THE GREAT AWAKENING:
THE 19th CENTURY

Social Reform

The atheist Edinburgh student, Aikenhead, had said that Christianity would be ‘extirpated’ (destroyed) by 1800, but contrary to his prediction, the Church experienced a phenomenal surge and growth in the 19th century.

Part of the fruit of the Enlightenment Movement had been its impact on the clergy, many of whom were now more interested in philosophy, gambling, drinking and the theatre, than looking after the poor and needy. A growing number of devout Christians determined to do something about it.

In 1874 Lord Shaftesbury spoke publicly of David Nasmith (1799-1839) ‘of whom all Scotsmen may well boast’. Why was this? After all, most people have never even heard of him! Nasmith was born and brought up in Glasgow and founded over sixty Christian societies in his dynamic, but short life. He is particularly remembered for pioneering the YMCA and City Missions.

In 1832 he came to this city and set up the Edinburgh City Mission in a shop at 375 High St (Royal Mile), opposite St Giles’ Cathedral. He preached that the cities of Britain needed their own missionaries who had experienced life in normal jobs, and not just in theological colleges. He also preached that all true Christians from across the Church denominations should work together to get the job done of transforming their communities.

Many ministers in the Church at the time sneered at his impudence and enthusiasm, thinking that what he had proposed was impossible and preposterous! Not put off by their attitude, he gathered together ministers who had a real heart for God and people, and set about commissioning men and women in the city to transform the darkest slums into places of heaven.

Just seven years later Edinburgh City Mission (ECM) was so effective in its work that ‘a missionary spirit’ had been released in the city. In 1841 many prostitutes, criminals and drunkards in the Grassmarket were dramatically changed through the preaching of these missionaries.

This then prepared the way for a larger movement in 1859 that deeply impacted the poor in the Royal Mile area, and indeed the city, as a whole. The huge ingathering into the Church in the 1873 Revival was an accumulation of the previous waves, and led to an astounding transformation of the city in every section of the populace.

Within 43 years from Nasmith setting up ECM there were 130 missionaries working together across the Church denominations (33 were in ECM) in a deeply holistic, Christ-centred way. Today this model of inter-church mission work is a global phenomenon.

Among the leading Christian activists of the day was Rev. Dr Thomas Guthrie (1792–1873). Guthrie, challenged by the courageous work of ECM, investigated the plight of the poor in Edinburgh. He was shocked by the bad behaviour of the children who were left to roam the streets in wild, filthy gangs. He wrote:

'I wandered… whole days without ever seeing a Bible, or indeed any book at all. I often stood in rooms bare of any furniture; where father, mother, and half a dozen children had neither bed nor bedding, unless a heap of straw and dirty rags huddled in a corner could be called so. I have heard the wail of children crying for bread, and their mother had none to give them… I have known a father turn his step-daughter to the street at night… bidding the sobbing girl who bloomed into womanhood, earn her bread there as others were doing. I have bent over the foul pallet of a dying lad to hear him whisper how his father and mother… who were sitting half-drunk by the fireside… had pulled the blankets off his body to sell them for drink. I have seen children whitened like plants growing in a cellar… when they cry they are not kissed but beaten… I don’t recollect of ever seeing a mother in these wretched dwellings bouncing her infant, or hearing the little creature crow or laugh as he leapt for joy. There, infants have no toys; and their mothers’ smiles are as rare as sunshine.’ 1

Throughout his life he was a champion for the poor, stirring up the Church and the government. His loud cry was:

‘Do it now! It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of the world.’

Working together with the churches and the Edinburgh City Mission, Guthrie pioneered the Ragged Schools for the poor children, in which they learnt to read and write and were educated not just in Scripture, but other subjects too, besides having food, clothing and medical care provided. The first school was near the Castle off the Royal Mile at St Columba’s Free Church (formerly Free St John’s), where Guthrie was the minister. These schools multiplied and eventually became part of the foundation for the State Education System.

Rev. Professor Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) was also a great pioneer in education and social welfare. William Wilberforce, the great English social reformer, said about him: ‘all the world is wild about Dr. Chalmers’..

Not only did Chalmers become Principal of New College in Edinburgh but he also developed a model in his parish of St John’s (1820s) that had a huge influence on the social welfare system of today.

He was the first person to challenge, in book form, the capitalism of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations with his works The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns (1826) and Political Economy (1832).

He also became the first Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland in 1843 when there was a huge split in the Church. The reason for 'The Disruption', as it was called, was government interference in appointing clergy in the Church. The cry of ‘Freedom!’ led to 470 ministers storming out of the Assembly and setting up their own Free Church, with Chalmers as the leader.

Medical and Scientific Discoveries

Edinburgh University was a leading world centre in the sciences, particularly in medicine. Amongst the famous pioneers of science in this period were several Christians. Thomas Young (1773–1829) studied at Edinburgh University where he also became a Professor of Medicine. He invented the double-slit experiment for studying light.

Sir David Brewster (1781–1868) was Principal at Edinburgh University and edited the scientific part of the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia; he was also instrumental in founding the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He invented the kaleidoscope and refined the science of microscopes, and discovered what became known as ‘Brewster’s Law’, which became the forerunner of laser technology.

As a dedicated Christian and Fellow of the Royal Society, he said: ‘It can’t be presumption to be SURE (of our forgiveness) because it is Christ’s work, not ours; on the contrary, it is presumption to doubt His word and work.’ 2 On his death bed he said:

'I shall see Jesus, and that will be grand. I shall see him who made the worlds.'

Sir James Young Simpson (1811– 1870) trained as an obstetrician and became a Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University. He pioneered the medical use of chloroform and administered this to Queen Victoria for the birth of her son, Prince Leopold, in 1847. He was a very dedicated Christian who led the Medical Dispensary work for the poor at Carrubbers Close Mission on the Royal Mile. When asked what was his greatest discovery, he cheerfully replied that it was finding Christ as his Saviour.

Lord Joseph Lister (1827–1912) went to study medicine at Edinburgh University under Professor James Syme, a Christian who was also regarded as one of the world’s best surgeons of that period. In 1869 Lister became Professor of Clinical Surgery at Edinburgh University and he discovered antiseptics and hugely advanced surgical methods.

In the Edinburgh Hospital where he worked, almost half of the surgery patients died from infections; in some hospitals in Europe the fatality rate was 80%. Doctors thought that nothing could be done about this because infections arose spontaneously from inside the wounds. Lister sought to prove that infections came from outside the body.

He came across the work done by the Frenchman, Louis Pasteur (1860), whose experiments proved that germs were airborne and not inherent in the body. He showed that by sealing off the air we could block out germs. This destroyed the theory of spontaneous generation (a forerunner of Evolution), popular since Aristotle’s time. This then encouraged Lister to experiment, and he discovered that carbolic acid killed off the germs on the human body without harming the patient. Thus, antiseptics were pioneered.

Lord Lister was outspoken about his faith. He said: 'I am a believer in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.' 3

James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879), alongside Newton and Einstein, has been regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time. He was born here and went to Edinburgh University. Whilst he was Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge University he planned and constructed the Cavendish physics laboratory. He is famous for formulating and establishing a unified theory of physics that pulled together light, electricity and magnetism. His work paved the way for Einstein’s theory of relativity, radio, television, radar, satellite communication and x-ray.

He was a dedicated Christian and outspoken advocate against naturalistic evolution. He destroyed Laplace’s ‘Nebular Hypothesis’ (1796), which promoted the idea that the universe spontaneously evolved out of a gas cloud. He also presented a paper to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1873), in which he said:

‘No theory of evolution can be formed to account for the similarity of molecules, for evolution necessarily implies continuous change ... the exact equality of each molecule to all others of the same kind gives it ... the essential character of a manufactured article, and precludes the idea of its being eternal and self existent.’ 4

He wrote this prayer:

‘Almighty God, Who has created man in Thine own image, and made him a living soul that he might seek after Thee, and have dominion over Thy creatures, teach us to study the works of Thy hands, that we may subdue the earth to our use, and strengthen the reason for Thy service; so to receive Thy blessed Word, that we may believe on Him Whom Thou has sent, to give us the knowledge of salvation and the remission of our sins. All of which we ask in the name of the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.’ 5

The 1859 Revival

Charles Finney, the noted American evangelist, visited Edinburgh in 1859 and preached to a crowded church gathering throughout the week, but was discouraged by the lack of results and left a day early. A headmaster from Pilrig School (Leith), William Robertson, went every night seeking to know Christ for himself, but came away disappointed. Finally, on the last night, he truly experienced Christ for himself, but through a Dr Kirk, and not the famous evangelist.

Robertson, full of joy, taught at Pilrig School the next week and something supernatural started happening. One child after another began openly weeping and grieving over the bad things they had done until the school itself went into mourning. The Christian teachers there suddenly found themselves in the middle of a revival, in which God supernaturally visits people in an extraordinary way. The children’s mourning was turned into great rejoicing as they found forgiveness and eternal life through Christ. Their transformed lives led to teachers and parents becoming Christians, and the movement spread through the community.

Robertson was asked to hold meetings at Carrubbers Close Mission in the Royal Mile, which had been re-consecrated as a Christian building in 1858, after the atheist club, The Celebrated Cathedral of the Prince of Darkness, had closed down. Crowds were drawn without advertising, as if they were pins being irresistibly pulled to a huge magnet.

A contemporary report says:

‘Night after night the careless became earnest, the earnest became convicted, and the convicted at length found peace in the blood of Jesus.’6

The gatherings became so large that the Mission could not contain the numbers, and hundreds of desperate people were turned away. They ended up meeting for a while in the Theatre Royal and 'a rich harvest of souls was reaped at every meeting, and cases of the most thrilling and engrossing interest were continually occurring'.7

Everywhere in the city there was talk about God’s visit to Edinburgh. Daily packed prayer meetings took place in the Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile, and crowds of up to 10,000 would turn up to hear gospel preaching in places like Queen’s Park, Grassmarket, Parliament Square and Calton Hill. The most remarkable thing about this movement was the way in which the children, the marginalised, the poor, the criminals and alcoholics were totally transformed. In Newhaven (the port in North Edinburgh) this was especially the case for ‘things of eternity seemed to press upon the community, so that nothing short of salvation would satisfy the people.’ 8

Out of this significant revival came hundreds of eager missionaries who gladly gave their lives for Christ and his cause in places like Africa and Asia, spreading a holistic and lifechanging message, accompanied by host of hospitals, schools and other good works that sprouted up everywhere they went. Today millions of ordinary people in those countries give thanks to God for that costly work, for many of those missionaries died through disease or even through martyrdom.

David Livingstone (1813–1873), from an earlier period, had established the Church in parts of Africa. Although he was from Glasgow, he studied medicine at Edinburgh University. His statue exists in Princes Gardens where he holds out his Bible to the passers-by.

Eric Liddell, made memorable by the film Chariots of Fire, was an Olympic gold medallist (1924), who studied at Edinburgh University, and who died for his faith as a missionary in the Far East. It was said that ‘all Scotland mourned his death’.

Moody and Sankey

In 1873 two Americans hit Edinburgh like a whirlwind: Sankey charmed the people with his spiritual singing, and Moody electrified them with his preaching. It was said by the hymnwriter, Rev. Dr Horatius Bonar, that almost every home in Edinburgh had been affected by the visit.

The queues of people waiting to get a place at the meetings stretched from the Assembly Hall (The Mound) to Princes Street. The tour was so effective that by the end the only place big enough for the crowds was the field below Arthur’s Seat, at the bottom of the Royal Mile.

Moody and Sankey came across the work of the Carrubbers Close Mission in the Royal Mile and were so impressed that they decided to raise funds for a new building. They had the novel idea of raising money in a horse-drawn cart that slowly moved down the entire length of the Royal Mile. Whilst Sankey sang and Moody preached, people threw money into the buckets. Eventually, after more fundraising, a new building was established and in 1884 was consecrated. Today it is known as Carrubbers Christian Centre.

The First World Missionary Conference (1910)

In 1910 an extraordinary meeting took place in Edinburgh. It was billed as The World Missionary Conference. The slogan of the week was ‘Evangelising the world in our generation’. Missionaries poured in from 120 countries around the globe in what was the first world missionary conference. Sadly, after being stirred by that week, the vision was largely drowned by two World Wars in Europe.