He began soon to set forth the Gospel in the lowly churches of the neighboring villages; then he grew bolder and preached even in the beautiful sanctuary of St. Michael, at Linlithgow, in the midst of numerous and rich altars. No sooner had the report of his preaching begun to get abroad than everyone wanted to hear him. The name which he bore, his gracious aspect, his learning, his piety, drew about him day by day a larger number of hearers; for a long time such a crowd had not been seen flocking into the church.[68] Linlithgow, the favorite abode of the court, was sometimes bright with unaccustomed splendor. The members of the royal family, and the most illustrious nobles of the kingdom, came to unite with the citizens and the people in the church. This fashionable auditory, whose looks were fixed on the reformer of three-and-twenty, did not at all intimidate him; the plainness, clearness, and conciseness which characterized Hamilton’s style were better adapted to act on the minds of the great than pompous declamation. ‘Knowest thou what this saying means,’ said he, ‘_Christ died for thee_? Verily that thou shouldest have died perpetually: and Christ, to deliver thee from death, died for thee, and changed thy perpetual death into his own death; for thou madest the fault and He suffered the pain.... He desireth nought of thee but that thou wilt acknowledge what He hath done for thee and bear it in mind: and that thou wouldst help others for his sake, even as He hath holpen thee for nought and without reward.’[69] [Sidenote: HIS MARRIAGE.]