Thomas M'Crie: VI: The Literary Task.
Thomas M’Crie may have stepped into the seventeenth century to answer Sir Walter Scott and to defend the honour of the ‘Cloud of witnesses for the royal prerogatives of King Jesus’, the Covenanters, but his real love was the sixteenth century, the age of the Reformation. His view was by no means parochial, for he followed Knox to Geneva, that melting-pot where refugees from all over Europe gathered. His fertile mind considered next those countries where the Reformation had failed, Italy and Spain. From his pen came histories of the Reformation in those countries, chronicles of martyrdom and of suffering. They are different from his ‘Life of Knox’, but no less valuable.
His last project was his greatest, a biography of the Reformer of Geneva, John Calvin himself. It would have beenthe capstone to his labours, and one of his sons, who was in Europe, helped with the research in remote libraries. But God intended otherwise, and Thomas M’Crie was called home before he could finish his work. In the beginning of 1835 his health failed and his work became harder for him. The preparation for the Lord’s Day and weeknight meetings became too much for him and the Life of Calvin was laid aside never to be taken up again, and half-an-hour’s speaking exhausted him.
In the summer of 1835 he preached from the text, “Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” After the service he sat by the vestry door and watched the congregation depart. Early the following week he was stricken with disease, and on August 5th 1835, aged sixty-three, Thomas M’Crie went to be with his Lord and Saviour.
Although a famous historian, Thomas M’Crie was not affected by his fame. In M’Crie’s opinion he was simply honouring the God who had brought about the Reformation. If he replied to Sir Walter Scott, it was because he felt that Scott, in libelling the Covenanters, had libelled their God and his God. Although he could have had any position he wanted, including a university chair, M’Crie remained pastor of that congregation meeting in the old chapel in Carruber’s Close, to the surprise of those who came to hear him from far and wide. He actually refused a number of potentially lucrative book deals because they were not to his liking and would interfere with his congregational work. In fact it was said that the surest way for a publisher to lose Dr. M’Crie was to offer him a lucrative deal!
Next time, God willing, we shall consider M’Crie’s legacy
His last project was his greatest, a biography of the Reformer of Geneva, John Calvin himself. It would have beenthe capstone to his labours, and one of his sons, who was in Europe, helped with the research in remote libraries. But God intended otherwise, and Thomas M’Crie was called home before he could finish his work. In the beginning of 1835 his health failed and his work became harder for him. The preparation for the Lord’s Day and weeknight meetings became too much for him and the Life of Calvin was laid aside never to be taken up again, and half-an-hour’s speaking exhausted him.
In the summer of 1835 he preached from the text, “Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” After the service he sat by the vestry door and watched the congregation depart. Early the following week he was stricken with disease, and on August 5th 1835, aged sixty-three, Thomas M’Crie went to be with his Lord and Saviour.
Although a famous historian, Thomas M’Crie was not affected by his fame. In M’Crie’s opinion he was simply honouring the God who had brought about the Reformation. If he replied to Sir Walter Scott, it was because he felt that Scott, in libelling the Covenanters, had libelled their God and his God. Although he could have had any position he wanted, including a university chair, M’Crie remained pastor of that congregation meeting in the old chapel in Carruber’s Close, to the surprise of those who came to hear him from far and wide. He actually refused a number of potentially lucrative book deals because they were not to his liking and would interfere with his congregational work. In fact it was said that the surest way for a publisher to lose Dr. M’Crie was to offer him a lucrative deal!
Next time, God willing, we shall consider M’Crie’s legacy
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