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

EXAMINATIONS OF PERSONS UNDER SPIRITUAL CONCERN II
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[361/—] a.n. A Young Woman of 23 years.1
I had my Lot in Religious Families since I was a Child, & was kept free of any
thing gross before the World, all along: & usd to pray for ordinary twice a day;
& always when I had access went to the Kirk on Sabbath days, to hear what the
Lord would speak to me by his Servants; & usd to read the Bible by my Self.
But never felt the Word of God coming with the Power of God to my heart
till I came to Camb. in the Spring 1742: & there some time I think in March,
hearing a Minr (26)2 on that Text, He will not break the bruised Reed, nor
quench the smoaking flax &c :31 fell under some Concern about my Salvation,
& was under some trouble about my lost State by Sin; but in the Evening, I
felt it like to wear off again, yet something of it still remain’d with me, that
night and next day it increasd on me, & I found my Spirit much vex’d & grievd
for my Sin, & sent for an Elder to speak with him as to my Souls State Case;
and got a humbling Sight of all my Sins, sins of life & sins of heart, Original
& actual sins. I had some fears of Hell, but what chiefly [362/-] troubled me
was a sense of Gods anger & displeasure against me for my sin, and that I had
thereby dishonoured & offended him. I continued till about July following
under soul trouble for sin before I got any Relief or Comfort: and was all that
time, very often at Secret Prayer, and as earnest as I was enabled to be; I also
came to Camb. to hear Sermons, almost every day but Sabbath when I went to
the Parish-Kirk I belong’d to: & almost every time I came there I was getting
more and more Convictions of the Evil of Sin, & discoveries of particular
iniquities: and when at any time I miss’d new Convictions when I came to
Camb. I was much grieved that it was so. I was sometimes made to cry out in
publick under fears of the anger of God whom I had dishonoured by my sins
so greatly: but never swarfd but once: but had no bodily pains or Convulsions.
The first Outgate I got my Soul-distress was one night when I was sitting
by my self, much cast down under a sense of Sin, when these words came
into my mind
Those that are broken in their hearts
And grieved in their minds
He healeth & their painful wounds
He tenderly up-binds4
Bethea Davie - the shorthand text in McCulloch’s ‘Index of persons’ names who gave the
foregoing accounts to Mr. McC’ states: daughter of John Davie, weaver in Mid-Quarter
Barony. Taught to read the Bible, got the Catechism, and retained it mostly.
William McCulloch (1691-1771) - minister, Cambuslang.
Isa 42:3, Mt 12:20.
Ps 147:3, Scottish Psalter (metrical).