Mr D. Ross, Secretary, said,
The first indications we had of a work of God on the coast were immediately after a sermon preached by the Rev. Mr Bain, Chapel of Carioch, in the Free Church of Rathen, from the words, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." That was two years ago last spring. At Peterhead, at the open-air addresses the gatherings were extraordinary. Immediately at the end of the herring fishing, some persons who had got good went home and commenced to keep prayer meetings at their own villages. Matters were much the same in other places; at Bervie and Gourdon, Mr Collie, for example, had like results, and the work was spread very much by the fishermen going from one village to another. With regard to one village Footdee - I would say that, with the exception of the pilots, who are what they were, if not worse there is a great change. I do not suppose there has been a single bottle of whisky drunk this year at the launching of their boats while there used to be a whole fortnight of drinking and fighting. There was not formerly a single family that had family worship, but now there is not a single family except those of the pilots that have it not.
"The Wynd Journal," late 1861 or early 1862
Location unknown