by John Galt
CHAPTER XXXVIII
When my father returned home, my mother and all the family were grievedto see his sad and altered looks. We gathered around him, and shethought he had failed to get the legacy, and comforted him by sayingthey had hitherto fenn't without it, and so might they still do.
To her tender condolements he however made no answer; but, taking aleathern bag, with the money in it, out of his bosom, he flung it on thetable, saying, "What care I for this world's trash, when the ark of theLord is taken from Israel?" which to hear daunted the hearts of allpresent. And then he told us, after some time, what was doing on thepart of the King to bring in the worship of the Beast again, rehearsing,with many circumstances, the consternation and sorrow and rage andlamentations that he had witnessed in Edinburgh.
I, who was the ninth of his ten children, and then not passing nineyears old, was thrilled with an unspeakable fear; and all the dreadfulthings, which I had heard my grandfather tell of the tribulations of histime, came upon my spirit like visions of the visible scene, and I beganto weep with an exceeding sorrow, in so much that my father was amazed,and caressed me, and thanked Heaven that one so young in his house feltas a protestant child should feel in an epoch of such calamity.
It was then late in the afternoon, towards the gloaming, and havingpartaken of some refreshment, my father took the big Bible from thepress-head, and, after a prayer uttered in great heaviness of spirit, heread a portion of the Revelations, concerning the vials and the woes,expounding the same like a preacher; and we were all filled withanxieties and terrors; some of the younger members trembled with thethought that the last day was surely at hand.
Next morning a sough and rumour of that solemn venting of Christianindignation which had been manifested at Edinburgh, having reached ourcountry-side, and the neighbours hearing of my father's return, many ofthem came at night to our house to hear the news; and it was a meetingthat none present thereat could ever after forget:--well do I mindeverything as if it had happened but yestreen. I was sitting on a laighstool at the fireside, between the chumley-lug and the gown-tail of oldNanse Snoddie, my mother's aunty, a godly woman, that in her eild wetook care of; and as young and old came in, the salutation was insilence, as of guests coming to a burial.
The first was Ebenezer Muir, an aged man, whose grandson stood many ablast in the persecution of the latter days, both with the Blackcuffsand the bloody dragoons of the remorseless Graham of Claver. He was bentwith the burden of time, and leaning on his staff, and his long whitehair hung down from aneath his broad blue bonnet. He was one whom mygrandfather held in great respect for the sincerity of his principlesand the discretion of his judgment, and among all his neighbours, andnowhere more than in our house, was he considered a most patriarchalcharacter.
"Come awa, Ebenezer," said my father, "I'm blithe and I'm sorrowful tosee you. This night we may be spar't to speak in peace of the thingsthat pertain unto salvation; but the day and the hour is not far off,when the flock of Christ shall be scattered and driven from the pasturesof their Divine Master."
To these words of affliction Ebenezer Muir made no response, but wentstraight to the fireside, facing Nanse Snoddie, and sat down withoutspeaking; and my father, then observing John Fullarton of Dykedivotscoming in, stretched out his hand, and took hold of his, and drew him tosit down by his side.
They had been in a manner brothers from their youth upward. An uncle ofJohn Fullarton's, by whom he was brought up, had been owner, and hehimself had heired, and was then possessor of, the mailing of Dykedivot,beside ours. He was the father of four brave sons, the youngest of whom,a stripling of some thirteen or fourteen years, was at his back: theother three came in afterwards. He was, moreover, a man of a stout andcourageous nature, though of a much-enduring temper.
"I hope," said he to my father--"I hope, Sawners, a' this straemash andhobbleshow that fell out last Sabbath in Embro' has been seen wi' theglamoured een o' fear, and that the King and government canna be sae farleft to themsels as to meddle wi' the ordinances of the Lord."
"I doot, I doot, it's owre true, John," replied my father in a verymournful manner; and while they were thus speaking, Nahum Chapelrig cameben. He was a young man, and his father being precentor and schoolmasterof the parish, he had more lair than commonly falls to the lot ofcountry folk; over and aboon this, he was of a spirity disposition, andboth eydent and eager in whatsoever he undertook, so that for his yearshe was greatly looked up to amang all his acquaintance, notwithstandinga small spicin of conceit that he was in with himself.
On seeing him coming in, worthy Ebenezer Muir made a sign for him todraw near and sit by him; and when he went forward, and drew in a stool,the old man took hold of him by the hand, and said, "Ye're weel come,Nahum;" and my father added, "Ay, Nahum Chapelrig, it's fast coming topass, as ye hae been aye saying it would; the King has na restit wi'putting the prelates upon us."
"What's te prelates, Robin Fullarton?" said auld Nanse Snoddie, turninground to John's son, who was standing behind his father.
"They're the red dragons o' unrighteousness," replied the sincere laddiewith great vehemence.
"Gude guide us!" cried Nanse with the voice of terror; "and has theKing daur't to send sic accursed things to devour God's people?"
But my mother, who was sitting behind me, touched her on the shoulder,bidding her be quiet; for the poor woman, being then doited, when leftto the freedom of her own will, was apt to expatiate without ceasing onwhatsoever she happened to discourse anent; and Nahum Chapelrig said tomy father,--
"'Deed, Sawners Gilhaize, we could look for nae better; prelacy is butthe prelude o' papistry; but the papistry o' this prelude is a perilouspapistry indeed; for its roots of rankness are in the midden-head ofArminianism, which, in a sense, is a greater Antichrist than Antichristhimself, even where he sits on his throne of thraldom in the Romanvaticano. But, nevertheless, I trust and hope, that though the virginbride of protestantism be for a season thrown on her back, she shall notbe overcome, but will so strive and warsle aneath the foul grips of thatrampant Arminian, the English high-priest Laud, that he shall himself becast into the mire, or choket wi' the stoure of his own bakiefu's ofabominations, wherewith he would overwhelm and bury the Evangil. Yea,even though the shield of his mighty men is made red, and his valiantmen are in scarlet, he shall recount his worthies, but they shallstumble in their walk."
While Nahum was thus holding forth, the house filled even to thetrance-door with the neighbours, old and young; and several from time totime spoke bitterly against the deadly sin and aggression which the Kingwas committing in the rape that the reading of the liturgy was upon theconsciences of his people. At last Ebenezer Muir, taking off his bonnet,and rising, laid it down on his seat behind him, and then resting withboth his hands on his staff, looked up, and every one was hushed. Trulyit was an affecting sight to behold that very aged, time-bent andvenerable man so standing in the midst of all his dismayed and piousneighbours,--his grey hairs flowing from his haffets,--and the light ofour lowly hearth shining upon his bald head and reverent countenance.
"Friens," said he, "I hae lived lang in the world; and in this house Ihae often partaken the sweet repast of the conversations of thatsanctified character, Michael Gilhaize, whom we a' revered as a parent,not more for his ain worth than for the great things to which he was awitness in the trials and troubles of the Reformation; and it seems tome, frae a' the experience I hae gatherit, that when ance kings andgovernments hae taken a step, let it be ne'er sae rash, there's asomething in the nature of rule and power that winna let them confess afau't, though they may afterwards be constrained to renounce the evil oftheir ways. It was therefore wi' a sore heart that I heard this day thedoleful tidings frae Embro', and moreover, that I hae listened to theoutbreathings this night of the heaviness wherewith the news haeoppressed you a'. Sure am I, that frae the provocation given to thepeople of Scotland by the King's miscounselled majesty, nothing buttears and woes can ensue; for by the manner in which they hae alr
eadyrebutted the aggression, he will in return be stirred to aggrieve themstill farther. I'm now an auld man, and may be removed before the woescome to pass; but it requires not the e'e of prophecy to spae bloodshedand suffering, and many afflictions in your fortunes. Nevertheless,friens, be of good cheer, for the Lord will prosper his own cause.Neither king, nor priest, nor any human authority has the right tointerfere between you and your God; and allegiance ends wherepersecution begins. Never, therefore, in the trials awaiting you, forgetthat the right to resist in matters of conscience is thefoundation-stone of religious liberty; O see, therefore, that you guardit weel!"
The voice and manner of the aged speaker melted every heart. Many of thewomen sobbed aloud, and the children were moved, as I was myself, and asI have often heard them in their manhood tell, as if the spirit of faithand fortitude had entered into the very bones and marrow of theirbodies; nor ever afterwards have I heard psalm sung with such melodiousenergy of holiness as that pious congregation of simple country folksung the hundred and fortieth psalm before departing for their lowlydwellings on that solemn evening.
