physical strain, besides the risk of life, liberty, and property, at the hands of the enemy.  These heroic sons and daughters of the Covenant said, “We will go; if we perish, we perish; though He slay us, yet will we trust in Him.”  These Covenanters would not habituate themselves to sinful conditions, nor permit their conscience to be drugged with the love of ease.  They had much of the spirit of Paul; they counted all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.  They consulted not with flesh and blood; not even with their own flesh, which was often wasted with hunger, fatigue, and pain; nor with their own blood, which was frequently sprinkled on the heather and mingled with the mountain rill.

The Conventicles, held in these desolate resorts, were awe inspiring, especially the Communions.  Many of the people journeyed at night toward the selected spot, for troops were overrunning the country to shoot them down, and day travel was extremely dangerous.  They therefore followed their path in the light of the stars, or under the pale moon.  They came from all directions, converged like streams at the place appointed, and spread out like an overflowing tide.  Sometimes they numbered 5,000, and more.  Men and women, young and old, came and sat down on the broad green, in quietness and with unwonted gravity.  The men in their kilts, plaids, and caps; the women in shawls and plain clothes; the boys and girls beaming and bright, and dressed in their best—­all gathered together, sitting down on the grass or on the rocks.  What an inspiration to the minister, when opening his Bible he gazed upon the earnest faces and caught the gleam of those expectant eyes!

[Illustration:  The Covenanters’ communion.

These communions were very spiritual and solemn.  The people came in great numbers into the solitudes of the mountain and moorlands, and there renewed their Covenant at the Lord’s Table.  The danger added much to the awe and reverence of these meetings.]

Saturday was Preparation day for the Communion.  Preparation services sometimes lasted till sunset Several ministers were usually in attendance.  At night the grave old elders would meet in clusters, under the shadow of a rock, or in a cave, or beside the murmuring brook, and spend hours in prayer.  With the dawn of Sabbath the people were astir, and soon appeared again on the grounds.  Then began the solemn services that lifted their souls into the heavens of joy, and brought them into the glorious presence of Jesus Christ.

We may receive an impression of the greatness of these occasions, from memorials yet to be seen on some of the sacred places where the Communions were held.  Certain stones near the town of Irongrey remain as witnesses of these inspiring solemnities.  The stones were evidently on the ground, as witnesses of the wonderful doings of God and His people, in the days of the Conventicles.  Oh, that they could