During this year, great numbers of the persecuted witnesses were murdered in the fields. Peden, therefore, to escape the hands of the military, after this wandered from one place to the next; and from his minute acquaintance with all the haunts of the desert, of which he may be said for years to have been an inhabitant, he succeeded in eluding the enemy. In such circumstances, we need not wonder that he was sometimes weary of life, and envied his fellows who had gone on before. On one occasion, visiting the grave of Richard Cameron, these feelings rushed powerfully into his mind. Harassed and vexed, he sat down by the grave, and as he thought of the happiness of his beloved friend who exchanged all his suffering for the martyrs crown, while he himself was still enduring the scorching heat of persecution, meekly raising his eyes to heaven, he prayed, “O to be wi’ Ritchie!”
This is not to say that Peden wearied of doing God’s work, he was thinking of what Paul the apostle said, ‘To be on earth is good for you, but to be with Christ is better still,’ Peden was thinking of the wonderful happiness of being with Christ in His glory. We should all be not weary of well doing, but we should still be looking forward to being with the King in His Kingdom.
For His glory,
– Hentycrew
Christian Anecdotes 