God's flowers are all everlastings. The night may enfold them; the grass
may conceal them; the snows may entomb them; but they are always there.
They do not perish or fade. See how the principle works out in history!
There is no more remarkable revival of religion in our national story
than that represented by the Rise of the Puritans. The face of England
was changed; everything was made anew. Then came the Restoration.
Paradise was lost. Puritanism vanished as suddenly as it had arisen. But
was it dead? Professor James Stalker, in a Centennial Lecture on Robert
Murray McCheyne--a name that stands imperishably associated with that of
Andrew Bonar--says most emphatically that it was not. He shows how, like
a forest fire, the movement swept across Europe, returning at last to
the land in which it rose. When, with the Restoration, England relapsed
into folly, it passed over into Holland, preparing for us, among other
things, a new and better line of English kings. From Holland it passed
into Germany, and, by means of the Moravian Brethren, produced the most
amazing missionary movement of all time. From Germany it returned to
England, giving us the Methodist Revival of the eighteenth century, a
revival which, according to Lecky, alone saved England from the horrors
of an industrial revolution. And from England it swept into Scotland,
and kindled there such a revival of religion as has left an indelible
impression upon Scottish life and character. It was in the sweep of that
historic movement that the soul of Andrew Bonar was born.