thing for the dragoons when they came to a house, especially in the more desert parts, to regale themselves plentifully at the expense of those to whom they paid their visit, consuming bread and meat and ale till they had gratified their appetite, and then destroyed the remainder. They scampered off, however, leaving the good woman and her children unharmed in the solitude of their mountain. The heart of the mother and the wife swelled with grateful emotion, and on her knees she rendered thanks to the God of her life for the signal deliverance afforded. It is more especially in times of trial that the faith of the Lord's people is tested. It is easy to trust when danger is afar off; but when it comes near, and threatens to overwhelm us "in a moment suddenly," it tries our confidence to the uttermost. How sweet must it be to experience a deliverance as the consequence of faith, and to discern the hand of our heavenly Fatherstretched out for our defence because we trusted in him! As the day began to close, the friends returned from the conventicle, and the sweet infant, now admitted as a member of the visible Church, was placed again on its mother's knee. The occurrences of the day were rehearsed, and Williamson was deeply impressed with the accident related by his wife. The sense of the danger which he had escaped on the one hand, and the spiritual benefit bestowed on himself and his friends on the other, bound him with a new tie of obligation to Him who is at once the guardian of the life and the saviour of the soul. The mercies which God secretly, and unobserved by us, works out for us, generally affect us more deeply. The kindness of God to Jacob in preserving, unknown to him, the life of Joseph, and in making him governor over all the land of Egypt, was perhaps regarded by the patriarch as a more truly disinterested display of divine care and goodness than any mercy of a merely temporal kind he had ever enjoyed. When the evening meal was served, the family assembled for the closing act of worship, on which occasion the grateful head of the family, with an increased confidence of faith, poured out his heart before the Lord, and rendered thanks for all that paternal care which had that day been experienced, and for all the rich communications of heavenly grace which had been conferred; then all retired to rest under the sheltering wings of Him who never slumbers nor sleeps. We see from this incident that the way of duty is always the safest and the most comfortable. Had Williamson, on this Sabbath, remained at home, it is every way likely that he would have lost his life, or been carried off a prisoner. But he was found in God's way, and at the post of duty, though that post was not without its danger, and God preserved both him and his household. When the children of Israel of old went up to the annual festivals at Jerusalem, it was promised that no enemy should invade their dwellings in their absence; and, relying on this promise, they did what God bade them, and they experienced the fulfilment of his word. Now, though we have no specific promise of this kind, that the Lord will exercise a particular providence over our households, when, at a distance from them, we are waiting on him in his ordinances, yet we have the general promise of the divine protection to keep us and ours in all our ways when we trust in God: "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass." There is an anecdote told of two women who lived in the same neighbourhood, but whose residence was at a considerable distance from their usual place of worship. As they were sitting together one day in the church, one of them was hastily called out, and the other being her neighbour followed her. When she reached the door, it was announced to her that one of her small children, whom she had left behind, was burned to death by accident. "It cannot be my child," replied the woman. Why may it not be your child?" said her friend; "does not the messenger from the very place plainly declare that it is?" "No matter," persisted she, "it cannot be my child." "It is foolish in you to speak in that way; what ground have you for your assertion?" "Well, then," answered she, "I will show you the ground of my confidence in this case. I committed my household to the Lord before I left home, and besought him to keep them from all harm when I was in the way of my dutyworshipping in his house; and I had confidence in prayer that he would grant what I requested. I have done the same for years past, and I have never yet found anything wrong on my return, and I have as little reason to expect anything wrong to-day." They reached their home, and what was the fact? It was the child of the other woman, her companion, that had lost its life. "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths." Let us always do our duty, and leave the event to God, and we shall find that he will manage matters for us a thousand times better than we could for ourselves. Alexander Williamson, on the Sabbath specified, went in the way of the Lord, and the Lord blessed him in his going out and in his coming in. 66 Alexander Williamson died in 1709, and was buried in the churchyard of Sanquhar, where the rude thrugh stone still points out his resting-place. He was born in 1635, and lived throughout the whole of the troublous times. His wife, Marion Haining, reposes with him in the same grave. It appears that this worthy had removed from Čruffell prior to his decease, and had taken up his residence at Burnfoot, where he died. The farm of Burnfoot is situated on the south side of the Nith, about a mile above the town of Sanquhar. The prospect from the farm-house is one of the most enchanting in the locality. On the north, the romantic scenery of the Crawick bursts with admirable effect on the view. The twin hills of Knockenhair and Carco, clad in velvet green, overlook the sweet vale beneath; while the bold front of Castle Robert height is seen in the background, peering over the intervening ridge, like a lion lifting his head from his lair, and peeping from his covert into the open space beyond. On the rising ground between, and on its very summit, grows a solitary tree, the last remnant of an ancient forest, whose form, painted on the soft blue sky, or on the curtains of the snowy mist, uniformly arrests the eye of the spectator, as it roams over the charming scene. To the east are to be seen the dark heights of Morton and Durisdeer frowning in the distance, while on the south the wooded slopes of Eliock ornament the skirts of the wilderness. The whole field of vision round and round presents a delightful aspect, and forms, on a large scale, one of those scenes in the survey of which the eye never tires. The site of Burnfoot, as a residence, was well selected by the ancient people, and it is now made still more eligible by the hand of the architect, and of the agriculturist. CHAPTER XX. Reeves of Cruffell-Kers of Scar-Hiding-places. Ir we were left to form our estimate of the character of the persons to whom these sketches refer from the odium which their adversaries endeavoured to attach to their name, we would be ready to conclude that they were the vilest and most infamous of men, and that it was their crimes which exposed them to the severe treatment which they met with. Instead, however, of their being what their enemies alleged, they were in reality a class of the best and holiest men of whom the land could boast. The cause which they advocated, and in the support of which they suffered, was righteous. It was the cause of Christ; and it was to assert the prerogative of the Mediator as the sole Head of his own Church, to preserve the ordinances and institutions of grace in their simplicity, to exhibit the Gospel in its purity, and to transmit God's testimony, in its truth and evidence, to posterity. They suffered because their principles were too unyielding for the ecclesiastical despotism of the times, and because they would not compromise the truth, to gratify the caprice of a licentious monarch and a bigoted priesthood; and therefore they were stigmatized as wrong-headed zealots, who refused to yield obedience to the lawful powers. "But Wisdom is justified of her children." And though there are many, even now-a-days, who seem inclined to regard them as enthusiasts, whose religion consisted chiefly in wrangling about modes and forms, while essentials were misunderstood or overlooked, yet the veracious histories of the period in which they lived and suffered can attest how holily and unblamably they conducted themselves, "in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation." The religious doctrines which these men maintained are detailed in the Bible, and the perfect sincerity of their belief of these doctrines is evinced, not only by the purity of their lives, but also by the grievous sufferings which they voluntarily endured. The great proportion of these honoured men were persons in the humbler walks of life, and whose names, had it not been for the persecutions which they sustained, would never have been heard of. "They lived unknown, Till persecution dragged them into fame, And now they are individuals whose names grace the annals of the Church of God in Scotland-who live embalmed in the memory of posterity, and who are had in remembrance before God. And let their memorial survive, and their ashes repose in peace, till the morning of that momentous day when He for whose name they were counted worthy to suffer reproach, and buffeting, and the spoiling of their goods, and death itself, shall publicly honour them as his faithful witnesses in a temporizing and a backsliding age. It is not they whom men honour, but they whom God honours, that are truly noble. On one occasion, when Clavers and his men were scouring the west, they descended on the range of hills that stretch from Afton to the east. Reports had reached them that parties of the Covenanters were skulking among the hills, and they determined to search them out. No news were more gratifying to the Cavaliers of those days, than to hear of anything that might afford them employment in the way of their profession-in chasing and shooting those godly men who, for conscience' sake, had abandoned everything that was dear to them in this world. Nothing was too adventurous for the troopers, either on moss or on mountain, when once they were fairly engaged and warmed in the pursuit. And strange stories are told of these reckless and graceless men, in reference to their daring and hazardous feats. A number of the worthies, it would appear, had concealed themselves in a retreat near the source of the Afton; and Clavers, having been informed of the circumstance, marched with his troopers at his back to surprise them in their hiding-place. His approach, however, was observed; for in those days of peril men had a kind of presentiment of coming danger. They were constantly on the watch night and day, and rarely did anything of a suspicious nature escape their observation. Their senses of sight and hearing seemed to be sharpened and improved by incessant use, in circumstances in which their life depended on their vigorous exercise. Even in sleep they seemed to be |