Sketches of the Covenanters Part 3

6. How should the success of the fathers inspire us?

VI.

SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL COVENANT.--A.D. 1581.

During the sixties of the Sixteenth century, the Presbyterian Church had her beautiful summer. The winter seemed to be past and the storms over and gone; the time of the singing of birds had come.

Hitherto the Church had been as a lily among thorns: now instead of thorns were fir trees, and instead of briers, myrtle trees, to the glory of the Lord, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.

Among the matchless sayings of Jesus, one specific word resounds through all the ages and falls upon listening ears like thunder from heaven: "WATCH". Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, the price of purity, the price of honor, the price of every thing worth having. The young Church, vigorous, victorious, and enthusiastic, seems to have been off her guard at a critical moment and while she slept the enemy sowed tares among the wheat.

The regent, the person who was acting as king while the coming king was a child, called a convention of ministers and others who favored the king's supremacy over the Church. The convention at his dictation introduced Prelacy. This occurred on January 12, 1572, a dark day for Scotland.

Prelacy is little else than Popery modified; Popery in another dress, trained and taught to speak a softer dialect. The power of Popery had been broken, but the residuum still remained, and now there appeared "the strange heterogeneous compound of Popery, Prelacy, and Presbyterianism" in the Church.

The Church awoke to find herself in the grasp of a horrible octopus, from which she did not escape for three generations, and only then at the loss of much precious blood.

The first effort of the Church, when awakened to her real condition, was to control the bishops that had come into her ministry, and whom she was powerless to remove. The next step was to attempt their removal, on the ground that the office of the bishop was unscriptural. Difficulties rapidly increased; opposing forces were daily growing stronger; the Civil government was against the Church; the regent, Scotland's chief ruler, bent all his energies in the defence of the bishops. From whence shall light and deliverance now come? Listen to the words that seem to be on ten thousand lips: "The Covenants; the Covenants shall be Scotland's reviving!" "The Covenants" now became the watchword of the faithful. A wave of hopefulness and enthusiasm spread over the Church; gladness wreathed the faces that had gathered blackness, and strength throbbed in hearts that were faint.

The General a.s.sembly, given strength from the Lord for the occasion, adopted a form of Covenant for the nation. The Covenant, as written by Rev. John Craig, was the product of a cultured brain and pious heart. It is unsurpa.s.sed in clear diction, high purpose, majestic spirit, heroic decision, and solemn appeal to G.o.d. It became the ground-work of all Scotland's subsequent Covenants.

But Craig had to meet the test of faith required by his own Covenant.

King James VI., who was now on the throne, after subscribing the bond, repudiated it, and commanded its author to do the same. Craig replied that he would never repudiate anything approved by the Word of G.o.d. The Court, in which he was on trial, ordered his head to be shaved, and other indignities to be done to his person.

Again when on trial he was treated with utmost contempt by his judge, to whom he said, "There have been as great men set up higher than thou, that have been brought low." The judge, mockingly, sat down at his feet, saying, "Now I am humbled." "Nay," said Craig, "mock G.o.d's servants as thou wilt, G.o.d will not be mocked, but shall make thee find it in earnest, when thou shalt be cast down from the high horse of thy pride." A few years later he was thrown from his horse and killed.

The fervor aroused by the Covenant swept the Church like a Pentecostal fire, and spread over all the kingdom as a storm of holy excitement. The Covenant bond, being signed by the king, the n.o.bles, and a great mult.i.tude of people, was called, The First National Covenant of Scotland.

No greater event had ever stirred the kingdom, no deeper joy had lighted up her coasts, no higher honor had exalted her people, no brighter glory had overspread her mountains and moors. That holy Covenant had lifted her into relations.h.i.+p with G.o.d; the kingdom had become Hephzibah, and the land, Beulah; the nation was married to the Lord.

The Covenant bound the Covenanter, the Church, the nation, and posterity, under a solemn oath,--

To adhere to the Reformed religion with all the heart through all time to come;

To labor with all lawful means to recover the purity and liberty of the Gospel, by removing all human innovations from the Church;

To abhor and detest the corrupt doctrines and practices of Romanism;

To resist under the oath of G.o.d all the evils and corruptions contrary to the Reformed religion;

To defend the country and support the government, while country and government defend and preserve true religion;

To stand in mutual defence of one another in maintaining the Gospel and the Reformed Church;

To permit nothing to divide the Covenanted ranks, or diminish their power, or swerve them from their high purpose;

To become good examples of G.o.dliness, soberness, and righteousness in the performance of every duty due to G.o.d and man;

To fear none of the foul aspersions that may be cast upon this Covenant, seeing it is warranted by the Word of G.o.d, and is for the maintenance of His Church;

To recognize the LIVING G.o.d as the Searcher of hearts, and Jesus Christ as the Judge, before whom all shall stand in judgment.

Such was the high range of thought, motive, purpose, and action reached by this Covenant of the fathers, who called upon G.o.d in the day of trouble, and were heard in that they feared. The men who led in this solemn transaction were distinguished for learning, piety, high-souled purpose, devotion to their country, and zeal for the glory of Christ.

They were among the excellent of the earth. But the mighty current of religious enthusiasm that had set in drew to itself, and carried on its bosom, mult.i.tudes who were superficial and vacillating. These quickly fell away when the counter current set forward; some of them even became violent persecutors of the Covenanters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: KING JAMES VI.

King James VI. came to the throne of Scotland in 1578, and reigned till 1625. He was crowned when a boy of 12 years. He subscribed the National Covenant, saying, "I praise the Lord that I am king in such a Kirk, the sincerest Kirk in the world." He soon forsook the "Kirk"--the Covenanted Church--and became a violent persecutor.]

The king was among the first to vitiate his oath, and break the Covenant. His weakness was pitiful; he seemed to turn with every gale that struck him. The next year he mustered the strength of his government to overthrow the Presbyterian Church, and reverse the workings of the Covenant. The Church was aroused and resolute, Andrew Melville being her recognized leader. A delegation was sent to the king to remonstrate; Melville was the spokesman. The king was confronted like a lion in his den. He listened to the following message: "Your majesty, by device of some counselors, is caused to take upon you a spiritual power and authority, which properly belongs unto Christ, as the only King and Head of the Church. Through your highness, some men are trying to erect a new Popedom, as though your majesty could not be king and head of this commonwealth, unless the spiritual sword, as well as the temporal, be put into your hands; unless Christ be bereft of His authority, and the two jurisdictions which G.o.d separated be confounded.

All this tends to the wreck of true religion."

Melville sent the truth, like a lancet, into the inflated ambition of the young king. He winced in the agony of the keen surgery. But Melville had to meet the consequences of his faithfulness. He was taken to the tower of London, where he lay in a dismal cell four years. He was afterward banished and died in a strange land.

This Covenant of 1851 placed posterity, equally with the Covenanters of that day, in oath-bound relation to G.o.d. A Public Covenant with G.o.d continues in its moral obligation until its terms are fulfilled. Are we lifting up our lives into relations.h.i.+p with our Lord Jesus Christ through our inherited Covenant? Are we fulfilling our sworn duties to our country, our Church, and our Lord? Are we using all lawful means to cause true religion to prevail? Are we employing our strength against all opposing evils? Are we keeping step in the Covenanted ranks that are marching on, a.s.sured that the principles of the Reformation will yet prevail in every land?

POINTS FOR THE CLa.s.s.

1. What was the condition of the Presbyterian Church during 1560-1570?

2. How did the Church thereafter decline?

3. To what did the Church resort for her reviving?

4. What effect had the Covenant on the Church?

5. Mention some of the main points in the Covenant.

6. How did the king regard the Covenant?

7. How was his opposition resisted by the Covenanters?

8. In what way do the former Covenants bind the present generation?

VII.

CONTENDING WITH THE KING--A.D. 1582.

The Covenanted Church flourished under the care of the General a.s.sembly like a well-watered garden. The small band of ministers and elders, who had organized the a.s.sembly, were richly blest in their labors. They had a.s.sembled at the risk of their lives to give the supremacy of Jesus Christ its loudest utterance, and the unity of the Church its grandest expression; and the signal favor of G.o.d was their reward. The first ten years of the General a.s.sembly were the halcyon days of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Under the showers of the Holy Spirit, pious people sprang up "as among the gra.s.s, as willows by the water-courses." The power of the Papacy was broken and its horrors checked.