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THE LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.

shepherd," when he was taken away. They accordingly fixed on James Lawson, formerly of the college of Aberdeen, and Knox urged him to comply with the call without delay. The invitation was accepted, Lawson hastened to Edinburgh, and having preached to the people, he gave universal satisfaction. On Sabbath, the 9th of November, Knox presided at the installation of his colleague, and having finished the service and pronounced the blessing with a cheerful but exhausted voice, he descended from the pulpit, and walked down the street, which was lined by the audience, who followed him till he entered the house On the Tuesday following, he was seized with a severe cough, which greatly affected his breathing, and his friends proposed to call in the physician, but although he readily acquiesced, he was "persuaded that the Lord would soon put an end to his troubles." It was his daily custom to read some chapter of the Old and New Testaments, but on Thursday, the 13th, he became so ill that he was obliged to desist. The scriptures however were read to him during the whole time of his illness. He was anxious once more to meet with the session, and bid them fare well, and in compliance with his wish, his colleague, the elders and deacons, with David Lindsay, one of the ministers of Leith, assembled in his room on the 17th, when he addressed them as follows:- "The day now approaches, and is before the door, for which I have frequently and vehemently thirsted, when I shall be released from my great labours and innumerable sorrows, and shall be with Christ. And now, God is my witness, whom I have served in 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 it for my only object, to instruct the ignorant, to confirm the faithful, to comfort the weak, the fearful, and the distressed, by the promises