ven about with
associations of these hated priests and their system which was not true
religion, but "devised by the brain of man"; and though he was himself
the most complete incarnation of Scotch vehemence, dogmatism, national
pride, and fiery feeling, he was indifferent to their national records.
His pride was involved in making his country stand, alone if need was,
or if not alone, then first, in passionate perfection in the new order
of things in the kingdom of Christ: not to keep her a place in the unity
of nations by preserving the traces of an old civilisation and
institutions as venerable and noteworthy as any in Christendom, but to
make of her a chosen nation like that people, long ago dispersed by a
sufficiently miserable catastrophe, to whom was given of old the mission
of showing forth the will of God before the world. Whether what he
gained for his country was not much more important than what he thus
deliberately sacrificed is a question that will never be answered with
any unanimity. He gained for his race a great freedom, which cannot be
justly called religious freedom, because it was, in his intention at
least, freedom to follow their own way, with none at all for those who
differed from them. He set up a high standard of piety and probity, and
for once made the business of the soul, the worship of God and study of
His laws, the most absorbing of public interests. He thrilled the whole
country through and through with the inspiration of a fervent spirit,
uncompromising in its devotion to the truth, asking no indulgence if
also, perhaps, giving none, serving God in his own way with a fidelity
above every bribe, scornful of every compromise. But he cut Scotland
adrift so far as in him lay from the brotherhood of habit and tradition,
from the communion, if not of saints, yet of many saintly uses, and much
that is beautiful in Christian life. He made his country eminent, and
secured for her one great chapter in the history of the world; but he
imprinted upon her a certain narrowness uncongenial to her character and
to her past, which has undervalued her to many superficial observers,
and done perhaps a little, but a permanent, harm to her national ideal
ever since. A small evil for so much good, but yet not to be left
unacknowledged.

More interesting in its human aspect is Knox's appearance in St.
Andrews, whither the Congregation now crowded to "make reformation,"
though doubtful if even the populace wer