The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

OLD MORTALITY. 47T
but ye hold in your hands the sword, and the bow, and the weapons of
death. And yet verily, I say unto you, that not when the ancient Temple
was in its first glory was there offered sacrifice more acceptable than that
which you have this day presented, giving to the slaughter the tyrant and
the oppressor, with the rocks for your altars, and the sky for your vaulted
sanctuary, and your own good swords for the instruments of sacrifice.
Leave not, therefore, the plough in the furrow —turn not back from the
path in which you have entered like the famous worthies of old, whom' God
raised up for the glorifying of his name and the deliverance of his afflicted
people - halt not in the race you are running, lest the latter end should be
worse than the beginning. Wherefore, set up a standard in the land; blow
a trumpet upon the mountains; let not the shepherd tarry by his sheepfold, or the seedsman continue in the ploughed field; but make the watch
strong, sharpen the arrows, burnish the shields, name ye the captains of
thousands, and captains of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens; call the footmen like the rushing of winds, and cause the horsemen to come up like the
sound of many waters; for the passages of the destroyers are stopped, their
rods are burned, and the face of their men of battle hath been turned to
flight. Heaven has been with you, and has broken the bow of the mighty;
then let every man's heart be as the heart of the valiant Maccabeus, every
man's hand as the hand of the mighty Sampson, eyery man's sword as that
of Gideon, which turned not back from the slaughter; for the banner of
Reformation is spread abroad on the mountains in its first loveliness, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
" Well is he this day that shall barter his house for a helmet, and sell his
garment for a sword, and cast in his lot with the children of the Covenant,
even to the fulfilling of the promise; and woe, woe unto him who, for carnal
ends and self-seeking, shall withhold himself from the great work, for the
curse shall abide with him -even the bitter curse of Meroz, because he
came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Up, then, and be
doing! the blood of martyrs, reeking upon scaffolds, is crying for vengeance; the bones of saints, which lie whitening in the highways, are
pleading for retribution; the groans of innocent captives from desolate isles
of the sea, and from the dungeons of the tyrants' high places, cry for deliverance; the prayers of persecuted Christians, sheltering themselves in
dens and deserts from the sword of their persecutors, famished with hunger,
starving wrwith cold, lacking fire, food, shelter and clothing, because they
serve God rather than man - all are with you, pleading, watching, knocking, storming the gates of heaven in your behalf. Heaven itself shall fight
for you, as the stars 4n their courses fought against Sisera. Then whoseo
will deserve immortal fame in this world, and eternal happiness in that
which is to come, let them enter into God's service, and take arles at the
hand of his servant,-a blessing, namely, upon him and his household, and
his children, to the ninth generation, even the blessing of the promise, for
ever and ever! Amen."'
The eloquence of the preacher was rewarded by the deep hum of stern
approbation which resounded through the armed assemblage at the conclusion of an exhortation so well suited to that which they had done, and that
whi-ch remained for them to do. The wounded forgot their pain, the faint
and hungry their fatigues and privations, as they listened to doctrines which
elevated them alike above the wants and calamities of the world, and identified their cause with that of the Deity. Many crowded around the
preacher, as he descended from the eminence on which he stood, and, clasping him with hands on which the gore was not yet hardened, pledged their
sacred vow that they would play the part of Heaven's true soldiers. Exhausted by his own enthusiasm, and by the animated fervour which he had
exerted in his discourse, the preacher could only reply, in broken accents,
-" God bless you, my brethren! It is xis cause. Stand strongly up and