spiritual reality and blessedness was full of colour, form, rhythm and fragrance, as it was to St. John in Patmos, that many artists and musicians have found inexpressible comfort and illumination in Christian Science. The spirit of Truth and Love descends as balm into their inmost being, calming fear, dispelling pain, inspiring them with loftier and purer conceptions of loveliness, and thus enabling them to bring out their highest and best.

The poet Tennyson has been reported as saying that he wrote more exquisite poetry in his mind than he was ever able to put down on paper, and in a kindred way Mrs. Eddy saw in Mind greater visions of beauty than she was ever able to express, and, in part no doubt, because of the unresponsiveness of those around her.

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CHAPTER XIV

THE SCOTCH AWAKENING

HE Scotland of the Sixteenth Century presents scene after scene of historic drama that has no parallel

in European history. To those on the watch towers of religious liberty looking out with earnest eyes into a future unscrolling portentously with alternate clouds of despair and the silvered fields of hope, a future illumined with the flaming faggots of Martyrs' fires and the reddened banners of war, the events of the fateful years between 1542-the birth of Mary Stuart-and 1588, when the wreckage of the Great Armada was swept against the coasts of Orkney and Shetland, must have constituted a veritable Armageddon.

On the death of James II, the Regency fell to the Earl of Arran. Bluff King Hal on the throne of England in full pursuance of his destruction of the Monasteries, and the establishment of his religious sovereignty, made offer to seek an alliance by marriage between his young son, afterwards Edward VI and the little Queen of Scotland. This alliance was actually most solemnly entered into by the Earl of Arran, and the betrothal ratified. Had this marriage taken place the course of History might have run in far less stormy channels. England might never have had that emblazoned page of her history, the reign of Elizabeth; yet who can estimate all that England and Christendom owes to "Gloriana," "the most popular sovereign obeyed of their own free will by the freest subjects which England has ever seen."

Had the Catholic party in France realized that they

were opening her pathway to the throne, they might not have schemed so inveterately to break off Mary's marriage contract with England, and to hurry her off to France where they could betroth her, poor, helpless victim, to the Dauphin instead. But such was their influence that in a short while, both the Earl of Arran and the Queen-mother became a willing tool in the hands of Cardinal Beaton, who was virtually the ruler of Scotland. John Knox refers to him as "the Devil's own son." Certainly there never was an age when men played so desperate a part for place and power upon so lurid a stage, and the Cardinal stopped at no dark deed that might work to his own advantage.

Such was the state of affairs when that man of God, George Wishart, came into Scotland in 1544, preaching the Gospel. A few years previously the Commissioners of Burghs and a part of the nobility had required of Parliament that it might be lawful for every man to read the Bible in the vulgar tongue, and so there was some stir in the hearts of the people to hear the Scriptures. He began to teach in Montrose, and then he repaired to Dundee where his teaching attracted great crowds. In hatred and wrath the Cardinal was quick to work through one of the principal men of the City, Robert Mill, who in the name of the Queen and the Governor succeeded in prohibiting the preaching. Wishart left Dundee but not without a 'solemn warning that affliction came to those who turned their backs upon the word of God. Among the true saints and seers of this earth none seem to have been more grand and holy than this same George Wishart. We have no more description of his physiognomy than we have of that of Isaiah, but in Knox's record of his words and deeds, we are arrested,-rendered spellbound by his remarkable

character. We feel instinctively that here was a great prophet, a soul wholly consecrated, greatly inspired, a man of passionate feeling, of apocalyptic vision. Four days after he was hurried out of the city, Dundee is stricken with the Plague. A terrible death roll increases, and these tidings coming to the preacher, he hastens to return saying, "They are now in trouble, and they need comfort. Perchance God's hand will make them know how to magnify and reverence that word, which before, for the fear of men, they set at light price." At his coming anew the joy of the faithful ones was great, and he chose the East Port of the town for a place wherein to stand and preach. Those who were whole and sound sat within the Port itself, the sick and ailing stayed without the Port Gates. He chose as his text the verse from the 107th Psalm, "He sent His word and healed them," to which he joined these words, "It is neither herb nor plaster, O Lord, but Thy word healeth all."

The hearts of

The effect of his sermon was miraculous. his hearers were raised above all fear, all despair. Whether they lived or died they felt safe and at rest in God's mercy and love. For several days he preached, visiting between whiles the most desperate cases, organizing relief in which rich and poor shared alike, and as we may well suppose, the plague began to abate. In the midst of these acts of mercy the Cardinal had hired a poor corrupt priest to assassinate George Wishart, and to this end the priest waited at the foot of the steps, a small sword, called in Scotland a whinger, concealed beneath his gown. The Prophet as he passed him gave him one quick, penetrative glance, and quietly laid his hand on his arm, taking the sword from him with the words "My friend, what would ye do?" The priest entirely confounded falls at his feet,