A Letter of Wholesome Counsel,
Addressed to His (John Knox) Brethren in Scotland

".....Often it is that God's elect are held in such bondage and thralldom, that they cannot have the bread of life broken unto them, neither yet free liberty to exercise themselves in God's holy word; but then God's dear children do not loath, but most greedily do they covet, the food of their souls. Then do they accuse their former negligence, then they lament the miserable affliction of their brethren, and then they cry and call in their hearts (and openly where they dare) for free passage to the gospel. This hunger and thirst does prove the life of their souls. But if such men, as having liberty to read and exercise themselves in God's holy scriptures, and yet begin to weary, because from time to time they read but one thing, I ask: Why weary they not also every day to eat bread? Every day to drink wine? Every day to behold the brightness of the sun? And to use the rest of God's creatures, which every day do keep their own substance, course, and nature? They shall answer, I trust, because such creatures have a strength, as oft as they are used, to expel hunger, and quench thirst, to restore strength, and to preserve life. O miserable creatures! who dare attribute more power and strength to the corruptible creatures, in nourishing and preserving the mortal carcass, than to the eternal word of God in nourishment of the soul, which is immortal! To reason with their damnable unthankfulness at this present [time], it is not my purpose. But to you, dear brethren, I write my knowledge, and do speak my conscience, that so necessary as the use of meat and drink are to the preservation of corporeal life, and so necessary as the heat and brightness of the sun are to the quickening of the herbs, and to expel darkness; so necessary also to the life everlasting, and to the illumination and light of the soul, are the perpetual meditation, exercise, and use of God's holy word.

And therefore, dear brethren, if you look for a life to come, of necessity it is that you exercise yourselves in the book of the Lord your God. Let no day slip or want some comfort received from the mouth of God. Open your ears, and he will speak even pleasant things to your heart. Close not your eyes, but diligently let them behold what portion of substance is left to you within your Father's testament. Let your tongues learn to praise the gracious goodness of him, whose mere mercy has called you from darkness to light, and from death to life. Neither yet may you do this so quietly that you will admit no witness. No, brethren, you are ordained of God to rule your own houses in his true fear, and according to his word. Within your houses, I say, in some cases, you are bishops and kings; your wife, children, servants, and family are your bishopric and charge. Of you it shall be required how carefully and diligently you have always instructed them in God's true knowledge, how you have studied to plant virtue in them, and [to] repress vice. And therefore I say, you must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house were used once a day at least. But above all things, dear brethren, study to practice in life that which the Lord commands, and then be you assured that you shall never hear nor read the same without fruit. And this much for the exercises within your houses......."

Other writings of Knox

Enjoy your Lord's day. :)

Jode