THE SCOTTISH COVENANTERS - For Scots, expatriates, Christians...

If you're a Scot or a Scottish expatriate, and a Christian, you'll
find the following gem more than inspiring!

It's from a forthcoming reprint of the superb and rare "TRADITIONS OF
THE SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS", due in limited photocopy reprint edition
in mid-2004. If you'd like to place a pre-paid pre-publication order
for your own copy, you'll find full details at
http://www.torontochristianbooks.com/COVENANT.HTM, and mirrored also
on the Limited Reprints page at
http://www.torontochristianbooks.com/reprint2.htm.
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he mid-to late-1600's saw the fiery trial of the church in Scotland.
Determined to retain the purity of the Gospel and their own faithful
ministers, and to resist the King's impositions upon the church, the
finest flower of Scottish believers, from high-born landowner to lowly
commoner, joined as one to sign the Solemn League and Covenant, which
declared above all that the Church had no king but King Jesus....

In these pages are recorded the faithful witness of some of the most
devoted servants of Christ since the Apostolic age itself, many of
whom stedfastly followed their forebears of the early church in the
path of hardship, opposition, betrayal and martyrdom.

The following two extracts strikingly demonstrate the extraordinary
blend of compassion, wisdom, courage and faith which animated this
race of godly Scottish believers...

"One of the most renowned of those worthies who persisted in preaching
the Gospel in the wilds of his native land, at the constant hazard of
his life, was the venerable Peden, whose history is familiar in almost
every cottage in Scotland. Many incidents in the life of this good man
have already been collected, but something new may be still added.
There are to be found a few stray anecdotes of him here and there in
the remote parts of the country, and which, for his sake, may be
deemed worthy of record. Few persons possessed a more saintly
character than did this man of God. He was full of faith and of the
Holy Ghost. Entirely devoted to his Master's service, he counted not
his own life dear unto him, that he might maintain the cause of truth
in the face of the abounding iniquity of a degenerate age. His
solitary wanderings, his destitution, his painful perseverance in
preaching the Gospel, the peril in which he lived, his prayerful
spirit, and the homeliness of his manners, greatly endeared him to the
people among whom he sojourned. He had no home, and therefore spent
much of his time in the fields. The caves by the mountain stream, the
dense hazel wood in the deep glen, the feathery brackens on the hill,
the green corn when it was tall enough to screen him from observation,
afforded him by turns, when necessary, a retreat from his pursuers,
and a place for communing with his God.
Among the many hiding-places to which this man, of whom the world was
not worthy, occasionally retreated, was the solitude of Glendyne,
about three miles to the east of Sanquhar. A more entire seclusion
than this is rarely to be found. Glendyne stretches eastward, winding
among the hills for nearly three miles. The width of the glen at the
bottom is in many places little more than five or six times the
breadth of the brawling torrent that rushes through it. Dark
precipitous mountains, frowning on either side, rise from the level of
the valley to an immense height. On the eastern extremity of the glen
a cluster of hills gathers to a point, and forms an eminence of great
altitude, from which a noble prospect of a vast extent of country is
obtained. Near the lower end of this defile, which in ancient times
was thickly covered with wood, and where it terminates its sinuous
course with one majestic sweep, reaching forward to the bleak
moor-lands beneath, our revered worthy had selected for himself a
place of refuge. This spot, concealed by the dark mantling of the
forest, was known only to a few who made the cause of these sufferers
their own. It happened, on one occasion, that this honoured servant of
Christ, having emerged from his covert, stood by the margin of the
forest, on the beautiful slope of the mountain above. It was the balmy
month of May, and Nature had just put on her loveliest attire. The
forest was vocal with the sweetest music. The blackbird and the thrush
were piping their richest notes on the "greenwood tree;" the gentle
cooing of the wood-dove issued with a delicious softness from the
grove; and the joyous lark, high in the air, was pouring a flood of
melody down upon the wilderness. The wild bees were humming among the
honeyed blossoms of the hawthorn; the scented wind, breathing over the
fragrant heather, was playing with the rustling foliage; the brook was
murmuring in the ravine below; the lambkin were gambolling on the
verdant lea, and the sheep were grazing quietly bv their side; while
on the distant hill the shepherd was seen, wrapped in his plaid, with
his sportive dog at his foot, slowly winding his way up the steep
ascent. The good man's heart beat high with rapture - his delighted
eye roamed over the charming variety of hill and dale - he
contemplated the glorious sun, and all the splendid scenery of the sky
- he felt as if he were standing on holy ground, in the midst of the
great temple of Nature - he experienced an unusual elevation of mind,
and all the freshness and buoyancy of youth seemed once more to take
possession of his aged frame. Full of devout sentiments he uncovered
his head, the silvery hairs of which were streaming on his shoulders,
and, lifting up his hands, he "praised, and honoured, and extolled the
King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and whose ways are
judgment." He had fixed his eye on a cottage far off in the waste, in
which lived a godly man with whom he had frequent intercourse; and
there being, nothing within view calculated to excite alarm, he
resolved to pay his friend a visit. With his staff in his hand he
wended his way to the low grounds to gain the track which led to the
house. He reached it in safety, was hospitably entertained by the kind
landlord, and spent the time with the household, in pious conversation
and prayer, till sunset. Not daring to remain all night, he left them,
to return to his dreary cave. As he was trudging along the soft
footpath, and suspecting no harm, all at once several moss-troopers
appeared coming over the bent, and advancing directly upon him. He
fled across the moor, and when about to pass a mountain streamlet, he
accidentally perceived a cavity underneath its bank, that had been
scooped out by the running brook, into which he instinctively crept
and stretching himself at full length, lay hidden beneath the grassy
coverlet, waiting the result. In a short time the dragoons came up,
and having followed close in his track, reached the rill at the very
spot where he was ensconced. As the heavy horses came thundering over
the smooth turf on the edge of the rivulet, the foot of one of them
sank quite through the hollow covering under which the object of their
pursuit lay. The hoof of the animal grazed his head, and pressed his
bonnet deep into the soft clay at his pillow, and left him entirely
uninjured. His persecutors, having no suspicion that the poor fugitive
was so near them, crossed the stream with all speed, and bounded away
in quest of him whom God had thus hidden as in his pavilion, and in
the secret of his tabernacle. A man like Peden, who read the hand of
God in everything, could not fail to see and to acknowledge that
divine goodness which was so eminently displayed in this instance; and
we may easily conceive with what feelings he would return to his
retreat in the wood, and with what cordiality he would send up the
voice of thanksgiving and praise to the God of his life.

It is recorded in the "Scots Worthies," that he was favoured with a
memorable deliverance from the enemy, who were pursuing him and a
small company with. him, somewhere in Galloway, after he came out of
Ireland. When their hope of escape was almost cut off, he knelt down
among the heather and prayed: "Twine them about the hill, Lord, and
cast the lap of thy cloak over old Sandy and thir poor things; and we
will keep it in remembrance, and tell it to the commendation of thy
goodness, pity, and compassion, what thou didst for us at such a
time." Thus he prayed, and his supplication was recorded in heaven;
for he had no sooner risen from his knees than dense volumes of
snow-white mist came rolling down from the summit of the mountains,
and shrouded them from the sight of their pursuers, who, like the men
of Sodom, when they were smitten with blindness, could not grope their
way after them. Auchengrouch hill, in the vicinity of Glendyne, was
the scene of a similar incident. This occurrence is related by old
Patrick Walker in the following words: "After this, in Auchengrouch
muirs in Nithsdale, Captain John Mathison and others being with him,
they were alarmed with a report that the enemy were coming fast upon
him; so they designed to put him in some hole, and cover him with
heather. But lie not being able to run hard by reason of age, he
desired them to forbear a little until lie prayed, when he said:
'Lord, we are ever needing at thy hand, and if we had not thy command
to call upon thee in the day of our trouble, and thy promise of
answering us in the day of our distress, we wot not what would become
of us. If thou have any more work for us in thy world, allow us the
lap of thy cloak this day again; and if this be the day of our going
off the stage, let us walk honestly off, and comfortably thorow, and
our souls will sing forth thy praises to eternity for what thou hast
done for us.' When ended, he ran alone a little, and came quickly
back, saying: 'Lads, the bitterest of this blast is over; we will be
no more troubled with them this day.' Foot and horse came the length
of Andrew Clark's, in Auchengrouch, where they were covered with a
dark mist. When they saw it they roared like fleshly devils, as they
were crying out: 'There's the confounded mist again!, we cannot get
these execrable Whigs pursued for it.' I had these accounts from the
said Captain John Mathison." Such is the statement of the incident
given by Walker; the local tradition, however, is much more
circumstantial."
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Order from http://www.torontochristianbooks.com/COVENANT.HTM
(this information is also mirrored on the page at:
>From http://www.torontochristianbooks.com/COVENANT.HTM
which might prove easier reading for some)