be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and
the isles shall wait for his law.... I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give
thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." That
this promise may in due time be fulfilled to all who are in darkness,
let us endeavour to imitate, in their devotedness of heart to God, those
whose conduct we have been led here to consider, and who enjoyed so
abundantly the benefits of that promise.

FOOTNOTES:

[778] 1 Cor. xi. 1.

[779] Heb. vi. 11, 12.

[780] Chap. xii.

[781] Vitringa.

[782] See "Lectures on the Principles of the Second Reformation."
Glasgow, 1841. Lecture VII., by the Rev. Dr. W. Symington.

[783] Appendix B.

[784] "History of the Church of Scotland." By the Rev. W.M.
Hetherington, A.M. Edin., 1842.

CHAPTER XV.

SEASONS OF COVENANTING.

The duty is never unsuitable. Men have frequently, improperly esteemed
the exercise as one that should be had recourse to, only on some great
emergency. But as it is sinful to defer religious exercises till
affliction, presenting the prospect of death, constrain to attempt them,
so it is wrong to imagine, that the pressure of calamity principally
should constrain to make solemn vows. The exercise of personal
Covenanting should be practised habitually. The patriot is a patriot
still; and the covenanter is a covenanter still. "It is not enough that
the heart be once given to God; when this has really been done it is a
great attainment; but it must again and again be surrendered in renewed
acts of self-dedication, in order to the maintenance of any thing like
fidelity and steadfastness in his service. A daily recognition of our
relationship to Christ, is full of comfort and encouragement, and is at
the same time invaluable as a means of sanctification. How precious the
privilege of being able in all difficulties and dangers, to speak of the
great Jehovah in the language of Paul,--'God, whose I am, and whom I
serve!'[785] How powerful the argument, in applying for deliverance from
evil of whatever kind, employed by the Psalmist,--'_I am thine_, save
me.'[786]"[787] And though the exercises of Social Covenanting are not
practicable so frequently as those of that which is personal, there is
no reason why they, any more than the other, should be reckoned as
incumbent only on occasions of an extraordinary nature.

But special seaso