"The Rev. David Houston is coming over to you, whose labours in the gospel among you we heartily pray may be crowned with success, to the glory of free grace. We hear it reported with you (that) he and we should be separated one from another, which we here declare to be false. As formerly, so now, we much esteem him, though many who had their tongues bended like their bows for lies, but they were not valiant for the truth upon the earth, have been at no small pains to load his name with reproaches and base calumnies, which, as they are grievous to us to hear, so we have endeavoured to search out the truth of them. But after trial, excepting some sharp and too vehement expressions concerning the indulged party, which we wish and hope he will forbear, do find that the same hath chiefly flowed from prejudice in some, and ignorance in others; and all we shall say of them who have so done, shall be cordial wishes that they may see the evil of it, and do so no more."

It would appear, however, that the statements of the historian respecting Mr Houston refer to a date considerably posterior to the time of Michael Shields' letter. There is in the possession of Mr Dalziel, of the Holm of Drumlanrig, a copy of the minutes of the general societies, containing an account of their transactions from 1693 to 1719. In these registers Mr Houston is several times mentioned, and it is recorded that his case was brought before the general meeting by the correspondencies of Galloway. The meeting enjoined all the correspondencies to take it into consideration, and to report. Meanwhile he was requested to appear before them, and answer for himself, which it does not appear he

ever did. At a meeting held at Leadhills, on the 9th of October 1695, it was agreed that none who countenanced him in any part of his ministerial functions should be owned as any of their number. He was accused of " associating with the Lord's enemies, and of marrying without sufficient testimonials;" and "further, of marrying persons, and baptizing children, to persons known to be guilty of public sins, without requiring satisfaction." Mr Houston's name does not again occur in the minutes, and it is not likely that he had any further connection with the societies.

These two associates were very acceptable to Mr Renwick, whose hands, by means of their co-operation, were much strengthened in the work of the Lord. By this threefold cord the societies were more closely and firmly bound together, and the success of the gospel among them soon became more apparent.

CHAPTER VIII.

State of matters in the Country.-Mr Renwick and his Party.Fast at Cairntable.

It may not be improper here, perhaps, to look beyond the boundary within which we have been confining ourselves, and glance at the outfield of the persecution, as it presents itself to our notice at this period. During the seven years prior to this date, 1688, the persecution raged at its greatest height. Its furnace was heated to a degree of intensity past endurance, and every man's life hung in doubt before his eyes. The enemies of the Church seemed to be impelled by a satanic fury, like persons intoxicated by strong drink. The madness of their procedure knew no bounds, and men were astonished at the deeds of daring wickedness and cruelty which, with impunity, they perpetrated before high heaven. The foundations of law, reason, and religion appeared to be erased, and the entire fabric of social order seemed to have toppled down, and to have buried in its ruins everything valuable in a nation's privileges. From the commencement of these troublous times, onward to the seventy-nine, the work

of persecution was making gradual progress; but at this date it received a fearful impetus. The archbishop's death, the scuffle at Drumclog, and the battle of Bothwell Bridge, stimulated to a mischievous energy the evil genius of a despotic government, which, for many years, had hovered like an ominous cloud over the nation, and ready to discharge its destructive contents, with a fearfully augmented vehemence, on the wide territory over which it lowered. The first Sanquhar Declaration, and the skirmish at Ayrsmoss, afforded an additional pretext to the unprincipled faction that ruled the land to proceed to the utmost excesses, in the violation of the lives and liberties of the populace. No language can depict the sufferings and the outrages of these nine years. The annals of no nation, perhaps, can furnish a period of tyranny and oppression equal to this; even the worst times of the Roman Cesars are not to be compared to it. A nation of loyal, industrious, and religious people, lay like a bleeding victim at the feet of royal villany.

These general statements may be confirmed by an induction of particulars, and these particulars are so profusely strewn over the spacious field of persecution, that there can be no difficulty whatever in making a selection. We may fix on an individual, a hireling in this work of bloodshed, the atrocities of whose procedure against the covenanting party may be taken as a specimen, and is enough to stamp the character of an indelible infamy on the rule of that terrible faction that then swayed the destinies of the nation. Take Claverhouse for instance, follow him in his godless crusade against his country's liberties, and we will be able

to form a notion of the general features of the time. In this man we see a picture of the whole horde of ruffian troopers, who were let loose like so many beasts of prey, to riot on the calamities of the peasantry. Who has not heard of CLAVERHOUSE? His name is a household-word in every cottage in the south and west of Scotland; for in what cottage did his cruelties not raise the wailings of distress? Claverhouse appeared in 1678, to act his infamous part in the scenes of his country's tragedy, during the hottest times of persecuting outrage. Few men have attained so infamous a renown as John Graham, Viscount of Dundee. This man was commissioned to "hunt the peasant from his hearth;" and a fit agent was he for the work assigned him. The shameful defeat he sustained at Drumclog, shortly after the commencement of his bloody career, greatly exasperated him against the Covenanters, and seems to have imparted an impulse to his fury that accompanied him to the end. After Bothwell Bridge, he traversed the country with the power of a military execution like a roaring lion. The instances of his cruelty and spoliation are without number. In his march through Ayrshire he came to the house of Merkland, in the parish of Bar, which he entirely plundered. He took away all the clothes, and two horses, worth six pounds sterling. In Galloway, his works of plunder were indiscriminate, for he scarcely made any distinction between friends and foes. He seized all the horses he could find, and either drove them away, or made their owners pay the full price. In the parish of Carsphairn he captured all the horses that were of any use to him, and from a man in Cragengillen he