as feasting on the rich
abundance of the Gospel, and hanging on the lips of the minister, when
he suddenly stopped. He had finished. One of the hearers, who felt that
only a slice of bread was given, when a loaf was needed, approached him
and said, "Oh, sir, 'tis long betwixt meals, and we are in a starving
condition, and it is sweet and good and wholesome which ye deliver; but
why do ye straiten us so much for shortness?" Cargill replied, "Ever
since I bowed the knee in good earnest to pray, I never durst pray or
preach with my gifts; and when my heart is not affected, and comes not
up with my mouth, I always thought it time for me to quit. What comes
not from my heart, I have little hope that it will go to the heart of
others." He was able to distinguish between the product of his own gifts
and that of the Holy Spirit. The one is like bubbles on the water for
hungry souls; the other like the grapes of Eschol.

[Illustration: EARLSTON CASTLE

This castle is very ancient. The Earlstons were zealous reformers for
many generations. They suffered much in the persecution, and furnished
at least one martyr, William Gordon, a young man who was apprehended on
his way to the battle of Bothwell Bridge, and shot on the road.]

The most notable event in the career of Cargill was the excommunication
of the king, and six of his accomplices, from the Covenanted Church.
These seven men were the chief persecutors at that time. Formerly they
had been Covenanters, but had abandoned the Covenant, and had fallen
into excessive wickedness. The Church had never dealt with their cases;
she had lost the power. The Church courts were controlled by the king.
But shall discipline, therefore, fail? Can the Church no more sustain
her laws, and administer her censures? Is she incapacitated?
Extraordinary conditions justify extraordinary methods. Cargill
conceived the bold purpose of issuing these cases, and inflicting the
censures, solitary and alone, as a minister of Christ Jesus. Not in the
spirit of revenge, nor as a vain anathema, but by the authority of God,
in the name of Christ, and with profound sense of responsibility did he
mete out the spiritual penalty unto these blood-stained and impenitent
transgressors. The indestructible vitality of the Church thus reappeared
in that dread act.

This action was taken at a Conventicle held at Torwood early in the
autumn of 1680. The attendance was large. The people knew not what was
coming. Cargil