cles
at which thousands assembled to worship God.

A Conventicle Sabbath was a solemn day. The time and place having been
fixed beforehand, the people were notified in a very private manner. A
kind of wireless telegraphy seemed to have been operated by the
Covenanters. The news spread and thousands came at the call. The place
selected was usually in the depression of a lonely moor, or under the
shelter of a desolate mountain; yet any spot was dangerous. The king had
issued successive proclamations against the Conventicles, and his troops
were constantly scouring the country in search of them.

The services were of necessity sensational. At the appointed time the
people were on the ground. Many came a great distance, some of them
traveling under the shades of night. From every direction they
converged. Fathers and mothers with their sons and daughters were there.
The young and the old were equally full of zeal, and the women were
courageous as the men. On the way they would cannily scan the country
from the hilltop, to see if the dreaded dragoons were in sight.

The hour for the service having arrived, the audience sat down upon the
grass or on the rocks. The minister took his stand on a prominent spot.
Sentinels occupied elevated points, from whence they could detect and
report the approach of troops. The mountain extended its friendly
shelter over the congregation. The sun shed its light upon them like the
smile of their heavenly Father. The sky spread over them as the canopy
of God's high throne. The winds swept through the bushes and over the
heather with regaling freshness. This was God's sanctuary built without
hands; here His people worshiped in spirit and in truth.

The minister from his granite pulpit would catch the inspiration. The
waiting people, the earnest faces, the gleaming eyes, the solemn hour,
the charming scenery, the occasion, the danger, the privilege, the
responsibility, the presence of God, the nearness of heaven--how much
here to awaken all that was noble, courageous, and overpowering in God's
messenger! The fiery, pathetic, powerful eloquence, that echoed among
those rocks and swept through the coves, was beyond the reporter's
skill. Here heaven touched earth; eternity overlapped time; glory
overspread the worshipers. These were days when that which is most
sacred, awful, and sublime burdened men's souls. Here holy oratory
distilled like dew, breathed like zephyrs, crashed like storms, leaped