Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 26, 2025
Burley turned to Macbriar "Ephraim," he said, "it is Providence points us the way, through the worldly wisdom of this latitudinarian youth. He that loves the light, let him follow Burley!" "Tarry," replied Macbriar; "it is not by Henry Morton, or such as he, that our goings-out and our comings-in are to be meted; therefore tarry with us.
Another man would, perhaps, have relented, but his system was wrought into his very marrow a part of himself in a manner incomprehensible. The distinction between the world and the Church is now nothing to us. We are on the best of terms with people who every Sunday are expressly assigned to everlasting fire. But to Michael the distinction was what it was to Ephraim MacBriar.
Slight greeting passed between them, and it was easy to see that no amicable conference was intended by those who convoked the council. The first question was put by Macbriar, the sharp eagerness of whose zeal urged him to the van on all occasions. He desired to know by whose authority the malignant, called Lord Evandale, had been freed from the doom of death, justly denounced against him.
"I tell thee I like it not," said Macbriar; "God can work deliverance by a few as well as by a multitude. The host of the faithful that was broken upon Pentland-hills, paid but the fitting penalty of acknowledging the carnal interest of that tyrant and oppressor, Charles Stewart."
"He hath spoken the word," said one of the assembly "he hath avowed his carnal self-seeking and Erastianism; let him die the death!" "Peace yet again," said Macbriar, "for I will try him further. Was it not by thy means that the malignant Evandale twice escaped from death and captivity?
The interposition, however, of Macbriar protected him for the moment. "Tarry yet a while, brethren let us not use the sword rashly, lest the load of innocent blood lie heavy on us. Come," he said, addressing himself to Morton, "we will reckon with thee ere we avenge the cause thou hast betrayed.
"Hold your peace, sir," said the Duke, "and keep your ain breath to cool your ain porridge ye'll find them scalding hot, I promise you. Call in the other fellow, who has some common sense. One sheep will leap the ditch when another goes first." Cuddie was introduced unbound, but under the guard of two halberdiers, and placed beside Macbriar at the foot of the table.
Macbriar had come, and Kettledrummle, though a heavy traveller, might, he was informed, be instantly expected. Burley then dispatched a messenger to Morton's quarters to summon him to an immediate council. The messenger returned with news that he had left the place.
This delicate question had been passed over in silence in the first draught of the manifestos which they intended to publish, of the reasons of their gathering in arms; but it had been stirred anew during Balfour's absence, and, to his great vexation, he now found that both parties had opened upon it in full cry, Macbriar, Kettledrummle, and other teachers of the wanderers, being at the very spring-tide of polemical discussion with Peter Poundtext, the indulged pastor of Milnwood's parish, who, it seems, had e'en girded himself with a broadsword, but, ere he was called upon to fight for the good cause of presbytery in the field, was manfully defending his own dogmata in the council.
Macbriar, whose fierce zeal did not perhaps exclude some feelings of doubt and compunction, began to expostulate in prayer, as if to wring from the Deity a signal that the bloody sacrifice they proposed was an acceptable service.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking