those who, hardly conscious of it themselves, carried within them the beginning of a great nation with ideas of loyalty to the truth revealed by God, of liberty in discovering it and of energy in putting it into practice which were to make it one of the most important factors in modern history. John Robinson had solemnly charged them in his farewell words, as one then present reported years afterward, "to follow him no farther than he followed Christ; and, if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of His, to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive any truth by his ministry; for he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy Word." The Reformation of a century before had rediscovered the Bible. Luther's great doctrine of justification by faith had created the Protestant Church. These Pilgrims had found truth in the Word of God to them as precious and significant as Luther's was to him. The discovery of it, the living of it against foes, constant witnessing to it at whatever cost made them the heroic men and women who could found a free church with a free state where everyone could worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. The idea which engaged their thoughts was a spontaneous association in covenant of renewed souls in fellowship with Christ and one another. They believed that no civil authority could put anyone into a church. or take anyone out of it. Only Christ through His renewing spirit could make one fit for any such fellowship. Only his brethren as his peers could judge of his fitness; and from their judgment there was no court of appeal but to Christ as the head of the church. That idea at the beginning of a commonwealth meant,

when it should have worked itself out in experience, complete independence of church and state, and complete liberty, with equal sovereign rights, in both. The seed of that free government was in the "Mayflower" and in the compact made in it. The fruit of it is the American Republic.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PILGRIM CHURCH IN ITS PERMANENT HOME.

SIXT

IXTY-FIVE days the church which was to plant itself in the wilderness and lay the foundations of a notable commonwealth was tossed on the sea in the Mayflower." In the early dawn of November 9 the wanderers saw land, which seemed to them "so goodly wooded to the bank of the sea."

a land

.

Cape Cod.

It was

But they were bound for the Hudson River, to the region where their patent entitled them to plant a colony. They turned southward, but soon found themselves among shoals and breakers. Retracing their path, the next day they came to anchor in what is now Provincetown Harbor. There they knelt and gave thanks to God for the privilege “again to set their feet on the firm and solid earth."

When they found that they must land on this coast, to which their patent gave them no right, they first faced the question how they should live together in peace and order. In the territory where they were going to settle, none of the company had any authority from the mother country to govern. Not all were members of the church. Some had already begun to talk about using their liberty when they should get on shore. Unless they could be held together, there was little hope that any would long survive. The church was already bound by a strict mutual covenant. But

to include also those outside of it, a civil compact was drawn up the constitution and foundation of a Christian republic in the New World. It acknowledged the right of everyone who signed it to share in making and administering the laws, and the right of the majority to rule. It was the constitution of a pure democracy, the principle of their church government applied to the state. This instrument, for several years, was all the law they had. By it they chose their first governor, John Carver, and later other officers, and administered in orderly fashion their civil affairs. This was their Magna Charta, signed by forty-one names:

"In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are vnderwritten, the loyall subjects of our dread Soveraigne Lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c.

"Having vndertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our King and Countrey, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant, and combine ourselues together into a civill body politike, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such iust and equall Lawes, Ordinances, Acts, constitutions, offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the generall good of the Colony: vnto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnesse whereof we haue here-vnder subscribed our names. Cape Cod,

11 of November, in the yeare of the raigne of our Soveraigne Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland 18. and of Scotland 54. Anno Domino, 1620."

They spent a month on shipboard amid storms and cold, successive parties exploring the coast to find a suitable place for a settlement. At last, on Friday night, December 8, after dark, the exploring party of eighteen men, in a northeast storm of snow and rain, landed from their shallop at Clark's Island. The next day they dried their clothing, and on the day following kept the Sabbath; and on Monday, December II (New Style 21), they went to the mainland, and "found diverse cornfields, and little running brooks: a place, as they supposed, fit for situation." When they returned to the ship, which was still off the shore at Cape Cod, Bradford was met by the news that his wife had fallen overboard and been drowned during his absence.

Friday of that week the "Mayflower " furled her sails in the harbor which six years before Captain John Smith had named Plymouth. There, on Sabbath, they worshiped on shipboard; and during the week following, after asking guidance from God, by a majority vote they decided to begin their settlement on the slope of what became Burial Hill, looking seaward. Bradford wrote of it, "In one field is a great hill on which we point to make a platform and plant our ordinance which will command all round about. From thence we may see into the bay, and far into the sea; and we may see thence Cape Cod." There, on Christmas Day, which they ignored as a pagan festival,