6
December 1680 A.D. Marion
Harvey—Lady of Scots Covenanters Criminally Charged by Scottish Anglican
Court; Hung by the Neck One Month Later
December
6: Marion Harvey
A Maid Meets
Her Master
It was on this day, December 6, 1680, that a young twenty
year old maid stood before the Anglican court in Scotland. Her judicial
examination and subsequent martyrdom for her Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, was
for the terrible crime—are you ready for this reader—attending a worship
service in a Scottish pasture, and subsequently giving testimony that she
adhered to the truths of the Lord Jesus, avowing Him to be King in Zion and the
only head of the Church.
Marion Harvey, the subject of this post, was reared in a
home where her father had cast his lot in with those adhering to the National
Covenant of Scotland and the Solemn League and Covenant. However, his
religious convictions did not, for his daughter, permeate her character and
conduct until she was in her mid-teens. Up to then, according to her own
testimony, she lived according to the world, engaging in breaking the Sabbath
and blaspheming the Name of God for her own pleasures. But a decided
change had taken place in her heart and soul in that middling
teenager. Whether by curiosity or by just following the crowds, she began
to attend the outdoor worship services in the fields and moors, listening to
those ministers who had been ejected from their pulpits and
parishes. Listening to the preached Word of God, she “left off hearing the
curates, whose ministry she formerly attended without scruple. She now
venerated the name of God, which she had formerly blasphemed; she sanctified
the Sabbath, which she had formerly desecrated; and she delighted in the Bible,
which she had formerly neglected and undervalued” (from The Ladies on the Covenant). In
truth, regeneration had occurred in her soul.
It would be five years later when she was arrested by the
government’s soldiers as she left a field worship service. Thrown into
prison, it was the beginning of the end on this earth for her, a trial of her
convictions which began with a series of inquisitions by the Anglican
government.
After one lengthy examination, she returned to her cell,
already aware that on January 26, she would be hung for her religious
views. She left a testimony in that cell in Edinburgh prison which said,
“I, being to lay down my life on Wednesday next, January
26, I thought it fit to let it be known to the world wherefore I lay
down my life, and to let it be seen that I die not as a fool, or an
evil-doer, or as a busy-body, in other men’s matters. No, it is for
adhering to the truth of Jesus Christ, and avowing him to be King in
Zion, and head of His church, and the testimony against these ungodly laws
of men, and their robbing Christ of His rights, and usurping his prerogative
royal, which I durst not but testify against.”
On the 26th of January, she along with
another woman were martyred and went joyfully into the presence of the
Lord Jesus.
Words to Live
By:
At this very time, there are countless fellow Christians, being members of the
persecuted twenty-first century Church, who are experiencing the same kind of
suffering and death which Marion Harvey experienced in her day. Are you
aware of that, Christian? Do you ever think of them, and pray for them in
their hour of trial? Ask your pastor for a list of the names of the
countries which still persecute the church today? The list begins with
China, North Korea, and continues all across the ten-forty
window. Thousands of believers are in jail and inhuman conditions for no
other reason than for worshiping whom you worship today. We need to
pray for them.
We need to make their cause our cause. Certainly you
would want all these responses by others if you were the ones suffering for the
Savior today.
O God, thou
hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us,
thou hast been displeased; O
turn thyself to us again.
Thou hast made the earth to
tremble; thou hast broken it:
heal the breaches thereof; for
it shaketh.
Thou hast shewed thy people
hard things:
thou hast made us to drink the
wine of astonishment.
Thou hast given a banner to
them that fear thee,
that it may be displayed
because of the truth.
Selah
—Psalm 60:1-4, KJV
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