We now enter the most serious period in the history of the Covenanters.  Hitherto we have been on the skirmish line.  All we have yet reviewed has been leading up to the desperate and sanguinary struggle, which lasted twenty-eight years, costing treasures of blood and indescribable suffering, yet finally resulting in the wealthy heritage of liberty, enlightenment, and religion, which we now enjoy.

Oliver Cromwell, having defeated King Charles, ruled Scotland five years.  He was titled “Lord Protector”, but in reality was a Dictator.  The government was centered more than ever in one man.  Many strange qualities blended in this austere autocrat, some of which command our admiration.  He was stern and painfully severe, yet much sagacity and justice characterized his administration.  During his sway of power the Reformed Churches in his own realms and on the Continent were by him heroically defended.  He became, in the hand of the Lord, “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”  The persecuted found shelter under his shadow, in the providence of the Lord.  He avenged the massacre of the Protestants in Ireland, halted the persecution of Christians on the Continent, and gave Rome the alternative, to cease the work of slaughter, or listen to the thunder of his legions at her gates.

The Church of the Covenanters however had strange experience at the hands of Cromwell.  In a ruthless and despotic manner he dissolved the General Assembly, put the Supreme Court of God’s house out of existence to appear no more for thirty-five years.  The meeting previous to this act of violence had been held in the mid-summer of 1653.  The ministers and elders had come from all parts of Scotland, to sit in counsel, or rather in debate, concerning the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The salubrious air and genial sky of Edinburgh united with, the sacred and exhilarating interests of the Gospel to arouse all that was noble, and divine in every heart.  The Moderator reverently led the Assembly in prayer and constituted the court most solemnly in the name of Jesus Christ.  Such a prayer should overwhelm the soul with God’s presence, burden the conscience with responsibilities, make the spiritual world dreadfully visible, and bring God’s servants close to His throne of judgment.

The Assembly had met last year in this prayerful and solemn mariner, but the business of the Lord Jesus soon degenerated into an acrid, harmful discussion, that lasted two weeks and ended in confusion.  The debate evidently was now to be renewed with the additional bitterness and vehemence that had accumulated during the ensuing year.  The ministers and elders having convened, the regular business was under way, when suddenly the Assembly witnessed what was unexpected—­a regiment of soldiers in the churchyard.  Cromwell had sent them.  The soldiers, in bright uniform and bristling with swords and guns, struck amazement into the hearts of the delegates.  The colonel ordered them to leave the house.  They walked out in front of the soldiers and, being escorted beyond the city limits, were sent home, not to return, under pain of punishment.