A visit to Anwoth, Scotland

 Dear Readers & Listeners,

Photo by Guillaume Galtier on Unsplash

What would you say if I told you there was a man getting up at 3am every day to pray  -  not only on his own behalf, but for you too?  

As well as praying this man reads his Bible, thinks on it, prays about it and studies it.  And I'm not talking about just for an hour or two, but hours.  

Later on the man will leave home and trudge across hills and streams, through heathers and ferns so that he might reach one of you who is suffering.  

Photo by Eilis Garvey on Unsplash

Perhaps you have been bereaved, perhaps you are sick or maybe you are unhappy.

This man comes to visit you, to know you and bring you words of encouragement, comfort and life - or admonishment and warning.

When he preaches to you from his pulpit (for this man is a minister) it is almost as if he is in heaven.  His tenderness, animation and rapture as he speaks of the love of Christ is like water to your thirsty soul.

Too good to be true?  

According to Andrew Thomson's biography this was Samuel Rutherford, a much loved Christian minister of the 1600s.

But you might be wondering why I have suddenly launched into a post about Samuel Rutherford!  

Well last week we were on holiday in Scotland, about an hour's drive from Anwoth, which Dad told me was 'Rutherford country'.  

I was immediately interested.

Visiting a place with which you have an association gives it more meaning doesn't it?  But all I knew about Samuel Rutherford was that he was a minister from years ago, that there is a hymn associated with him ('The sands of time are sinking'), and a book of his letters.

I got busy reading the above mentioned biography and quickly became attracted to the love of Christ in this man, and how it showed in his life and ministry.

Enlisting the help of my husband who was likewise interested, on a showery morning we set off on a quest to try to find places described during Rutherford's time at Anwoth. 

Samuel wasn't always in the Anwoth area.  He was born about 4 miles outside of the Scottish border town of Jedburgh to farmer parents. Whilst he was still young his parents and school teacher realised that he had remarkable intellect.  At some sacrifice his parents were able to support his entrance into the University of Edinburgh in 1617.

Here Samuel completed his education and became a Professor of Latin for 2 years before marrying, which seemed to cause so much unpleasantness between him and his colleagues that he resigned.

It seems that the Lord used this trouble to deepen a work of grace in Samuel's soul as in later life he refers back to this time as one of repentance and consecration to God.

In much love to the Lord he then commenced studying theology to willingly serve the Lord as a Christian minister.

 After completing his theological studies Samuel was invited to the parish of Anwoth as their Pastor.

A walk by the river in Gatehouse

Thomson, who was writing over 30 years ago, describes it:

'Standing in the centre of the little town of Gatehouse and looking northward, you see rising before you at no great distance a succession of mountains of moderate height, of varied shape, and green to the summit.  These are separated from each other by grassy glens, which are watered by mountain streams, some of which on rainy days...assume, in a few hours, the dimensions of a river.'  

'These pastoral hills and valleys form the greater part of the parish of Anwoth - the southern and less mountainous portion of which is bounded by the beautiful Water of Fleet, which, soon after passing through Gatehouse, empties itself into Wigtown Bay.'

We stood and gazed at the 'parish of Anwoth' imagining Rutherford climbing through gorse and heather, hearing the bleating of lambs, the cries of birds, the trickling streams, the sudden rain coming down and just as quickly lifting to reveal the warm sunshine.  Houses were far and few and he must have spent hours walking from one to another, no doubt much in prayer and meditation.

Thomson tells us that these sights and the domestic customs which constantly caught his eye were used throughout his ministry and letters in analogies to spiritual things which his hearers could understand.

Leaving the views we travelled back down the narrow lanes until we rounded a corner and suddenly saw the ruins of the old church in which Rutherford started his ministry.

Thomson describes it:

'The old sanctuary, standing in a natural basin, is surrounded by trees, and overlooked by little wooded hills not far off.   And while it is now roofless, its walls and belfry remain in good preservation, and are richly mantled, within and without, with ivy, - the fern, the wild strawberry, and the wall flower peeping out at intervals and helping to cover and beautify the desolation.  Outside and around is the ancient parish churchyard, in which many generations sleep, and which treasure the dust of many a martyr...'

As when Thomson visited 'the hallowed spot there was a sabbatic silence about it, only broken at intervals by a song bird in the ash or pine tree overhead'.  

As you enter the church door there is a plaque in his memory.  It is small and overgrown with large tombs seemingly obstructing where you would imagine there to have been seats.

Thomson wrote that 'as one stands inside the ivy-clad ruin, it is not difficult even now to fill in the main features of the picture, as they must have presented themselves to a worshipper two centuries and a half ago - the door by which Rutherford entered, the oaken pulpit with the spacious oval window behind it, shedding in streams of light upon his Bible....'.

We had hoped to likewise stand and gaze but as we were trying to work out which of the windows were oval and where the pulpit would have been we were disturbed by two curious hikers, and it coming on to rain we took shelter in the car and watched the bluetits and finches flit through the graveyard.

Of Rutherford's manse, which we knew was no longer, we now tried to work out where it might have been.  

Thomson recorded that it used to have great holly bushes in front of the property, that it stood on a slight hill with a garden behind supplying ample vegetables, abounding in roses, honeysuckle and other old flowers.

At the front of the house a green field gradually sloped down to level ground and a tiny burn.  It was so close that Rutherford had time at the first peal of the church bell to put on his Geneva gown, pass through a copse and calmly enter his place.

After the shower passed we walked round the church - several times -  but couldn't decide on its location.  Sadly a field of bulls deterred us from following a public footpath over a stile at the back of the church towards what seemed a likely spot.

Deciding that the ground here was too boggy we stared at the Old School House and gardens in front of the church until we were embarrassed, and a local asking us if we had seen any lost dogs, we felt we should move on!

The Old School House (available for holiday lets).

It is hard to put into words the feelings of one's heart as we visit these places where those precious to the Lord were once living and breathing like you and me.  

As we imagine their lives from what we read and from the remains of what we can see, as we tread where their feet once trod, stand where they once stood, feel the warm sunshine, see the blue sky that they too both once felt and saw we think of that work which they were doing for their Master and ours.

We think how they have long been gone and yet the Lord is eternal, continuing his work in generations years later.  

Am I  - are you - living a life which glorifies God, which honours and serves our Maker?  

Are we doing those things to the best of our ability  - those works which the Lord has prepared for us to do?  

Are we redeeming our time and the light of Jesus shining in us, witnessing to those around us - loving those around us, caring about those around us?

We have hardly touched on the details of Rutherford's life - this visit to Anwoth was only a segment of it, but even so we can see the evidence and influence of Christ in his daily life:

• like his Lord he rose early and gave himself to prayer 

• like his Lord he had a solitary place known as 'Rutherford's Walk', ''a hallowed spot about mid-way between his manse and his church, to which it was his frequent practice to retire for prolonged devout thought and prayer'

• like his Lord he went about purposefully doing good, showing compassion and love to his parishioners, or warning them as in the story of 'Rutherford's stones'

• and like his Lord he was bearing a cross - his wife 'sickly', the later loss of his two children and wife, the humble obscurity of the location in which he was preaching and ministering.

***

I hope this might have whetted your interest to read of his life too - I have seen an account online of a fall into a well in early childhood and deliverance by a divine being - my book tells of the account of 'The eleven commandments', of his involvement in reform and writings, of being accused of high treason, and mercifully his natural death at age 61years as martyrdom loomed.  

We are now hoping that one day we can visit the site of his grave at St. Andrew's, Scotland and have realised that there is a wealth of lives  - 'clouds of witnesses' in Scottish history which we know nothing of and are looking forward to reading about.

Next week we will continue with our normal Bible Study God Willing.

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