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

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EXAMINATIONS OF PERSONS UNDER SPIRITUAL CONCERN II
[589/—] c.d. A Young Woman of 20 Years1
In my younger years, I was traind up to pray in Secret: when I came to years
I sometimes minded it, & sometimes laid it aside: I usd all along to go to
Church on Lords days for ordinary, reckoning it my duty to attend Publick
worship: and likd to sit and hear, tho it was but to little good purpose. []2
I did not think I was in a right state, but little minded what would become
of me after death, except that at some times, I would have been more serious
& thoughtful.
About a year 1741,1 fell under Reproach, which, knowing I had given no
ground for, was very affecting to me, & like to break my heart. I was then
led to be much more serious & concern’d about my Soul than formerly &
made to bless the Lord for ordinary [590/—] that Tryal for me. I went oft to
Cambuslang in the year 1742, and tho’ I was never under any great terror or
sudden awakenings, I came gradually to feel more & more of concern about
Salvation upon my Spirit, & found my heart turn more & more tender, and
was made to see more & more of my own sinfulness & unworthiness and
was sometimes made to loathe my self on the account of my vileness by
sin. Sometimes that Summer, particularly, one Sabbath day I went to hear
Sermon at Dalyell; and for a day or two before & after that, I felt my heart
within me, as it had been all in a flame burning in love to Christ: and was
much delighted in hearing Sermon () there.
One night I fell under a strong apprehension that I was going to die: &
the Lord was [591/-] pleased to give me such a sense & persuasion of my
Interest in Christ, that I could not doubt of it: I was not then at all afraid to
die, but was even longing for death that I might be freed from Sin & might
be with Christ in heaven. And that word was then cast into my mind, This
day thou shalt be with me in paradise,3 which made strongly to apprehend
that I was to die that very night, & to go to heaven. But not finding things
fall out as I expected, I fell under a very damp next day, apprehending that
all I had met with was but delusion. But I have since been made to conclude,
that that last mentiond text of Scripture, had been thrown into my mind by
Satan that subtile adversary, when he saw the frame I was in, thinking I was
shortl to die ’ere long, & longing for it, with a design, to drive me to despair.
1 Agnes Hamilton - the shorthand text in McCulloch’s ‘Index of persons’ names who gave
the foregoing accounts to Mr. McC’ states: daughter of ‘widow Hamilton’ of Evamiln in
the parish of Hamilton. Taught to read the Bible and write, got the Catechism by heart,
and retained it.
2 Insertion [T cannot charge my self with any things outwardly vicious before the World’]:
McCulloch.
3 Lk 23:43.