A Holy Fair
The Minister of Cambuslang was an unlikely person to have organised this remarkable event. He was Mr William M’Culloch. Early on in his career as a Minister, he had confessed to a friend that he envied those who had felt called or converted to Christ. To him these feelings were completely alien. In addition, although he was an extremely learned and studious person, and a conscientious pastor to his congregation, he was no great preacher. It was said that the ale houses filled up when it was his turn to preach outdoors in traditional Scottish "Sacramental Occasions" or "Holy Fairs", as they were called. This was when ministers and congregations of neighbouring parishes came together for several days of fasting, preaching and self-examination before receiving Holy Communion. One of these events is vividly, and humorously, described in one of Robert Burns’ poems, appropriately called ‘The Holy Fair’. It may be that the outdoor preaching of the First Great Awakening in New England had their origins in these Scots emigrant memories of these Holy Fairs.
Read more about this topic: Cambuslang Work
Famous quotes containing the words holy and/or fair:
“Public money is like holy water; everyone helps himself to it.”
—Italian proverb, pt. 5, epigraph, Graham Hancock, Lords of Poverty (1989)
“Much attribute he hath, and much the reason
Why we ascribe it to him; yet all his virtues,
Not virtuously of his own part beheld,
Do in our eyes begin to lose their gloss,
Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish,
Are like to rot untasted.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)