THOMAS BOSTON OF ETTRICK: A BRIEF SKETCH

Sad to say, but it is true that thousands of the young and children of our country are better acquainted with the names of “pop” singers and crazy “Beatles” than they are with the venerable name of Thomas Boston. In past days such books as “The Fourfold State” and “The Crook in the Lot” by Boston used to be read by old and young in the homes. To the vast multitudes to-day, such titles are absolutely unknown.

On the 17th March, 1676, Thomas Boston was born in the little town of Duns. He was the youngest of a family of seven — four sons and three daughters. There is little information about his school days. He learned to read (we are told) in a little school kept in the upper story of his father’s house. At the Duns school he made rapid progress from the age of eight till he was thirteen. It seems that from his youth he had a retentive memory.

As a young boy of eleven years, Boston was spiritually awakened under the preaching of the Rev. Henry Erskine, father of Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine.

John Boston, Thomas’ father, was not a rich man and therefore the young scholar, while keen on higher academic learning, saw great financial difficulties in the way. However, in the kind providence of God, the way opened and he entered the Edinburgh University in 1691. Our young readers will notice that he was then only fifteen years of age. We read that he studied very conscientiously and seldom went into company. He passed through the regular curriculum and received the degree of Master of Arts. He also learned shorthand and had lessons in music.

Boston had a call from the Lord to the holy ministry. He began his theological course in Edinburgh in 1695. He was then nineteen years of age. In June, 1697, in the twenty-second year of his age, he was licensed to preach the Gospel. He was not a stranger to his own heart and he enjoyed times of sweet communion with God. From our reading we gather that there was a force and freshness in his preaching that arrested the common people. Everywhere Boston went, the Word came with power. Although he was such an able and powerful preacher he was for two years a probationer without receiving a call from a congregation. The reason for this was that the landlords who had great power in parishes, and who looked upon themselves as little kings in their own kingdoms, had no relish for Boston’s preaching, and the young preacher would not court their favour. During this period of his life he bore himself under many disappointments with real Christian prudence and resignation.

In 1699, the people and landlord of one small parish were agreed to give him a call to be their pastor, and in September of that year, Boston was ordained to the ministry in the parish of Simprin. The congregation was small. He often refers to his flock there as “my handful.” When he was there for about a year he had his little congregation thoroughly organised. The young minister faithfully and prayerfully gave his best to his people. The substance, which is honey from the Rock, in his book “The Fourfold State” was preached from his pulpit in Simprin long before it was published in book-form.

He was a diligent student all his life. In Simprin, he struggled through the Psalms in Hebrew and while there he also mastered French. As a student of divinity in Edinburgh he had learned the rudiments of Hebrew and as a young minister in Simprin he had begun his study of the Hebrew Bible. It is interesting to know that eventually Boston was looked upon as one of the finest Hebrew scholars in the world. His preaching at Simprin had its effects upon souls and soon the church was quite unable to accommodate the crowds who came to hear him, especially at communion seasons.

Shortly after his ordination in Simprin he got married. Of the five children born in Simprin two died in infancy. In later years Mrs. Boston became mentally ill. Boston recorded of his wife one of the tenderest and noblest tributes wherewith a wife was ever honoured. The godly servant of Christ was, by the grace of God, remarkably reconciled to the will of God in all his sorrows and afflictions.

In 1707, in the thirty-second year of his age, he accepted a call from the congregation of Ettrick and there he spent the remainder of his life. He laboured in Simprin for eight years. It seems from his Memoirs that the people of Ettrick were naturally of a different disposition from the people of Simprin. For a long time it looked as if nothing could be done in his new sphere of labour. Preaching, visiting and praying seemed to be almost powerless. From our reading we gather that nothing but the deep conviction that his call had been of God could have upheld him in the first part of his ministry there. The people of Ettrick were very proud, self-assured and conceited. They were not very regular in attending the means of grace and worse than this was the lax morality among them. The sin of swearing was widespread and the sin of uncleanness prevalent. There is little wonder that after labouring in this godless parish for eight years he said to his wife, “My heart is alienated from this place.” We understand that at times he was filled with a longing to be gone. This longing was subdued by the thought of the sad plight of Ettrick if he were to leave. But Boston patiently persevered in praying, studying and preaching, and as his earnest labours told in Simprin they were to tell in Ettrick also. One has appositely said of him, “It is not every minister who grows and deepens among an unsympathetic people. It is not every father who abounds in thankfulness when called to meet the bitterest sorrows of the home. Boston did both. The artless story of his study, and his preaching, and his daily wrestling with God, surrounded and shadowed as he was, is one of the noblest records that was ever penned.”

After ten years of diligent, faithful labours in the parish of Ettrick, souls began to feel the power of his preaching and sinners knew that the Holy Spirit was in it. Strangers were now to be seen in the church and calls came to him from other congregations. At last the people of Ettrick were convinced that in losing Boston they would lose an incomparable minister. His labours were richly blessed among the people there. Many souls were awakened and brought to a saving knowledge of Christ by the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon his earnest and able preaching. To this day, souls hungering and thirsting after righteousness find spiritual food and instruction from his writings.

He was naturally of a shy disposition. Still when the question in Church Courts was one of principle or doctrine Boston was always ready to declare his mind. He was not afraid to state his views for fear of being criticised by men. It is very evident from his diary that he was not of an overscrupulous conscience. Yet it is just as evident that he was of a very tender and most enlightened conscience.

At the beginning of 1732 friends could easily see that his work was nearly done. He was a sick man and his sufferings grew. We read that he could not leave off preaching while it was possible to preach at all. In great weakness he lingered for a little and on the 20th of May, at the comparatively young age of fifty-six years, he passed away to be forever with the Lord. His wife lived for a few years after her husband’s death. Of the ten children born to them six died before their father.

From sore experience and by the grace of God this eminent servant of the Lord preached and wrote the fine, edifying and instructive substance contained in “The Crook in the Lot.”

We have heard the late Rev. James Macleod, Greenock, remarking that Boston, in his writings, was sound and orthodox in the wholerange of Scripture. We would advise the young to read and re-read prayerfully, for their own instruction and comfort, “The Fourfold State” and “The Crook in the Lot,” by Thomas Boston of Ettrick.

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