KNOX 500: day 6, Sabbath Edinburgh

Our day began with another extravagant full-Scottish breakfast (haggis and black pudding if you're game) then off to Magdalen Chapel, full of Knox history, but a congregation of three, counting the minister. 

At our hotel in Edinburgh, the Radisson Blu (great pool etc)

The Knox House museum

Castle and Grassmarket where Covenanters died for the Crown rights of the Redeemer

Magdalen Chapel

Rev Sonclair Horne

With John Paton's claymore (Duncan's War)

KNOX 500: day 5, Royal Mile, Knox house, lunch at Covenanter prison...

What a glorious day walking the same cobbled stones as Knox!

Grassmarket where Covenanters were hanged for their loyalty to the Crown rights of the Redeemer in his Kirk

St Giles High Kirk where Knox preached Christ alone

Economic/Political Science graduate Cody Graves sharing with us about Wealth of Nations and Adam Smith

We dined at the Tolbooth Prison where Covenanters were tortured and led out to the Grassmarket to be hanged for loyalty to King Jesus; the Netherbow where Richard Cameron's head and hands were spitted on display for more than two decades as a warning to those who would not submit to the civil monarch as head and king over the church of Jesus Christ.

My beloved and Giles and Gillian with Mons Meg (used against Norham Castle and others)

With Mary Campbell one of our Kiwi travelers and a dear friend (and Giles in full regalia)

Dinner with friends in Edinburgh

The cab driver guffawed when we took a cab from the restaurant first to the Sheridan to see the Sugimotos off and then I told him on to the youth hostel.not typical cab fare deal

Hear Scots preacher, Phillip Hair at Holyrood Abbey Church

King born in a closet! Edinburgh clips of interest--changing of the guard, Refomers, more bagpiping...

Singing at St. Giles, High Kirk, Edinburgh

You've got to hear Daniel Roberts singing at St. Giles, High Kirk, Edinburgh, JESU JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING, by JS Bach. There's nothing quite like the acoustics of a 12th century gothic church for music. Click on the video and be dazzled with the singing, but more importantly with the object of that singing, Jesus himself.

Some of the gifts God has given the kids on this tour! Remarkable!

Glorious Lord's Day in Edinburgh, worshiping with Chris and Jackie and their beautiful children, Julien and Eliza at Holyrood Abbey Church, Phillip Hair preaching a fine sermon from Matthew's account of the Day laborers: god is Sovereign, God is gracious, God is persistent...

We then had a fine lunch at the Tolbooth, formerly prison for Covenanters from 1661-1688, a sobering place to eat a fine meal. I read from Rebel's Keep when Royalists dumped Richard Cameron's head and hands into the lap of his father, awaiting his sentence at the Tolbooth Prison.

From there we went to Horatius Bonar's grave at Canongate Kirk, where Queen Elizabeth II had worshiped earlier today. We sang his immortal, I lay My Sins on Jesus, The Spotless lamb of God, and talked about the move from exclusive Psalmody to hymns of human composition in 1861, with Hymns Ancient and Modern.

From there we went to Knox's house and read from the last chapter of The Mighty Weakness of John Knox, my account written in the same room in April of 2010, now published in the book with Reformation Trust. Warm day and cabs needed for our more senior travelers. Off to St, Giles, High Kirk, Edinburgh, Jenny Geddes throwing her stool in 1637, and Knox preaching  here from 1560-1572. Daniel Roberts sang Jesu, Joy of man's desiring, Paul Walker accompanying. Then we all sang Psalm 23, and A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Nothing quite like an ancient gothic church built in the 11th century for singing acoustics.

Fine evening of fellowship with a couple of the families on the tour in the courtyard of the hotel. This is a talented bunch of young peoiple, piano, cello, Shakespeare, gymnastics...

Appendicitis in Edinburgh

Please pray for one of our teen travelers who began having sever abdominal pains while we were staying at Saughy Rigg Farm at Hadrian's Wall. She went on the extended wall hike, and was a trooper at Melrose Abbey, and she was game to stomp the moors at Rullion Green. After settling into our hotel in Edinburgh and a visit to the martyrs monument at the Grassmarket and to Greyfriars Abbey, her pain had increased and she had a fever. After a taxi ride to the Royal Infirmary, she was examined and taken to the hospital. They did surgery at 6 am to remove her appendix. Please pray that she has no complications, can travel by Monday afternoon, and that she can recover enough to see a few more things in St. Andrews. This too is from the Lord. Grateful to the Spear clan for all their care for her..