The Scottish Covenanters
© 02.10.10 By Jason Low
I have wanted to visit Scotland for many years, and now I find myself wishing to go even more. I recently watched The Scottish Covenanters, a documentary about how Scotland became a Protestant Christian county. Never have I been so moved by any film in my life.
The documentary covers a fifty-year period. From 1638 to 1688, Scotland was in a state of nearly constant civil unrest because many people refused to accept the Royal decree which stated that the king was head of the church. These people were known as the Covenanters' Presbyterians who were committed to keeping their form of worship as the sole religion of Scotland. When the Covenanters signed a covenant stating that only Jesus Christ was the head of the church, they effectively signed their own death warrants. And so began one of the bloodiest periods of Scottish history: the Killing Times.
The Covenanters were now flushed out and hunted down as never before. Even the common soldier was empowered to take the life of any suspect without trial of law. Usually this was done without any evidence and often as the result of the suspicions of an over zealous town official or Minister. The persecution had no mercy on man, woman or child, and the brutality defied the imagination. Any Covenanter caught by the King's troops was murdered on the spot.
In this documentary you hear the story of Margaret Wilson. Margaret Wilson and her younger sister often visited an elderly lady, Margaret McLachlan, in a small village in Scotland. They enjoyed her stories and shared prayers together, and all three loved the Lord completely. They lived in troubled times, but their friendship and faith were personal and beautiful.
But one day the elder Margaret was arrested by the King's dragoons, charged with being a dissident and harboring ministers of the converters. She was ordered to swear her loyalty to the King and his prayer book, but the old lady refused, even though she knew it would cost her freedom. Her trial was quick and her sentence was cruel. She was to be chained to a post and drowned by the incoming tide of the Solway Firth on the banks of the town. During the arrest, someone informed the authorities about the two Wilson girls and they were also arrested, judged, and sentenced to death.
The father of the two young girls was frantic. He sold nearly everything he owned and borrowed from friends and family in order to raise one hundred pounds, and rode to Edinburgh to buy his daughters' pardon. The authorities gave him back the youngest, who was only thirteen years old. But they kept Margaret.
On the morning of 11 May, 1685, the two Margarets were chained to their posts. As the tide rushed in, Margaret McLachlan was quickly engulfed by the waves. Knowing she was near death, she gave up her spirit to the Lord, and drowned. Young Margaret Wilson had been chained nearer to the shore, where her friends and family begged the young girl to recant and swear loyalty to the king. Even her own mother pleaded desperately with Margaret to give up her faith in order to save her life. But when she heard her mother cry out for her to say "God save the king," Margaret replied: "God save him, if he will, for it is his salvation I desire." Thinking that she would recant, a town officer rode out on horse back and held her head above the water and asked her if she would renounce the Covenanters.
Summoning all of her energy and faith, this lass of no nobility, prosperity or esteem, calmly answered: "I will not. I am one of Christ's children. For God's sake let me go." Soon later the waves consumed her and she drowned. She was only eighteen years old.
I have to confess that at the end of this 55-minute film, I found that I had cried, and more than once. May we never forget the memories of these Christian men, women and children who gave their lives for Christ the true King.
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