The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1868-03-25

their ancient and simple Culdee order
against the efforts made by England to
force Prelacy upon them. For whole
century that struggle continued, and was
only terminated by the accession to the
throne of William of Orange, a Dutch
PRESBYTERIAN, who terminated the strug
gle and allowed the Scotch to enjoy the
ancient forms of their choice. This stern
resistance to Prelacy was not spirit of
political radicalism, for when England
bowed to the sword of Cromwell, Scot
land took up arms for Charles ii, and
with his characteristic perfdy, was re-
warded for her fidelity by one of the
most cruel prosecutions recorded in his
tory. This terrible persecution extended
to every rank, age, sex, and condition,
from the kingly Argyle, who said as he
walked to the scaffold, Il could die as
Roman. but | choose to die as a Chris
tian, to servant-maids, peasants, shep-
herds, and even children, who were
butchered by the brutal dragons of the
bloody Claverhouse, as remorselessly as
the wild beast rends its prey, and with
more remorseless cruelty. The suffer
ings of that "killing time," when every
species of torture, indignity and oppres-
sion were used, are only written fully in
the book of Gods remembrance. That
weather-stained stone in the old Grey
friars church yard, which records the
sufferings of the Martyrs in its quaint
and simple verse, states that "from May
17th, 1861, when the most noble Mar
quis of Argyle was beheaded, to the 18th
of February, 1888, that Mr., James Rem
wick suffered, were one way or other
murdered and destroyed for the same
cause about eighteen thousand" and
yet this covers only about one-fourth of
this period of struggle, and represents
but feebly the agonies of unnamed and
unnumbered sufferers who chose spelling
of their goods, loathaome dungeons, the
boot, the thumbscrew, and death in its
most terrible forms, rather than abandon
the old and simple faith of their fathers,
and accept the stately Prelacy that the
Stuarts wished to force upon them.
Now we do not refer to their long and
memorable struggle to discuss the right
or wrong of either prosecutors or perse-
cuted, but to show that there must have
been some very deep cause at work to
generate tenacity SO unyielding as that.
Mny dlu OCouand CiIng 10 It's simple,
Presbyterian faith with so much indomi
table 6rmness ? How came this system
to have its roots so twined around the
Scottish popular heart that hundred
years of persecution could not tear them
out =? Not lapse of time, if this system
arose with the Reformation, for the first
General Assembly only met A. D. 1860,
and the "tulchan bishops" were appoint
ed in A. D. 1872, from which time the
struggle against Prelacy never ceased
until the accession of William and Mary
in A. d. 1888. How could new and
unknown system take such root in so
brief time? You may uproot with ease
the mushroom growth of Jonah's
gourd which springs up in night and
pershes in night, but when you find
some gnarled and knotted athlete of the
forest that has wrestled hundred win
ters with the hurricane and remained un-
moved, you have found the brave old oak
that has been pushing its twisting roots
around the granite ribs of the earth for
thousand years. Nothing but time can
ever generate such growths. Had the
seeds of this Presbyterian system been
planted among the hills of Scotland by
the hands of Wishart, Knox, or Melville,
it had yielded at last to the glaived hands
of the sons of Anak, who sought to up
root it, for there were giants in those
days. No STRIPPING of the forest could
have retained its hold on the soil for
hundred years of such gigantic effort
But this was no STRIPPING of yesterday.
Its acorn had been planted on her misty
hills by the hands of men who gathered
it from spots where Paul planted, Apol-
los watered, and John garnered the in
crease; and it was lodged in soil that
was untrodden and unsubdued by the
tramp of those mailed legions of Rome
that had almost conquered the world.
Its stalwart trunk grew on apace, al
though "the boar out of the wood did
waste it, and the wild beast of the field
did devour it, though the fierce storm
of persecution wrestled with its boughs
and snapped many of them with mar
tyr's bloody fate; though the axe was
laid at its root again and again, and
twice at least was it hewn to the very
ground by Saxon anl AnglO-Saxon
hands, yet the root still lived, and put
forth its undying vigor with a greener
growth by this terrible pruning, until it
stands to-day, the brave old Charter oak
of Christendom, with life so ineradica
LII H.. .L o. o.a tas of hau La,a 10 o,-ar ,ara-