Then followed the gloaming.  The evening of that prosperous day grew very dark; the darkness increased for forty years; ten thousand midnights seemed to have condensed their horrid blackness upon Scotland and her prostrated Church.  At length the storm of fire and blood exhausted itself, but not till a whole generation had wasted away in the anguish of that protracted persecution.  The steps that led to the Church’s prostration and decimation, we may trace with profit; but as it is crimsoned with the blood of the brave, and marked with many a martyr’s grave, the eye will oft be moist and the heart sick.

While the Church stood to her Covenant, she was like an impregnable fortress, or an invincible army.  While she held the truth tenaciously in her General Assembly, presbyteries, and sessions, and applied it effectively, she spread forth her roots like Lebanon.  But when doubt and fear, plans and policy, compromise and temporizing entered into her councils, her gold became dim and her sword pewter.  The Lord went not with her armies into the battle, and they fainted and fell on the field.  A brief review is necessary to understand the situation.

The Solemn League and Covenant, in 1643, gave the Covenanted Church of Scotland a mighty impetus in the right direction, but its effect for good was brief.  The League united the kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland; and the Covenant placed them under obligations to one another and to God.  These kingdoms were thereby exalted beyond measure in privilege.  The sacred bond had been prepared by the Joint Commission that represented England and Scotland, the initial step having been taken by the English Parliament.  The king and the parliament were then at strife.  The dominating spirit of Charles, which harassed Scotland had provoked hostility in England; the strength of that kingdom was nearly equally divided between the two parties.  The people of England, who aspired after liberty and felt the throb of nobler manhood in their pulse, had asked Scotland to combine forces against the oppressor.  The outcome was the Solemn League and Covenant which united their armies for the conflict.

This sacred bond was adopted by the General Assembly of Scotland, the English Parliament, and the Westminster Assembly of divines.  Afterward it received a prodigious number of signatures by the people in public and private life, and became quite popular.  These kingdoms were thereby placed under solemn obligation conjointly to conserve the Reformed religion in Scotland, to reform the religion of England and Ireland, and to root out all systems of evil in Church and State.

Scotland was far in advance of the other two kingdoms in enlightenment and liberty.  The Covenanted Church had exalted the Lord Jesus as her Head, and He had exalted her as the light, life, and glory of Scotland.  The vine had spread its branches from sea to sea.  The two sisters were far behind.  She undertook to lift them up; the burden was too heavy; they dragged her down.  She was unequally yoked, and the yoke pushed her astray.  Doubtless there were reasons that justified the course she had taken, but that course led her into a “waste and howling wilderness.”