Knox’s moral character we may safely pronounce to have been unblemished, notwithstanding the outrageous charges of dissolute conversation which have been brought by some writers against him,—calumnies equally levelled against Beza, Calvin, and other fathers of the Reformation, and which bear their own refutation in their extravagance. As a preacher, he was energetic and effective, and uncommonly powerful in awakening the negligent or the hardened conscience. As a Reformer and leader of the Church, he was fitted for the stormy times and the turbulent and resolute people among whom his lot was cast, by the very qualities which have been made a reproach to him in a more polished age, and by a less zealous generation. He was possessed of strong natural talents, and a determined will which shunned neither danger nor labour. He was of middle age when he began the study of Greek, and it was still later in life when he acquired the Hebrew language,—tasks of no small difficulty when we consider the harassed and laborious tenor of his life. No considerations of temporising prudence could seduce him into the compromise of an important principle; no thought of personal danger could make him shrink when called to confront it. His deep sense and resolute discharge of duty, coupled with a natural fire and impetuosity of temper, sometimes led him into severity. But that his disposition was deeply affectionate is proved by his private correspondence; and that his severity proceeded from no acerbity of temper may be inferred from his having employed his powerful influence as a mediator for those who had borne arms against his party, and from his having never used it to avenge an injury. The best apology for his occasional harshness is that contained in the words of his own dying address to the elders of his church as quoted by Dr. M’Crie. “I know that many have frequently complained, and do still loudly complain, of my too great severity; but God knows that my mind was always void of hatred to the persons of those against whom I thundered the severest judgments. I cannot deny but that I felt the greatest abhorrence at the sins in which they indulged; but still I kept this one thing in view, that, if possible, I might gain them to the Lord. What influenced me to utter whatever the Lord put into my mouth so boldly, and without respect of persons, was a reverential fear of my God, who called and of His grace appointed me to be a steward of divine mysteries, and a belief that He will demand an account of the manner in which I have discharged the trust committed to me, when I shall at last stand before His tribunal.”