t Authority whose dread and strait command he
at the first accepted. And if there are some things in that career which
his country has simply to forgive, we shall not reckon among these the
original resolve of that day in St Andrews--a resolve which has made
Knox more to Scotland 'than any million of unblameable Scotchmen who
need no forgiveness.'

* * * * *

But there are few who will doubt the sincerity, or the strength, of the
impulse which launched Knox upon his public career. There are many
however who, recognising that he was a great public man, doubt
persistently whether he was anything more. They are not satisfied with
the evidence of trumpet-tones from the pulpit, or of solemn and
passionate prayer at some crisis of a career. These are part of the
furniture of the orator, the statesman, and the prophet. Was there a
private life at all, as distinguished from the inner side of that which
was public? And was that private life genuine and tender and strong?
Have we another window into this man's breast--opening in this case, not
upwards and Godwards, but towards the men--or women--around him? We
have: and it is fortunate that the evidence on this subject is found,
not at a late date in Knox's life, as is the Meditation of 1563, but
close to the threshold of his career.

[11] The quotations are from Knox himself--in the first book of his
'History of the Reformation in Scotland.'

When quoting from any part of Knox's 'Works' (David Laing's edition in
six volumes), I propose to modernise the spelling, but in other respects
to retain Knox's English. It will be found surprisingly modern.

[12] 'Works,' vi. 483

[13] 'The end and intent of the Scripture,' according to the translation
by George Wishart, Knox's earliest master, of the First Helvetic or
Swiss Confession, is, 'to declare that God is benevolent and
friendly-minded to mankind; and that he hath declared that kindness in
and through Jesu Christ, his only Son; the which kindness is received by
faith; but this faith is effectuous through charity, and expressed in an
innocent life.' And even more strikingly, the very first question of the
famous Palatinate Catechism for Churches and Schools, though that
catechism is Calvinistic in its conception rather than Lutheran, and
came out so late as 1563, bursts out as follows:--

'What is thy only comfort in life and death?

'_Ans._ That I, with body and soul, both in life and death,