Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

his holy place... Many great days of the Son of
Man have been seen in thee, O now how desolate
Kirk of Scotland! but few like this."[4]
These field-preachings were in truth regarded
with terror by the Government. The men who ruled
Scotland would rather have seen ten thousand
warriors arrayed against them in battle, than have
beheld these men and women, armed only with
prayers and patience, assembling in the wilds, and
there bowing in worship before the God of heaven.
And, indeed, the Government had good reason for
fear; for it was at the conventicle that the nation's
heart was fed, and its courage recruited. While
these gatherings were kept up in vain were all the
edicts with which the persecutors proscribed
Presbyterianism, in vain the swords and scaffolds
with which they sought to suppress it, The fieldpreachings
multiplied soldiers for fighting the
battles of religion and liberty faster than their
dragoons could shoot them down on the moors, or
their hangmen strangle them in the Grass Market.
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