goodness. Viscount Tarbet, a man of intellect, but noted for
his lax accommodating principles, said of Renwick, after several times
visiting him, "He was the stiffest maintainer of his principles that
ever came before us. Others we used always to cause at one time or other
to waver; but him we could never move. We could never make him yield nor
vary in the least. He was of old Knox's principles."

The testimony of Renwick contained in the "CLOUD OF WITNESSES," was
written the night before he suffered, and in near anticipation of his
martyrdom. His mother and sisters were allowed to be with him for a
short time, on the morning of the day of his execution: In giving thanks
at food in their presence, he said--"Lord! Thou hast brought me within
two hours of eternity, and this is no matter of terror to me, more than
if I rose to go to lie down on a bed of roses. Nay, through grace, to
thy praise, I may say, I had never the fear of death since I came within
this prison; but from the place I was taken in, I could have gone very
composedly to the scaffold." Again, he said, "Let us be glad and
rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made
herself ready. Could I ever have thought that the fear of suffering and
death could be so taken from me? What shall I say of it? It is the doing
of the Lord and marvellous in our eyes." He asked, "I have many times
counted the cost of following Christ, but never expected it would have
been so easy. Now, who knows the honour and happiness of that--'He that
confesseth me before men, him will I confess before my Father!' Several
times, he said, _"Now that I am so near the end of time, I desire to
bless the Lord: it is inexpressibly sweet and satisfying peace to me,
that He has kept me in the least from complying with enemies."_ On the
morning of his execution, he wrote his last letter to his most attached
friend, Sir Robert Hamilton, who was then an exile in Holland, for the
sacred cause for which Renwick suffered. Every part of this brief
epistle is calm and thoughtful, and bespeaks the joyful serenity of the
martyr's spirit. "This," he writes, "being my last day on earth, I
thought it my duty to send you this, my last salutation. The Lord has
been wonderfully gracious to me since I came to prison. He has assured
me of His salvation, helped me to give a testimony for Him, and to say
before his enemies all that I have taught, and strengthened me to resist
and repel many tem