Today I am in Scotland; land of clans, kilts, medieval castles, Robert the Bruce, Robert Burns, fresh water lochs (lakes), St. Andrew’s Links, haggis (the country’s most famous culinary dish made with the heart, liver, and lungs of a sheep and traditionally boiled in the animal’s stomach . . . yum), and the highest proportion of redheads in the world (13% of the population).
The 1982 Academy Award for Best Picture went to the underdog Chariots of Fire, which tracked the story of young Scottish runner and rugby player Eric Liddell, who won a gold medal for the 400 meter race in the 1924 Summer Olympics in France. He became a national hero. The next year, he ran his last race on British soil and concluded preparation for the mission field. Hundreds of well-wishers turned up at Waverley Station to bid Liddell farewell to China. Asked to deliver a speech, he simply led the crowd in the hymn “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun.” He died in occupied China in February, 1945.
Scotland gained independence in 1314, after Robert the Bruce defeated the English army at the Battle of Bannockburn (Think Braveheart). She had her own monarch until 1603, when upon the death of Elizabeth I of England, James VI of Scotland became King James I of England, and ruler of both countries. You know him best for the King James Version of the Bible, which he authorized to be translated and published in 1611.
The most famous Scot in Christian history was John Knox, preacher, writer, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland, and founder of Scottish Presbyterianism. During the time of the sixteenth-century Scottish Reformation, Knox’s ministry of preaching and prayer were so well known that the Roman Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, is reputed to have said,
“I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.”
Unfortunately, Knox was bitterly opposed to anyone with Baptist sentiments. In a letter to his brethren in Scotland he characterized their opinions as “horrible and absurd.”
Though the spotlight of Scottish church history shines favorably on Knox and Presbyterianism, lesser known luminaries championed Baptist principles and founded Baptist churches in Scotland.
Through the influence of his own reading of Scripture and with the help of Glasgow bookseller and printer, Archibald McLean, Robert Carmichael became convinced of Baptist principles. He traveled to London where he was baptized by the famed John Gill. Carmichael returned to Edinburgh and became founder and pastor of the first Scottish Baptist church in 1765. Soon Archibald McLean moved from Glasgow to Edinburgh and became co-pastor along with Carmichael in 1767.
In 1826, Peter Grant, Scottish pastor, poet, and songwriter, became pastor of the largest Baptist congregation in the Gaelic-speaking Highlands, the church at Grantown-on-Spey, where he remained until his death 41 years later. He was known for his powerful preaching.
Until early in the 21st century, there were no known extant sermons of Grant. Dr. Terry Wilder, now Professor of New Testament at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, on a trip to Scotland learned about the existence of Grant’s sermon manuscripts from a one of Grant’s relatives. In 2010 Wilder transcribed, edited and published The Lost Sermons of Scottish Baptist Peter Grant.
The following excerpt from Grant’s obituary gives us insight into his preaching:
Mr. Grant’s preaching abilities were of a high order, . . . .With great knowledge of the Scriptures he combined a rich imagination and a ready utterance, and above all he preached the Gospel in all its fullness and clearness and simplicity at a time when evangelical preaching was much less common than it is now.
Though the Scottish pulpit has radiated with such luminaries as Thomas Chalmers, Thomas Guthrie, Robert Candlish, and the saintly Robert Murray M”Cheyne, lesser known Baptist lights like Archibald McLean and Peter Grant trumpeted forth the Gospel in no less power.