inscription, "Ready for either"--prepared for work or slaughter. Such
was the spirit of Renwick, as he looked forward to the work that lay
before him in his native land. In a letter written from Holland at this
time, he says, "My longings and earnest desire to be in that land, and
with the pleasant remnant, are very great. I cannot tell what may be in
it, but I hope the Lord hath either some work to work, or else is minded
presently to call for a testimony at my hand. If He give me frame and
furniture, I desire to welcome either of them."

Renwick returned from Holland in the autumn of 1683. Escaping some
dangers at sea, he visited Dublin, where he bore a faithful testimony
against the silence of ministers in the public cause, and left behind
him a favourable impression on the minds of some of his Christian zeal
and devotedness. In September, 1683, he landed in Scotland, and on the
3d of November, he entered on his arduous work of preaching the Gospel
in the fields, and lifting up the standard of a covenanted testimony. He
preached on that day at Darmead in the parish of Cambusnethan. From that
time, till he closed his glorious career and won the martyr's crown, he
preached with eminent fidelity and great power the glorious gospel of
the grace of God. His public labours were continued for a period of
nearly five years, and extended to many districts in the east, south,
and west of Scotland. In remote glens, unfrequented moorlands, often in
the night season, and amid storm and tempest, when the men of blood
could not venture out of their lairs, to pursue the work of destruction,
he displayed a standard for truth, and eagerly laboured to win souls to
Christ. His last sermon was preached at _Borrowstoness_, from Isaiah
liii. 1, on January 29th, 1688.

Though he ever testified boldly against the defections of the times,
especially the Indulgence, and insisted on disowning the papist James,