John 15

The Man Who Died For Prince Charlie

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13.

Those of you who are learning history know the mad, sad, glorious story of the 1845 Rebellion. You remember how Prince Charles Edward Stuart came over to Scotland to claim the crown for his father, James, the Old Pretender. You recall how at first his cause met with success and then with dismal failure, and how at last it was lost for ever on the bloody field of Culloden. The thing that Scotsmen like best to remember about that old, sad story is the magnificent loyalty of the Scottish Highlanders. Although the Young Pretender wandered among their hills and moors for six long months, although thirty thousand pounds was offered to the man or woman who should lead to his arrest (and thirty thousand pounds was untold wealth to a wretchedly poor people), not one person was found to betray him.

There are many thrilling tales still told in the Scottish Highlands of the wonderful escapes made by the Prince and of how men and women risked their lives and their all to save him, but the finest I ever heard was told to me by an old Roman Catholic priest who lived near Inverness.

In the autumn of 1746 Prince Charlie was believed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of Glen Urquhart, and Cumberland's soldiers were searching for him. Now it so happened that in that glen there lived a man who bore a close resemblance to the Prince. In height, in coloring, in figure, in gait, he was very like him, so like him that at a casual glance he might have been mistaken for him. One evening this man was crossing a lonely mountain path on his homeward way, when he was met by a band of Cumberland's soldiers. The soldiers recognized the resemblance at once. Some of them had seen Prince Charlie in the flesh, the rest had learned his description by heart, but they were not sure. So they stopped the man and evidently in a somewhat blunt and clumsy fashion they began to question him. “Are you Charles Edward Stuart?” they asked. In a flash the man realized the mistake and realized, too, how he might save the Prince. “Well, what do you think?” he replied coolly. “We think you are,” was the answer. “Do you deny it?'' Proudly the man drew himself up, as proudly as any king might: “I do not,” he said.

Well, the soldiers arrested the brave fellow and took him away to London. Meanwhile there was a fortnight's lull in the search for the Prince, and in that lull Charles Edward Stuart escaped to France. In London the mistake was discovered and the man who had given himself up instead of the Prince was put to death for his loyalty to the Jacobite cause.

That is a fine story. Can you think of a finer? Can you think of Somebody who gave Himself up, not instead of a prince, but instead of the poor and the needy and the wayward? Can you think of Somebody who because He loved so much laid down His life, not just for His friends, but for those who had often hurt Him and turned away from Him. Can you think of Somebody who laid down His life for you and me?