The Select Practical Writings of John Knox

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This is a rare and precious book! Edited by Thomas Thomson, it contains the choicest practical writings of a man whom God used to transform his native country and bring it into the light and under the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that in spite of constant sition and grave personal danger. The Works of John Knox, preserved in six large volumes, are virtually closed to all but the most scholarly students of history. However, thanks to the endeavours of the Rev. Thomas Thomson and the Free Church of Scotland Board of Publications, this book was compiled so that Knox might be put back into the hands of the people. Unabridged and unaltered, except for the updating of the 'antiquated orthography', one can read some of the most enduring of Knox's practical writings. These include such works as his treatise on prayer, his Fort for the Afflicted - an exposition of the Sixth Psalm, his sermon on Christ's temptation in the wilderness, and his notorious sermon on Isaiah 26:13-20. Fifteen of Knox's letters are also included at the end of the volume, twelve of which were addressed to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Elizabeth Bowes. In them the temper and character of Knox the pastor are clearly exhibited. Much indeed has been said of Knox's ruggedness and want of taste, and heavy heave been the allegations against him as the enemy of all refinement. But let the choice of his words and the structure of his sentences be considered - his epithets so pregnant with meaning, and the march of his language, so stately and so full of music - and it will be acknowledged, that as a writer of the old rich English tongue, he had few equals, and certainly no superior, during his own day. Nay, more than this, he not only exhibits the highest literary excellencies of his English contemporaries, but with his characteristic good feeling and sound sense, he avoids that classical and scholastic pedantry by which their writings were so generally infected. From this circumstance, as well as from the vigour of his intellect, and straight-forwardness of his habits of thought, Knox is a writer for all time, and will be intelligible in every age - and especially to those who prize the language of the Bible. -- Thomas Thomson, Editor