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Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

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seek where I may have it."[4]<br />

The <strong>in</strong>trepidity of Knox saved the Reformation<br />

from the; brand of timidity which the counsel of<br />

the lords, had it been followed, would have brought<br />

upon it. It was a display of courage at the right<br />

time, and was rewarded with a career of success.<br />

On the morrow Knox preached to perhaps the most<br />

<strong>in</strong>fluential audience that the <strong>Scotland</strong> of that day<br />

could furnish; nobles, priests, and townspeople<br />

crowd<strong>in</strong>g to hear him. Every part of the vast edifice<br />

was filled, and not a f<strong>in</strong>ger was lifted, nor a word<br />

uttered, to stop him. He preached on the cleans<strong>in</strong>g<br />

of the Temple of old, pictur<strong>in</strong>g the crowd of buyers<br />

and sellers who were busy traffick<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> that holy<br />

place, when One entered, whose awful glance,<br />

rather than the scourge of cords which he carried,<br />

smote with terror the unholy crew, and drove them<br />

forth a panic-stricken crowd. The preacher then<br />

called up before his hearers a yet greater crowd of<br />

traffickers, occupied <strong>in</strong> a yet unholier merchandise,<br />

therewith defil<strong>in</strong>g, with immeasurably greater<br />

pollutions and abom<strong>in</strong>ations, the New Testament<br />

temple. As he described the corruptions which had<br />

105

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