November-December - The Gospel Magazine

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The Gospel Magazine Faithful unto Death MARGARET CAMPBELL Grant it to me to behold thee again in dying, Hills of home and to hear again the call Hear above the graves of the martyrs the peewees crying, And hear no more at all. 271 High up in the lonely hill-country of the Scottish Borders, after one leaves the town of Moffat, there is a valley flanked on either side by high hills. By the roadside stands a monument erected to the memory of John Hunter who was hunted and shot on these hills. 'Who was he,' one asks oneself, 'and what were his thoughts as the redcoats of Charles II closed in on him?' One thing we know must have been true of him-like Moses, that great leader of long ago, he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Doubtless his prayers would have ascended to heaven for those dear to him before he lay still in death on the lonely moorland. For him, it would have been a swift passing into the presence of his Saviour, an end for ever to the sufferings that so many of these brave Covenanters had to endure. In 1662 Archbishop Sharp, a renegade from the covenanting cause, had obeyed the inhuman laws of Charles II by expelling four hundred ministers from their charges. One of those who did not fear to denounce this evil was a young minister, Hugh MacKail. He was forced to flee to Holland for three years but then returned to his native Scotland. In Huntley House Museum in the Canongate in Edinburgh, one can see his Bible. How often he must have drawn comfort from its pages in all the trials he was destined to face. Hugh MacKail was a scholarly young man and an eloquent preacher. Delicate in constitution, he had a personal charm which won all hearts. Archbishop Sharp resisted many efforts made to save him. He was tortured by the Boot, then Hugh MacKail was condemned to be hung at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh. He was young, he was winsome, to the human eye he had all the world before him; but Hugh MacKail thought of none of those things. To be faithful to Jesus was what mattered to him. On the scaffold that morning, his face was full of joy-soon he was going to meet his Beloved. There were many witnesses to that scene, standing in the street below or looking out of the windows above The Mercat Cross. Many of these onlookers wept as they looked at the bright face of the young man awaiting his death that day. He spoke to those around him. and there can be few more beautiful farewells than
272 The Gospel Magazine his. His last words were: 'Now I leave off to speak any more to creatures and turn my speech to Thee, O Lord. Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations! Farewell, the world and all delights! Welcome, God and Father! Welcome, sweet Lord Jesus! Welcome, blessed Spirit of Grace! Welcome, glory! Welcome, eternal life! Welcome, death! So Hugh Mackail crossed the river 'and all the trumpets sounded on the other side'. :ril: f,.:
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November-December - The Gospel Magazine

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