PREFACE

The struggle of the Scottish Covenanters has in it all the elements of a national epos. The cause, for which they fought and suffered, for which they lived and died, was epic in its grandeur. It was not merely national in the narrow sense. Like every object, for which nations have earned the world’s gratitude and a conspicuous niche in the world’s history, the cause of the Scottish Covenant was the cause of humanity. The humanitarian interest, indeed, of the conflict was often obscured by the narrowness of local ideas and sentiments. But that is not a defect peculiar to the Covenanters. The universal and eternal purposes of the Infinite Spirit who moulds the life of men can be but imperfectly grasped by any individual or by any nation; and the Covenanters of Scotland could labour for the divine cause of human progress only under such forms as were possible amid the conditions of their country and their time. But it was really the cause of human progress for which they fought. Their cause was the right of men to develop their religious life under the free play of their own spiritual convictions; and it is only under the condition of such freedom that any real progress in religious life is possible. On this ground, therefore, if on no other, the covenanting struggle claims the sympathetic interest of the world.

But not on this ground alone. A cause may be great; and yet the men who represent it may fail to rise to the greatness of their mission. But in this light also the Covenanters of Scotland may fairly claim the grateful memory of men. It would be difficult, to point to any great struggle, in which men have exhibited a more passionate enthusiasm for their cause, or a more complete emancipation from all selfish seductions which might have obscured the singleness of their aim or cooled the ardour of their devotion. In fact the intense earnestness of the Covenanters has given a colour to the subsequent religious life of Scotland. It has created an almost morbid craving for a similar intensity of favour amid the calm routine of peaceful times. In a great crisis, when a nation’s cause is the cause of humanity, moderation is more akin to vice than to virtue. For moderation is not only opposed to vicious excess; it may imply a lack of that heroic enthusiasm which a great moral crisis demands. It was the consciousness of this fact during the covenanting struggle, that has ever since made the term moderate a bye-word of reproach in Scotland when applied to religious character.

It appears, then, that both the cause for which they fought and the heroic courage with which they fought for it, have made the struggle of the Covenanters a genuine epos in Scottish history. It is not wonderful, therefore, that the varied scenes of such a struggle, with the thoughts and sentiments which they suggest, should have found expression in song. It has, indeed, been too commonly assumed that all the lyrical fervour evoked by the conflict, was on the opposite side. This is a mistake. The Jacobite songs, which might be supposed to come from the opponents of the Covenant, belong to a conflict that was not only later, but of a totally different interest. The truth is, that neither the Jacobite nor the Covenanting struggle called forth many lyrics of genuine poetical merit, while the combatants were grappling for life and death with one another. Most of the finest poems connected with both of the struggles are the products of later reflection by poetic minds.

It cannot be denied that the Jacobite struggle involved some issues that were calculated to strike the fancy and the sentiment of men. But the fancy and sentiment were of limited range. They were mainly those sympathetic movements of the mind, which are stirred by the tragedy of an old royal house fighting a hopeless battle to regain its lost place among the dynasties of the world. But natural pity over such a tragedy is traversed and often checked by the knowledge that the doomed family had brought its fate upon itself as a righteous retribution for its crimes against the cause of humanity. On the other hand, the Covenanting struggle, with all its imperfections, offers a theme of universal and undying interest to the world. Some years ago, in referring to the Jacobite songs, I was led to write, "that louder in the ear of the Scottish people than Wae’s me for Prince Charlie, is the wail over the martyrs of the Covenant; and tales of the heroism these displayed amid their sufferings are cherished in the memory and told with enthusiasm, when the name of the Chevalier is never mentioned, except in singing Jacobite songs for the enjoyment of their poetry and music.” When I wrote these words, I was not aware of the extent to which enthusiastic memories of the Covenanting struggle had found expression in Scottish poetry. The Editor of this volume has proved that there is a Harp of the Covenant, which can strike a genuine poetic tone; and Scotsmen, all the world over, must feel indebted to him for having done such a labour of love, and for having done it so well.

J. Clark Murray.

The Harp of the Scottish Covenant
Poems, songs and ballads relating to the covenanting struggle by John Macfarlane, Author of “Heather and Harebell" With a Preface by Prof. J. Clark Murray, LL.D. Author of “The Ballads and Songs nr Scotland” (1895) (pdf)