Glory in the Glen

A History of Evangelical Revivals in Scotland 1880–1940

Tom Lennie

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781781916483

Part One

GLORY FILLED THE LAND

In this dear land, in days of yore,

God moved in mighty power.

His Word He blessed, and souls found rest

When Scotland was on fire.

Once more, Lord, once more,

As in the days of yore.

On this dear land Thy Spirit pour,

Set Scotland now on fire! ¹

Introduction

THE Church in Scotland at the start of the 1880s was in a state of flux. The Established Church had made up some ground in the forty years since the mass exit from its ranks in the Disruption of 1843, although throughout the Highlands the Free Church retained the allegiance of the vast majority of inhabitants. But the Presbyterian Church faced a number of problems – particularly the steady erosion of Calvinism, the theological structure that had undergirded Scottish Presbyterianism since the Reformation. Certainly Arminianism had made its unwelcome presence north of the border ever since John Wesley’s first visit in 1751. But the filtering of Finney’s revivalist techniques from the late 1830s, along with the rise of lay preaching that attended the 1859–61 revival, led to Arminianism making more serious inroads on Calvinism.

The strongest blow of all came with Moody’s campaign in the 1870s. Though claiming to be essentially a Calvinist, much of his methodology came from the New School of theology. Although he still taught the necessity of repentance, gone was the hell-fire preaching for which Scottish evangelists were renowned. In its place were shorter sermons with a warm appeal to come to a loving Saviour, and emphasis on assurance of salvation through faith and the certainty and joyousness of heaven as a result. In addition, Moody helped give the doctrine of universal atonement a wide appeal where it previously never had such. He also made use of inquiry rooms and emphasised ‘immediate salvation’. Each of these features was hugely controversial, and John Kennedy of Dingwall went as far as claiming that Moody’s message constituted ‘another gospel’. But each feature was nevertheless to become more frequently employed in the Scottish Church in the years ahead.

Similarly, while ‘human hymns’ had been the source of heated debate in Presbyterian circles for some time, the popularity of Sankey’s hymns was a leading factor in their widespread acceptance in Presbyterian worship. Likewise his use of a ‘kist of whistles’ proved to be hugely popular wherever he travelled, and just two years after his Scottish visit the Established Church gave its formal sanction to the use of the organ in public worship, while by 1880 organs were being installed in most Presbyterian churches. The enduring results of the Americans’ visit were therefore very considerable.

Presbyterianism was also facing growing competition from all sides. The Baptists, previously a small and uninfluential group, were becoming increasingly popular and respectable, and they exerted a strong evangelistic thrust in the late Victorian period. Equally vigorous in outreach was the Brethren, who had gained huge ground through the revivals of 1859–61 and 1873–4 and who continued to labour tirelessly for new recruits. Other groups rearing their heads in the closing decades of the nineteenth century were the Salvation Army and the Faith Mission, while, in the early years of the following century, a string of Pentecostal groups began to appear. All were fervently evangelistic.

Each group found the going tough, for there appeared a growing disinterest on behalf of the public generally. For one thing, increased opportunities for educational betterment resulted in improvements in literacy, and the combined effect of these was more independent and critical reasoning. The popularising of Darwin’s theory of evolution and its discussion in the Press and popular literature was another source of growing mistrust in a plenarily inspired interpretation of Scripture. Added to this was the strengthening of geological understanding that the earth’s creation could hardly be explained in terms of the literal seven-day period assumed in Genesis. Another major cause for concern was developments in biblical scholarship. The discipline of Higher Criticism had, by the late 1800s, largely undermined the fundamental belief that the Bible was a single inspired text to be recognised as the inerrant word of God. Advances in other disciplines, too, such as anthropology, psychology and comparative religions, all served to cast doubt upon standard evangelical beliefs.

Other explanations suggested for increasing apathy towards the Church were the controversial system of pew rents, which discouraged those on low pay, and, for those living in cities, the general conditions of urban life, where poor housing, poverty and alcohol addiction left families feeling too demoralised to even desire any association with Church, whose congregations and ministers were in any case predominantly from the middle classes. Drinking was seen by the Churches as the main cause of poverty and crime among the lower classes. Though vigorous campaigns by the Church and some secular groups helped to dramatically curb the level of alcohol consumption by the 1860s, drinking remained a substantial problem in Scotland. Temperance societies became prolific; the Band of Hope, which had both a secular and religious face, had only seven branches in 1871. By 1887 this had increased to 570, and to 700 (and 147,000 members) by 1908.

A further reason for increased disassociation from Church was the extra leisure time that increased prosperity brought. Cinema, theatre and music halls were all gaining appeal around this time, while the working class amusements of football and dancing became a central focus of attack. Football had already attracted a massive following from the late 1870s, and, as the ‘new opiate of the people’, was especially frowned upon, probably because it created the same quasi-religious feelings of enthusiasm and loyalty that the faithful felt ought to be directed solely to the Church.

It is important to remember, however, that most of the concerns so far discussed led to a gradual ebbing away of church attendance rather than a sudden landslide. In fact, Church statistician Dr Peter Brierley has estimated that overall church adherence, based on membership or active involvement together with Sunday school attendance, all relative to population, reached its peak as late as 1905.² At that point over half the Scottish population belonged to some Christian body.

In fact there existed great optimism among evangelicals, especially during the first half of our period of study. The religious excitement created by the 1859–61 revival, with its resulting swathes of conversions, served to engender confidence and enthusiasm. This, combined with the recent obvious success of the Moody campaign, led to a proliferation of lay evangelists making repeated preaching tours around the country during the latter part of the nineteenth century and into the early decades of the twentieth. There was a great pervasive longing to capture something of the magic of the ‘golden days’ of 1859 and 1874. Revivalism, with its reliance on methods and its appeal to the emotions, had become a mighty force. But while to many this suggested a healthy religious condition, in truth it was a determined attempt to combat increasing indifference to the Church from the populace at large.

What is generally overlooked in regard to this era is that, although revivalist forces had become the new, popular and easier way to pull in converts, the old style ‘outpourings of the Spirit’, which had rained on sections of the Scottish Church from time to time from centuries past, had by no means altogether disappeared.³ On the contrary, evangelical awakenings of a more spontaneous and orthodox nature (Jeffrey’s models 1 & 2) continued to arise in one part of Scotland or another almost without intermission right up to the mid 1920s.⁴ From that time onwards they appeared on a much more irregular basis, except in Lewis, where they continued through the 1930s and 1940s, and indeed, right up to the 1980s.

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1 A popular chorus sung by Scottish believers in the 1920s (James A. Stewart, Opened Windows: The Church and Revival, Asheville, NC 1958, pp. 123–4).

2 Peter Brierley and Fergus MacDonald, Prospects for Scotland 2000: Trends and Tables from the 1994 Scottish Church Census, Edinburgh 1995, p. 16.

3 Contrary to the view of one Scottish minister who remarked that ‘no one born after World War 1 has witnessed a genuine revival’ (related by John Armstrong in Revival, What is it Really?, quoted in J.D. King, Written Not with Ink But With the Spirit: Introduction to Revival Literature with Anotated Bibliography, Kansas City 2005, p. 69).

4 Globally, J. Edwin Orr wrote of the years 1882 to 1899 as a ‘resurgence of the mid-century revival’ (A Call for the Re-study of Revival and Revivalism, Los Angeles 1981, pp. 33–40). This assessment accords well with the situation in Scotland, where, almost without intermission from 1859 to the close of the century and beyond, there was a steady stream of revivals occurring in one place or another.

1

The Glorious Eighties

1880–9

1880–5

South Lanarkshire 1880–3

WHEN James McKendrick surrendered his life to Christ at the age of twenty-two, he little realised what major effect such decision would have, not just upon himself, but on the lives of thousands of others throughout Scotland and beyond. Born in 1859 in the coal-mining village of Old Carnbroe, Lanarkshire, and raised in the Haughead district of the more prosperous mining centre of Hamilton, McKendrick, like so many boys of his time, left school to take up work in the mines at the age of just nine. Mining was a hazardous occupation for even the most experienced of workers and James was never far from danger. Once he miraculously escaped death when the roof of the coalmine he was working in fell in.¹ In those days mining accidents, often of a fatal nature, were commonplace and miners were well aware of the precarious nature of their vocation. Indeed, in October 1877, nearby Blantyre – birthplace of renowned missionary and explorer David Livingstone – re-entered the history books as being the unfortunate location of the worst ever Scottish mining disaster, when a tragic explosion in Pit 3 killed 216 men and boys.² This was followed, just five months later, by an overwinding accident in the same Lanarkshire colliery, snatching a further six lives. Then, a year later, in July 1879, there occurred yet another tragedy, when nearly thirty men and boys met early deaths. These chilling events shocked the Scottish nation and remained fresh in people’s minds for years afterwards.

The transience of life was further brought to McKendrick’s own youthful mind when, in May 1881, his beloved father was killed outright under the falling impact of a huge stone several tons in weight. Startlingly aware that if it had been he who was taken, he would have died without Christ, and feeling keenly his responsibilities as eldest son to his mother and six siblings, James underwent deep conviction regarding his own unrighteousness and need for God. Coming through to a place of spiritual peace soon after, McKendrick immediately became an eager witness for the gospel. His first attempt at public preaching – among his very own neighbours – left him utterly embarrassed. ‘I was speechless, and could not find a word to say. Yet my soul was on fire for their salvation. My first relief was a flood of tears, not words. At length I cried out; “All unsaved in this house are going to hell.”’³ Urging them to find immediate rest in Christ, McKendrick yet knew that never was there a more imperfect attempt at preaching but also that never was there anything more sincere. However much lacking in tact, his direct words and obvious passion made strong impact on those listening, and ‘that night the work of God’s grace had begun in many hearts’.⁴

A season of revival ensued with almost daily conversions, and in the space of seven months over 100 had professed Christ as Lord. This in one small village, the entire character of which was altered. McKendrick said that until Haughead’s first church was erected shortly afterwards, it was a sight to behold over 200 people making their way to Hamilton to attend one of the Sunday services held there. Revival blessing soon spread to Ferniegair, Allanton and many other villages in the area that had hitherto seemed impervious to the gospel message. Such blessing continued right through to 1887, with considerable impact also being made on the town of Hamilton itself.⁵

One early case which greatly encouraged the young evangelist in his efforts was that of a young man who had been brought up ‘amidst scenes of deepest darkness and awful wickedness. I knew him from his boyhood’, recalled McKendrick. ‘He may be said to have revelled in sin. His oaths and cursing often terrified and chilled me, and before he was twelve years of age I have seen him go down on his knees, and clasp his hands, look up to heaven, and blaspheme God in a way that made one shudder. When his stock of oaths and imprecations were exhausted, he would repeat them backwards. By the time he was sixteen years of age he was only sober when he could not get drink, and he just revelled in fighting, drinking, and blaspheming. His conversion and transformed life were, therefore, arguments that none could gainsay, and it filled us with the confidence that, since God had saved J.H., we need not despair of even the most hardened sinners.’⁶ This movement served to act as a foretaste of things to come in young McKendrick’s life. For the zealous evangelist quickly developed as a preacher of some renown and went on to ignite a glorious wave ...

Table of contents

• Testimonials
• Title
• Indicia
• Contents
• Acknowledgements and Dedication
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part One: Glory Filled the Land
• Part Two: Fire Among the Fisherfolk
• Part Three: ‘O’er The Minch’ – Hebridean Harvest
• Part Four: Bairns, Scholars and Holy Rollers
• Part Five: An Appraisal
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Christian Focus