Hugh McKail

I have mentioned a number of times in this blog that one of the main reasons that the covenanters in Scotland of the 17th century suffered so much was because they refused to acknowledge the English king and that he was the head of the church. The persecution was severe; in fact, the covenanters called it "the sifting time." How did these men, women, and children face such bloody times?

Hugh McKail was a covenanter preacher who was sentenced to death for his views of Christ as the only king. As he approached the scaffold he sang Psalm 31, and the crowd who was watching the proceedings began to sympathize with him. As he mounted the steps, the people began to groan and mourn, but he turned and said to them, "Friends and fellow sufferers be not afraid, every step of this ladder is a degree nearer heaven." At the top he said, "And now I do willingly lay down my life for the truth and cause of God, the Covenants and work of Reformation, which were once counted the glory of this nation: and it is for endeavouring to defend this and extirpate that bitter root of prelacy that I embrace this rope."

His final words were these: "As there is a great solemnity here, a confluence of people, a scaffold, a gallows, people looking out of windows; so there is a greater and more solemn preparation of angels to carry my soul to Christ's bosom . . . Farewell father, mother, friends and relations; farewell the world and its delights; farewell meat and drink; farewell sun, moon and stars; Welcome God and Father; welcome sweet Jesus Christ the mediator of the New Covenant; welcome blessed spirit of grace, the God of all consolation; welcome glory, welcome eternal life; welcome death! Into Thy hands I commit my spirit." At the age of 26, Hugh McKail gained the martyr's crown. There is only one king, and that is King Jesus; and that is worth dying for.