g his peace over many
things which do not vitally concern him,--"They? what are they?" But the
thing which does vitally concern him, that thing he will speak of; and
in a tone the whole world shall be made to hear: all the more emphatic
for his long silence.

This Prophet of the Scotch is to me no hateful man!--He had a sore fight
of an existence; wrestling with Popes and Principalities; in defeat,
contention, life-long struggle; rowing as a galley-slave, wandering as
an exile. A sore fight: but he won it. "Have you hope?" they asked him
in his last moment, when he could no longer speak. He lifted his finger,
"pointed upwards with his finger," and so died. Honor to him! His works
have not died. The letter of his work dies, as of all men's; but the
spirit of it never.

One word more as to the letter of Knox's work. The unforgivable offence
in him is, that he wished to set up Priests over the head of Kings. In
other words, he strove to make the Government of Scotland a _Theocracy_.
This indeed is properly the sum of his offences, the essential sin;
for which what pardon can there be? It is most true, he did, at bottom,
consciously or unconsciously, mean a Theocracy, or Government of God. He
did mean that Kings and Prime Ministers, and all manner of persons, in
public or private, diplomatizing or whatever else they might be doing,
should walk according to the Gospel of Christ, and understand that this
was their Law, supreme over all laws. He hoped once to see such a thing
realized; and the Petition, _Thy Kingdom come_, no longer an empty word.
He was sore grieved when he saw greedy worldly Barons clutch hold of
the Church's property; when he expostulated that it was not secular
property, that it was spiritual property, and should be turned to _true_
churchly uses, education, schools, worship;--and the Regent Murray had
to answer, with a shrug of the shoulders, "It is a devout imagination!"
This was Knox's scheme of right and truth; this he zealously endeavored
after, to realize it. If we think his scheme of truth was too narrow,
was not true, we may rejoice that he could not realize it; that it
remained after two centuries of effort, unrealizable, and is a "devout
imagination" still. But how shall we blame _him_ for struggling to
realize it? Theocracy, Government of God, is precisely the thing to
be struggled for! All Prophets, zealous Priests, are there for that
purpose. Hildebrand wished a Theocracy; Cromwell wished it,