“He is not worth his room, that prays not half his time, to see if he can prevent the dreadful wrath, that is coming on our poor motherland.

“Thirty-six years ago our Lord had a numerous train of ministers in Scotland, but one blast blew six hundred of them away, and they never returned.

“I shall tell you the right way of covenanting with God; it is when Christ and believers meet; and our Lord gives them His laws, statutes, and commandments; and charges them not to quit a hoof of them; no, though they should be torn into a thousand pieces.  And the right Covenanter says, Amen.”

Peden never married.  During twenty-four years of wanderings, his life was pathetically lonely.  When death was approaching, he returned to the old home, to spend his last days amid the scenes of his childhood.  His brother still dwelt there.  He received a cordial welcome, though his presence imperiled the family; for the dragoons were still pursuing him.  To that true and tender soul, how beautiful must have been the green fields, the rippling brooks, and the familiar hills, where he had roamed when a child!  They made him a cave on the hillside; a bush covered its entrance.  There he was hidden from the enemy, and there he lay in his last illness, and ripened for heaven.

When near his end he predicted, that, bury him where they would, the enemy would lift his body.  Forty days after his burial, the spiteful foe raised his body, and buried it among the graves of criminals.  Thus they attempted to disgrace this servant of Jesus Christ.  But in later years his memory was so dearly cherished, that many good people requested to be interred beside him, and the grounds around that grave in time became a beautiful cemetery.

Communion with God is the secret of power, and of spiritual vision; and faithfulness in God’s Covenant is the secret of Divine communion.  The possibility of living in holy familiarity with God the Father, and with our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit, learning the thoughts of God, feeling the thrill of His power, viewing His far-reaching plans, and co-operating in His glorious work—­is this only a fascinating dream?  Nay, the Covenanters of the martyr-spirit found it to be a realization.  Do their children strive after the same attainment?

* * * * *

Points for the class.

1.  What gift specially distinguished Peden?

2.  What distress did he meet at his licensure?

3.  How did he overcome it?

4.  Where was his first pastorate?

5.  Why did he leave Glenluce?

6.  What remarkable prophecies did he utter?

7.  Repeat some of his sayings.

8.  What occurred to his body after burial?

9.  How may we attain to a similar familiarity with God?

XLV.

Scotland’s maiden martyr.—­A.D. 1685.