e men accepted the
challenge and went forth, like soldiers, into the field of action,
saying, "We will continue the conflict till we overcome, or hand it down
in debate to posterity."

Four hundred ministers expelled from their congregations! four hundred
churches left vacant! four hundred families rendered desolate! forty
thousand of God's sheep, and as many lambs, left to wander in the
wilderness without a shepherd! who can estimate the extent of such a
calamity? who can reckon the sorrows, sufferings, and stupendous losses,
public and private, caused by this iniquitous act of the king?

But the four hundred ministers were not silenced. Who can silence
tongues of fire? They were scattered, but not conquered. They took
shelter where it could be found--under friendly roofs, within dismal
caves, under dripping moss-hags, in the open fields, and on mountain
tops. They wandered over desolate moors and on lonely ridges. They
suffered hunger, weariness, sickness, exposure. The rains of summer
drenched them and the snows of winter stiffened them. They were clothed
with plaids, shawls, and threadbare garments. They hastened from place
to place to elude pursuers, and wherever they went they carried their
Bibles. The Bible to them in their desolation was meat, drink, light,
shelter, fellowship,--everything the soul could wish.

These men of God were devoted preachers, they loved to preach, had a
passion for preaching. The Word of God that carried them into such
excess of suffering was in their bones as fire, an unquenchable flame;
and in their hearts as rising waters, an overflowing river. As Christ
their Lord and Master preached in summer and in winter, in the house and
in the field, to as many as came, so preached they to one soul, or to
ten thousand.

The king sent detachments of his army over the country to compel the
people, who had lost their pastors, to attend services under the
ministers of the Episcopal Church. They refused. The new clergymen
preached to empty pews in many of the Covenanted parishes. The
Covenanters instinctively discovered the haunting places of their own
ministers, and thither they repaired for their preaching. They traveled
far that they might hear the precious Gospel, in its richness and
fulness from consecrated lips. They were hungry for the Word of God and
willingly incurred hardships and dangers to get a feast. These meetings
at first were small; in time they developed into the great Conventi