A Review Article by Rev W A Weale
This book was first published in 1907 and reprinted by the Banner of Truth Trust in 1961. This new edition, beautifully presented and printed, will be welcomed by all who are interested in the history of the Church in Scotland between the first and second Reformations and in the story of Robert Bruce, who was a worthy successor of John Knox.
While there is some uncertainty about the date and place of Robert Bruce’s birth, we are told, “It is probable that he was born in Airth Castle in Stirling-shire in the year 1554”. The author goes on: “The claim of the family of Airth to high rank in Scotland could be established both on the male and on the female side. . . . Sir Alexander Bruce, the Laird of Airth, could show a direct line from King Robert the Bruce, while his wife, Janet Livingstone, had a genealogy no less eminent, being a great-grandchild of James 1” (pp 3-4).
Sir Alexander Bruce, father of Master Robert, is described as “a rude bluff Baron, with a goodly proportion of acres for his estate, and behind him a powerful following of retainers”. It is made clear also that Sir Alexander “was lavish to a fault, and his descendants judged him too liberal with his possessions, even to the impoverishing of his estate” (p 6). The Livingstone family were Roman Catholic and strongly opposed to the Reformation, which comes out in his mother’s opposition to Robert studying for the work of the ministry.
After a most informative chapter on the “Kinsfolk and Connections of Robert Bruce”, we go on to learn of his conversion. It is noted that, if the year of Bruce’s birth is uncertain, he leaves us in no doubt as to the exact time of his new birth. It was, as the title of the chapter informs us, on “The Last Night of August, the Year of God 1581”. His parents wished their highly-gifted son to study civil law, and initially that is what he did. After a course in the Humanities at St Andrews – when he, along with his friend James Melville, would have sat at the feet of Knox, then in his closing years – Bruce went to France and the Low Countries in pursuit of further studies, before returning to Scotland and taking up employment.
There then follows his own very graphic account of that never-to-be forgotten night in 1581. He speaks of “the wrath of God pressing me down as it were to the lowest hell. Yea, I was so fearfully and extremely tormented, that I would have been content to have been cast into a cauldron of hot melted
1This article reviews Master Robert Bruce, Minister in the Kirk of Edinburgh, by D C Macnicol, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 264 pages, £12.50; it is available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
lead, to have my soul relieved of that unsupportable weight” (p 21). At length, however, Bruce was directed to the mercy of God in Christ, and his life as “a new creature” began. Between 1581, when he was converted, and 1583, when he re-appears in St Andrews University, we have no information and Macnicol suggests that, like Paul in Arabia, he “retired that he might meditate and allow his resolve to mature” (p 24). At any rate, there follows an account of his theological studies, which, everything suggests, he attended to with the utmost diligence.
On being called to the Kirk of St Giles’, Robert Bruce showed great hesitation, no doubt because of the high profile of this church and because it was where King James VI worshipped. However, it soon became clear to him that this is where God intended him to be, and so began a ministry that drew large crowds. John Livingstone said of his preaching that, in his opinion, “never man spake with greater power since the Apostles’ days”.
That the new minister was no “court preacher” is evident from the fact that, when the King was present, “he was wont to pay His Majesty the compliment of singling him out for a direct exhortation”. For example, when James was behaving himself rudely during a service and talking to those about him, Robert Bruce paused on a couple of occasions, and the King fell silent. The third time Bruce turned to him and spoke: “It is said to have been an expression of the wisest of kings, ‘When the lion roars, all the beasts of the field are quiet: the Lion of the tribe of Judah is now roaring in the voice of His gospel, and it becomes all the petty kings of the earth to be silent” (p 38).
Despite such rebukes, the relationship between the King and Robert Bruce for a number of years was, while strained at times, on the whole very good. When James went to Denmark for his young bride in 1589, the affairs of state were entrusted largely to the wisdom and care of Bruce, and several letters were sent to him which spoke of the King’s confidence and trust.
This relationship, however, was not to last and we learn of the increasing tension between the King and the Kirk, and especially between the King and Robert Bruce. Two events brought things to a head. First, the brutal murder of the Earl of Moray by the Earl of Huntly, who was a friend of James. The Kirk had no option but to speak out about this. The minister of Stirling, Patrick Simson, in a sermon turned his attention to the King, who was present, and told him that the question would yet be put to him, “Where is Abel thy brother?” The second matter that especially soured relations between James and Bruce was, as the chapter is entitled, “The Matter of Gowrie”. This concerned the murder of two brothers, a mysterious event that seemed to implicate the King. James denied any part in this, but Bruce refused to accept his denial, at least for a long time.
The breach between the two men never healed and it led to three spells of exile for Robert Bruce. The first of those was to France, from 1600 to 1601, and then two in Inverness – the first from 1605 to 1613 and the second from 1622, following a business visit to Edinburgh. This visit, it appears, was to settle domestic affairs following the death of his loyal wife Martha Douglas. Edinburgh, however, was at that time out of bounds for Bruce and so, despite the fact that he was now close to 70, he was sent back north again. These periods in Inverness – while times of great hardship and danger (he narrowly avoided an assassin’s bullet during his first period there) – were also times of great blessing, for he was free to preach the gospel, and multitudes from districts north of Inverness attended his ministry and were brought, like Legion, from being a fierce and barbaric people, to the feet of the Saviour.
This final exile lasted until March 1625. By that time, “James the Sixth was gone to his account, and King Charles did not insist on his exile, but permitted the aged minister, for the short remainder of his days, to dwell in his own house in Kinnaird” (p 215).
His final years however were by no means years of inactivity. Although James had established Episcopacy throughout Scotland, Robert Bruce was free to go around the Lowland towns and villages, preaching the everlasting gospel, and only the Judgement Day will reveal the blessing which attended those years. One of the highlights of that time was the memorable communion at the Kirk of Shotts in June 1630. The name of John Livingstone is especially remembered in connection with that occasion and particularly his sermon on the Monday when, it is said, around 500 were awakened and brought to the Saviour. Robert Bruce was one of a number of famous ministers present, and it is most likely that it was he, now approaching the final year of his life, who would have conducted the action service on the Sabbath day. On 27 July 1631, Master Robert Bruce departed this life and it is reckoned that an immense crowd of 4000-5000 mourners of all ranks assembled at his funeral.
Much more could be said about the letters of Bruce which are still extant; also about the remarkable visions and dreams which he was favoured with, but especially about the “Sacrament of the Supper” in St Giles’ and the rich quotations from Bruce which we are given. His thoughts on this subject can be read at length in his The Mystery of the Lord’s Supper. We learn that in 1590 as many as 12, or even 16, tables were served at a communion service, with as many as 100 sitting at each (p 85). We also learn that a great number of young people were at the table.
We conclude with Macnicol’s summary of his character: “On the whole, the portrait of Bruce discloses a man of commanding intellectual gifts, of
iron resolution; stubborn, and even what the Scots call ‘thrawn’, a man of great practical gifts, unweared in the service of the Church, and in the effort to advance Christ’s kingdom; emotional, affectionate, devoted to every cause which he espoused, implacable towards the enemy; chiefest of all, a great Christian, in daily fellowship with the spiritual world; earnest in Bible study and the practice of prayer; one who, as he himself expressed it, ‘lived by the faith of the Son of God’. The writer goes on: “When we add to all these moral and intellectual gifts Bruce’s command of influence on account of his family name, it becomes clear that such an one as he was bound to leave a trail upon the page of history. He occupies a place midway between Andrew Melville his master and Alexander Henderson his greatest disciple. The history of the Church, and the career of a great churchman like Bruce cannot be ignored by those that would appreciate the formative influences of that period” (p 160).
This book is highly recommended.