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December 2: Lady Colvill imprisoned for her faith (1684)

2 December, 2014 in December 2014 by davidtmyers | No comments

Lady Colvill imprisoned for faith (1684)

Entitled to the Benediction of the Savior

In the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pronounced a blessing upon His followers in Matthew 5:10, 11 when He said, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (NASB) There can be no doubt that the subject of our post today was entitled to the benediction of the Savior in her life.

Her name at birth was Margaret Wemyss, but through marriage with the Lord of Colvill, she was called Lady Colvill. From that union, which ended with the death of her husband in 1671, she bore two daughters. Our focus today is on this wife, and her son. The former was “A Lady of the Covenant,” and steadfast in her adherence to Presbyterianism in Scotland.

Her “crimes” were two-fold in the eyes of the Anglican government. When Presbyterian ministers were ejected in Scotland from their pulpits and parishes, they began to minister the Word and Sacraments in the fields and pastures of the people. Anywhere from mere handfuls to many thousands of laypeople would attend these field worship services, among them being Lady Colvill. To do so was to risk persecution, as the authorities frequently sent out troops of soldiers to fine and imprison and even kill these Presbyterians.

Her second “crime” was that she, being in a high and prosperous position in the realm, was frequently able to extend hospitality to these ejected Presbyterian pastors, providing for them with food and accommodations in her own home. When it became too dangerous to hold worship services in the fields, she opened up her home, holding services in the evening hours. From time to time, she, like hundreds of other Covenanters, was forced to flee to the mountains for safety.

Through all of this, to give her son a sound religious upbringing, she instructed him in the common doctrines of biblical Christianity, especially those of the Reformed faith. This especially met with opposition from the government, as Parliament had passed a law in 1662 that none should teach the second generation except those who had been approved by the Anglican bishops. When she insisted on teaching him herself, she was imprisoned  in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The order which was signed by the Lords of Session was signed on this day, December 2, 1684. It read, “The Lady Colvill is imprisoned in Edinburgh tollbooth (e.g. prison), by the privy council, for her irregularities, and particularly for breeding up her son, the Lord Colvill, in fanaticism and other disloyal principles, and abstracting and putting him out of the way, when the council was going to commit his education to others . . . .”

Translated for our readers, the above order means that Lady Colvill was imprisoned for withdrawing from her parish church, attending house and field preaching, and particularly for training her son in the principles of Presbytery and the Covenant.

Lady Colvill remained in difficult circumstances for several months in prison. In a rare exception, she was freed from prison so as to recover her health. But soon she was ordered back to prison. We lose track of her history at this point, but it is obvious that she endured much for her Christian Presbyterian convictions.

Words to Live By:
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for such affliction, the Savior reminds us in our text above. What present and future persecution we suffer for Christ puts us in the same line of the saints of the past who suffered for the Savior’s cause. Be in preparation now for such times. Their likelihood increases even in our nation of America more and more. While none have been killed in our land, there are those who for the cause of Christ have had their businesses destroyed because of Christian convictions. Pray for them and be in prayer that we will remain faithful to Him and His cause.

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December 1: Rev. John Paton

1 December, 2014 in December 2014 by davidtmyers | No comments

Licensed to Preach the Gospel

Having had one post already on John Paton, we consider another from his remarkable life. It was on this day, December 1, 1857, that he was licensed to be a preacher of the gospel by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland. It would be just four months later that he would be ordained as a minister of the gospel. But what is significant about this date in December is that he had already been faithfully carrying on the work of the gospel as  a home missionary with the Glasgow City Mission in Glasgow, Scotland.

The latter city mission advertises itself even now as the world’s first City Mission, having begun in 1826. His ministry with them was that of working in one of the poor and downtrodden neighborhoods of that city, seeking to lead its citizens to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Yes, temporal needs were to be provided to them. But as the slogan on the city mission states, “Providing hope for Today, Tomorrow, Eternity.” And clearly the need was great, for as Paton wrote on page 55 of his Autobiography, “in many of its closets and courts, sins and vice walked about openly—naked and not ashamed.”

Upon being assigned to his particular neighborhood, Paton sums up his ministry as “being expected to spend four hours daily in visiting from house to house, holding small prayer meetings amongst those visited, calling them together for evening meetings, and trying by all means to do whatever good was possible amongst them.”

After the first year of fairly exhausting labors in their midst, John Paton could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who attended his public meetings.  But then the site of those meetings was hardly inviting in that it was, in his words, “a hay loft under which a cow feeder kept a large number of cows, and which was reached by an outside rickety wooden stairs.” (p. 56). Finding so little spiritual fruit, the directors of the city mission planned to move the young missionary to a more promising neighborhood, but John Paton begged for more time, even six months longer. Thankfully the directors agreed, and within that time, attendance doubled and then doubled again. Particularly helpful was the move to buildings purchased for the ministry by Dr. Symington’s congregation, where Rev. Paton was a member.

Notice, dear reader, the following description of his work there: On Sunday morning at 7 am, Paton offered a Bible study, which was eventually attended by 70 to 100 people. No day off on Monday either! Another Bible study was offered on Monday night. Wednesday was the weekly prayer meeting. Thursday brought a Shorter Catechism class, which turned into a Communicant’s class for church membership. Seven members from this theological class eventually entered the ministry. Friday night was a Singing class, which taught church music to the attendees. And Saturday night was a Total Abstinence class for the many drunkards in the neighborhood. All together, some five to six hundred residents regularly attended meetings led by Rev. Paton. Whew!

And yes, during this busy schedule, John Paton continued on with his own education at the University of Glasgow, the Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall, and also classes in medicine at the Andersonian College. God’s Spirit was doing much with this young man, and would do much for him in the future.

Words to Love By: 
John Paton said, “I was sustained by the lofty aim which burned all these year bright within my soul, namely—to be qualified a preacher of the Gospel of Christ, to be owned and used by Him for the salvation of perishing [men and women].” ( p. 82)  Oh, how the visible church today, even the local congregation where you yourself are a member, needs people who have as their aim in life, that of being “owned and used by Him” for the salvation of others. Pray with us, will you, that the Lord of the harvest will send laborers into the fields.

And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.“—Luke 10:2, ESV.

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November 30: John Geddie

30 November, 2014 in November 2014 by davidtmyers | No comments

We Don’t Do Evangelism!

A speaker over the phone actually said the words of our title to a friend of this author. She was shocked, and so was I upon hearing it. Have they snipped out by scissors the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18 – 20? The very existence of our Presbyterian Church in America is that of being committed to the Great Commission. Certainly the subject of our post today when he sailed for the New Hebrides in 1846 was for the purpose of evangelism. His name was John Geddie.

John Geddie was born in Scotland on April 10, 1815 to John and Mary Geddie. At the tender age of two, his parents sailed to Pictou, Nova Scotia in Canada. Joining the Succession Presbyterian Church there, the young Geddie was trained in the ordinary schools of that province while joining his father in his clock making business. But his real interest was spent in reading books sent by the London Missionary Society. He was brought to a saving knowledge of Christ as Lord and Savior through these means at age nineteen. Enrolling in theology courses, he would be licensed to preach the gospel in 1837 and ordained as a Presbyterian minister one year later. Marrying Charlotte MacDonald in 1839, they set about rearing a family which eventually reached eight children.

Having a call to serve the Lord outside of Canada was made difficult in that no Presbyterian church was actively involved in foreign missions. Geddie organized a mission society in his local congregation. Yet even with the organization established, missionary endeavors were slow in coming to fruition. This was all too obvious when the regional synod voted 13 to 12 to select a mission field to even evangelize!  Yet one year later, on November 30, 1846, John Geddie, his wife Charlotte, and two small children sailed for the New Hebrides. Landing on the island of Aneiteum, they set at once to build a ministry among the natives.

For the next fifteen years, they sought to be faithful to the Great Commission in the midst of these heathen tribes. Often John would be assaulted by spears and stones as he traveled from one place to another. Then six years after he landed, several native chiefs converted to biblical Christianity. Thirty-five hundred natives, nearly one half of the population, threw away their idols and avowed the true Jehovah as their God and Savior. Immediately, the converted natives began to obey the Great Commission and send Christian teachers to other islands in the chain of the New Hebrides. Indeed, if you look up the country today (known as Vanuatu), you will see their religion to be Christian.

James Geddie died on December 14, 1872, but not before he had translated the entire New Testament in their language. He was in the process of working on the Old Testament when he was taken home to glory.

The island memorial to John Geddie is stunning to behold. It reads, “when he landed in 1848, there were no Christians here, and when he left in 1872, there were no heathen.”

Words to Live By:
A friend of this author had made one rule his guide in his ministerial life. For every milestone he passes, he endeavors to share the gospel with that many strangers in his ministry area. Thus, if he has turned fifty years of age, then he endeavors to witness to fifty unsaved individuals. Now, whether that goal brings 50 conversions is entirely dependent upon the work of the Spirit of God. We Reformed Christians understand that!  But do we recognize the command of the Great Commission is to be carried out by us? Or is it our practice that we do not do evangelism?

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November 29: Henry & Eliza Spalding

29 November, 2014 in November 2014 by davidtmyers | No comments

Missionaries Among the Nez Perce in the Northwest

spaldingHHThis nineteenth century missionary couple has been mentioned before in these pages in connection with Marcus Whitman on February 29 and August 18.  They were Henry Harmon Spalding and his wife Eliza Hart Spalding.  There were a number of “firsts” connected with both of them.  Along with Mrs. Marcus Whitman, they were the first white women to travel on the Oregon Trail. Indeed, they were part of the first wagon train to travel on that famous trail. In the case of Henry and Eliza, theirs was the first white home in what is now Idaho. They brought the first printing press to the Northwest. But our interest in them was of far more importance than simply their being the “first” this or “first” that. They had a heart for the Nez Perce Indian people and their eternal souls.

So after a very long and difficult trip by steamer, horse back, and wagon train, Henry and Eliza arrived at their place of work, settling in a house which they built, on November 29, 1836.  Henry Spalding had unusual success in reaching this Indian tribe. He was able to give them a written script of their language, which enabled him to teach their tribal members. Spalding then translated parts of the Bible, including the entire gospel of Matthew. Leaders of the tribe were baptized, including the father of Chief Joseph, the brilliant military leader of the Nez Perce.

When the Whitmans and twelve of their followers were massacred in 1847, Henry was at that time on his way to meet them. He narrowly escaped in the five days journey back to his home, and eventually took his wife to Oregon City, Oregon to wait for the situation to simmer down. The Board of Missions which had sponsored them, however, decided to abandon the Mission Station.

Eliza would never see the region of the Nez Perce again, except after her death. Sixty years after her death, her body was interred on their land again beside that of her husband.  Henry had ministered in various areas in the “civilized” northwest as a pastor and a commissioner of schools in what later became Oregon, until finally in 1859, he returned with delight back to his beloved Nez Perce. He would stay only a few years before difficulties arrived, and he died in 1874.  He was buried on their land.

Words to live by:  To go into uncharted territory with the Gospel is a worthy goal and takes an unusual kind of Christian. Henry Spalding was just such an individual. He knew his calling and wanted to waste no time in fulfilling it. And fulfill it he did. Along with the Gospel, caring for the souls of the Nez Perce, this missionary couple taught the tribe irrigation laws and the cultivation of the . . . potato!  The next time you go to the store and buy some Idaho potatoes, think of Presbyterian missionary Henry Spalding!

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November 28: The Battle of Rullion Green

28 November, 2014 in Uncategorized by davidtmyers | No comments

The Time Was Not Ripe

This mysterious phrase is found on a stone memorial on the grounds of the Battle of Rullion Green which is located eight miles south of Edinburgh, Scotland. It tells the tragic story of defeat in the first battle of the Scot Covenanters—Presbyterians all—against the English government of Charles II.

This battle was part of the Killing Times era of Scottish Covenanters. In essence, the Anglican government had declared war against the Presbyterians of Scotland, asking for unconditional surrender on their part. Their pastors—some 400 of them—had been ejected from their pulpits, their manses, and their parishes. When some of them began to preach to their people in the fields and moors, that whole scene became a dangerous practice, with fines leveled against the attenders, and imprisonment and death as well. All that was needed was a spark to ignite the smoldering indignation of the Scottish people of God.

That spark occurred on November 13, 1666 when an old man by the name of John Grier was accosted by the soldiers of the English government. Unable to pay a fine for his absence from his church with its Anglican curate in the pulpit, he was beaten severely that day. Four local Covenanters  happened upon the scene, and tried first to reason with the soldiers. When that failed, words turned to actions, and one of the soldiers was shot. Other villagers joined in the fray and took the solders prisoners. At this point, the Covenanters numbered ninety people.

Aware of the danger posed by their actions, they marched to Dunfries, Scotland, where they attacked other soldiers, killing one in the process. By this time, their numbers had reached two hundred and fifty. On the way, they captured Sir James Turner, the overall military commander in the area. Continuing further, they encountered a soldier friend by the name of James Wallace, who had experience in warfare. He and his military subordinates joined the Covenanter crowd. They then headed to Edinburgh, the capital city, to find more support for their actions to stop “the killing times,” though to their surprise, the weapons of the citizens were turned against them. The time was not ripe for a rebellion against English rule, evidently, despite their numbers having reached some three thousand or more by this time.

The English government dispatched General Thomas Daiziel against them, who with an army of 3000 (some sources say 5000 soldiers), marched after them. The Covenanter force, with their inadequate weapons and supplies, began to fail, with many deserting the force, leaving some 900 left to do battle. On the afternoon of Wednesday, November 28, 1666, on a long slope in the country side south of Edinburgh, three thrusts by the government forces eventually brought a crushing of the valiant forces of the Covenanters. Some fifty were killed, including two Presbyterian ministers from Ulster. But that was only the beginning of the killing done that day. A bloody retribution was exacted upon the prisoners, including starvation, death by handing, and sending many on prison ships to the American colonies and the West Indies.

Words to Life By:
On the monument which marks the battlefield, there is carved a biblical text from Revelation 12:11, which reads, “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”  Another inscription reads,

“A cloud of witnesses lyes here,
who for Christ’s interest did not appear,
For to restore true Liberty
Overturned then by Tyrany
and by Proud Prelates who did rage
Against the Lord’s own heritage.
Their sacrifices were for the Laws
of Christ their king,  his noble cause,
These heroes fought with great renown,
By falling got the Martyr’ Crown.”

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