One of the insidious ways that authoritarian regimes often take to coerce dissidents is to target their families. Covenanters often had to work as whole families to stay strong under persecution. This was the case with the Covenanter Robert Ker, Laird of Kersland. While he was on the run in 1669, his wife, Barbara Montgomery, Lady Kersland was betrayed as someone who kept conventicles in her chambers. Armed men searched her room, discovered her husband in hiding, and arrested him. Although she was ill at the time, Lady Kersland reacted with calmness and composure. She exhorted her husband to do nothing out of regard to her or her children that might wound his conscience. As he was taken away, she reminded him of the text, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Robert and Barbara had five children, who seem to have been living with their mother at the time of their father’s arrest. One of the daughters was Jean Ker. She received the following letter from John Brown of Wamphray after her father was captured. John Brown used his own time of exile in Holland to write not only valuable books of theology, but also letters of consolation and encouragement to his friends at home. As the following updated letter shows, he writes kindly to Jean to maintain her courage, reminding her that God’s love is not inconsistent with the experience of difficulty, and confident of the rewards of glory which will follow a life of suffering.

9th August, 1677

Worthy and dear Jean,

My long silence as to writing has not been through forgetfulness. I may confidently say, I neither do nor can forget you, and what is infinitely more to you is that the Father of mercies neither does nor will forget you.

Oh, how happy it is to have a portion in Him, to have a share of His cross, to be following Him through adversity, and to be owning Him and His despised cause! It may be it is somewhat bitter at present, but afterwards, what peace and consolation it will yield to a soul going into eternity, to remember and reflect on the sufferings and hardships he has endured and been put to suffer for the sake of Jesus and His glorious truth and interest! And more, to see the special love of God calling him or her out to confess Him, and to endure the displeasure of men for His sake!

I hope you find, dear Jean, the unseen incomes of joy refreshing your soul in the midst of all your other hardships, making you say you would not change places with the best. The sour cross is made sweeter than all the honeyed rest, wealth, pleasure, and ease would be, which others delight themselves with, and settle down on as their portion.

Up your heart, my dearly beloved. The Lord is coming. He has seen all that young Jean Ker has been made to suffer for His sake. All is fresh in His remembrance. All Jean Ker’s tears, turmoils, groans, sighs, and sore hearts, etc., are written in His book of remembrance. You will think it all little enough one day, and when you see with a full sight His glorious face, you will say, “Oh, is this He, for whom I suffered disgrace, harassment, inconveniences, and other evils? If I had known what a one He was and is, I would have been willing to have accounted it my glory to have suffered ten thousand times more than I did!”

O mistress, how joyful your heart will be when He shall come to the door of heaven, and welcome you into glory, and with His soft hand wipe all your tears away, and put on beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness, and put the new song, the song of Moses and the redeemed, in your mouth! Can you now imagine how your heart will leap for joy?

Take courage, then. Believe and hope. He is true, and will not deny Himself. His word is tried, His promises are sure. Let us give Him glory by faith, and in patience possess our souls, for not one word He ever spoke shall fail.

Let all your work be to get your heart worked up more and more to love him, and to wonder at His dispensations of love towards you. Give Him glory that He ever put on your father’s family the honour of standing by the cause of Christ, when many that seemed something before have forsaken Him, and have embraced this present world.

Fear not. A deliverance will come. I am afraid that the dawning of that day shall be terrible. The righteous God will be avenged on an adulterous generation. But in the meantime, He will be a hiding place to His Zion.

His grace be with you, now and ever more.

I remain yours in the Lord.

JB

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