We have already been carried forward to the month of May, and as the usual period for observing the communion appears to have been in July, it was to be expected that some farther progress would be contemplated. It is through the gospel that God especially calls sinners. But there must be more than calling--there must be answering.
"When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid; thou hast loosed my bonds." (Ps. 27:8, 116:16) These are sayings of the heart, and may be addressed to God in private: but it is at the Lord's table that they are fully and solemnly said. There, such as can use this language have a seat among the children; there they have to accept of the bread and the cup personally; there they profess to accept of Christ as set forth in these--of Christ as having made an atonement for them--of Christ as their loving and beloved Lord, reigning in them, reigning over them, and reigning for them. The hundreds already converted at Cambuslang must, therefore, have desired greatly such an opportunity as this. And, accordingly, we are told that when it was said to them, "Let us go into the house of the Lord," they were glad. Their prayers and conversation all looked forward to this holy meeting. Many spoke of seeing "the King in his beauty," and many hoped to have their bands loosed--each of these trusting that he might be released at this New Testament feast.
On the 3rd of June, Mr. Whitefield again arrived at Leith; and the impression produced everywhere by this, his second visit to Scotland, was greater than during the first. He began in Edinburgh, but had pressing invitations to visit the west, which was by this time very generally in an excited state, whether from one cause or another. He complied; and on returning to Edinburgh, wrote as follows concerning what he had witnessed: "I arrived here last Saturday evening from the west, where I preached all last week. On Monday, I preached at Paisley; on Tuesday and Wednesday, thrice each day at Irvine; on Thursday, twice at Mearns; on Friday, thrice at Cumbernauld; and on Saturday, twice at Falkirk, on my way back. In every place, there was the greatest commotion among the people that was ever known. Their mourning, in most of the places, was as for a first-born. The auditories were very large, and the work of God seems to be spreading more and more. Indeed, I have seen and felt such things as I never saw and felt before. I never before was enabled to preach so powerfully as I have been whilst in the west. I purpose going to Cambuslang to-morrow, in order to assist at the communion."
Besides Mr. Whitefield and some of the ministers in the neighbourhood of Cambuslang, Mr. Alexander Webster of Edinburgh was present on this occasion, and took part in the interesting services of the week.
It was in these circumstances that the first communion after the commencement of the revival was observed at Cambuslang; and some accounts of it cannot perhaps be better introduced than in the unstudied notice which Whitefield gives of what he himself observed on that occasion. The communion was fixed for Sabbath, the 11th of July; and he is, in the extract to be made, speaking of the proceeding Tuesday: "Yesterday morning, I preached at Glasgow to a very large congregation. At noon, I came to Cambuslang, the place which God hath so much honoured. I preached at two, to a vast body of people; again at six in the evening; and afterwards at nine. Such a commotion was surely never heard of, especially about eleven o'clock at night. It far outdid all that ever I saw in America. For about an hour and a half there was such weeping, so many falling into deep distress, and manifesting it in various ways, that description is impossible. The people seemed to be smitten by scores. They were carried off and brought into the house like wounded soldiers taken from a field of baffle. Their agonies and cries were deeply affecting. Mr. McCulloch preached after I had done, till past one o'clock in the morning, and even then the people could scarcely be got to retire. Throughout the whole of the night might the voice of prayer and praise be still heard in the fields."
On Friday night Mr. Whitefield returned again to Cambuslang, and remained till Monday. And writing on the Thursday following, he says: "On Friday night I came to Cambuslang, to assist at the Blessed Sacrament. On Saturday, I preached to above twenty thousand people. Two tents were set up (for the Sabbath), and the sacrament was administered in the fields. When I began to serve a table, the power of God was felt by numbers; but the people so crowded upon me that I was obliged to leave the tables to be served by some of the other ministers, and to go myself to preach at one of the tents. God was also with them and with his people. There was sermon all day by one or another; and when the table services were over, I preached to the whole congregation, this being at the request of the brethren. I preached about an hour and a half. Surely it was a time much to be remembered. On Monday morning, I preached to nearly as many, but so general a stir I never saw before. The motion passed swift as lightning from one end of the audience to the other. You might have seen thousands bathed in tears, some wringing their hands, some almost swooning, and others crying out and mourning over a pierced Saviour. In the afternoon the concern was also very great. Much prayer had been previously offered up, and. during the whole night, you might have heard the different companies praying and giving praise to God."
This account is very striking, but it is mainly confined to what concerned Mr. Whitefield's own labours. It will, therefore, be gratifying to see what Mr. McCulloch himself says. His letter, detailing what took place, was written on the Wednesday following this communion, and therefore, at a time when every thing must have been fresh upon his mind. It is as follows: "Our glorious Immanuel is still going on to make numerous conquests in this place. It is not quite five months since the work began, and during that time, I have reason to believe that upwards of five hundred souls have been awakened, brought under deep convictions of sin, and a feeling sense of their lost condition. Most of these have also, I trust, been savingly, brought home to God. I do not include in this number such as have been found to be mere pretenders, nor such as have had nothing in their exercise beyond a dread of hell, which, as you know, may never issue in any saving change. There have been some of both classes, but, blessed be God, the number has not been great, so far as I have been able to ascertain. I do not include in this number, either, such as have been awakened by Mr. Whitefield's sermons; because I cannot pretend to compute them. He has been much here. He has preached not fewer than seventeen times during this, his last visit to Scotland. He and Mr. Webster of Edinburgh, as well as others from the neighbourhood, assisted at the dispensation of the Lord's supper here last Lord's--day, and they were also with me on the Saturday and the Monday. Both were much assisted and countenanced in their Master's work. There was also a more than ordinary concern among the people throughout all the services, but especially under Mr. Whitefield's, sermon, which was preached on the Monday. Under it there was great weeping and mourning. The meetings also were very great. On Sabbath, it was reckoned that there could not be fewer than thirty thousand present; but Mr. Whitefield, who has been accustomed to large meetings, estimated them at twenty thousand. The tables were placed below the brae. The whole work was conducted in the open air. There were two tents, and two ministers employed in these all day, except in the evening, when Mr. Whitefield preached to the vast multitude who remained. The number of services was seventeen, and each table, except the last, contained about a hundred, or rather more; and the issue of tokens shows that upwards of seventeen hundred must have communicated. It was, I am persuaded, a blessed time to many; and yet I am hopeful that we shall see and hear of far greater things than these. May the Lord send a plentiful rain to Glasgow, his ancient heritage, whereby multitudes in it may be made to look to him whom they have pierced, and mourn!
"William McCulloch."
It will be observed that in none of these accounts is there any notice of the texts from which so many impressive discourses were delivered. We have not the means of supplying any regular list of these. But we have observed, from references in some of the manuscript cases, that the action sermon, preached by Mr. McCulloch, was from the Song of Solomon 5:16 "His mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, 0 daughters of Jerusalem." And that the sermon preached by Mr. Whitefield on Sabbath evening, was from Isaiah 54:5 " Thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name." The sermon preached from this text has more references to it, as having been blessed to individuals, than any other of all that great man's addresses. It is printed in the first edition of his works, and in the more recent collections of his sermons. But no one can obtain from these publications a correct impression of the sermon as delivered. We have been able to trace the same discourse as delivered in four or five places of the west, not very distant from one another, during the same season. We have seen reason to believe, that his ordinary practice was to adhere to a common outline which had been prepared, but to fill it up variously in different places, as his own feelings and a sense of duty prompted. It was in this way that he secured regularity in his general method and trains of reasoning, and yet gave all the freshness of originality, and all the directness of an immediate appeal to his addresses. Different men have different methods, as they ought, and different circumstances lead to changes even in these, which would not otherwise be advisable; but it is instructive to observe how a man of so much labour, so much eloquence, and who was so much blessed, conducted his discourses.
Some of the details occurring in this and other parts of the narrative may require explanation. These outcries and faintings, it is said, do not look well. Revivals accompanied with exhibitions such as these are not desirable. They ought not to be encouraged. Well, even if it should turn out so, let us first see how the matter stands. It is not alleged, then, be it observed, that there is any virtue in such bodily manifestations. It is not wished that anything should be done for the purpose of promoting these. It is admitted that the demand put forth in the gospel is not, My son, give me thy tears, or thy groaning, or thy fainting, or thy bodily suffering of whatever kind; but, "My son, give me thy heart." These are regarded merely as effects; and it is alleged that as such, there is not in them anything contrary either to reason or Scripture. The mother weeps, and, it may be, faints over the loss of a beloved child; the mercantile adventurer is distracted on hearing of some heavy and overwhelming loss; and the condemned criminal is removed from the bar agitated and convulsed; and is there anything unnatural in the tears, or even in strong bodily agitation on his part, who has just been brought to see that his soul, as well as his body, is in a lost, and, as appears to him, a hopeless condition? Then, every one conversant, with the common sympathies of our nature must be aware how much our feelings, whether of joy or of sorrow, are heightened by the sight and the hearing of others in like circumstances; and it will from this be seen how much of the things observed at Cambuslang must have been owing to the vast concourse of people assembled and to the intensity of the impressions produced. And if we now turn to Scripture, there must surely be something of this kind conveyed in such a passage as the following: "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." (Zech. 22:10.) And it is difficult to conceive of the multitude who heard Peter on the day of Pentecost, otherwise than as resembling the meeting at Cambuslang. Peter's audience, as well as Whitefield's, must have consisted of many thousands. This vast assembly were pricked in their hearts, and cried out, as men who saw themselves lost, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" and not fewer than three thousand found peace under that sermon, and were saved. It is true we are not told of bodily agitations; but this was not to be expected in so brief a history, nor was it necessary, as these are merely the natural effects of such feelings as are here expressed.
But why, say some, have so many sermons and so many preachers, as if to awaken and keep up such excited feelings? Simply because they were found necessary. Men's minds are usually so thoroughly engaged with the things of this world, as to require all that can be done to bring them into a state even of proper concern about their eternal wellbeing. The common feeling is that men require only to be informed on the subjects brought before them. But why, then, was it that, "in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink?" (John 7:37.) Was it not just because of the little interest which they had been taking in his previous teaching, and because of the sense which he had of their condition? And the same thing is true in such circumstances as these under consideration. The saying of our Lord has need to be often repeated and considered: "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful."
But it is the opinion, we know, of some who sympathize with all this, that such gatherings on sacramental occasions are not advisable. Without offering anything controversially on this subject, it is well that we do not shut our eyes on purposes actually served by such meetings. It is of itself an important fact, that most of the remarkable revivals which have occurred in Scotland have been more or lees in connection with these--have been eminently forwarded by them. They have also served the important purpose of extended fellowship among God's people connected with different congregations, and even different parts of the country. In consequence of this intercourse, these were often the means of opening communications between different places, and of promoting the work of God in these. Refreshed by what they heard, and saw, and felt, each little company returned to their own locality; and, in very many cases, their knowledge of each other, their intercourse when brought together in such solemn circumstances, and their opportunities of meeting afterwards, led to the employment of means which would not otherwise have been thought of, and, through these, to the revival of God's work in their own neighbourhood.
It is also to be observed, as regards the number of ministers brought together on such occasions, that the various gifts thus employed, no doubt, contributed to the effects produced. Different men, all excellent in their own way, are nevertheless very differently endowed. Some are fitted to awaken, some to melt, some to comfort, some to lay open the deceitfulness of the heart, some to solve difficult questions, and some to unfold the mysteries of the gospel. These and other gifts are really wanted and hence another reason why greater effects have been experienced on such occasions than under the ordinary ministrations of some one instructor. And perhaps we should add, that there is really a blessing in Christian fellowship, which comes to be greatly more felt when its feelings traverse their usual limits, and bring together, as of one family, many otherwise strangers, or known only by report.
We have been very much struck with the fact observable in Scottish revivals, that the services of the Monday after the communion were usually, more than those of other days, eminently blessed. Livingston, when on his death-bed, said that the only sermons he had ever preached, and which he wished to see written, were preached on the Mondays after communion Sabbath, one at the Kirk of Shotts, and another at Holywood, near Belfast. And the readers of this volume will find many notices of special blessings attending Monday sermons. |