Page 8 - 16 The Pilgrim Fathers
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Persecution and exile were opening the way
to freedom.
When first constrained to separate from the
English Church, the Puritans had joined
themselves together by a solemn covenant, as
the Lord's free people, “to walk together in all
His ways made known or to be made known
to them.”—J. Brown, The Pilgrim Fathers,
page 74. Here was the true spirit of reform,
the vital principle of Protestantism. It was
with this purpose that the Pilgrims departed
from Holland to find a home in the New
World. John Robinson, their pastor, who was
providentially prevented from accompanying
them, in his farewell address to the exiles
said:
“Brethren, we are now erelong to part
asunder, and the Lord knoweth whether I
shall live ever to see your faces more. But
