This is copied from “The Preacher’s Sourcebook, 2006 Edition.” I love reading about the lives of those who came before.
About the time the Pilgrims sailed to America searching for religious liberty from the intolerance of established religion, one man decided to remain in the United Kingdom and preach with boldness. His name was Donald Cargill, and the nature of his life is reflected in the title of his biography: “Some Remarkable Passages in the Life and Death of that Singular, Exemplary, Holy-in-Life, Zealous, and Faithful-unto-the-Death, Mr. Donald Cargill.”
Cargill always preached on the run. On one occasion soldiers pursued him to a raging river. To their astonishment, he dashed up a rocky ledge and took a flying leap over the torrent, safely landing on the other side. None of the troops dared follow him, and he escaped. The spot has ever since been known as “Cargill’s Leap.”
Eventually, the authorities’ net tightened around him, His last sermon was from Isaiah 26. Patrick Walker, author of the prior-mentioned biography, wrote the following:
I had the happiness to hear blest Cargill preach his last public sermon in Dunsyre Common where he preached upon that soul-refreshing text, Isaiah 26, the last two verses, “Come, my people, enter into your chambers . . . .”
He insisted what kind of chambers these were of protection and safety, and exhorted us all earnestly to dwell in the clefts of the rock, to bind ourselves in the wounds of Christ, and to wrap ourselves in the believing application of the promises flowing therefrom, and to make our refuge under the shadow of His wings, until these sad calamities pass over, and the dove come back with the olive leaf in her mouth. These were the last words of his sermon.
Cargill was thereafter captured, imprisoned, and condemned. As he climbed the steps to the scaffold, he turned back and shouted, “The Lord knows I go up this ladder with less fear than ever I entered a pulpit to preach.” Minutes later he was with the Lord.
