But look at the other side.  Will the servant of the Lord take orders from man?  Will the ambassador of God submit to be muzzled?  Will a pastor of Christ’s flock hold his position for what he finds in the flesh-pot?  Will the preacher of righteousness connive at wickedness?  Will the herald of Gospel liberty become a slave to vilest men?  Such was the other outlook.  Which way will the man of God take?

The Lord made the way of faithfulness hard to travel.  Only they, who, like Caleb, followed the Lord wholly, could walk therein.  To make this choice, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ had to arise in the heart and surge through all the veins, above love for wife, or children, or house, or lands, or brethren, or sisters, or self; and it must consume all these in the flames of its vehemence.

And the Lord made the wrong way, also, hard to travel; yea, impassable, except for those whose sin against light made them exceeding sinful.  What more vile, degraded, contemptible, and criminal, than a minister of Christ, that is leased to an earthly power, purchased with things that perish, and controlled by designing men?  In this manner would God separate the precious from the vile and put them far apart.

[Illustration:  Preaching in the mountains.

The Conventicle preachers were men of dauntless courage.  Their souls had firmly grasped the tremendous verities of the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ, and the Word of God was as fire in their bones.  They chose texts that resounded like artillery.  Just before Cargill was offered up, he preached from the words:  “Gird Thy sword on Thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty!” How that seraphic preacher swayed the people with that discourse has not been told.]

On November 1, 1662, three-fourths of the Covenanted ministers were brought to this valley of decision.  The king’s edict took effect upon those who had been settled within the past thirteen years; the others, for the time, were exempted.  About 700, therefore, stood at the parting of the ways.  Of this number about sixty per centum chose to suffer with Christ, that they might reign with him; the rest, being faint-hearted, abode by the stuff.  All honor to the Church that could muster such a proportion of self-sacrificing, ministers!  These men accepted the challenge and went forth, like soldiers, into the field of action, saying, “We will continue the conflict till we overcome, or hand it down in debate to posterity.”

Four hundred ministers expelled from their congregations! four hundred churches left vacant! four hundred families rendered desolate! forty thousand of God’s sheep, and as many lambs, left to wander in the wilderness without a shepherd! who can estimate the extent of such a calamity? who can reckon the sorrows, sufferings, and stupendous losses, public and private, caused by this iniquitous act of the king?