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OH LIFT ME UP.
Out of myself, dear Lord, Oh, lift me up!
No more 1 trust myself in life's dim maze
Sufficient to myself in all its devious ways
I trust no more, but humbly at thy throne
Pray, "Lead me for 1 cannot go alone."
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Out of my weary self, Oh, lift me up!
To live for others, and in living so
To be a blessing wheresoe'er I go,
To give the sunshine and the clouds conceal,
Or let them but the silver side reveal.
?
Out of my lonely self, Oh, lift me up!
Tho' other hearts with love are running o'er.
Tho' dear ones fill my home no more,
Tho' every day I miss the fond caresB,
Help me to join in others' happiness.
Out of my doubting self, Oh, lift me up!
Help me to feel that thou art always near,
That tho' 'tis night and all around seems drear,
Help me to know that tho' I cannot see
It is my Father's hand that leadeth me.?Selected.
JOHN KNOX.
The Dying Charge of Knox to the Session of
His Church at Edinburg, Scotland, 1571.
With a kindling eye and difficult breathing,
he said, in vindication of his ministerial career:
"The day approaches and is now before the
uoor wnen jl snau ue reieaseu iroin my great
labors ami innumerable sorrows, and shall be
with Christ, i'or which 1 have frequently and
vehemently thirsted. And now God is my witness,
whom I have served in the spirit in the
gospel of his Son, that I have taught nothing
but the true and solid doctrine of the gospel
of the Son of God, and have had for my only
object to instruct the ignorant, to confirm the
faithful, to comfort the weak, the fearful and
the distressed by the promises of grace, and to
fight against the proud and rebellious by the
divine threatenings.
"I know that many have frequently complained,
and do still loudly complladn of my too
great severity; but God knows that my mind
was always void of hatred to the persons of those
against whom 1 thundered the severest judgments.
I cannot deny that I felt the greatest
abhorrence at the sins in which they indulged,
but still I kept this one thing in view that if
possible I might gain them to the Lord. What
influenced me to utter whatever the Lord put
into my mouth so boldly and without respect
of persons, was a reverential fear of my God,
who called and of his grace appointed me to
be a steward of divine mysteries, and a belief
that he will demand an account of the manner
in which I have discharged the trust committed
to me when I shall stand at the last before his
tribunal.
"I profess therefore before God, and before
his holy angels, that I never made merchandise
of the sacred word of God, never studied to
please men, never indulged in my own private
passions or those of others, but faithfully distributed
the talents entrusted to me for the
edification of the Church over which I watched.
Whatever obloquy wicked men may cast upon
me respecting this point, I rejoice in the testimony
of a good conscience.
"In the meantime, my dear brethren, do you
persevere in the eternal truth of the gaspel; wait
diligently on the flock over which the Lord hath
set you, and which he redeemed with the blood
of his only begotten Son.
"And thus, my dear Brother Lawson, fight
the good fight, and do the work of the Lord
joyfully and resolutely.
"The Lord from on high bless you and the
whole Church of Edinburgh, against whom, as
long as they persevere in the word of truth which
they have heard of me, the gates of hell shall
not prevail."
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S<
leadings
John Knox was gifted with a high order of
intellect, he was animated by ardent enthusiasm,
controlled by inflexibility of purpose and a thorough
knowledge of the human heart.
His single voice would put" more life into a
host, it is said, than six hundred blustering trumnnfc
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I'V-IO. XAV IfOO lUiU^^/1 wavnuuiv/ UJ U1 1 WVl J y uu
moved by penalties, and only annealed for combat
in the furnace of trial. The blandishments
of wealth, the suffering of penury, and the scoffs
of the great were equally unfelt by him, who
had made, as an oblation to the Lord, the entire
consecration of his powers to his service, and the
one object of his life, the extermination of
popery in his beloved Scotland. lie swayed men
by his lofty determination, fearless denunciation,
and evident sincerity.
The faults of such men as Luther, Knox and
Calvin were those of champions in a mighty
conflict, who had not time to polish their weapons,
or always regard the amenities and rules
of more peaceful life. It was as an apostle, or
rather as a prophet, that Knox challenged homage.
In his own conceptions he was alternately
the Elijah rebuking Ahab, the Jeremiah de
nouncing Israel, the John the Baptist who
could overawe even the presumptuous Ilerod.
Woe to the man who incurred his wrath, or fell
under his chastisement!
Whatever prejudice lie had originally conceived
against Alary Stuart, as a daughter of
Guise, was confirmed and justified by the administration
of her uncles. Educated under their
auspices, imbued with their principles, he regarded
her as infected with their cruelty and perfidy
; as 'a Papist, incapable of any moral virtue;
as an idolater, worse than an infidel.
Upon the arrival of the Queen in Scotland, the
idol of the mass was again set up, and Knox, in a
letter to Calvin, doubts the propriety of tolerating
Papacy, adding, "I confess candidly, my
father, that 1 have never until now felt how painful
and difficult it is to combat hypocrisy when
concealed under the mask of piety."
The pulpit of Knox thundered its denunciations
against the apostate Church. Alary
sought an interview with Knox, perfectly consistent
with the characteristic deceit of Papists;
when she could not crush, she would conciliate.
Mary said to him: "You have brought the
people to receive another religion than their
princes can allow, and how can that doctrine
be of God, seeing that God commandeth subjects
to obey their prince?"
Said Knox. "Madame, as right religion took
neitner origin nor integrity irom woriaiy
princes, but from the eternal God alone, so are
not subjects bound to frame their religion according
to the appetitie of their princes. If all
the seed of Abraham should have been of the
religion of Pharaoh, what religion should there
have been in the world? Or if all men in the
days of the Roman emperors should have been
of the religion of the Roman emperors, what
religion should have been on the face of the
earth? Daniel and his followers were subject
to Nebuchadnesser and unto Darius, yet would
they not be of their religion."
Mary, in reply, urged "that none of the worthies
mentioned took arms against the king."
Knox continued: "Yet madame, ye cannot deny
but that they resisted; for those that obey not
the commandments given, in some sort resist."
"But yet," reiterated the queen, "they resisted
not by the sword."
'* God, madame, had not griven them the power
and the moans," he added.
) D T H [ September 13, 1911
"Think you," said Jlary, "that subjects having
the power may resist their princes?"
knox answered, "If princes do exceed their
bounds, madame, or do against that wherefore
they should be obeyed, there is no doubt that
they may be resisted, even by power; for there
is neither greater honor, nor greater obedience
to be given to the kings and princes than to
father or mother; but so it is that the father
may he stricken with a phrenzy, in which he
will slay his own children; now, madame, if the
children arise, apprehend the father, take the
sword or other weapon irom mm and finally
bind his hands and keep him in prison till his
phrenzy be overpast, think ye, madame, that the ^
children do any wrong?"
So spoke Knox, the stern reprover c?-r^vVharehs.
At this and other interviews Mary was
much offended at his bold denunciation of her
course. Sometimes she would weep, but this
did not alter his countenance. He said, "Without
the preaching place, madame, I think few
have occasion to be offended at me, and there
1 am not master myself, but must obey Him
who commands me to speak plain, and to flatter
no flesh upon the face of the earth."
When she dismissed him forth of her cabinet,
she commanded him to await her further pleasure
in the next chamber, where the ladies of
the court were in attendance, thinking to intimidate
him, a stranger, by their splendor. But
the confidence of Knox did not forsake him,
though unknown (and unattended save by Lord
Ochiltree), and therefore began to make discourse
with the ladies who were there sitting in
all their gorgeous apparel; which, when he espied,
he merrily said: "Pair ladies, how pleasant
were this life of yours, if it should ever
abide! and then in the end that ye might pass
to heaven with this gear; but fie upon that
knave, death, that will come, whether we will
or not; and when he hath laid on the arrest,
then foul worms will be busy with this flesh,
be it never so fair and so tbnder; and the silly
soul, I fear, shall be so feeble that it can neither
carry with it gold, garnishing, targeting, pearl
nor precious stones."?An Old Clipping.
A SENSIBLE MOTHER.
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It is really pitiful to see a good, conscientious
little mother resolutely shutting herself away
from so much that is best and sweetest In her
children's lives for the sake of tucking their
dresses and ruffling their petticoats. IIow surprised
she will be to find that her boys and girls
at sixteen, regard "mother" chiefly as a most
excellent person to keep shirts in order and to
make new dresses, and not as one to whom they
care to go for companionship! Yet, before they
are snubbed out of it, by repeated rebuffs, such
as "Run away, I'm too busy to listen to your
nonsense," children naturally go to their mothers
with all their sorrows and pleasures; and
ii "mother" can only enter into all their little
plans, how pleased they are! Such a shout of
delight as I heard last summer from Mrs.
Friendly's croquet ground, where her two little
glirls were playing. "Oh, goody, igoodyl,
mama is coming to play with us!" She was a
busy mother, too, and I know would much have
preferred to use what few moments of recreation
she could snatch for something more inter
esting than playing croquet with little children
not mjuch taller than their mallets. She has
often said to me; I must keep right along with
them all the time; and whether it is croquet with
the little ones, or L/atin, grammar and baseball
with the boys, or French dictionary and sash
ribbons with the girls, I must be 'in it,' as far
as I can."?Anon.
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