Whenever Saint Andrew's is mentioned, I am sure that the
first thought of many of the congregation will be of the CLAN
week. I would like to tell of an act of great heroism that took
place in that town over two hundred years ago.
Snowstorms, gales and high winds had already raged for
several days when, on the third of January 1803, the service at the
university's chapel was interrupted by a messenger bringing news
that a small vessel had stuck fast on a rock about three hundred
yards off the East Sands.
Through the blizzard, the crew could be seen clinging
desperately to the rigging. Several attempts had already been made
to rescue the crew. Two men had already attempted to swim out to
the stricken vessel with a lifeline, but both had been hurled back
on to the shore. A man on horseback, hoping to get to the stricken
ship had fared no better.
However, just when it seemed nothing could be done except
to stand and watch the crew await their death, a voice was heard
saying, "Bring me a rope and I will try to save them."
John Honey, a 19 year-old divinity student at the university, a
powerfully-built 6ft 4ins farmer’s son from Perthshire was
already preparing to swim out."Tie a rope round my waist,"
he said, "and give me a knife." Then he plunged in to
the tumultuous sea and began the long swim out to the boat.
His progress through the mighty waves was so painfully
slow that his friends at one point began to pull the rope in to
try and save him. But he just cut the rope and kept on swimming,
finally reaching the boat and returning with another rope to set
up a lifeline for the crew. The seamen, though, were so chilled to
the bone and suffering from hypothermia they could not hold on to
the rope unaided. John Honey swam back out and brought one of the
men to shore along the rope, returning five times to save the
remaining crew members.
St. Andrews hailed this quiet young man as a hero and the
university marked his exploit by installing a commemorative
stained glass window in St. Salvator’s College chapel. Honey
was given the Freedom of St Andrews along with that of Perth,
Forfar and Auchtermuchty. He also received the silver award of the
Royal Humane Society.
He did not take up the ministry until 1812, when he was
called to Bendochty Parish Church, between Coupar Angus and
Blairgowrie. After only two years, this popular, much loved
minister died of tuberculosis, leaving a wife and three young
sons. His eldest son, John became a minister also and served the
congregation of Inchture for sixty two years, living to the age of
eighty two.
The Good News of the Gospel is that the courage we need
for all these different situations of our lives is not a million
miles away. It’s right next to us. Around us and within us.
Above us and beneath us. Where John Honey and so many others have
discovered it. In the very person of Christ himself. And that
courage is not something we really learn from our Master, so much
as we receive it directly from him in a spiritual way as we seek
his presence and put our faith in him. It is a power that
penetrates and permeates every corner of our being. And it is
there even in our times of greatest fear. An extraordinary
boldness of spirit that rises within us and assures us we can meet
anything life happens to throw our way. And not only meet it but
triumph over it.
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