the true foundation, which
is Jesus Christ? Is our building material like theirs--gold, silver, and
precious stones? Are we zealous in making the Church of Christ appear
the glorious Temple of truth, the Sanctuary of the living God, the
Habitation of the Holy Spirit? Are we so consumed with the holy passion
of love, that we cannot rest till we bring others into the house of God?
Are we worthy of our relation to the Covenanted fathers?

* * * * *

POINTS FOR THE CLASS.

1. Give an account of the First Covenant.

2. Describe the First General Assembly.

3. What was the value of the First Book of Discipline?

4. Describe the founding of Public Schools in Scotland.

5. When was the First Reformation at its climax?

6. How should the success of the fathers inspire us?

VI.

SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL COVENANT.--A.D. 1581.

During the sixties of the Sixteenth century, the Presbyterian Church had
her beautiful summer. The winter seemed to be past and the storms over
and gone; the time of the singing of birds had come.

Hitherto the Church had been as a lily among thorns: now instead of
thorns were fir trees, and instead of briers, myrtle trees, to the glory
of the Lord, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.

Among the matchless sayings of Jesus, one specific word resounds through
all the ages and falls upon listening ears like thunder from heaven:
"WATCH". Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, the price of purity,
the price of honor, the price of every thing worth having. The young
Church, vigorous, victorious, and enthusiastic, seems to have been off
her guard at a critical moment and while she slept the enemy sowed tares
among the wheat.

The regent, the person who was acting as king while the coming king was
a child, called a convention of ministers and others who favored the
king's supremacy over the Church. The convention at his dictation
introduced Prelacy. This occurred on January 12, 1572, a dark day for
Scotland.

Prelacy is little else than Popery modified; Popery in another dress,
trained and taught to speak a softer dialect. The power of Popery had
been broken, but the residuum still remained, and now there appeared
"the strange heterogeneous compound of Popery, Prelacy, and
Presbyterianism" in the Church.

The Church awoke to find herself in the grasp of a horrible octopus,
from which she did not escape for three generations, and only then at