tico, and actually making the best of things in the very family of whose sayings and doings she had been so bent upon making the worst. Nothing could have been more encouraging to Aunt Isabel than the change which she saw that a few hours had effected in her sister's whole demeanour; and but for the melancholy circumstances which had been the means of bringing them both into this new position, she could have felt very much inclined to smile at what she saw.

But there was no smiling in that house just then. The serious illness of a fine, interesting girl, just entering upon womanhood, is always peculiarly affecting, and in the present instance the sufferer was a universal favourite --so much so, that every member of the household shared in the general anxiety and gloom. Yielding, like their mistress, to the sudden impulse of alarm, the servants put so little restraint upon their feelings that Aunt Isabel found it necessary to guard the invalid against the melancholy impression of their dismal faces and half-suppressed sobs.

Lucy Ellerton was depressed enough herself, and quite sufficiently alarmed, without these open manifestations of distress, and it soon became a task of no trifling responsibility to keep up anything like cheerfulness throughout the house. Something pleasant to talk about was a great boon just then; and although the invalid was forbidden to converse, Aunt Isabel so managed as to convey to her at intervals many pleasant little scraps of information calculated to divert her thoughts

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from herself-amongst others the glad tidings of her father's expected return that day, and of her brother's arrival on the day following.

The coming of Frank Ellerton was a great event to George Harper and his sister, who watched for his arrival, and actually caught a sight of him from a window of the Lodge. His appearance, however, proved extremely unsatisfactory, for they both pronounced upon him as a pale, sickly-looking creature.

"You won't envy his looks, at any rate," said Louisa.

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Envy his looks?" exclaimed George, with great disgust. "I don't envy anything about him. Why should I?"

"I don't know," replied his sister, "only you appeared so vexed about his being at college."

"Nothing of the kind, Loo. You don't understand. I only wanted to be there

myself."

"But it seemed to me, George, that you wanted a great deal more to be there after you had heard about Frank Ellerton than you did before, and that you put yourself out a great deal more."

George could not own that this was the case. Still, he had a secret misgiving that his sister was right; and while he would have scorned to acknowledge the fact, a deeply humiliating consciousness grew upon him that he had himself been yielding, though perhaps slightly, to the most odious and hateful of all human passions.

H, blest the house, whate'er befall, Where Jesus Christ is All in All; Yea, if He were not dwelling there, How poor and dark and void it were!

Ob, blest that house where faith yo find,

And all within have set their mind
To trust their God and serve Him still,
And do in all His holy will.

"Blest such a house, it prospers well; In peace and joy the parents dwell, And in their children's lot is shown How richly God can bless His own.

"Then here will I and mine to-day
A solemn covenant make, and say,
Though all the world forsake Thy Word,
I and my house will serve the Lord."
C. C. L. von Pfeil, 1735.

AND MANUSCRIPT-MEN."-TOM
DOOLING. THE IRISH LANGUAGE.

EFORE adverting to the next era in the history of the Irish Bible, it is but right and just to make a few observations on what had been, no doubt, a sore point to the many to whom England was so justly dear. Adopting the words of the eminent writer of the Memoir of the Irish Bible:

"If our British rulers and hierarchy of the Irish branch of the Church have been too frequently mistaken or negligent in the use of the most proper means for extending to Ireland the light and blessings of the great Reformation in religion, there is, on the other side of the account in this matter, a large debt to be rendered as due to the Englishto Elizabeth and her ministers, the illustrious Bacon, and the good Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sydney; and still more especially to Bedell and to Marsh, who were Englishmen-we might add to Mr. Boyle also, whose father was the first of his family in Ireland-for the great national work of putting forth the Irish Bible, which was projected by them, and was chiefly accomplished by their means. trust that the better portion of the community will be always ready to feel abundant gratitude to Protestant England for its generous sympathies, so continually exhibited of late years, towards the temporal and eternal necessities of our country. Leaving to clamorous or insidious agitators the remembrance of Britain's ancient misrule or neglect, we should cordially acknowledge those sisterly feelings that her Christian inhabitants now

We

daily evidence to Ireland, by many gratuitous acts of deep sympathy and benevolence."

Yes! all that unsisterly policy and jealous spirit is past and gone. I only state a fact -a painful one-because it is right that it should be known, that the Reformation did not succeed in Ireland as it had done in England, because the Irish had not been treated as the English had been. Yet the Irish had hearts, and minds, and souls as well as the English people, and could reflect and reason as well. But, until our own days nothing was done in reality to make the Irish peasantry understand the unsearchable riches of Christ in the language of their affectionthe language which they understood.

But, to resume this narrative, if the early history of the Irish Bible had been one of difficulty and obstruction, its subsequent history was, if possible, more lamentable. It was in print, but not in use. For nearly 140 years it lay unused-literally "on the shelf," till, in 1818, some Christian people were moved to have it reproduced.

Then was the awakening of missionary spirit and enterprise, and then was the Irish Society set on foot. The first move, however, was made in connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society-that standing miracle, so to speak, which, like a revival of Pentecostal times, sought to impart to every man the privilege of reading in his own tongue the wonderful works of God. The Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society subscribed £300, which, with the large contributions that flowed in, enabled the Committee of the Irish Society, in the course of a few years, to "stereotype the work and to place upon each copy a price that was comparatively below that of its original cost," which, of course, gave a greater impetus to the circulation among all those who could not afford to pay a high figure. They did not, however, issue the work all at once.

They had it printed in parts, a Gospel now and a Gospel then. Portions of the Bread of Life were issued from the press, and thus was the seed of the Word sown broadcast over the surface of the country.

A valuable agency in disseminating the Irish Bible in parts were what were called the colporteurs. Those men were useful in their generation. But the class to whom most interest attached in considering the history of the Irish Bible, were the Irish manuscript-men, the literary peasants, the LL.D.s in frieze. Though some of those had a fair knowledge of English for men of their class, many of them did not know a word of that language, though they could read and write their native Irish, and were deeply versed in heathen mythology, traditional Irish history, and all about Fuin MaCuil, Ossian, and, to come nearer home, the Battle of Ventry Harbour.

Of the class of English-speaking "Irishians" as those Irish scholars, those Celtic LL.D.s, were called, was Tom Dooling, whom some still living knew well, and prized for bis zeal and ability in his interesting vocation as an Irish teacher, and his manly and consistent walk as a Christian. He had been brought over by the friends of the Irish Society from London, where, as in all the other cities of England and Scotland, were many Irish, forming in each a little Ireland, and not always presenting a favourable specimen of their country, though much allowance should be made for them, seeing that the truth had not been brought home to them. But even among them, at the time to which I refer, were to be found not a few who could read and write Irish, the ability to do which had been looked upon as a sort of heirloom in some peasant families, and, in. deed, in some of a higher class. Tom Dooling not only sold portions of the Irish Scriptures among those of his order, but to many of a higher class, lay and clerical. Among others it was his pride to have sold one to a good Roman Catholic Parish Priest of the old time, an adept in Irish manuscript, a scholar and a gentleman, kind-hearted and urbane, of a meek and Christian spirit, who never inveighed from his altar against any man for the exercise of his Christian liberty-a model,

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indeed, for many of his order. I refer to the late Rev. John Casey, of the parish of Keelmalchedar. To Father Casey, Tom Dooling had sold some portions of the Irish Scriptures, which that venerable antiquary and eminent Irish scholar prized highly. Indeed, the good old man always commended the Scriptures to those about him as the Word of God, contenting himself with saying, "But you ought not be picking bad meaning out of them." Dooling also sold a portion of the Irish Bible to no less a person than Daniel O'Connell, who loved and spoke the old language of his fathers as few have done, and who afforded striking evidence in his own person, of the powerful influence which the Irish language has on the affections and understandings of the Irish-speaking population, whether the subject-matter be connected with their temporal interests address itself to their religious feelings.

or

Irish is eminently a language for spiritual purposes, and suited in an eminent degree to a people constitutionally religious, as well as religious from the "bias of education and influence of early prejudices, from habit, and even from the sway of popular opinion among them a circumstance, by the way, which prevents them from becoming infidels when they cease to be Roman Catholics." Yes! the Irish has a simple strength and earnestness about it, which peculiarly fits it for religious exposition. It is not suited-no primitive language is—for advanced science, which requires, so to say, a language of its own to express the various discoveries, inventions, and novelties which are every day springing up. But we want no novelties in religion, in its language or in its facts.

Religion was made for all ages; and this graud old tongue, formed to express the ideas of an embryo civilization-for ideas came first, and words were then invented to express them-was, we may say, like the cognate languages in which the Scriptures were first penned, undiluted and (though highly imaginative) simply eloquent in its application to all that is connected with the religion of the Gospel.

Suited then as the Irish language is to an imaginative and constitutionally religious people, it was no wonder that the study of it