was the
Bride of the Son of God; she was clothed with the righteousness of God;
she was adorned with all the excellencies of character God could lavish
upon her. The Church was the habitation of the Holy Spirit. The Covenant
was the marriage bond joining her to her Lord and Husband. The love of
the Covenanters for the Church of the Lord Jesus arose in flames of
jealousy when they saw a mere man, a dissolute and sinful man, attempt
to woo her heart and alienate her affections from her Lord and King.
They could not endure it. Her honor and purity were worth more to them
than life itself.

The testimony of the Covenanters against the wrongs done the Church was
both pathetic and vehement, ranging all the way from tender tearful
supplication, to pointed fearless denunciation. At times they spoke with
meekness and hope, as if standing on the Mount of Beatitudes; again with
severity and sadness, as if the voice came from the fiery summit of
Sinai. Their eloquence in the sacred office matched the tenderness of
the dove and the terribleness of thunder; distilled like the dewdrop and
smote like pointed lightning. The sword of burnished steel they wielded
to good purpose in self-defence, and the sword of the Word they used
with telling effect in the spiritual warfare for their Lord and His
Church.

The strength which the Covenanters possessed and employed in battling
for the rights of the Church, and the prerogatives of their Lord, amazes
the contemplative mind. Their power was always sufficient, new every
morning, fresh every hour, inexhaustible under most excessive strains,
and mighty to win moral victories everywhere. Whence the power? What was
its source?

Explain as we may the fortitude, inspiration, enthusiasm, exalted
purpose, indestructible hope, and unconquerable faith of the
Covenanters under the cruel treatment and prolonged persecution they
endured, we must reach the conclusion that their strength lay in their
Covenanted union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Being thus united, the
God's strength was theirs.

Their Covenant they cherished with holy awe; its sacredness lay heavy
upon their hearts. It lifted the conscience up into the presence of God.
His throne of judgment was continually flashing its brightness upon
their eyes. A deep consciousness of God's presence, power, and approval,
grew upon them. The dreadful majesty of God overawed them. The
sacrificial love of Jesus Christ set their hearts on flames. The Bible