Thus he died in the full assurance of victory.  His head was affixed over the gate, where it remained many years.  The sun bronzed the face, the storms smote it, the rains drenched it, the snows dashed against it, the winds swirled the white locks, the stars looked down in silence, the people looked up in sadness, but James Guthrie was heedless of all.  The soul was mingling with the redeemed in heaven and rejoicing in the presence of God.  Guthrie had gone home to be forever with the Lord.

Little Willie often came and sat near the gate, gazing up at the silent motionless head.  He would stay there till night veiled the sombre features of his father.  He seemed to be communing with the spirit that now lived above the stars.

“Where have you been, Willie?” his mother would say, on his return.  “I have been looking at father’s head,” he would sadly reply.  The intense strain sapped his vitality and he died in early manhood.

Have we a conscience like that of the Covenanted fathers? a conscience that cannot submit to a man? a conscience that can take instructions only from God?  The surrender of conscience to man imperils the soul.

* * * * *

Points for the class.

1.  How did Argyle’s death seem to affect the king?

2.  Whom did he seize next?

3.  What charge was preferred against Guthrie?

4.  What was the nature of that “high treason?”

5.  How did he defend himself in court?

6.  What sentence did he receive?

7.  How did he reply?

8.  Relate an incident about his wife; his child.

9.  What was his death cry?

10.  What lesson here regarding a pure conscience?

XXIV.

Source of the Covenanters’ power.—­A.D. 1661.

The death of Marquis Argyle was the signal for the utter overthrow of the Covenanted Church in Scotland.  He was chief among the nobles who in those days stood by the Covenant, and James Guthrie was chief among the ministers.  These mighty men quickly followed each other in watering God’s vineyard with their own blood.

The issue now between the king and the Covenanters was clear, direct, unmistakable, beyond the possibility of evasion.  Both parties set themselves for the desperate struggle; henceforth compromise was out of the question.

The king was determined to abolish the Covenant, obliterate Presbyterianism, establish Episcopacy, and assume to himself the place, power, and prerogatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, as head of the Church.

The Covenanters disputed his right to these pretentious claims at every point.  Especially did they challenge his authority over the Church, and testify against his blasphemous presumption.  They looked with horror upon his attempt to grasp the crown of Christ, that he himself might wear it.  This they resented and resisted as treason against the king of kings.  They could not submit to the man who clothed himself with Christ’s supremacy; that robe of royal priesthood must not be worn by mortal man.