Christian be always at hand; always at your side; nay, always within your hearts! You know Saint Paul's arsenal (Eph. vi.); fly to that store-house, and provide yourselves with arms.

May "your loins be girt about with truth" that moral truth, that sincerity, that simplicity of intention which faith in Christ creates in the heart, and which is the true adornment of the believer! May you "have on the breastplate of righteous66 ness"

that righteousness which proceeds from faith, and in which the Christian is invulnerable; for it is a righteousness proceeding, not from the sentiments of his own heart, but from the grace of God, who is greater than our hearts. Have "your "feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of แ peace;" for to wrestle against darkness we must possess the courage which comes from the good tidings of our own peace with God. He who is still under condemnation, who is still lying in darkness, cannot wrestle with the powers of darkness, for he is their bondman. But whosoever is carried into the kingdom of the Son, finds, in peace with God, all the strength which he needs to prevail against hell; of this we have just seen many examples. Let us add to all these weapons, the "shield of "faith" in the promises of God, so fit to cover us; "the helmet of the assurance of salvation;" "the Word," which is more powerful than a two-edged sword; and, above all things, "prayer."

Such is the armour of the Christian, according to St. Paul, and I lay it before you. These arms

are better than those Cameron held in his hand when he died. Honour be to those men of old time! but let us discern our new times, and the call of God to the present generation. Alas! it is not conflicts, not wrestlings that are now wanting. There are such in the nineteenth century, as in the seventeenth, and as in the first. What is wanting is fidelity is victory. May faith, may triumph never fail us more! I speak of the triumph of faith; of that triumph which is obtained even when all human hopes are disappointed.

But does not the result which God bestowed upon the struggles of Scotland, remind us that He is sometimes pleased to bestow other results and other deliverances? What a manifestation of God's power, was that rapid fall of James II., and that arrival of William on the shores of Britain, with these words upon his banner-"The Protestant "religion and liberties of England!" Let us with united hearts boldly resist the present efforts of Popery and infidelity, and the tyranny of pow erful men. Let us not be afraid because we are weak. Most wonderful is the power of little things in the kingdom of nature and in the kingdom of grace. An insect almost too minute for observation constructs those coral reefs of the Southern Ocean against which the heedless vessel strikes and is lost, and those islands where the wearied mariner seeks a refuge from the storm. A Christian gentleman of France* has recently called to recol*Count Agenor de Gasparin.

lection an ancient Swiss coin, representing a man leaning on a long two-handed sword, with the device DEUS PROVIDEBIT. "Admirable emblem!" adds this pious nobleman; "man is armed for the "combat, and God will provide !" To throw away the sword, and wait for God alone, is to neglect one of the conditions of victory. To forget God, and reckon upon one's own sword alone, is to ne glect the other condition of success. Let us obliterate neither the armed man nor the device. Let us grasp the sword of the Spirit, and fight our best; and let us implore that blessing without which all human efforts are vain. God will provide. "Say among the nations, the Lord reigneth: the "Lord reigneth, let the people tremble; the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice."

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CHAP. VIII.

SCOTTISH STRUGGLES.

EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.

PATRONAGE. 1700-1843.

1. Awakening and Sleep. Union of England and Scotland. Fundamental Condition. The Jacobites and the Pretender. The Jacobites restore Patronage. Alarm of Scotland. An old Iniquity.-2. Worldliness and Arminianism in the Church. Protesting for Seventy-two Years. Moderatism. Ebenezer Erskine. Robertson and his Times. Thomas Gillespie. Military Intrusions. Nigg. A solemn Appeal. Unitarianism enters the Church.-3. Transition. French Revolution. Missions. The Chalmers' Period begins. His First Motion in 1833. Increase of Evangelical Ministers. The Veto in 1834. Two Solutions. A Falsehood in the Church. Another Way. Sufferings of the Church. Pastoral Relationship. Argument of Chalmers. An Ignorant Christian. Politicians at first favour the Veto. Its Effects.-4. A strong Opposition formed. Auchterarder and Mr. Young. An Enormity. Marnoch and Mr. Edwards. Dr. Candlish's Motion. The Sword drawn. Revivals. Edwards settled at Marnoch. The Congregation withdraws. Feelings of Scotland. - 5. Dr. Buchanan's Motion. Petitions. Decision of the Moderate Party. 25th August. Diplomatic Negotiations. Chalmers against the Encroachments of the Civil Courts. Claim of Rights. A Church in one Day.-6. Decision of the House of Lords. Scotland prepares. Convocation of the 17th November. Address to the People of Scotland. Answer of the Government. Its Mistake. Appeal of Chalmers. Reply of the People. Decision of the Commons.-7. Dilemma. 18th May 1843. Concourse of People. St. Andrews. The Protest. The Exodus. Deputations.-8. The Procession. Cannon Mills. Chalmers, first Moderator of the Free Church. Deed of Demission. Ministers leave their Manses and

Churches. Vital Preaching. Sites, or the Wilderness. Efforts of the Christian People. Six Hundred Churches. Benmore and the Free Church. No Recoil.

I.

UNION AND PATRONAGE.

Ir is after the most painful fatigues, and the most strenuous exertion, that sleep generally overcomes a man; and even so, after the most laborious struggles, does the church lie most exposed to the danger of slumber. A revival is generally followed by a lethargy, and a great elevation by a great fall.

After the first three centuries, scarcely were the flames of persecution extinguished, and the children of God no longer exposed to confess their faith by the sacrifice of their blood, when the church, exchanging the swords and scaffolds of Trajan and Aurelius for the soft seats and sumptuous couches of Constantine and his successors, fell into a deep slumber.

The mighty revival of the Reformation was likewise followed by the torpor of a scholastic and deadening theology. The awakening of Pietism and Spener in Germany, at the end of the seventeenth century, gave place to a rationalism which threatened to be for the church the sleep of the tomb. Will it not be the same with the deliverance