Ray's Blog

. . . if not a martyr’s death

martyr-on-a-circus-ring-1869

“I spent the day chiefly alone, seeking personal holiness, the fundamental requirement in order to a successful ministry.  I was in Burleigh Castle for an hour . . . . Before me I had to the right Queen Mary’s Island in Lochleven, and to the left the Lomonds, where the Covenanters hid themselves from their persecutors, and I stood amid the ruins of the castle of one of their leaders.  The scene was solemn and affecting, and I trust the everlasting Emmanuel was with me.  O that I had a martyr’s heart, if not a martyr’s death and a martyr’s crown!”

Quoted in Islay Burns, Memoir of the Rev. Wm. C. Burns (London, 1870), page 193.