Rev K. D. MacLeod
Continued from the last issue (Page 149)
3. A Rich Harvest of Souls
Ayrshire was one of those districts in Scotland which embraced the Reformation most heartily. It was there too in a previous century that the Lollards, Wycliffe’s followers, had got a hearing for their doctrines. Welsh came to Ayr in August 1600 as assistant to the ageing John Porterfield. His fellow-ministers seem to have held Porterfield in a degree of respect, but he was not distinguished by his zeal or his abilities or anything else. When Welsh arrived, he found some true followers of the Lamb, but the town as a whole was sunk in ignorance, superstition, lawlessness and immorality. Many still had leanings to Roman Catholicism, and priests in the town still performed mass in private. Welsh once addressed Scotland in writing, but perhaps with his eye more especially on Ayrshire: “Alas, sinful nation, laden with iniquities, who is so sinful as thou art? . . . Thy iniquities are more than the sand of the sea; they are grown up so high that the top of them reaches up to the very heavens . . . Are not thy nobles in thee ready to shed blood? . . . In thee the very abominations of the Gentiles are committed.”
One of Welsh’s first objectives was to put an end to fighting in the streets. Whenever he heard that a fight had begun he would rush unarmed to the scene. But he did take the precaution of covering his head with a helmet. He would get himself between the opponents in an attempt to separate them. On at least one occasion, after stopping the fight he brought the antagonists around a table in the street. Welsh prayed and then tried to get them to affirm that they were now friends. Then as a token of their reconciliation he had them eat together, and he brought the proceedings to a conclusion by singing a Psalm. And his efforts were successful. Difficult as his task was, he saw the town transformed into a peaceful community.
Welsh also attacked the Sabbath-breaking which was such a prominent feature of life in the town. Apart from the times of public worship, the Sabbath was treated as a weekly holiday, and the place set apart for sports such as archery was right beside the church. Even Porterfield, Welsh’s colleague, joined in the sports when the afternoon service was over. Welsh himself had begun to spend a considerable part of his Sabbaths in prayer and fellowship with two godly men. Welsh succeeded in diverting his brother-minister from desecrating the Sabbath by inviting him to join the little meetings for prayer and fellowship. And we are told that Porterfield also benefited from these meetings in other ways. One of the men who joined Welsh for prayer was John Stewart, another correspondent of Samuel Rutherford and at one time a provost of Ayr. It was in Stewart’s house that Welsh lived when he first came to Ayr, because no one was willing to provide a house for the new minister and his family.
Welsh spent all his spare time in study, a habit that followed him all his days. We have already noticed him as in an exceptional degree a man of prayer, and his prayers are described as “frequent, fervent, importunate, occasionally prolonged, and often accompanied with strong crying and tears.” Among the petitions overheard on one occasion was the impassioned cry, “O God, wilt Thou not give me Scotland! O God, wilt Thou not give me Scotland!” For greater privacy he often betook himself to his garden or to the church to pour out his heart before God, sometimes becoming so engrossed that he would forget himself and lose all track of time. And he had his reward; his heavenly Father, who sees in secret, did indeed reward him openly, for his ministry in Ayr was richly blessed. There was also an outward reward on which Welsh would have set much less store; in 1602 as a mark of respect for their minister the Town Council presented him with the freedom of the burgh.
Besides his two services every Sabbath, Welsh also preached twice every weekday, from nine to ten in the morning, and from four to five in the afternoon. In his preaching he spoke, we are told, with much simplicity, with deep earnestness, often with many tears, and the impression produced was correspondingly great. Yet Welsh did not go to his labours brimful of self-confidence. Though he was no coward, he sometimes felt so much the responsibility of taking a service that he would say to his elders on his way into the vestry that he was afraid to enter the pulpit; he would ask one of them to pray for him before he would venture to begin.
Welsh was again a member of the General Assembly of November 1602, when James was still manoeuvring with a view to setting up bishops once more in the Scottish Church. It was the King who obtained the consent of the Assembly to the appointment of commissioners to visit certain parts of the country. Welsh was chosen commissioner, and it would have pleased the King no end had he been able to flatter Welsh into accepting the see of Galloway or indeed any of the richer bishoprics which he was repeatedly offered. The King knew how to get men over to his side; but with men of the principles of John Welsh it was much more difficult, and indeed impossible. Shortly after his return from the Assembly we find the Ayr Town Council showing their practical care for their minister. “In respect of the dearth of the year and scarceness,” their records read, “they ordain four bolls of meal, of the first and readiest of the mill farm, be given to Mr John Welsh, their minister, to his support, upon their very good will and favour towards him.”
At the end of March 1603 the people of Ayr heard that their king was now also King of England. Welsh was one of several ministers who headed for Edinburgh to offer their congratulations. What he said, or even whether he spoke personally to the King, we do not know, but we can be sure that he was of the same mind as Robert Bruce, who was admitted to the King’s presence and finished his address by telling James in plain and faithful terms, “The things which have just happened crave a twofold duty of Your Majesty. First, that you take heed to your own heart, that the glory and glance of these earthly things deceive you not; that you make them not your reward, nor place the comfort and consolation of your heart in them, but rather, as they are given, use them as steps and degrees to step up to the crown that cannot fade or fail. Next, seeing the God of heaven has manifested His unspeakable care in preserving so many crowns and kingdoms for you, Sir, Your Majesty cannot eschew the note of ingratitude if you extend not Your Majesty’s credit, and employ your whole care, for preservation of His one kingdom.”
It was only in April 1604, on the death of John Porterfield, that the way became open for Welsh to become fully responsible for the pastoral charge of Ayr. While Welsh had no automatic right to succeed Porterfield, no one else was considered for the vacancy. Later that year the plague broke out in the east of Scotland and was spreading westwards with great loss of life. Welsh probably used the occasion repeatedly to call his people to repentance, but one such exhortation is recorded: “As the ark of Noah was an example and preacher of righteousness to the Jews, even so the pest (the plague) in Glasgow and Edinburgh and in other parts of the land is now a preacher good enough to you, for it cries, ‘Repent, repent, or else it shall be so with you as it was with them’. Now therefore, seeing you have so many means of repentance offered to you, and so many preachers proclaiming repentance in your ears, I beseech you, my dear hearers, delay no longer, but return to the Lord in time, before the judgement overtake you.
The magistrates of Ayr posted guards on the edge of the town to keep out everyone suspected of having the plague. One day two pedlars arrived on horseback. They showed evidence from the previous town they had visited to prove that they were in good health. They were refused admission till a magistrate would give his verdict. The magistrate decided to seek advice from the minister. After a moment’s silent prayer Welsh said, “Bailie, cause these men to put on their packs again and be gone, for if God be in heaven the plague is in these packs.” The pedlars made their way instead to Cumnock, where very soon there was a severe outbreak of the plague. It is assumed that in the cloth the men were selling there were fleas carrying the plague.
(To be Continued)