It was a wet, dismal day as the sailing ship headed eastward from the Irish coast, bound for Scotland just across the narrow North Channel. The sails snapped sharply in the stiff wind which chilled passengers and crew, though already it was June. Aboard was David Houston, a Covenanting preacher, sailing back to Scotland, land of much of his labor for the Lord. The serene look on his face was in contrast with his gloomy surroundings—a strange, puzzling thing to the soldiers who watched him—for Reverend David Houston was a prisoner of the King’s guards. He had been arrested in his fastness in Ire.land and was being returned to Scotland for trial. There, conviction was certain and the penalty the gallows in the Grass-market Square in Edinburgh where more than 100 Covenanters already had been hanged.

It was the year 1688 near the end of the bloody reign of James VII of Scotland (James II of England), known in history as "the killing time." Under James’ predecessor, Charles II, the Episcopal Church was made the national church of England, Scotland and Ireland, and other forms of worship were prohibited. In the years that followed the Presbyterians suffered the most horrible religious persecution in the tragic history of Scotland. Before his ascension to the throne, James, as Duke of York, had carried on a bloody persecution in the Scottish Lowlands. He seemed to enjoy watching the torture of the Presbyterians.

Through several decades of persecution, first by Catholic prelates and then by Episcopal authorities, the Presbyterian resistance had been carried on largely by the Covenanters. This was a militant society of laymen and ministers bound by oath