TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
The Greatest Scottish Reformer
JOHN KNOX, the father of the Reformation in Scotland, once a galley slave, gave his own history to an English fellow-prisoner.
“I was born in 1505.” replied Knox, “at Haddington, in East Lothian, Scotland. The house, with a fair plot of land, is in a part of the town called Gifford-gate, and had belonged to my ancestors for some generations. My father’s ancestors were noble; but alas! their wealth had not come with their name to me. From the Grammar School of the town I went to the University of St. Andrews. There John Major was my teacher, and from him I learned to think for myself, and not to be content to regard myself as the slave of priests and kings. After taking my degree I taught in the University, and in 1530, when I was about 25 years of age, I was ordained a priest after the Popish mode. But the vile lives of the clergy disgusted me with them, as much as their foolish studies mocked my desire to know the truth.”
“Aye,” said the Englishman, “it is like feeding hungry men with egg shells and chalk eggs. Nothing like the Scriptures to satisfy and comfort the soul.”
“So I found,” replied Knox. “But it was the fourteenth of John that spake first to my heart. Here, thought I, is what I require, and I seized upon the Divine Word with the joy and appreciation of a starving man. When the heart feels itself lost and aching it delights in the very syllables of Scripture. How the words glowed with a sweet perfume of love, and with what delight did I read them!”