manse built for the minister on a more eligible site. The grateful pastor then waited on the ladies, expressed his grateful sense of their kindness, and asked,

"Is there any way in my power by which I can do you service?”

"Yes," was the reply; "send out invitations to an administration of the Lord's Supper at your church, and request such and such ministers to assist on the occasion, and we shall be amply repaid."

He gladly consented, and the ministers came, the venerable and persecuted Robert Bruce among them; and the people came from far and near, an immense number of the choicest Christians in the land, with crowds of curious spectators. Richlyblessed preparatory services were followed on the Sabbath, June 20, 1630, by a precious communion season—so precious that at its close the people could not separate and resolved upon services the following day. But who should preach? Why not Bruce? Why not some other notably scarred veteran confessor? In the vast assembly was a young minister not yet ordained, only licensed by the Presbytery, and on him, in the providence of God, the lot fell. He received the intimation with

consternation. How could he preach to all that mass of piety, ability and learning. He thought over it during the night, and in the morning resolved on flight. He stole away into the woods, and was now where, on turning his head, he could just see the church in whose yard the crowds were assembling to hear him. Just then a voice darted into the ears of his soul: "Was I ever a barren wilderness or a land of darkness?" It was the voice of God. Cost what it might, to that voice he must give heed. Taking his stand before the crowd, he preached one hour and a half upon the text in Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, “Then will I sprinkle clear water upon you," etc. As he was about to close, God from the clouds sprinkled the congregation with a dash of rain, and the people began to flutter. Glancing at the agitated crowd, he exclaimed:

"What! a few drops of rain discompose you! What if they were, as we all deserve, drops of fire and brimstone?" and for another hour he poured forth his soul in fervid torrents of exhortation and warning, and the result was the conversion of about five hundred souls. Sunday night had been spent in prayer, and here was the answer; and this work of grace overflowed through all the surrounding

country. One said, "Was it not a great sermon we heard ?” another said, "I never heard the like of it!" This was not the way to prepare the peo

ple for Prelacy.

Livingston, whose services were so blessed upon this occasion, was, of course, an especial mark for the shafts of prelatic enmity. Called by the people of Torpichen to be their pastor, he was hunted thence by Spotswood, because he would not subscribe the Articles of Perth. But, as in earlier days, when these holy men were scattered abroad by persecution, they went everywhere preaching the Word, and so the holy fire was spread by the very efforts made to extinguish it. Livingston and Blair, and Rutherford and Douglass, and Gillespie and Dunbar, and Hogg and Dickson, and many other like holy clouds, driven to and fro by the winds of persecution, dropped gracious showers on many a thirsty field, and the wilderness was made glad for them and the desert blossomed as the rose.

Thus it is that when the enemy comes in like a flood the Lord lifts up his standard against them. Charles and his minions were adjusting the laws, creating and filling offices and girding their loins for victory, but God, through his ministers, was at the same time deepening the faith of the people,

feeding their hunger for the bread of life, and, by this very feeding, increasing that hunger and deep ening their resolves to turn the anticipated victory of their foes into overwhelming discomfiture!

THE MINE PREPARING.

Before the keystone of the prelatic arch was laid, Charles determined to pay a visit to the scene of his future triumph. And taking with him his evil genius, Laud, on the 17th of May, 1633, he set out from London, his train consisting of "thirteen noblemen―the vice chamberlain, secretary of state, master of the prince's purse, two bishops, a clerk of the closet, two gentlemen ushers of the prince's chamber, six chaplains, two physicians, two surgeons, one apothecary, sixty-one yeomen of the guard, eight cooks, seventeen musicians," and others, in all about five hundred-and swept northward through England with the state of an emperor. At length, on Saturday, the 15th of June, he entered Edinburgh by the West Port, and was welcomed with that enthusiasm so easy to worshippers of royalty and so hard for simple republicanism to understand. On Tuesday he was inaugurated in the midst of ceremonies that too ominously reminded the Scottish masses of the

meretricious gewgawry of Rome-bishops arrayed in long, silken, embroidered robes, with white rochets, lawn sleeves and loops of gold-an altar on which were placed two chandeliers and two unlighted wax tapers and an empty silver basin, and behind it a rich tapestry on which a crucifix was embroidered, the bishops as they passed bowing the knee. Spotswood set the crown on the king's head, while the poor archbishop of Glasgow, who had not decked himself with becoming tinsel, was violently pulled from his seat by order of the lamblike Laud.

Charles had no reason to be dissatisfied with his welcome, and the apparent enthusiasm went far to deceive him as to the real feelings of the people, multitudes of whom wept or scowled in their hearts while smiles covered their faces.

The next day the Parliament assembled, the members marching in grand procession in company with his majesty up High street, through the outer door of the high Tolbooth, the king entering first and sitting down upon his tribunal, and lords and bishops following. The king had already laid his plans to secure if possible unopposed assent to his measures. Ten Englishmen, Laud among them, were introduced into the privy council. The Lords