The Cambuslang Revival

We're in the Evangelism Awakening Revival Institutes, and if you'll turn in your handouts to session 13, the Cambuslang Revival, one of the most powerful revivals in the ministry of George Whitfield, occurred in 1742 in Scotland. It became known as the Cambuslang Revival, But this revival had already begun before Whitfield arrived. God seemed pleased to use an unheard of parish minister by the name of William McCulloch.

He was the true human agent of the revival, which began at his church where he was the pastor at Cambuslang. When George Whitfield arrived at his invitation, he simply poured gasoline on the fire. The church could no longer contain the people who were thronging it, so the meetings were moved outdoors to the back of the church down a pathway which led to a stream and some grassy mounds which were later to be referred to as the preaching braes.

It was here on these preaching braes that were witnesses of such a powerful revival under Whitfield's preaching that 30,000 hearers would stand there spellbound at all hours of the night as they were confronted with eternity and the God of that eternity. Whitfield described the remarkable scene in the letter to his wife. My dear love, since I wrote you last, I have seen such things as I've never beheld before.

Yesterday morning I preached at Glasgow to a very large congregation. At noon I came to Cambuslang, at the place which God hath so much honoured. I preached at two, to a vast body of people, and at six in the evening, and again at nine at night.

It far outdid all that I ever saw in America for about an hour and a half, but there was such weeping, so many falling into deep distress and expressing it various ways as is inexpressible. But the people seem to be slain by scores. They are carried off and come into the house like soldiers, wounded in and carried off a field of battle.

Their cries and agonies are exceedingly affecting. Mr. McCulloch preached after I had ended till past one in the morning, and then could scarce persuade them to depart. All night in the fields might be heard the voice of prayer and praise.

Some ladies were found by a gentle woman, praising God at break of day, as she went and joined with them. The Lord is indeed much with me. I have preached twice today already, and am to preach twice, perhaps three times more.

The commotions increase. Well, Whitfield's letter doesn't do the scenes justice, friends. As the whole community was in alarm about their souls, to better understand the revival at Cambuslang, one has to be aware of the pre-existing conditions before the revival.

On the 13th of January, 1740, a great hurricane hit the parish. On the heels of the hurricane there came a weary, famine-stricken months of dreadful hardship. It was such a devastating famine that two thousand persons perished of hunger.

William McCulloch, the pastor of the church at Cambuslang, was not a gifted orator. Despite his above-average scholarship, he had little gift for the pulpit. He was given the nickname of a yill, or ale minister, for when he rose to speak, many of the audience left to quench their thirst in the public house.

But what he lacked in oratory, he made up in the substance of his sermons. He began to preach, searching sermons to promote revival on the heels of the great hurricane. His sermon had a warning in it that a hearer wrote of in his diary.

He preached on that text, where the stormy wind obeys his word, and a sentence he had in his sermon came home to me with a powerful impression on the words, neither the voice of God in the tempest universe, the air, nor in the threatenings of devouring fire and everlasting burnings awaken you. This made me see it was a message sent from God to me. William McCulloch was following the progress of the great awakening under Edwards in Whitfield in New England, and he would read accounts of that revival to his congregation.

He then began to preach a series of messages on the necessity of regeneration. And it was during this time that the fires of revival began to burn in the hearts of the people. He invited George Whitfield to come preach, and soon the entire town was turned upside down in a powerful sweep and revival, but the crowds were enormous and conversions many.

I have traveled to Camp Buslang, and I visited the church, and I've stood on those preaching brays. And it's amazing to picture that incredible scene that eventually grew to 30,000 people alarmed and under conviction of sin. I have provided photos of the church and the preaching brays in my volume two of my biography on Whitfield.

I have an entire chapter devoted to the Camp Buslang revival, which details those days of heaven on earth. If you want more information on that, I'll refer you there. I highly recommend studying revivals like Camp Buslang Scotland to have a better understanding of how God was pleased to move in former times in periods of revival and spiritual awakening, so we can apply those truths today.

It's not our own nation on the heels of one calamity after another, or from floods and fires and earthquakes and pestilence. Should not the churches be preaching revival sermons to awaken their slumbering congregations? Or are we to sleep ourselves? But this ends our session today. We will prepare for session 14.