BOYS and girls who read English history, know well that the reigns of Charles II and James 2 were times of cruel persecution, and that those who loved our Lord Jesus Christ and His truth suffered severely. In the year 1660 Charles II came to the throne and a persecution began, which increased in the reign of James 2 and did not subside until the year 1688.
It was a real test to be true to the Lord in those days, for it meant loss of property and the means of living and often imprisonment and death. But at that very time, in the year 1683, it is recorded that fifteen young girls in the village of Pentland in Scotland used to come together in secret to pray and to speak of the Lord Jesus, whom not having seen they loved. They were like' those spoken of in the third chapter of Malachi, who also lived in dark days, when the widows and the fatherless were oppressed and the stranger turned aside from his right, when the offerings of God and His commandments were set aside and slighted and God was robbed of His dues.
But even in such dark, sad days, there were those who were marked by doing what was pleasing to God, and which He delighted to notice.
These faithful people were marked by three things. First of all they feared the Lord, then they thought on His name, and then it says, they "spake often one to another." (Mal. 3:16.)
Their ways were so pleasing to the Lord, and such a contrast to the evil and disobedience around, that He owned them by writing a book of remembrance, and saying that they should be His jewels, his special treasures in a day to come. "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." (VV. 3:16, 17.)
The fifteen girls at Pentland did very much the same, for they were conscious what a wonderful thing it was to belong to God in a day when so few loved Him and His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They made a covenant too, and signed their names at the end. This is how it reads:
This is the covenant between the Lord and us, to give up ourselves freely to Him without reserve, soul and body, heart and affection: to be His children and for Him to be our God and Father, and may it please the Holy Lord to send His gospel to our land again.
O Lord, give us real grace in our hearts to mend Zion's breaches, that is in such a low case this day, and make us mourn with her: for Thou halt said that they that mourn with her in the time of trouble shall rejoice when she rejoiceth.
(Signed) Beatrice Umpherston, aged to years. Janet Swan, Mabel Craig, and twelve others.
How the Lord must have looked down from heaven upon these girls and blessed them! What joy it must have given Him, even as it does now when He sees those who honor Him, in their thoughts, their words, and their ways!
Did the Lord answer their request and send them preachers again? He did indeed, for in five years' time, James 2, the cruel persecutor of God's people, fled from the country, and William and Mary were chosen as joint sovereigns. They both feared God and gave liberty to their subjects to read the Bible in their own language again, and to meet together as in former days and to choose their own preachers.
How happy and thankful the Pentland girls must have been! Each one could say, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live." (Psa. 116:1, 2.)