Snippets from the Covenanters

From the book "Fair Sunshine" by Jock Purves

A COVENANTER'S ORDINATION.

"After Brown, and Koelman, a Dutch minister, had lifted their hands, the great MacWard kept his upon Richard Cameron's light brown locks, saying 'here is the head of a faithful minister and servant of Jesus Christ who shall lose the same for his Master's interest, and it shall be set up before sun and moon in the public view of the world'"

A COVENANTER'S REUNION.

"Before the hangman set head and hands on the blood-stained Netherbow Port… a hero saint lying in prison was shown them. He was Alan Cameron, Covenanter. The cruel question was asked him 'Do you know them?' … He kissed them, saying 'I know them. I know them. They are my son's, my own dear son's. It is the Lord. Good is the will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me nor mine, but has made goodness and mercy to follow us all our days'".

A COVENANTER'S WEDDING.

"John Brown was the very close friend of both Richard Cameron, the Lion of the Covenant, and of Alexander Peden, the Prophet of the Covenant. Peden had married Brown to Isabel Weir in 1682, and after this simple Puritan ceremony had said to Isabel: 'Ye have a good man to be your husband, but ye will not enjoy him long; prize his company and keep linen by you to be his winding sheet, for ye will need it when ye are not looking for it, and it will be a bloody one.'"

A COVENANTER'S LEGACY.

"But the killer of many (Claverhouse) unbelted his pistol, and hastily walking up to John Brown, placed it to his head, and blew his brains out, scattering them over the ground. Looking at his ghastly work with a sardonic smile, he turned to Isabel saying: 'What do you think of your fine husband now?' And through her sad tears she bravely answered: 'I ever thought much good of him, and more than ever now…' Isabel Brown set her child upon the ground, gathered up her husband's brains, tied up his head, straightened his body, and, covering it with a plaid, sat down and wept."

"She bound the corpse's shattered head,
And shrouded the martyr in his plaid;
And where the dead and living slept,
Sat in the wilderness and wept".