PRAYER OF JOHN KNOX. 465 



of conversation with which he entertained every visitor, 

 and the reverence and godly fear which lay at the very 

 roots of his being became more than usually conspicuous. 

 On Thursday, the 18th of December, a friend who had 

 a long conversation with him, ' never enjoyed an inter- 

 view more, or remembered him in a more genial mood/ 

 On the Saturday following, another friend from Edin- 

 burgh found him in the same state. True to a 

 habit which had characterized him from his youth, 

 of leading the conversation to some book or topic which 

 was occupying his mind, he repeated with deep feel- 

 ing a prayer of John Knox's, which, he said, ( it had 

 been his frequent custom to repeat privately during 

 the days of the Disruption/ There was no name 

 which represented more for Hugh Miller than that 

 of John Knox. The Scotland of Knox and the Puri- 

 tans was the Scotland which he loved ; the Church of 

 Knox was the Church for which he had toiled when 

 his strength was in its meridian and when his dawn- 

 ing fame first thrilled him with rapture ; the faith of 

 Knox was the faith to which, after Hume and Voltaire 

 and Lamarck had done their worst, he still anchored his 

 soul. This is the prayer which was passing through the 

 mind of Hugh Miller on that Saturday : ' O Lord 

 God Almighty and Father most merciful, there is none 

 like Thee in heaven nor in earth, which workest all 

 things for the glory of Thy name and the comfort of 

 Thine elect. Thou didst once make man ruler over all 

 Thy creatures, and placed him in the garden of all 

 pleasures ; but how soon, alas ! did he in Thy felicity 

 forget Thy goodness ? Thy people Israel, also, in their 

 wealth did evermore run astray, abusing Thy manifold 

 mercies ; like as all flesh continually rageth when it 

 hath gotten liberty and external prosperity. But such 



VOL. ii. 30 



