"5. That in regard to the doctrine of the Civil Magistrate, and his authority and duty in the sphere of religion, as taught in the Standards, this Church holds that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only King and Head of the Church, and Head over all things to the Church, which is His body;' disapproves of all compulsory or persecuting and intolerant principles in religion; and declares, as hitherto, that she does not require approval of anything in her Standards that teaches, or may be supposed to teach, such principles.

"6. That Christ has laid it as a permanent and universal obligation upon His Church, at once to maintain her own ordinances, and to 'preach the gospel to every creature;' and has ordained that His people provide by their free-will offerings for the fulfilment of this obligation.

7. That, in accordance with the practice hitherto observed in this Church, liberty of opinion is allowed on such points in the Standards, not entering into the substance of the faith, as the interpretation of the 'six days' in the Mosaic account of the creation: the Church guarding against the abuse of this liberty to the injury of its unity and peace."

The following question of the formula contains the terms in which the Subordinate Standards are accepted by the officebearers of the Church: "Do you acknowledge the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms as an exhibition of the sense in which you understand the Holy Scriptures, this acknowledgment being made in view of the explanations contained in the Declaratory Act of Synod thereanent?"

II.

JOHN KNOX AS A PREACHER.

WE begin with JOHN KNOX, not only because through his instrumentality under God the Reformation in Scotland was mainly secured, but also because there are traces of his influence as a preacher to be discovered in the discourses of his successors down almost to the present day. He inaugurated a style which to the readers of these times seems much less antiquated than that of some subsequent periods, because at every era of crisis and revival in the land the earnest evangelical leaders who sought to conserve what he had gained went back to him as their model, and drew inspiration from his works. His "History of the Reformation" holds its place to this day among the books in the "cupboard libraries" of the Scottish peasantry, and even so lately as the time of the Disruption a volume of selections from his writings had a circulation of forty-four thousand copies, principally among the same class. Nor is it difficult from the

study of these to discover in what particulars he, as it were, set the fashion for the preachers who came after him. But before we attempt to point these ont we must first mark well the genesis of this particular method in himself, and for that purpose we need to take a brief review of his personal history.

Knox did not become a preacher until he had attained the age of forty-two. Born in 1505, he is found among the incorporated students of the University of Glasgow in 1522; and after his education was finished he seems to have entered the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, and to have continued in it up, at least, to 1543, for his name is found as notary affixed to a document which is still extant, and which bears that date. His first known public appearance on the side of Protestantism was in the beginning of 1546, when he attended George Wishart to Haddington as the bearer of a large two-handed sword to protect him from assault. His proper vocation, however, at this time was that of a teacher of youth, and to that, at Wishart's entreaty, he returned on the night of that martyr's apprehension. Up to that date, therefore, he had not entered upon the Protestant ministry, and as

the manner of his call thereto had much to do with the power of his preaching all through his later life, we cannot afford to ignore it in this place.

It was "on this wise." After the assassination of Cardinal Beaton the Castle of St. Andrews remained for a season in the hands of the men who had planned and carried out the "removal" of that prelate. It thus became a place of refuge for the Protestants, even if they did not all approve of the deed which had given them possession of the stronghold. Knox had nothing to do with the murder of the cardinal, but for his own safety and that of his pupils he took them with him into the Castle of St. Andrews about the Easter of 1547, and there conducted his regular tutorial work with them from day to day. What that was he has thus described: "Beside their grammar and other hu mane authors he read unto them a catechisın, an account whereof he caused them to give publicly in the parish church of St. Andrews. He read, moreover, unto them the Gospel of John, proceeding where he had left off at his departure from Longniddry, where before his residence was, and that lecture he read in the chapel at a certain hour." These public exercises were regularly attended by

a large number of those who were sojourning within the castle, and the result was that Henry Balnaves, a distinguished Scottish priest, Sir David Lindsay, the poet, and others, recognizing his fitness for the work, urged him most earnestly to enter on the ministry of the Gospel. But he strenuously refused, declaring that "he would not run where God had not called him." They were not, however, to be thus gainsaid, and therefore they arranged that on a certain day John Rough, who was pastor of the Castle church, should, in the name and behalf of the Church, give him unexpectedly a public call to the ministry. So, after having preached a sermon on the election of ministers, Rough, in the presence of all the congregation, turned to Knox and said, "Brother, ye shall not be offended, albeit that I speak unto you that which I have in charge, even from all those that are here present, which is this: In the name of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of those that presently call you by my mouth, I charge you that

ye refuse not this holy vocation, but that, as ye tender the glory of God, the increase of Christ's kingdom, the edification of your brethren, and the comfort of me, whom you understand well enough to be