Executed for holiness - 1681
Introduction
On January 26, 1681, Isabel Alison and Marion Harvie were hanged for Covenanter beliefs. Covenanters rejected King Charles’ attempts to rule the Scottish church. On the scaffold the young women sang Psalm 84 and gave bold testimonies. Here are Marion’s words, which the major in charge of the executions cut short by ordering the hangman to “cast her over.”
Quote
“I am not come here for murder, for they have no matter of fact to charge me with, but only my judgment [i.e. personal religious views]. I am about twenty years of age; at fourteen or fifteen I was... a blasphemer and sabbath-breaker, and a chapter of the Bible was a burden to me; but since I heard this persecuted gospel [Covenanter teaching], I dared not blaspheme, nor break the sabbath, and the Bible became my delight.”
A Cloud of Witnesses for the Royal Prerogatives of Jesus Christ, or, the last speeches and testimonies of those who have suffered for the truth in Scotland since the year 1680. Glasgow: J. Gilmour and Son, etc., 1769.