Serve God better every day.
Then, well washed of every stain
That of earth might yet remain,
By Jesu's love at last set free,
Live in heaven eternally.
'Come to my fountain pure and free,
Drink of its stream abundantly!'
Listen, sinners, to the call
Of your God, who speaks to all.[186]
These appeals were not unavailing. The Reformation was advancing in France by two different roads: one was on the mountains, the other in the plain. The Gospel gained hearts among the sons of labour and of trial; but it gained others also among the learned and high-born, whose faculty of inquiry had been aroused, and who desired to substitute truth in the place of monastic superstitions. Margaret was the evangelist of the court and of the king. Her mother, with Duprat and Montmorency, ruled in the council-chamber, the Duchess of Etampes in the court festivities, but the gentle voice of the Queen of Navarre supported Francis in his frequent periods of uneasiness and dejection. Yet not to the king alone did Margaret devote at this time the attentions of her ardent charity. All the affections of her heart were just now concentrated on a single object.