The Covenanter Communion

Posted at Mint, Anise and the Cumin:

Covenanters, Though historically they were predominately lowlanders there were many highlander’s among them including two of the largest Highlander clans and like all true Scotsmen, “They fought like warrior poets.” and were poetic to the core. And may we imitate them and their faith & actions for the glory of Christ.

The Covenanter Communion by David Vedder Dedicated to Doctor Reverand Thomas M’crie, 1828

I. Dark is the page that chronicles the time When James the latest tyrant of his race Reigned o’er his bleeding country Not sublime With golden sceptre but an iron mace With which he crushed his subjects power and place Were given to base familiars who to fill The measure of their crimes in briefest space Did deeds of woe at which the blood runs chill And owned no law except a gloomy bigot’s will

II. Land of my sires beloved of bounteous heaven On wbose blest soil nor slave nor tyrant treads Then then by bigotry thy sons were driven From hearth and home from flocks and flowery Thy winter winds howled o’er their houseless heads Responsive to their wailings and their cries There’s not a grove whose bloom the autumn sheds There’s not a cavern neath thy inclement skies But echoed to their groans responded to their sighs

III. Thy beauteous fields thy straths and meadows grew Loved country like an howling wilderness And commerce on her golden pinions flew To lands illumed by liberty Distress Arrayed in tattered robes usurped her place Thy cities teemed with a detested swarm Of perjured priests and prelates void of grace Rapacious nobles venal judges warm With an unhallowed zeal to crush fair freedom’s form

IV. Thy soil was tainted too with armed hordes Prowling like cannibals in search of blood 2 Assassins bravoes ruthless as their swords Abhorred alike by mankind and by God Who spared nor sex nor age but strewed their road With patriot corses thick as autumn’s leaves But patriot tears shall aye bedew the sod Which blooms above these martyrs hallowed graves Whilst many a balmy sigh from beauty’s bosom heaves

V. Years rolled away and melted in the past As wane the hues of evening into night Fierce as a demon on the midnight blast Rode Persecution in infernal might Showering his deadly influence to blight The fairest flowers in Zion’s garden found Even Desperation quailed beneath his sight And hied him to his fastness where around Reigned pristine Solitude in majesty profound

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