Yesterday I read a book about that great Scottish reformer: Travel with John Knox, by David Campbell. It's part of a series that Day One Publications are working on, combining history and travel – two of my great loves. Now, Day One is the publishing arm of The Lord's Day Observance Society, but don't let that put you off. As a travel book, it's a bit thin, I suppose, but as a concise historical biography, it's excellent. They are very fair to Knox, without being starry-eyed. And putting in all the travel details, (including beautiful pictures), does give it a bit of an edge.
Two things in particular struck me whilst reading. First, when Knox was in Geneva, the liturgy he used was a very simple one that included a question and discussion time. Isn't that radical? I reckon I might have to re-think some of my ideas about what constitutes historic Presbyterian worship...
Second, after his first wife died, Knox remarried. He was fifty, and his wife was seventeen. His enemies, of course, claimed that the great man used sorcery to make her want to marry him...
Campbell has a great summary at the end of the book, as well:
His servant Richard Ballantyne described him as: “a man of God, the light of Scotland, the comfort of the Kirk within the same, the mirror of godliness, and a pattern and example to all true ministers in purity of life, soundness of doctrine, and boldness in the reproof of wickedness.” Knox is to be remembered and honoured for all these things. So too for his vision for the education of the Scottish people, his conviction that the country's rulers must be subject to the country's laws, his courage in the face of danger, his deep sympathy for the poor and oppressed, his zeal for the purity of the church, and his commitment to the theology of the Reformation.
Day One have also put out History/Travel books for John Bunyan, C.H. Spurgeon, William Booth, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and have one on William Carey coming out this December.
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