IX.

DARKNESS BROODING OVER THE LAND.--A.D. 1600.


The Seventeenth century dawned upon Scotland amidst ominous clouds.
Storms were gathering that swept the land for more than eighty
years--storms of "fire, and blood, and vapors of smoke." The intervals
of sunshine were few. The flock of God, the beautiful flock, suffered
grievously by reason of wolves that entered into the fold in sheep's
clothing.

"No bishop, no king," cried King James. He evidently meant, "No Prelacy,
no despotism." He made the Prelatic form of Church government, of which
he was the recognized head, the bulwark of his assumed supremacy over
the Church and his tyranny over conscience, and took every occasion to
assert his power.

The General Assembly had appointed the date and place for a meeting in
1604. The king arbitrarily postponed the meeting one year, and at the
expiration of the year postponed it again. But there were
high-principled men who resisted the domineering monarch. Nineteen
faithful ministers had met with a number of elders, just as fearless
and faithful as the ministers, and constituted the Assembly against the
king's specific orders. Their defiance of the king's authority was at
the risk of their lives. This was their last free Assembly for thirty
years. These men were haled before the judges, and, being found guilty