KILSYTH RELIGIOUS REVIVALS The Rev. James Robe and the Great Revival of 1742-43 During the 1730s, the Parish was stricken by a number of Natural disasters. In 1733, 60 people died of rheumatic fever in a period of just 3 weeks and later that year violent rainstorms swept away houses, drowned livestock and destroyed most of the cornfields in the parish. Many people were on the brink of starvation. Such times of adversity brought people closer to God. During a series of dramatic services in 1742 and 1743 at which James Robe preached, many people acknowledged Christ as their Lord and the entire character of daily life of the people of Kilsyth altered radically. These revival meetings were characterised by hundreds of men and women weeping, moaning and crying out to God for forgiveness. William Chalmers Burns - The Kilsyth Revival of 1839 When Rev. William Burns was appointed in 1821 the Parish was in spiritual decline. In the words of the chief heritor "the Apostle Paul himself could not bring the people of Kilsyth out in full meeting three Sabbaths running." The seeds of revival were carefully sown over a period of 20 years with a programme of house visits, prayer groups, adult Bible Classes and Sunday school. Strong links were also forged with the Glasgow evangelicals led by some of the finest preachers of the day. During the summer of 1839, the minister's son, William Chalmers Burns, then assistant minister at Dundee to the great evangelist Robert Murray McCheyne, preached on a number of occasions with startling results; at one open air service held near the church an estimated 10,000 people attended. It was common for several hundred people to meet in the market square before going to work - many of them catching the 7.30 canal boat for Glasgow at Auchinstarry. William Chalmers Burns was to conduct revival meetings throughout Scotland and in Canada before devoting himself to pioneering missionary work in China. Contributed by James Hutchison B.A. (Hons.) Hist., Univeristy of Strathclyde; Dip.Ed., University of Glasgow |
