Wind  -  swept,  and  apart  from  the
common  ways,

Where  once  had  stretched  a  moor-
land waste,

But  now  it  was  covered  with  grass
and  corn,


Another  kirk  on  a  height  was  placed
Among     two     or    three    pine    trees

tempest- torn ;
And   Church   of   the   Wilderness   it

was  named,
Built  for  a  prophet-pastor,  famed
For  his  doom-speaking  words,  and  his

stedfast  faith.
When  the  wild  dragoons  were  deal-
ing death ;
But  he  lived  through  the  evil  times,

and  saw,.
Though     he    would     not     allow,    a

better  law ;
And  the  bonnet-lairds  on  the  rolling

braes
Had   been    Cameron's    men     in    the

troublous  days.
A  plain  square  building,  never  meant
To  be  tricked  with  carnal  ornament.
Rough  in  its  stonework,  and  rude  in

its  lines.
Grimly  it  stood  by  the  ragged  pines.
There  ministered  one  who  held  his  head
High  as  the  Dean,  and  would  not  brook
King  or  Parliament,  living  or  dead.
Unless  the  Covenant  oath  they  took :
William  or  George,  Charles  or  James,
Stuart  or  Guelph,  it  mattered  not,
Nor  what  their  characters,  what  their

aims.
Or  whence  their  claim  to   have  rule

was  brought ;
Whether  from  Bishop's  anointing  oil.
Or  from  the  people  who  sweat  and  toil.
Or  from  a  long  ancestral  line
Lapt  in  the  dream  of  a  right  divine  ;
He  would  protest  against  the  throne,
Unless  the  Covenant  it  would  own.
For  this  was  a  Covenant    Land,  and

bound
By  solemn  league  to  be  holy  ground.
Where  Papist,  Prelatist,  Sectaries  all
Should  ne'er  have  authority,  great  or

small.
Parish  Pastors


3SI


Nor  should  Erastian  preach  the  Word
Where  the  martyred  saints  of  old  were

heard.
