Bright was the day that dawned for Scotland when Columba, settled on the little island of Iona to preach the gospel of the grace of God to a heathen nation. That Culdee colony then became a center of light, which shed its cheering rays into surrounding darkness. From those sea-girt shores, the Scottish people heard the joyful sound, which brought life and liberty to many a soul in the land. The truths of Christianity spread far and wide, continuing to do so during the next six hundred years. Then followed dark and direful days, consequent upon the errors and superstition of man being put in the place of the truth of God.
The blind zeal of a Scottish king changed the simplicity of the Culdee settlement into the mummery and follies of popish life. Not content with compelling many of his subjects to exchange Christianity for popery, king David even brought foreigners to his kingdom to teach the same vile system. He gave the best positions to papists, and enforced the ignorant subjection of the people. Thus deeply struck the roots of that evil tree in Scotland’s soil, becoming a shelter for sinful deeds and corrupt ways under the name of religion.
During four hundred years, the darkness of Romanism continued to envelop the people, while monasteries, convents, and cathedrals, covered the land. But brighter days followed that long, dark night, for the work of God could not be crushed by the will of a pope. The beginning of the fifteenth century witnessed the courageous testimony of men like James Resby, who dared to teach that “the pope was not Christ’s vicar.” A popish fire kindled at Perth, and a martyr bound to the stake in its midst, was the answer of Romanism to that voice.
Similar scenes followed, for godly men would not be silenced, till the wrath of man sealed their lips in death. The light of God was being brought in upon the darkness, and faithful ones were raised up from time to time, who fearlessly held it forth. Such noble witnesses make one think of what Paul says in his letter to the people of God at Philippi: “Among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life.” There in that precious, priceless book of God, is indeed found the secret of life, and light, and liberty.
The revelation of God’s mind and will, as given in the scriptures, was being read in the country, and that was the power which was felt, as its light gleamed forth amid the darkness. Scotland had welcomed to her shores the Word of God, translated by Wycliffe into the English language. Deeds of darkness hate the light, hence the people who dared to give the word of life an entrance, were made to pay the penalty with their blood.
So popery and the pope ordered, but in spite of all, the Word of the Lord had free course, and true hearts bowed before its teachings and rejoiced in its truths.
It was in the early years of the sixteenth century that the first copy of Wycliffe’s translation was brought to Scotland. A couple of years afterward found a brave and faithful preacher of its truths, ready to serve in the face of danger or death. This was a young nobleman of royal descent, named Patrick Hamilton. At the age of twenty-one, with life and worldly position all before him, that noble heart stood a witness for God in his native land. Going forth with his life in his hand, he courageously braved the wrath of man, as he spoke of human depravity and God’s salvation.
The conduct of this wise preacher of the gospel reminds one of the common but important saying, that “Charity begins at home.” Patrick Hamilton began in his own family, the work of an evangelist, and God honored him there in the conversion of souls. His desires then took a wider sphere, and carrying the glad tidings of God’s love, he went forth to the neighboring houses of his friends. Blessing followed his footsteps as he sought to tell high and low of the manifold grace of God. When the laborer in the field was having his mid-day meal, Hamilton might have been seen by his side, speaking of God and His word.
Then gathering others around him, as their time would permit, that noble evangelist told forth the glad and joyous news of a Saviour for sinners, so far as he knew the truth himself.
Respected as of noble family, honored as the great-grandson of a Scottish king, and loved for his own sweetness of character, Patrick Hamilton met with a welcome everywhere he went. But more than all, as an honored servant of the living God, the evangelist went forth armed with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Therein lay his true greatness and felt power, and in the noblest of all missions he rejoiced to be an ambassador for Christ.
Still wider than family, friends, or surroundings, went this dear man’s sympathies towards the perishing. For before the royal family itself, he carried the glad tidings of God’s grace, and pointed out the errors of man. Surrounded by everything that spoke of popery, that bold champion of the truth stood up before the congregation assembled in a religious edifice, and denounced the empty forms and doings within its walls. He shewed the folly of dead works, and pointed his hearers to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. A very short quotation from one of his addresses will serve to show the character of his preaching.
“Knowest thou what this saying means, ‘Christ died for thee’? Verily, that thou shouldest have died perpetually, and Christ, to deliver thee from death, died for thee, and changed thy perpetual death into His death; for thou madest the fault, and He suffered the pain.”
The building called “The Church of St. Michael” was in Linlithgow—a town in the palace of which royalty apparently delighted, for at that time it was a very favorite abode. Patrick Hamilton’s home was near Linlithgow, so who, and what he was, were well-known facts to all who heard. The young nobleman made many an enemy through his faithful preaching, but he also had the joy of knowing that the good seed had taken root in others, who heard and believed. Popish power was strong in Scotland at the time, and this was soon put forth to stop the mouth of that God-fearing preacher. The question to be solved was not what should be done with him, but how was it to be accomplished without any resistance from king or people. King James V. was young and easily managed, and he was advised to take a journey just at that time. Patrick Hamilton had relatives who might have hindered his death by main force, but they, too, were thwarted in their attempts. Friends also would have started to the rescue of the beloved preacher, but everything was too cleverly managed to allow of any possibility of deliverance.
Hamilton was therefore arrested in the midst of his godly work, imprisoned, tried, and burnt, in a very short space of time. When brought to trial, certain charges were made against him by the pope’s representatives, and these were under consideration for a few days. During that time the noble victim was allowed to go free, that his friends might not suspect that only certain death awaited him. Prominent amongst other charges of a similar kind, was the fact, that Hamilton had preached salvation through faith alone. Rome considered that an unpardonable crime had been committed, when the faithful evangelist had declared that good works could only be the outcome of faith, and not the foundation on which one’s salvation rested.
These truths which the preacher had learned from the Word of God, were discussed by those popish judges, and, as was ever the case in such mock trials, the death of the “heretic” was considered the only antidote to the whole. Archbishop Beaton was the presiding man in the scene, and it was with a fiendish satisfaction that he got everything his own way. Cunning and deceitful in himself, that bloodthirsty man left no stone unturned to make as sure of obtaining his prey, as his wicked heart could wish.
“Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders.”