1 interest; they to whom I allude have taken little pains to excite you to follow the holy and instructive examples of the ancient saints of Ireland, or to make you acquainted with the facts of the history of our ancient Church; but have rather perverted and caricatured the lives of those holy men, and the history of that ancient Church, by the false legends and absurd miracles they have interwoven with them; things which are only calculated to blind the eyes to what is really worthy of our imitation in such examples. But those teachers have concerned themselves little in supplying you in general with any useful information as to the most important facts of ecclesiastical history; this answers not their purpose. They have found more pleasure in directing your attention to topics and themes which appeal to the viler passions of corrupt human nature; the remembrance of past wrongs, the con templation of those at present existing, or supposed to exist, hatred, malice, and revenge! J9What a Christian is bound by his profession to forget, they studiously take care that you should remember. What is really worthy of a Christian to remember and imitate, they trouble themselves not much to bring to your mind. od# bur gi Fellow-Irishmen, where is now the spirit of that holy Church of old, which caused Ireland to be exalted through righteousness, and high among the nations in the glorious eminence of Scriptural know ledge and holiness? Where is the true descendant of that Church, which sent forth her pupils through the world, well grounded in the knowledge of the Word of God, to be priests, bishops, and evange lists? Where is now the Church that exalts the Word of God, and raises its sacred banner high above the topmost tower of the sanctuary? Which is the Church that translates and prints, distributes and circulates, teaches and preaches "the Word of God?" Or if Egbert and Agilbert, and Willibrord, and Sulgen, were in these days to come to Ireland, to study the sacred Scriptures, whither should they turn? or with what Church would they be likely to hope for most encouragement and help in such an employment? Would they not find some teachers here who discourage and exclude, hate and abhor, denounce and curse, destroy and burn, the sacred Volume of divine revelation; and others who cherish and encourage it as the ancient Church did, believing it to be the best and most necessary foundation of all education, and the knowledge and love of it a nation's brightest glory? Can you guess who these two classes of teachers are ? And can you doubt to which of them those ancient saints, or the less eminent persons that accompanied them, would have been most likely to apply to for aid in the object which brought them to our land?te Let us handle the matter with all plainness of speech. You meet a man on a Sunday with a Bible in his hand : what Church do you think he belongs to ? I do not suppose you will have much trouble in concluding that he is no Romanist; and we just as readily conclude, that they who shrink from the use of the book as dangerous and hurtful, and are afraid to place it in the hands of the people, are no followers of the ancient Church of Ireland, but are as opposed to her practices as they are to those of Christ and his apostles. What Church has given to the people of Ireland the Word of God in their own tongue? And what Church has set her face against their reading in their native language its holy and comforting truths? Answer it men of Kingscourt, or Ballinascreen, or Abbeyfeale, or ye of Ventry, in the midst of whom it is my privilege to bring this work to its close. Yes; the reply is to be found in the curses and threatenings, the persecution and injuries you have many of you suffered for daring to exercise the privilege of free Irish Christians, and for presuming to receive the gift put into your hand by the mercy of your God, and the instrumentality of His holy Church. But, blessed be God, persecution has failed to produce its intended effect; and curses from Romish altars have proved but powerless engines to resist the spread of divine truth, when met by patient for, bearance on the part of the poor converts and Scripture readers; men whose earnest prayer, I trust, is, that God would give their enemies a better spirit, and lead them to the acknowledgment of a more pure and holy faith. The light of Scriptural knowledge and truth has begun again to shine in places. long lying in gross darkness and ignorance; and in this very place where I now write, hundreds around have returned to the bosom of their ancient and now Scriptural Church, which their forefathers left in Queen Elizabeth's reign; and they are now enjoying the privileges and ordinances of that Church, ministered to them in their native tongue, by one whom I am proud to be able to call an old and valued friend, the Rev. Thomas Moriarty, in whose house I pen these lines. That God may bless and extend the knowledge of his sacred Word among you, to the salvation and edification of your souls, is the heart's desire of your Friend and servant in the Lord, 1. Of the beginning of Christianity in Ireland, II. Of the histories of St. Patrick which are extant, and of V. St. Patrick's missionary labours and death, VI. St. Patrick's religious opinions, VII. Age next after St. Patrick's-Life and acts of St. Colunita, 51 VIII. Character of St. Columba and his successors, X. State of the early Church in England to the Saxon conquest, XI. The Saxons converted to Christianity-First establishment of a branch of the Roman Church in Great Britain, A.D. 596, ། XII. Of the disunion which prevailed between the early British and Irish Christians and the Church of Rome,.. XIII. Progress of the Paschal Controversy-Irish Churchmen in 86 XIV. Of the nature and importance of the points disputed between the Church of Rome, and the ancient British Churches, 125 |