stricter Covenanters,--the
followers of Cargill and Cameron, and those associated in Societies, and
who frequented conventicles,--alone consistently carried out the grand
principles and aims of the national vows. At length, after much
searching of heart, and according to his words, testifying to his deep
conscientiousness, "with great grief, reluctance, and trembling of
soul," he became identified with the persecuted remnant. Soon after,
while yet only _nineteen years of age_, Renwick witnessed the martyrdom
of the venerable servant of Christ, Donald Cargill. He stood near the
scaffold, beheld his courageous and triumphant departure to glory, and
heard the clear and powerful last words, in which he nobly testified for
the crown-rights of the Redeemer, and against Erastian usurpation. "As
to the causes of my suffering," said the dying martyr, "the chief
is--not acknowledging the present Authority, as it is established in the
Supremacy and Explanatory Act. This is the magistracy I have resisted,
that which is invested with Christ's power. Seeing that power taken from
Christ, which is His glory, and made the essential of an earthly crown,
it seemed to me as if one were wearing my husband's garments, after he
had killed him. There is no distinction we can make, that can free the
acknowledger from being a partaker of this sacrilegious robbing of God.
And it is but to cheat our consciences to acknowledge the _civil power_
alone, that it is of the essence of the crown; and seeing they are so
express, we ought to be plain; for otherwise, we deny our testimony and
consent that Christ be robbed of His glory."

These mighty utterances, so solemnly confirmed by the martyr's blood,
could not fail to make a deep impression on the heart of the youthful
Renwick. His purpose was fixed, and his resolution taken, to maintain
the same great principles; and reproach and persecution and death could
not turn him aside. His Christian decision had its reward. He declared
that he did not fully know what the gracious presence of God with His
people meant, till he joined the fellowship of the persecuted remnant. A
large measure of the spirit of the "faithful Cargill" rested on his
youthful successor; and when, some two years after, he entered on the
work of the ministry, it was justly said--"he took up the Covenanted
Banner as it fell from the hands of Cargill."

At the time that Renwick united with the Society People, they were
destitute of a p