This was a forlorn battle.  The distant outlook was hopeful and the final success was assured; but the present struggle must be sanguinary and the sacrifice of life dreadful.  Every man that enlists in the army at this stage must expect to die on the field.  This bold position of the Covenanters will surely be met by all the powers of darkness that can be massed against them.  They now unfurl the Banner for Christ’s Crown and Covenant on the very highest grounds; the persecution will therefore be waged, if possible, with tenfold greater fierceness.  The king with all his engines of destruction will fight them most desperately; Satan with all his hosts will assail them ferociously.  How can the noble band escape annihilation?

But who will lead the Covenanters in such a struggle?  Who will command these “little flocks of kids,” when the hosts of Syria fill all the country round about?  Where are the ministers now, when the trumpet blast proclaims a revolutionary war against the king?  While the dread notes echo from mountain to mountain, the most of them are in caves, hidden—­like Obadiah’s prophets.  Three, only three, step forward.  These lions of the Covenant are Cameron, Cargill, and Douglass.  They grasp the old battle-banner, and carrying it to the new position call upon the Covenanted sons of freedom to rally under its floating folds.  The “remnant” gave a noble response.

This self-sacrificing band was merely the advance guard of a great army that was now mustering in the providence of God for the restoration of civil and religious liberty.  Little did they expect to win under existing conditions, but they could hold the hordes of darkness back, till the Lord Jesus would bring up His mighty forces for the decisive battle.  They could throw themselves upon the enemy, and with the impact stay their progress.  They laid down principles and began action that eight years later resulted in the Revolution under the Prince of Orange.  Cameron, Cargill, and Douglass began the Revolution, and William, Prince of Orange, finished it.

The Covenanters engaged in this forward movement were henceforth called Cameronians.  Richard Cameron was the leader.  On the first anniversary of the battle of Bothwell Bridge, June 22, 1680, he with 21 mounted men rode into the quiet town of Sanquhar.  They came in a martial spirit; each horse carried a Christian swordsman; they were armed for war.  Reaching the heart of the town, they dismounted and reverently offered prayer.  They then read aloud a Declaration of War against King Charles.  This they nailed to the post at the crossroads.  What a heroic celebration of the first anniversary of their greatest defeat!  The paper carried this declaration: 

“We do disown Charles Stuart as having any right, title to, or interest in, the crown of Scotland for government.

“We, being under the Standard of our Lord Jesus Christ, do declare a war with such a tyrant and usurper, and all the men of his practices as enemies to our Lord Jesus Christ and His cause and Covenants.”