blessed this celebrated country with rare natural advantages for
producing an indomitable and resourceful race. Something in their
environment seems to have given the people more than ordinary qualities
of mind and heart. Through the centuries they listened to the deep music
of the sea, gazed upon the majesty of the mountains, meditated upon the
solitude of the moors, kept vigil over their flocks in the fields,
laboriously tilled the rugged soil; and grew solemn, vigorous,
magnanimous, and unconquerable; they became a distinguished people.

But above all this, God in the early ages gave them the Scriptures, and
the Truth made them free. From the dawn of the evangelization of
Scotland there has ever been a band, and sometimes a host, whose heart
God touched, whose lives He enswathed with the fire of zeal for Christ
and His royal rights. They grasped the meaning of the Word of God, heard
His voice calling them into the marvelous light, and lived in the
radiance of His dreadful presence. They stood upon the solid foundation
of the infallible Book, and grew solid as the rocks of granite in their
conviction of truth and right. How much of this Scotch granite is
apparent in the faith and firmness of the present generation?

The matchless inheritance we have received from our Covenanted
ancestors, an inheritance of truth, liberty, and high example, should be
more inspiring to us than nature's grandest scenery. Our eyes should be
open to the moral significance of present conditions. We should be alive
to the weighty obligations transmitted by the fathers to their children.
Filled with the spirit and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and
enthusiastic in our work for God, we should throw our strength into the
service of our Lord Jesus, striving to bring all people into Covenant
with God. The Covenant relation is the normal state of human society.