was radiating from it.
They were willing to lose the right eye, the right hand, the right foot,
yea, life itself, rather than lose the least fragment of the Scriptures.
Rather would they be jostled out of their homes, and wander in deserts,
than depart from Bible doctrines. James Renwick was offered his life, if
he would let a drop of ink fall on a sheet of paper. He chose death in
preference to that compromising act. Is the truth, the entire system of
truth, every stone in the temple of truth, thus dear to us?

A WITNESSING CHURCH IS NEEDED.

The blood testifies to the need of a witnessing Church. While Satan
remains above the pit, and iniquity abounds in present proportions, a
faithful and fearless testimony for Jesus Christ, and His glorious
Gospel and royal rights, will be a moral necessity. God has His own way
of calling out His witnesses, and assigning service to them. The Church,
as a whole, has invalidated and incapacitated herself for this
responsibility, by weakness, declension, and compromise. God does not
commit His testimony to the Church, while in such condition; nor to the
faithful in the Church, whose voice and actions are weakened or
neutralized by majorities. This important and hazardous task throughout
the ages has not been committed to a Church, that is recreant at any
point; nor to individuals, that are true at every point; but to a
distinctive body of earnest, faithful, and fearless believers. For this
purpose the Lord has divided, and sub-divided, His people time and
again. He will have a testimony by a Church that is distinct from every
retrograde organization. While the Covenanted Church was faithful under
Henderson, Johnston, Guthrie, Gillespie, and other worthy leaders, she
was united, happy, and prosperous; "she was beautiful as the morning,
fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with
banners." But when she suppressed, by resolution, one principle of the
Covenant, God drew the dividing line. He sent the persecution that
brought out His witnesses, four hundred ministers, and people in
proportion. And when these ministers weakened under the royal
Indulgences, He intensified the persecution and called out the
"Cameronians." These witnesses He qualified to see the truth in its vast
proportions and feel it in its divine dreadfulness. They became the
embodiment of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; they were the incarnation of
the doctrines of His kingdom on earth. They dwelt in th