"The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance."-PSAL. cxii. 6. '

WHEN the General Assembly met in December, 1563, Knox took no part in the proceedings till the business was far advanced. He then introduced the subject of the charge and prosecution against him for convoking the brethren, and entreated their judgment-whether he had been guilty of usurping authority to himself, or had merely acted in obedience to the authority of the church. The Courtiers vehemently opposed the discussion of the question; the Assembly, however, took it up, and determined that Knox had acted on the authority of the Assembly, when be issued the letter for which he had been prosecuted.

During the sitting of the next General Assembly, in June, 1564, Knox and several of the brethren were called to a conference with Maitland, the Queen's Secretary, and other Courtiers. Knox was accused of speaking disrespectfully of the Queen. Maitland, his accuser, was learned and subtile, but was quite overmatched by the plainness, honesty, and intrepidity of Knox. In August, Knox was commissioned to visit the churches in Aberdeenshire; and by the following Assembly, he received a similar commission to Fife, Strathearn, Gowrie, and Mentieth; with power to try Ministers, Exhorters, and Readers, and suspend them, or depose them, if he found them incompetent to their office, or chargeable with any crime.

The Queen's marriage in 1565, with Darnley, a professed Roman Catholic, alarmed the Protestants. Darnley was the eldest son of the Earl of Lennox, and was naturally of a temper haughty and overbearing. His marriage with the Queen served to increase his insolence, till he became almost intolerable. The conduct of the Queen in pro

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claiming him King, without the consent of Estates, increased the displeasure of the nobles. The Earl of Murray, especially, expressed his disapprobation of the marriage, and thus excited the bitterest resentment of Darnley. The Queen finally attempted by violence to destroy Murray and his friends, and they were therefore forced to take refuge in England.

Darnley, though a professed Roman Catholic, was really of no religion. He one day could assist the Queen to celebrate Mass, the next he could attend the sermons of the Reformers. Having gone in great state to St. Giles, to hear Knox preach, the Reformer, in illustrating his text, Isai. xxvi. 13, 14, having spoken of wicked princes, whom God sometimes raised up to scourge a people for their sins, quoted the following Scriptures: "I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. Children are their oppressors, and women shall rule over them." The King applied these passages to himself, and returned in great rage to the palace.

The council immediately cited Knox to appear before them. To their accusations he replied, "that he had spoken nothing but according to the text;" and added, that as the King, for the Queen's pleasure, had gone to Mass, and dishonoured God, so should he, in his justice, make her the instrument of his ruin." The Queen burst into tears, and Knox was inhibited from preaching while their Majesties remained in the city. But their removal having taken place before the ensuing sabbath, the inhibition was of short duration, and he continued to execute the duties of his office with unabated fidelity and boldness.

The General Assembly, which met in December, directed Knox to write a consolatory letter in their name to the Ministers, Exhorters, and Readers, throughout the kingdom, encouraging them, notwithstanding the inadequacy of their stipends, to continue their labours of love, and exciting the people to afford them a suitable maintenance. Knox and Craig were also appointed to draw up a plan for a general fast-a task which they performed in a truly masterly manner.

The danger to which their religion was about this time exposed justly alarmed the Reformers. The most powerful of the Protestant nobility had been driven into exile, and the Queen was desirous of seizing the opportunity. for re-establishing Popery throughout the kingdom. The King and many of the nobility openly celebrated Mass;

and the Queen had subscribed the Roman Catholic league, for destroying all who professed the reformed religion. The exiled Lords were summoned to appear before Parliament, with a view to destroy the chiefs of the Reformation; and the Queen had altars prepared, which she intended to erect in St. Giles, in order to célebrate the idolatries of Popery.

All these formidable measures were suddenly defeated by the murder of Rizio, a worthless favourite of the Queen. Rizio was a foreign musician, of low birth, but of insinuating manners. Having gained the favour of the Queen, he discovered such overbearing insolence as enraged the nobility, and they resolved to put him to death. At the head of this detestable conspiracy was the King himself, who had now, through the machinations of Rizio, totally lost the affections of the Queen. Rizio had been the principal enemy of the Protestants; but, upon his death, the Parliament in which the Queen trusted for the restoration of Popery, was prorogued; the exiled Lords returned to Scotland; and thus, for the present, ended the plots of the Queen against the safety and permanence of the reformed religion.

Shortly after occurred the murder of the King,-the illfated marriage of the Queen with the Earl of Bothwell,the resignation of the Queen, and the appointment of Murray to the regency, during the minority of James. During the greater part of these transactions Knox was in England. On his return, the Assembly, in June, 1567, appointed him, with some others, to visit the west country, and endeavour to persuade the nobles, who still adhered to the Queen, to attend the next Assembly, and unite with them in confirming the establishment of the Protestant religion.

On the 29th of July, in the Church of Stirling, Knox preached the coronation sermon of James VI. of Scotland, afterwards James I. of England; and, upon the 15th of December, he preached before the first Parliament under the regency of Murray. This Parliament ratified all the Acts of the year 1560, in favour of the Protestant religion, and neglected nothing which could contribute to eradicate the remains of Popery and establish the Reformation.

But while the great majority of the nation favoured the nobles who had deposed the Queen, a strong party still adhered to her interests, and only waited for a fit oppor tunity of restoring her to the throne, and of re-establishing

the Popish religion. On the 2d of May, 1568, the Queen escaped from Lochleven, where she had been imprisoned, and was soon joined by numbers who were dissatisfied with the government of the Regent. The Regent, who was at Glasgow at the time of the Queen's escape, collected what forces he could, and immediately took the field. The two armies met at Langside, near Glasgow; and, although the forces of the Regent were much inferior in number, he gained a complete, and, on his side, an al most bloodless victory. The Queen fled from the field, and took refuge in England. Her imprisonment of nine. teen years, the many plots laid for her escape and restoration, her trial and tragical death, are all matters of general history, which do not come within the scope of our narrative. The favourers of the Queen, being disappointed in their aim by the result of the battle of Langside, resolved to assassinate the Regent. Hamilton, of Bothwellhaugh, had been condemned to death, and owed his life to the clemency of the Regent-yet, by this ungrateful man, he was shot in Linlithgow, on the 23d January, 1570. Knox had been the most intimate and attached friend of the Regent. He, therefore, felt his loss not merely as a public calamity, but as a personal affliction. He preached his funeral sermon on these words, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." When the preacher drew his character and described his virtues, his audience, of upwards of three thousand persons, was dissolved in tears. The grief of Knox was so great that it proved injurious to his health; and, in the month of October, he had an attack of apoplexy. It is almost inconceivable with what joy the report was circulated by his enemies both in Scotland and England. But, to their grief and confusion, God raised him up again, and, in a few days, he was able to resume his ministerial labours.

When the Assembly met in 1571, several anonymous libels against Knox were affixed to the church doors. Bills were also circulated, threatening his life. The Assembly called upon his accusers to come forward with their charges, but none of the cowardly assassins dared to appear. As to the threats against his life, Knox observed, that his life was in the hands of the God who had preserved him from many dangers. When his enemies proceeded still farther to accuse him of having sought the aid of Elizabeth of England, against his native country, he repelled the charge. In doing so, he thus spake,

"What I have been to my country, though this unthankful age do not acknowledge, the ages to come will be constrained to testify. And thus I cease-requiring of all who have aught to say against me, to do so openly; for it appears to me most unreasonable, that, in my decrepit age, I should be compelled to fight against the bats and owls that dare not come to the light." The malice of his enemies still continuing, his friends were obliged to guard his house by night, to prevent his assassination. Nor were their fears unfounded. One evening a musket ball was fired in at his window; but the God who suffers "no evil to befall" his people, wonderfully disappointed the intended murderer. Knox had changed his usual seat that evening to another part of the room; so the ball passed harmless through the vacant space where he had been accustomed to sit. His friends, now doubly alarmed for his safety, entreated him to retire from Edinburgh; but he firmly refused. But when informed that they were determined to defend him at the hazard of their lives, and that if any suffered injury he would be to blame, he yielded with reluctance to their repeated entreaties. From Edinburgh he now retired to St. Andrews, and there continued to discharge with his accustomed diligence the various functions of his ministry.

His constitution, naturally strong, was now so weakened by his labours, that, though still continuing to preach, he was yet scarcely able to travel. He required to be supported in walking; to be assisted into the pulpit; and he then required some time for rest before he could commence his discourse; but, when warmed with the subject, he forgot his weakness, and spoke with a vigour and eloquence that astonished and delighted his audience.

The civil commotions being much abated, and the Queen's party having left Edinburgh, Knox was earnestly invited to return to his congregation. This he refused to do, except allowed perfect freedom of speech against the party by whom the Castle of Edinburgh was treasonably held. The Commissioners gave him full assurance of unrestrained liberty of speech, upon which he prepared to return. In the end of August, 1572, he again preached in St. Giles, to the great delight of his audience; but, finding his voice too feeble for so large a church, he requested that a smaller might be provided. Accordingly the Tolbooth Church was fitted up for his reception. His strength continuing rapidly to decline, and Craig, his