Witnesses in the Far North, edited by Norman Campbell and Robert Dickie, published by Reformation Press, paperback, 172 pages, £8.55, obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
This book is a compilation of obituaries, which previously appeared in issues of The Free Presbyterian Magazine, of godly and faithful men and women in Caithness and Strathy. However worthy the subject, the quality of an obituary, like that of a biography, is generally only as good as its author. The value of this commendable book consists in the combination of the godly and eminent men and women whose lives are recorded and the equally eminent authors such as Revs Neil Cameron, J S Sinclair and D Beaton, who knew them well and loved them dearly.
In reading the 32 obituaries, a striking feature common to them all is that these Spirit-taught men and women were possessed of a keen spirit of discernment. They were of that mournful, yet blessed, number who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land and, sadly, in the Church of Christ also. In the formation of the Free Presbyterian Church in 1893 they found a firm and faithful witness on the side of truth, and gladly joined her ranks. They were the fruit of ministries such as that of John Kennedy, Archibald and Finlay Cook and Christopher Munro, and it is apparent that our Church enjoyed the great blessing of having the cream of the godly in her ranks in these early days.
Our love to them, although we knew them not, is kindled in reading about their spiritual trials and struggles, and their experiences of the power of the Word of God to give liberty and refreshment to the troubled soul. We gather that they were “lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions” in the spiritual warfare in which they were so earnestly and sincerely engaged. We recommend heartily this book, to our people particularly.
(Rev) I D MacDonald
Samuel Rutherford, by Neil M Ross, published by the Scottish Reformation Society in their Scots Worthies series, paperback, 46 pages, £4.50 from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
Rutherford will need little introduction for many readers. He was one of the most noted Scottish ministers of the seventeenth century and left behind him 365 incomparable spiritual letters, many of them written from Aberdeen, where he had been exiled in 1636. This was because some of his views and writings – especially his Defence of Divine Grace, in opposition to Arminian-
ism – did not meet the approval of, in particular, the Bishop of Galloway. From 1626 Rutherford had been minister of the small parish of Anwoth, on the Solway coast. John Livingston, himself a noted minister of that age, described his work: “While he was at Anwoth, he was the instrument of much good among a poor, ignorant people, many of whom he brought to a knowledge and practice of religion”.
Shortly after his return from Aberdeen, Rutherford was appointed professor of divinity in St Andrews. His time there was interrupted by four years in London, where he gave notable service to the Westminster Assembly as a commissioner from the Scottish Church. After Charles II became King in 1660, Rutherford was called to answer a charge of high treason. He responded to the summons in these memorable words: “Tell them I have got a summons already before a superior judge and judicatory, and I behove to answer my first summons; and ere your day arrive, I will be where few kings and great folks come”. He was already ill and, on 29 March 1661, in the words of John Howie, author of The Scots Worthies, “the renowned eagle took its flight into the mountains of spices”.
Rutherford was highly regarded by his faithful contemporaries; one of them, James Urquhart, “the aged minister of Kinloss in Morayshire, who lived on till after the Revolution,” is quoted as saying “as he looked back over his long life . . . ‘I have known many great and good ministers in this Church, but for such a piece of clay as Mr Rutherford was, I never knew one in Scotland like him to whom so many great gifts were given””.
For those who know little about Rutherford, this well-written book would be an excellent place to start; and for those who have previously read about him, this book would prove a profitable reminder of what God made him.