There was a considerable awakening in this place last summer, and we are gratified to find that earnest Christians are seeking to draw down a still richer blessing by using the Divinely-appointed means. Mr Fraser, of the Free Church, has resumed his open-air Sabbath evening services, in the open space opposite the quay, and large crowds are attracted of all classes. On Sabbath week a party of young men who had been brought under serious impressions by these special services last year held a prayer meeting on the same place in the absence of Mr Fraser in the north. Among others who addressed the meeting was a chimney sweep from Glasgow. On Sabbath night last, Mr Fraser, in course of his address to his miscellaneous congregation, communicated a few facts relative to the revival in other places, and read a portion of a letter from Mr Reginald Radcliffe, in which occurred the remark that open-air preaching, one almost unknown in England, was now become so common that there were probably 1,000 evangelical preachers engaged every Sabbath evening. Mr Fraser gave an interesting illustration of the changed state of feeling amongst the people in the districts in the north of Scotland which had been visited by the revival. In one place, where the population had been en fete on the occasion of the founding of a savings bank, the proceedings were wound up with a religious address, the people enjoying that as the best part of the festival. At the conclusion of Mr Fraser's service, about eight o'clock, a large portion of the congregation repaired to the quarry on the hill behind the parish church, where the wonted prayer meeting was conducted by the young man already referred to, and by a working man from Glasgow who statedly preaches on Glasgow Green and in other public places. The proceedings were very interesting and there was the same marked attention on the part of the audience which had been so strikingly manifest at the meeting before on the quay. The greater part of the audience, standing as well as sitting, waited patiently till the close of the services, although protracted till between ten and eleven o'clock. The exercises commenced with the singing of a hymn, after which prayer was offered up, and a simple and effective address on the parable of the Prodigal. Son, delivered by the lay preacher already referred to, who gave a very beautiful exposition of the story in homely language. He was followed by one of the young men who, by request, gave a modest and unaffected account of his own conversion, through the instrumentality of the open-air services of last year.
"The Wynd Journal," July 21st, 1860.
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