he
old doctrine which runs through all the ages. Those which are really new
are the doctrines which have obscured or contaminated it, brought in by
those entrusted with the care of the vineyard of the Lord, and who, like
the keepers of the vineyard in the Gospel parable, have maltreated and
slain many of the Lord's messengers."

This was the last service, so far as we know, which Alesius was able to
render to the cause of the Reformation in his native land, and it did
not fail in due time to produce abundant and lasting fruit. As Major
before him, so Knox after him, strenuously contended for union of
Scotsmen among themselves; and after that, but only after that, for a
league with England rather than with France. They laboured, and others
entered into their labours, and, proceeding on the same lines on which
they had worked, at last brought the conflict to a triumphant issue.
Tidings of their success filled Alesius with joy in the land of his
exile. Even these, however, failed in his old age to tempt him back to
the home of his youth, or the scene of those early struggles which were
so deeply engraven on his memory and heart. And, so far as we know, he
received no call to return from those who were then at the head of
affairs in Scotland, though unquestionably he was more deeply read in
theology than any one of them, and though, as unquestionably, the
faculty of divinity was for several years but poorly supplied in the
universities of Scotland, and preachers of ability, culture, and
learning were very rare in the land.

[Sidenote: Appreciation of his Services.]

His life, especially after the close of the Schmalkaldic war, seems to
have passed tranquilly and happily at the great Lutheran University of
Leipsic. He was loved and honoured by his colleagues and by his prince,
and, as I have already hinted, he was the bosom friend and unremitting
correspondent of Melanchthon. As his services had been called into
requisition by the Preceptor Germaniae at the colloquies of Worms and
Regensburg, so were they sought and got at the colloquy of Saxon
theologians for the preparation of the Leipsic Interim in 1548, at that
of Naumburg in 1554, at that of Nuremberg in 1555, and that of Dresden
in 1561. "In all these"--the Leipsic professor, who on the occasion of
the first centenary of his second rectorship pronounced an oration on
him, affirms that--"he so conducted himself that no one could charge him
with want of perseverance i