William Guthrie, one of the holiest and ablest of the experimental divines of Scotland, was born at Pitforthy, Angus, the seat of his ancestors, in the year 1620. Educated at St Andrews, where he came under the influence of his cousin James Guthrie and the saintly Samuel Rutherford, he was licensed, 'with the high approbation of the Presbytery', in 1642. Two years later he was ordained minister in the newly erected parish of Fenwick, Ayrshire, in 1644, where he ministered until 1664, except for a brief season of service as chaplain to the Scottish army during the civil war that ended in the execution of Charles I. He was providentially preserved throughout the war, and returned to his flock with increased ardour and devotion. During the unhappy division of the Church of Scotland into the parties of Resolutioners and Protesters or Remonstrants, he adhered to the latter, serving as Moderator of the Protester Synod of Glasgow and Ayr in 1654. A few years later c. 1658 he published 'The Christian's Great Interest'. This work has gone through numerous editions, and has been translated into various languages. In the persecution which followed the Restoration of Charles II, Guthrie was preserved in Fenwick until 1664. He was removed from his pulpit on 24th July of that year. His bodily health, never robust, suffered a severe shock on this occasion; he preached no more in the parish; and about two months later retired to his paternal estate at Pitforthy. There he died, full of faith in the glorious gospel he had preached, on the afternoon of Wednesday, the 10th of October, 1665.
