demonstration of the Spirit and with power from on high. The reformer
wrote that he would be content to sing his _nunc dimittis_ after forty
such days as he had had three of in Edinburgh. He prolonged for six
months a visit which he had intended to complete in as many weeks; and,
when he was at last recalled to Geneva by the urgent letters of the
congregation there, he promised to his friends in Scotland that he would
return whenever they saw meet to summon him and to assure him of
protection from persecution.

The few quiet years which Knox and his fellow-exiles passed at Geneva
were to be richly blessed to themselves and to their fatherland. He, at
least, had not gone there to have his views of Christian doctrine or
church order formed or materially changed. He went to see the pure
reformed faith (which he and Calvin in common believed, and
independently had drawn from the Holy Scriptures and from the writings
of the great doctor of the ancient church) exhibiting its benign
influence in quickening to higher life, and moulding into a united
community the volatile citizens of Geneva. He came to have his wearied
spirit revived and refreshed by communion with devoted Christian
brethren; and, by witnessing the success of their labours, to be nerved
for further achievements in the service of their common Lord and for the
good of his native land.

[Sidenote: Genevan Benefits.]

It was there that Puritanism was organised as a distinct school, if not
also as a distinct party, in the church. If it had done nothing more
than what it was honoured to do in the few peaceful years our fathers
were permitted to spend in that much loved city by the bright blue
waters of the Leman Lake, it would have done not a little for which the
church and the world would have had cause to be grateful to it still.
There were first clearly proclaimed in our native language those
principles of constitutional government, and the limited authority of
the "upper powers," which are now universally accepted by the
Anglo-Saxon race. There was first deliberately adopted and resolutely
put in practice among British Christians a form of church constitution
which eliminated sacerdotalism, and taught the members of the church
their true dignity and responsibility as priests to God and witnesses
for Christ in the world. There was first used that Book of Common Order
which was long to be the directory for public worship in the fully
reformed Church of Scotland