At this time meetings are regularly held in six or seven different places within a few miles of Dunbar. They may be called revival meetings, as the conversion f sinners and the salvation of souls are earnestly prayed for in them all. Most of them are conducted entirely by two or three of our Dunbar friends, fishermen, or others lately brought to Christ, or newly baptized with the Spirit. At all, or nearly all of them, fruit has been reared, precious souls have been awakened or converted. In many places the country people are very anxious to receive visits from our Dunbar friends and flock to the meetings which they hold. At Gateside and Kirklandhill, especially, the attendance at the meetings is very large, and the interest in religion very deep. At the latter place, there is now a lengthened service every Sabbath evening, attended by fully three hundred persons, conducted chiefly by a brother minister and myself, with the cordial assistance of our earnest Christian friends, who broke ground with such success in the neighbouring hamlet of Gateside.
On the evening of Sabbath the 20th May, I went to Kirklandhill to conduct the service. I found that the granary, which had been fitted up by the farmer, would not nearly contain the people that had assembled; and, consequently, as the weather was fine, I preached in the open air, The congregation, to the number of about four hundred, gladly retired to a neighbouring field, and, standing or sitting on the green grass, listened with rapt attention to the words of truth and eternal life. I spoke from the great invitation contained in Rev. xxii. 17, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come; " and never did I address a more eager or earnest audience. Young and old, and people of various classes seemed to be much impressed and to take the deepest interest in the service. A second meeting was held in the granary, attended by about eighty persons, most of whom were in a state of deep spiritual anxiety and distress. I conversed with nearly twenty of them, who wept bitterly under a sense of sin, and eagerly inquired about the way of salvation. A few Christian friends and myself, for nearly an hour, engaged in the work of dealing with awakened souls, and ministering comfort, instruction, or warning, according to their necessities. This most interesting and precious work was deeply affecting, and led, I hope, to some blessed results. The awakening, so strikingly and decidedly begun in this quiet country place, is going on at this moment, and promises, by the blessing of God, to issue in a gracious and permanent revival.
From ‘Authentic Records of Revival, now in progress in the United Kingdom, published in 1860, re-printed and edited in 1980 by Richard Owen Roberts.