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144
From Here to Forever
Wishart there came one whom the flames were not to silence, one
who under God was to strike the death knell of popery in Scotland.
John Knox turned away from the traditions of the church to feed
upon the truths of God’s Word. The teaching of Wishart confirmed
his determination to forsake Rome and join himself to the persecuted
Reformers.
Urged by his companions to preach, he shrank with trembling
from its responsibility. It was only after days of painful conflict with
himself that he consented. But having once accepted, he pressed
forward with undaunted courage. This truehearted Reformer feared
not the face of man. When brought face to face with the queen of
Scotland, John Knox was not to be won by caresses; he quailed
not before threats. He had taught the people to receive a religion
prohibited by the state, she declared, and had thus transgressed God’s
command enjoining subjects to obey their princes. Knox answered
firmly: “If all the seed of Abraham had been of the religion of
Pharaoh, whose subjects they long were, I pray you, madam, what
religion would there have been in the world? Or if all men in the
days of the apostles had been of the religion of the Roman emperors,
what religion would there have been upon the face of the earth?”
Said Mary: “Ye interpret the Scriptures in one manner, and they
[Roman Catholics] interpret in another; whom shall I believe, and
who shall be judge?”
“Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His word,” an-
swered the Reformer. ... “The word of God is plain in itself; and if
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there appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, which is
never contrary to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other
places.
With undaunted courage the fearless Reformer, at the peril of his
life, kept to his purpose, until Scotland was free from popery.
In England the establishment of Protestantism as the national
religion diminished, but did not wholly stop, persecution. Not a
few of Rome’s forms were retained. The supremacy of the pope
was rejected, but in his place the monarch was enthroned as head
of the church. There was still a wide departure from the purity
of the gospel. Religious liberty was not yet understood. Though
7
David Laing, The Collected Works of John Knox, vol. 2, pp. 281, 284.