by Knox. A poor barren country, full of continual broils, dissensions, massacrings. Bravery enough, no doubt, fierce fighting in abundance, but not braver nor fiercer than that of their old Scandinavian sea-king ancestor a country in the last stage of rudeness and destitution nothing developed in it but what was rude, external, semi-animal—and now at the Reformation the internal life was kindled under the ribs of this outward material death. This that Knox did for his nation we may really call a resurrection from death. The Puritanism of Scotland became that of England, of New England.

"A tumult in the High Church at Edinburgh spread into universal battle and struggle over all these realms. After fifty years struggling there came out what we call the glorious revolution, habeas corpus act, free parliaments, and much else. Alas, is it not too true what we said that many men in the van do always like Russian soldiers march into the ditch at Schwiedmitz and fill it with their dead bodies, that the rear may pass over them dry-shod and gain the honor.

"How many earnest, rugged Cromwells, Knoxes, poor peasant Covenanters, wrestling, battling for very life in rough, miry places, have to suffer, and struggle, and fall, greatly censured, bemired, before a beautiful revolution of eighty-eight can step over them in official pumps and silk stockings, with universal three times three."

Presbyterianism in Scotland was one of the chief factors in vindicating the liberties of the British people. It has always been obnoxious to the Stuart dynasty, who regarded it as inimical to monarchy. "Presbytery," said James I., "doth consist with monarchy as well as God with the devil." The attempt to suppress it in the interest of prelacy precipitated the civil war, which

ended as all know in the overthrow of the king and his execution by Parliament for treason against the laws and liberties of England.

This great struggle was upon the part of Parliament a war by the Calvinists of Scotland and England against absolutism in church and state, and for civil and religous freedom. For whatever the names by which the adherents of Parliament were known, whatever their views upon church polity, they were at one upon doctrine, and were strongly Calvinistic. That this is true is amply verified by the Westminster Standards, promulgated under the auspices of the Long Parliament, which we this day celebrate.

This is not the occasion to discuss the differences which sprung up between the Presbyterians and Independents. It can never be known whether had the views and plans of the former prevailed, England would have had as the immediate result of the war a limited monarchy, with ample guarantee for the liberties of the subject, and the Revolution of 1688 been anticipated for more than a generation. But it is evident that such was their

hope and purpose.

The Independents, however, triumphed through the genius of Cromwell, who for some years, as Lord Protector gave to England a government of great power, vigor, and wisdom, but which was after all as thorough-going a despotism as that which Charles I. lost life and crown in seeking to establish. The restoration of Charles II., after the death of Cromwell, and consequent overthrow of the commonwealth, was for the time the utter undoing of all for which the Puritans had fought, and introduced a worse despotism than that of Charles I. The Presbyterians, especially, felt the utmost severity of the royal displeasure.

The Stuarts, though a Scottish house, had always hated and feared the Scottish kirk, and now for twentyeight years Charles, and afterward his brother James, exhausted every resource of craft and power to break the spirit of the Scottish people, destroy their national church, and root out the last vestige of Presbyterianism from the realm.

The patient endurance, the inflexible resolution, the unshaken constancy, the heroic devotion of the Presbyterians of Scotland under this fiery ordeal constitute one of the marvels of history.

Claverhouse

Eighteen thousand sufMen, women and chilwere beheaded, were

All Scotland was reddened with blood. and his troopers, like ravenous wolves, pursued God's elect through crags and fens. fered martyrdom for the truth. dren were shot, were hanged, thrust through with the sword, were drowned in the tide. This persecution recalls the suffering of God's ancient people. Paul seems to have been uttering prophecy as well as recording history when he said, "And some had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea also of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy). They wandered in deserts. and in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth." But they conquered in the end. Had they proven recreant to the truth, had the stern old covenanters once yielded, the cause of civil and religious freedom would have met a reverse from which it might never have recovered. But they kept the faith, and succor came. Through their initiative and assistance the Revolution of '88 was made an accomplished fact. Through their invincible

courage and unyielding constancy they won for themselves freedom of conscience and worship, and prepared the way for the general diffusion of civil liberty throughout the English-speaking world.

But the chief act in the great drama was the American Revolution and the founding of the American Republic. Here the political principles of Calvinism have been most fully wrought out, and their beneficent effects most fully realized. Here, for the first time in history, the church has been made entirely independent of the state, and the fullest freedom of conscience guaranteed to all men. Here the Calvinistic principle of representative republicanism has been fully accepted; and through it has been secured local self-government in local affairs, together with a true and efficient central authority, while at the same time it has avoided imperial centralization with its inevitable tendency to despotism on the one hand, and the excessive multiplication of petty sovereignties with their conflicting interests and pretensions on the other, and the perpetuity of our institutions seeming now to be secured, absolutism is doomed. The principle of civil liberty and responsible government is triumphant, and nothing remains among civilized peoples but the gradual working of it out in detail. While the credit for this grand result does not belong exclusively to any one race or sect among the American people, it is yet true that the influences which brought it about were predominantly Calvinistic and largely Presbyterian.

The population of the colonies at the time of the Revolution had been drawn most largely from Calvinistic sources, had been brought up under Calvinistic discipline, and had imbibed freely of Calvinistic ideals. When we remember that the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, a full half of the Germans of Penn

sylvania, Maryland and Virginia, the Scotch of New Jersey, the Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas, the Huguenots of South Carolina (but these people were scattered in considerable numbers through all the colonies), were all of them Calvinists, and practically all of them save the first-named were Presbyterians, we are prepared to appreciate the part borne by Calvinists and Presbyterians in the vindication of American rights and the establishment of our free institutions.

The part borne by the Puritans of New England in the agitation which led to the war is common history, and need not be recounted here. It is not so generally known that the Presbyterians in all the colonies were, to a man, the early and steadfast friends and champions of American rights, and were the first to declare for complete independence. The Presbyterian ministers contributed largely to the success of the Revolution by preaching the duty of resisting tyranny, and inspiring the people with confidence in God's overruling care and protection.

The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians were the first to adopt a policy looking to the severing of all connection with the mother country.

The Scotch-Irish settlers upon the Watauga and the Holston Assembly at Abingdon in January, 1775, resolved that "we are resolutely and unalterably determined never to surrender our inestimable privileges to any power on earth but at the expense of our lives.”

The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of Western Pennsylvania, assembled at Hanna's Town in May, 1776, resolved to oppose by force of arms the aggressions of the British Parliament, and to coincide in any scheme that might be formed for the defence of America.