
and
hearers
could
come to hold such
sharply
diverging
views
of the
religious
experience,
and
that
converts could
create such
lay-centered understandings
of
conversion,
further
suggests
the need
to
explore
lay
involvement in
both the development and dissemination of the revival experience in
order to
approach
a
lay perspective
on
religiosity
and
conversion.
*
* *
The
parish
of
Cambuslang
lies
along
the southern
shore of
the
river
Clyde just
half a dozen
miles
to
the
southwest
of
Glasgow
city
center.
For
Cambuslang,
as for
most of its
surroundings,
the
second
quarter
of the
eighteenth century
marked
a critical
turning
point
in
its
5R. A.
Houston,
in
The
Literacy Myth? Illiteracy
in
Scotland,
1630-1760
(Past
and
Present,
no.
96
[1982],
pp.
81-102),
and
more
advisedly
in
Scottish
Literacy
and the
Scottish
Identity: Illiteracy
and
Society
in Scotland and
Northern
England,
1600-1800
(Cambridge,
1985),
has
challenged
the
ubiquity
of
literacy
in
Scotland,
although
his data
still
tend to confirm
that
reading literacy
in
lowland
Scotland was
as
high
as
or
higher
than
virtually anywhere
else in Britain.
Also
see
Smout.
minister
copied
remain
in the
manuscript,
and
those match
their tran-
scriptions
in
almost
every
particular.
Although
many
of the narrators
appear to have responded to a common set of questions that had proba-
bly
been
posed
by
the
minister,
the
experiences they
described were
so
diverse,
so different
from
clerical
prescriptions,
and so rich
in
detail,
that
they
would seem to
provide,
nonetheless,
an
unusually
effective
window
into
lay
religiosity.
Indeed,
if we assume that those
accounts
were
necessarily
influenced
by
clerical
interrogations,
we
only
suggest
that
actual
lay
experiences
differed
from clerical models even more
starkly
than the narratives
portray.
That
McCulloch's notebooks record
the
impressions
of Scottish
Presbyterian
hearers makes that
divergence
especially
significant,
for
the
Scottish
populace long
had the
reputation
for
being
a
priest-ridden
people.
Ministers of Scotland's
national
church
were
long
famous for
their
emphasis
on doctrinal
orthodoxy
and
religious
instruction,
so
that
Scottish
parishioners
were,
to an unusual
extent,
a catechized
people.
Scottish men
and
women had achieved
a
high degree
of
literacy, chiefly
from
their
ability
to
read the Bible
and the
catechism.5
In
Scotland's
southwest,
in the
area around
Cambuslang, Presbyterian
laymen
for
more than a century had stoutly defended their religion with near una-
nimity,
and
many
thousands had
suffered
fines, torture,
imprisonment,
and
occasional executions
for
their
fidelity
to
Presbyterian orthodoxy.
During
the
revival,
Scottish
ministers
would strive
to maintain
un-
usually
close
supervision
of
the
beliefs
and
experiences
of the
partici-
pants.
That even
in
such
an environment ministers
and
hearers
could
come to hold such
sharply
diverging
views
of the
religious
experience,
and
that
converts could
create such
lay-centered understandings
of
conversion,
further
suggests
the need
to
explore
lay
involvement in
both the development and dissemination of the revival experience in
order to
approach
a
lay perspective
on
religiosity
and
conversion.
*
* *
The
parish
of
Cambuslang
lies
along
the southern
shore of
the
river
Clyde just
half a dozen
miles
to
the
southwest
of
Glasgow
city
center.
For
Cambuslang,
as for
most of its
surroundings,
the
second
quarter
of the
eighteenth century
marked
a critical
turning
point
in
its
5R. A.
Houston,
in
The
Literacy Myth? Illiteracy
in
Scotland,
1630-1760
(Past
and
Present,
no.
96
[1982],
pp.
81-102),
and
more
advisedly
in
Scottish
Literacy
and the
Scottish
Identity: Illiteracy
and
Society
in Scotland and
Northern
England,
1600-1800
(Cambridge,
1985),
has
challenged
the
ubiquity
of
literacy
in
Scotland,
although
his data
still
tend to confirm
that
reading literacy
in
lowland
Scotland was
as
high
as
or
higher
than
virtually anywhere
else in Britain.
Also
see
Smout.
minister
copied
remain
in the
manuscript,
and
those match
their tran-
scriptions
in
almost
every
particular.
Although
many
of the narrators
appear to have responded to a common set of questions that had proba-
bly
been
posed
by
the
minister,
the
experiences they
described were
so
diverse,
so different
from
clerical
prescriptions,
and so rich
in
detail,
that
they
would seem to
provide,
nonetheless,
an
unusually
effective
window
into
lay
religiosity.
Indeed,
if we assume that those
accounts
were
necessarily
influenced
by
clerical
interrogations,
we
only
suggest
that
actual
lay
experiences
differed
from clerical models even more
starkly
than the narratives
portray.
That
McCulloch's notebooks record
the
impressions
of Scottish
Presbyterian
hearers makes that
divergence
especially
significant,
for
the
Scottish
populace long
had the
reputation
for
being
a
priest-ridden
people.
Ministers of Scotland's
national
church
were
long
famous for
their
emphasis
on doctrinal
orthodoxy
and
religious
instruction,
so
that
Scottish
parishioners
were,
to an unusual
extent,
a catechized
people.
Scottish men
and
women had achieved
a
high degree
of
literacy, chiefly
from
their
ability
to
read the Bible
and the
catechism.5
In
Scotland's
southwest,
in the
area around
Cambuslang, Presbyterian
laymen
for
more than a century had stoutly defended their religion with near una-
nimity,
and
many
thousands had
suffered
fines, torture,
imprisonment,
and
occasional executions
for
their
fidelity
to
Presbyterian orthodoxy.
During
the
revival,
Scottish
ministers
would strive
to maintain
un-
usually
close
supervision
of
the
beliefs
and
experiences
of the
partici-
pants.
That even
in
such
an environment ministers
and
hearers
could
come to hold such
sharply
diverging
views
of the
religious
experience,
and
that
converts could
create such
lay-centered understandings
of
conversion,
further
suggests
the need
to
explore
lay
involvement in
both the development and dissemination of the revival experience in
order to
approach
a
lay perspective
on
religiosity
and
conversion.
*
* *
The
parish
of
Cambuslang
lies
along
the southern
shore of
the
river
Clyde just
half a dozen
miles
to
the
southwest
of
Glasgow
city
center.
For
Cambuslang,
as for
most of its
surroundings,
the
second
quarter
of the
eighteenth century
marked
a critical
turning
point
in
its
5R. A.
Houston,
in
The
Literacy Myth? Illiteracy
in
Scotland,
1630-1760
(Past
and
Present,
no.
96
[1982],
pp.
81-102),
and
more
advisedly
in
Scottish
Literacy
and the
Scottish
Identity: Illiteracy
and
Society
in Scotland and
Northern
England,
1600-1800
(Cambridge,
1985),
has
challenged
the
ubiquity
of
literacy
in
Scotland,
although
his data
still
tend to confirm
that
reading literacy
in
lowland
Scotland was
as
high
as
or
higher
than
virtually anywhere
else in Britain.
Also
see
Smout.
1232323
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
history.
The area's inhabitants
had
long occupied
themselves
predomi-
nantly
in
agricultural
pursuits,
but
early
in the
eighteenth
century,
largely because of Glasgow's rising position in the tobacco trade,
Glaswegian
merchants
began
making
substantial
investments in such
rural
industries as the
weaving
of
coarse
and fine
linens,
mining,
and
shoemaking.
The first
substantial
weaving
venture arrived
in
Cambus-
lang
about
1730;
at almost
the same time a bleachfield
for linen cloth
was established
directly
across
the
Clyde
at
Carmyle,
and
other similar
establishments
grew up
elsewhere
in the
area.
Thus
the revival
at
Cambuslang
resembled
many
other
evangelical
movements
of the
Anglo-American
world
in
that it arrived
at a time of
prosperity
and
change.
The
suddenness
of that
change
was dramatic:
Anderston,
on
Glasgow's
outskirts,
which
had been a
small,
almost
rural,
hamlet
as
late
as
1730,
developed
into
a
bustling weaving
center
over
the next
decade;
by
then the local
society
of weavers
admitted as
many
as
twenty-eight
new
members
per year.
In
Cambuslang,
the
cloth
industry
that
grew
up
after
1730
employed
several
dozen households
a decade
later
and soon involved almost
half
the
inhabitants of
the
parish.6
The second
quarter
of the
eighteenth
century
marked
an
equally
important departure in religious affairs. For fully a century, Scotland's
southwest
had been the heartland of
Presbyterianism
and the center of
the
covenanting
movement.
During
the Restoration
years,
southwest-
ern
parishes
had
shunned
their
Episcopalian
appointees
with
a near
unanimity
of
sentiment.
Cambuslang
had been
the
home of
one of the
more
prominent
Presbyterian
resisters,
the Reverend
Robert
Fleming,
who,
after
his ouster
from the
parish
in
1662,
had ministered to
the
Scots Church
at Rotterdam for
almost
two decades.
There he had
composed
a famous
work,
The
Fulfilling
of
the
Scripture,
which dem-
onstrated at length the divine hand in the rise of Presbyterianism in
western
Scotland.7
In
the
years
after
1725,
the
southwest
experienced
its first
sig-
nificant
break with
the
Presbyterian
consensus,
also
in
part
the
result
of
Anglo-American
influences
such
as the
spread
of moderate
reli-
6
See
Sir John
Sinclair,
comp.,
The Statistical Account
of
Scotland,
21 vols.
(Edin-
burgh,
1791-99), 5:241-74;
J.
T.
T.
Brown,
Cambuslang:
A
Sketch
of
the
Place and the
People
Earlier
than the Nineteenth
Century (Glasgow,
1884);
Robert
M'Ewan,
Old Glas-
gow
Weavers:
Being
Records
of
the
Incorporation of
Weavers
(Glasgow,
1916);
Minute
Book, 1738-1832, Records of the Society of Weavers n Anderston,Strathclyde
Re-
gional
Archives;
and see Alastair J.
Durie,
The Scottish Linen
Industry
in the
Eighteenth
Century Edinburgh,
1979).
7
Robert
Fleming,
The
fulfilling of
the
Scripture,
or
An
essay
shewing
the exact
accomplishment
of
the word
of
God
in his
works
of providence (n.p.,
1669).
The
religious
situation
n
Scotland
during
he
Civil
War
and afterhas been discussed
many
imes,
most
recently by
Ian
Cowan,
The
Scottish
Covenanters,
1660-1688
(London,
1976);
also see
Fawcett
for
background
bout
Cambuslang.
history.
The area's inhabitants
had
long occupied
themselves
predomi-
nantly
in
agricultural
pursuits,
but
early
in the
eighteenth
century,
largely because of Glasgow's rising position in the tobacco trade,
Glaswegian
merchants
began
making
substantial
investments in such
rural
industries as the
weaving
of
coarse
and fine
linens,
mining,
and
shoemaking.
The first
substantial
weaving
venture arrived
in
Cambus-
lang
about
1730;
at almost
the same time a bleachfield
for linen cloth
was established
directly
across
the
Clyde
at
Carmyle,
and
other similar
establishments
grew up
elsewhere
in the
area.
Thus
the revival
at
Cambuslang
resembled
many
other
evangelical
movements
of the
Anglo-American
world
in
that it arrived
at a time of
prosperity
and
change.
The
suddenness
of that
change
was dramatic:
Anderston,
on
Glasgow's
outskirts,
which
had been a
small,
almost
rural,
hamlet
as
late
as
1730,
developed
into
a
bustling weaving
center
over
the next
decade;
by
then the local
society
of weavers
admitted as
many
as
twenty-eight
new
members
per year.
In
Cambuslang,
the
cloth
industry
that
grew
up
after
1730
employed
several
dozen households
a decade
later
and soon involved almost
half
the
inhabitants of
the
parish.6
The second
quarter
of the
eighteenth
century
marked
an
equally
important departure in religious affairs. For fully a century, Scotland's
southwest
had been the heartland of
Presbyterianism
and the center of
the
covenanting
movement.
During
the Restoration
years,
southwest-
ern
parishes
had
shunned
their
Episcopalian
appointees
with
a near
unanimity
of
sentiment.
Cambuslang
had been
the
home of
one of the
more
prominent
Presbyterian
resisters,
the Reverend
Robert
Fleming,
who,
after
his ouster
from the
parish
in
1662,
had ministered to
the
Scots Church
at Rotterdam for
almost
two decades.
There he had
composed
a famous
work,
The
Fulfilling
of
the
Scripture,
which dem-
onstrated at length the divine hand in the rise of Presbyterianism in
western
Scotland.7
In
the
years
after
1725,
the
southwest
experienced
its first
sig-
nificant
break with
the
Presbyterian
consensus,
also
in
part
the
result
of
Anglo-American
influences
such
as the
spread
of moderate
reli-
6
See
Sir John
Sinclair,
comp.,
The Statistical Account
of
Scotland,
21 vols.
(Edin-
burgh,
1791-99), 5:241-74;
J.
T.
T.
Brown,
Cambuslang:
A
Sketch
of
the
Place and the
People
Earlier
than the Nineteenth
Century (Glasgow,
1884);
Robert
M'Ewan,
Old Glas-
gow
Weavers:
Being
Records
of
the
Incorporation of
Weavers
(Glasgow,
1916);
Minute
Book, 1738-1832, Records of the Society of Weavers n Anderston,Strathclyde
Re-
gional
Archives;
and see Alastair J.
Durie,
The Scottish Linen
Industry
in the
Eighteenth
Century Edinburgh,
1979).
7
Robert
Fleming,
The
fulfilling of
the
Scripture,
or
An
essay
shewing
the exact
accomplishment
of
the word
of
God
in his
works
of providence (n.p.,
1669).
The
religious
situation
n
Scotland
during
he
Civil
War
and afterhas been discussed
many
imes,
most
recently by
Ian
Cowan,
The
Scottish
Covenanters,
1660-1688
(London,
1976);
also see
Fawcett
for
background
bout
Cambuslang.
history.
The area's inhabitants
had
long occupied
themselves
predomi-
nantly
in
agricultural
pursuits,
but
early
in the
eighteenth
century,
largely because of Glasgow's rising position in the tobacco trade,
Glaswegian
merchants
began
making
substantial
investments in such
rural
industries as the
weaving
of
coarse
and fine
linens,
mining,
and
shoemaking.
The first
substantial
weaving
venture arrived
in
Cambus-
lang
about
1730;
at almost
the same time a bleachfield
for linen cloth
was established
directly
across
the
Clyde
at
Carmyle,
and
other similar
establishments
grew up
elsewhere
in the
area.
Thus
the revival
at
Cambuslang
resembled
many
other
evangelical
movements
of the
Anglo-American
world
in
that it arrived
at a time of
prosperity
and
change.
The
suddenness
of that
change
was dramatic:
Anderston,
on
Glasgow's
outskirts,
which
had been a
small,
almost
rural,
hamlet
as
late
as
1730,
developed
into
a
bustling weaving
center
over
the next
decade;
by
then the local
society
of weavers
admitted as
many
as
twenty-eight
new
members
per year.
In
Cambuslang,
the
cloth
industry
that
grew
up
after
1730
employed
several
dozen households
a decade
later
and soon involved almost
half
the
inhabitants of
the
parish.6
The second
quarter
of the
eighteenth
century
marked
an
equally
important departure in religious affairs. For fully a century, Scotland's
southwest
had been the heartland of
Presbyterianism
and the center of
the
covenanting
movement.
During
the Restoration
years,
southwest-
ern
parishes
had
shunned
their
Episcopalian
appointees
with
a near
unanimity
of
sentiment.
Cambuslang
had been
the
home of
one of the
more
prominent
Presbyterian
resisters,
the Reverend
Robert
Fleming,
who,
after
his ouster
from the
parish
in
1662,
had ministered to
the
Scots Church
at Rotterdam for
almost
two decades.
There he had
composed
a famous
work,
The
Fulfilling
of
the
Scripture,
which dem-
onstrated at length the divine hand in the rise of Presbyterianism in
western
Scotland.7
In
the
years
after
1725,
the
southwest
experienced
its first
sig-
nificant
break with
the
Presbyterian
consensus,
also
in
part
the
result
of
Anglo-American
influences
such
as the
spread
of moderate
reli-
6
See
Sir John
Sinclair,
comp.,
The Statistical Account
of
Scotland,
21 vols.
(Edin-
burgh,
1791-99), 5:241-74;
J.
T.
T.
Brown,
Cambuslang:
A
Sketch
of
the
Place and the
People
Earlier
than the Nineteenth
Century (Glasgow,
1884);
Robert
M'Ewan,
Old Glas-
gow
Weavers:
Being
Records
of
the
Incorporation of
Weavers
(Glasgow,
1916);
Minute
Book, 1738-1832, Records of the Society of Weavers n Anderston,Strathclyde
Re-
gional
Archives;
and see Alastair J.
Durie,
The Scottish Linen
Industry
in the
Eighteenth
Century Edinburgh,
1979).
7
Robert
Fleming,
The
fulfilling of
the
Scripture,
or
An
essay
shewing
the exact
accomplishment
of
the word
of
God
in his
works
of providence (n.p.,
1669).
The
religious
situation
n
Scotland
during
he
Civil
War
and afterhas been discussed
many
imes,
most
recently by
Ian
Cowan,
The
Scottish
Covenanters,
1660-1688
(London,
1976);
also see
Fawcett
for
background
bout
Cambuslang.
1242424
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REVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
gious
principles
in
Edinburgh
and
Glasgow
and
among segments
of the
Scottish elite. In the rural
southwest,
the initial
impact
of moderatism
was indirect, leading not to any significant support for moderate princi-
ples
but rather
to
a
breach
within the orthodox
wing
of the
church.
During
the
1730s,
a
group
of
ministers,
suspended
by
the national
church
for their vehement
denunciation
of
that
church's
falling
away
from
traditional doctrines and
practices,
formed
a
separate
Seces-
sion
church. The Seceders
quickly
attracted thousands
of
hearers
in
the
Glasgow
region
and
provoked
a
bitter
split
between those
who
stayed
within the
Presbyterian
establishment,
and those who de-
parted.8
For a
time,
the ministers of
the Secession seemed
on
the
verge
of
carrying
the southwestern
populace
with
them,
and
in
the
year
1741,
in
an
attempt
to
draw crowds to
their
churches,
they
invited
George
Whitefield,
the
English
evangelist
and chief itinerant of
the American
Great
Awakening,
to
visit Scotland
and
preach
in their
meetings.
Whitefield traveled
north,
but he refused to confine
his
efforts
to
the
Seceder
churches,
which led to
a
breach
with his hosts.
Instead,
Whitefield
preached
in
meetinghouses
of
the national
church,
whose
ministers were delighted to employ his talents in their struggle to keep
from
losing
adherents to the Seceders.
In the fall of
1741,
Whitefield
delivered
a
series of sermons
in
Glasgow,
attended
by
persons
from all
over
the
region.
There,
as in earlier revivals
in
England
and
America,
his
orations led
many
hearers
into
religious
concern
and
conversion.9
The
indirect effects
of Whitefield's lectures
would
prove
to be
even
greater.
Included
among
his
hearers
at
Glasgow
were
several
Cambuslang
inhabitants,
including Ingram
More
and
Robert
Bowman,
one a
shoemaker
and the
other
a weaver.
On
returning
to
their
parish,
they began organizing prayer meetings within the congregation, and
they
circulated
a
petition
among
the inhabitants
to
have their minister
add
a
regular
Thursday
lecture
to the
ordinary
course
of his
preach-
8
A
good
moder
history
of
the Secession
remains to
be
written. John McKerrow's
History of
the
Secession Church
(Edinburgh,
1854),
though highly
partisan,
remains
valuable
for
the
many original
documents
it
reprints.
See also
Callum G.
Brown,
The
Social
History
of Religion
in
Scotland since 1730
(London, 1987).
Moderatism has been
more
suitably
treated
by
Richard
Sher
(Church
and
University
in the
Scottish
Enlighten-
ment: The Moderate
Literati
of
Edinburgh
[Princeton, N.J.,
1985]).
Sher makes
a
good
case for
restricting
the
designation
Moderate
to the
party
that formed
after
1750;
I
have used
moderate
to refer to those
predecessors
who
began
to
deemphasize
the
enforcement
of
strict doctrinal standards.
9
The
following
discussion of the events
at
Cambuslang,
unless otherwise
noted,
draws
on
James
Robe,
Narratives
of
the Revival
of Religion
at
Kilsyth,
Cambuslang,
and other Places in
1742,
2d
ed.
(Glasgow,
1840);
the
narratives
printed
in
Historical
Collections
Relating
to Remarkable
Periods
of
the
Success
of
the
Gospel,
ed. John
Gillies,
2
vols.
(Glasgow,
1754);
McFarlan; Fawcett;
and McCulloch.
gious
principles
in
Edinburgh
and
Glasgow
and
among segments
of the
Scottish elite. In the rural
southwest,
the initial
impact
of moderatism
was indirect, leading not to any significant support for moderate princi-
ples
but rather
to
a
breach
within the orthodox
wing
of the
church.
During
the
1730s,
a
group
of
ministers,
suspended
by
the national
church
for their vehement
denunciation
of
that
church's
falling
away
from
traditional doctrines and
practices,
formed
a
separate
Seces-
sion
church. The Seceders
quickly
attracted thousands
of
hearers
in
the
Glasgow
region
and
provoked
a
bitter
split
between those
who
stayed
within the
Presbyterian
establishment,
and those who de-
parted.8
For a
time,
the ministers of
the Secession seemed
on
the
verge
of
carrying
the southwestern
populace
with
them,
and
in
the
year
1741,
in
an
attempt
to
draw crowds to
their
churches,
they
invited
George
Whitefield,
the
English
evangelist
and chief itinerant of
the American
Great
Awakening,
to
visit Scotland
and
preach
in their
meetings.
Whitefield traveled
north,
but he refused to confine
his
efforts
to
the
Seceder
churches,
which led to
a
breach
with his hosts.
Instead,
Whitefield
preached
in
meetinghouses
of
the national
church,
whose
ministers were delighted to employ his talents in their struggle to keep
from
losing
adherents to the Seceders.
In the fall of
1741,
Whitefield
delivered
a
series of sermons
in
Glasgow,
attended
by
persons
from all
over
the
region.
There,
as in earlier revivals
in
England
and
America,
his
orations led
many
hearers
into
religious
concern
and
conversion.9
The
indirect effects
of Whitefield's lectures
would
prove
to be
even
greater.
Included
among
his
hearers
at
Glasgow
were
several
Cambuslang
inhabitants,
including Ingram
More
and
Robert
Bowman,
one a
shoemaker
and the
other
a weaver.
On
returning
to
their
parish,
they began organizing prayer meetings within the congregation, and
they
circulated
a
petition
among
the inhabitants
to
have their minister
add
a
regular
Thursday
lecture
to the
ordinary
course
of his
preach-
8
A
good
moder
history
of
the Secession
remains to
be
written. John McKerrow's
History of
the
Secession Church
(Edinburgh,
1854),
though highly
partisan,
remains
valuable
for
the
many original
documents
it
reprints.
See also
Callum G.
Brown,
The
Social
History
of Religion
in
Scotland since 1730
(London, 1987).
Moderatism has been
more
suitably
treated
by
Richard
Sher
(Church
and
University
in the
Scottish
Enlighten-
ment: The Moderate
Literati
of
Edinburgh
[Princeton, N.J.,
1985]).
Sher makes
a
good
case for
restricting
the
designation
Moderate
to the
party
that formed
after
1750;
I
have used
moderate
to refer to those
predecessors
who
began
to
deemphasize
the
enforcement
of
strict doctrinal standards.
9
The
following
discussion of the events
at
Cambuslang,
unless otherwise
noted,
draws
on
James
Robe,
Narratives
of
the Revival
of Religion
at
Kilsyth,
Cambuslang,
and other Places in
1742,
2d
ed.
(Glasgow,
1840);
the
narratives
printed
in
Historical
Collections
Relating
to Remarkable
Periods
of
the
Success
of
the
Gospel,
ed. John
Gillies,
2
vols.
(Glasgow,
1754);
McFarlan; Fawcett;
and McCulloch.
gious
principles
in
Edinburgh
and
Glasgow
and
among segments
of the
Scottish elite. In the rural
southwest,
the initial
impact
of moderatism
was indirect, leading not to any significant support for moderate princi-
ples
but rather
to
a
breach
within the orthodox
wing
of the
church.
During
the
1730s,
a
group
of
ministers,
suspended
by
the national
church
for their vehement
denunciation
of
that
church's
falling
away
from
traditional doctrines and
practices,
formed
a
separate
Seces-
sion
church. The Seceders
quickly
attracted thousands
of
hearers
in
the
Glasgow
region
and
provoked
a
bitter
split
between those
who
stayed
within the
Presbyterian
establishment,
and those who de-
parted.8
For a
time,
the ministers of
the Secession seemed
on
the
verge
of
carrying
the southwestern
populace
with
them,
and
in
the
year
1741,
in
an
attempt
to
draw crowds to
their
churches,
they
invited
George
Whitefield,
the
English
evangelist
and chief itinerant of
the American
Great
Awakening,
to
visit Scotland
and
preach
in their
meetings.
Whitefield traveled
north,
but he refused to confine
his
efforts
to
the
Seceder
churches,
which led to
a
breach
with his hosts.
Instead,
Whitefield
preached
in
meetinghouses
of
the national
church,
whose
ministers were delighted to employ his talents in their struggle to keep
from
losing
adherents to the Seceders.
In the fall of
1741,
Whitefield
delivered
a
series of sermons
in
Glasgow,
attended
by
persons
from all
over
the
region.
There,
as in earlier revivals
in
England
and
America,
his
orations led
many
hearers
into
religious
concern
and
conversion.9
The
indirect effects
of Whitefield's lectures
would
prove
to be
even
greater.
Included
among
his
hearers
at
Glasgow
were
several
Cambuslang
inhabitants,
including Ingram
More
and
Robert
Bowman,
one a
shoemaker
and the
other
a weaver.
On
returning
to
their
parish,
they began organizing prayer meetings within the congregation, and
they
circulated
a
petition
among
the inhabitants
to
have their minister
add
a
regular
Thursday
lecture
to the
ordinary
course
of his
preach-
8
A
good
moder
history
of
the Secession
remains to
be
written. John McKerrow's
History of
the
Secession Church
(Edinburgh,
1854),
though highly
partisan,
remains
valuable
for
the
many original
documents
it
reprints.
See also
Callum G.
Brown,
The
Social
History
of Religion
in
Scotland since 1730
(London, 1987).
Moderatism has been
more
suitably
treated
by
Richard
Sher
(Church
and
University
in the
Scottish
Enlighten-
ment: The Moderate
Literati
of
Edinburgh
[Princeton, N.J.,
1985]).
Sher makes
a
good
case for
restricting
the
designation
Moderate
to the
party
that formed
after
1750;
I
have used
moderate
to refer to those
predecessors
who
began
to
deemphasize
the
enforcement
of
strict doctrinal standards.
9
The
following
discussion of the events
at
Cambuslang,
unless otherwise
noted,
draws
on
James
Robe,
Narratives
of
the Revival
of Religion
at
Kilsyth,
Cambuslang,
and other Places in
1742,
2d
ed.
(Glasgow,
1840);
the
narratives
printed
in
Historical
Collections
Relating
to Remarkable
Periods
of
the
Success
of
the
Gospel,
ed. John
Gillies,
2
vols.
(Glasgow,
1754);
McFarlan; Fawcett;
and McCulloch.
1252525
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
ings.
William
McCulloch was
only
too
happy
to
oblige;
he had
spoken
privately
to some of his
parishioners
about
the need
for
a revival
as
much as a decade before, and he had been preaching exclusively on the
subject
of
conversion-the
new
birth -for most of the
year.
In
February
1742 the new
lectures
began.
The
first
Thursday
lecture
passed
with relative
quiet.
But one
week
later,
on
February
18,
three
sisters-Catherine,
Elizabeth
and
Janet
Jackson,
who had been
actively preparing
themselves
for
a re-
vival
for
months-began
to
cry
and
call
out
during
the
sermon.
They
and
many
others
stayed
at the kirk
most of
the
evening,
and before
long,
both Elizabeth
and Catherine
would count themselves
among
the
Lord's
people.
They
were
soon
joined by many
of their
neighbors.
Over
the next several
months,
people journeyed
to
Cambuslang
from
all
over the
Glasgow region
in search of
salvation,
and
some
came from
far
away.
The
Cambuslang
revival
had
begun.
Like
the other
transatlantic
revivals,
the events at
Cambuslang
attracted
interest and
imitation over
a
great
distance,
reaching
all
over
southwestern
Scotland and
beyond.
By April
the
revival
had arrived
at
the
parishes
of
Kilsyth
and
Kirkintilloch
near
Stirling;
over the next
several months it worked its way to northern Scotland, reaching
parishes
in
the
shires of
Aberdeen, Sutherland,
and Ross. Yet
its
great-
est
impact
was
always
in and
around
Cambuslang.
In
July
of
1742,
McCulloch held a
communion celebration
in
the
parish,
and
he invited
Whitefield and
several other ministers
for
a
three-day
marathon of
preaching. Many
thousands came to hear the
preaching,
and
several
clergymen
lectured
simultaneously
in the
church,
in
the
schoolhouse,
and
outdoors on the
contoured
hillside
known as the
preaching
braes. In
August
McCulloch invited
a
dozen ministers
for
another
long communion occasion, where observers estimated as many as
thirty
thousand
persons
were
in
attendance-an
exaggeration, per-
haps,
but
indicative of
the
relative
strength
of the movement.
Whitefield,
who
had observed
some of
the
greatest
revival
crowds
in
England
and
America,
remarked
that
neither the size of the audience at
Cambuslang
nor its
intensity
had been
matched
anywhere
that he had
been.
0
*
* *
In published source material, the Cambuslang revival is among the
best-documented
of
the
eighteenth-century
revival
movements. One
of
ings.
William
McCulloch was
only
too
happy
to
oblige;
he had
spoken
privately
to some of his
parishioners
about
the need
for
a revival
as
much as a decade before, and he had been preaching exclusively on the
subject
of
conversion-the
new
birth -for most of the
year.
In
February
1742 the new
lectures
began.
The
first
Thursday
lecture
passed
with relative
quiet.
But one
week
later,
on
February
18,
three
sisters-Catherine,
Elizabeth
and
Janet
Jackson,
who had been
actively preparing
themselves
for
a re-
vival
for
months-began
to
cry
and
call
out
during
the
sermon.
They
and
many
others
stayed
at the kirk
most of
the
evening,
and before
long,
both Elizabeth
and Catherine
would count themselves
among
the
Lord's
people.
They
were
soon
joined by many
of their
neighbors.
Over
the next several
months,
people journeyed
to
Cambuslang
from
all
over the
Glasgow region
in search of
salvation,
and
some
came from
far
away.
The
Cambuslang
revival
had
begun.
Like
the other
transatlantic
revivals,
the events at
Cambuslang
attracted
interest and
imitation over
a
great
distance,
reaching
all
over
southwestern
Scotland and
beyond.
By April
the
revival
had arrived
at
the
parishes
of
Kilsyth
and
Kirkintilloch
near
Stirling;
over the next
several months it worked its way to northern Scotland, reaching
parishes
in
the
shires of
Aberdeen, Sutherland,
and Ross. Yet
its
great-
est
impact
was
always
in and
around
Cambuslang.
In
July
of
1742,
McCulloch held a
communion celebration
in
the
parish,
and
he invited
Whitefield and
several other ministers
for
a
three-day
marathon of
preaching. Many
thousands came to hear the
preaching,
and
several
clergymen
lectured
simultaneously
in the
church,
in
the
schoolhouse,
and
outdoors on the
contoured
hillside
known as the
preaching
braes. In
August
McCulloch invited
a
dozen ministers
for
another
long communion occasion, where observers estimated as many as
thirty
thousand
persons
were
in
attendance-an
exaggeration, per-
haps,
but
indicative of
the
relative
strength
of the movement.
Whitefield,
who
had observed
some of
the
greatest
revival
crowds
in
England
and
America,
remarked
that
neither the size of the audience at
Cambuslang
nor its
intensity
had been
matched
anywhere
that he had
been.
0
*
* *
In published source material, the Cambuslang revival is among the
best-documented
of
the
eighteenth-century
revival
movements. One
of
ings.
William
McCulloch was
only
too
happy
to
oblige;
he had
spoken
privately
to some of his
parishioners
about
the need
for
a revival
as
much as a decade before, and he had been preaching exclusively on the
subject
of
conversion-the
new
birth -for most of the
year.
In
February
1742 the new
lectures
began.
The
first
Thursday
lecture
passed
with relative
quiet.
But one
week
later,
on
February
18,
three
sisters-Catherine,
Elizabeth
and
Janet
Jackson,
who had been
actively preparing
themselves
for
a re-
vival
for
months-began
to
cry
and
call
out
during
the
sermon.
They
and
many
others
stayed
at the kirk
most of
the
evening,
and before
long,
both Elizabeth
and Catherine
would count themselves
among
the
Lord's
people.
They
were
soon
joined by many
of their
neighbors.
Over
the next several
months,
people journeyed
to
Cambuslang
from
all
over the
Glasgow region
in search of
salvation,
and
some
came from
far
away.
The
Cambuslang
revival
had
begun.
Like
the other
transatlantic
revivals,
the events at
Cambuslang
attracted
interest and
imitation over
a
great
distance,
reaching
all
over
southwestern
Scotland and
beyond.
By April
the
revival
had arrived
at
the
parishes
of
Kilsyth
and
Kirkintilloch
near
Stirling;
over the next
several months it worked its way to northern Scotland, reaching
parishes
in
the
shires of
Aberdeen, Sutherland,
and Ross. Yet
its
great-
est
impact
was
always
in and
around
Cambuslang.
In
July
of
1742,
McCulloch held a
communion celebration
in
the
parish,
and
he invited
Whitefield and
several other ministers
for
a
three-day
marathon of
preaching. Many
thousands came to hear the
preaching,
and
several
clergymen
lectured
simultaneously
in the
church,
in
the
schoolhouse,
and
outdoors on the
contoured
hillside
known as the
preaching
braes. In
August
McCulloch invited
a
dozen ministers
for
another
long communion occasion, where observers estimated as many as
thirty
thousand
persons
were
in
attendance-an
exaggeration, per-
haps,
but
indicative of
the
relative
strength
of the movement.
Whitefield,
who
had observed
some of
the
greatest
revival
crowds
in
England
and
America,
remarked
that
neither the size of the audience at
Cambuslang
nor its
intensity
had been
matched
anywhere
that he had
been.
0
*
* *
In published source material, the Cambuslang revival is among the
best-documented
of
the
eighteenth-century
revival
movements. One
of
'1
Whitefield's
descriptions
are
quoted
in
McFarlan,
pp.
62-64.
1
Whitefield's
descriptions
are
quoted
in
McFarlan,
pp.
62-64.
1
Whitefield's
descriptions
are
quoted
in
McFarlan,
pp.
62-64.
1262626
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REVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHING
its
leading proponents,
the Reverend James Robe of
Kilsyth,
published
a
book-length
narrative of the
revival,
and
more than a
dozen other
ministers wrote shorter accounts. The awakening prompted the publi-
cation of
scores of
pamphlets
by
both
clerical and
lay participants,
and
the
events at
Cambuslang
were
regularly reported
in
two
religious
periodicals,
including
a
weekly
paper
edited
by
William McCulloch
that
ran for
a
year.
Taken
together,
those
descriptions
provide
a uni-
form
and
consistent,
although partial,
account of
the
affairs
at Cambus-
lang. They
are unanimous in
documenting
the
extraordinary
efforts
undertaken
by
the ministers
at
Cambuslang, especially
McCulloch.
The
pastor's
role in
those
affairs went
far
beyond
preaching;
none
were
admitted to the communion tables without first
submitting
to a
lengthy
interview with
one
of the
revivalists,
who would
question
that
person
at
length
about the
nature of his or
her
experience,
as
well
as his
or her
understanding
of
the
catechism
and
religious
doctrine.
As
the revival
spread
to other
parishes,
McCulloch
and
the ministers there devoted
great
amounts of time to
questioning
potential
converts
and
providing
religious
instruction,
staying up
night
after
night
counseling
the con-
verts
and
praying
with
them.'1
Such efforts by ministers to instruct potential converts were tradi-
tional in
Scottish
religion. Presbyterian
clergymen
in that
country
were
noted for the time and effort
they
devoted to doctrinal
instruction and
catechizing; preaching
and
catechizing
were
considered
the
two most
important
functions of
the
Scottish
pastor.
In
some
parishes,
persons
accused
by
the church
sessions of
committing
such offenses
as
fornica-
tion,
theft,
or
slander were
required
to submit to doctrinal examination
by
the
minister before
being accepted
back
into
the kirk. Scottish
and
Scots-Irish
clergymen
on
the other
side of the Atlantic were
equally
concerned with doctrinal matters; there Presbyterian revivalists made
doctrinal
knowledge
and
clerical
instruction into the
cornerstones of
their
evangelical
practices.12
William
McCulloch
emerges
as
a
particularly
influential
figure
in
Robe's narrative. The
Cambuslang
pastor
was much
impressed by
news
of
the American Great
Awakening,
and for months
he read ac-
1
The two revival
papers
were
McCulloch's
Glasgow
Weekly History
Relating
to
the
Late
Progress of
the
Gospel
at Home and
Abroad,
which ran from
1741 to
1742;
and
James
Robe's
Christian
Monthly
History
or
an
Account
of
the Revival
and
Progress
of
Religion
at Home and
Abroad,
published
erratically
between
1742and 1746.
12
One of the
best
discussions of
the role
of
doctrinal
orthodoxy
n Scotland
can
be
found in the introduction
to
James
Gordon's
Diary,
1692-1710,
ed.
G. D. Henderson and
H. H. Porter
Aberdeen,
1949),
pp.
38
ff.;
see also
Ned C.
Landsman,
Scotland
and Its
First
American
Colony,
1683-1765
(Princeton,
N.J.,
1985),
pp.
59-61.
its
leading proponents,
the Reverend James Robe of
Kilsyth,
published
a
book-length
narrative of the
revival,
and
more than a
dozen other
ministers wrote shorter accounts. The awakening prompted the publi-
cation of
scores of
pamphlets
by
both
clerical and
lay participants,
and
the
events at
Cambuslang
were
regularly reported
in
two
religious
periodicals,
including
a
weekly
paper
edited
by
William McCulloch
that
ran for
a
year.
Taken
together,
those
descriptions
provide
a uni-
form
and
consistent,
although partial,
account of
the
affairs
at Cambus-
lang. They
are unanimous in
documenting
the
extraordinary
efforts
undertaken
by
the ministers
at
Cambuslang, especially
McCulloch.
The
pastor's
role in
those
affairs went
far
beyond
preaching;
none
were
admitted to the communion tables without first
submitting
to a
lengthy
interview with
one
of the
revivalists,
who would
question
that
person
at
length
about the
nature of his or
her
experience,
as
well
as his
or her
understanding
of
the
catechism
and
religious
doctrine.
As
the revival
spread
to other
parishes,
McCulloch
and
the ministers there devoted
great
amounts of time to
questioning
potential
converts
and
providing
religious
instruction,
staying up
night
after
night
counseling
the con-
verts
and
praying
with
them.'1
Such efforts by ministers to instruct potential converts were tradi-
tional in
Scottish
religion. Presbyterian
clergymen
in that
country
were
noted for the time and effort
they
devoted to doctrinal
instruction and
catechizing; preaching
and
catechizing
were
considered
the
two most
important
functions of
the
Scottish
pastor.
In
some
parishes,
persons
accused
by
the church
sessions of
committing
such offenses
as
fornica-
tion,
theft,
or
slander were
required
to submit to doctrinal examination
by
the
minister before
being accepted
back
into
the kirk. Scottish
and
Scots-Irish
clergymen
on
the other
side of the Atlantic were
equally
concerned with doctrinal matters; there Presbyterian revivalists made
doctrinal
knowledge
and
clerical
instruction into the
cornerstones of
their
evangelical
practices.12
William
McCulloch
emerges
as
a
particularly
influential
figure
in
Robe's narrative. The
Cambuslang
pastor
was much
impressed by
news
of
the American Great
Awakening,
and for months
he read ac-
1
The two revival
papers
were
McCulloch's
Glasgow
Weekly History
Relating
to
the
Late
Progress of
the
Gospel
at Home and
Abroad,
which ran from
1741 to
1742;
and
James
Robe's
Christian
Monthly
History
or
an
Account
of
the Revival
and
Progress
of
Religion
at Home and
Abroad,
published
erratically
between
1742and 1746.
12
One of the
best
discussions of
the role
of
doctrinal
orthodoxy
n Scotland
can
be
found in the introduction
to
James
Gordon's
Diary,
1692-1710,
ed.
G. D. Henderson and
H. H. Porter
Aberdeen,
1949),
pp.
38
ff.;
see also
Ned C.
Landsman,
Scotland
and Its
First
American
Colony,
1683-1765
(Princeton,
N.J.,
1985),
pp.
59-61.
its
leading proponents,
the Reverend James Robe of
Kilsyth,
published
a
book-length
narrative of the
revival,
and
more than a
dozen other
ministers wrote shorter accounts. The awakening prompted the publi-
cation of
scores of
pamphlets
by
both
clerical and
lay participants,
and
the
events at
Cambuslang
were
regularly reported
in
two
religious
periodicals,
including
a
weekly
paper
edited
by
William McCulloch
that
ran for
a
year.
Taken
together,
those
descriptions
provide
a uni-
form
and
consistent,
although partial,
account of
the
affairs
at Cambus-
lang. They
are unanimous in
documenting
the
extraordinary
efforts
undertaken
by
the ministers
at
Cambuslang, especially
McCulloch.
The
pastor's
role in
those
affairs went
far
beyond
preaching;
none
were
admitted to the communion tables without first
submitting
to a
lengthy
interview with
one
of the
revivalists,
who would
question
that
person
at
length
about the
nature of his or
her
experience,
as
well
as his
or her
understanding
of
the
catechism
and
religious
doctrine.
As
the revival
spread
to other
parishes,
McCulloch
and
the ministers there devoted
great
amounts of time to
questioning
potential
converts
and
providing
religious
instruction,
staying up
night
after
night
counseling
the con-
verts
and
praying
with
them.'1
Such efforts by ministers to instruct potential converts were tradi-
tional in
Scottish
religion. Presbyterian
clergymen
in that
country
were
noted for the time and effort
they
devoted to doctrinal
instruction and
catechizing; preaching
and
catechizing
were
considered
the
two most
important
functions of
the
Scottish
pastor.
In
some
parishes,
persons
accused
by
the church
sessions of
committing
such offenses
as
fornica-
tion,
theft,
or
slander were
required
to submit to doctrinal examination
by
the
minister before
being accepted
back
into
the kirk. Scottish
and
Scots-Irish
clergymen
on
the other
side of the Atlantic were
equally
concerned with doctrinal matters; there Presbyterian revivalists made
doctrinal
knowledge
and
clerical
instruction into the
cornerstones of
their
evangelical
practices.12
William
McCulloch
emerges
as
a
particularly
influential
figure
in
Robe's narrative. The
Cambuslang
pastor
was much
impressed by
news
of
the American Great
Awakening,
and for months
he read ac-
1
The two revival
papers
were
McCulloch's
Glasgow
Weekly History
Relating
to
the
Late
Progress of
the
Gospel
at Home and
Abroad,
which ran from
1741 to
1742;
and
James
Robe's
Christian
Monthly
History
or
an
Account
of
the Revival
and
Progress
of
Religion
at Home and
Abroad,
published
erratically
between
1742and 1746.
12
One of the
best
discussions of
the role
of
doctrinal
orthodoxy
n Scotland
can
be
found in the introduction
to
James
Gordon's
Diary,
1692-1710,
ed.
G. D. Henderson and
H. H. Porter
Aberdeen,
1949),
pp.
38
ff.;
see also
Ned C.
Landsman,
Scotland
and Its
First
American
Colony,
1683-1765
(Princeton,
N.J.,
1985),
pp.
59-61.
1272727
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
counts of that revival to
his
parishioners, hoping
they
would emulate
the
American
example.
For
nearly
a
year
he
preached
exclusively
on
the subject of the new birth; those sermons would mark the initial
piercing
of the
heart,
or
convictions,
for
many
converts.
It
would
seem
that his
painstaking
efforts
began
to
pay
off
following
his lecture
of
February
18,
when McCulloch
spent
the whole
night,
and
many
nights
thereafter,
counseling
and
examining
those affected
by
his
preaching.
Thus at first
glance,
the
Cambuslang
revival
appears
to have
done
much to reinforce
authority
within
the
church,
creating
a revival
movement that
appears
to have been
unusually
well
supervised
and
regulated.
Yet if we
turn our attention from clerical accounts
of the revival to
the
descriptions
written
by lay
participants,
the situation
looks differ-
ent indeed. For one
thing,
in
spite
of the minister's
efforts,
it is
doubt-
ful
that
McCulloch
and his
colleagues played
as
great
a
role
in
awaken-
ing
the
parish
or
in
supervising
conversions as their accounts
imply.
For the
long
months that
McCulloch
had
preached
on
the
subject
of the
new
birth,
he
had almost
pleaded
with
his
parishioners
for an awaken-
ing,
to no avail. For
years
before
that,
from the
time
that
he had first
arrived in the parish, the minister had pressed his parishioners in pri-
vate
about the
necessity
of
conversion,
with little effect. Even after
Whitefield awakened several
Cambuslang
parishioners
at
Glasgow,
McCulloch
spent
months
discoursing
on the
necessity
of a
revival
with-
out
apparent
result
and
to his
great
discouragement.13
McCulloch,
in
fact,
seems to have been
something
of an
insecure
and
despairing
sort,
a rather
striking
contrast to the usual
portrayal
of
the
charismatic
evangelist. During
the
early days
of his
ministry,
be-
fore
arriving
in
Cambuslang,
McCulloch visited
the
eminent
Presbyte-
rian pastor, the Reverend Robert Wodrow of Eastwood, and poured
out
his insecurities
about his
spiritual qualifications
for
the
ministry.
For
years
he
feared that no
one
would
ever
employ
him. Those who
heard his
preaching
were more
likely
to
comment
on the mildness of
his manner
and the softness of his voice than on
any
charismatic
qual-
ities.
Indeed,
it
often seems
as
though
the
emergence
of William
McCulloch
as
a revival leader
resulted as
much from his
lack of
asser-
tiveness as from
any
innate
leadership
ability.
On one
occasion,
one of
his
listeners
saw fit
to wail aloud
during
sermon,
with the tacit consent
of the
elders,
whose conversations with the affected
persons
were also
disrupting
the
service. Far
from
objecting
to the
interruption,
McCul-
counts of that revival to
his
parishioners, hoping
they
would emulate
the
American
example.
For
nearly
a
year
he
preached
exclusively
on
the subject of the new birth; those sermons would mark the initial
piercing
of the
heart,
or
convictions,
for
many
converts.
It
would
seem
that his
painstaking
efforts
began
to
pay
off
following
his lecture
of
February
18,
when McCulloch
spent
the whole
night,
and
many
nights
thereafter,
counseling
and
examining
those affected
by
his
preaching.
Thus at first
glance,
the
Cambuslang
revival
appears
to have
done
much to reinforce
authority
within
the
church,
creating
a revival
movement that
appears
to have been
unusually
well
supervised
and
regulated.
Yet if we
turn our attention from clerical accounts
of the revival to
the
descriptions
written
by lay
participants,
the situation
looks differ-
ent indeed. For one
thing,
in
spite
of the minister's
efforts,
it is
doubt-
ful
that
McCulloch
and his
colleagues played
as
great
a
role
in
awaken-
ing
the
parish
or
in
supervising
conversions as their accounts
imply.
For the
long
months that
McCulloch
had
preached
on
the
subject
of the
new
birth,
he
had almost
pleaded
with
his
parishioners
for an awaken-
ing,
to no avail. For
years
before
that,
from the
time
that
he had first
arrived in the parish, the minister had pressed his parishioners in pri-
vate
about the
necessity
of
conversion,
with little effect. Even after
Whitefield awakened several
Cambuslang
parishioners
at
Glasgow,
McCulloch
spent
months
discoursing
on the
necessity
of a
revival
with-
out
apparent
result
and
to his
great
discouragement.13
McCulloch,
in
fact,
seems to have been
something
of an
insecure
and
despairing
sort,
a rather
striking
contrast to the usual
portrayal
of
the
charismatic
evangelist. During
the
early days
of his
ministry,
be-
fore
arriving
in
Cambuslang,
McCulloch visited
the
eminent
Presbyte-
rian pastor, the Reverend Robert Wodrow of Eastwood, and poured
out
his insecurities
about his
spiritual qualifications
for
the
ministry.
For
years
he
feared that no
one
would
ever
employ
him. Those who
heard his
preaching
were more
likely
to
comment
on the mildness of
his manner
and the softness of his voice than on
any
charismatic
qual-
ities.
Indeed,
it
often seems
as
though
the
emergence
of William
McCulloch
as
a revival leader
resulted as
much from his
lack of
asser-
tiveness as from
any
innate
leadership
ability.
On one
occasion,
one of
his
listeners
saw fit
to wail aloud
during
sermon,
with the tacit consent
of the
elders,
whose conversations with the affected
persons
were also
disrupting
the
service. Far
from
objecting
to the
interruption,
McCul-
counts of that revival to
his
parishioners, hoping
they
would emulate
the
American
example.
For
nearly
a
year
he
preached
exclusively
on
the subject of the new birth; those sermons would mark the initial
piercing
of the
heart,
or
convictions,
for
many
converts.
It
would
seem
that his
painstaking
efforts
began
to
pay
off
following
his lecture
of
February
18,
when McCulloch
spent
the whole
night,
and
many
nights
thereafter,
counseling
and
examining
those affected
by
his
preaching.
Thus at first
glance,
the
Cambuslang
revival
appears
to have
done
much to reinforce
authority
within
the
church,
creating
a revival
movement that
appears
to have been
unusually
well
supervised
and
regulated.
Yet if we
turn our attention from clerical accounts
of the revival to
the
descriptions
written
by lay
participants,
the situation
looks differ-
ent indeed. For one
thing,
in
spite
of the minister's
efforts,
it is
doubt-
ful
that
McCulloch
and his
colleagues played
as
great
a
role
in
awaken-
ing
the
parish
or
in
supervising
conversions as their accounts
imply.
For the
long
months that
McCulloch
had
preached
on
the
subject
of the
new
birth,
he
had almost
pleaded
with
his
parishioners
for an awaken-
ing,
to no avail. For
years
before
that,
from the
time
that
he had first
arrived in the parish, the minister had pressed his parishioners in pri-
vate
about the
necessity
of
conversion,
with little effect. Even after
Whitefield awakened several
Cambuslang
parishioners
at
Glasgow,
McCulloch
spent
months
discoursing
on the
necessity
of a
revival
with-
out
apparent
result
and
to his
great
discouragement.13
McCulloch,
in
fact,
seems to have been
something
of an
insecure
and
despairing
sort,
a rather
striking
contrast to the usual
portrayal
of
the
charismatic
evangelist. During
the
early days
of his
ministry,
be-
fore
arriving
in
Cambuslang,
McCulloch visited
the
eminent
Presbyte-
rian pastor, the Reverend Robert Wodrow of Eastwood, and poured
out
his insecurities
about his
spiritual qualifications
for
the
ministry.
For
years
he
feared that no
one
would
ever
employ
him. Those who
heard his
preaching
were more
likely
to
comment
on the mildness of
his manner
and the softness of his voice than on
any
charismatic
qual-
ities.
Indeed,
it
often seems
as
though
the
emergence
of William
McCulloch
as
a revival leader
resulted as
much from his
lack of
asser-
tiveness as from
any
innate
leadership
ability.
On one
occasion,
one of
his
listeners
saw fit
to wail aloud
during
sermon,
with the tacit consent
of the
elders,
whose conversations with the affected
persons
were also
disrupting
the
service. Far
from
objecting
to the
interruption,
McCul-
13
McCulloch
(n.
4
above),
2:557-71
(Janet Struthers),
and
vols.
1-2,
passim.
3
McCulloch
(n.
4
above),
2:557-71
(Janet Struthers),
and
vols.
1-2,
passim.
3
McCulloch
(n.
4
above),
2:557-71
(Janet Struthers),
and
vols.
1-2,
passim.
1282828
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REVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHING
loch told his listeners
not to stifle their
feelings,
but to
encourage
them.14
What sparked the awakening at Cambuslang was not so much
McCulloch's
effort,
which had
been
almost
continuous,
but the
in-
volvement
of
leading
laymen,
including
Ingram
More
and
Robert Bow-
man,
following
their
hearing
of
Whitefield.
Both
men were
prominent
within
the
parish's fast-growing
artisan
community,
and
the
revival
began
to take effect
only
after
they
had traveled
from
house to house
within the
parish carrying
the
petition
for
a
Thursday
lecture.
Those
visits
undoubtedly
involved more
than
obtaining signatures
since
McCulloch had
long
before demonstrated
that he was more
than
eager
to
preach
conversion to
the
congregation
at
almost
any
opportunity.
At
the
same time that More and Bowman
were
circulating
their
petition,
they
were
establishing
a network of
prayer
societies
within the
parish,
all
led
by
laymen.
In the
days
before the
first
conversions
at Cambus-
lang,
those
societies
had been
meeting every night, building anticipa-
tion and
working
some
of the
young
people
into
a fever
pitch.
Not
until
they
had
suitably
prepared
the
parish
for
the revival
did McCulloch's
sermons
begin
to take effect.15
When the revival began, the first to be affected were the three
daughters
of James
Jackson,
an elder of
the kirk and also
a weaver.
What
happened
thereafter is
revealing:
as soon
as the
young
women
began
to
cry
out,
More and Bowman removed
them from the
meeting-
house
right
in the middle
of
the
sermon.
They
were
taken
into
a
sepa-
rate
chamber where several of the elders looked
after them. As others
began
to
cry
out,
they
too were
carried
out of
the sermon and into the
side
chamber. There
those
under
spiritual
distress were
organized
into
prayer
meetings,
led
by persons
whom More
and Bowman
appointed.
They were extremely selective in their choice of prayer leaders, refus-
ing
to hear the
prayers
of a
prominent
elder from
a
neighboring parish
whose
prayers
evidenced less
than
complete
certainty
of
the
divine
inspiration
of
the revival.16
Once the
sermon
had
ended,
converts were
brought
into
the minis-
ter's
manse,
but More and Bowman determined
which
persons
were
14
Robert
Wodrow,
Analectica;
or Materials
for
a
History of
Remarkable
Provi-
dences;
Mostly Relating
to Scotch Ministers and
Christians,
4 vols.
(Edinburgh,
1842),
4:279-80; McCulloch,
1:86
(Janet Reid), 1:96-97(MaryMitchell),andpassim;andesp.
A
Short
Account
of
the Remarkable
Conversions
at
Cambuslang.
In a Letter From a
Gentleman in the
West-Country
to his Friend at
Edinburgh (Glasgow,
1742),
pp.
5-8.
15
Short
Account;
McCulloch,
1:17-38
(Janet
Jackson),
1:94-101
(Mary
Mitchell),
1:102-10
(ElizabethJackson),
and
passim.
16
McCulloch,
1:17-38
(Janet
Jackson),
1:102-10
(ElizabethJackson),
2:265-296
(Catherine
ackson),
and
passim;
Short
Account,
pp.
8-9.
loch told his listeners
not to stifle their
feelings,
but to
encourage
them.14
What sparked the awakening at Cambuslang was not so much
McCulloch's
effort,
which had
been
almost
continuous,
but the
in-
volvement
of
leading
laymen,
including
Ingram
More
and
Robert Bow-
man,
following
their
hearing
of
Whitefield.
Both
men were
prominent
within
the
parish's fast-growing
artisan
community,
and
the
revival
began
to take effect
only
after
they
had traveled
from
house to house
within the
parish carrying
the
petition
for
a
Thursday
lecture.
Those
visits
undoubtedly
involved more
than
obtaining signatures
since
McCulloch had
long
before demonstrated
that he was more
than
eager
to
preach
conversion to
the
congregation
at
almost
any
opportunity.
At
the
same time that More and Bowman
were
circulating
their
petition,
they
were
establishing
a network of
prayer
societies
within the
parish,
all
led
by
laymen.
In the
days
before the
first
conversions
at Cambus-
lang,
those
societies
had been
meeting every night, building anticipa-
tion and
working
some
of the
young
people
into
a fever
pitch.
Not
until
they
had
suitably
prepared
the
parish
for
the revival
did McCulloch's
sermons
begin
to take effect.15
When the revival began, the first to be affected were the three
daughters
of James
Jackson,
an elder of
the kirk and also
a weaver.
What
happened
thereafter is
revealing:
as soon
as the
young
women
began
to
cry
out,
More and Bowman removed
them from the
meeting-
house
right
in the middle
of
the
sermon.
They
were
taken
into
a
sepa-
rate
chamber where several of the elders looked
after them. As others
began
to
cry
out,
they
too were
carried
out of
the sermon and into the
side
chamber. There
those
under
spiritual
distress were
organized
into
prayer
meetings,
led
by persons
whom More
and Bowman
appointed.
They were extremely selective in their choice of prayer leaders, refus-
ing
to hear the
prayers
of a
prominent
elder from
a
neighboring parish
whose
prayers
evidenced less
than
complete
certainty
of
the
divine
inspiration
of
the revival.16
Once the
sermon
had
ended,
converts were
brought
into
the minis-
ter's
manse,
but More and Bowman determined
which
persons
were
14
Robert
Wodrow,
Analectica;
or Materials
for
a
History of
Remarkable
Provi-
dences;
Mostly Relating
to Scotch Ministers and
Christians,
4 vols.
(Edinburgh,
1842),
4:279-80; McCulloch,
1:86
(Janet Reid), 1:96-97(MaryMitchell),andpassim;andesp.
A
Short
Account
of
the Remarkable
Conversions
at
Cambuslang.
In a Letter From a
Gentleman in the
West-Country
to his Friend at
Edinburgh (Glasgow,
1742),
pp.
5-8.
15
Short
Account;
McCulloch,
1:17-38
(Janet
Jackson),
1:94-101
(Mary
Mitchell),
1:102-10
(ElizabethJackson),
and
passim.
16
McCulloch,
1:17-38
(Janet
Jackson),
1:102-10
(ElizabethJackson),
2:265-296
(Catherine
ackson),
and
passim;
Short
Account,
pp.
8-9.
loch told his listeners
not to stifle their
feelings,
but to
encourage
them.14
What sparked the awakening at Cambuslang was not so much
McCulloch's
effort,
which had
been
almost
continuous,
but the
in-
volvement
of
leading
laymen,
including
Ingram
More
and
Robert Bow-
man,
following
their
hearing
of
Whitefield.
Both
men were
prominent
within
the
parish's fast-growing
artisan
community,
and
the
revival
began
to take effect
only
after
they
had traveled
from
house to house
within the
parish carrying
the
petition
for
a
Thursday
lecture.
Those
visits
undoubtedly
involved more
than
obtaining signatures
since
McCulloch had
long
before demonstrated
that he was more
than
eager
to
preach
conversion to
the
congregation
at
almost
any
opportunity.
At
the
same time that More and Bowman
were
circulating
their
petition,
they
were
establishing
a network of
prayer
societies
within the
parish,
all
led
by
laymen.
In the
days
before the
first
conversions
at Cambus-
lang,
those
societies
had been
meeting every night, building anticipa-
tion and
working
some
of the
young
people
into
a fever
pitch.
Not
until
they
had
suitably
prepared
the
parish
for
the revival
did McCulloch's
sermons
begin
to take effect.15
When the revival began, the first to be affected were the three
daughters
of James
Jackson,
an elder of
the kirk and also
a weaver.
What
happened
thereafter is
revealing:
as soon
as the
young
women
began
to
cry
out,
More and Bowman removed
them from the
meeting-
house
right
in the middle
of
the
sermon.
They
were
taken
into
a
sepa-
rate
chamber where several of the elders looked
after them. As others
began
to
cry
out,
they
too were
carried
out of
the sermon and into the
side
chamber. There
those
under
spiritual
distress were
organized
into
prayer
meetings,
led
by persons
whom More
and Bowman
appointed.
They were extremely selective in their choice of prayer leaders, refus-
ing
to hear the
prayers
of a
prominent
elder from
a
neighboring parish
whose
prayers
evidenced less
than
complete
certainty
of
the
divine
inspiration
of
the revival.16
Once the
sermon
had
ended,
converts were
brought
into
the minis-
ter's
manse,
but More and Bowman determined
which
persons
were
14
Robert
Wodrow,
Analectica;
or Materials
for
a
History of
Remarkable
Provi-
dences;
Mostly Relating
to Scotch Ministers and
Christians,
4 vols.
(Edinburgh,
1842),
4:279-80; McCulloch,
1:86
(Janet Reid), 1:96-97(MaryMitchell),andpassim;andesp.
A
Short
Account
of
the Remarkable
Conversions
at
Cambuslang.
In a Letter From a
Gentleman in the
West-Country
to his Friend at
Edinburgh (Glasgow,
1742),
pp.
5-8.
15
Short
Account;
McCulloch,
1:17-38
(Janet
Jackson),
1:94-101
(Mary
Mitchell),
1:102-10
(ElizabethJackson),
and
passim.
16
McCulloch,
1:17-38
(Janet
Jackson),
1:102-10
(ElizabethJackson),
2:265-296
(Catherine
ackson),
and
passim;
Short
Account,
pp.
8-9.
1292929
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
brought
in
to see
him,
and when.
Some of the others were
taken instead
to a
private
house
for instruction
by
one
of
the elders
or
by
Jean
Galbraith, an experienced Christian and a neighbor and close friend
of both More
and
James
Jackson.
It
is
apparent
from the accounts
of
the
Jackson sisters
that Galbraith
had a far
greater
influence over
their
conversions
than did McCulloch.
When,
in the
ensuing
weeks,
other
potential
converts
called
on the
ministers
in
search
of
spiritual
counsel,
More
and
Galbraith advised
them not
to
rely
so
much on the words of
men
(ministers)
but
to
rely
instead
on the
Bible.17
Although
clerical
descriptions
of
the events
at
Cambuslang por-
tray
McCulloch
and his
colleagues
as constant
companions
of those
attempting
to work out
their
conversions,
the
converts'
narratives
sug-
gest
that
they experienced
things quite
differently.
While most first
fell
under
spiritual
concern
in
response
to the
preaching
of a
minister,
as
was traditional
in
Presbyterian
doctrine
(awakening
normally
follows
the
hearing
of
the
Word),
the
majority
accorded
the
clergy
little in-
fluence thereafter. To
those
converts,
regeneration
was
something
to
be worked out
substantially
within their own
hearts and minds. When
they
needed
counsel,
they
went most often
to friends
and relatives or
to the lay leaders of the congregation. A few of the narratives never
refer
to
any
minister
at
all,
while
only
a handful of cases
portrayed
clergymen
as
major
figures
after
the initial
awakening.
In that
sense,
it
seems as
though
Cambuslang
converts
took
the
Protestant
injunction
against spiritual
mediators
far more
seriously
than did
their ministers.18
The
lay
leaders to whom
the
narrators
turned came
principally
from the
artisan
community,
both
within and outside
of
Cambuslang.
Almost all were weavers.
Although
in the next
century,
Scotland's
handloom weavers
acquired
the
reputation
of
a
downtrodden
group,
their situation in the middle years of the eighteenth century was far
better.
Weavers
were much
in
demand,
and
their numbers
in and
around
Glasgow
were
growing
at
an
ever-accelerating
rate. Skilled
weavers were
better-paid
than their
counterparts
in
agricultural
work
and,
by contemporary reports,
were
even able to
marry
and start
families at an earlier
age.19
The weavers of the
Glasgow region
were
an active
and
confident
group.
As their
membership expanded,
they
took
the lead
in
the forma-
tion of
friendly
societies
devoted to mutual
aid and camaraderie.
17
McCulloch,
1:27-28
(Janet
Jackson),
1:72-73
(Anne
Wylie),
and
passim.
18
Ibid.,
esp.
1:368-75
(Janet
Merrilie),
1:465
John
Aiken),
and
passim.
19
Durie
(n.
6
above);
Norman
Murray,
The Scottish
Hand
Loom
Weavers,
1790-
1850
(Edinburgh,
1978);
Sinclair
n.
6
above),
5:241-74.
brought
in
to see
him,
and when.
Some of the others were
taken instead
to a
private
house
for instruction
by
one
of
the elders
or
by
Jean
Galbraith, an experienced Christian and a neighbor and close friend
of both More
and
James
Jackson.
It
is
apparent
from the accounts
of
the
Jackson sisters
that Galbraith
had a far
greater
influence over
their
conversions
than did McCulloch.
When,
in the
ensuing
weeks,
other
potential
converts
called
on the
ministers
in
search
of
spiritual
counsel,
More
and
Galbraith advised
them not
to
rely
so
much on the words of
men
(ministers)
but
to
rely
instead
on the
Bible.17
Although
clerical
descriptions
of
the events
at
Cambuslang por-
tray
McCulloch
and his
colleagues
as constant
companions
of those
attempting
to work out
their
conversions,
the
converts'
narratives
sug-
gest
that
they experienced
things quite
differently.
While most first
fell
under
spiritual
concern
in
response
to the
preaching
of a
minister,
as
was traditional
in
Presbyterian
doctrine
(awakening
normally
follows
the
hearing
of
the
Word),
the
majority
accorded
the
clergy
little in-
fluence thereafter. To
those
converts,
regeneration
was
something
to
be worked out
substantially
within their own
hearts and minds. When
they
needed
counsel,
they
went most often
to friends
and relatives or
to the lay leaders of the congregation. A few of the narratives never
refer
to
any
minister
at
all,
while
only
a handful of cases
portrayed
clergymen
as
major
figures
after
the initial
awakening.
In that
sense,
it
seems as
though
Cambuslang
converts
took
the
Protestant
injunction
against spiritual
mediators
far more
seriously
than did
their ministers.18
The
lay
leaders to whom
the
narrators
turned came
principally
from the
artisan
community,
both
within and outside
of
Cambuslang.
Almost all were weavers.
Although
in the next
century,
Scotland's
handloom weavers
acquired
the
reputation
of
a
downtrodden
group,
their situation in the middle years of the eighteenth century was far
better.
Weavers
were much
in
demand,
and
their numbers
in and
around
Glasgow
were
growing
at
an
ever-accelerating
rate. Skilled
weavers were
better-paid
than their
counterparts
in
agricultural
work
and,
by contemporary reports,
were
even able to
marry
and start
families at an earlier
age.19
The weavers of the
Glasgow region
were
an active
and
confident
group.
As their
membership expanded,
they
took
the lead
in
the forma-
tion of
friendly
societies
devoted to mutual
aid and camaraderie.
17
McCulloch,
1:27-28
(Janet
Jackson),
1:72-73
(Anne
Wylie),
and
passim.
18
Ibid.,
esp.
1:368-75
(Janet
Merrilie),
1:465
John
Aiken),
and
passim.
19
Durie
(n.
6
above);
Norman
Murray,
The Scottish
Hand
Loom
Weavers,
1790-
1850
(Edinburgh,
1978);
Sinclair
n.
6
above),
5:241-74.
brought
in
to see
him,
and when.
Some of the others were
taken instead
to a
private
house
for instruction
by
one
of
the elders
or
by
Jean
Galbraith, an experienced Christian and a neighbor and close friend
of both More
and
James
Jackson.
It
is
apparent
from the accounts
of
the
Jackson sisters
that Galbraith
had a far
greater
influence over
their
conversions
than did McCulloch.
When,
in the
ensuing
weeks,
other
potential
converts
called
on the
ministers
in
search
of
spiritual
counsel,
More
and
Galbraith advised
them not
to
rely
so
much on the words of
men
(ministers)
but
to
rely
instead
on the
Bible.17
Although
clerical
descriptions
of
the events
at
Cambuslang por-
tray
McCulloch
and his
colleagues
as constant
companions
of those
attempting
to work out
their
conversions,
the
converts'
narratives
sug-
gest
that
they experienced
things quite
differently.
While most first
fell
under
spiritual
concern
in
response
to the
preaching
of a
minister,
as
was traditional
in
Presbyterian
doctrine
(awakening
normally
follows
the
hearing
of
the
Word),
the
majority
accorded
the
clergy
little in-
fluence thereafter. To
those
converts,
regeneration
was
something
to
be worked out
substantially
within their own
hearts and minds. When
they
needed
counsel,
they
went most often
to friends
and relatives or
to the lay leaders of the congregation. A few of the narratives never
refer
to
any
minister
at
all,
while
only
a handful of cases
portrayed
clergymen
as
major
figures
after
the initial
awakening.
In that
sense,
it
seems as
though
Cambuslang
converts
took
the
Protestant
injunction
against spiritual
mediators
far more
seriously
than did
their ministers.18
The
lay
leaders to whom
the
narrators
turned came
principally
from the
artisan
community,
both
within and outside
of
Cambuslang.
Almost all were weavers.
Although
in the next
century,
Scotland's
handloom weavers
acquired
the
reputation
of
a
downtrodden
group,
their situation in the middle years of the eighteenth century was far
better.
Weavers
were much
in
demand,
and
their numbers
in and
around
Glasgow
were
growing
at
an
ever-accelerating
rate. Skilled
weavers were
better-paid
than their
counterparts
in
agricultural
work
and,
by contemporary reports,
were
even able to
marry
and start
families at an earlier
age.19
The weavers of the
Glasgow region
were
an active
and
confident
group.
As their
membership expanded,
they
took
the lead
in
the forma-
tion of
friendly
societies
devoted to mutual
aid and camaraderie.
17
McCulloch,
1:27-28
(Janet
Jackson),
1:72-73
(Anne
Wylie),
and
passim.
18
Ibid.,
esp.
1:368-75
(Janet
Merrilie),
1:465
John
Aiken),
and
passim.
19
Durie
(n.
6
above);
Norman
Murray,
The Scottish
Hand
Loom
Weavers,
1790-
1850
(Edinburgh,
1978);
Sinclair
n.
6
above),
5:241-74.
1303030
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REVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHING
The
local
incorporation
of
weavers,
which
had
existed for
centuries,
spawned
an
array
of
new societies
in
the second
quarter
of
the
eigh-
teenth century: one in Calton in Glasgow in 1725, another in Anderston
in
1738,
another
in
Pollockshaws
in
Eastwood
the
following
decade,
and still others
in
nearby
communities within
a
few
years
after
that.20
The
initiative those
weavers
displayed
in the creation of
weaver
societies
carried over
into church
life,
as
weavers
increasingly
came to
dominate
kirk sessions
throughout
the
region.
By
1742,
weavers com-
prised
a
majority
of
the
Cambuslang
session
and were
similarly repre-
sented in several
neighboring parishes.
In
Glasgow's
Barony
parish,
several weavers extended
their influence
into
the realm of
religious
publication
as
well;
beginning
about
1730,
weavers
began
to band
to-
gether
to subscribe
to
the
republication
of orthodox
religious
tracts
in
numbers matched
by
no other
group.21
Those master
weavers
were
similarly
influential
both
in
counseling
potential
converts
and
in
attracting
them to
the revival.
McCullouch's
notebooks offer evidence
concerning
the social
origins
of
sixty-two
of
those
who
wrote
narratives,
and the evidence
is
striking:
more
than
two-thirds of
those whose
origins
we can trace
derived from
the arti-
sanal community, half of those from weaving families, in an area where
the
majority
of inhabitants
still
followed
agricultural
pursuits.
Only
a
few
of those were
master
weavers, however;
as
in
most
revival move-
ments,
women
and
the
young predominated-unmarried
women alone
comprised
a
majority
of
the narrators.
Almost
two-thirds of
the nar-
rators from
weaving
families were
women,
all but
one unmarried. Even
among
male weavers
youth
predominated:
only
two
of the men
were
master
weavers,
while
two
were
apprentices
and two were
the sons
of
20
M'Ewan
(n.
6
above);
also
Minute
Book
of
the
Weavers
of Caltounand
Black-
faulds;
Minute
Book,
1738-1832,
Society
of
Weavers
of
Anderston,
both in
Strathclyde
Regional
Archives.
21
Minute
Book of the
Weavers
of Caltounand
Blackfaulds ;
Minute
Book,
1738-
1832 ;
Records
of
the KirkSession
of
Cambuslang,
ol.
2
(1722-48),
ScottishRecord
Office,
Edinburgh;
nd Records
of the
Kirk Session
of
Barony
Parish,
vol.
4
(1737-
56),
StrathclydeRegional
Archives. Weaver
participation
n
the
publication
f
religious
tracts is
discussed
in Peter
Laslett,
Scottish
Weavers,
Cobblers
and Miners
Who
Bought
Books
in the
1750's,
Local
Population
Studies
3
(1969):
7-15.
Weavers
from
the
Glasgow
region
subscribed
o
many
other books
in addition o
those
Laslett
cited;
see,
e.g.,
two editions
of Thomas
Watson,
A
Body of
Practical
Divinity,
Consisting of
above
One Hundred
seventy
six serons
on the
Lesser
Catechism
(Glasgow,
1734 and
1759);
John
Nevay,
The
Nature,
Properties,
Blessings
and
Saving
Graces
of
the Covenant
of
Grace
(Glasgow,
1748);
and John
Collins
[Collinges],
The Weavers'
pocket-book;
or
Weaving
spiritualized
Glasgow,
1766).
An extensive
collection
of such
books can
be
found
among
the
early
Glasgow
mprints
n
the rarebook
room
of
the
Mitchell
Library,
Glasgow;
see
esp.
those
published
by
John
Bryce.
The
local
incorporation
of
weavers,
which
had
existed for
centuries,
spawned
an
array
of
new societies
in
the second
quarter
of
the
eigh-
teenth century: one in Calton in Glasgow in 1725, another in Anderston
in
1738,
another
in
Pollockshaws
in
Eastwood
the
following
decade,
and still others
in
nearby
communities within
a
few
years
after
that.20
The
initiative those
weavers
displayed
in the creation of
weaver
societies
carried over
into church
life,
as
weavers
increasingly
came to
dominate
kirk sessions
throughout
the
region.
By
1742,
weavers com-
prised
a
majority
of
the
Cambuslang
session
and were
similarly repre-
sented in several
neighboring parishes.
In
Glasgow's
Barony
parish,
several weavers extended
their influence
into
the realm of
religious
publication
as
well;
beginning
about
1730,
weavers
began
to band
to-
gether
to subscribe
to
the
republication
of orthodox
religious
tracts
in
numbers matched
by
no other
group.21
Those master
weavers
were
similarly
influential
both
in
counseling
potential
converts
and
in
attracting
them to
the revival.
McCullouch's
notebooks offer evidence
concerning
the social
origins
of
sixty-two
of
those
who
wrote
narratives,
and the evidence
is
striking:
more
than
two-thirds of
those whose
origins
we can trace
derived from
the arti-
sanal community, half of those from weaving families, in an area where
the
majority
of inhabitants
still
followed
agricultural
pursuits.
Only
a
few
of those were
master
weavers, however;
as
in
most
revival move-
ments,
women
and
the
young predominated-unmarried
women alone
comprised
a
majority
of
the narrators.
Almost
two-thirds of
the nar-
rators from
weaving
families were
women,
all but
one unmarried. Even
among
male weavers
youth
predominated:
only
two
of the men
were
master
weavers,
while
two
were
apprentices
and two were
the sons
of
20
M'Ewan
(n.
6
above);
also
Minute
Book
of
the
Weavers
of Caltounand
Black-
faulds;
Minute
Book,
1738-1832,
Society
of
Weavers
of
Anderston,
both in
Strathclyde
Regional
Archives.
21
Minute
Book of the
Weavers
of Caltounand
Blackfaulds ;
Minute
Book,
1738-
1832 ;
Records
of
the KirkSession
of
Cambuslang,
ol.
2
(1722-48),
ScottishRecord
Office,
Edinburgh;
nd Records
of the
Kirk Session
of
Barony
Parish,
vol.
4
(1737-
56),
StrathclydeRegional
Archives. Weaver
participation
n
the
publication
f
religious
tracts is
discussed
in Peter
Laslett,
Scottish
Weavers,
Cobblers
and Miners
Who
Bought
Books
in the
1750's,
Local
Population
Studies
3
(1969):
7-15.
Weavers
from
the
Glasgow
region
subscribed
o
many
other books
in addition o
those
Laslett
cited;
see,
e.g.,
two editions
of Thomas
Watson,
A
Body of
Practical
Divinity,
Consisting of
above
One Hundred
seventy
six serons
on the
Lesser
Catechism
(Glasgow,
1734 and
1759);
John
Nevay,
The
Nature,
Properties,
Blessings
and
Saving
Graces
of
the Covenant
of
Grace
(Glasgow,
1748);
and John
Collins
[Collinges],
The Weavers'
pocket-book;
or
Weaving
spiritualized
Glasgow,
1766).
An extensive
collection
of such
books can
be
found
among
the
early
Glasgow
mprints
n
the rarebook
room
of
the
Mitchell
Library,
Glasgow;
see
esp.
those
published
by
John
Bryce.
The
local
incorporation
of
weavers,
which
had
existed for
centuries,
spawned
an
array
of
new societies
in
the second
quarter
of
the
eigh-
teenth century: one in Calton in Glasgow in 1725, another in Anderston
in
1738,
another
in
Pollockshaws
in
Eastwood
the
following
decade,
and still others
in
nearby
communities within
a
few
years
after
that.20
The
initiative those
weavers
displayed
in the creation of
weaver
societies
carried over
into church
life,
as
weavers
increasingly
came to
dominate
kirk sessions
throughout
the
region.
By
1742,
weavers com-
prised
a
majority
of
the
Cambuslang
session
and were
similarly repre-
sented in several
neighboring parishes.
In
Glasgow's
Barony
parish,
several weavers extended
their influence
into
the realm of
religious
publication
as
well;
beginning
about
1730,
weavers
began
to band
to-
gether
to subscribe
to
the
republication
of orthodox
religious
tracts
in
numbers matched
by
no other
group.21
Those master
weavers
were
similarly
influential
both
in
counseling
potential
converts
and
in
attracting
them to
the revival.
McCullouch's
notebooks offer evidence
concerning
the social
origins
of
sixty-two
of
those
who
wrote
narratives,
and the evidence
is
striking:
more
than
two-thirds of
those whose
origins
we can trace
derived from
the arti-
sanal community, half of those from weaving families, in an area where
the
majority
of inhabitants
still
followed
agricultural
pursuits.
Only
a
few
of those were
master
weavers, however;
as
in
most
revival move-
ments,
women
and
the
young predominated-unmarried
women alone
comprised
a
majority
of
the narrators.
Almost
two-thirds of
the nar-
rators from
weaving
families were
women,
all but
one unmarried. Even
among
male weavers
youth
predominated:
only
two
of the men
were
master
weavers,
while
two
were
apprentices
and two were
the sons
of
20
M'Ewan
(n.
6
above);
also
Minute
Book
of
the
Weavers
of Caltounand
Black-
faulds;
Minute
Book,
1738-1832,
Society
of
Weavers
of
Anderston,
both in
Strathclyde
Regional
Archives.
21
Minute
Book of the
Weavers
of Caltounand
Blackfaulds ;
Minute
Book,
1738-
1832 ;
Records
of
the KirkSession
of
Cambuslang,
ol.
2
(1722-48),
ScottishRecord
Office,
Edinburgh;
nd Records
of the
Kirk Session
of
Barony
Parish,
vol.
4
(1737-
56),
StrathclydeRegional
Archives. Weaver
participation
n
the
publication
f
religious
tracts is
discussed
in Peter
Laslett,
Scottish
Weavers,
Cobblers
and Miners
Who
Bought
Books
in the
1750's,
Local
Population
Studies
3
(1969):
7-15.
Weavers
from
the
Glasgow
region
subscribed
o
many
other books
in addition o
those
Laslett
cited;
see,
e.g.,
two editions
of Thomas
Watson,
A
Body of
Practical
Divinity,
Consisting of
above
One Hundred
seventy
six serons
on the
Lesser
Catechism
(Glasgow,
1734 and
1759);
John
Nevay,
The
Nature,
Properties,
Blessings
and
Saving
Graces
of
the Covenant
of
Grace
(Glasgow,
1748);
and John
Collins
[Collinges],
The Weavers'
pocket-book;
or
Weaving
spiritualized
Glasgow,
1766).
An extensive
collection
of such
books can
be
found
among
the
early
Glasgow
mprints
n
the rarebook
room
of
the
Mitchell
Library,
Glasgow;
see
esp.
those
published
by
John
Bryce.
1313131
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
weavers.
Fully
half of the narrators whose
origins
we
can
trace were
the
wives, sons,
daughters,
or servants of
artisanal
families,
those
we
might call the dependent members of the craft community. The narra-
tives
of those
young
persons,
such as
those
of the
Jackson
sisters,
give
abundant
evidence of
the role their masters or their
masters' wives
played
in
guiding
their
religious
development.22
*
*
*
Under
the
guidance
of those master
weavers,
the
Cambuslang
converts
forged
a
concept
of conversion
that
diverged
dramatically
from
that
prescribed by
the
preachers. Although
McCulloch and his
colleagues
continuously
directed
their
converts
to
test
their
experi-
ences
against
the standards
of
scripture
and
doctrine,
Cambuslang's
lay
leaders offered
different advice.
They
counseled their listeners to
reflect
on the Bible
directly,
rather
than to listen so
closely
to the
words of men.
What
they
found
in
those reflections was
an
experience
that
was
lay-centered
and distinct. Almost without
exception,
the con-
verts looked not to
the
preacher's
doctrine
for
guidance
so
much
as
they
cast about for
sure,
external
signs
of their
election,
through
voices
and visions and signs manifest in their own lives, a process that More
and
Bowman
explicitly encouraged
and that the revivalists
repeatedly
decried. In
annotating
the
narratives,
the ministers
consistently
deleted
references to such
signs, yet they
appeared
in
almost
every
narrative,
even
among
those
that
McCulloch selected
for
publication.
Indeed,
if
the
preachers
believed
that
conversion came about most often
through
the
hearing
of the
Word,
to
the
converts
it
came most
often from
hearing
words,
or
voices,
aloud or
inside
themselves,
a
realm of
experi-
ence
beyond
clerical control.
A good example of such a conversion can be found in the relation
of
Margaret
Lap,
a servant and
collier's
daughter
from
Cambuslang
and
an
unmarried woman
of
twenty-nine.
As a
young
woman,
Mar-
garet
Lap
had
always
maintained
the
externals
of
religious
behavior,
22
The
index to vol. 2 of McCullouch'snotebooks-found
at
the end of vol.
1-
describes
the
social
origins
of almost
all of
the narrators
n the
second
vol.
The
index to
vol.
1-located at the end of vol.
2-provides
some additional
nformation,
and the
occupations
of a few other narrators
an
be discerned
rom
the narratives.Of the
sixty-
two we can identify,there were seventeen menandforty-fivewomen,a ratio somewhat
lower
than that found
in
the notebooks
as a whole
(thirty-four
men vs.
seventy-three
women).
More
than
two-thirds
forty-two
of
sixty-two)
came from the artisanal ommu-
nity,
twenty-one
weavers
and
spinners
or their
families,
and another
nine from the
families of
shoemakers.See
also the accounts
in
McCulloch,
1:17-37
(Janet
Jackson),
1:39-75
(Anne
Wylie),
1:78-84
(John
McDonald),
1:94-100
Mary
Mitchell),
and 2:265-
96
(Catherine
ackson).
weavers.
Fully
half of the narrators whose
origins
we
can
trace were
the
wives, sons,
daughters,
or servants of
artisanal
families,
those
we
might call the dependent members of the craft community. The narra-
tives
of those
young
persons,
such as
those
of the
Jackson
sisters,
give
abundant
evidence of
the role their masters or their
masters' wives
played
in
guiding
their
religious
development.22
*
*
*
Under
the
guidance
of those master
weavers,
the
Cambuslang
converts
forged
a
concept
of conversion
that
diverged
dramatically
from
that
prescribed by
the
preachers. Although
McCulloch and his
colleagues
continuously
directed
their
converts
to
test
their
experi-
ences
against
the standards
of
scripture
and
doctrine,
Cambuslang's
lay
leaders offered
different advice.
They
counseled their listeners to
reflect
on the Bible
directly,
rather
than to listen so
closely
to the
words of men.
What
they
found
in
those reflections was
an
experience
that
was
lay-centered
and distinct. Almost without
exception,
the con-
verts looked not to
the
preacher's
doctrine
for
guidance
so
much
as
they
cast about for
sure,
external
signs
of their
election,
through
voices
and visions and signs manifest in their own lives, a process that More
and
Bowman
explicitly encouraged
and that the revivalists
repeatedly
decried. In
annotating
the
narratives,
the ministers
consistently
deleted
references to such
signs, yet they
appeared
in
almost
every
narrative,
even
among
those
that
McCulloch selected
for
publication.
Indeed,
if
the
preachers
believed
that
conversion came about most often
through
the
hearing
of the
Word,
to
the
converts
it
came most
often from
hearing
words,
or
voices,
aloud or
inside
themselves,
a
realm of
experi-
ence
beyond
clerical control.
A good example of such a conversion can be found in the relation
of
Margaret
Lap,
a servant and
collier's
daughter
from
Cambuslang
and
an
unmarried woman
of
twenty-nine.
As a
young
woman,
Mar-
garet
Lap
had
always
maintained
the
externals
of
religious
behavior,
22
The
index to vol. 2 of McCullouch'snotebooks-found
at
the end of vol.
1-
describes
the
social
origins
of almost
all of
the narrators
n the
second
vol.
The
index to
vol.
1-located at the end of vol.
2-provides
some additional
nformation,
and the
occupations
of a few other narrators
an
be discerned
rom
the narratives.Of the
sixty-
two we can identify,there were seventeen menandforty-fivewomen,a ratio somewhat
lower
than that found
in
the notebooks
as a whole
(thirty-four
men vs.
seventy-three
women).
More
than
two-thirds
forty-two
of
sixty-two)
came from the artisanal ommu-
nity,
twenty-one
weavers
and
spinners
or their
families,
and another
nine from the
families of
shoemakers.See
also the accounts
in
McCulloch,
1:17-37
(Janet
Jackson),
1:39-75
(Anne
Wylie),
1:78-84
(John
McDonald),
1:94-100
Mary
Mitchell),
and 2:265-
96
(Catherine
ackson).
weavers.
Fully
half of the narrators whose
origins
we
can
trace were
the
wives, sons,
daughters,
or servants of
artisanal
families,
those
we
might call the dependent members of the craft community. The narra-
tives
of those
young
persons,
such as
those
of the
Jackson
sisters,
give
abundant
evidence of
the role their masters or their
masters' wives
played
in
guiding
their
religious
development.22
*
*
*
Under
the
guidance
of those master
weavers,
the
Cambuslang
converts
forged
a
concept
of conversion
that
diverged
dramatically
from
that
prescribed by
the
preachers. Although
McCulloch and his
colleagues
continuously
directed
their
converts
to
test
their
experi-
ences
against
the standards
of
scripture
and
doctrine,
Cambuslang's
lay
leaders offered
different advice.
They
counseled their listeners to
reflect
on the Bible
directly,
rather
than to listen so
closely
to the
words of men.
What
they
found
in
those reflections was
an
experience
that
was
lay-centered
and distinct. Almost without
exception,
the con-
verts looked not to
the
preacher's
doctrine
for
guidance
so
much
as
they
cast about for
sure,
external
signs
of their
election,
through
voices
and visions and signs manifest in their own lives, a process that More
and
Bowman
explicitly encouraged
and that the revivalists
repeatedly
decried. In
annotating
the
narratives,
the ministers
consistently
deleted
references to such
signs, yet they
appeared
in
almost
every
narrative,
even
among
those
that
McCulloch selected
for
publication.
Indeed,
if
the
preachers
believed
that
conversion came about most often
through
the
hearing
of the
Word,
to
the
converts
it
came most
often from
hearing
words,
or
voices,
aloud or
inside
themselves,
a
realm of
experi-
ence
beyond
clerical control.
A good example of such a conversion can be found in the relation
of
Margaret
Lap,
a servant and
collier's
daughter
from
Cambuslang
and
an
unmarried woman
of
twenty-nine.
As a
young
woman,
Mar-
garet
Lap
had
always
maintained
the
externals
of
religious
behavior,
22
The
index to vol. 2 of McCullouch'snotebooks-found
at
the end of vol.
1-
describes
the
social
origins
of almost
all of
the narrators
n the
second
vol.
The
index to
vol.
1-located at the end of vol.
2-provides
some additional
nformation,
and the
occupations
of a few other narrators
an
be discerned
rom
the narratives.Of the
sixty-
two we can identify,there were seventeen menandforty-fivewomen,a ratio somewhat
lower
than that found
in
the notebooks
as a whole
(thirty-four
men vs.
seventy-three
women).
More
than
two-thirds
forty-two
of
sixty-two)
came from the artisanal ommu-
nity,
twenty-one
weavers
and
spinners
or their
families,
and another
nine from the
families of
shoemakers.See
also the accounts
in
McCulloch,
1:17-37
(Janet
Jackson),
1:39-75
(Anne
Wylie),
1:78-84
(John
McDonald),
1:94-100
Mary
Mitchell),
and 2:265-
96
(Catherine
ackson).
1323232
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REVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
yet
she
did
not
begin
to
experience
a new
birth
untilWhitefield ame
to
preach
in
Glasgow
in 1741. Thereafter
she
began
to attend
sermons
at Cambuslang,which deepenedher spiritualconcerns. By February
18,
the
night
the
Jackson
sisters
stayed
late at
the
minister's
house,
Margaret
Lap
was
so troubled that
she
could
barely
sleep.
When a
friend told her
that,
had she not
gone
home
that
night
but remained
instead at the
minister's manse
she
might
have found relief
from her
distress,
Lap
found herself
on the brink of
despair.
Suddenly,
the
words,
He
is
the same
God
yesterday,
&
toDay,
&
forever,
came
into
her mind. She
smiled,
and
her
whole countenance
changed
as she
repeated
he
phrase
to
her
companion.
A few
days
later,
her desolation
returned,
until the words hear andfear
suddenly
darted nto her
mind and
showed
her
a
way
to salvation.
She
thought
she heard the
Lord
say
to her that he would be
with her
through
ire
and
water,
and she returned o her
earlier
oyous
state.
The
rest of
MargaretLap's
account is
composed
of
repeated peaks
and
valleys
in her emotional
state,
invariably
nspired by
words and voices.23
Margaret
Lap's
case was far
from
unique;
n
fact,
it was
among
he
more
orthodox
experiences reported
n
the
narratives,
and McCulloch
assignedit a prominentplace in the volume of cases that he hopedto
publish.
Similar
in
tone
was the conversion
of
Agnes
Buchanan,
the
daughter
of a merchant n the
neighboringparish
of
Shotts,
who came
to
hear the
preaching
at
Cambuslang.
One
day,
while
Buchananwas
walking
through
a
field,
she felt herself seized with a sudden fear &
trembling
& darkness & confusion.
The
horrid
expression,
Lord
damn
my
soul,
entered her
mind,
and
try
as
she
would,
she
could not
get
it
out.
She
continued
along
in
great
terror,
begging
he
Lord
to
help
her.
Just as
suddenly,
these other words came into
her
head:
Tho
thouslay me yet will I trustin thee. AgnesBuchananwas troubledno
more.24
Those
voices
impressed
the converts
with
their
power.
For six
weeks
following
her initial
awakening, eighteen-year-old
Ann Mont-
gomery
was
only moderately
troubled.
Then,
one
day,
the
words,
fear
not,
for
I
am
with
thee,
came
to her with such
power
that
she
could
not
help
but
believe
they
were
from
God.
Katherine
Campbell,
who was first awakened
by
Whitefield
n
Glasgow,
heard
the
words,
Thou art a
chosen vessel unto
me,
come into
her mindwith
greater
power & light thanalmostany word ever I had met with, so as I was
assured
it was
from
the
Spirit
of the
Lord. James
Jack's
case
was
yet
she
did
not
begin
to
experience
a new
birth
untilWhitefield ame
to
preach
in
Glasgow
in 1741. Thereafter
she
began
to attend
sermons
at Cambuslang,which deepenedher spiritualconcerns. By February
18,
the
night
the
Jackson
sisters
stayed
late at
the
minister's
house,
Margaret
Lap
was
so troubled that
she
could
barely
sleep.
When a
friend told her
that,
had she not
gone
home
that
night
but remained
instead at the
minister's manse
she
might
have found relief
from her
distress,
Lap
found herself
on the brink of
despair.
Suddenly,
the
words,
He
is
the same
God
yesterday,
&
toDay,
&
forever,
came
into
her mind. She
smiled,
and
her
whole countenance
changed
as she
repeated
he
phrase
to
her
companion.
A few
days
later,
her desolation
returned,
until the words hear andfear
suddenly
darted nto her
mind and
showed
her
a
way
to salvation.
She
thought
she heard the
Lord
say
to her that he would be
with her
through
ire
and
water,
and she returned o her
earlier
oyous
state.
The
rest of
MargaretLap's
account is
composed
of
repeated peaks
and
valleys
in her emotional
state,
invariably
nspired by
words and voices.23
Margaret
Lap's
case was far
from
unique;
n
fact,
it was
among
he
more
orthodox
experiences reported
n
the
narratives,
and McCulloch
assignedit a prominentplace in the volume of cases that he hopedto
publish.
Similar
in
tone
was the conversion
of
Agnes
Buchanan,
the
daughter
of a merchant n the
neighboringparish
of
Shotts,
who came
to
hear the
preaching
at
Cambuslang.
One
day,
while
Buchananwas
walking
through
a
field,
she felt herself seized with a sudden fear &
trembling
& darkness & confusion.
The
horrid
expression,
Lord
damn
my
soul,
entered her
mind,
and
try
as
she
would,
she
could not
get
it
out.
She
continued
along
in
great
terror,
begging
he
Lord
to
help
her.
Just as
suddenly,
these other words came into
her
head:
Tho
thouslay me yet will I trustin thee. AgnesBuchananwas troubledno
more.24
Those
voices
impressed
the converts
with
their
power.
For six
weeks
following
her initial
awakening, eighteen-year-old
Ann Mont-
gomery
was
only moderately
troubled.
Then,
one
day,
the
words,
fear
not,
for
I
am
with
thee,
came
to her with such
power
that
she
could
not
help
but
believe
they
were
from
God.
Katherine
Campbell,
who was first awakened
by
Whitefield
n
Glasgow,
heard
the
words,
Thou art a
chosen vessel unto
me,
come into
her mindwith
greater
power & light thanalmostany word ever I had met with, so as I was
assured
it was
from
the
Spirit
of the
Lord. James
Jack's
case
was
yet
she
did
not
begin
to
experience
a new
birth
untilWhitefield ame
to
preach
in
Glasgow
in 1741. Thereafter
she
began
to attend
sermons
at Cambuslang,which deepenedher spiritualconcerns. By February
18,
the
night
the
Jackson
sisters
stayed
late at
the
minister's
house,
Margaret
Lap
was
so troubled that
she
could
barely
sleep.
When a
friend told her
that,
had she not
gone
home
that
night
but remained
instead at the
minister's manse
she
might
have found relief
from her
distress,
Lap
found herself
on the brink of
despair.
Suddenly,
the
words,
He
is
the same
God
yesterday,
&
toDay,
&
forever,
came
into
her mind. She
smiled,
and
her
whole countenance
changed
as she
repeated
he
phrase
to
her
companion.
A few
days
later,
her desolation
returned,
until the words hear andfear
suddenly
darted nto her
mind and
showed
her
a
way
to salvation.
She
thought
she heard the
Lord
say
to her that he would be
with her
through
ire
and
water,
and she returned o her
earlier
oyous
state.
The
rest of
MargaretLap's
account is
composed
of
repeated peaks
and
valleys
in her emotional
state,
invariably
nspired by
words and voices.23
Margaret
Lap's
case was far
from
unique;
n
fact,
it was
among
he
more
orthodox
experiences reported
n
the
narratives,
and McCulloch
assignedit a prominentplace in the volume of cases that he hopedto
publish.
Similar
in
tone
was the conversion
of
Agnes
Buchanan,
the
daughter
of a merchant n the
neighboringparish
of
Shotts,
who came
to
hear the
preaching
at
Cambuslang.
One
day,
while
Buchananwas
walking
through
a
field,
she felt herself seized with a sudden fear &
trembling
& darkness & confusion.
The
horrid
expression,
Lord
damn
my
soul,
entered her
mind,
and
try
as
she
would,
she
could not
get
it
out.
She
continued
along
in
great
terror,
begging
he
Lord
to
help
her.
Just as
suddenly,
these other words came into
her
head:
Tho
thouslay me yet will I trustin thee. AgnesBuchananwas troubledno
more.24
Those
voices
impressed
the converts
with
their
power.
For six
weeks
following
her initial
awakening, eighteen-year-old
Ann Mont-
gomery
was
only moderately
troubled.
Then,
one
day,
the
words,
fear
not,
for
I
am
with
thee,
came
to her with such
power
that
she
could
not
help
but
believe
they
were
from
God.
Katherine
Campbell,
who was first awakened
by
Whitefield
n
Glasgow,
heard
the
words,
Thou art a
chosen vessel unto
me,
come into
her mindwith
greater
power & light thanalmostany word ever I had met with, so as I was
assured
it was
from
the
Spirit
of the
Lord. James
Jack's
case
was
23
McCulloch,
1:9-15.
24
Ibid.,
2:183-96.
23
McCulloch,
1:9-15.
24
Ibid.,
2:183-96.
23
McCulloch,
1:9-15.
24
Ibid.,
2:183-96.
1333333
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
equally
dramatic.
At the
communion
table
in the
parish
of
Kilsyth,
Jack
trembled
in
fear as the sacrament commenced.
Then
he
heard
the
minister say the word, Take, with a voice that seemed louder and
more
forceful than
any
man
on
Earth
could
speak.
That
calmed his
fears
and
led him
to
a
moment of
joyous
celebration.25
Strikingly,
ministers and converts often
agreed
on the
timing
of
their
awakening
without
agreeing
on the means.
Although
most of the
converts
reported
that their initial
awakenings
had
developed
while
listening
to
sermons,
as
orthodoxy required,
it was
not
always
the
preacher's
words
that affected them. Thus John
McDonald,
a
young
weaver
from
Cambuslang,
sat
listening
to
a
sermon
when
suddenly
the
words,
I am
he that
speaketh
unto
thee,
never
spoken
by
the minis-
ter,
came with
great
power
to
my
heart ...
upon
which I was made to
believe that
Jesus Christ
was
speaking
to me. Such
experiences ap-
pear repeatedly
in
the narratives.26
A
smaller number
of
converts saw visions as well.
After
hearing
McCulloch
preach
on the
subject
of
the
new
birth in
February
of
1742,
Margaret
Skene,
an unmarried woman of
twenty-three,
was
unable
to
work, eat,
or
sleep
for
a
period
of seven weeks. She
perceived
herself
to be just hanging over the mouth of Hell. Then one day, as she
listened to
McCulloch's
sermon,
the
following
words,
not mentioned in
the
lecture,
came into
her mind: I love thee with
loving
kindness,
which she took to
be
directed
at herself. The relief she felt
stayed only
briefly,
and
soon
her mood returned to
despair.
Then,
one
night
at her
home,
the
young
woman
saw a flash of
fire
on the
Brae
which
I
took
to be
hell-fire .... Winds came
with such
force
I
felt,
as
if
it were the
Holy
Spirit
come
rushing
home
as
with
a
strong
stream of
Divine
Influences into
my
Heart. Katherine
Stuart,
age
nineteen,
in
the
midst of spiritual distress, saw a vision of Jesus Christ in his bloody
sweat in the
garden,
and
suffering
on
the cross. She
begged
the
Lord
for
a
token of his
forgiveness,
on
which
Immediately
there came
a
sudden
glare
of
fire,
that
struck
me
down,
and
I
now was
made to
cry
out with
Joy, 'My
Lord
&
My
God.'
27
Still others
sought
confirmation of their conversions
in
premoni-
tions.
Such
a
case involved Robert
Shearer of
Glasgow, age
nineteen,
who,
while
awaiting
communion,
heard the
words,
Whom have
I in
25
Ibid.,
2:356
(Ann
Montgomery),
1:238
KatherineStuart),
1:513
James
Jack).
26
Ibid.,
1:78-84
(John
McDonald),
and see 1:540-41
(Janet
Reston),
2:146-47
(Margaret
Skene),
2:356
(Ann
Montgomery),
:361-63
(Bethea
Davie),
2:564-65
(Janet
Struthers),
and
passim.
27
Ibid.,
2:148-49
(Margaret
kene),
1:237
KatherineStuart),
and see
2:50
(Thomas
Foster),
2:472-81
(Jean
Wark),
2:541
(Margaret
Borland),
and
passim.
equally
dramatic.
At the
communion
table
in the
parish
of
Kilsyth,
Jack
trembled
in
fear as the sacrament commenced.
Then
he
heard
the
minister say the word, Take, with a voice that seemed louder and
more
forceful than
any
man
on
Earth
could
speak.
That
calmed his
fears
and
led him
to
a
moment of
joyous
celebration.25
Strikingly,
ministers and converts often
agreed
on the
timing
of
their
awakening
without
agreeing
on the means.
Although
most of the
converts
reported
that their initial
awakenings
had
developed
while
listening
to
sermons,
as
orthodoxy required,
it was
not
always
the
preacher's
words
that affected them. Thus John
McDonald,
a
young
weaver
from
Cambuslang,
sat
listening
to
a
sermon
when
suddenly
the
words,
I am
he that
speaketh
unto
thee,
never
spoken
by
the minis-
ter,
came with
great
power
to
my
heart ...
upon
which I was made to
believe that
Jesus Christ
was
speaking
to me. Such
experiences ap-
pear repeatedly
in
the narratives.26
A
smaller number
of
converts saw visions as well.
After
hearing
McCulloch
preach
on the
subject
of
the
new
birth in
February
of
1742,
Margaret
Skene,
an unmarried woman of
twenty-three,
was
unable
to
work, eat,
or
sleep
for
a
period
of seven weeks. She
perceived
herself
to be just hanging over the mouth of Hell. Then one day, as she
listened to
McCulloch's
sermon,
the
following
words,
not mentioned in
the
lecture,
came into
her mind: I love thee with
loving
kindness,
which she took to
be
directed
at herself. The relief she felt
stayed only
briefly,
and
soon
her mood returned to
despair.
Then,
one
night
at her
home,
the
young
woman
saw a flash of
fire
on the
Brae
which
I
took
to be
hell-fire .... Winds came
with such
force
I
felt,
as
if
it were the
Holy
Spirit
come
rushing
home
as
with
a
strong
stream of
Divine
Influences into
my
Heart. Katherine
Stuart,
age
nineteen,
in
the
midst of spiritual distress, saw a vision of Jesus Christ in his bloody
sweat in the
garden,
and
suffering
on
the cross. She
begged
the
Lord
for
a
token of his
forgiveness,
on
which
Immediately
there came
a
sudden
glare
of
fire,
that
struck
me
down,
and
I
now was
made to
cry
out with
Joy, 'My
Lord
&
My
God.'
27
Still others
sought
confirmation of their conversions
in
premoni-
tions.
Such
a
case involved Robert
Shearer of
Glasgow, age
nineteen,
who,
while
awaiting
communion,
heard the
words,
Whom have
I in
25
Ibid.,
2:356
(Ann
Montgomery),
1:238
KatherineStuart),
1:513
James
Jack).
26
Ibid.,
1:78-84
(John
McDonald),
and see 1:540-41
(Janet
Reston),
2:146-47
(Margaret
Skene),
2:356
(Ann
Montgomery),
:361-63
(Bethea
Davie),
2:564-65
(Janet
Struthers),
and
passim.
27
Ibid.,
2:148-49
(Margaret
kene),
1:237
KatherineStuart),
and see
2:50
(Thomas
Foster),
2:472-81
(Jean
Wark),
2:541
(Margaret
Borland),
and
passim.
equally
dramatic.
At the
communion
table
in the
parish
of
Kilsyth,
Jack
trembled
in
fear as the sacrament commenced.
Then
he
heard
the
minister say the word, Take, with a voice that seemed louder and
more
forceful than
any
man
on
Earth
could
speak.
That
calmed his
fears
and
led him
to
a
moment of
joyous
celebration.25
Strikingly,
ministers and converts often
agreed
on the
timing
of
their
awakening
without
agreeing
on the means.
Although
most of the
converts
reported
that their initial
awakenings
had
developed
while
listening
to
sermons,
as
orthodoxy required,
it was
not
always
the
preacher's
words
that affected them. Thus John
McDonald,
a
young
weaver
from
Cambuslang,
sat
listening
to
a
sermon
when
suddenly
the
words,
I am
he that
speaketh
unto
thee,
never
spoken
by
the minis-
ter,
came with
great
power
to
my
heart ...
upon
which I was made to
believe that
Jesus Christ
was
speaking
to me. Such
experiences ap-
pear repeatedly
in
the narratives.26
A
smaller number
of
converts saw visions as well.
After
hearing
McCulloch
preach
on the
subject
of
the
new
birth in
February
of
1742,
Margaret
Skene,
an unmarried woman of
twenty-three,
was
unable
to
work, eat,
or
sleep
for
a
period
of seven weeks. She
perceived
herself
to be just hanging over the mouth of Hell. Then one day, as she
listened to
McCulloch's
sermon,
the
following
words,
not mentioned in
the
lecture,
came into
her mind: I love thee with
loving
kindness,
which she took to
be
directed
at herself. The relief she felt
stayed only
briefly,
and
soon
her mood returned to
despair.
Then,
one
night
at her
home,
the
young
woman
saw a flash of
fire
on the
Brae
which
I
took
to be
hell-fire .... Winds came
with such
force
I
felt,
as
if
it were the
Holy
Spirit
come
rushing
home
as
with
a
strong
stream of
Divine
Influences into
my
Heart. Katherine
Stuart,
age
nineteen,
in
the
midst of spiritual distress, saw a vision of Jesus Christ in his bloody
sweat in the
garden,
and
suffering
on
the cross. She
begged
the
Lord
for
a
token of his
forgiveness,
on
which
Immediately
there came
a
sudden
glare
of
fire,
that
struck
me
down,
and
I
now was
made to
cry
out with
Joy, 'My
Lord
&
My
God.'
27
Still others
sought
confirmation of their conversions
in
premoni-
tions.
Such
a
case involved Robert
Shearer of
Glasgow, age
nineteen,
who,
while
awaiting
communion,
heard the
words,
Whom have
I in
25
Ibid.,
2:356
(Ann
Montgomery),
1:238
KatherineStuart),
1:513
James
Jack).
26
Ibid.,
1:78-84
(John
McDonald),
and see 1:540-41
(Janet
Reston),
2:146-47
(Margaret
Skene),
2:356
(Ann
Montgomery),
:361-63
(Bethea
Davie),
2:564-65
(Janet
Struthers),
and
passim.
27
Ibid.,
2:148-49
(Margaret
kene),
1:237
KatherineStuart),
and see
2:50
(Thomas
Foster),
2:472-81
(Jean
Wark),
2:541
(Margaret
Borland),
and
passim.
1343434
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REVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHING
heaven but
thee
O
Lord. Almost
immediately
thereafter those
very
words
were
spoken by
the
minister,
which so filled
the
young
man with
joy that he felt as though he could have died for the Lord. John Aiken
of
Cambuslang
lived much
in fear
of
losing
his convictions
and
falling
into his former sinful
ways,
until one
night
he dreamed that he was
taken
up
into heaven.
The next
morning,
some words
from Psalm 107
about
being
taken
up
into
heaven,
came into his mind and calmed his
fears. And
Alexander Bilsland of
Glasgow,
a man
of
forty-seven,
heard
the
words from Psalm 18 about the
Lord
delivering
him from the
hands
of his
enemies,
come into his
mind
with
great
force,
followed
by
a
passage
from Exodus about the defeat of the Pharaoh. Within the
hour,
his
family
received news
about
a
British
victory
in
battle,
which
he
took to be a
divine confirmation of his election.28
The
appearance
of voices
and visions was not
new
to Scottish
Presbyterians;
the
legends
of the covenanters
were filled
with
tales of
supernatural
signs
of divine
approbation
of the
martyrs
and
heroes of
the
day
and divine
retribution
against
their
adversaries.
Former
Cam-
buslang
minister Robert
Fleming's Fulfilling
of
the
Scripture
had
been
devoted
to
providing
clear evidences of the
divine
plan
to
establish
Presbyterianism in Scotland, one of many such works that circulated
within the
region.
More
recently,
Robert
Wodrow of
nearby
Eastwood
parish
had
compiled
many
volumes of
Analectica,
or Remarkable
Providences,
all
proving
the
divine hand behind
the
triumph
of
the
national
kirk.
One
of his
notations concerned
the
younger
William
McCulloch,
who had been
consoled
by
a
chance
encounter with the
story
of
Jonah
just
as doubts
about his
spiritual
calling
caused
him to
consider
fleeing
Scotland
for Carolina.29
What
was new at
Cambuslang
was
the
application
of
such
provi-
dences to the question of individual salvation rather than to national
and clerical
causes.
In the works of
Fleming
and
Wodrow,
divine
inter-
vention
in
the natural world
had been
displayed
primarily
to demon-
strate
the
rightness
of the
Presbyterian
interest,
both
during
the
Reformation and
in
the
seventeenth-century
battles to secure the
inde-
pendence
of the Scottish
kirk. The
Cambuslang
converts
extended
those
providences
to
apply
to
individual
concerns,
an
application
that
28
Ibid.,
1:170-72
(Robert
Shearer),
1:463
John Aiken),
and 1:130
Alexander
Bils-
land).
29
Wodrow
(n.
14
above),
4:279-80. See also Six
Saints
of
the Covenant:
Peden:
Semple:
Welwood: Cameron:
Cargill:
Smith:
By
Patrick
Walker,
ed. D.
Hay Fleming,
2
vols.
(London, 1901),
a
compilation
of
works first
published
during
he 1720s
and
repub-
lished
many
times.
heaven but
thee
O
Lord. Almost
immediately
thereafter those
very
words
were
spoken by
the
minister,
which so filled
the
young
man with
joy that he felt as though he could have died for the Lord. John Aiken
of
Cambuslang
lived much
in fear
of
losing
his convictions
and
falling
into his former sinful
ways,
until one
night
he dreamed that he was
taken
up
into heaven.
The next
morning,
some words
from Psalm 107
about
being
taken
up
into
heaven,
came into his mind and calmed his
fears. And
Alexander Bilsland of
Glasgow,
a man
of
forty-seven,
heard
the
words from Psalm 18 about the
Lord
delivering
him from the
hands
of his
enemies,
come into his
mind
with
great
force,
followed
by
a
passage
from Exodus about the defeat of the Pharaoh. Within the
hour,
his
family
received news
about
a
British
victory
in
battle,
which
he
took to be a
divine confirmation of his election.28
The
appearance
of voices
and visions was not
new
to Scottish
Presbyterians;
the
legends
of the covenanters
were filled
with
tales of
supernatural
signs
of divine
approbation
of the
martyrs
and
heroes of
the
day
and divine
retribution
against
their
adversaries.
Former
Cam-
buslang
minister Robert
Fleming's Fulfilling
of
the
Scripture
had
been
devoted
to
providing
clear evidences of the
divine
plan
to
establish
Presbyterianism in Scotland, one of many such works that circulated
within the
region.
More
recently,
Robert
Wodrow of
nearby
Eastwood
parish
had
compiled
many
volumes of
Analectica,
or Remarkable
Providences,
all
proving
the
divine hand behind
the
triumph
of
the
national
kirk.
One
of his
notations concerned
the
younger
William
McCulloch,
who had been
consoled
by
a
chance
encounter with the
story
of
Jonah
just
as doubts
about his
spiritual
calling
caused
him to
consider
fleeing
Scotland
for Carolina.29
What
was new at
Cambuslang
was
the
application
of
such
provi-
dences to the question of individual salvation rather than to national
and clerical
causes.
In the works of
Fleming
and
Wodrow,
divine
inter-
vention
in
the natural world
had been
displayed
primarily
to demon-
strate
the
rightness
of the
Presbyterian
interest,
both
during
the
Reformation and
in
the
seventeenth-century
battles to secure the
inde-
pendence
of the Scottish
kirk. The
Cambuslang
converts
extended
those
providences
to
apply
to
individual
concerns,
an
application
that
28
Ibid.,
1:170-72
(Robert
Shearer),
1:463
John Aiken),
and 1:130
Alexander
Bils-
land).
29
Wodrow
(n.
14
above),
4:279-80. See also Six
Saints
of
the Covenant:
Peden:
Semple:
Welwood: Cameron:
Cargill:
Smith:
By
Patrick
Walker,
ed. D.
Hay Fleming,
2
vols.
(London, 1901),
a
compilation
of
works first
published
during
he 1720s
and
repub-
lished
many
times.
heaven but
thee
O
Lord. Almost
immediately
thereafter those
very
words
were
spoken by
the
minister,
which so filled
the
young
man with
joy that he felt as though he could have died for the Lord. John Aiken
of
Cambuslang
lived much
in fear
of
losing
his convictions
and
falling
into his former sinful
ways,
until one
night
he dreamed that he was
taken
up
into heaven.
The next
morning,
some words
from Psalm 107
about
being
taken
up
into
heaven,
came into his mind and calmed his
fears. And
Alexander Bilsland of
Glasgow,
a man
of
forty-seven,
heard
the
words from Psalm 18 about the
Lord
delivering
him from the
hands
of his
enemies,
come into his
mind
with
great
force,
followed
by
a
passage
from Exodus about the defeat of the Pharaoh. Within the
hour,
his
family
received news
about
a
British
victory
in
battle,
which
he
took to be a
divine confirmation of his election.28
The
appearance
of voices
and visions was not
new
to Scottish
Presbyterians;
the
legends
of the covenanters
were filled
with
tales of
supernatural
signs
of divine
approbation
of the
martyrs
and
heroes of
the
day
and divine
retribution
against
their
adversaries.
Former
Cam-
buslang
minister Robert
Fleming's Fulfilling
of
the
Scripture
had
been
devoted
to
providing
clear evidences of the
divine
plan
to
establish
Presbyterianism in Scotland, one of many such works that circulated
within the
region.
More
recently,
Robert
Wodrow of
nearby
Eastwood
parish
had
compiled
many
volumes of
Analectica,
or Remarkable
Providences,
all
proving
the
divine hand behind
the
triumph
of
the
national
kirk.
One
of his
notations concerned
the
younger
William
McCulloch,
who had been
consoled
by
a
chance
encounter with the
story
of
Jonah
just
as doubts
about his
spiritual
calling
caused
him to
consider
fleeing
Scotland
for Carolina.29
What
was new at
Cambuslang
was
the
application
of
such
provi-
dences to the question of individual salvation rather than to national
and clerical
causes.
In the works of
Fleming
and
Wodrow,
divine
inter-
vention
in
the natural world
had been
displayed
primarily
to demon-
strate
the
rightness
of the
Presbyterian
interest,
both
during
the
Reformation and
in
the
seventeenth-century
battles to secure the
inde-
pendence
of the Scottish
kirk. The
Cambuslang
converts
extended
those
providences
to
apply
to
individual
concerns,
an
application
that
28
Ibid.,
1:170-72
(Robert
Shearer),
1:463
John Aiken),
and 1:130
Alexander
Bils-
land).
29
Wodrow
(n.
14
above),
4:279-80. See also Six
Saints
of
the Covenant:
Peden:
Semple:
Welwood: Cameron:
Cargill:
Smith:
By
Patrick
Walker,
ed. D.
Hay Fleming,
2
vols.
(London, 1901),
a
compilation
of
works first
published
during
he 1720s
and
repub-
lished
many
times.
1353535
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http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/landsman-hearerspdf 18/31
LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
Ingram
More and
Robert
Bowman seem to have
been
instrumental n
promoting.
More,
in
particular,
was
notorious or
discussing
evidences
of what God had done for his soul, and both men encouragedtheir
hearers
o see and hear the
image
and
voice of
Christ.
According
o one
report,
Robert Bowman
stood over a
woman
who had
fainted
during
a
sermon,
telling
her that
Christ s
just
a
coming,
he
is on his
way,
he
will
not
tarry,
while
More
joined
in
with
the
query,
Do
you
hearthe
sound
of
his chariot
wheels? 30
The
extension of
such
providences
to
questions
of
personal
salvation rather
than
to broader
national con-
cerns
became the
focal
point
of
the
Seceders'
attack on the
awaken-
ing.31
While the
revivalist
clergy
were
obliged
to defend
the
possibilityof such
signs,
they
invariably
questioned
their
reliability,
both in their
published
accounts of the
awakening
and in
the
margins
of the manu-
script.
As
a
group,
the
converts
proved stubbornly
resistant to
McCul-
loch's
frequent
warnings.
Some
simplyreinterpreted
hose
injunctions,
considering
hem as
warnings
not
against
the
hearing
of
voices
per
se
but
only against
he
hearing
of
words that did
not derive
fromthe Bible.
A
good
example
was the
case of Anne
Wylie,
age thirty-two,
rom Old
Monkland,a parishthatborderedCambuslang.After herinitial awak-
ening
through
the
preaching
of
George
Whitefieldat
Glasgow,
Anne
Wylie
experienced
a
period
of intense
doubts
about her
spiritual
tate.
She
was
nearly
at the
point
of
despair
when the
words,
Hear and
fear,
came
into
her
mind.
Remembering
McCulloch's
nsistence
upon
scriptural
tandards,
Wylie
searched the
Bible at
length,
but
could not
discover the
phrase.
Just as she
felt her
despondency
return,
she came
upon
those
words,
and felt
a heart
overcomingpower,
and a
sweet
light
shining
nto her
mind,
brighter
han I
saw the sun
shining
about
,,32
e. 32
At
times
clerical
warnings
were
more
successful
in
frightening
hearers than in
altering
their
perceptions.
Thus
when
Anne
Wylie
heard
McCulloch
preach
to
his
audience
about
the
dangers
of
relying
on inner
voices,
which he
likened
to
the
way
of the
Quakers,
Wylie
grew
fearfuland
distracted
n
the
extreme.
Later,
she foundrelief when
the
words,
In
midst of
thee there shall
not be
any
strangegod
at
all,
30
Short Account (n. 14 above), pp. 15 ff.
31
See
esp.
Ralph
Erskine,
The True
Christ no new
Christ
(Edinburgh,
1742);
and
James
Fisher,
A Review
of
the
Preface
to a
Narrative
of
the
Extraordinary
Work at
Kilsyth
and other
Congregations
in
the
Neighbourhood,
written
by
the
Rev. Mr.
James
Robe,
Minister
of Kilsyth
(Glasgow,
1742).
32
McCulloch,
1:39-75.
Ingram
More and
Robert
Bowman seem to have
been
instrumental n
promoting.
More,
in
particular,
was
notorious or
discussing
evidences
of what God had done for his soul, and both men encouragedtheir
hearers
o see and hear the
image
and
voice of
Christ.
According
o one
report,
Robert Bowman
stood over a
woman
who had
fainted
during
a
sermon,
telling
her that
Christ s
just
a
coming,
he
is on his
way,
he
will
not
tarry,
while
More
joined
in
with
the
query,
Do
you
hearthe
sound
of
his chariot
wheels? 30
The
extension of
such
providences
to
questions
of
personal
salvation rather
than
to broader
national con-
cerns
became the
focal
point
of
the
Seceders'
attack on the
awaken-
ing.31
While the
revivalist
clergy
were
obliged
to defend
the
possibilityof such
signs,
they
invariably
questioned
their
reliability,
both in their
published
accounts of the
awakening
and in
the
margins
of the manu-
script.
As
a
group,
the
converts
proved stubbornly
resistant to
McCul-
loch's
frequent
warnings.
Some
simplyreinterpreted
hose
injunctions,
considering
hem as
warnings
not
against
the
hearing
of
voices
per
se
but
only against
he
hearing
of
words that did
not derive
fromthe Bible.
A
good
example
was the
case of Anne
Wylie,
age thirty-two,
rom Old
Monkland,a parishthatborderedCambuslang.After herinitial awak-
ening
through
the
preaching
of
George
Whitefieldat
Glasgow,
Anne
Wylie
experienced
a
period
of intense
doubts
about her
spiritual
tate.
She
was
nearly
at the
point
of
despair
when the
words,
Hear and
fear,
came
into
her
mind.
Remembering
McCulloch's
nsistence
upon
scriptural
tandards,
Wylie
searched the
Bible at
length,
but
could not
discover the
phrase.
Just as she
felt her
despondency
return,
she came
upon
those
words,
and felt
a heart
overcomingpower,
and a
sweet
light
shining
nto her
mind,
brighter
han I
saw the sun
shining
about
,,32
e. 32
At
times
clerical
warnings
were
more
successful
in
frightening
hearers than in
altering
their
perceptions.
Thus
when
Anne
Wylie
heard
McCulloch
preach
to
his
audience
about
the
dangers
of
relying
on inner
voices,
which he
likened
to
the
way
of the
Quakers,
Wylie
grew
fearfuland
distracted
n
the
extreme.
Later,
she foundrelief when
the
words,
In
midst of
thee there shall
not be
any
strangegod
at
all,
30
Short Account (n. 14 above), pp. 15 ff.
31
See
esp.
Ralph
Erskine,
The True
Christ no new
Christ
(Edinburgh,
1742);
and
James
Fisher,
A Review
of
the
Preface
to a
Narrative
of
the
Extraordinary
Work at
Kilsyth
and other
Congregations
in
the
Neighbourhood,
written
by
the
Rev. Mr.
James
Robe,
Minister
of Kilsyth
(Glasgow,
1742).
32
McCulloch,
1:39-75.
Ingram
More and
Robert
Bowman seem to have
been
instrumental n
promoting.
More,
in
particular,
was
notorious or
discussing
evidences
of what God had done for his soul, and both men encouragedtheir
hearers
o see and hear the
image
and
voice of
Christ.
According
o one
report,
Robert Bowman
stood over a
woman
who had
fainted
during
a
sermon,
telling
her that
Christ s
just
a
coming,
he
is on his
way,
he
will
not
tarry,
while
More
joined
in
with
the
query,
Do
you
hearthe
sound
of
his chariot
wheels? 30
The
extension of
such
providences
to
questions
of
personal
salvation rather
than
to broader
national con-
cerns
became the
focal
point
of
the
Seceders'
attack on the
awaken-
ing.31
While the
revivalist
clergy
were
obliged
to defend
the
possibilityof such
signs,
they
invariably
questioned
their
reliability,
both in their
published
accounts of the
awakening
and in
the
margins
of the manu-
script.
As
a
group,
the
converts
proved stubbornly
resistant to
McCul-
loch's
frequent
warnings.
Some
simplyreinterpreted
hose
injunctions,
considering
hem as
warnings
not
against
the
hearing
of
voices
per
se
but
only against
he
hearing
of
words that did
not derive
fromthe Bible.
A
good
example
was the
case of Anne
Wylie,
age thirty-two,
rom Old
Monkland,a parishthatborderedCambuslang.After herinitial awak-
ening
through
the
preaching
of
George
Whitefieldat
Glasgow,
Anne
Wylie
experienced
a
period
of intense
doubts
about her
spiritual
tate.
She
was
nearly
at the
point
of
despair
when the
words,
Hear and
fear,
came
into
her
mind.
Remembering
McCulloch's
nsistence
upon
scriptural
tandards,
Wylie
searched the
Bible at
length,
but
could not
discover the
phrase.
Just as she
felt her
despondency
return,
she came
upon
those
words,
and felt
a heart
overcomingpower,
and a
sweet
light
shining
nto her
mind,
brighter
han I
saw the sun
shining
about
,,32
e. 32
At
times
clerical
warnings
were
more
successful
in
frightening
hearers than in
altering
their
perceptions.
Thus
when
Anne
Wylie
heard
McCulloch
preach
to
his
audience
about
the
dangers
of
relying
on inner
voices,
which he
likened
to
the
way
of the
Quakers,
Wylie
grew
fearfuland
distracted
n
the
extreme.
Later,
she foundrelief when
the
words,
In
midst of
thee there shall
not be
any
strangegod
at
all,
30
Short Account (n. 14 above), pp. 15 ff.
31
See
esp.
Ralph
Erskine,
The True
Christ no new
Christ
(Edinburgh,
1742);
and
James
Fisher,
A Review
of
the
Preface
to a
Narrative
of
the
Extraordinary
Work at
Kilsyth
and other
Congregations
in
the
Neighbourhood,
written
by
the
Rev. Mr.
James
Robe,
Minister
of Kilsyth
(Glasgow,
1742).
32
McCulloch,
1:39-75.
1363636
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REVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHING
came
into her mind
and convinced her that
she
had
wrongly
come to
idolize
her
minister.33
Ministerial interference with conversions could lead to quite hos-
tile
reactions on the
part
of those under
convictions.
Thus Jean
Hay
of
the
parish
of
Lesmahago,
during
the course of
her
conversion,
came to
view one of
her
parish
ministers as
a
legal
preacher,
meaning
one
whose
directives
were aimed more at
easing
her fears than
effecting
her
conversion,
even
though
that
minister was
ardently evangelical.
The
other minister of her
parish,
Thomas
Lining,
listened
skeptically
to
her
story,
described her
experience
as
strange.
Later,
during
a fit of
hysteria,
she
came
to
imagine
that
she
saw
Lining,
also a
supporter
of
the
revival,
in the
image
of the
devil himself.34
* *
*
Much
more than
their
visionary
quality
distinguished
lay
percep-
tions from clerical
prescriptions;
they
differed
in their views of
the
nature
of
the
experience
as well. Such
differences
were
evident
from
the
beginning
of the conversion
process,
the onset
of
convictions,
the realization of one's unconverted
state.
Before the revival
began,
William McCulloch spent many months preaching the terrors of Hell to
his
congregation.
On at
least one
occasion,
he
echoed
Jonathan
Ed-
wards's Sinners in the Hands of
an
Angry
God,
preaching
on the
frail
thread that
protected
sinners
from
everlasting
burning,
in an effort
to awaken
his
hearers.
Yet
the
Cambuslang
converts
stated with
near
unanimity
that the fear of damnation
played
little
part
in their conver-
sions. One
might
be
tempted
to dismiss such
assertions as
rhetorical,
designed
to
counter those
critics
who
sought
to discredit
the
revival
by
attributing
its
power
to
worked-up
emotionalism
brought
about
by
hell-
fire preaching, except that McCulloch and his colleagues actually en-
couraged
their hearers
to
fear Hell
with little effect.
Indeed,
in several
places
in the
manuscript,
we find the rather
surprising
spectacle
of
converts
stating categorically
that
they
did not fear Hell
while their
clerical
editors
argued
just
as
strenuously
in the
margins
that
they
really
did.35
Even
more
striking
evidence that
we
ought
to
take
those asser-
33
Ibid.,
1:55-72.
34
Ibid.,
1:254-81.
35
Ibid.,
1:96
Mary
Mitchell),
and see 1:10
MargaretLap),
1:76
John
McDonald),
1:180
Jean Robe),
1:282-83
(Rebecca
Dykes),
and
many
other references
passim.
came
into her mind
and convinced her that
she
had
wrongly
come to
idolize
her
minister.33
Ministerial interference with conversions could lead to quite hos-
tile
reactions on the
part
of those under
convictions.
Thus Jean
Hay
of
the
parish
of
Lesmahago,
during
the course of
her
conversion,
came to
view one of
her
parish
ministers as
a
legal
preacher,
meaning
one
whose
directives
were aimed more at
easing
her fears than
effecting
her
conversion,
even
though
that
minister was
ardently evangelical.
The
other minister of her
parish,
Thomas
Lining,
listened
skeptically
to
her
story,
described her
experience
as
strange.
Later,
during
a fit of
hysteria,
she
came
to
imagine
that
she
saw
Lining,
also a
supporter
of
the
revival,
in the
image
of the
devil himself.34
* *
*
Much
more than
their
visionary
quality
distinguished
lay
percep-
tions from clerical
prescriptions;
they
differed
in their views of
the
nature
of
the
experience
as well. Such
differences
were
evident
from
the
beginning
of the conversion
process,
the onset
of
convictions,
the realization of one's unconverted
state.
Before the revival
began,
William McCulloch spent many months preaching the terrors of Hell to
his
congregation.
On at
least one
occasion,
he
echoed
Jonathan
Ed-
wards's Sinners in the Hands of
an
Angry
God,
preaching
on the
frail
thread that
protected
sinners
from
everlasting
burning,
in an effort
to awaken
his
hearers.
Yet
the
Cambuslang
converts
stated with
near
unanimity
that the fear of damnation
played
little
part
in their conver-
sions. One
might
be
tempted
to dismiss such
assertions as
rhetorical,
designed
to
counter those
critics
who
sought
to discredit
the
revival
by
attributing
its
power
to
worked-up
emotionalism
brought
about
by
hell-
fire preaching, except that McCulloch and his colleagues actually en-
couraged
their hearers
to
fear Hell
with little effect.
Indeed,
in several
places
in the
manuscript,
we find the rather
surprising
spectacle
of
converts
stating categorically
that
they
did not fear Hell
while their
clerical
editors
argued
just
as
strenuously
in the
margins
that
they
really
did.35
Even
more
striking
evidence that
we
ought
to
take
those asser-
33
Ibid.,
1:55-72.
34
Ibid.,
1:254-81.
35
Ibid.,
1:96
Mary
Mitchell),
and see 1:10
MargaretLap),
1:76
John
McDonald),
1:180
Jean Robe),
1:282-83
(Rebecca
Dykes),
and
many
other references
passim.
came
into her mind
and convinced her that
she
had
wrongly
come to
idolize
her
minister.33
Ministerial interference with conversions could lead to quite hos-
tile
reactions on the
part
of those under
convictions.
Thus Jean
Hay
of
the
parish
of
Lesmahago,
during
the course of
her
conversion,
came to
view one of
her
parish
ministers as
a
legal
preacher,
meaning
one
whose
directives
were aimed more at
easing
her fears than
effecting
her
conversion,
even
though
that
minister was
ardently evangelical.
The
other minister of her
parish,
Thomas
Lining,
listened
skeptically
to
her
story,
described her
experience
as
strange.
Later,
during
a fit of
hysteria,
she
came
to
imagine
that
she
saw
Lining,
also a
supporter
of
the
revival,
in the
image
of the
devil himself.34
* *
*
Much
more than
their
visionary
quality
distinguished
lay
percep-
tions from clerical
prescriptions;
they
differed
in their views of
the
nature
of
the
experience
as well. Such
differences
were
evident
from
the
beginning
of the conversion
process,
the onset
of
convictions,
the realization of one's unconverted
state.
Before the revival
began,
William McCulloch spent many months preaching the terrors of Hell to
his
congregation.
On at
least one
occasion,
he
echoed
Jonathan
Ed-
wards's Sinners in the Hands of
an
Angry
God,
preaching
on the
frail
thread that
protected
sinners
from
everlasting
burning,
in an effort
to awaken
his
hearers.
Yet
the
Cambuslang
converts
stated with
near
unanimity
that the fear of damnation
played
little
part
in their conver-
sions. One
might
be
tempted
to dismiss such
assertions as
rhetorical,
designed
to
counter those
critics
who
sought
to discredit
the
revival
by
attributing
its
power
to
worked-up
emotionalism
brought
about
by
hell-
fire preaching, except that McCulloch and his colleagues actually en-
couraged
their hearers
to
fear Hell
with little effect.
Indeed,
in several
places
in the
manuscript,
we find the rather
surprising
spectacle
of
converts
stating categorically
that
they
did not fear Hell
while their
clerical
editors
argued
just
as
strenuously
in the
margins
that
they
really
did.35
Even
more
striking
evidence that
we
ought
to
take
those asser-
33
Ibid.,
1:55-72.
34
Ibid.,
1:254-81.
35
Ibid.,
1:96
Mary
Mitchell),
and see 1:10
MargaretLap),
1:76
John
McDonald),
1:180
Jean Robe),
1:282-83
(Rebecca
Dykes),
and
many
other references
passim.
1373737
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
tions
about the
role of the fear
of Hell
seriously
comes
from
the
rather
surprising
behavior of
several of those
who
experienced
convictions.
Forexample,RobertShearer,age 19,andRebeccaDykes, age 14,both
were
so
tormented
by
their
convictions that
they contemplated
uicide.
Suicide,
of
course,
would
hardly
have
been
an
appropriate
emedy
for
one
who was
concerned about
damnation.
Yet
several
other
converts
reported
hat
they,
too,
longed
for death
to
relieve them
of their
spirit-
ual
troubles.36
The
case
of
Thomas
Foster,
a
married
man
of
forty,
further
confirms
the
point.
When a sermon
preached
at
Cambuslang
illed
Foster
with
deep anxiety,
he
responded by
abandoning
prayer
for
nearly
two
years.
Instead,
he triedto drinkhis troubledconscience to
rest.
As his
anxieties
drove
him near
the brink
of
despair,
he wandered
from
alehouse
to
alehouse,
at
one
point visiting
six
in the
course of a
particularly
unhappy
evening. Only
the
interventionof voices
and
vi-
sions
helped bring
Thomas
Foster
back into
the-church
old.37
What
concerned
those narrators
was
not what
might
happen
dur-
ing
an
afterlife
but matters
that were much
more immediateand
pres-
ent.
Indeed,
those
few
converts who did
express
a fear
of Hell
in
their
narrativesportrayedit not as a place to spend their futures but as
something
mminent.
Thus Robert Shearer
was so struck with a
sense
of divine
wrath
for
his sinfulness thathe
thought
he saw God
himself,
with the Sword of
Justice in his
hand
ust ready
to Cut me
down,
and
cast me into
Hell. Janet
Merrilie,
age
14,
dreamed
that she saw
a
coalpit
before
her,
with the heat
drawing
her
in and with
nothing
to
save
her.
What
drove Thomas Foster to drinkwas an
image
of himself
falling
nto the
very
pit
of
Hell,
with
droves of
people
marching
n,
until
the
vision of a
beautifulman
called
him
back. Several
converts wrote
thatthey hadkept themselves awakefor nightson end out of fear that
they
would
waken
in
Hell. The
specter
of
Hell
apparently
affected
those
hearers
only
when
it
possessed
the
same
sense
of
immediacy
hat
inspired
their
reliance on voices and
signs.38
What
did
bother those
converts,
they
recorded
almost
uniformly,
was
not the fear
of
damnationbut
rather a
sense of sin and
dishonor
that
their
convictions
awakened in
them,
which
they
experienced
as
36
Ibid., 1:284 RebeccaDykes), 1:294(RobertShearer),
and see
1:233 Katherine
Stuart),
2:9-12
(Janet
Tennant),
2:589
(Agnes
Hamilton),
and
passim.
37
Ibid.,
2:49-52 ff.
38
Ibid.,
1:289
Robert
Shearer),
1:368
Janet
Merrilie),
nd 2:52 f.
(ThomasFoster);
see
also
1:96-97
(Mary
Mitchell),
1:172
(A.
Rogers),
1:380ff.
(Agnes
Glassford),
and
passim.
John
Parkeradded an
unusual,
though
revealing,
twist: he
conceded
that
he
feared
the
devil,
but not
Hell or the terror
o come. See 2:666.
tions
about the
role of the fear
of Hell
seriously
comes
from
the
rather
surprising
behavior of
several of those
who
experienced
convictions.
Forexample,RobertShearer,age 19,andRebeccaDykes, age 14,both
were
so
tormented
by
their
convictions that
they contemplated
uicide.
Suicide,
of
course,
would
hardly
have
been
an
appropriate
emedy
for
one
who was
concerned about
damnation.
Yet
several
other
converts
reported
hat
they,
too,
longed
for death
to
relieve them
of their
spirit-
ual
troubles.36
The
case
of
Thomas
Foster,
a
married
man
of
forty,
further
confirms
the
point.
When a sermon
preached
at
Cambuslang
illed
Foster
with
deep anxiety,
he
responded by
abandoning
prayer
for
nearly
two
years.
Instead,
he triedto drinkhis troubledconscience to
rest.
As his
anxieties
drove
him near
the brink
of
despair,
he wandered
from
alehouse
to
alehouse,
at
one
point visiting
six
in the
course of a
particularly
unhappy
evening. Only
the
interventionof voices
and
vi-
sions
helped bring
Thomas
Foster
back into
the-church
old.37
What
concerned
those narrators
was
not what
might
happen
dur-
ing
an
afterlife
but matters
that were much
more immediateand
pres-
ent.
Indeed,
those
few
converts who did
express
a fear
of Hell
in
their
narrativesportrayedit not as a place to spend their futures but as
something
mminent.
Thus Robert Shearer
was so struck with a
sense
of divine
wrath
for
his sinfulness thathe
thought
he saw God
himself,
with the Sword of
Justice in his
hand
ust ready
to Cut me
down,
and
cast me into
Hell. Janet
Merrilie,
age
14,
dreamed
that she saw
a
coalpit
before
her,
with the heat
drawing
her
in and with
nothing
to
save
her.
What
drove Thomas Foster to drinkwas an
image
of himself
falling
nto the
very
pit
of
Hell,
with
droves of
people
marching
n,
until
the
vision of a
beautifulman
called
him
back. Several
converts wrote
thatthey hadkept themselves awakefor nightson end out of fear that
they
would
waken
in
Hell. The
specter
of
Hell
apparently
affected
those
hearers
only
when
it
possessed
the
same
sense
of
immediacy
hat
inspired
their
reliance on voices and
signs.38
What
did
bother those
converts,
they
recorded
almost
uniformly,
was
not the fear
of
damnationbut
rather a
sense of sin and
dishonor
that
their
convictions
awakened in
them,
which
they
experienced
as
36
Ibid., 1:284 RebeccaDykes), 1:294(RobertShearer),
and see
1:233 Katherine
Stuart),
2:9-12
(Janet
Tennant),
2:589
(Agnes
Hamilton),
and
passim.
37
Ibid.,
2:49-52 ff.
38
Ibid.,
1:289
Robert
Shearer),
1:368
Janet
Merrilie),
nd 2:52 f.
(ThomasFoster);
see
also
1:96-97
(Mary
Mitchell),
1:172
(A.
Rogers),
1:380ff.
(Agnes
Glassford),
and
passim.
John
Parkeradded an
unusual,
though
revealing,
twist: he
conceded
that
he
feared
the
devil,
but not
Hell or the terror
o come. See 2:666.
tions
about the
role of the fear
of Hell
seriously
comes
from
the
rather
surprising
behavior of
several of those
who
experienced
convictions.
Forexample,RobertShearer,age 19,andRebeccaDykes, age 14,both
were
so
tormented
by
their
convictions that
they contemplated
uicide.
Suicide,
of
course,
would
hardly
have
been
an
appropriate
emedy
for
one
who was
concerned about
damnation.
Yet
several
other
converts
reported
hat
they,
too,
longed
for death
to
relieve them
of their
spirit-
ual
troubles.36
The
case
of
Thomas
Foster,
a
married
man
of
forty,
further
confirms
the
point.
When a sermon
preached
at
Cambuslang
illed
Foster
with
deep anxiety,
he
responded by
abandoning
prayer
for
nearly
two
years.
Instead,
he triedto drinkhis troubledconscience to
rest.
As his
anxieties
drove
him near
the brink
of
despair,
he wandered
from
alehouse
to
alehouse,
at
one
point visiting
six
in the
course of a
particularly
unhappy
evening. Only
the
interventionof voices
and
vi-
sions
helped bring
Thomas
Foster
back into
the-church
old.37
What
concerned
those narrators
was
not what
might
happen
dur-
ing
an
afterlife
but matters
that were much
more immediateand
pres-
ent.
Indeed,
those
few
converts who did
express
a fear
of Hell
in
their
narrativesportrayedit not as a place to spend their futures but as
something
mminent.
Thus Robert Shearer
was so struck with a
sense
of divine
wrath
for
his sinfulness thathe
thought
he saw God
himself,
with the Sword of
Justice in his
hand
ust ready
to Cut me
down,
and
cast me into
Hell. Janet
Merrilie,
age
14,
dreamed
that she saw
a
coalpit
before
her,
with the heat
drawing
her
in and with
nothing
to
save
her.
What
drove Thomas Foster to drinkwas an
image
of himself
falling
nto the
very
pit
of
Hell,
with
droves of
people
marching
n,
until
the
vision of a
beautifulman
called
him
back. Several
converts wrote
thatthey hadkept themselves awakefor nightson end out of fear that
they
would
waken
in
Hell. The
specter
of
Hell
apparently
affected
those
hearers
only
when
it
possessed
the
same
sense
of
immediacy
hat
inspired
their
reliance on voices and
signs.38
What
did
bother those
converts,
they
recorded
almost
uniformly,
was
not the fear
of
damnationbut
rather a
sense of sin and
dishonor
that
their
convictions
awakened in
them,
which
they
experienced
as
36
Ibid., 1:284 RebeccaDykes), 1:294(RobertShearer),
and see
1:233 Katherine
Stuart),
2:9-12
(Janet
Tennant),
2:589
(Agnes
Hamilton),
and
passim.
37
Ibid.,
2:49-52 ff.
38
Ibid.,
1:289
Robert
Shearer),
1:368
Janet
Merrilie),
nd 2:52 f.
(ThomasFoster);
see
also
1:96-97
(Mary
Mitchell),
1:172
(A.
Rogers),
1:380ff.
(Agnes
Glassford),
and
passim.
John
Parkeradded an
unusual,
though
revealing,
twist: he
conceded
that
he
feared
the
devil,
but not
Hell or the terror
o come. See 2:666.
1383838
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REVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
shame.
Such
expressions
of
sinfulness
and humiliation coincided
well
with
clerical
prescriptions
and
might
be assumed to derive
directly
from the guidance of McCulloch and his colleagues-the clerical-
editors never
questioned
such
expressions
in
the
narratives-except
that their hearers
extended
the
concept
in
some
rather
unexpected
directions. Consider
again
the case of Anne
Wylie,
who was
so
af-
fected
by
the
hearing
of words.
The
young
woman
reported
that,
fol-
lowing
the
first
stirrings
of convictions
in her
heart,
she
was
so
troubled
by
a sense
of
sinfulness that she
abandoned
prayer
for
several
years-
surely
not
what
her
minister had
in
mind-fearing
to
be alone
in
God's
presence.
Janet
Jackson,
from a
good religious
family
and
the
daughter
of an elder of the
kirk,
avoided
discussing
her convictions with
anyone,
lest
everyone
know
what a
great
sinner I
was. 39
The
sense
of
sinfulness described
by
those
converts differed con-
siderably
from
what
their ministers
prescribed.
For
the
clergy,
the
essential
point
was the
dishonor
done to
God;
for
converts,
sinfulness
was
equally
likely
to involve
the loss of honor before
men and women.
Their shame was linked not
only
to their
spiritual
states but to
their
positions
in this world
as well. And where ministers
tried to
impress
on
their hearers that sinfulness derived from
the inherent
depravity
of
man
and
woman,
converts
were
just
as
likely
to relate
it
to a sense of
personal
unworthiness.
The narrators
appear
to
have been
intensely
concerned with matters of status
and
self-worth,
which would seem
to
have been
quite
at
odds
with Calvinistic tenets.
The case of
Catherine
Jackson,
a servant
girl
and a
daughter
of
elder
James
Jackson,
provides
a
good example.
After
her
early
conver-
sion
under the
guidance
of McCullouch
and Jean
Galbraith,
her
master,
Bartholemew
Somers,
also a
church
elder and
weaver,
brought
her
to
see the Seceder minister James Fisher, a leading opponent of the re-
vival,
in an
attempt
to convince
him
of
the
authenticity
of
Cambuslang
conversions.
Although
she was well
rehearsed in
her
story
before her
arrival,
in the midst of
the
interview she was
unable to
help
blurting
out
that she
had seen Christ
with
her
bodily eyes,
a
phrasing
that
Fisher
seized
upon
to discredit
the revival as
visionary
and
ungodly.
Although
she
never doubted
the
reality
of
her
conversion,
she was
stricken
with
great
shame,
nonetheless,
fearing
that she had been
responsible
for
discrediting
the
revival.40
The fear of dishonoring the awakening appeared in other narra-
tives as well.
Thus
Anne
Wylie,
who had
always
sought
to
convey
a
shame.
Such
expressions
of
sinfulness
and humiliation coincided
well
with
clerical
prescriptions
and
might
be assumed to derive
directly
from the guidance of McCulloch and his colleagues-the clerical-
editors never
questioned
such
expressions
in
the
narratives-except
that their hearers
extended
the
concept
in
some
rather
unexpected
directions. Consider
again
the case of Anne
Wylie,
who was
so
af-
fected
by
the
hearing
of words.
The
young
woman
reported
that,
fol-
lowing
the
first
stirrings
of convictions
in her
heart,
she
was
so
troubled
by
a sense
of
sinfulness that she
abandoned
prayer
for
several
years-
surely
not
what
her
minister had
in
mind-fearing
to
be alone
in
God's
presence.
Janet
Jackson,
from a
good religious
family
and
the
daughter
of an elder of the
kirk,
avoided
discussing
her convictions with
anyone,
lest
everyone
know
what a
great
sinner I
was. 39
The
sense
of
sinfulness described
by
those
converts differed con-
siderably
from
what
their ministers
prescribed.
For
the
clergy,
the
essential
point
was the
dishonor
done to
God;
for
converts,
sinfulness
was
equally
likely
to involve
the loss of honor before
men and women.
Their shame was linked not
only
to their
spiritual
states but to
their
positions
in this world
as well. And where ministers
tried to
impress
on
their hearers that sinfulness derived from
the inherent
depravity
of
man
and
woman,
converts
were
just
as
likely
to relate
it
to a sense of
personal
unworthiness.
The narrators
appear
to
have been
intensely
concerned with matters of status
and
self-worth,
which would seem
to
have been
quite
at
odds
with Calvinistic tenets.
The case of
Catherine
Jackson,
a servant
girl
and a
daughter
of
elder
James
Jackson,
provides
a
good example.
After
her
early
conver-
sion
under the
guidance
of McCullouch
and Jean
Galbraith,
her
master,
Bartholemew
Somers,
also a
church
elder and
weaver,
brought
her
to
see the Seceder minister James Fisher, a leading opponent of the re-
vival,
in an
attempt
to convince
him
of
the
authenticity
of
Cambuslang
conversions.
Although
she was well
rehearsed in
her
story
before her
arrival,
in the midst of
the
interview she was
unable to
help
blurting
out
that she
had seen Christ
with
her
bodily eyes,
a
phrasing
that
Fisher
seized
upon
to discredit
the revival as
visionary
and
ungodly.
Although
she
never doubted
the
reality
of
her
conversion,
she was
stricken
with
great
shame,
nonetheless,
fearing
that she had been
responsible
for
discrediting
the
revival.40
The fear of dishonoring the awakening appeared in other narra-
tives as well.
Thus
Anne
Wylie,
who had
always
sought
to
convey
a
shame.
Such
expressions
of
sinfulness
and humiliation coincided
well
with
clerical
prescriptions
and
might
be assumed to derive
directly
from the guidance of McCulloch and his colleagues-the clerical-
editors never
questioned
such
expressions
in
the
narratives-except
that their hearers
extended
the
concept
in
some
rather
unexpected
directions. Consider
again
the case of Anne
Wylie,
who was
so
af-
fected
by
the
hearing
of words.
The
young
woman
reported
that,
fol-
lowing
the
first
stirrings
of convictions
in her
heart,
she
was
so
troubled
by
a sense
of
sinfulness that she
abandoned
prayer
for
several
years-
surely
not
what
her
minister had
in
mind-fearing
to
be alone
in
God's
presence.
Janet
Jackson,
from a
good religious
family
and
the
daughter
of an elder of the
kirk,
avoided
discussing
her convictions with
anyone,
lest
everyone
know
what a
great
sinner I
was. 39
The
sense
of
sinfulness described
by
those
converts differed con-
siderably
from
what
their ministers
prescribed.
For
the
clergy,
the
essential
point
was the
dishonor
done to
God;
for
converts,
sinfulness
was
equally
likely
to involve
the loss of honor before
men and women.
Their shame was linked not
only
to their
spiritual
states but to
their
positions
in this world
as well. And where ministers
tried to
impress
on
their hearers that sinfulness derived from
the inherent
depravity
of
man
and
woman,
converts
were
just
as
likely
to relate
it
to a sense of
personal
unworthiness.
The narrators
appear
to
have been
intensely
concerned with matters of status
and
self-worth,
which would seem
to
have been
quite
at
odds
with Calvinistic tenets.
The case of
Catherine
Jackson,
a servant
girl
and a
daughter
of
elder
James
Jackson,
provides
a
good example.
After
her
early
conver-
sion
under the
guidance
of McCullouch
and Jean
Galbraith,
her
master,
Bartholemew
Somers,
also a
church
elder and
weaver,
brought
her
to
see the Seceder minister James Fisher, a leading opponent of the re-
vival,
in an
attempt
to convince
him
of
the
authenticity
of
Cambuslang
conversions.
Although
she was well
rehearsed in
her
story
before her
arrival,
in the midst of
the
interview she was
unable to
help
blurting
out
that she
had seen Christ
with
her
bodily eyes,
a
phrasing
that
Fisher
seized
upon
to discredit
the revival as
visionary
and
ungodly.
Although
she
never doubted
the
reality
of
her
conversion,
she was
stricken
with
great
shame,
nonetheless,
fearing
that she had been
responsible
for
discrediting
the
revival.40
The fear of dishonoring the awakening appeared in other narra-
tives as well.
Thus
Anne
Wylie,
who had
always
sought
to
convey
a
39
Ibid.,
1:40 ff.
(Anne
Wylie),
1:26-27
(Janet
Jackson).
40
Ibid.,
2:265-96
(Catherine Jackson).
39
Ibid.,
1:40 ff.
(Anne
Wylie),
1:26-27
(Janet
Jackson).
40
Ibid.,
2:265-96
(Catherine Jackson).
39
Ibid.,
1:40 ff.
(Anne
Wylie),
1:26-27
(Janet
Jackson).
40
Ibid.,
2:265-96
(Catherine Jackson).
1393939
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
good
impression
of the
revival
to
her
neighbors,
one
day
found
herself
exchanging
harsh words with her
master. She
later feared
that her
indiscretionwould cause people to thinkbadlyof the revival on my
account.
Twenty-year-old
Jean
Robe
expressed
similar
concerns,
fearing
that
if
she
failed to
uphold
her
convictions,
she
would
prove
a
scandal
to
religion.
Often,
the tone
of the
narratives
suggests
that
the
writers
were less
concerned with
the
fate of the
revival than
with
their
own
responsibility
or
causing
it
harm.41
The
sense of
sinfulness
the
narrators
xperienced
often had
little
to do with
any
overt
behavior.
Scottish
preachers
old them
that human
nature
was
inherentlysinful,
but
the
converts heard
that in a
rather
unusual
way.
Janet
Reid,
for
one,
expressed
great
feelings
of
sinfulness
even
though
she
believed
that she had
never committed
any
actual
transgressions ;
he felt
herself
guilty
only
of
original
sin.
That
is
a
vastly
different
concept
from
what
the
preachers
meant
by
inherent
sinfulness,
which
was
necessarily
coupled
with
actual
sins. Other
con-
verts
confessed
only
to such
generalized
sins as
sabbath-breaking-
usually
more in
demeanor han
activity-or
unbelief
or
unworthy
communicating.
Their
sense of
sinfulness was
almost
invariably
re-
latedto feelingsof unworthiness,a word thatappearsrepeatedly nthe
narratives.42
For
some,
the
sense
of shame had
less to
do
with
culpability
han
capability.
Janet
Struthers,
age
thirty-two,
avoided
telling
anyone
of
her
initial
awakening
because she
was
barely
literate,
and she
feared
that
her
ignorance
would defame
the
revival.
Another
grown
woman,
Margaret
Clerk,
confessed that
she had
frequently
avoided
the
kirk
because
I
could not read
and
I
was
ashamed
that
I
could
not
make
use of a
Bible
in
the Kirk
as others about
medid.
Margaret
Lap,
who could read,was ashamed,nonetheless,by her inability o com-
prehend
he
doctrines
of the
gospel.
That
surely
was
part
of
Catherine
Jackson's
shame
also,
when
she
inadvertently
revealed
to
James
Fisher
that she had
seen a
vision of
Christ
with
her
bodily eyes.
Several
converts
avoided
going
to see
either
ministers or
community
leaders
even after
they
felt that
they
had
approached
the
point
of
assuranceof their
salvation,
precisely
for fear of
speaking
amiss,
to
use
Anne
Wylie's
phrase,
or for fear of
being
exposed
as a
hypocrite.43
The
sense of sin
experiencedby
many
converts was
closely
linked
41
Ibid.,
1:64
ff.
(Anne
Wylie),
1:188
Jean Robe).
42
Ibid.,
1:189
Janet Reid),
1:385
Agnes
Glassford),
and
passim.
43
Ibid.,
2:557 f.
(Janet Struthers),
2:447
ff.
(Margaret
Clerk),
1:9
(Margaret
Lap),
1:52
(Anne
Wylie),
see 1:264
Jean
Hay),
and
passim.
good
impression
of the
revival
to
her
neighbors,
one
day
found
herself
exchanging
harsh words with her
master. She
later feared
that her
indiscretionwould cause people to thinkbadlyof the revival on my
account.
Twenty-year-old
Jean
Robe
expressed
similar
concerns,
fearing
that
if
she
failed to
uphold
her
convictions,
she
would
prove
a
scandal
to
religion.
Often,
the tone
of the
narratives
suggests
that
the
writers
were less
concerned with
the
fate of the
revival than
with
their
own
responsibility
or
causing
it
harm.41
The
sense of
sinfulness
the
narrators
xperienced
often had
little
to do with
any
overt
behavior.
Scottish
preachers
old them
that human
nature
was
inherentlysinful,
but
the
converts heard
that in a
rather
unusual
way.
Janet
Reid,
for
one,
expressed
great
feelings
of
sinfulness
even
though
she
believed
that she had
never committed
any
actual
transgressions ;
he felt
herself
guilty
only
of
original
sin.
That
is
a
vastly
different
concept
from
what
the
preachers
meant
by
inherent
sinfulness,
which
was
necessarily
coupled
with
actual
sins. Other
con-
verts
confessed
only
to such
generalized
sins as
sabbath-breaking-
usually
more in
demeanor han
activity-or
unbelief
or
unworthy
communicating.
Their
sense of
sinfulness was
almost
invariably
re-
latedto feelingsof unworthiness,a word thatappearsrepeatedly nthe
narratives.42
For
some,
the
sense
of shame had
less to
do
with
culpability
han
capability.
Janet
Struthers,
age
thirty-two,
avoided
telling
anyone
of
her
initial
awakening
because she
was
barely
literate,
and she
feared
that
her
ignorance
would defame
the
revival.
Another
grown
woman,
Margaret
Clerk,
confessed that
she had
frequently
avoided
the
kirk
because
I
could not read
and
I
was
ashamed
that
I
could
not
make
use of a
Bible
in
the Kirk
as others about
medid.
Margaret
Lap,
who could read,was ashamed,nonetheless,by her inability o com-
prehend
he
doctrines
of the
gospel.
That
surely
was
part
of
Catherine
Jackson's
shame
also,
when
she
inadvertently
revealed
to
James
Fisher
that she had
seen a
vision of
Christ
with
her
bodily eyes.
Several
converts
avoided
going
to see
either
ministers or
community
leaders
even after
they
felt that
they
had
approached
the
point
of
assuranceof their
salvation,
precisely
for fear of
speaking
amiss,
to
use
Anne
Wylie's
phrase,
or for fear of
being
exposed
as a
hypocrite.43
The
sense of sin
experiencedby
many
converts was
closely
linked
41
Ibid.,
1:64
ff.
(Anne
Wylie),
1:188
Jean Robe).
42
Ibid.,
1:189
Janet Reid),
1:385
Agnes
Glassford),
and
passim.
43
Ibid.,
2:557 f.
(Janet Struthers),
2:447
ff.
(Margaret
Clerk),
1:9
(Margaret
Lap),
1:52
(Anne
Wylie),
see 1:264
Jean
Hay),
and
passim.
good
impression
of the
revival
to
her
neighbors,
one
day
found
herself
exchanging
harsh words with her
master. She
later feared
that her
indiscretionwould cause people to thinkbadlyof the revival on my
account.
Twenty-year-old
Jean
Robe
expressed
similar
concerns,
fearing
that
if
she
failed to
uphold
her
convictions,
she
would
prove
a
scandal
to
religion.
Often,
the tone
of the
narratives
suggests
that
the
writers
were less
concerned with
the
fate of the
revival than
with
their
own
responsibility
or
causing
it
harm.41
The
sense of
sinfulness
the
narrators
xperienced
often had
little
to do with
any
overt
behavior.
Scottish
preachers
old them
that human
nature
was
inherentlysinful,
but
the
converts heard
that in a
rather
unusual
way.
Janet
Reid,
for
one,
expressed
great
feelings
of
sinfulness
even
though
she
believed
that she had
never committed
any
actual
transgressions ;
he felt
herself
guilty
only
of
original
sin.
That
is
a
vastly
different
concept
from
what
the
preachers
meant
by
inherent
sinfulness,
which
was
necessarily
coupled
with
actual
sins. Other
con-
verts
confessed
only
to such
generalized
sins as
sabbath-breaking-
usually
more in
demeanor han
activity-or
unbelief
or
unworthy
communicating.
Their
sense of
sinfulness was
almost
invariably
re-
latedto feelingsof unworthiness,a word thatappearsrepeatedly nthe
narratives.42
For
some,
the
sense
of shame had
less to
do
with
culpability
han
capability.
Janet
Struthers,
age
thirty-two,
avoided
telling
anyone
of
her
initial
awakening
because she
was
barely
literate,
and she
feared
that
her
ignorance
would defame
the
revival.
Another
grown
woman,
Margaret
Clerk,
confessed that
she had
frequently
avoided
the
kirk
because
I
could not read
and
I
was
ashamed
that
I
could
not
make
use of a
Bible
in
the Kirk
as others about
medid.
Margaret
Lap,
who could read,was ashamed,nonetheless,by her inability o com-
prehend
he
doctrines
of the
gospel.
That
surely
was
part
of
Catherine
Jackson's
shame
also,
when
she
inadvertently
revealed
to
James
Fisher
that she had
seen a
vision of
Christ
with
her
bodily eyes.
Several
converts
avoided
going
to see
either
ministers or
community
leaders
even after
they
felt that
they
had
approached
the
point
of
assuranceof their
salvation,
precisely
for fear of
speaking
amiss,
to
use
Anne
Wylie's
phrase,
or for fear of
being
exposed
as a
hypocrite.43
The
sense of sin
experiencedby
many
converts was
closely
linked
41
Ibid.,
1:64
ff.
(Anne
Wylie),
1:188
Jean Robe).
42
Ibid.,
1:189
Janet Reid),
1:385
Agnes
Glassford),
and
passim.
43
Ibid.,
2:557 f.
(Janet Struthers),
2:447
ff.
(Margaret
Clerk),
1:9
(Margaret
Lap),
1:52
(Anne
Wylie),
see 1:264
Jean
Hay),
and
passim.
1404040
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REVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
to
values
promoted
by
the
emerging
weaving community, including
literacy,
sobriety,
mutuality,
and
assertiveness.
Janet Struthers was
only one of several converts who expressed shame at her lack of read-
ing
skills. Converts
were
just
as
concerned
with what
they
read,
aban-
doning
frivolous
readings
for
godly
works.
Frivolity
and
idleness in
general
were sources
of shame. William
Miller,
from
a
weaving family,
came to shun the
company
of his former
companions
who
engaged
in
vain or
sinfull
conversation
and conversed
only
with such
as
would talk about
serious
things. Formerly
he
would take
pleasure
in
idle
talk,
wanton
sports,
and
merry-jests,
but now
I
abhor
[them].
John
Hepburn
did
jest
with his friends after
sermon one
Sabbath,
but
his heart
smote
him for it.44
A
powerful
source of shame
to some converts
was the
inability
to
assert
oneself
in
public
and
speak
freely
on
religious
matters.
Thus
Elizabeth
Jackson
found herself
unable
to tell
anyone
of her
feelings
until
the
very
culmination
of
her conversion.
Shyness
of that
sort
was
most
apparent
among young
women,
but
occasionally
men,
too,
were
affected;
William
Causlam,
age forty-eight,
was called
on to
lead his
meeting
in
prayer,
but found
himself
much straitened
and unable to
pray aloud in public. That convinced him that he should leave the
meeting, believing
that
it
was better
to withdraw than
be a
reproach
to
religion. Only
a
long
period
of
private
wrestling
with his
anxieties
led
him
finally
to
a
greater
freedom
in
public prayer.45
Thus
in
spite
of the inwardness
of the
conversion
experience,
participants
in the
Cambuslang
revival were
quite
concerned
with the
opinions
of
others,
including
friends,
family,
and those identified
with
the
religious community.
Michael
Thomson,
an artisan's
apprentice,
decided
that
he
should
reform his
behavior,
lest
it
prove
a
blott
on
my
reputation and be a disgrace to my friends. One A. Rogers noticed
that
many people
that he
took to
be
good
folk
had been
affected
by
the revival and
decided
that
if this
work were
not of
god,
they
would
not
be there.
That
could work
in
reverse as
well.
Jean
Hay
fell into a
fit of
despair
when she
observed
that two
prominent
elders,
Ingram
More and
Sergeant
Forbes,
embraced one another
without
paying
any
attention to
her,
feeling
that the children of God
loved one
another,
but
that
they
care[d]
not for
me. 46
44
Smout,
Born
Again
(n.
4
above),
pp.
125-27;
2:557 ff.
(Janet
Struthers),
2:447 ff.
(Margaret
Clerk),
1:418
(William
Miller),
1:377-78
(John
Hepburn),
and see
1:147
(George
Tassie),
1:461
(John
Aiken),
and 2:433
ff.
(Margaret
Ritchie).
45
McCulloch,
1:107-8
(Elizabeth
Jackson),
1:252
ff.
(William
Causlam),
and see
1:12-14
(Margaret
Lap).
46
Ibid.,
1:479 ff.
(Michael
Thomson),
1:177
(A.
Rogers),
and
1:266-67
(Jean
Hay).
to
values
promoted
by
the
emerging
weaving community, including
literacy,
sobriety,
mutuality,
and
assertiveness.
Janet Struthers was
only one of several converts who expressed shame at her lack of read-
ing
skills. Converts
were
just
as
concerned
with what
they
read,
aban-
doning
frivolous
readings
for
godly
works.
Frivolity
and
idleness in
general
were sources
of shame. William
Miller,
from
a
weaving family,
came to shun the
company
of his former
companions
who
engaged
in
vain or
sinfull
conversation
and conversed
only
with such
as
would talk about
serious
things. Formerly
he
would take
pleasure
in
idle
talk,
wanton
sports,
and
merry-jests,
but now
I
abhor
[them].
John
Hepburn
did
jest
with his friends after
sermon one
Sabbath,
but
his heart
smote
him for it.44
A
powerful
source of shame
to some converts
was the
inability
to
assert
oneself
in
public
and
speak
freely
on
religious
matters.
Thus
Elizabeth
Jackson
found herself
unable
to tell
anyone
of her
feelings
until
the
very
culmination
of
her conversion.
Shyness
of that
sort
was
most
apparent
among young
women,
but
occasionally
men,
too,
were
affected;
William
Causlam,
age forty-eight,
was called
on to
lead his
meeting
in
prayer,
but found
himself
much straitened
and unable to
pray aloud in public. That convinced him that he should leave the
meeting, believing
that
it
was better
to withdraw than
be a
reproach
to
religion. Only
a
long
period
of
private
wrestling
with his
anxieties
led
him
finally
to
a
greater
freedom
in
public prayer.45
Thus
in
spite
of the inwardness
of the
conversion
experience,
participants
in the
Cambuslang
revival were
quite
concerned
with the
opinions
of
others,
including
friends,
family,
and those identified
with
the
religious community.
Michael
Thomson,
an artisan's
apprentice,
decided
that
he
should
reform his
behavior,
lest
it
prove
a
blott
on
my
reputation and be a disgrace to my friends. One A. Rogers noticed
that
many people
that he
took to
be
good
folk
had been
affected
by
the revival and
decided
that
if this
work were
not of
god,
they
would
not
be there.
That
could work
in
reverse as
well.
Jean
Hay
fell into a
fit of
despair
when she
observed
that two
prominent
elders,
Ingram
More and
Sergeant
Forbes,
embraced one another
without
paying
any
attention to
her,
feeling
that the children of God
loved one
another,
but
that
they
care[d]
not for
me. 46
44
Smout,
Born
Again
(n.
4
above),
pp.
125-27;
2:557 ff.
(Janet
Struthers),
2:447 ff.
(Margaret
Clerk),
1:418
(William
Miller),
1:377-78
(John
Hepburn),
and see
1:147
(George
Tassie),
1:461
(John
Aiken),
and 2:433
ff.
(Margaret
Ritchie).
45
McCulloch,
1:107-8
(Elizabeth
Jackson),
1:252
ff.
(William
Causlam),
and see
1:12-14
(Margaret
Lap).
46
Ibid.,
1:479 ff.
(Michael
Thomson),
1:177
(A.
Rogers),
and
1:266-67
(Jean
Hay).
to
values
promoted
by
the
emerging
weaving community, including
literacy,
sobriety,
mutuality,
and
assertiveness.
Janet Struthers was
only one of several converts who expressed shame at her lack of read-
ing
skills. Converts
were
just
as
concerned
with what
they
read,
aban-
doning
frivolous
readings
for
godly
works.
Frivolity
and
idleness in
general
were sources
of shame. William
Miller,
from
a
weaving family,
came to shun the
company
of his former
companions
who
engaged
in
vain or
sinfull
conversation
and conversed
only
with such
as
would talk about
serious
things. Formerly
he
would take
pleasure
in
idle
talk,
wanton
sports,
and
merry-jests,
but now
I
abhor
[them].
John
Hepburn
did
jest
with his friends after
sermon one
Sabbath,
but
his heart
smote
him for it.44
A
powerful
source of shame
to some converts
was the
inability
to
assert
oneself
in
public
and
speak
freely
on
religious
matters.
Thus
Elizabeth
Jackson
found herself
unable
to tell
anyone
of her
feelings
until
the
very
culmination
of
her conversion.
Shyness
of that
sort
was
most
apparent
among young
women,
but
occasionally
men,
too,
were
affected;
William
Causlam,
age forty-eight,
was called
on to
lead his
meeting
in
prayer,
but found
himself
much straitened
and unable to
pray aloud in public. That convinced him that he should leave the
meeting, believing
that
it
was better
to withdraw than
be a
reproach
to
religion. Only
a
long
period
of
private
wrestling
with his
anxieties
led
him
finally
to
a
greater
freedom
in
public prayer.45
Thus
in
spite
of the inwardness
of the
conversion
experience,
participants
in the
Cambuslang
revival were
quite
concerned
with the
opinions
of
others,
including
friends,
family,
and those identified
with
the
religious community.
Michael
Thomson,
an artisan's
apprentice,
decided
that
he
should
reform his
behavior,
lest
it
prove
a
blott
on
my
reputation and be a disgrace to my friends. One A. Rogers noticed
that
many people
that he
took to
be
good
folk
had been
affected
by
the revival and
decided
that
if this
work were
not of
god,
they
would
not
be there.
That
could work
in
reverse as
well.
Jean
Hay
fell into a
fit of
despair
when she
observed
that two
prominent
elders,
Ingram
More and
Sergeant
Forbes,
embraced one another
without
paying
any
attention to
her,
feeling
that the children of God
loved one
another,
but
that
they
care[d]
not for
me. 46
44
Smout,
Born
Again
(n.
4
above),
pp.
125-27;
2:557 ff.
(Janet
Struthers),
2:447 ff.
(Margaret
Clerk),
1:418
(William
Miller),
1:377-78
(John
Hepburn),
and see
1:147
(George
Tassie),
1:461
(John
Aiken),
and 2:433
ff.
(Margaret
Ritchie).
45
McCulloch,
1:107-8
(Elizabeth
Jackson),
1:252
ff.
(William
Causlam),
and see
1:12-14
(Margaret
Lap).
46
Ibid.,
1:479 ff.
(Michael
Thomson),
1:177
(A.
Rogers),
and
1:266-67
(Jean
Hay).
1414141
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
To
some,
conversions
seemed
to
require
an audience.
Repeatedly
in the
narratives
we find the
spectacle
of new converts
unable to
refrain
from telling friends and neighbors what the Lord had done for their
souls;
Elizabeth
Jackson,
in
a relative's
house,
could
not forbear
com-
mending
Christ,
his
love
and
free
grace,
to such
a
poor
sinner
as
I,
to all of her
neighbors.
Similarly,
Catherine
Cameron
sat on
the
braeside after
a
particularly
visionary
moment,
longing
for some
to
whom
I
might
tell what
I had met
with...
.47
The case of Janet
Jackson,
one
of the
three
sisters
whose conver-
sions
helped
instigate
the
revival,
provides
a
particularly
telling
ex-
ample.
The
young
women's
initial
religious
concerns
developed
shortly
after
Janet
heard
George
Whitefield
preach
at
Glasgow.
Yet
it
was
not
the
preaching
that aroused
her
concerns,
but rather
her
perception
that
others,
especially
her
sister
Elizabeth,
had been
deeply
affected,
while
she had not.
Then,
when she went
to hear William
McCulloch
preach
at
Cambuslang,
she decided that
his
preachings
were
directed
against
my
sins and no bodies
else
and felt as
though
he had named
[her]
out
before
the
congregation.
The
following
Sabbth,
as the revival
began
to take
hold,
she had to stand
in the crowded
kirk. When she
saw that
Elizabeth had obtained a seat, she took that as a sign of her unwor-
thiness,
believing
that
[E]verybody
knew
I
was so
great
a sinner.
Worse was
yet
to come.
Soon,
sister
Catherine, too,
fell under convic-
tions,
and
when
Ingram
More
himself arrived to
summon
her to the
minister's
house,
Janet Jackson
decided
that she
had been shunned
by
everyone.
All the
while she
told
no
one of her shame.48
More than
anything
else,
converts
sought
a release from
that sense
of sinfulness and
shame,
which
became,
for
them,
the essence
of assur-
ance,
the final
stage
of
conversion,
a main concern both
of ministers
and their hearers. For the clergy, the principal confirmation of assur-
ance
was
scriptural,
the
ability
to
relate one's
experience
to
religious
doctrine.
Such
concerns
mattered
little to
their
converts,
who
men-
tioned doctrinal
matters
in
their accounts
almost as
rarely
as
they
discussed
meetings
with the minister.
Instead,
they
looked
inward to
their
feelings.
In
short,
where
ministers
maintained
a doctrinal defini-
tion of
conversion,
their hearers
adopted
an
essentially
psychological
conception.
Read
in
this
fashion,
many
of
the narratives
appear
as
day-
to-day
histories of
the words
and
experiences
that
affected
their emo-
tional equilibrium.
47
Ibid.,
1:107-8
(ElizabethJackson),
1:326
Mrs.
C.
Cameron),
ee 1:12-14
(Mar-
garet Lap),
1:30
(Janet
Jackson),
and 1:100
Mary
Mitchell).
48
Ibid.,
1:17-37
(Janet Jackson).
To
some,
conversions
seemed
to
require
an audience.
Repeatedly
in the
narratives
we find the
spectacle
of new converts
unable to
refrain
from telling friends and neighbors what the Lord had done for their
souls;
Elizabeth
Jackson,
in
a relative's
house,
could
not forbear
com-
mending
Christ,
his
love
and
free
grace,
to such
a
poor
sinner
as
I,
to all of her
neighbors.
Similarly,
Catherine
Cameron
sat on
the
braeside after
a
particularly
visionary
moment,
longing
for some
to
whom
I
might
tell what
I had met
with...
.47
The case of Janet
Jackson,
one
of the
three
sisters
whose conver-
sions
helped
instigate
the
revival,
provides
a
particularly
telling
ex-
ample.
The
young
women's
initial
religious
concerns
developed
shortly
after
Janet
heard
George
Whitefield
preach
at
Glasgow.
Yet
it
was
not
the
preaching
that aroused
her
concerns,
but rather
her
perception
that
others,
especially
her
sister
Elizabeth,
had been
deeply
affected,
while
she had not.
Then,
when she went
to hear William
McCulloch
preach
at
Cambuslang,
she decided that
his
preachings
were
directed
against
my
sins and no bodies
else
and felt as
though
he had named
[her]
out
before
the
congregation.
The
following
Sabbth,
as the revival
began
to take
hold,
she had to stand
in the crowded
kirk. When she
saw that
Elizabeth had obtained a seat, she took that as a sign of her unwor-
thiness,
believing
that
[E]verybody
knew
I
was so
great
a sinner.
Worse was
yet
to come.
Soon,
sister
Catherine, too,
fell under convic-
tions,
and
when
Ingram
More
himself arrived to
summon
her to the
minister's
house,
Janet Jackson
decided
that she
had been shunned
by
everyone.
All the
while she
told
no
one of her shame.48
More than
anything
else,
converts
sought
a release from
that sense
of sinfulness and
shame,
which
became,
for
them,
the essence
of assur-
ance,
the final
stage
of
conversion,
a main concern both
of ministers
and their hearers. For the clergy, the principal confirmation of assur-
ance
was
scriptural,
the
ability
to
relate one's
experience
to
religious
doctrine.
Such
concerns
mattered
little to
their
converts,
who
men-
tioned doctrinal
matters
in
their accounts
almost as
rarely
as
they
discussed
meetings
with the minister.
Instead,
they
looked
inward to
their
feelings.
In
short,
where
ministers
maintained
a doctrinal defini-
tion of
conversion,
their hearers
adopted
an
essentially
psychological
conception.
Read
in
this
fashion,
many
of
the narratives
appear
as
day-
to-day
histories of
the words
and
experiences
that
affected
their emo-
tional equilibrium.
47
Ibid.,
1:107-8
(ElizabethJackson),
1:326
Mrs.
C.
Cameron),
ee 1:12-14
(Mar-
garet Lap),
1:30
(Janet
Jackson),
and 1:100
Mary
Mitchell).
48
Ibid.,
1:17-37
(Janet Jackson).
To
some,
conversions
seemed
to
require
an audience.
Repeatedly
in the
narratives
we find the
spectacle
of new converts
unable to
refrain
from telling friends and neighbors what the Lord had done for their
souls;
Elizabeth
Jackson,
in
a relative's
house,
could
not forbear
com-
mending
Christ,
his
love
and
free
grace,
to such
a
poor
sinner
as
I,
to all of her
neighbors.
Similarly,
Catherine
Cameron
sat on
the
braeside after
a
particularly
visionary
moment,
longing
for some
to
whom
I
might
tell what
I had met
with...
.47
The case of Janet
Jackson,
one
of the
three
sisters
whose conver-
sions
helped
instigate
the
revival,
provides
a
particularly
telling
ex-
ample.
The
young
women's
initial
religious
concerns
developed
shortly
after
Janet
heard
George
Whitefield
preach
at
Glasgow.
Yet
it
was
not
the
preaching
that aroused
her
concerns,
but rather
her
perception
that
others,
especially
her
sister
Elizabeth,
had been
deeply
affected,
while
she had not.
Then,
when she went
to hear William
McCulloch
preach
at
Cambuslang,
she decided that
his
preachings
were
directed
against
my
sins and no bodies
else
and felt as
though
he had named
[her]
out
before
the
congregation.
The
following
Sabbth,
as the revival
began
to take
hold,
she had to stand
in the crowded
kirk. When she
saw that
Elizabeth had obtained a seat, she took that as a sign of her unwor-
thiness,
believing
that
[E]verybody
knew
I
was so
great
a sinner.
Worse was
yet
to come.
Soon,
sister
Catherine, too,
fell under convic-
tions,
and
when
Ingram
More
himself arrived to
summon
her to the
minister's
house,
Janet Jackson
decided
that she
had been shunned
by
everyone.
All the
while she
told
no
one of her shame.48
More than
anything
else,
converts
sought
a release from
that sense
of sinfulness and
shame,
which
became,
for
them,
the essence
of assur-
ance,
the final
stage
of
conversion,
a main concern both
of ministers
and their hearers. For the clergy, the principal confirmation of assur-
ance
was
scriptural,
the
ability
to
relate one's
experience
to
religious
doctrine.
Such
concerns
mattered
little to
their
converts,
who
men-
tioned doctrinal
matters
in
their accounts
almost as
rarely
as
they
discussed
meetings
with the minister.
Instead,
they
looked
inward to
their
feelings.
In
short,
where
ministers
maintained
a doctrinal defini-
tion of
conversion,
their hearers
adopted
an
essentially
psychological
conception.
Read
in
this
fashion,
many
of
the narratives
appear
as
day-
to-day
histories of
the words
and
experiences
that
affected
their emo-
tional equilibrium.
47
Ibid.,
1:107-8
(ElizabethJackson),
1:326
Mrs.
C.
Cameron),
ee 1:12-14
(Mar-
garet Lap),
1:30
(Janet
Jackson),
and 1:100
Mary
Mitchell).
48
Ibid.,
1:17-37
(Janet Jackson).
1424242
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REVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHING
Anne
Wylie's
story
provides
a
typical
yet
rather
moderate
ex-
ample.
After
first
being
awakened
by
Whitefield in
Glasgow
in
1741,
she began to attend McCulloch's sermons at Cambuslang. His first
sermon
so
upset
her,
that
she sate down &
wept,
that
I
had
got
such
a
woefull
hasty temper.
On another
occasion,
the
minister's
preaching
filled her with
such
a sense of shame that
she heard
and remembered
nothing
of what was said.
Later,
she found
her
heart melted
down
during
sermon,
and a
mighty
&
sweet
power accompanied
the words
as
they
came from
[his]
mouth.
That
frame
of mind continued
only
briefly,
and soon she lost
all the
love that she
had
found
while
attending. Wylie's
narrative continues
for about
forty
pages,
covering
many
months of alternate
joys
and
sorrows,
of
inward heat
& warmth
of love and
joy
.
. .
ravishing
...
my
soul,
followed
by
distress
so
great
that
she could not
carry
on
with
her
employment.
Finally,
two
events convinced her
of
her
salvation. On one
occasion,
when she was
much
cast
down
in
spirit,
the
words,
Fear
not,
for
thou
shalt
not be
ashamed,
came into
her mind
and
alleviated
the
sense of
shame that
her
convictions
had
wrought,
and
she could not
forbear
kissing
her
Bible
and
calling
out,
Now this is
just
all I
want,
I
care for
no
more
in
the world. Later, hearing McCulloch preach on the nature of conver-
sion,
Wylie
found
her
own
situation described
so
closely
that
all
my
doubts,
as to the
reality
of
a
work of Grace on
my
soul
vanished;
and
I
was
filled with
great joy
&
peace
in
believing. 49
Although
the
ministers stressed
that full
certainty
would
come
only
in
the
afterlife,
their
converts
almost without
exception
sought
sure
knowledge
in
this
life.
Quite
a few of the
narrators achieved
a
state
of
certainty
that
was
characteristic of
the
heresy
of
antinomianism,
the belief that the
spirit
of God dwelt
within
the believer
and freed that
person from error and the obligations of the moral law. Alexander
Bilsland of
Glasgow
believed that
during
the course of his
conversion
he
had learned how
to
distinguish
the
voice of Christ from the voice
of
the
devil,
when either
gave
him
orders,
as both often did. Katherine
Stuart
thought
that
a
voice
from
the Lord told her
directly
where
and
when
to
pray.
Jean
Robe,
whose
experience
was
otherwise unremark-
able,
cried out at the
peak
of
her
conversion
that God had made a
covenant with her
in
person,
and
that
Christ
would
glorify
in
her re-
demption.
Catherine
Cameron
was affected
by
repeated
words and
visions from Christ and the devil until finally a voice soothed her by
telling
her that
she
was
not under the
Law but
under
Grace. McCul-
Anne
Wylie's
story
provides
a
typical
yet
rather
moderate
ex-
ample.
After
first
being
awakened
by
Whitefield in
Glasgow
in
1741,
she began to attend McCulloch's sermons at Cambuslang. His first
sermon
so
upset
her,
that
she sate down &
wept,
that
I
had
got
such
a
woefull
hasty temper.
On another
occasion,
the
minister's
preaching
filled her with
such
a sense of shame that
she heard
and remembered
nothing
of what was said.
Later,
she found
her
heart melted
down
during
sermon,
and a
mighty
&
sweet
power accompanied
the words
as
they
came from
[his]
mouth.
That
frame
of mind continued
only
briefly,
and soon she lost
all the
love that she
had
found
while
attending. Wylie's
narrative continues
for about
forty
pages,
covering
many
months of alternate
joys
and
sorrows,
of
inward heat
& warmth
of love and
joy
.
. .
ravishing
...
my
soul,
followed
by
distress
so
great
that
she could not
carry
on
with
her
employment.
Finally,
two
events convinced her
of
her
salvation. On one
occasion,
when she was
much
cast
down
in
spirit,
the
words,
Fear
not,
for
thou
shalt
not be
ashamed,
came into
her mind
and
alleviated
the
sense of
shame that
her
convictions
had
wrought,
and
she could not
forbear
kissing
her
Bible
and
calling
out,
Now this is
just
all I
want,
I
care for
no
more
in
the world. Later, hearing McCulloch preach on the nature of conver-
sion,
Wylie
found
her
own
situation described
so
closely
that
all
my
doubts,
as to the
reality
of
a
work of Grace on
my
soul
vanished;
and
I
was
filled with
great joy
&
peace
in
believing. 49
Although
the
ministers stressed
that full
certainty
would
come
only
in
the
afterlife,
their
converts
almost without
exception
sought
sure
knowledge
in
this
life.
Quite
a few of the
narrators achieved
a
state
of
certainty
that
was
characteristic of
the
heresy
of
antinomianism,
the belief that the
spirit
of God dwelt
within
the believer
and freed that
person from error and the obligations of the moral law. Alexander
Bilsland of
Glasgow
believed that
during
the course of his
conversion
he
had learned how
to
distinguish
the
voice of Christ from the voice
of
the
devil,
when either
gave
him
orders,
as both often did. Katherine
Stuart
thought
that
a
voice
from
the Lord told her
directly
where
and
when
to
pray.
Jean
Robe,
whose
experience
was
otherwise unremark-
able,
cried out at the
peak
of
her
conversion
that God had made a
covenant with her
in
person,
and
that
Christ
would
glorify
in
her re-
demption.
Catherine
Cameron
was affected
by
repeated
words and
visions from Christ and the devil until finally a voice soothed her by
telling
her that
she
was
not under the
Law but
under
Grace. McCul-
Anne
Wylie's
story
provides
a
typical
yet
rather
moderate
ex-
ample.
After
first
being
awakened
by
Whitefield in
Glasgow
in
1741,
she began to attend McCulloch's sermons at Cambuslang. His first
sermon
so
upset
her,
that
she sate down &
wept,
that
I
had
got
such
a
woefull
hasty temper.
On another
occasion,
the
minister's
preaching
filled her with
such
a sense of shame that
she heard
and remembered
nothing
of what was said.
Later,
she found
her
heart melted
down
during
sermon,
and a
mighty
&
sweet
power accompanied
the words
as
they
came from
[his]
mouth.
That
frame
of mind continued
only
briefly,
and soon she lost
all the
love that she
had
found
while
attending. Wylie's
narrative continues
for about
forty
pages,
covering
many
months of alternate
joys
and
sorrows,
of
inward heat
& warmth
of love and
joy
.
. .
ravishing
...
my
soul,
followed
by
distress
so
great
that
she could not
carry
on
with
her
employment.
Finally,
two
events convinced her
of
her
salvation. On one
occasion,
when she was
much
cast
down
in
spirit,
the
words,
Fear
not,
for
thou
shalt
not be
ashamed,
came into
her mind
and
alleviated
the
sense of
shame that
her
convictions
had
wrought,
and
she could not
forbear
kissing
her
Bible
and
calling
out,
Now this is
just
all I
want,
I
care for
no
more
in
the world. Later, hearing McCulloch preach on the nature of conver-
sion,
Wylie
found
her
own
situation described
so
closely
that
all
my
doubts,
as to the
reality
of
a
work of Grace on
my
soul
vanished;
and
I
was
filled with
great joy
&
peace
in
believing. 49
Although
the
ministers stressed
that full
certainty
would
come
only
in
the
afterlife,
their
converts
almost without
exception
sought
sure
knowledge
in
this
life.
Quite
a few of the
narrators achieved
a
state
of
certainty
that
was
characteristic of
the
heresy
of
antinomianism,
the belief that the
spirit
of God dwelt
within
the believer
and freed that
person from error and the obligations of the moral law. Alexander
Bilsland of
Glasgow
believed that
during
the course of his
conversion
he
had learned how
to
distinguish
the
voice of Christ from the voice
of
the
devil,
when either
gave
him
orders,
as both often did. Katherine
Stuart
thought
that
a
voice
from
the Lord told her
directly
where
and
when
to
pray.
Jean
Robe,
whose
experience
was
otherwise unremark-
able,
cried out at the
peak
of
her
conversion
that God had made a
covenant with her
in
person,
and
that
Christ
would
glorify
in
her re-
demption.
Catherine
Cameron
was affected
by
repeated
words and
visions from Christ and the devil until finally a voice soothed her by
telling
her that
she
was
not under the
Law but
under
Grace. McCul-
49
Ibid.,
1:39-75. For a
more
striking
xample
of emotional
possession,
see 1:316-44
(Mrs.
C.
Cameron).
49
Ibid.,
1:39-75. For a
more
striking
xample
of emotional
possession,
see 1:316-44
(Mrs.
C.
Cameron).
49
Ibid.,
1:39-75. For a
more
striking
xample
of emotional
possession,
see 1:316-44
(Mrs.
C.
Cameron).
1434343
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
loch and his
colleagues
deleted all
such
passages
from the
text;
the
frequent
use of such
expressions
caused them to remove
several
ac-
counts in their entirety.50
There
was no more
characteristic
symbol
of
assurance
in
the nar-
ratives
than the
ability
to
sing
the
Psalms with
freedom,
or,
in
Anne
Wylie's
descriptive
phrase,
a
frame
suitable
to
the
words. One Sab-
bath,
entering
the
kirk,
she heard the
congregation singing
Psalm
34.
She
felt her
heart melted
Down
in
singing
the
verses,
until
she came
to
perceive
that the
Lord was
calling
her. On
another
occasion,
when
entering
the
minister's
manse after
sermon,
she
joined
the
whole com-
pany
there
in
singing
Psalm
103,
in an
extasy
[sic]
of
joy.
Similarly,
Jean
Robe,
just
when she
was
near
the
point
of
despair,
heard
her
mistress
reading
the
Psalms
aloud,
which filled her with
great
joy
at
the
assurance
I
then
got
that I
would be
saved. 51
The
Psalms
played
a
prominent
role
throughout
the
conversion
process,
and
references
to the
spirituality
of
psalm
singing appear
re-
peatedly
in
the
narratives. Several
converts maintained
that
they
had
first
felt the
stirring
of
convictions
during
the
singing
of
psalms.
Thus
Janet
Barry's
initial
awakening
came as she
sat
singing psalms
at
family
prayer, while Margaret Clerk's convictions developed in the kirk, sing-
ing psalms
before
sermon. For
others,
psalm singing
achieved its
effect
later in
their
conversions;
Jean
Robe
experienced
her
greatest
moment
of
spiritual
joy
from
hearing
the
singing
of
psalms
while
spinning
at her
wheel.
Still
others credited their
awakenings
to dreams or visions in
which
psalms
played
a
prominent
role,
for
example,
Mary Colquhon,
who heard an
unstoppable
chorus
of
psalms during
the
night
when
no
one
was
about
without
any
pauses
or breaks or ends.
Jean Wark heard
Psalm
103
sung
in
the
still
of
night, again,
with no one near.
She
described that singing as the sweetest that she ever had heard.52
*
* *
The
prominence
of
psalm singing
in the
Cambuslang
narratives
suggests
much
about the
character of the
lay religious
experience.
First,
it linked
the
revival's
participants firmly
to
regional
and
Presby-
50
Ibid.,
1:125
Alexander
Bilsland),
1:237
Katherine
tuart),
1:185-86
Jean
Robe),
1:338
Mrs.
C.
Cameron),
ee 1:142
AlexanderBilsland),
1:254-81
JeanHay), 1:316-44
(Mrs.
C.
Cameron),
1:475-78
(Michael
Thomson),
and
passim.
51
Ibid.,
1:42 f.
(Anne
Wylie),
1:183-84
(Jean
Robe),
1:596
f.
(Agnes
Young),
and
passim.
52
Ibid.,
2:9-15
(Janet
Barry),
2:447
(Margaret
Clerk),
2:351ff.
(MaryColquhon),
2:480-81
(Jean
Wark),
1:183-84
(Jean Robe);
and
see 1:76
John
McDonald),
1:596-97
(Agnes
Young),
2:158-63
(Daniel
McLartis),
2:541
(Margaret
Borland),
and
passim.
loch and his
colleagues
deleted all
such
passages
from the
text;
the
frequent
use of such
expressions
caused them to remove
several
ac-
counts in their entirety.50
There
was no more
characteristic
symbol
of
assurance
in
the nar-
ratives
than the
ability
to
sing
the
Psalms with
freedom,
or,
in
Anne
Wylie's
descriptive
phrase,
a
frame
suitable
to
the
words. One Sab-
bath,
entering
the
kirk,
she heard the
congregation singing
Psalm
34.
She
felt her
heart melted
Down
in
singing
the
verses,
until
she came
to
perceive
that the
Lord was
calling
her. On
another
occasion,
when
entering
the
minister's
manse after
sermon,
she
joined
the
whole com-
pany
there
in
singing
Psalm
103,
in an
extasy
[sic]
of
joy.
Similarly,
Jean
Robe,
just
when she
was
near
the
point
of
despair,
heard
her
mistress
reading
the
Psalms
aloud,
which filled her with
great
joy
at
the
assurance
I
then
got
that I
would be
saved. 51
The
Psalms
played
a
prominent
role
throughout
the
conversion
process,
and
references
to the
spirituality
of
psalm
singing appear
re-
peatedly
in
the
narratives. Several
converts maintained
that
they
had
first
felt the
stirring
of
convictions
during
the
singing
of
psalms.
Thus
Janet
Barry's
initial
awakening
came as she
sat
singing psalms
at
family
prayer, while Margaret Clerk's convictions developed in the kirk, sing-
ing psalms
before
sermon. For
others,
psalm singing
achieved its
effect
later in
their
conversions;
Jean
Robe
experienced
her
greatest
moment
of
spiritual
joy
from
hearing
the
singing
of
psalms
while
spinning
at her
wheel.
Still
others credited their
awakenings
to dreams or visions in
which
psalms
played
a
prominent
role,
for
example,
Mary Colquhon,
who heard an
unstoppable
chorus
of
psalms during
the
night
when
no
one
was
about
without
any
pauses
or breaks or ends.
Jean Wark heard
Psalm
103
sung
in
the
still
of
night, again,
with no one near.
She
described that singing as the sweetest that she ever had heard.52
*
* *
The
prominence
of
psalm singing
in the
Cambuslang
narratives
suggests
much
about the
character of the
lay religious
experience.
First,
it linked
the
revival's
participants firmly
to
regional
and
Presby-
50
Ibid.,
1:125
Alexander
Bilsland),
1:237
Katherine
tuart),
1:185-86
Jean
Robe),
1:338
Mrs.
C.
Cameron),
ee 1:142
AlexanderBilsland),
1:254-81
JeanHay), 1:316-44
(Mrs.
C.
Cameron),
1:475-78
(Michael
Thomson),
and
passim.
51
Ibid.,
1:42 f.
(Anne
Wylie),
1:183-84
(Jean
Robe),
1:596
f.
(Agnes
Young),
and
passim.
52
Ibid.,
2:9-15
(Janet
Barry),
2:447
(Margaret
Clerk),
2:351ff.
(MaryColquhon),
2:480-81
(Jean
Wark),
1:183-84
(Jean Robe);
and
see 1:76
John
McDonald),
1:596-97
(Agnes
Young),
2:158-63
(Daniel
McLartis),
2:541
(Margaret
Borland),
and
passim.
loch and his
colleagues
deleted all
such
passages
from the
text;
the
frequent
use of such
expressions
caused them to remove
several
ac-
counts in their entirety.50
There
was no more
characteristic
symbol
of
assurance
in
the nar-
ratives
than the
ability
to
sing
the
Psalms with
freedom,
or,
in
Anne
Wylie's
descriptive
phrase,
a
frame
suitable
to
the
words. One Sab-
bath,
entering
the
kirk,
she heard the
congregation singing
Psalm
34.
She
felt her
heart melted
Down
in
singing
the
verses,
until
she came
to
perceive
that the
Lord was
calling
her. On
another
occasion,
when
entering
the
minister's
manse after
sermon,
she
joined
the
whole com-
pany
there
in
singing
Psalm
103,
in an
extasy
[sic]
of
joy.
Similarly,
Jean
Robe,
just
when she
was
near
the
point
of
despair,
heard
her
mistress
reading
the
Psalms
aloud,
which filled her with
great
joy
at
the
assurance
I
then
got
that I
would be
saved. 51
The
Psalms
played
a
prominent
role
throughout
the
conversion
process,
and
references
to the
spirituality
of
psalm
singing appear
re-
peatedly
in
the
narratives. Several
converts maintained
that
they
had
first
felt the
stirring
of
convictions
during
the
singing
of
psalms.
Thus
Janet
Barry's
initial
awakening
came as she
sat
singing psalms
at
family
prayer, while Margaret Clerk's convictions developed in the kirk, sing-
ing psalms
before
sermon. For
others,
psalm singing
achieved its
effect
later in
their
conversions;
Jean
Robe
experienced
her
greatest
moment
of
spiritual
joy
from
hearing
the
singing
of
psalms
while
spinning
at her
wheel.
Still
others credited their
awakenings
to dreams or visions in
which
psalms
played
a
prominent
role,
for
example,
Mary Colquhon,
who heard an
unstoppable
chorus
of
psalms during
the
night
when
no
one
was
about
without
any
pauses
or breaks or ends.
Jean Wark heard
Psalm
103
sung
in
the
still
of
night, again,
with no one near.
She
described that singing as the sweetest that she ever had heard.52
*
* *
The
prominence
of
psalm singing
in the
Cambuslang
narratives
suggests
much
about the
character of the
lay religious
experience.
First,
it linked
the
revival's
participants firmly
to
regional
and
Presby-
50
Ibid.,
1:125
Alexander
Bilsland),
1:237
Katherine
tuart),
1:185-86
Jean
Robe),
1:338
Mrs.
C.
Cameron),
ee 1:142
AlexanderBilsland),
1:254-81
JeanHay), 1:316-44
(Mrs.
C.
Cameron),
1:475-78
(Michael
Thomson),
and
passim.
51
Ibid.,
1:42 f.
(Anne
Wylie),
1:183-84
(Jean
Robe),
1:596
f.
(Agnes
Young),
and
passim.
52
Ibid.,
2:9-15
(Janet
Barry),
2:447
(Margaret
Clerk),
2:351ff.
(MaryColquhon),
2:480-81
(Jean
Wark),
1:183-84
(Jean Robe);
and
see 1:76
John
McDonald),
1:596-97
(Agnes
Young),
2:158-63
(Daniel
McLartis),
2:541
(Margaret
Borland),
and
passim.
1444444
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REVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
EVIVALIST
PREACHING
terian
traditions. Scottish
Presbyterians
had
long
retained
a
steadfastly
conservative
attitude toward
the
Psalms,
allowing
only
the
renditions
in plain meter that had first been adopted in the Scottish Psalter of
1650. In
regional
lore,
the most famous
Presbyterian
martyrs
of cove-
nanting days
were
reputed
to
have died
with
the
Psalms
on
their
lips,
as
in
the
case of the famous
Wigtoun martyrs,
who were
tied
to stakes
in
the
water and drowned
by
the
Solway
tides,
singing
Psalm
25
as
they
perished.53
The
symbolism
of
the Psalms was
important,
for
the metrical
psalms
ranked
with the catechism as
the
two
characteristic
rituals
in
Scotland's
Presbyterian
traditions.
But where
catechizing
was a
pas-
sive
activity
promoted
and
supervised
by
the
ministry,
psalm
singing
was an active
lay
endeavor,
one that
took
place
not
only
in
the
kirk but
also
at home
in
family
prayer
or
in
prayer groups.
There
the
singing
was
led
by laymen
rather
than
clergy.
Psalms could
even be
sung by
oneself,
in
private prayer,
at home or at work.
The
singing
of
psalms
stood
in
opposition
to another
element of
regional
popular
culture,
the secular harvest
song;
several
converts
noted in their
narratives
that
they
had
switched from the
singing
of
harvest ballads and merry songs to psalms as a result of their con-
versions.
The
entire harvest
ritual became
suspect
to
some
narrators;
William
Miller,
for
one,
came to
dread the
approach
of the
harvest,
fearing
that
its
carnality
would
overpower
his convictions
and lead
him
back
to his
former
light
and wanton behavior
while
engaged
at
shearing
with others. Jean Robe
too
feared
the
shearing
ritual
and
the
carnal
discourse
that
accompanied
it.54
The contrast between
the
songs
of the
harvest and
the
singing
of
the
psalms
reflected
a more fundamental transformation
that
occurred
in the west of Scotland in the middle years of the eighteenth century in
the
nature of work and
community.
In
what had
been,
until
recently,
a
homogeneous agricultural region,
the
singing
of harvest
ballads
repre-
sented
an
important
group
activity
that linked the inhabitants of the
area
of all social levels
in a
common
enterprise.
The
sudden
growth
of
weaving changed
much of
that,
as weavers
and
spinners
worked
often
in
isolation from
others
and
established a
separate
set of
community
links.
Those
were evidenced
in
the rise of
the
weaver
and
friendly
53
Millar
Patrick,
Four Centuries
of
Scottish
Psalmody
(London, 1949),
chaps.
8-10;
David
Johnson,
Music and
Society
in Lowland
Scotland
in
the
Eighteenth
Century
(London, 1972),
chaps.
9-10.
54
McCulloch,
1:419
William
Miller),
1:192
Jean Robe),
2:333
(Margaret
Ritchie),
and
2:668-69
(John Parker).
terian
traditions. Scottish
Presbyterians
had
long
retained
a
steadfastly
conservative
attitude toward
the
Psalms,
allowing
only
the
renditions
in plain meter that had first been adopted in the Scottish Psalter of
1650. In
regional
lore,
the most famous
Presbyterian
martyrs
of cove-
nanting days
were
reputed
to
have died
with
the
Psalms
on
their
lips,
as
in
the
case of the famous
Wigtoun martyrs,
who were
tied
to stakes
in
the
water and drowned
by
the
Solway
tides,
singing
Psalm
25
as
they
perished.53
The
symbolism
of
the Psalms was
important,
for
the metrical
psalms
ranked
with the catechism as
the
two
characteristic
rituals
in
Scotland's
Presbyterian
traditions.
But where
catechizing
was a
pas-
sive
activity
promoted
and
supervised
by
the
ministry,
psalm
singing
was an active
lay
endeavor,
one that
took
place
not
only
in
the
kirk but
also
at home
in
family
prayer
or
in
prayer groups.
There
the
singing
was
led
by laymen
rather
than
clergy.
Psalms could
even be
sung by
oneself,
in
private prayer,
at home or at work.
The
singing
of
psalms
stood
in
opposition
to another
element of
regional
popular
culture,
the secular harvest
song;
several
converts
noted in their
narratives
that
they
had
switched from the
singing
of
harvest ballads and merry songs to psalms as a result of their con-
versions.
The
entire harvest
ritual became
suspect
to
some
narrators;
William
Miller,
for
one,
came to
dread the
approach
of the
harvest,
fearing
that
its
carnality
would
overpower
his convictions
and lead
him
back
to his
former
light
and wanton behavior
while
engaged
at
shearing
with others. Jean Robe
too
feared
the
shearing
ritual
and
the
carnal
discourse
that
accompanied
it.54
The contrast between
the
songs
of the
harvest and
the
singing
of
the
psalms
reflected
a more fundamental transformation
that
occurred
in the west of Scotland in the middle years of the eighteenth century in
the
nature of work and
community.
In
what had
been,
until
recently,
a
homogeneous agricultural region,
the
singing
of harvest
ballads
repre-
sented
an
important
group
activity
that linked the inhabitants of the
area
of all social levels
in a
common
enterprise.
The
sudden
growth
of
weaving changed
much of
that,
as weavers
and
spinners
worked
often
in
isolation from
others
and
established a
separate
set of
community
links.
Those
were evidenced
in
the rise of
the
weaver
and
friendly
53
Millar
Patrick,
Four Centuries
of
Scottish
Psalmody
(London, 1949),
chaps.
8-10;
David
Johnson,
Music and
Society
in Lowland
Scotland
in
the
Eighteenth
Century
(London, 1972),
chaps.
9-10.
54
McCulloch,
1:419
William
Miller),
1:192
Jean Robe),
2:333
(Margaret
Ritchie),
and
2:668-69
(John Parker).
terian
traditions. Scottish
Presbyterians
had
long
retained
a
steadfastly
conservative
attitude toward
the
Psalms,
allowing
only
the
renditions
in plain meter that had first been adopted in the Scottish Psalter of
1650. In
regional
lore,
the most famous
Presbyterian
martyrs
of cove-
nanting days
were
reputed
to
have died
with
the
Psalms
on
their
lips,
as
in
the
case of the famous
Wigtoun martyrs,
who were
tied
to stakes
in
the
water and drowned
by
the
Solway
tides,
singing
Psalm
25
as
they
perished.53
The
symbolism
of
the Psalms was
important,
for
the metrical
psalms
ranked
with the catechism as
the
two
characteristic
rituals
in
Scotland's
Presbyterian
traditions.
But where
catechizing
was a
pas-
sive
activity
promoted
and
supervised
by
the
ministry,
psalm
singing
was an active
lay
endeavor,
one that
took
place
not
only
in
the
kirk but
also
at home
in
family
prayer
or
in
prayer groups.
There
the
singing
was
led
by laymen
rather
than
clergy.
Psalms could
even be
sung by
oneself,
in
private prayer,
at home or at work.
The
singing
of
psalms
stood
in
opposition
to another
element of
regional
popular
culture,
the secular harvest
song;
several
converts
noted in their
narratives
that
they
had
switched from the
singing
of
harvest ballads and merry songs to psalms as a result of their con-
versions.
The
entire harvest
ritual became
suspect
to
some
narrators;
William
Miller,
for
one,
came to
dread the
approach
of the
harvest,
fearing
that
its
carnality
would
overpower
his convictions
and lead
him
back
to his
former
light
and wanton behavior
while
engaged
at
shearing
with others. Jean Robe
too
feared
the
shearing
ritual
and
the
carnal
discourse
that
accompanied
it.54
The contrast between
the
songs
of the
harvest and
the
singing
of
the
psalms
reflected
a more fundamental transformation
that
occurred
in the west of Scotland in the middle years of the eighteenth century in
the
nature of work and
community.
In
what had
been,
until
recently,
a
homogeneous agricultural region,
the
singing
of harvest
ballads
repre-
sented
an
important
group
activity
that linked the inhabitants of the
area
of all social levels
in a
common
enterprise.
The
sudden
growth
of
weaving changed
much of
that,
as weavers
and
spinners
worked
often
in
isolation from
others
and
established a
separate
set of
community
links.
Those
were evidenced
in
the rise of
the
weaver
and
friendly
53
Millar
Patrick,
Four Centuries
of
Scottish
Psalmody
(London, 1949),
chaps.
8-10;
David
Johnson,
Music and
Society
in Lowland
Scotland
in
the
Eighteenth
Century
(London, 1972),
chaps.
9-10.
54
McCulloch,
1:419
William
Miller),
1:192
Jean Robe),
2:333
(Margaret
Ritchie),
and
2:668-69
(John Parker).
1454545
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LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
societies,
which
emphasized
a
mutuality
among
members that
ex-
cluded
nonmembers. The
codes
of
discipine
they
adopted-restricting
membership on the basis of occupation, participation, character, and
behavior-further
distinguished
their
membership
from the rest of
the
community.55
Those same artisanal
groups, especially
the
weavers,
had
a
pro-
nounced effect
on
the
popular
culture
of
the
region. They encouraged
the
shift from the
singing
of
harvest ballads
to
the
singing
of
psalms.
They
discouraged participation
in such older
community
rituals as
sheepshearing
and the attendance at
fairs,
substituting
participation
in
select
religious
or
friendly
societies.
That
is well demonstrated in the
case of
John
Parker,
a linen
dyer,
who,
following
his
awakening
at
Cambuslang,
set out on
a
tour of Scotland's
fairs in search of a
wife
whose
companionship
would
free him
from
the
necessity
of
attending
further
carnal
gatherings.
The
weavers
supported
a
shift
in
the
reading
styles
of their members
also,
from stories and
romances
to
more
seri-
ous
religious
material.56
In
their
encouragement
of
literacy
and
religious study,
the weav-
ers
helped promote something
of
a
popular
enlightenment among
tradesmen and urban dwellers in western Scotland. Between 1740 and
1770,
weavers from
Glasgow
and its
environs
were
responsible
for the
publication
or
republication
of scores of
religious
tracts
through
the
mechanism of
private
subscriptions.
They vastly
widened the
range
of
religious
materials available to
the
reading public
as
well,
offering
not
only
Scottish
writings-which
had
predominated
previously
and which
the
Seceders
continued
to
emphasize-but
a
much
larger
body
of
Re-
formed
tracts that
included
many
works
by
English
and
American
ministers and
theologians.
In the
process,
the
populace
of western
Scotland developed a markedly greater awareness of the existence and
the
affairs of allied
religious parties
throughout
the
transatlantic
world.57
55
M'Ewan,
Old
Glasgow
Weavers
(n.
6
above);
Minute
Book,
1738-1832
(n.
6
above);
Minute
Book,
of
the
Weavers
of
Caltoun
and Blackfaulds
n.
20
above);
Durie,
Scottish Linen
Industry
(n.
6
above);
and
Murray,
Scottish
Hand-Loom Weavers
(n.
19
above).
56
Folklorist David
Buchan,
in
The Ballad and the
Folk
(London, 1972),
has
hy-
pothesized
hat
during
he
second
quarter
of
the
eighteenth
century
a marked
eparation
developedbetween Scotland's oral and written cultures.Although
he
bulk of his evi-
dence
is drawn
rom
northeastern
Scotland,
his
analysis
s
compatible
with the
situation
in
the west
of Scotland
as
well. See also
McCulloch,
2:661-80
(JohnParker),
nd
passim.
57
See
Laslett,
Scottish Weavers
(n.
21
above),
along
with the book
subscription
lists in the
collection
of
early Glasgow mprints
n the Mitchell
Library.
There
s
consid-
erable
discussion of
American
affairs in McCulloch
as well as in the
pamphlets
and
societies,
which
emphasized
a
mutuality
among
members that
ex-
cluded
nonmembers. The
codes
of
discipine
they
adopted-restricting
membership on the basis of occupation, participation, character, and
behavior-further
distinguished
their
membership
from the rest of
the
community.55
Those same artisanal
groups, especially
the
weavers,
had
a
pro-
nounced effect
on
the
popular
culture
of
the
region. They encouraged
the
shift from the
singing
of
harvest ballads
to
the
singing
of
psalms.
They
discouraged participation
in such older
community
rituals as
sheepshearing
and the attendance at
fairs,
substituting
participation
in
select
religious
or
friendly
societies.
That
is well demonstrated in the
case of
John
Parker,
a linen
dyer,
who,
following
his
awakening
at
Cambuslang,
set out on
a
tour of Scotland's
fairs in search of a
wife
whose
companionship
would
free him
from
the
necessity
of
attending
further
carnal
gatherings.
The
weavers
supported
a
shift
in
the
reading
styles
of their members
also,
from stories and
romances
to
more
seri-
ous
religious
material.56
In
their
encouragement
of
literacy
and
religious study,
the weav-
ers
helped promote something
of
a
popular
enlightenment among
tradesmen and urban dwellers in western Scotland. Between 1740 and
1770,
weavers from
Glasgow
and its
environs
were
responsible
for the
publication
or
republication
of scores of
religious
tracts
through
the
mechanism of
private
subscriptions.
They vastly
widened the
range
of
religious
materials available to
the
reading public
as
well,
offering
not
only
Scottish
writings-which
had
predominated
previously
and which
the
Seceders
continued
to
emphasize-but
a
much
larger
body
of
Re-
formed
tracts that
included
many
works
by
English
and
American
ministers and
theologians.
In the
process,
the
populace
of western
Scotland developed a markedly greater awareness of the existence and
the
affairs of allied
religious parties
throughout
the
transatlantic
world.57
55
M'Ewan,
Old
Glasgow
Weavers
(n.
6
above);
Minute
Book,
1738-1832
(n.
6
above);
Minute
Book,
of
the
Weavers
of
Caltoun
and Blackfaulds
n.
20
above);
Durie,
Scottish Linen
Industry
(n.
6
above);
and
Murray,
Scottish
Hand-Loom Weavers
(n.
19
above).
56
Folklorist David
Buchan,
in
The Ballad and the
Folk
(London, 1972),
has
hy-
pothesized
hat
during
he
second
quarter
of
the
eighteenth
century
a marked
eparation
developedbetween Scotland's oral and written cultures.Although
he
bulk of his evi-
dence
is drawn
rom
northeastern
Scotland,
his
analysis
s
compatible
with the
situation
in
the west
of Scotland
as
well. See also
McCulloch,
2:661-80
(JohnParker),
nd
passim.
57
See
Laslett,
Scottish Weavers
(n.
21
above),
along
with the book
subscription
lists in the
collection
of
early Glasgow mprints
n the Mitchell
Library.
There
s
consid-
erable
discussion of
American
affairs in McCulloch
as well as in the
pamphlets
and
societies,
which
emphasized
a
mutuality
among
members that
ex-
cluded
nonmembers. The
codes
of
discipine
they
adopted-restricting
membership on the basis of occupation, participation, character, and
behavior-further
distinguished
their
membership
from the rest of
the
community.55
Those same artisanal
groups, especially
the
weavers,
had
a
pro-
nounced effect
on
the
popular
culture
of
the
region. They encouraged
the
shift from the
singing
of
harvest ballads
to
the
singing
of
psalms.
They
discouraged participation
in such older
community
rituals as
sheepshearing
and the attendance at
fairs,
substituting
participation
in
select
religious
or
friendly
societies.
That
is well demonstrated in the
case of
John
Parker,
a linen
dyer,
who,
following
his
awakening
at
Cambuslang,
set out on
a
tour of Scotland's
fairs in search of a
wife
whose
companionship
would
free him
from
the
necessity
of
attending
further
carnal
gatherings.
The
weavers
supported
a
shift
in
the
reading
styles
of their members
also,
from stories and
romances
to
more
seri-
ous
religious
material.56
In
their
encouragement
of
literacy
and
religious study,
the weav-
ers
helped promote something
of
a
popular
enlightenment among
tradesmen and urban dwellers in western Scotland. Between 1740 and
1770,
weavers from
Glasgow
and its
environs
were
responsible
for the
publication
or
republication
of scores of
religious
tracts
through
the
mechanism of
private
subscriptions.
They vastly
widened the
range
of
religious
materials available to
the
reading public
as
well,
offering
not
only
Scottish
writings-which
had
predominated
previously
and which
the
Seceders
continued
to
emphasize-but
a
much
larger
body
of
Re-
formed
tracts that
included
many
works
by
English
and
American
ministers and
theologians.
In the
process,
the
populace
of western
Scotland developed a markedly greater awareness of the existence and
the
affairs of allied
religious parties
throughout
the
transatlantic
world.57
55
M'Ewan,
Old
Glasgow
Weavers
(n.
6
above);
Minute
Book,
1738-1832
(n.
6
above);
Minute
Book,
of
the
Weavers
of
Caltoun
and Blackfaulds
n.
20
above);
Durie,
Scottish Linen
Industry
(n.
6
above);
and
Murray,
Scottish
Hand-Loom Weavers
(n.
19
above).
56
Folklorist David
Buchan,
in
The Ballad and the
Folk
(London, 1972),
has
hy-
pothesized
hat
during
he
second
quarter
of
the
eighteenth
century
a marked
eparation
developedbetween Scotland's oral and written cultures.Although
he
bulk of his evi-
dence
is drawn
rom
northeastern
Scotland,
his
analysis
s
compatible
with the
situation
in
the west
of Scotland
as
well. See also
McCulloch,
2:661-80
(JohnParker),
nd
passim.
57
See
Laslett,
Scottish Weavers
(n.
21
above),
along
with the book
subscription
lists in the
collection
of
early Glasgow mprints
n the Mitchell
Library.
There
s
consid-
erable
discussion of
American
affairs in McCulloch
as well as in the
pamphlets
and
1464646
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7/23/2019 Landsman, Hearers.pdf
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/landsman-hearerspdf 29/31
REVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHINGEVIVALISTPREACHING
The
revival movement
that
began
at
Cambuslang
consisted of one
element in
that
larger
transformation.
Like the other transatlantic
re-
vivals of the eighteenth century, it was initiated by clergymen, both
local and
itinerant,
who
brought
with them the
language
of revivalism
and
the
evangelical style.
Yet their efforts to
bring
about a revival were
largely
unsuccessful
at the outset.
Although
there is
much
evidence
in
the
narratives that
William
McCulloch's
first sermons on
the new
birth
affected
several
of his
hearers
well
before the
outbreak
of
the
revival,
their
reaction most often was to
hide
their
convictions
out
of a
sense of
sinfulness
and
shame.
The minister's
directives,
which
promised
cer-
tain relief
only
in
the
afterlife,
provided
little
consolation.
Only
after
Ingram
More
and his
associates
organized
lay
prayer groups
and
began
their
instructional
program,
offering
the
prospects
of
certainty,
emo-
tional
release,
and
religious
community
in
this
world,
did the revival
begin
to
take
hold.
A
century
earlier,
the
perspectives
of
ministers
and
hearers
in the
west of
Scotland
may
have been closer to one another.
At a time when
the
principal
threat to the
region's
religious
identity
had
come
from
outside,
from an
Episcopal
establishment
that was
almost
devoid
of
local support, Presbyterian ministers had raised the banner of the cove-
nants
against
the innovations and
the innovators.
The
subscription
of
a
covenant was
a
voluntary
act
that linked
ministers
and their hearers
throughout
the
community
in the
common,
godly
cause.
Signs
and
personal
providences
were
employed
as
the
common
property
of
clergy
and
laity, assuring
them of
divine
approbation
of their actions at
a time
when
one's
personal
fate seemed
inexorably
linked to the
larger
struggle.
That
perspective
was continued
by
the
Seceders,
who
railed
against
the innovations and evil
effects
that
they invariably
attributed
to the Union of Parliaments and the English connection. The Seceders
retained the
support
of some
of
the
most influential
of the
long-standing
Presbyterian
families
in
the
Cambuslang
vicinity.5
religious
periodicals
of
1742-45;
see
also Susan
O'Brien,
A Transatlantic
Community
of
Saints:The Great
Awakening
and
the First
Evangelical
Network, 1735-1755,
Ameri-
can Historical Review 91
(1986):
811-32.
58
The
use of
personal
providences
n the
covenanting
ra
is
evident
n
nearly
all
of
the
original
accounts
of
the
period;
see
especially
Fleming,Fulfilling
of
the
Scripture
n.
7 above); Robert Wodrow, History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, 4 vols.
(Edinburgh,
n.d.),
Analectica
(n.
14
above);
and
Walker,
Six
Saints
of
the Covenant
(n.
29
above).
The Seceder
perspective,
inking
Scotland's
roubles o
the
Union,
is
evident
in such works as Ebenezer
Erskine,
The
Standard
of Heaven
lifted
up against
the
Powers of Hell
and their
Auxiliaries,
in Sermons
upon
the Most
Important
and Inter-
esting Subjects,
4 vols.
(Philadelphia,
792),
1:447-511;
ee also Donald
Fraser,
The
Life
The
revival movement
that
began
at
Cambuslang
consisted of one
element in
that
larger
transformation.
Like the other transatlantic
re-
vivals of the eighteenth century, it was initiated by clergymen, both
local and
itinerant,
who
brought
with them the
language
of revivalism
and
the
evangelical style.
Yet their efforts to
bring
about a revival were
largely
unsuccessful
at the outset.
Although
there is
much
evidence
in
the
narratives that
William
McCulloch's
first sermons on
the new
birth
affected
several
of his
hearers
well
before the
outbreak
of
the
revival,
their
reaction most often was to
hide
their
convictions
out
of a
sense of
sinfulness
and
shame.
The minister's
directives,
which
promised
cer-
tain relief
only
in
the
afterlife,
provided
little
consolation.
Only
after
Ingram
More
and his
associates
organized
lay
prayer groups
and
began
their
instructional
program,
offering
the
prospects
of
certainty,
emo-
tional
release,
and
religious
community
in
this
world,
did the revival
begin
to
take
hold.
A
century
earlier,
the
perspectives
of
ministers
and
hearers
in the
west of
Scotland
may
have been closer to one another.
At a time when
the
principal
threat to the
region's
religious
identity
had
come
from
outside,
from an
Episcopal
establishment
that was
almost
devoid
of
local support, Presbyterian ministers had raised the banner of the cove-
nants
against
the innovations and
the innovators.
The
subscription
of
a
covenant was
a
voluntary
act
that linked
ministers
and their hearers
throughout
the
community
in the
common,
godly
cause.
Signs
and
personal
providences
were
employed
as
the
common
property
of
clergy
and
laity, assuring
them of
divine
approbation
of their actions at
a time
when
one's
personal
fate seemed
inexorably
linked to the
larger
struggle.
That
perspective
was continued
by
the
Seceders,
who
railed
against
the innovations and evil
effects
that
they invariably
attributed
to the Union of Parliaments and the English connection. The Seceders
retained the
support
of some
of
the
most influential
of the
long-standing
Presbyterian
families
in
the
Cambuslang
vicinity.5
religious
periodicals
of
1742-45;
see
also Susan
O'Brien,
A Transatlantic
Community
of
Saints:The Great
Awakening
and
the First
Evangelical
Network, 1735-1755,
Ameri-
can Historical Review 91
(1986):
811-32.
58
The
use of
personal
providences
n the
covenanting
ra
is
evident
n
nearly
all
of
the
original
accounts
of
the
period;
see
especially
Fleming,Fulfilling
of
the
Scripture
n.
7 above); Robert Wodrow, History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, 4 vols.
(Edinburgh,
n.d.),
Analectica
(n.
14
above);
and
Walker,
Six
Saints
of
the Covenant
(n.
29
above).
The Seceder
perspective,
inking
Scotland's
roubles o
the
Union,
is
evident
in such works as Ebenezer
Erskine,
The
Standard
of Heaven
lifted
up against
the
Powers of Hell
and their
Auxiliaries,
in Sermons
upon
the Most
Important
and Inter-
esting Subjects,
4 vols.
(Philadelphia,
792),
1:447-511;
ee also Donald
Fraser,
The
Life
The
revival movement
that
began
at
Cambuslang
consisted of one
element in
that
larger
transformation.
Like the other transatlantic
re-
vivals of the eighteenth century, it was initiated by clergymen, both
local and
itinerant,
who
brought
with them the
language
of revivalism
and
the
evangelical style.
Yet their efforts to
bring
about a revival were
largely
unsuccessful
at the outset.
Although
there is
much
evidence
in
the
narratives that
William
McCulloch's
first sermons on
the new
birth
affected
several
of his
hearers
well
before the
outbreak
of
the
revival,
their
reaction most often was to
hide
their
convictions
out
of a
sense of
sinfulness
and
shame.
The minister's
directives,
which
promised
cer-
tain relief
only
in
the
afterlife,
provided
little
consolation.
Only
after
Ingram
More
and his
associates
organized
lay
prayer groups
and
began
their
instructional
program,
offering
the
prospects
of
certainty,
emo-
tional
release,
and
religious
community
in
this
world,
did the revival
begin
to
take
hold.
A
century
earlier,
the
perspectives
of
ministers
and
hearers
in the
west of
Scotland
may
have been closer to one another.
At a time when
the
principal
threat to the
region's
religious
identity
had
come
from
outside,
from an
Episcopal
establishment
that was
almost
devoid
of
local support, Presbyterian ministers had raised the banner of the cove-
nants
against
the innovations and
the innovators.
The
subscription
of
a
covenant was
a
voluntary
act
that linked
ministers
and their hearers
throughout
the
community
in the
common,
godly
cause.
Signs
and
personal
providences
were
employed
as
the
common
property
of
clergy
and
laity, assuring
them of
divine
approbation
of their actions at
a time
when
one's
personal
fate seemed
inexorably
linked to the
larger
struggle.
That
perspective
was continued
by
the
Seceders,
who
railed
against
the innovations and evil
effects
that
they invariably
attributed
to the Union of Parliaments and the English connection. The Seceders
retained the
support
of some
of
the
most influential
of the
long-standing
Presbyterian
families
in
the
Cambuslang
vicinity.5
religious
periodicals
of
1742-45;
see
also Susan
O'Brien,
A Transatlantic
Community
of
Saints:The Great
Awakening
and
the First
Evangelical
Network, 1735-1755,
Ameri-
can Historical Review 91
(1986):
811-32.
58
The
use of
personal
providences
n the
covenanting
ra
is
evident
n
nearly
all
of
the
original
accounts
of
the
period;
see
especially
Fleming,Fulfilling
of
the
Scripture
n.
7 above); Robert Wodrow, History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, 4 vols.
(Edinburgh,
n.d.),
Analectica
(n.
14
above);
and
Walker,
Six
Saints
of
the Covenant
(n.
29
above).
The Seceder
perspective,
inking
Scotland's
roubles o
the
Union,
is
evident
in such works as Ebenezer
Erskine,
The
Standard
of Heaven
lifted
up against
the
Powers of Hell
and their
Auxiliaries,
in Sermons
upon
the Most
Important
and Inter-
esting Subjects,
4 vols.
(Philadelphia,
792),
1:447-511;
ee also Donald
Fraser,
The
Life
1474747
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7/23/2019 Landsman, Hearers.pdf
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/landsman-hearerspdf 30/31
LANDSMANANDSMANANDSMAN
In
the context of
post-Union
Scotland,
such
a defensive
posture
had
only
a limited
appeal
since the
changes
that
were
taking place
in
the west of Scotland seemed to many to derive from within the region
and within their own communities.
Especially
for those involved in
commercial
or artisanal
occupations,
the solution seemed
to
require
an
identification not
with the whole of
the
increasingly
diverse
and
frag-
mented
community
of
western Scotland
but also
with a
distinguishable
religious
element both
within
the
region
and
far
beyond:
those who
shunned
fairs and harvest
rituals for
religious
societies and
family
prayer.
Several narrators
described how
their conversions
had led
them to abandon not
only
their
prior lifestyles
but
their former
com-
rades as well.
The
parish
clergy
were able to offer
the
language
of
religious
conversion
but,
as
parish
clergy, they
were not able
to
supply
either the distinct
identity
or the emotional
certainty
their hearers re-
quired.59
In the
psalm-centered
rituals of the
revival,
evangelical
Presbyteri-
ans
in
western Scotland found
a suitable
symbol
for
resolving
their
sometimes
conflicting loyalties.
They
provided
at
once
an identification
with the
Presbyterian
traditions
of
their
ancestors
and
with the new and
more selective religiosity developing within the artisanal community
and in
important
areas of
the transatlantic world.
Most
important,
within
artisanal
households,
psalm
singing
could
provide
that link on a
great many
occasions:
during lay-sponsored group
activities
such as
religious
societies,
at home
during family
prayer,
or
while
engaged
in
their
increasingly solitary
work
at their
looms
or
at their wheels.
Among
the most
vivid
images
provided
in the
Cambuslang
narratives
is
that
of
the
young
servant
girls
who dominated
the
revival,
the lone
spinners singing
their
psalms
as
they
spun
at their wheels. Janet Jack-
son, after fleeing from Jean Galbraith's questioning out of a sense of
shame,
got
her
first moment
of comfort
reading
the
Bible and
singing
a
psalm
at her wheel.
Catherine
Jackson,
before
the outbreak of
the
revival,
sat
up
all
night spinning
and
singing
so
that she could
attend
William McCulloch's
initial
Thursday
lecture.
And
young
Jean
Robe,
after her master denounced her as distracted
by
her
convictions,
found
and
Diary of
the Reverend
Ebenezer
Erskine
of Stirling (Edinburgh,
1831),
pp.
253-57.
The
Seceders'
continuing
use of
personalprovidences
s evident
from the
controversy
over the publicationof Memoirsof ElizabethCairns(Glasgow,n.d.). For evidence of
some
long-standing
amilieswho
supported
he
Secession,
see Minutesof the Associate
Presbytery
of
Glasgow,
1739-1755,
Scottish Record
Office,
United Societies
MS.
59
McCulloch,
1:149 f.
(George
Tassie),
1:352
f.
(Robert
Barclay),
1:377-78
(John
Hepburn),
1:418
WilliamMiller),
1:420
James
Tenant),
and
passim.
The abandonment
of former
riendsseems to
have
occurred
especiallyamongyoung
men within he artisan
community.
In
the context of
post-Union
Scotland,
such
a defensive
posture
had
only
a limited
appeal
since the
changes
that
were
taking place
in
the west of Scotland seemed to many to derive from within the region
and within their own communities.
Especially
for those involved in
commercial
or artisanal
occupations,
the solution seemed
to
require
an
identification not
with the whole of
the
increasingly
diverse
and
frag-
mented
community
of
western Scotland
but also
with a
distinguishable
religious
element both
within
the
region
and
far
beyond:
those who
shunned
fairs and harvest
rituals for
religious
societies and
family
prayer.
Several narrators
described how
their conversions
had led
them to abandon not
only
their
prior lifestyles
but
their former
com-
rades as well.
The
parish
clergy
were able to offer
the
language
of
religious
conversion
but,
as
parish
clergy, they
were not able
to
supply
either the distinct
identity
or the emotional
certainty
their hearers re-
quired.59
In the
psalm-centered
rituals of the
revival,
evangelical
Presbyteri-
ans
in
western Scotland found
a suitable
symbol
for
resolving
their
sometimes
conflicting loyalties.
They
provided
at
once
an identification
with the
Presbyterian
traditions
of
their
ancestors
and
with the new and
more selective religiosity developing within the artisanal community
and in
important
areas of
the transatlantic world.
Most
important,
within
artisanal
households,
psalm
singing
could
provide
that link on a
great many
occasions:
during lay-sponsored group
activities
such as
religious
societies,
at home
during family
prayer,
or
while
engaged
in
their
increasingly solitary
work
at their
looms
or
at their wheels.
Among
the most
vivid
images
provided
in the
Cambuslang
narratives
is
that
of
the
young
servant
girls
who dominated
the
revival,
the lone
spinners singing
their
psalms
as
they
spun
at their wheels. Janet Jack-
son, after fleeing from Jean Galbraith's questioning out of a sense of
shame,
got
her
first moment
of comfort
reading
the
Bible and
singing
a
psalm
at her wheel.
Catherine
Jackson,
before
the outbreak of
the
revival,
sat
up
all
night spinning
and
singing
so
that she could
attend
William McCulloch's
initial
Thursday
lecture.
And
young
Jean
Robe,
after her master denounced her as distracted
by
her
convictions,
found
and
Diary of
the Reverend
Ebenezer
Erskine
of Stirling (Edinburgh,
1831),
pp.
253-57.
The
Seceders'
continuing
use of
personalprovidences
s evident
from the
controversy
over the publicationof Memoirsof ElizabethCairns(Glasgow,n.d.). For evidence of
some
long-standing
amilieswho
supported
he
Secession,
see Minutesof the Associate
Presbytery
of
Glasgow,
1739-1755,
Scottish Record
Office,
United Societies
MS.
59
McCulloch,
1:149 f.
(George
Tassie),
1:352
f.
(Robert
Barclay),
1:377-78
(John
Hepburn),
1:418
WilliamMiller),
1:420
James
Tenant),
and
passim.
The abandonment
of former
riendsseems to
have
occurred
especiallyamongyoung
men within he artisan
community.
In
the context of
post-Union
Scotland,
such
a defensive
posture
had
only
a limited
appeal
since the
changes
that
were
taking place
in
the west of Scotland seemed to many to derive from within the region
and within their own communities.
Especially
for those involved in
commercial
or artisanal
occupations,
the solution seemed
to
require
an
identification not
with the whole of
the
increasingly
diverse
and
frag-
mented
community
of
western Scotland
but also
with a
distinguishable
religious
element both
within
the
region
and
far
beyond:
those who
shunned
fairs and harvest
rituals for
religious
societies and
family
prayer.
Several narrators
described how
their conversions
had led
them to abandon not
only
their
prior lifestyles
but
their former
com-
rades as well.
The
parish
clergy
were able to offer
the
language
of
religious
conversion
but,
as
parish
clergy, they
were not able
to
supply
either the distinct
identity
or the emotional
certainty
their hearers re-
quired.59
In the
psalm-centered
rituals of the
revival,
evangelical
Presbyteri-
ans
in
western Scotland found
a suitable
symbol
for
resolving
their
sometimes
conflicting loyalties.
They
provided
at
once
an identification
with the
Presbyterian
traditions
of
their
ancestors
and
with the new and
more selective religiosity developing within the artisanal community
and in
important
areas of
the transatlantic world.
Most
important,
within
artisanal
households,
psalm
singing
could
provide
that link on a
great many
occasions:
during lay-sponsored group
activities
such as
religious
societies,
at home
during family
prayer,
or
while
engaged
in
their
increasingly solitary
work
at their
looms
or
at their wheels.
Among
the most
vivid
images
provided
in the
Cambuslang
narratives
is
that
of
the
young
servant
girls
who dominated
the
revival,
the lone
spinners singing
their
psalms
as
they
spun
at their wheels. Janet Jack-
son, after fleeing from Jean Galbraith's questioning out of a sense of
shame,
got
her
first moment
of comfort
reading
the
Bible and
singing
a
psalm
at her wheel.
Catherine
Jackson,
before
the outbreak of
the
revival,
sat
up
all
night spinning
and
singing
so
that she could
attend
William McCulloch's
initial
Thursday
lecture.
And
young
Jean
Robe,
after her master denounced her as distracted
by
her
convictions,
found
and
Diary of
the Reverend
Ebenezer
Erskine
of Stirling (Edinburgh,
1831),
pp.
253-57.
The
Seceders'
continuing
use of
personalprovidences
s evident
from the
controversy
over the publicationof Memoirsof ElizabethCairns(Glasgow,n.d.). For evidence of
some
long-standing
amilieswho
supported
he
Secession,
see Minutesof the Associate
Presbytery
of
Glasgow,
1739-1755,
Scottish Record
Office,
United Societies
MS.
59
McCulloch,
1:149 f.
(George
Tassie),
1:352
f.
(Robert
Barclay),
1:377-78
(John
Hepburn),
1:418
WilliamMiller),
1:420
James
Tenant),
and
passim.
The abandonment
of former
riendsseems to
have
occurred
especiallyamongyoung
men within he artisan
community.
1484848
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REVIVALIST
PREACHING
149
herself humiliated
and
in
great
doubt that she would ever be saved.
But
as she sat
spinning
at her
wheel,
her
mistress sat
spinning
and
reading
the Psalms beside her. One line, Assuredly he shall thee save, came
to her with such
power
that she was filled with
joy
at the
assurance
I
then
got
that
I
would
be saved. She ran out of the
house,
on
an
errand,
to
avoid
ungodly
conversation with her
master,
to
nourish
her
feelings
alone. She
sought
out the
company
of
a
companion
with
whom
she
could share her
feelings
of release from the shame
of
the world.
That
degree
of
assurance
and release came
during psalm
singing
more
often than from
any
other act.60
60
McCulloch,
1:27,
1:33
(Janet Jackson),
1:183-84
(Jean
Robe);
2:265 ff.
(Catherine
Jackson),
1:106
(Elizabeth
Jackson),
and
2:539
(Margaret Borland).
REVIVALIST
PREACHING
149
herself humiliated
and
in
great
doubt that she would ever be saved.
But
as she sat
spinning
at her
wheel,
her
mistress sat
spinning
and
reading
the Psalms beside her. One line, Assuredly he shall thee save, came
to her with such
power
that she was filled with
joy
at the
assurance
I
then
got
that
I
would
be saved. She ran out of the
house,
on
an
errand,
to
avoid
ungodly
conversation with her
master,
to
nourish
her
feelings
alone. She
sought
out the
company
of
a
companion
with
whom
she
could share her
feelings
of release from the shame
of
the world.
That
degree
of
assurance
and release came
during psalm
singing
more
often than from
any
other act.60
60
McCulloch,
1:27,
1:33
(Janet Jackson),
1:183-84
(Jean
Robe);
2:265 ff.
(Catherine
Jackson),
1:106
(Elizabeth
Jackson),
and
2:539
(Margaret Borland).
REVIVALIST
PREACHING
149
herself humiliated
and
in
great
doubt that she would ever be saved.
But
as she sat
spinning
at her
wheel,
her
mistress sat
spinning
and
reading
the Psalms beside her. One line, Assuredly he shall thee save, came
to her with such
power
that she was filled with
joy
at the
assurance
I
then
got
that
I
would
be saved. She ran out of the
house,
on
an
errand,
to
avoid
ungodly
conversation with her
master,
to
nourish
her
feelings
alone. She
sought
out the
company
of
a
companion
with
whom
she
could share her
feelings
of release from the shame
of
the world.
That
degree
of
assurance
and release came
during psalm
singing
more
often than from
any
other act.60
60
McCulloch,
1:27,
1:33
(Janet Jackson),
1:183-84
(Jean
Robe);
2:265 ff.
(Catherine
Jackson),
1:106
(Elizabeth
Jackson),
and
2:539
(Margaret Borland).