"My one joy, next to the flower of my joys, Christ, was to preach my sweetest, sweetest Master, and the glory of His kingdom. "I would beg lodging, for God's sake, in hell's hottest furnace, that I might rub souls with Christ. "Were my blackness and Christ's beauty carded through other, His beauty and holiness would eat up my filthiness. "Christ's honeycombs drop honey and floods of consolation upon my soul; my chains are gold." When Rutherford was on his deathbed, his enemies sent for him to stand trial for treasonable conduct. His treasonable conduct was his fearless preaching of the Gospel and heralding the royal glory of Christ, which included severest denunciation of the king's arrogant claim of authority over the Church. He replied, "Tell them I have got a summons already before a Superior Judge, and I behoove to answer my first summons; and ere your day come, I will be where few kings and great folks come." As he lay dying, he opened his eyes, and his familiar vision of Christ and the world of glory breaking upon him with unclouded luster, he exclaimed: "Glory, glory in Immanuel's land." With this outburst of joy on his lips, he joined the white-robed throng to take up the heavenly song. The same source of strength is yet available. Power comes through holy familiarity with God, personal relation to Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Are we full of power in the Lord's service? * * * * * POINTS FOR THE CLASS. 1. What event intensified the issue between the king and the Covenanters? 2. Wherein lay the moral strength of the Covenanters? 3. How did they show their love for the Church of Christ? 4. What aroused their jealousy for the Church? 5. How numerous were the Covenanters at this time? 6. Give the character of Rutherford as a typical Covenanter. 7. Quote some of his sayings. 8. Relate his triumphant death. 9. On what condition may we expect to be strong in the Lord? XXV. EXPELLING THE MINISTERS.--A.D. 1662. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." In the martyrdom of Argyle and Guthrie blood of the best quality had been shed, and the most precious seed had been sown. Therefore the harvest will surely be great, the field will yield an hundredfold. The fidelity of Argyle and of Guthrie, their devotion to Christ and the Covenant, reappeared in hundreds of noblemen and in hundreds of ministers all over Scotland. Overawe and subdue the Covenanters by sacrificing their prominent leaders? Their foes mistook their spirit and underestimated their strength, knowing little of the deathless principles of the Covenant that carried them into the service of the Lord, not counting their lives dear for Christ's sake. The Covenanters overawed! Will the sun faint and fail beneath the gale? Will the oak wither at the loss of a few boughs? Will veterans recoil at the first fire? Rather, will not the fighting spirit be roused?