[Illustration:  Consolation in prison.

Helen Johnston, afterward Lady Graden, was the daughter of the celebrated Archibald Johnston, who sealed the Covenant with his blood.  Through much tribulation she learned to sympathize deeply with those who were condemned to die for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Here she is seen visiting an aged prisoner of Christ, Robert Baillie.  She is leading the Bible, and conversing upon the consolation of God’s grace.  She attended him on the scaffold, where he gave up his life for the truth.]

And what shall we say more of Isabel Alison, Marion Harvie, Margaret Dun, Barbara Cunningham, Janet Livingston, Anne Hamilton, Margaret Colville, Marion Veitch, and the long list of worthy women, which the pen of man will never complete?

The Covenanted Church is largely dependent on the women for spirit, courage, fidelity, and activity in the service of Christ.  The grace of God, abounding in the women, will cause the Church to arise and do valiant work.  When mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters beam with devotion to Christ and His Covenant; when their voice is resonant with holy courage in the Lord’s cause; when their lives are sublime with deeds of heroic faith; then will the Church become “beautiful as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.”  Jesus said unto her, “O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”

* * * * *

Points for the class.

1.  In what spirit did the women endure the persecution?

2.  Give an incident in courtship.

3.  Describe the loyalty of Mrs. Welch, both to her husband and to the Covenant.

4.  Relate Mrs. Guthrie’s spirited advice to her husband.

5.  Tell about Mrs. Paton.

6.  What were some of the difficulties faced by Lady Rothes?

7.  Describe the service of devotion by Lady Graden to Robert Baillie.

8.  How is the Church dependent on woman, for spirited and successful work?

XLII.

Young life under persecution.

When the shepherd is smitten, the sheep will be scattered.  When the father is persecuted, the family will suffer, the mother and children cannot escape.  The fire that enfolds the oak with a sheet of flame will not pause at the more beautiful maple or the flowering shrubs.

God’s Covenant with the fathers included mothers, sons, and daughters.  It also embraced future generations.  “The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”  The Covenant of our fathers was their acceptance of God’s promise on His own terms.  The terms were these:  unswerving fidelity to His truth, and steadfastness in His service.  They who were