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 upward 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.
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