Encouragement from the Dead

From the book, "Fair Sunshine: Character Studies of the Scottish Covenanters'"

Martyr: John Nisbet
Death: Hung for his faith
Age: 58/ 4 December 1685
Picking up after he loses his wife, daughter, and two young sons and is then captured by dragoons and taken to prison for his faith:

"He was in prison very cruelly treated, having a load of irons on him of seven stone weight, and not able to move much because of his terrible wounds. But all the time he was filled with inexpressible joy and continually witnessed to strong inward assurance and assistance from the Holy Spirit. He testified, 'It has pleased Him to give me such real impression of unspeakable glory as without constant and immediate supports from the Giver will certainly overwhelm me. This frail tabernacle is not able to hold up under what I now feel.'

A few days before he was hanged, he was so transported while at worship with other prisoners that he called aloud in prayer, 'O for Friday! O for Friday! O Lord, give patience to wait Thy appointed time! O give strength to bear up under Thy sweet, sweet Presence! If thou, O glorious , Thou the Chief of ten thousands, the eternal wonder, and admiration of angels and redeemed saints put not to me more strength, this weak clay vessel will rend in pieces under the unspeakably glorious manifestations of Thy rich grace and matchless, matchless Presence!'

In prison, he wrote his Last and Dying Testimony. It is one of the most remarkable of Covenanter Testimonies. It is written truly by one who knew that he 'had been lying dying and rotting in his blood-red sins, and One had passed by and in His love and life said, Live, Live.' It is a paean of praise and closes in this moving harmony, 'Be not afraid at His sweet, lovely and desirable cross, for although I have not been able because of my wounds to lift up or lay down my head, but as I was helped, yet I was never in better case all my life. He has not given me one challenge since I came to prison, for anything less or more; but on the contrary He has so wonderfully shined on me with the sense of His redeeming, strengthening, assisting, supporting, through-bearing, pardoning and reconciling love, grace and mercy, that my soul doth long to be freed of bodily infirmities and earthly organs, that so I may flee to His Royal Palace even the Heavenly Habitation of my God, where I am sure of a crown put on my head, and a palm put in my hand, and a new song in my mouth, even the song of Moses and of the Lamb, that so I may bless, praise, magnify and extol Him for what He hath done to me and for me. Wherefore I bid farewell to all my dear fellow-sufferers for the testimony of Jesus, who are wandering in dens and caves. Farewell, my children, study holiness in all your ways, and praise the Lord for what He hath done for me, and tell all my Christian friends to praise Him on my account. Farewell, sweet Bible, and wanderings and contendings for truth. Welcome death. Welcome, the City of my God where I shall see Him and be enabled to serve Him eternally with full freedom. Welcome, blessed company, the angels and spirits of just men made perfect. But above all, welcome, welcome, welcome, our glorious and alone God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; into Thy hands I commit my spirit for Thou art worthy. Amen.'

As he proceeded to his gallows it is said he had a bright happiness about him from communion with God. And jumping up to the gallows his last words were:

"My soul doth magnify the Lord! My soul doth magnify the Lord! I have longed these sixteen years to seal the precious cause and interest of precious Christ with my blood. And now, now He hath answered and granted my request, and has left me no more ado but to come here and pour forth my last prayers, sing forth my last praise to Him in time on this sweet and desirable scaffold, mount the ladder, and then I shall quickly get home to my Father's House, see, enjoy, serve and sing forth the praises of my glorious Redeemer, for evermore world without end.' ...He prayed with deep spiritual understanding in a loud clear voice, and sang the first six verses of the 34th Psalm:

God will I bless all times: His praise
My mouth shall still express.
My soul shall boast in God: the meek
Shall hear with joyfulness.

Extol the Lord with me; let us
Exalt His name together.
I sought the Lord; He heard, and did
Me from all fears deliver.

Notice, from this testimony, John kept praying for strength to uphold under God's sweet presence, never mentioning the weights he was chained to or the wounds that had been afflicted upon him.

Also notice, that unlike many Christians today, he did not have spite for God, he did not shove blame upon God and curse His name when all went bad, but He was faithful and thankful unto death.

May we ever be thankful for men and women like this, that God has used in such powerful ways to extend His gospel to all men and to encourage the faithful. May God give us boldness and ability to pray as John Nisbet.

May we rest in this promise, as Nisbet did:
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." -Romans 8:28-