to another, is it bound to pay it—and if it fail to do so, is this at the expense of the national honour then are these Covenants binding, for they are national contracts-contracts with the God of nations-into which these lands have entered-avouching themselves to be the Lord's -and under the most solemn and awful sanctions, promising to keep his statutes, promote his interests, and walk in his ways. Could it be shown, indeed, that in these deeds, whether as to their form, their matter, or their end, there was any thing immoral or improper, they would not be binding either on those who subscribed them, or on us whom they represented, for we can neither bind nor be bound to evil; but if this cannot be shown-if, on the other hand as I have shown, they are in all respects moral, then, so long as there is binding force in morality, in promises, in vows, in oaths, in contracts, personal or national, so long must we be bound by these great national deeds; nor, this obligation on us and on all posterity, is there a power on earth to disannul, disable, or dispense. True it is they have been formally rescinded by Parliament-true it is, it is now made a capital crime to acknowledge them-true it is they have been broken, burned; burned by the orders of the king, who, on swearing them, said, 'Should I ever break these Covenants, may God shake me out of my house and kingdom; but though rescinded on earth, they are ratified in heaven, which has seen, and which will sooner or later visit on the head and house of this perjured prince the nefandous crime of Covenant-breaking. Yea, little as may be thought now of the sin of rescinding these Covenants, the time I doubt not will come, when this D sin will be seen in its true light and tremendous magnitude. The time, I venture to predict, will come, when the principles contained in these rescinded Covenants, now hewn into a thousand pieces, and scattered with scorn to the winds, shall be gathered up with pious care like 'the torn body of a martyred saint.". In this opinion I am not singular. " Till doomsday shall come," said Mr. Samuel Rutherford, "they shall never see the Kirk of Scotland and her Covenant burnt to ashes, or, if it should, it cannot be so burnt or buried as not to have a resurrection-angry though the winds be, they shall shake none of Christ's corn;" yea, when these Covenants themselves, now rescinded and reviled, as they were once Scotland's glory, shall become the means of her reformation and revival. "The Covenants, the Covenants," said James Guthrie on the scaffold, "will be Scotland's reviving." "Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a PERPETUAL COVENANT," was once the rallying cry of Europe. Nor," said Mr. Traill solemnly, "will it ever be well with Scotland, till it be heard as her rallying cry again." Such were the truths I was taught by my revered parent and my affectionate tutor in my childhood to cherish, for which I was trained earnestly to contend-which, amidst 66 Calling shapes and beck'ning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's names I have followed as my guide-my faith in which, terrors and tortures have not been able to subvert, which under these terrors and tortures have been my stay and support, and the triumph of which, in connection with His glory, I have pursued as one of the great ends of my life. 35 CHAPTER III. MY LEAVING HOME. TROUBLED and threatening as were the times, it was thought prudent that I should now enter on the duties of my profession, which was to be that of the law. This profession had been fixed upon, not for any predilection I had shown for it, but at the recommendation of Mr. Francis Innes, an old and valued friend of my father's, who had followed it long, and with great reputation, in Edinburgh. The day on which I left home was a sorrowful day to me, and to all beneath the ancient roof-tree of Knockdailie. true is it "We do not know how much we love, An aged tree, a common flower, We linger while we turn away, So Like a ray of light through the iron grating of my cell, comes that scene back at this moment on my recollection. "Patrick," said my father, with more than his usual solemnity, "you are now leaving us, and something whispers to me, that, so far as I am concerned, it is for ever Let me look on thee, my fair-haired boy, child of many hopes and many prayers, for in this world I shall see thee no more. I trust I may say, that I have brought up Alison and yourself in the nurture and in the admonition of the Lord.' This on the day of your baptism, by that great man of God, Mr. Douglas, I promised and engaged to do. I trust that the principles of the true reformed religion, as they are contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and summed up in the Confession and Catechisms, and which you have been taught from a child, you will never renounce or neglect. What David said to Solomon, Patrick, I say to` you, My son, know thou the God of thy fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.' What Solomon said to his son, say I also to mine, My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.' Patrick," continued he, "You have been born in evil days-I am now well stricken in years, and the evils that are coming on the land I trust that I may not live to seethat, with my dear friends now gone, ere it comes to the worst, I shall have won to my rest. evils are coming-the clouds have been long blackening, they are big, and ready for bursting. It will be a sore and a sifting time. Blood-the blood of the faithful Guthrie, of the noble Argyle, of the eloquent Warriston-has been shed already. This is the beginning of evil, but the end is not yet. Hear it from me, my children, take it from my lips, as the word of God,-look to these lonely vallies, look to these lofty mountains-these lonely vallies shall yet ring with the shouts of the persecutor, and these green hills But 66 But shall reek with the blood of the slain. As for myself, my race is nearly run-my grey hairs will soon be hidden in the grave; but the days are coming when the golden locks of youth shall be stained with gore, and when the lofty head of manhood shall lie low on the fields of Scotland, or, fixed on the gates of its walled cities, shall there blacken in the sun. But you, my children, and you, the mother that bore and that reared them, come what will, say, will you be true to the cause of the covenanted Kirk of Scotland? and will this cause be dearer to you than liberty, than lands, than life itself? Say-swear that it shall!” "We say, father," said we all with one voice, We swear it shall." 66 I am then," said he, "satisfied. Patrick, I can now part with you; yea, like aged Simeon I can die in peace. once more, ere we part, let us pray, that, if we should never all meet around the throne of God on earth, we may meet around His throne in heaven." And now, kneeling there as he had often done, he prayed that I might be anointed with the oil of strength for the day of duty, and for the hour of suffering and sorrow with the oil of joy; and that all of us who knelt there might be found in one lot at the latter day. He then prayed for his bleeding country, and his broken but beloved Kirk, in strains of such faith and fervour, as Rutherford himself could hardly have surpassed. Rising from our knees, he then blessed me, even as Jacob of old blessed the sons of Joseph, saying, "God, before whom my fathers did walk-the God which led me all my life long unto this day-the angel which redeemed me from all evil; bless the lad;" which, when he had said, amid the tears of my tears, of my mother and sister, and the loud lament of |