Landsman, Hearers.pdf

7/23/2019 Landsman, Hearers.pdf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/landsman-hearerspdf 1/31

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 .

Accessed: 24/02/2013 13:59

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The University of Chicago Press and The North American Conference on British Studies are collaborating with

JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of British Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:59:52 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=nacbs


http://www.jstor.org/stable/175592?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp





http://www.jstor.org/stable/175592?origin=JSTOR-pdf



http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress



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

Print

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


Ned Landsman

The

most


historical

nterpreters

f


relationship

between

ideas enunciated

by

religious

leaders

and those

held

by

their hearers.

The

causes of

that

uncertainty

are

obvious;

where


the

former are

plentiful,

sources that

address the latter

are

far more

difficult

o obtain. The

great

majority

of


concerning

ay

religiosity

derives

from

clerical

rather

than

lay

sources,

and most of

it

tells

us

more about

religious


Even

those

rare

accounts

we have that

purport

o

narrate the


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


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


Study

of

Popular

Religion,

in

The Pursuit

of

Holiness in

Late Medieval

and

Renaissance

Religion,

ed.

Charles


(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

Print

and

Collective

Mentality

n

Seventeenth

Century

New

England,

n

New

Direc-

tions in


History,

ed.

John

Higham

and Paul M.

Conkin

(Baltimore,

1979),

pp.

66-81;

and

JohnVan

Engen,

The Christian

Middle

Ages

as a

Historiographic


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


Ned Landsman

The

most


historical

nterpreters

f


relationship

between

ideas enunciated

by

religious

leaders

and those

held

by

their hearers.

The

causes of

that

uncertainty

are

obvious;

where


the

former are

plentiful,

sources that

address the latter

are

far more

difficult

o obtain. The

great

majority

of


concerning

ay

religiosity

derives

from

clerical

rather

than

lay

sources,

and most of

it

tells

us

more about

religious


Even

those

rare

accounts

we have that

purport

o

narrate the


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


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


Study

of

Popular

Religion,

in

The Pursuit

of

Holiness in

Late Medieval

and

Renaissance

Religion,

ed.

Charles


(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

Print

and

Collective

Mentality

n

Seventeenth

Century

New

England,

n

New

Direc-

tions in


History,

ed.

John

Higham

and Paul M.

Conkin

(Baltimore,

1979),

pp.

66-81;

and

JohnVan

Engen,

The Christian

Middle

Ages

as a

Historiographic


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







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


ical

orthodoxy

can

only


either of a

lack of

intellectual

sophistication

on

the

part

of the

laity,

or,

at

best,

of

a

latent

folk

worldview


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


the

laity

was

hearing

that

message

than how

they

heard it. To

date,


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


revivals of the

eighteenth century,

in which


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


the

per-

sonae

and

styles

of the

evangelists,

the

relationship

between social

and

religious

developments

has

remained


Historians

working

from

the


have been led to

virtually

opposite

conclusions,

and the

precise

fit

between

religious

experience

and social

transformation

has

rarely


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,


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


[New


(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


ical

orthodoxy

can

only


either of a

lack of

intellectual

sophistication

on

the

part

of the

laity,

or,

at

best,

of

a

latent

folk

worldview


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


the

laity

was

hearing

that

message

than how

they

heard it. To

date,


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


revivals of the

eighteenth century,

in which


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


the

per-

sonae

and

styles

of the

evangelists,

the

relationship

between social

and

religious

developments

has

remained


Historians

working

from

the


have been led to

virtually

opposite

conclusions,

and the

precise

fit

between

religious

experience

and social

transformation

has

rarely


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,


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


[New


(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







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-


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


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


were all

too

readily

offered. All are


manuscript.

McCulloch's

notebooks

provide

a wealth

of data on

many

aspects

of

religious

life,

and

they

offer an

almost


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



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


lan

(The

Revivals

of

the

Eighteenth

Century,

Particularly

at


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-


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


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


were all

too

readily

offered. All are


manuscript.

McCulloch's

notebooks

provide

a wealth

of data on

many

aspects

of

religious

life,

and

they

offer an

almost


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



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


lan

(The

Revivals

of

the

Eighteenth

Century,

Particularly

at


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







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


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,


accounts

were

necessarily

influenced

by

clerical

interrogations,

we

only

suggest

that

actual

lay

experiences

differed


starkly

than the narratives

portray.

That


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.


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


laymen

for


nimity,

and

many

thousands had

suffered

fines, torture,

imprisonment,

and


for

their

fidelity

to


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


and

hearers

could

come to hold such

sharply

diverging

views

of the

religious

experience,

and

that

converts could

create such


of

conversion,

further

suggests

the need

to

explore

lay

involvement 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


in

Scotland,

1630-1760

(Past

and

Present,

no.

96

[1982],

pp.

81-102),

and

more

advisedly

in

Scottish

Literacy

and the

Scottish


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


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,


accounts

were

necessarily

influenced

by

clerical

interrogations,

we

only

suggest

that

actual

lay

experiences

differed


starkly

than the narratives

portray.

That


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.


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


laymen

for


nimity,

and

many

thousands had

suffered

fines, torture,

imprisonment,

and


for

their

fidelity

to


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


and

hearers

could

come to hold such

sharply

diverging

views

of the

religious

experience,

and

that

converts could

create such


of

conversion,

further

suggests

the need

to

explore

lay

involvement 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


in

Scotland,

1630-1760

(Past

and

Present,

no.

96

[1982],

pp.

81-102),

and

more

advisedly

in

Scottish

Literacy

and the

Scottish


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








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.


had

long occupied

themselves

predomi-

nantly

in

agricultural

pursuits,

but

early

in the

eighteenth

century,


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


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


half

the

inhabitants of

the

parish.6

The second

quarter

of the

eighteenth

century

marked

an

equally


southwest


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-


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.,


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


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


1669).

The

religious

situation

n

Scotland

during

he

Civil

War


many

imes,

most

recently by

Ian

Cowan,

The

Scottish

Covenanters,

1660-1688

(London,

1976);

also see

Fawcett

for

background

bout

Cambuslang.

history.


had

long occupied

themselves

predomi-

nantly

in

agricultural

pursuits,

but

early

in the

eighteenth

century,


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


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


half

the

inhabitants of

the

parish.6

The second

quarter

of the

eighteenth

century

marked

an

equally


southwest


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-


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.,


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


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


1669).

The

religious

situation

n

Scotland

during

he

Civil

War


many

imes,

most

recently by

Ian

Cowan,

The

Scottish

Covenanters,

1660-1688

(London,

1976);

also see

Fawcett

for

background

bout

Cambuslang.

1242424







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


southwest,

the initial

impact

of moderatism


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


practices,

formed

a

separate

Seces-

sion


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


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


the American

Great

Awakening,

to

visit Scotland

and

preach

in their

meetings.

Whitefield traveled

north,


his

efforts

to

the

Seceder

churches,

which led to

a

breach

with his hosts.

Instead,

Whitefield

preached

in

meetinghouses

of

the national

church,

whose


from

losing


In the fall of

1741,

Whitefield

delivered

a

series of sermons

in

Glasgow,

attended

by

persons

from all

over

the

region.

There,


in

England

and

America,

his

orations led

many

hearers

into

religious

concern

and

conversion.9

The

indirect effects


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

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


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


9

The

following


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


southwest,

the initial

impact

of moderatism


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


practices,

formed

a

separate

Seces-

sion


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


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


the American

Great

Awakening,

to

visit Scotland

and

preach

in their

meetings.

Whitefield traveled

north,


his

efforts

to

the

Seceder

churches,

which led to

a

breach

with his hosts.

Instead,

Whitefield

preached

in

meetinghouses

of

the national

church,

whose


from

losing


In the fall of

1741,

Whitefield

delivered

a

series of sermons

in

Glasgow,

attended

by

persons

from all

over

the

region.

There,


in

England

and

America,

his

orations led

many

hearers

into

religious

concern

and

conversion.9

The

indirect effects


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

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


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


9

The

following


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








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


subject

of

conversion-the

new


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


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


parishes

in

the

shires of


and Ross. Yet

its

great-

est

impact

was

always

in and

around

Cambuslang.

In

July

of

1742,

McCulloch held a


in

the

parish,

and

he invited

Whitefield and


for

a

three-day

marathon of

preaching. Many


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


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


Cambuslang

nor its

intensity

had been

matched

anywhere

that he had

been.

0

*

* *


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


subject

of

conversion-the

new


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


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


parishes

in

the

shires of


and Ross. Yet

its

great-

est

impact

was

always

in and

around

Cambuslang.

In

July

of

1742,

McCulloch held a


in

the

parish,

and

he invited

Whitefield and


for

a

three-day

marathon of

preaching. Many


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


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


Cambuslang

nor its

intensity

had been

matched

anywhere

that he had

been.

0

*

* *


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







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,


Kilsyth,

published

a

book-length

narrative of the

revival,

and

more than a

dozen other


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


McCulloch.

The

pastor's

role in

those

affairs went

far

beyond

preaching;

none

were


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


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


tional in

Scottish


clergymen

in that

country

were


they


instruction and


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


by

the

minister before

being accepted

back

into

the kirk. Scottish

and

Scots-Irish

clergymen

on

the other


equally


doctrinal

knowledge

and

clerical


cornerstones of

their

evangelical

practices.12

William

McCulloch

emerges

as

a

particularly

influential

figure

in


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


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,


Kilsyth,

published

a

book-length

narrative of the

revival,

and

more than a

dozen other


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


McCulloch.

The

pastor's

role in

those

affairs went

far

beyond

preaching;

none

were


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


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


tional in

Scottish


clergymen

in that

country

were


they


instruction and


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


by

the

minister before

being accepted

back

into

the kirk. Scottish

and

Scots-Irish

clergymen

on

the other


equally


doctrinal

knowledge

and

clerical


cornerstones of

their

evangelical

practices.12

William

McCulloch

emerges

as

a

particularly

influential

figure

in


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


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








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-


his


they

would emulate

the

American

example.

For

nearly

a

year

he

preached

exclusively

on


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


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


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


vate

about the

necessity

of

conversion,



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


portrayal

of

the

charismatic

evangelist. During

the

early days

of his

ministry,

be-

fore

arriving

in

Cambuslang,

McCulloch visited

the

eminent

Presbyte-


out

his insecurities

about his


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


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,


of the

elders,


persons

were also

disrupting

the

service. Far

from

objecting

to the

interruption,

McCul-


his


they

would emulate

the

American

example.

For

nearly

a

year

he

preached

exclusively

on


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


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


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


vate

about the

necessity

of

conversion,



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


portrayal

of

the

charismatic

evangelist. During

the

early days

of his

ministry,

be-

fore

arriving

in

Cambuslang,

McCulloch visited

the

eminent

Presbyte-


out

his insecurities

about his


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


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,


of the

elders,


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








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.


not to stifle their

feelings,

but to

encourage

them.14


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


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


since

McCulloch had

long

before demonstrated

that he was more

than

eager

to

preach

conversion to

the

congregation

at

almost

any

opportunity.

At

the


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


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


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,


them from the

meeting-

house

right

in the middle

of

the

sermon.

They

were

taken

into

a

sepa-

rate



began

to

cry

out,

they

too were

carried

out of


side

chamber. There

those

under

spiritual

distress were

organized

into

prayer

meetings,

led

by persons

whom More

and Bowman

appointed.


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,


which

persons

were

14

Robert

Wodrow,

Analectica;

or Materials

for

a

History of

Remarkable

Provi-

dences;

Mostly Relating


Christians,

4 vols.

(Edinburgh,

1842),


1:86


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.


not to stifle their

feelings,

but to

encourage

them.14


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


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


since

McCulloch had

long

before demonstrated

that he was more

than

eager

to

preach

conversion to

the

congregation

at

almost

any

opportunity.

At

the


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


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


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,


them from the

meeting-

house

right

in the middle

of

the

sermon.

They

were

taken

into

a

sepa-

rate



began

to

cry

out,

they

too were

carried

out of


side

chamber. There

those

under

spiritual

distress were

organized

into

prayer

meetings,

led

by persons

whom More

and Bowman

appointed.


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,


which

persons

were

14

Robert

Wodrow,

Analectica;

or Materials

for

a

History of

Remarkable

Provi-

dences;

Mostly Relating


Christians,

4 vols.

(Edinburgh,

1842),


1:86


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








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.


taken instead

to a

private

house

for instruction

by

one

of

the elders

or

by

Jean


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


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-


those

converts,

regeneration

was

something

to

be worked out

substantially

within their own


they

needed

counsel,

they

went most often

to friends

and relatives or


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.


Although

in the next

century,

Scotland's

handloom weavers

acquired

the

reputation

of

a

downtrodden

group,


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,


were

even able to

marry

and start


age.19

The weavers of the

Glasgow region

were

an active

and

confident

group.

As their


they

took

the lead

in

the forma-

tion of

friendly

societies

devoted to mutual


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.


taken instead

to a

private

house

for instruction

by

one

of

the elders

or

by

Jean


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


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-


those

converts,

regeneration

was

something

to

be worked out

substantially

within their own


they

needed

counsel,

they

went most often

to friends

and relatives or


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.


Although

in the next

century,

Scotland's

handloom weavers

acquired

the

reputation

of

a

downtrodden

group,


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,


were

even able to

marry

and start


age.19

The weavers of the

Glasgow region

were

an active

and

confident

group.

As their


they

took

the lead

in

the forma-

tion of

friendly

societies

devoted to mutual


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








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-


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


In

Glasgow's

Barony

parish,


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


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-


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


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-


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


In

Glasgow's

Barony

parish,


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


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-


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


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








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


origins

we

can

trace were

the

wives, sons,

daughters,

or servants of

artisanal

families,

those

we


tives

of those

young

persons,

such as

those

of the

Jackson

sisters,

give

abundant

evidence of


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


reflect

on the Bible

directly,

rather

than to listen so

closely

to the

words of men.

What

they

found

in


an

experience

that

was

lay-centered


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

Bowman



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


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.


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


at

the end of vol.

1-

describes

the

social

origins

of almost

all of

the narrators

n the

second

vol.

The

index to

vol.


2-provides

some additional

nformation,

and the

occupations


an

be discerned

rom


sixty-


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)


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


origins

we

can

trace were

the

wives, sons,

daughters,

or servants of

artisanal

families,

those

we


tives

of those

young

persons,

such as

those

of the

Jackson

sisters,

give

abundant

evidence of


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


reflect

on the Bible

directly,

rather

than to listen so

closely

to the

words of men.

What

they

found

in


an

experience

that

was

lay-centered


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

Bowman



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


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.


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


at

the end of vol.

1-

describes

the

social

origins

of almost

all of

the narrators

n the

second

vol.

The

index to

vol.


2-provides

some additional

nformation,

and the

occupations


an

be discerned

rom


sixty-


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)


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







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


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,


suddenly

darted nto her

mind and

showed

her

a

way

to salvation.

She

thought

she heard the

Lord

say


with her

through

ire

and

water,


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


n

the

narratives,

and McCulloch


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,


trembling


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,


her

head:

Tho


more.24

Those

voices

impressed

the converts

with

their

power.

For six

weeks

following

her initial


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,


by

Whitefield

n

Glasgow,

heard

the

words,

Thou art a

chosen vessel unto

me,

come into

her mindwith

greater


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


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,


suddenly

darted nto her

mind and

showed

her

a

way

to salvation.

She

thought

she heard the

Lord

say


with her

through

ire

and

water,


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


n

the

narratives,

and McCulloch


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,


trembling


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,


her

head:

Tho


more.24

Those

voices

impressed

the converts

with

their

power.

For six

weeks

following

her initial


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,


by

Whitefield

n

Glasgow,

heard

the

words,

Thou art a

chosen vessel unto

me,

come into

her mindwith

greater


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








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


Then

he

heard

the


more

forceful than

any

man

on

Earth

could

speak.

That

calmed his

fears

and

led him

to

a

moment of

joyous

celebration.25

Strikingly,


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


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


After

hearing

McCulloch

preach

on the

subject

of

the

new

birth in

February

of

1742,

Margaret

Skene,


twenty-three,

was

unable

to

work, eat,

or

sleep

for

a

period

of seven weeks. She

perceived

herself


listened to

McCulloch's

sermon,

the

following

words,

not mentioned in

the

lecture,

came into


loving

kindness,

which she took to

be

directed


stayed only

briefly,

and

soon


despair.

Then,

one

night

at her

home,

the

young

woman

saw a flash of

fire

on the

Brae

which

I

took

to be


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


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


in

premoni-

tions.

Such

a


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


Then

he

heard

the


more

forceful than

any

man

on

Earth

could

speak.

That

calmed his

fears

and

led him

to

a

moment of

joyous

celebration.25

Strikingly,


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


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


After

hearing

McCulloch

preach

on the

subject

of

the

new

birth in

February

of

1742,

Margaret

Skene,


twenty-three,

was

unable

to

work, eat,

or

sleep

for

a

period

of seven weeks. She

perceived

herself


listened to

McCulloch's

sermon,

the

following

words,

not mentioned in

the

lecture,

came into


loving

kindness,

which she took to

be

directed


stayed only

briefly,

and

soon


despair.

Then,

one

night

at her

home,

the

young

woman

saw a flash of

fire

on the

Brae

which

I

took

to be


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


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


in

premoni-

tions.

Such

a


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








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


of

Cambuslang

lived much

in fear

of

losing

his convictions

and

falling


ways,

until one

night


taken

up

into heaven.

The next

morning,

some words

from Psalm 107

about

being

taken

up

into

heaven,


fears. And


Glasgow,

a man

of

forty-seven,

heard

the


Lord

delivering

him from the

hands

of his

enemies,

come into his

mind

with

great

force,

followed

by

a

passage


hour,

his

family

received news

about

a

British

victory

in

battle,

which

he

took to be a


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


of

the

Scripture

had

been

devoted

to

providing


divine

plan

to

establish


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-


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


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),


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


of

Cambuslang

lived much

in fear

of

losing

his convictions

and

falling


ways,

until one

night


taken

up

into heaven.

The next

morning,

some words

from Psalm 107

about

being

taken

up

into

heaven,


fears. And


Glasgow,

a man

of

forty-seven,

heard

the


Lord

delivering

him from the

hands

of his

enemies,

come into his

mind

with

great

force,

followed

by

a

passage


hour,

his

family

received news

about

a

British

victory

in

battle,

which

he

took to be a


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


of

the

Scripture

had

been

devoted

to

providing


divine

plan

to

establish


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-


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


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),


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








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


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


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,


the

words,

In

midst of

thee there shall

not be

any

strangegod

at

all,

30


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


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


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,


the

words,

In

midst of

thee there shall

not be

any

strangegod

at

all,

30


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








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


she

had

wrongly

come to

idolize

her

minister.33


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


The


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,


state.

Before the revival

began,


his

congregation.

On at

least one

occasion,

he

echoed

Jonathan

Ed-


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


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-


couraged

their hearers

to

fear Hell

with little effect.

Indeed,

in several

places

in the

manuscript,

we find the rather

surprising

spectacle

of

converts


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


she

had

wrongly

come to

idolize

her

minister.33


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


The


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,


state.

Before the revival

began,


his

congregation.

On at

least one

occasion,

he

echoed

Jonathan

Ed-


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


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-


couraged

their hearers

to

fear Hell

with little effect.

Indeed,

in several

places

in the

manuscript,

we find the rather

surprising

spectacle

of

converts


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








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.


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,


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


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


something

mminent.

Thus Robert Shearer


sense

of divine

wrath

for


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


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


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


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


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.


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,


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


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


something

mminent.

Thus Robert Shearer


sense

of divine

wrath

for


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


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


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


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


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







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


well

with

clerical

prescriptions

and

might


directly


editors never

questioned

such

expressions

in

the

narratives-except

that their hearers

extended

the

concept

in

some

rather

unexpected


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


anyone,

lest

everyone

know

what a

great

sinner I

was. 39

The

sense

of


by

those


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


men and women.


only

to their

spiritual

states but to

their

positions

in this world


tried to

impress

on


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


and

self-worth,

which would seem

to

have been

quite

at

odds


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


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


tives as well.

Thus

Anne

Wylie,

who had

always

sought

to

convey

a

shame.

Such

expressions

of

sinfulness


well

with

clerical

prescriptions

and

might


directly


editors never

questioned

such

expressions

in

the

narratives-except

that their hearers

extended

the

concept

in

some

rather

unexpected


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


anyone,

lest

everyone

know

what a

great

sinner I

was. 39

The

sense

of


by

those


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


men and women.


only

to their

spiritual

states but to

their

positions

in this world


tried to

impress

on


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


and

self-worth,

which would seem

to

have been

quite

at

odds


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


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


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


39

Ibid.,

1:40 ff.

(Anne

Wylie),

1:26-27

(Janet

Jackson).

40

Ibid.,

2:265-96


1393939








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


master. She

later feared

that her


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-


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,


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


master. She

later feared

that her


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-


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,


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







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


literacy,

sobriety,

mutuality,

and

assertiveness.

Janet Struthers was


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


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


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,


with

the


Michael

Thomson,

an artisan's

apprentice,

decided

that

he

should

reform his

behavior,

lest

it

prove

a

blott

on

my


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,


without

paying

any

attention to

her,

feeling


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


literacy,

sobriety,

mutuality,

and

assertiveness.

Janet Struthers was


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


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


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,


with

the


Michael

Thomson,

an artisan's

apprentice,

decided

that

he

should

reform his

behavior,

lest

it

prove

a

blott

on

my


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,


without

paying

any

attention to

her,

feeling


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








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


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


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


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


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


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


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








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,


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


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


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


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


Bilsland of

Glasgow

believed that

during

the course of his

conversion

he

had learned how

to

distinguish

the


of

the

devil,

when either

gave

him

orders,


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


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,


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


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


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


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


Bilsland of

Glasgow

believed that

during

the course of his

conversion

he

had learned how

to

distinguish

the


of

the

devil,

when either

gave

him

orders,


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


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








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


several

ac-


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


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,


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


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


awakenings


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


*

* *

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


several

ac-


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


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,


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


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


awakenings


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


*

* *

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







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


Presbyterians

had

long

retained

a

steadfastly

conservative

attitude toward

the

Psalms,

allowing

only

the

renditions


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


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


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


too

feared

the

shearing

ritual

and

the

carnal

discourse

that

accompanied

it.54


the

songs

of the

harvest and

the

singing

of

the

psalms

reflected


that

occurred


the

nature of work and

community.

In

what had

been,

until

recently,

a


the

singing

of harvest

ballads

repre-

sented

an

important

group

activity


area


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


Presbyterians

had

long

retained

a

steadfastly

conservative

attitude toward

the

Psalms,

allowing

only

the

renditions


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


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


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


too

feared

the

shearing

ritual

and

the

carnal

discourse

that

accompanied

it.54


the

songs

of the

harvest and

the

singing

of

the

psalms

reflected


that

occurred


the

nature of work and

community.

In

what had

been,

until

recently,

a


the

singing

of harvest

ballads

repre-

sented

an

important

group

activity


area


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








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


behavior-further

distinguished

their

membership

from the rest of

the

community.55


groups, especially

the

weavers,

had

a

pro-

nounced effect

on

the

popular

culture

of

the


the

shift from the

singing

of

harvest ballads

to

the

singing

of

psalms.

They


in such older

community

rituals as

sheepshearing


fairs,

substituting

participation

in

select

religious

or

friendly

societies.

That


case of

John

Parker,

a linen

dyer,

who,

following

his

awakening

at

Cambuslang,

set out on

a

tour of Scotland's


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


of

a

popular

enlightenment among


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


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


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


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


n the Mitchell

Library.

There

s

consid-

erable

discussion of

American


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


behavior-further

distinguished

their

membership

from the rest of

the

community.55


groups, especially

the

weavers,

had

a

pro-

nounced effect

on

the

popular

culture

of

the


the

shift from the

singing

of

harvest ballads

to

the

singing

of

psalms.

They


in such older

community

rituals as

sheepshearing


fairs,

substituting

participation

in

select

religious

or

friendly

societies.

That


case of

John

Parker,

a linen

dyer,

who,

following

his

awakening

at

Cambuslang,

set out on

a

tour of Scotland's


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


of

a

popular

enlightenment among


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


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


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


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


n the Mitchell

Library.

There

s

consid-

erable

discussion of

American


as well as in the

pamphlets

and

1464646








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.


re-


local and

itinerant,

who

brought

with them the

language

of revivalism

and

the

evangelical style.


bring


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


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


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


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


effects

that

they invariably

attributed


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-


(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.


(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


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.


re-


local and

itinerant,

who

brought

with them the

language

of revivalism

and

the

evangelical style.


bring


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


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


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


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


effects

that

they invariably

attributed


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-


(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.


(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


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








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



Especially


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


a suitable

symbol

for

resolving

their

sometimes


They

provided

at

once

an identification

with the

Presbyterian

traditions

of

their

ancestors

and

with the new and


and in

important

areas of


Most

important,

within

artisanal

households,

psalm

singing

could

provide

that link on a

great many

occasions:


activities

such as

religious

societies,

at home

during family

prayer,

or

while

engaged

in

their


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



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,


by

her

convictions,

found

and

Diary of

the Reverend

Ebenezer

Erskine


1831),

pp.

253-57.

The

Seceders'

continuing

use of

personalprovidences

s evident

from the

controversy


some

long-standing

amilieswho

supported

he

Secession,


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



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



Especially


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


a suitable

symbol

for

resolving

their

sometimes


They

provided

at

once

an identification

with the

Presbyterian

traditions

of

their

ancestors

and

with the new and


and in

important

areas of


Most

important,

within

artisanal

households,

psalm

singing

could

provide

that link on a

great many

occasions:


activities

such as

religious

societies,

at home

during family

prayer,

or

while

engaged

in

their


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



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,


by

her

convictions,

found

and

Diary of

the Reverend

Ebenezer

Erskine


1831),

pp.

253-57.

The

Seceders'

continuing

use of

personalprovidences

s evident

from the

controversy


some

long-standing

amilieswho

supported

he

Secession,


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



community.

1484848







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


But

as she sat

spinning

at her

wheel,

her

mistress sat

spinning

and

reading


to her with such

power


joy

at the

assurance

I

then

got

that

I

would


house,

on

an

errand,

to

avoid

ungodly


master,

to

nourish

her

feelings

alone. She

sought

out the

company

of

a

companion

with

whom

she

could share her

feelings


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


But

as she sat

spinning

at her

wheel,

her

mistress sat

spinning

and

reading


to her with such

power


joy

at the

assurance

I

then

got

that

I

would


house,

on

an

errand,

to

avoid

ungodly


master,

to

nourish

her

feelings

alone. She

sought

out the

company

of

a

companion

with

whom

she

could share her

feelings


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).

Landsman, Hearers.pdf

Documents