rs;
enemies were plotting her overthrow; wars were convulsing the country;
the external conditions were extremely adverse; yet she grew, waxed
mighty, and became irresistible in the work of the Gospel. The Church
honored the Lord in His holy Covenant, and He honored her with growth,
success, and victory in the presence of her foes. He was a wall of fire
round about her, and the glory in the midst thereof. These were years of
phenomenal power and splendor unto the Covenanted Church.

Then followed the gloaming. The evening of that prosperous day grew very
dark; the darkness increased for forty years; ten thousand midnights
seemed to have condensed their horrid blackness upon Scotland and her
prostrated Church. At length the storm of fire and blood exhausted
itself, but not till a whole generation had wasted away in the anguish
of that protracted persecution. The steps that led to the Church's
prostration and decimation, we may trace with profit; but as it is
crimsoned with the blood of the brave, and marked with many a martyr's
grave, the eye will oft be moist and the heart sick.

While the Church stood to her Covenant, she was like an impregnable
fortress, or an invincible army. While she held the truth tenaciously in
her General Assembly, presbyteries, and sessions, and applied it
effectively, she spread forth her roots like Lebanon. But when doubt and
fear, plans and policy, compromise and temporizing entered into her
councils, her gold became dim and her sword pewter. The Lord went not
with her armies into the battle, and they fainted and fell on the field.
A brief review is necessary to understand the situation.

The Solemn League and Covenant, in 1643, gave the Covenanted Church of
Scotland a mighty impetus in the right direction, but its effect for
good was brief. The League united the kingdoms of Scotland, England, and
Ireland; and the Covenant placed them under obligations to one another
and to God. These kingdoms were thereby exalted beyond measure in
privilege. The sacred bond had been prepared by the Joint Commission
that represented England and Scotland, the initial step having been
taken by the English Parliament. The king and the parliament were then
at strife. The dominating spirit of Charles, which harassed Scotland had
provoked hostility in England; the strength of that kingdom was nearly
equally divided between the two parties. The people of England, who
aspired after liberty and felt the throb of no