Presbytery at Cairney Bridge, and matters of church government presented topics more agreeable to the people than those pertaining to purity of life and doctrine. Twelve persons deserted Mr. Robe's ministry. All the societies for prayer came to an end. Mr. Robe exhorted the people to flee strife and sinful division, and this work he prosecuted so jealously that, in the midst of distressing surroundings, the life of Christian devotion was kept alive in the few who were made alive to God through Jesus Christ; others, too, had increase of knowledge "as a foundation laid beforehand for the Holy Spirit."

Still further, on the heels of the Cairney Bridge wrangling came a period of dearth. The poor became exceedingly numerous, and many were on the brink of starvation. Mr. Robe, a close spiritual watchman on the towers of Zion, wholly failed to see anyone turning unto the Lord, who was smiting them. Theft and various immoralities increased. The return of plenty brought no change. There was a prevailing apathy. But the crisis was near. The long work of prayer, the visitations of fever, famine, storm, and schism were to work out a magnificent result. The giant preacher and pastor, now sowing in tears the precious seed of the Word, in a short time is seen enjoying a plenteous reaping time. His heart is failing him, but soon his mouth will be filled with laughter and his tongue with melody.

In the Church, excessive caution is much more common than excessive zeal. As, however, there have been now and again unmistakable times of refreshing as from the presence of the Lord, and as such seasons are likely to come again in the future as they have come in the past, I have thought well thus minutely to trace the various spiritual forces at work in Kilsyth which im

mediately preceded or led up to that first outpouring of the Holy Spirit which has now become so memorable. There are some who say that the operation of God's Spirit cannot be so traced. There are some who say that His action is like the wind, which cannot be directed; that it is like the lightning, too swift to be marked; that it is like the dew or the fire, too subtle to be accounted for ; that it is without observation and not to be described. But such views are the result of a partial or inadequate apprehension of Biblical truth. Steam is a viewless vapour, but when it acts in the cylinder, none the less on that account are we able to form an estimate of its power. We do not see it, but we see what it does. It is true that we cannot command the wind, that it bloweth where it listeth; but it is equally true that both on sea and land we are conscious of its movement, and can take advantage of its operation. In a time of revival, there is an invisible Operator and a visible operation,-an Agent that is unseen and comes you know not how, and a work that is apparent and not to be mistaken. The nature of the fire that burns in the heart of the devout we may not be able to tell, but still we may know that it can either be fed or quenched. The very name revival acknowledges these two things-a quickening spirit and a freshly budding life. When we go into the fields in the midst of the Spring, we cannot tell whence the Spring has come, we cannot explain the enigma of the little green daggers striking through the hard soil, the buds breaking on the prickly thorn. The mystery of the reviving season may be inexplicable, but not the less are we sure when we see green things in battalions and cohorts springing from the valleys and the mountain sides, when we hear far in the blue the lark singing his blithe roundelays, that the Spring has come, that the cold

TH

no work more readily apparent. touching and quickening the human will the "Written Epistle," on the other han read of all men.

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The attitude of Mr. Robe was one More than they that watch for the morn for the coming of the Holy Spirit to fruc the Word he had so diligently sown. In he began a systematic course of sermons of Regeneration. He pressed upon his fl of the New Birth as the genesis of the Except a man be born again he cannot of God." He next dwelt on the myste the Holy Spirit in carrying it into effec bloweth where it listeth, and thou hea thereof, but canst not tell whence it com it goeth so is every one that is born of 1 went on to explain the nature and mear Birth, showing it to be both a Resurrectideath, and a New Creation, the belie workmanship created in Christ Jesus u He then described how Christ conquere himself, and what was understood by cir heart, and the worthy partaking of the The systematic treatment of the subject close by a series of sermons on the reali of regeneration; the taking away of and the giving of the heart of fles

of God's law in the mind and writing it in the conscience.

This series of discourses was continued, with only a short interruption, till April, 1742. It proved acceptable, but nothing more. Some months after Mr. Robe began, Mr. M'Culloch of Cambuslang also commenced delivering a set of similar discourses on the same subject. It is probable both ministers were influenced by Doddridge's Letters on Regeneration, which were at that time in the enjoyment of a considerable popularity. Mr. M'Culloch had not the parts of Robe; he was a plain, unemotional pastor, and, like Mr. Burns and the other clergymen whose parishes have been visted with seasons of special blessing, as different a man as one could possibly conceive from the recognised "revival minister." The more lately begun work at Cambuslang had the earlier results, but this was probably owing to the visit of George Whitefield. Some time previously, the great English preacher had a remarkable interview with Ebenezer Erskine and the Associate Synod at Dunfermline. These first Seceders were anxious that Whitefield should only preach in the churches and congregations of their communion. The demand was worse than ridiculous, and Whitefield distinctly refused to comply with it. "If the Pope himself would lend me his pulpit," he said, “I would gladly proclaim the righteousness of Jesus Christ therein." In this matter the Seceders blundered, and alienated from them a large amount of sympathy which otherwise would have been theirs. Whitefield being eagerly welcomed to the pulpits of the National Church, this circumstance may serve to explain the extraordinary attitude which they assumed on the outbreak of the revival, and their exceeding bitterness against it. With the appearance of Whitefield at Cambuslang, the flowing

spiritual tide in that parish reached its height, and at a communion service which was then held, and at which Whitefield and Robe were the chief ministers, there was such a crowd as had until that time probably never been gathered in Scotland. The congregation was variously estimated at from thirty to fifty thousand. There was much resemblance between the work carried on at Cambuslang by Mr. M'Culloch and that at Kilsyth by Mr. Robe. The only difference appears to have been that if the attendances at Kilsyth were smaller, the permanent impressions were much greater. In the one case the work was more diffused, in the other it was more intense.

When Robe heard of the rich blessing which was being poured out on the people of Cambuslang, he prayed fervently that it might not only be continued, but extended to Kilsyth. His prayers were answered. Mr. John Willison, minister of Dundee, on his way home from Cambuslang, called for Mr. Robe on Thursday, the 15th April. At Mr. Robe's request, he preached on Friday morning. The notice had been short, but a large crowd assembled. The sermon was plain, and the congregation departed quietly, but a great and deep impression had been made. On the Sabbath, Mr. Robe chose for his text Galatians, iv. 19: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you." In opening it up, he spoke once more of the subject of regeneration, of which his soul was full, and on which he had been preaching constantly for the last two years. As he spoke, his voice grew tremulous with emotion, and a great seriousness fell on the congregation. For some Sabbaths he continued preaching on the same text, and each time with new testimony that the Holy Spirit was accompanying the ministry of the Word with greater and