of the mountains, “shall shake with fruit like Lebanon.”  Scant and fragmentary as are the memorials of Renwick—­clothed in the most homely garb, and written with no artistic skill, they have yet been the means of nurturing vital piety in many a humble breast and household, in these and other countries, from the martyr era, to our own day; and not a few of the most devoted ministers, who have earnestly contended for precious truth, and been wise to win souls to Christ, have received from the record of the labours and sufferings and testimony of Renwick, some of their first solemn impressions for good, and propelling motives to holy diligence and self-devotion.  As the story of Joseph in the Old Testament has been remarkably blessed, above other parts of the divine word, for promoting the conversion and early piety of the young, so the unadorned narrative of the life, labours, and death of the youthful Scottish martyr, has led not a few to prefer the cause and reproach of Christ to the world’s favour—­to imbibe his spirit, and to imitate him, in seeking ends the most important and glorious.

Renwick’s work in the Church is not yet fully accomplished, nor is the influence of his name losing its attractive power.  On the contrary, there is evidence, increasing as it is cheering, that while the one is drawing to it more earnest regard and willing workers, the other is constantly becoming more powerful and widespread.  Let any person compare the manner in which the later Scottish martyrs—­Renwick and the Society people,—­were spoken of in the histories, civil and ecclesiastical, emitted in these countries, forty or fifty years ago, with the altered tone of historians of a recent date, and he will see that posterity is beginning to do tardy justice to the memories of men of whom “the world was not worthy,”—–­ who were the noblest, most disinterested patriots of which their country could ever boast, and whose services to the cause of pure and undefined religion were invaluable.  Occasionally, we yet find, in the works of some popular writers, Renwick and his fellow-sufferers, designated enthusiasts and fanatics, their principles misrepresented, and some of their most heroic deeds held up to ridicule and scorn.  Even the brilliant Macaulay, while exposing to deserved condemnation their cruel and heartless persecutors, and while depicting with graphic power some of the incidents of the deaths of the Scottish martyrs, yet shews his strong aversion to evangelical principle and godly practice, by applying to the honest confessors the same opprobrious epithets.  The age in which the martyrs and their principles were kept entombed, by heaping on them reproach and slander, is past, however, not to return again.  Their names are destined not to perish.  God designs in his providence to honour them more and more, by bringing more clearly to light the great principles for which they contended unto blood, striving against sin.  The era long predicted and desired is approaching, when the saints shall rise to reign with Christ on the earth, when the spirit which distinguished them shall be extensively revived, and the great principles of their testimony shall be triumphant.