cupy it yet.

True, the Covenanters did decline the king's authority in certain
particulars! But were they not justifiable? A glance at the situation
will solve the question.

The king, having expelled the Covenanted ministers, substituted others
of his own choice. The Covenanters refused to hear them.

The king restricted the Covenanters to their own parishes in public
worship. They went where they pleased.

The king forbade marriages or baptisms, except by Episcopal ministers.
The Covenanters went to their own ministers for these services.

The king ordered them to observe the Episcopal form of worship. They
believed this to be unscriptural, and refused.

The king commanded the people to deliver up their ministers to the
authorities for punishment. This they would in no wise do.

The Covenanters rebels, because they declined the king's authority in
matters like these? How could they have done otherwise? Two courses lay
before them; resist the tyrant's will, or submit as his slaves. Blessed
be the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave them light, strength, courage, and
victory. These fathers of the Covenant chose to suffer and be free; to
endure the king's wrath and keep a pure conscience; to disdain every
suggestion of compromise and continue the conflict. The invitation to
come down, and consult on the plains of Ono, was answered by its own
echo--O, no.

The Covenanters, like the Israelites, flourished while in this great
tribulation. They were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and
multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with
them. The more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and grew.
Their ministers were numbered by hundreds; the people, who assembled in
Conventicles, by tens of thousands. Oppression could not crush them; the
furnace, though heated seven times more than it was wont, could not
singe their garments. Their adversaries became alarmed and began to
devise other measures. Their device was diabolical wisdom. Satan, having
had more than three thousand years since he failed on Israel in Egypt,
was now better up to his work. The king proposed to indulge the
ministers. The royal indulgence was surely a product of the bottomless
pit. The snare was laid six times and caught many unwary souls.

[Illustration: ANNIVERSARY OF A CONVENTICLE.

The people of Scotland delight to do honor to the memory of the martyrs.
In many places they hold anniversary meetings on the grounds made