Battle of Tippermuir

The Battle of Tippermuir was the first battle of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms on Scots soil and the last, remarkably, in which longbows were used. Its site today is peaceful countryside, overlooked by the silent Tibbermore Kirk. Although a basic A-Z of Scotland will point out that in almost every district is the site of some battle from that nation’s bloody history, Tippermuir strikes me as being especially sad because of the protagonists’ piety. Although it is something of a cliché to remark that both sides in any conflict assume God to be on their side, Tippermuir’s armies' battle cries were “God and the King!” and "Jesus and no Quarter!” respectively (one can work out which one belongs to the Royalists and which to the hardline, Presbyterian Covenanters). Each army thought God was on its side, but what if God wondered which of them were on His?

Seventeenth-century soldiery aside, are you someone who sees God as your servant, prayer being a means by which your orders are communicated, or are you His servant, for whom prayer is a means of seeking His will?

Once it was my working,

  His it hence shall be;

Once I tried to use Him,

  Now He uses me;

Once the pow’r I wanted,

  Now the Mighty One;

Once for self I laboured,

  Now for Him alone.

-A.B. Simpson, ‘Once it was the Blessing’

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