e presence of
God, lived on the hidden manna, and pulsated with the power of the
endless life. Such were the martyrs who defied death and all the
instruments of torture. Have the Covenanters of to-day spirit, power,
and character like this?

[Illustration: THE BURIAL.

The burial service was peculiarly sad and solemn, in the times of
persecution. The deceased Covenanters were, in many cases, buried at
night, for fear of the enemy. The friends, with breaking hearts,
gathered around the new grave, and waited under the dim star-light,
while the minister, with the use of a flickering candle, offered
consolation from the Word of God. Great was the grief when one of the
leaders had fallen in death.]

A CRY FOR VENGEANCE.

The blood of the martyrs cries unto God for vengeance. "How long, O
Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth?" Such was the cry of them that were "slain for
the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held." Vengeance in
the Gospel! Vengeance in Jesus Christ! Vengeance in the heart of God!
How we are shocked! We try to veil our eyes and shut out the dreadful
fact. We attempt to explain away the terrible doctrine. Yet there it is.
A sharp sword is sheathed in this scabbard, and it will yet be drawn for
dreadful work. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." "And
shall not God avenge His own elect? I tell you that He will avenge them
speedily." God is just as well as merciful; yea, necessarily just, but
conditionally merciful. Justice is an essential attribute of His life;
mercy is volitional. The blood of the martyrs, their groans, tears,
wanderings, the desolation of home, the cries of mothers and children,
the horrors worse than death--all are ever before His face; nothing is
forgotten. Without repentance, no remission; sin does not grow feeble
with, years, nor die of old age. Judgment must be meted out, or
rectitude would forsake the universe; the whole structure of God's
kingdom would fall into ruins. The guilty must suffer. The individual
perpetrators of these horrid crimes have suffered already; they have
appeared personally before Christ's tribunal. But the State! Oh, the
guilty State! The State was the chief party in the slaughter of these
innocents. True, she has ceased to shed the blood of saints; but has she
repented of the blood she has shed? Her eyes are dry; her brow is brass.
Her children build monuments, but her hand's