VIII.

MEN OF MIGHT.--A.D. 1596.


Jesus Christ is "the King of glory; the Lord strong and mighty; the Lord
mighty in battle." His servants, filled with the Holy Spirit and devoted
to His cause, grow like Him in moral courage and irresistible action.
Every age supplies the opportunity for heroic service.

The Church has always had mighty men willing to venture their lives,
when religion and liberty were attacked; but at no time has there gone
forth a more illustrious band whose heart God touched, than in the last
years of the Sixteenth century. The tide of defection was then rolling
in upon the Church with desolating violence. The truth of Christ's
supremacy was being submerged beneath the waves of Episcopacy. The right
of Christ to rule His Church was disputed by King James, and claimed as
his own prerogative. The true servants of God writhed in shame and
sorrow, as they saw the diadem of Christ snatched from His brow and
clutched by a presumptuous man. The times demanded men who would not
quail in the presence of the sceptered monarch; or at his threats of
imprisonment, banishment and death. The soldiers of the cross stepped
forth. The "threescore valiant men of the valiant of Israel" were there,
standing about the KING OF KINGS; "every man with his sword on his
thigh, because of fear in the night."

Andrew Melville was chief among the captains in those days. His face
was luminous with an inner light; his eye pierced through the
countenance of his adversaries; his bearing overwhelmed his enemies with