Series 6 > McCulloch examinations of the Cambuslang revival (1742) > Volume 6

EXAMINATIONS OF PERSONS UNDER SPIRITUAL CONCERN II
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[355/-] a.p. A Young Woman about 18 years1
I was all along, thro mercy, kept blameless before the world in my outward
behaviour. I usd from my Childhood to pray evening & morning, & read
the Bible by my self oftimes, & went to the Kirk on Sabbath days to hear
Sermon, and endeavour’d to abstain from all vices; and thought my self
in a fair way for Heaven. One night about a month before the Awakening
began at Camb. I found much of a heart-melting, & would gladly have
gone out to the Yeard for Secret Prayer, but I was so timerous I durst not
adventure to go out by my self alone, & one whom I desir’d to go out with
me, not complying with the motion I made to her, I did not go: which
has often been matter of grief to me since. But all this time I had never
got a sense of my lost Condition by nature without Christ, till I came to
Camb.; in the Spring 1743, and as I came there from time to time, I got
Convictions of my sins both of heart and life, & was deeply grieved, that
I had been so long alienated from the Life of God, & rejected Christ, &
dishonoured such a holy God by my Sins. I gave my Self much to Secret
Prayer, & read my Bible & other [356/—] good Books whenever I could
have Opportunity. My inward distress was such that I often slept very
little & could eat but little. But I never cry’d out in publick, that any could
notice, nor did I ever swarf, and tho I often felt a great agony within my
Soul, I felt no bodily pains. And in this Condition I continued for about
six weeks, about without meeting with any Relief; till one day when I was
at Secret Prayer, that word came into my heart. Fear not, for I am with
thee; this word came with such great Power, that I was made to believe it
was from the Lord: formerly I thought any Exercise I was under, was not
of a kindly sort, nor like any other of the people of God: but now I was
persuaded that it was indeed the Spirit of the Lord that was dealing with
me, & was made to hope that the Lord would be with me.
I got a Token in order to communicate at the Barony Sacrament, & in time
of a Minrs (6s)2 Sermon on the Fast-day, the Lord by his Spirit, set home
many gracious words (tho’ not uttered by that Minister) on my heart, with
great power & sweetness, and gave me such manifestations of his Love that I
had never met with any thing like it before: and this sweet frame continued
with me [ ]3 all the following days of that Solemnity.
1 Ann Montgomery — the shorthand text in McCulloch’s ‘Index of persons’ names who gave
the foregoing accounts to Mr. McC’ states: daughter of Mathw Montgomery, shoemaker in
Glasgow. Taught to read the Bible when young, got the Catechism by heart, and retained
it mostly.
2 Cohn Campbell (1718-88) - minister, Eaglesham.
3 Insertion [‘most part of’]: McCulloch.