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Home / Publications / Free Presbyterian Magazine / 1998 to 2003 / November 1998 / The Religion of the Highlands – The Persecution of a Highland Laird

The Religion of the Highlands – The Persecution of a Highland Laird

By a Highland Minister

Extracted from The Original Secession Magazine, March 1890, and edited, this article was only one of a series of articles in the magazine on the religion of the Highlands of Scotland.

WHILE Covenanters in Northern Scotland were being smitten by the rod of the oppressor in the beginning of 1685, there was a Ross-shire proprietor, Mr John Fraser, the young Laird of Pitcalzean, lying in Newgate prison.

The events which led to his being imprisoned are these: after he finished his arts curriculum at Aberdeen in 1678 he went to London the following year, and remained there for four or five years. He desired to escape the persecution that was so hot in his native land, and to avail himself of the greater facilities for attending in secret on the means of grace, and making progress in theological knowledge, which were afforded in the city.

He lodged in the house of a Baptist minister, whose godly conversation, with that of sundry members of his flock, so delighted him that he felt a strong inclination to join that body of Christians. He consulted his worthy host, who listened with patience to his young friend’s reasoning, and replied: “Mr Fraser, I love you, because I think you love Christ. You love our society because you think God is amongst us, and I trust He is so in truth. But, I must tell you, if we have our beauties we have our blemishes. The congregations of our way are but very few when compared with those in that Church in which you have been educated and brought up. The Church of Scotland, whose principles you have hitherto professed, is at present in the furnace, but the Lord will in due time bring her out of it. You are but young, and should you join yourself to our society your sphere of usefulness must be very small and contracted. You know not as yet what work God may have in reserve for you in your native land, where you may have a large circle to move in. My advice therefore to you is this: forbear at present to join yourself to us. Consider further of the matter, and seek light and direction from the Lord. When you have done so, if you continue still of the same mind, then acquaint me, and I will receive you and embrace you in the arms of love and affection.”

These noble “words of truth and soberness” made a deep impression on the young laird. He took the generous advice, and often said later that he saw much of the hand of God in it, especially when he came afterwards to the work of the ministry in Scotland.

Fraser continued in regular and close attendance upon the meetings of dissenting ministers in London. In 1683 greater severities were brought to bear on nonconformists, and rewards were offered to informers of private meetings or conventicles. On the 11th January 1685, Fraser and a number of others, nearly all Scotsmen, attended a quiet meeting in Foster Lane near the Guildhall. The talented Alexander Shields, author of A Hind Let Loose, was the preacher. Soon after the service began, the house was surrounded by soldiers, and Shields, Fraser, and most of the hearers were made prisoners.

On their being brought before the Lord Mayor, the City Recorder insisted “that special notice should be taken of the criminals because mostly Scotchmen, and more than ordinarily seditious and rebellious against the King’s majesty and his laws”. Some were allowed to leave the court on payment of fines, but ten or twelve, including Shields and Fraser, were sent to Newgate prison, and thrust into a loathsome cell among the vilest of malefactors. After further examination, it was resolved to send them all back to Scotland, to be tried there according to the laws of the kingdom.

About the beginning of March they were manacled two and two as the worst felons, and led through the streets of London. Fraser had the honour of being bound to Shields. In this fashion they were put on board the royal kitchen yacht and conveyed to Leith. Arrived at Edinburgh they were strictly examined by the Privy Council, and as of course they failed to give such answers to the usual ensnaring questions as would satisfy their inquisitors, they were flung into the Edinburgh Tolbooth and the Canongate Tolbooth, both of which were already overcrowded with similar sufferers for conscience’ sake.

After they were imprisoned for a week, tidings reached Edinburgh of the Earl of Argyle’s invasion. The Privy Council consequently decided to send “the prisoners for religion” to Dunnottar Castle, a recently acquired state prison which for security rivalled the Bass. On the 18th of May, towards evening, the doors of the Edinburgh jails were opened, and the surprised inmates, 240 in number and many of them women, were hurried down to Leith, escorted by soldiers. Denied any communication with friends or sympathisers, they were forthwith packed into open boats and landed at Burntisland at daybreak. They were crowded into two rooms of the Burntisland Tolbooth, and shut up for two days and nights without food or water assigned them. Any who would swear the entangling oaths of allegiance and supremacy were sent back to Edinburgh, and about forty in their sore distress complied. The rest were willing to take the oath of allegiance, but they firmly refused to accept the oath of supremacy, as it involved the acknowledgment of an avowed Papist, James VII of Scotland and II of England, to be the head of the Church.

Those were the days of tender consciences. How readily our modern “church leaders” would subscribe the oath, with mental reservations and in a non-natural sense. What would they not swear to retain a whole skin and emoluments? We need not wonder at the want of sympathy with the conscientious scruples of our Covenanting fathers which certain recent Presbyterian writers glaringly display.

With their hands tied with strong cords behind their backs, the prisoners were driven on from Burntisland to Freuchie near Falkland, surrounded by rude unfeeling soldiers who heaped all manner of abuse upon the suffering group. Old women and invalids who lagged behind were beaten and threatened with death for moving on so slowly. They were anxious to hire horses at their own expense, but to this reasonable proposal the merciless drivers would not listen. After a distressful night at Freuchie the prisoners were urged on to the Tay. There, waiting the rising of the tide, they were shut up in three small rooms, and at daybreak ferried across to Dundee, where they were offered a few hours’ rest in the Tolbooth. Here “they were allowed refreshments for their own money.” They were then handed over to the Earl of Strathmore’s regiment and the Angus Militia, and marched on through Forfar and Brechin to North Esk bridge. On that bridge they were forced, weary and faint as they were, to stand or crouch all that tempestuous and cold Saturday night, the soldiers keeping strict guard at both ends. At four o’clock on Sabbath morning (24th May) they resumed their march to Dunnottar, which they reached in the course of the day.

This notorious fortress, the stronghold of the great historic house of the Keiths, Earls Marischal of Scotland, stands on the top of a rock four acres in extent and 160 feet high, overhanging the sea, and separated from the mainland by a deep but dry chasm. It lies about 15 miles south of Aberdeen. The ruins, for the castle was dismantled after the rebellion of 1715, are among the most extensive in Scotland, and the prison vaults still remain as grim memorials of the almost incredible atrocities that indelibly stain the horrible tyranny of the “killing time.” Here, on that sad Sabbath the Covenanters were handed over to the tender mercies of the governor.

What a name of infamy that governor – George Keith of Whiteridge, Sheriff-Depute of the Mearns – bears! The age was fruitful in monsters of “horrid cruelty,” and among them all no one’s claim to be the very elixir of inhumanity is stronger than that of the governor of this Scottish Bastille. We fancy we see this “master-fiend” exultingly superintending the thrusting of 167 men and women into a dark, dank dungeon or vault, fifty-four and three quarter feet long by fifteen and a half feet broad. The floor was covered over with mud or mire ankle deep. There was but one window looking out on the moaning ocean. There was not the slightest provision made for the requirements of decency. “So throng were they in it,” says Wodrow (History, iv. 324), “that they could not sit without leaning one upon another. They had not the least accommodation for sitting, leaning, or lying, and they were stifled for want of air.” There they were, helpless, afflicted, tormented, in a condition of wretchedness resembling, if not exceeding “the horrors of the Black Hole of Calcutta or of the dungeons of Naples” in later generations. In the words of Sir Walter Scott: “Here the prisoners were without distinction packed into a large dungeon. They were allowed neither bedding nor provisions, except what they bought, and were treated by their keepers with the utmost rigour. The walls of this place, still called the Whigs’ Vault, bear token to the severities inflicted on those unhappy persons. There are in particular a number of apertures cut in the wall about a man’s height, and it was the custom, when such was the jailor’s pleasure, that any prisoner who was accounted refractory, should be obliged to stand up with his arms extended and his fingers secured by wedges in the crevices I have described. It appears that some of these apertures or crevices which are lower than the others have been intended for women and even for children. In this cruel confinement, many died, and some were deprived of the use of their limbs by rheumatism and other diseases.”

A row of hooks ran along the roof, and tradition asserts that prisoners who were deemed by their jailors to be refractory were suspended from them by the wrists, while a stool full of iron spikes was placed beneath their feet, so that they had the alternative either of this painful suspension, or piercing their feet should they have sought relief by placing them on the stool. Bread and water were sold to them for their own money. The country people around came in offering to sell victuals, but they were sternly refused access, for the governor’s brother had a monopoly of the provision supply, and he charged exorbitant prices for “very insufficient” food. Even in worshipping God the poor prisoners “were sadly disturbed by the sentinels”.

In the course of a few days the governor removed forty-two of the sufferers to a dungeon, fifteen and a quarter feet by eight and three quarters feet, below the vault. Here there was no window at all: only a small aperture in the wall close to the floor. So stifling was the atmosphere that the sickened inmates used to lie down on the floor by turns to breathe the fresh air rushing in at this opening. Mr John Fraser was one of the separated party. When lying thus on his face breathing in the fresh air, “he contracted a violent cold and dysentery”. A troublesome cough consequently clung to him all his days. Others similarly suffered, and it is a wonder that any of them survived such barbarous treatment.

Undoubted evidence of the dismal condition of the sufferers is supplied by the following Act of the Privy Council. It refers to a petition sent to the Council by the wives of two of the prisoners:

Anent a petition presented by Grizel Cairns and Alison Johnston on behalf of Mr William M’Millan, and Robert Young, wright in Edinburgh, their husbands, and the rest of the prisoners in the Castle of Dunnottar, showing that the petitioners’ said husbands who are under sentence with many others, having been sent prisoners to the said Castle, they are in a most lamentable condition, there being a hundred and ten of them in one vault where there is little or no daylight at all, and, contrary to all modesty, men and women promiscuously together, and forty-two were in another room in the same condition, and no person allowed to come near them with meat or drink, but such meat and drink as scarce any rational creature can live upon, and yet at extraordinary rates, being twenty pennies each pint of ale, which is not worth a plack the pint, and the peck of sandy, dusty meal is afforded them at eighteen shillings the peck, and not so much as a drink of water allowed to be carried to them, whereby they are not only in a starving condition, but must inevitably incur a plague or other fearful diseases, without the Council provide a speedy remedy; and therefore humbly supplicating that warrant might be granted to the effect under-written. The Lords of His Majesty’s Privy Council, having heard and considered the foresaid petition, do hereby continue that part of the desire for liberty till they consider further of the petitioners’ cause; but in the meantime give order and warrant to the deputy-governor of the Castle of Dunnottar, to suffer and permit meat and drink and other necessaries to be brought in to the petitioners by their friends or servants at the ordinary easy rates, and to allow the said Mr William M’Millan and Robert Young a distinct room from the rest; and in regard of the heat of the season of the year, that all the prisoners may be so accommodated without throng that their health be endangered as little as possible.

Good reason had Grizel Cairns to complain. Her husband, a native of Galloway, had been licensed to preach in 1663, and his life ever since had been one of unspeakable hardships. But the Council’s decision “enraged the governor exceedingly”. It seemed an utterly uncalled-for interference with his own and his brother’s vested rights in inhumanity and extortion. He actually tried by threats and promises to induce the prisoners to sign a declaration, “that they were gently treated and wanted not conveniences”, and he was exasperated at their peremptory refusal. The Act seems to have remained a dead letter, but the governor’s wife interposed. She “came in to see the prisoners in the two vaults, and prevailed with her husband to make them a little more easy”. The women, forty-eight in number, were removed from the large vault and had two separate rooms assigned them, while twelve of the inmates of the lower dungeon were allowed a less dismal place of confinement.

Still, they all had much misery to encounter. The vault was becoming daily increasingly loathsome. Only think of nearly a hundred human beings of high respectability, moving up and down for three months in that pestilential den, with the floor covered with inches of the most foul and vile mire. No wonder that some of the strongest of them tried to escape! Twenty-five of them one night succeeded in forcing their way through the window overhanging the sea. They crept along the face of the precipice at the utmost hazard of their lives. Two of them lost their footing, and fell over. The rest might have succeeded in making their escape but for some women at work in the washing-house who noticed the movement and gave the alarm forthwith to the guard. Eight eluded their pursuers, but fifteen, weakened by the severity of their confinement, were unable to run far and were caught. One of the captured has left us a vivid description of his own and companions’ treatment. They were thrust into the guard house. Bound to forms and laid on their backs, on the floor, they were most dreadfully tortured, with the result that some of them died and others were maimed for life. A tombstone in the neighbouring churchyard of Dunnottar marks the spot where the dust of some of these martyrs rests in peace. The inscription is as follows: Here lie John Stot, James Aitchison, James Russell, and William Brown, and one whose name we have not gotten; and two women whose names also we know not; and two who perished coming down the rock, one whose name was James Watson, the other not known, who all died prisoners in Dunnottar Castle, anno 1685, for their adherence to the Word of God and Scotland’s Covenanted Work of Reformation. Rev. 11th Chapter, 12th Verse.

Several accounts of the hardships endured by the prisoners are preserved among the Wodrow Manuscripts. Wodrow, in his history, repeatedly expresses his indebtedness to the narrative written by Mr John Fraser. These accounts were all written when the imprisonment was over. One letter written in the Castle survives, and is full of interest. It was sent by Janet Linton to her husband, and the few sentences we quote show that God heard “the groanings of the prisoners.” It is dated 17th July 1685.

My dear and loving husband,

These are to show you that I have had the fever since I heard from you which has weakened my body very much, but I have been strengthened from my Master who has failed nothing of His promise to me; for He told me that His grace should be sufficient for me, and that His strength should be made perfect in my weakness. My dear heart, bless the Lord on my behalf that ever it should have pleased such a holy God to have looked on such an unworthy sinner as I am, or to have honoured the like of me to suffer anything for His name’s sake, or bear His cross in a day when there is so few longing to wear His livery; and He has kept me from denying His name before a godless generation that is fitting fast for destruction, when He has suffered many that spent their time better nor I did to fall: But it is free mercy; and O, my dear heart, if I could speak to the commendation of free mercy! for the Lord hath made all things easy to me, and He has been so kind to my soul sometimes since I came to prison that I counted all things nothing in comparison with Him; and He has made me so to rejoice in Him that I have thought I was beyond doubts in my condition; but it is free mercy indeed, for I have nothing of mine own; but I desire to believe in my kind Master, that has begun anything of grace in my heart, that He will also finish it.

She then goes on to mention a remark in a letter from her husband: that he intended to come and see her if they were all banished. She with good reason discourages his coming. She knew too well that some sympathising relatives who had come to see other prisoners had been iniquitously seized, and confined without form of trial with the rest in the prison vaults. She urges him to encourage himself in the Lord, taking His word for his support in affliction.

I entreat you further to close work in spearing the cause why the Lord is contending so sharply with His poor people, in giving the dearly beloved of His soul to the hands of our enemies; but we have no reason to complain, for if He had given us what we deserved, our portion had been in hell. And that is my comfort that our stock is in His hand, and He will let our enemies do nothing, but what I hope will be for His own glory and His people’s good. Now, my dear, ye are dear indeed unto me, but not so dear as Christ.

Then she urges him to make cheerful surrender of everything for Christ, and to care not for shame and reproach incurred in the path of duty. She hears some in his district are getting the gospel, and adds:

I entreat you to follow the gospel, my dear, and be valiant for the truth on earth, and prepare for death and judgment, and neglect not heart work. Now my dear, I can say no more for your encouragement, but leave you and my children to the Lord’s protection and guiding, and believe He will be father and mother to you according to His promise.

After sending loving regards to a number of friends and relatives, and mentioning that “James Aitchison is won to glory,” she concludes:

Farewell to you it may be in time but not in eternity.
I rest your loving wife, Janet Linton.

The letter is a remarkable illustration of calm endurance of wrong for Christ’s sake. Torn from her husband and children for the crime of nonconformity, immured for two months in a comfortless vault with the prospect of banishment, she writes not a syllable that can be construed into murmuring. How terrible was the tyranny under which Scotland groaned when for multitudes of the heroic spirit of Janet Linton there was no place found but a prison cell! Whether we have today any cause for gratitude to those leaders in Church and State, who are doing all they can to bring about a condition of things in which the atrocities of the “killing time” may be repeated, time will tell.

At this time the prisoners were cheered by a letter from the great Alexander Peden, which was preserved by Patrick Walker, himself then a prisoner in Dunnottar. Peden was at the time hunted upon the mountains, but he was soon “to be with Ritchie”, in the rest denied him on earth. The letter is full of consolation, and concludes with an earnest exhortation:

Keep under the shadow of God’s wings, and to cast the lap of Christ’s cloak over your head until ye hear Him say that the brunt of the battle is over and the shower is slacked. . . . Keep within His doors until the violence of the storm, which is not yet full tide, begin to ebb. Christ deals tenderly with His young plants and waters them oft lest they go back. Be painful and lose not life for the seeking. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you.

By authority of the Privy Council the Earls Marischal and Kintore came in the middle of July to examine the prisoners, but they found them all united in their determination to refuse the oath of supremacy. Finding them so resolute, the Council ordered them all back to Leith about the middle of August, with the view of banishing them “to the plantations” as slaves. Thus the doors of the dungeons were opened and the return march began. It is easy to picture the pitiable plight in which the weak and emaciated prisoners were, and their unfitness for a journey of eighty-two miles. A few of the most helpless were “allowed horses upon their own charges.” Mr John Fraser was very infirm and weak, but the commanding officer of the escort would on no account allow him the benefit of a hired horse. Like the rest, he had his hands bound with cords behind his back. They were driven on mercilessly the first day to Montrose Tolbooth. The following night was passed in Arbroath. Then Dundee was reached. The following day was Sabbath, but it brought them no rest, for they had to trudge on to Cupar. From there they were conducted to Burntisland, and after being ferried over the firth were confined in the Tolbooth of Leith.

Endnote: The article ends here, and we have been unable to procure the next instalment. However, Religious Life in Ross records that in September, 1685, John Fraser was sentenced by the Privy Council to banishment to the American Plantations. In New England he was licensed to preach the gospel and became a noted preacher there. After the Revolution of 1688 he returned to Scotland and was appointed to the ministerial charge of Glencorse. In 1696 he became the minister of the parish of Alness, Ross-shire. There, and in pastorless congregations in the area, he laboured with amazing zeal until bodily infirmity forced him to desist. “After a life of great vicissitude and suffering in the early part of it, and much usefulness in the latter part, he rested from his labours on 7th November, 1711.” -Ed

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        • “A Zealous, Godly Preacher”
        • The Call to the Water of Life – Part 2
        • Samuel Rutherford – From Birth to New Birth
        • Those Who Have Fled for Refuge – part 3
        • Obituary – Mrs Annie MacIver, North Tolsta
        • Book Reviews
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • April 2002
        • “I am the Resurrection and the Life”
        • Coming to Christ – Part 1
        • Thomas Cranmer – On to the Fire
        • The Plague of Leprosy
        • Divided Allegiance
        • Obituary – Miss Margaret Sutherland
        • Book Review – The Hidden Pathway
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • August 2002
        • Everything Devoted to God’s Service
        • Unity Among the Brethren
        • Those Who Have Feld for Refuge
        • The Early Christian Church – The Era of Conquest
        • Symptoms of Spiritual Death
        • Book Review – The King’s Daughters
        • African Mission News
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • September 2001
        • Knowing God
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • The Path of the Just
        • Obituary – The late Miss Jean Nicolson
        • Obituary – The late Mrs Lexie MacLeod
        • Raasay Congregation – a Brief History
        • The Knowledge of Sin
        • Induction at Sengera
        • Book Review: The Source of the IRA/Sinn Fein
        • Protestant View
      • October 2001
        • Tragedy
        • “God Gave the Increase”
        • The Westminster Confession of Faith – It’s Usefulness for the Church
        • Desires for Glory
        • Calling a Minister
        • The Vatican Archives
        • A Visit to Singapore
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 2001
        • Scotland’s Preachers
        • Recent Inductions
        • The Rose of Sharon
        • The Westminster Confession of Faith – It’s Usefulness on the Personal Level – Intellectually
        • “Be Strong and of a Good Courage”
        • God’s Wonderful Goodness
        • “Withhold not Correction”
        • Obituary – The late Mr Donald Beaton, Elder, Auckland
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Obituary – The late Mr Donald Beaton, Elder, Auckland
      • May 2001
        • Sinking in Capernaum’s Doom
        • Book Review – Irish Worthies
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • The Goodwill of God
        • Keeping the Heart in Temptation
        • The Establishment Principle – Part 2
        • The Garden of Nuts
        • The Son of Man Lifted up
        • Obituary – The late John Angus MacLeod
        • A Deputy’s Visit to Africa – Kenya
        • Book Review – Faith and Justification
      • March 2001
        • “Just with God”
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Christ Set up from Everlasting
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ – Christ as Priest
        • W S Plumer- Part 2
        • Obituary – The late Rev Alexander McPherson, Perth
        • Pastoral Letter – Rev Alexander McPherson
        • Joseph MacKay
        • Book Review – Forerunner of the Great Awakening
      • June 2001
        • Blessedness
        • Church Information
        • Christ Coming for His people’s Help – Part 1
        • Who Belong to the Visible Church?
        • The Establishment Principle – Part 3
        • Religion in the Highlands After 1688 – Part 3
        • Raising Questions Against Darwinism
        • Eastern Europe News
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • July 2001
        • Cry Aloud Spare Not
        • Christ Coming for His people’s Help – Part 2
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ
        • Our African Missions – an Update
        • Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Spring Visit to Ukraine
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Report
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • January 2001
        • Looking Forward
        • Book Review – The Government of the Church
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Faith, Its Nature, Origin and Effects
        • Thomas Halyburton and How God May Be Known
        • The Divinity of Christ
        • Religion in the Highlands after 1688 – Part 1
        • Keep a good conscience
        • God’s True Family
        • What is the Object of Faith?
        • Communion in Singapore
      • February 2001
        • Calling the Sabbath a Delight
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Christ Set up from Everlasting
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ – Christ as Prophet
        • Religion in the Highlands after 1688 – Part 2
        • Book Review – Daily Prayer and Praise by Henry Law
        • Psalm 122 – Henry Law
        • The enemies of the Christian
        • African Mission News
        • Protestant View
      • December 2001
        • Protestant View
        • African Mission News
        • Eastern Europe News
        • Book Review – Tell it to the Generation Following
        • The Westminster Confession of Faith – Usefulness on the Personal Level
        • The Impossibility of Neutrality
        • “Christian”Entertainment
        • Attaining a Knowledge of Our Sins
        • Church Information
        • Notes and Comments
        • A View From Zimbabwe
      • August 2001
        • “There They Preached the Gospel”
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • “He Will Bless Us”
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ
        • “He Delighteth in Mercy”
        • “The Voice of Christianity in Scotland”
        • Obituary – The late Mr Ian M MacLeod, Elder, Dingwall
        • Obituary – The late Mrs Catherine MacKenzie, Stornoway
        • Book Review – Southern Presbyterian Leaders 1683-1911
        • Book Review – The Westminster Confession of Faith, Milestone, Millstone or Manifesto?
      • April 2001
        • Sowing the Seed
        • The Duty of Nations to the Church
        • The Establishment Principle – Part 1
        • “The Finger of God”
        • Obituary – The late Miss Peggy Nicolson, Inverness
        • A Deputy’s Visit to Africa – Zimbabwe
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • September 2000
        • The Resurrection of Christ
        • Church Information
        • Reading the Scriptures Profitably
        • The believer is to put those sins… into the hands of Christ
        • The Puritans and the Ministry
        • Christ Glorifying God
        • Blessed Are They That Mourn
        • The Nature of Vital Piety (2)
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • October 2000
        • The Fear of God
        • Church Information
        • Reading the Scriptures Profitably (2)
        • He indeed is rich in grace whose graces are not hindered by his riches
        • The Puritans and the Ministry (2)
        • James Stewart
        • Christ Healing a Leper
        • Visits To Eastern Europe
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 2000
        • “What Are They Among so Many?”
        • Vain Religion
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • The Desired Haven
        • God may bear long with the wicked, but…
        • Thomas Halyburton
        • James Stewart (2)
        • The Temptation of Christ
        • Book Review
      • May 2000
        • The Church of God From Age to Age
        • Jesus of Nazareth passeth by
        • Rev Lachlan MacLeod (1918-1998) – Obituary
        • “So let him give”
        • The Solemn League and Covenant
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
      • June 2000
        • The Example of the Church in Smyrna
        • Eastern Europe – Spring 2000 Report
        • Church Information
        • The Nature of the New Birth
        • This is Indeed the Christ
        • Obituary The late Mr Alasdair Gillies, M.A., Elder, Dingwall
        • Report of Mbuma Zending Meeting – 29th April 2000
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Ma Donsa One of the Pilgrims at Ingwenya
        • African Mission News
      • March 2000
        • Two Free Churches
        • Sermon The Gracious Invitation of Christ
        • The Rev John Sinclair of Bruan (1801-43)
        • Princeton Theology – the Scottish Connection
        • Regeneration Regulating the Affections
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • July 2000
        • The Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Church Information
        • Lift up a Standard for the People
        • At the Westminster Assembly
        • The Earth Corrupt before God
        • The Trinitarian Bible Society Report
        • Obituary – The late Mr Kenneth Gillies, Elder, Raasay
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland Synod
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • February 2000
        • The Rev. Christopher Munro (1817-85)
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • “Come unto me”
        • Joy and Peace in Believing
        • Princeton Theology – the Scottish Connection
        • Negotiations in London
        • Obituary
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Scottish Day Conference
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • January 2000
        • Another Millennium
        • Notes of a Sermon The Earth Filled with His Glory
        • The Second Coming of Christ – Three Main Views
        • The Latter Day Glory
        • Building up the Church of God
        • Princeton Seminary – The Majestic Testimony by David Calhoun.
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • December 2000
        • The Divine Saviour
        • A Sermon by John Kennedy
        • Thomas Halyburton
        • The Late Roderick Macleod,
        • The Aberdeen Church
        • Book Reviews
        • Book Reviews
        • Notes and Comments
      • August 2000
        • Where Are We Now?
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Christ Given in His Fulness
        • Alexander Henderson
        • I cannot always come to Christ
        • Obedience to Christ
        • The Nature of Vital Piety
        • The Puritans for Today
        • Protestant View
      • April 2000
        • The Family Under Attack
        • Sermon
        • Princeton Theology – the Scottish Connection
        • The King in Scotland
        • Comments on Psalm 51
        • Unsettling the Settlement
        • The pope’s visit to the Holy Land
        • Notes and Comments
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      • October 1999
        • Declaring All the Counsel of God
        • Church Information
        • God so Loved the World
        • The Rev. James S. Sinclair
        • The Glasgow Assembly
        • Calvin’s View of the Millennium
        • Book Review
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Annual General Meeting
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • September 1999
        • Old Testament Types
        • Church Information
        • Christ Seeing of the Travail of His Soul
        • Alexander Stewart of Cromarty
        • The Intercession of Christ
        • Resolved to Abolish Episcopacy
        • “And the sun was darkened”
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 1999
        • Morality and Politics
        • Church Information
        • Sermon
        • Rev Alexander Morrison (1925-1999) – Obituary
        • The Charismatic Movement – The Gifts have Ceased
        • Casting down the Walls of Jericho
        • A Visit to Singapore
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • May 1999
        • “Upon this rock I will build my church”
        • The Blessed Poor
        • Rev Angus Mackay
        • Is Christ our High Priest?
        • Signs of Religious Declension
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • March 1999
        • Heaven-provoking Legislation
        • Church Information
        • The Drawing Power of the Cross
        • The Alpha Course Examined
        • Teaching Christianity in Scottish Schools
        • The late Mrs Margaret Tallach, Glasgow
        • Letter by John Love, D.D.
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
      • June 1999
        • Made a Faithful Shepherd
        • Notes and Comments
        • How May Sanctification Be Attained?
        • Protestant View
        • Mbuma Zending Meeting Report
        • Address to Mbuma Zending Meeting
        • Spiritual Pride in Man
        • Church Information
        • Preaching the Unsearchable Riches of Christ
        • The Free Church and the World
      • January 1999
        • When the Enemy Shall Come in Like a Flood
        • Church Information
        • Let me see thy countenance
        • The Religion of the Highlands
        • Personal Creed and Resolutions
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
        • Eastern Europe Mission
      • July 1999
        • The Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • The Pre-eminence of Christ
        • A Man Who Wished to Live Obscurely
        • The Nature of Saving Faith
        • The Light of the World
        • God is: therefore God is to be Worshipped
        • Book Review
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland Synod
        • Protestant View
      • February 1999
        • The Purposes of the Lord’s Supper
        • The Trinitarian Bible Society – Appointments
        • The Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God
        • Holy Importunity in Prayer
        • A Heavenly Eternal Crown of Glory
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
      • December 1999
        • The End of a Millennium
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • Until the Day Break
        • The Charismatic Movement – The Gifts have Ceased
        • The Rev. Donald Macfarlane of Dingwall
        • The Pagan Origin of Christmas A Reminder
        • Ministers Prepared by Temptation
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • August 1999
        • The Advance of Rome under Hume
        • Notes and Comments
        • Eastern Europe Mission
        • Church Information
        • The Marks of a Time of Revival, and the Means of Bringing it About
        • The Free Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Thy Kingdom Come
        • The National Covenant
        • Work of the Trinitarian Bible Society in 1998
        • Unsettled and Discouraged?
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
      • April 1999
        • The Observance of Easter
        • The Smitten Shepherd and His Flock
        • The Prince of Highland Preachers
        • The Inter-Faith Movement
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • September 1998
        • The Golden Key of Prayer
        • Church Information
        • Weighed in the Balances
        • Christ, the Way
        • Praying as Beggars
        • Book Reviews
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Our African Mission
        • Patrick Mzamo – A sketch of an African elder and lay-preacher
      • October 1998
        • The Westminster Assembly and Romanism
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • Christ Liveth in me *
        • God’s Way of Bringing Sinners to Christ
        • The Effects of Television Violence
        • Sin and Sanctification
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Philemon Ndebele
      • November 1998
        • Faithfulness or Vilification
        • Church Information
        • The Best Security in Evil Times
        • Pentecostal Dialogue with Rome
        • The Prayers of the Aged
        • The Religion of the Highlands – The Persecution of a Highland Laird
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Eastern Europe Mission Work
      • May 1998
        • The Mode of Baptism – A Defence
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • A Vessel Meet for the Master’s Use
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • Serving the Lord with Humility
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland on the Internet
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        • The Story of Mamlotshwa
      • March 1998
        • A Minister of God
        • “I will yet for this be inquired of”
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        • Godliness With Contentment
        • Protestant View
        • African Mission News
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • Private Prayer and Public Profession
        • Truth and Life
        • The Free Church, Psalms and Hymns
      • June 1998
        • Family Worship
        • Notes and Comments
        • Ma Ngwenya – Mother of the late Rev. B. B. Dube
        • Church Information
        • The Lord is Risen Indeed
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • The Pastoral Epistles
        • The Church of Scotland and the Bible
        • Mbuma-Zending Meeting – 1998
        • Three Characteristics of True Faith
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      • July 1998
        • The General Assemblies
        • Church Information
        • The Scriptural Warrant for Creedal Subscription
        • The Pastoral Epistles
        • The Trinitarian Bible Society Report
        • A Cambuslang Case of Conversion
        • Booklet Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland Synod
      • January 1998
        • Book Review
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        • Notes and Comments
        • MaHlabangana
        • Winter Visit to Eastern Europe
        • THE NEW YEAR
        • The Church Built and Kept by the Lord
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • The Fruits of the Declaratory Act In the Free Church of Scotland
        • Redeeming the Time
        • African Mission News
      • February 1998
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • A Mission Day of Prayer
        • Church Information
        • Leaning Upon her Beloved
        • Brought Home to Heaven
        • Observing the Sabbath
        • Church Deputy’s Visit to North America
        • African Mission News
        • A Faithful Ambassador is Health
      • December 1998
        • When the Enemy Shall Come in Like a Flood
        • “My grace is sufficient for thee”
        • The People of the Great Faith
        • Sudden Conversions
        • A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ
        • “Give ye them to eat”
        • Protestant View
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      • August 1998
        • The General Assemblies
        • Sermon – The House of Many Mansions
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        • Book Notice
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        • Paul Magaya – Lay Preacher in Shangani
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      • April 1998
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • The Mode of Baptism – A Defence
        • Notes and Comments
        • Protestant View
        • The Manner of Coming to Christ
        • Book Notice
        • A Lily from the Ukraine
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        • Called of God
        • Threats to our Religious Liberties
        • Mazwabo’s Amazing Transformation
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