became so famous as a place for study, that youth from all parts resorted thither, many of whom, like himself, were employed in copying books, while, as the result, Christian missionaries went forth to diffuse the light of heaven among the dark surrounding places. They not merely pervaded Scotland, but penetrated far into England; and if we bear in mind the age, the hinderances and trials of this man's lot, there is scarcely a greater wonder in the history of the past than the influence of Iona under its great missionary Columba.

But all humanizing influences, as well as those of literature and religion, were employed. The orchards of the island produced abundance of fruit -the fields were covered, and the barns were stored with grain, and while we read of such things in such an age, and at such a place, scepticism begins to question, Is this not the creation of fancy instead of the reality of fact? Yet, all these were the undoubted result of the personal ascendency of one wise spirit evermore seeking to promote the chief end of man. It is of such men that patriots are made, and whether it be to discover unknown shores, to tame savage hordes, or spread the hope of glory where the shadows of the second death prevail, the

influence which went forth from Columba and his sacred isle was just what was required; he attempted great things and he succeeded. By firm determination on the one hand, and invariable gentleness on the other, he made his strong will felt wherever his power was put forth. Often, amid his attempts to spread the light, he was thwarted by the ignorance, or repelled by the coldness of those to whom he sought to do good. But as he did not live for man's smile, but God's, he could endure all things, and move calmly forward to fulfil his high embassy from heaven. Severe against sin, but gentle to all besides, he held on his intrepid way till he saw the darkness of paganism superseded by the radiance of truth.

And who, in our land of free thought, does not connect all this devotedness with the zeal which truth produced at Iona? Its sages knew nothing of the more modern figments of Romanism, and would not submit to Rome. Prayers for the dead, mid-day tapers, auricular confession, and similar corruptions, were either utterly unknown or steadfastly resisted. It was the Bible and not the priest that was the light of that lonely isle, and with the brightness of the Aurora, but with far more than its stead

fastness, did Columba and his companions spread the truth which they all loved so well.

It is time, however, to gather up the fruits of this good man's labors. So bent was he on making the world better by his sojourn in it, that his hand was open as day to deeds of charity and compassion, and one who was at once so gentle in his affections, and so unflinching when the truth of God was concerned, left footprints behind him which it is easy to trace.

When death drew near, it found Columba copying the Psalter. He had just written the words, "They that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing," when he suddenly paused. His work was nearly finished, and the last sentiment which he transcribed from the book which he loved, was true of his own life.

The first aspect in which we may regard him is that of a great missionary hero. He knew what could do good to a sin-laden world,-the truth of God, and sought, with all his heart, to spread it Like other God-sent men-the stars of the spiritual firmament, as the Saviour is the Sun-Columba's devotedness and zeal dispelled clouds of ignorance, and superseded despair by hope. In spite of incipient corruptions then creeping into the Church,

he spread the light almost as untainted as when it issued from the great central Fountain. From the parent Institution at Iona others arose at Abernethy, Lochleven, St. Andrew's, Brechin, Dunblane, Kirkcaldy, Culross, Melrose, Inchcolm, and elsewhere,each in its turn a centre of influence for good,-nay, far beyond these limits that influence is well known to have spread. Orkney felt it, and even in snowy Iceland traces of the ascendency of Iona, its great missionary and his followers, were found. Different parts of the British Isles were thereby won to the truth. The Saxons of Northumberland, as well as the inhabitants of other places, felt the spell of that island of the west; and, not content even with such spiritual conquests, missionaries went to the continent of Europe, where such was their activity that they were compared to hives of bees, or to a spreading flood-" From the nest of Columba* these sacred doves took their flight to all regions," were the terms in which the dispersion was described.

And even hoary hairs did not mitigate their ardor. One of the missionaries set out for Italy when he was about seventy years of age, and another who was to exert a wide-spread influence in England,

*Columba, Latin for a dove.

could scarcely have left Iona till his eightieth year. France, Switzerland, Germany, and even Russia, are described as profiting by its school, and scarcely anything recorded in history could more clearly manifest the supremacy of the moral over the material than the case of Columba and his successors. It was a maxim with them not merely to enlighten, but, if possible, to plant an institution like their own, in order to perpetuate the light; and Seckingen on the Rhine, Brisgau in the Black Forest, Warzburg in Thuringia, St. Gall in Switzerland, and other places are mentioned among those to which the hallowing power of truth was thus extended. It was, indeed, a goodly sight to see men issuing from their humble abodes, built, perhaps, of turf, or of osiers, in that little island, and proceeding to the north, the south, the east, and the west, to spread the glad tidings which had come from heaven to earth, to guide men from earth to heaven; and all this, we repeat, is to be traced up to the life, the example, the energy, and the faith of one self-denying man"Slow, step by step, he won his winding way,

And reached the top, and stood up victor there."

The Moses of Iona, who refused to take his place among the royal, and preferred a home among the