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“My son Thomas… told me, he was troubled with ill thoughts… that God did not hear his prayers; and that for that sometimes he forgot his prayers at night: that he wondered why God made the devil… I informed, instructed, and directed him, in the whole case, the best I could.”

Ill health

            There are few things more fatiguing than physical illness. This section of Boston’s memoirs opens with Katharine returning to her family home in order “to breathe her native air a while for her health.”

Ill health was to mark the remaining years of Thomas and Katharine’s lives. Indeed, they were advised that staying in Ettrick would be detrimental to their health – “the air of Etterick did not agree” with Katharine, and Thomas was told that “it would overcome me too at length.” But trusting that Ettrick was where they were to serve God, they stayed.

            In all, Boston lists many illnesses that his family was to suffer from including fevers, smallpox, “gravel” (likely kidney stones), scurvy, headaches and toothache.

Friendship

True and loyal friendship is a gift from God. The friendship between David and Jonathan went from strength to strength. God was at its centre: “And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God (1 Samuel 23:16).”

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. (Prov. 17:17)

It was at this point in Boston’s life that Boston was bound with two others, Mr Henry Davidson and Mr Gabriel Wilson, in a “bond of strict friendship.” It was Christ that bound them together and they grew their friendship. Speaking of Wilson, Boston described him as, “a man of great gravity, piety, and tenderness; learned and judicious; well acquainted with books; a great preacher, delivering in a taking manner, masterly thoughts, in an unaffected elevated style; endowed with a gift of prayer, in heavenly oratory, beyond any man that ever I knew; extremely modest. And reserved in his temper; but a kind and affectionate friend.”

Such friendship may be like rare jewels, but the Lord will bless us with them as He knows best. May we be loyal friends of others, with Christ at the centre.

Arson and horse troubles

Amongst the pastoral problems that Boston faced in Ettrick were two situations of attempted arson. Although people were suspected of committing the crime, they were never convicted. At the Lord’s Supper, Boston publicly declared that those responsible for the fires should be barred from the Lord’s Table, and he led the congregation in a prayer of confession and read Deuteronomy 21:1-9 concerning expiation for unsolved murder. Notwithstanding, the person or persons suspected of the crime sat down at the table and participated in the Lord’s Supper. 

Although not all problems were spiritual in nature, nonetheless, they do show the groan of creation longing to be freed from its bondage to corruption (Rom. 8:22). In the entirety of his life, Boston did not travel more than a hundred mile radius from his place of birth. For most people throughout time and history, travel has been a dangerous and laborious difficulty, and Boston too, had his share of troubles.

One time he travelled from Ettrick to Penpont in order to celebrate the Lord’s Supper; a distance of less than fifty miles. He was accompanied by his close friend Henry Davidson, when Davidson’s “horse was some way wounded in the foot” and bled the rest of the way to the nearest village.

Later, on the return journey, it was Boston’s turn to have trouble – “my horse crooking.” After caring for his horse, they continued on their journey, but then “lost our way in the hills beyond Moffat, going through mosses, etc., till in our greatest extremity, not knowing what hand to turn to, by kind Providence we saw a lad who set us on the way. Under night we lost the way again; but at length got to a house, where we were provided of a guide.”

Eventually, they arrived safely at Ettrick. Boston wondered if their difficulties had been the work of evil spirits, yet he trusted God, knowing that “nothing can fall out without the supreme management of my Father; and from his hand I take it, as a deep of holy Providence.”

            In all of life’s difficulties, we must trust in the sovereignty and goodness of God, even though His ways often remain a mystery to us.

Pastor-scholar

            Martin Luther once said: “Let us be sure of this: we will not long preserve the gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath in which this sword of the Spirit [Eph. 6:17] is contained.” Luther feared that if we “let the languages go” then we shall lose the gospel.

Boston, for his part, said: “I bless my God in Jesus Christ … that ever he gave me the blessed Bible, and brought me acquainted with the originals, and especially with the Hebrew text.” He had studied Hebrew whilst a student in Edinburgh in 1696, but he had not excelled in it. He had acquired a Hebrew Bible towards the end of his time at Simprin and from then on, “I plied the Hebrew original close, with great delight, and all along since it hath continued to be my darling study.”

His study helped him to understand the Old Testament in deeper and fresher ways. Then, from September 1717 onwards, he concentrated his study on the Hebrew accentuation marks, being convinced that they were part of the original Hebrew text and divinely inspired. On 8th October 1720, he wrote, “I am of their opinion who think the Hebrew text is most accurately pointed; and from my own observation, as well as from books, I am convinced the sacred stigmatology [i.e. ancient punctuation] bears the signature of a Divine hand.” From his isolated Scottish village, Boston communicated with scholars in Europe, and his finished book, which he translated into Latin, was published in Amsterdam in 1738 – four years after his death.

In the end, scholarly opinion has rejected Boston’s claim of divine inspiration of the accents on the grounds that early Christian writers quoting the Old Testament do not use them, and Jewish sources say that they originated in the fifth century in Tiberias as a way of aiding pronunciation.      Despite this, we should not think that Boston’s labour was in vain. His close study of the Hebrew Scriptures brought a greater depth to his understanding, and this, in turn, grew his love for the Lord. Undoubtedly, this flowed through to his preaching and those he shepherded. On 10^th September 1724, he wrote: “I have had much sweetness in the original text; and it made me this day to think how inconceivably sweet must the personal Original of the original text be! How sweet to see, by the light of glory, the glory of God in the face of Jesus!”

Family troubles

We cannot understand a man such as Boston, without seeing that he was a man of prayer before all else, especially closet prayer (Matt. 6:5-6). Ephesians 6:18 calls upon believers to be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” Follow every impulse to pray, whether in the daily chores of life, or in conversation with others, or resting quietly. Constant prayer is living in communion with God.

Much of this section of Boston’s memoir records Boston in prayer for various people and situations. One of his prayers was for God’s help with his son, John, who was staying at Edinburgh. On 1^st February 1721 he said, “I spent some time in prayer, for… Divine guidance to my son at Edinburgh; in which I had much ado to fix my feet; for at this time there is such a current carrying the young generation to folly, as, I think, I never observed before, and seems to be ominous.” In keeping with his desire to solve the folly of his son, prayer was needed.

Groaning, but not begrudging

Boston was faithful in the little things. Travelling on horseback, he would visit those who were sick. Yet sometimes he begrudged that this took him away from his home and study. One time, he put off visiting someone who was sick, and the person died before he was able to visit. This shocked him, as he felt convicted of the “secret grudge” in his heart. He repented of his sin, and resolved, “hereafter cheerfully to be ready at my Master’s call.”

Family life also became increasingly difficult due to ill health. Katharine’s illness meant that she was often bed-ridden. In fact, the 10^th May 1720, “was a day remarkable above many to me and my family; being that wherein my wife was seized with that heavy trouble, which hath kept her all along since that time unto this day, in extreme distress: her imagination being vitiated in a particular point … accompanied with bodily infirmities and maladies, exceeding great and numerous.” He could see the Devil’s hand in the matter.

Later, Boston wrote: “This summer, 1724, has been the most trying time that ever my family had since we were a family.” He renovated the home, “turning the barn into a kitchen, the hall into a cellar” and so creating two additional bedrooms, in order to make the situation easier for Katharine.

Despite their desperate situation, Boston could also say: “I was sensibly helped to the exercise of faith in the time of our first distress; and had a sweet view of the Lord Jesus as administrator of the covenant, being a skillful pilot to carry us through the deep waters… I saw therein a palpable difference between groaning and grudging. For while in my agony I could not help groaning and crying … yet in my heart … [I] kissed the rod, for the sake of Him who groaned and died on the cross for me, and I was even made to weep for joy in His dying love to me.”

The Christian may groan to God, but must not begrudge God. Even as his family’s health was beginning to break down, the cross of Christ was Boston’s source of strength and joy

– Graham Barnes