rather than force. An agreement was concluded by which the town was to be left open to her, the people left unquestioned as to the past, the French army forbidden to enter, and on her withdrawal no garrison to be left behind-nearly every point of which agreement the miserable woman of course violated.

Before withdrawing from Perth, however, THE LORDS OF THE CONGREGATION formed another bond, pledging themselves to mutual support and defence in the cause of religion, or any cause dependent thereupon by whatsoever pretext it might be coloured and concealed. This bond was subscribed, in the name of the whole Church, by the chiefs of the Protestant nobility. This was "THE SECOND COVENANT."

REPUBLICANISM.

Once certify man, from the pages of God's word, that he, together with all his human brethren, is created in the image of his God, and if occasion arise he will shrewdly question the claim of any other man to absolute dominion over him. Show him that king and peasant stand on the same level before God as sinners, but one set of terms of peace with the great King and one heaven

open before all; and, especially if he be a Christian, he will rigorously question the fancied birthright prerogatives of a bad monarch to lord_it absolutely over him and his. If an Oriental rabble may submissively fill the place of "dumb-driven cattle," a people whose minds have been enlightened and whose intellects have been enlarged and quickened by the mighty truths of revelation will not be long in finding their way to the foundation laws of human freedom, civil and religious. And, especially if driven by tyranny to probe this matter to the bottom, they will ascertain that if legitimate civil government is an ordinance of God the legitimacy of the government in a given case is to be determined by the people. And this is republicanism.

At this time, in Scotland, Mary of Guise occupied the throne, and stood before the people as the embodiment of legitimate governmental prerogative; and had she designed to put the people to school and indoctrinate them in their rights and in the true limits of the royal prerogative, she could have taken no more promising course than that which she actually pursued.

No sooner did she obtain possession of Perth than she considered her engagements with the

congregation null and void, and at once proceeded to punish those who favoured the Reformation. Argyle and Lord James Stewart, having remonstrated against her perfidy, and having been rudely repelled with this characteristic reply: "I am not bound to keep promises made to heretics, and I will make little conscience to take from all that sect their lives and inheritances, if I may do it with so honest an excuse," they forsook her and joined the Lords of the Congregation.

These lords now took matters into their own hands and formally invited Knox to come and preach in the Abbey Church of St. Andrew's. Knox, of course, did not hesitate, and the archbishop hurried thither with an armed force and threatened to answer the arguments of Knox with powder and ball, while the queen-regent followed him with her French army. The lords, appreciating the magnitude of the danger and unwilling to lose another Wishart and a much greater than he, put the question to Knox:

"Will you abide with us and take the risk?" He answered like himself:

"In this town I was first called to preach the gospel; do not hinder me from preaching here again. As for the fear of danger that may come

unto me let no man be solicitous, for my life is in the custody of Him whose glory I seek. I desire the hand and weapon of no man to defend me. I only crave audience, which if it be denied here unto me at this time, I must seek further where I may have it."

Heroism like cowardice is contagious, and the lords caught the spirit of the prophet; and the next day, with the armies of the regent thundering on in the distance, Knox preached to a great company of his friends and to "Agrippa, Bernice, chief captains and principal men in the city," to the archbishop himself and many with him, who murdered the preacher in their hearts while they listened with their ears-preached to them of Jesus overturning the tables of the money-changers who had made God's temple a den of thieves. And for three days he thus preached, until the people, being "mightily convinced," tumbled pictures and images out of the church windows and tore down the monasteries. Popery had resorted to violence to crush the reformers, and now popery was forced to taste its own medicine. But the dose was not pleasant to the taste. The archbishop flew to the regent, and she with her troops prepared to fly upon the reformers. But they were soon ready, and this

Jezebel was compelled to make "I dare not" wait upon "I would." Terms were made between the parties, but knowing the perfidy of this woman, the Protestant army took Perth and expelled the regent's garrison, and then Stirling and then Edinburgh. The reforming spirit spread, and in a few days large portions of the realm turned popery out of doors and set up a pure worship.

Matters thus wore on until the perfidies of the regent having exhausted the patience of the Protestant lords, the latter resolved on measures more firmly decisive. On the 21st of October, 1559, they assembled at Edinburgh in such numbers as to constitute a convention of the estates of the realm, and with ungloved hands laid hold of the Gordian knot either to untie or cut it. While matters were under discussion, Knox and Willock were invited to state their views upon the duty of subjects to oppressive rulers. Willock said that the power of rulers was limited, both by reason and Scripture, and that they might be deprived of it upon valid grounds. Knox assented to these views, and added that the assembly might with safe consciences act upon it if they attended to these three points: first, that they did not suffer the misconduct of the queen-regent to alienate their affections