THE PORTKAITS OF JOHN KNOX. 253

(^ perceived that men began to weary of God.' wiox, * wondering that he desired to keep any

• •;)urpose before Sermon (for that was never his

iccustomed use before), said, "Sir, the time of rmon approaches : I will leave you for the present • your meditation " ; and so took the letter foresaid,

• >iiiJ left him. The said Maister George spaced up
• and down behind the high altar more than half an
• hour : his very countenance and visage declared the
• grief and alteration of his mind. At last he passed
• io the pulpit, but the auditure was small. He

^should have begun to have entreated the Second

• Table of the Law ; but thereof in that sermon, he
• spake very little, but began on this manner: "0

' Lord how long shall it be, that thy holy word shall "*be despised, and men shall not regard their own

• salvation. I have heard of thee, Haddington, that
• in thee would have been at ane vain Clerk Play "

' {Mystery Play) *' two or three thousand people ; and ' now to hear the messenger of the Eternal God, of

• aU thy town or parish, can not be numbered a
• hundred persons. Sore and fearful shall the plagues
• be that shall ensue this thy contempt : with fire and