To recognize the living god as the Searcher of hearts, and Jesus Christ as the Judge, before whom all shall stand in judgment.

Such was the high range of thought, motive, purpose, and action reached by this Covenant of the fathers, who called upon God in the day of trouble, and were heard in that they feared.  The men who led in this solemn transaction were distinguished for learning, piety, high-souled purpose, devotion to their country, and zeal for the glory of Christ.  They were among the excellent of the earth.  But the mighty current of religious enthusiasm that had set in drew to itself, and carried on its bosom, multitudes who were superficial and vacillating.  These quickly fell away when the counter current set forward; some of them even became violent persecutors of the Covenanters.

[Illustration:  King James VI.

King James VI. came to the throne of Scotland in 1578, and reigned till 1625.  He was crowned when a boy of 12 years.  He subscribed the National Covenant, saying, “I praise the Lord that I am king in such a Kirk, the sincerest Kirk in the world.”  He soon forsook the “Kirk”—­the Covenanted Church—­and became a violent persecutor.]

The king was among the first to vitiate his oath, and break the Covenant.  His weakness was pitiful; he seemed to turn with every gale that struck him.  The next year he mustered the strength of his government to overthrow the Presbyterian Church, and reverse the workings of the Covenant.  The Church was aroused and resolute, Andrew Melville being her recognized leader.  A delegation was sent to the king to remonstrate; Melville was the spokesman.  The king was confronted like a lion in his den.  He listened to the following message:  “Your majesty, by device of some counselors, is caused to take upon you a spiritual power and authority, which properly belongs unto Christ, as the only King and Head of the Church.  Through your highness, some men are trying to erect a new Popedom, as though your majesty could not be king and head of this commonwealth, unless the spiritual sword, as well as the temporal, be put into your hands; unless Christ be bereft of His authority, and the two jurisdictions which God separated be confounded.  All this tends to the wreck of true religion.”

Melville sent the truth, like a lancet, into the inflated ambition of the young king.  He winced in the agony of the keen surgery.  But Melville had to meet the consequences of his faithfulness.  He was taken to the tower of London, where he lay in a dismal cell four years.  He was afterward banished and died in a strange land.

This Covenant of 1851 placed posterity, equally with the Covenanters of that day, in oath-bound relation to God.  A Public Covenant with God continues in its moral obligation until its terms are fulfilled.  Are we lifting up our lives into relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ through our inherited Covenant?  Are we fulfilling our sworn duties to our country, our Church, and our Lord?  Are we using all lawful means to cause true religion to prevail?  Are we employing our strength against all opposing evils?  Are we keeping step in the Covenanted ranks that are marching on, assured that the principles of the Reformation will yet prevail in every land?