Patrick Hamilton

Patrick Hamilton, who was among the first to suffer and die in Scotland for Christ, was artfully seduced unto a confession of his faith, condemned as a heretic by the Archbishop of St. Andrew's and condemned to die. The same day he was sentenced, he was hurried to the stake, and while the fire was being prepared, he divested himself of his outer garments and handing them to his servant said:

    "These will not profit me in the fire, yet they will be thee some good."

As he commended himself to God, one of his persecutors called to Patrick, "Convert, Heretic, pray to our Lady, and say 'Salve Regina.' "  Patrick replied:

    "Wicked man! thou knowest I am not an heretic, and that it is the truth of God for which I now suffer.  So much thou didst confess to me private: and whereupon I appeal to thee to answer before the Judgment Seat of Christ."

As the fire burned, the noble martyr only twenty-four years of age exclaimed:

   "How long, O Lord, shall darkness overwhelm this realm?  How long wilt Thou suffer this tyranny of men?"

He then ended by praying with Stephen --

    "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

pp. 184-185, Last Words of Saints and Sinners, by Herbert Lockyer

With young men like this that were ready to lay down their lives for the Gospel, it is little wonder that Scotland evetually became soundly Protestant and invented the song "Kick the Pope"!

Revelation 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.