but they speedily found the effects of it in every one of their districts, and their Reports conveyed constant communications of the results. The year 1847 developed much more of the preparation for the great work which was to be accomplished, and it will require another chapter to open the course of those events to the reader. Before, however, this is attempted, we must go back, and take up that branch of the Story of the Irish Church Missions which was planted at Castelkerke. To this our next chapter shall be devoted.

CHAPTER IX.

WE have been tracing the Story of the Irish Church Missions in the regular course of events, leading on to the crisis of their organization as a Society. In doing this we have travelled, as it were, along the main line without attention to any collateral branch. Having now brought the reader to what may be considered a station, at the end of the year 1846, we must go back a little in time, and give some account of an important part of the work, which providentially opened at Castelkerke.

It will be remembered, that shortly after the distribution of the letters on the 16th January, 1846, I had made several journeys to Ireland to ascertain the effect that had been produced. I had before visited Galway and Oughterard, and Miss Bellingham had given me a letter of introduction to a retired officer

and his lady, who had gone to reside on a small property on the shores of Lough Corrib. There is a castle in the midst of the lake, and a cottage on the summit of a lovely hill, which the proprietor was transforming into a comfortable mansion. A scattered population on this property and around the shores of the lake numbered at that time about 2000; and the characteristic increase of the families of Irish peasants, made it more than probable that one-fourth of that number were children. I have described the beauty of the features of this spot in another work, and I will not occupy these pages with the repetition.

While the gentleman was occupied in transforming the desolation of Doon Hill into a habitation of taste and comfort, his wife was stirred at the sight of the ignorant children abounding in the district. She gathered a few girls together in a cottage to teach them to read, and was encouraged in her early efforts. The rector of the parish, the Rev. E. L. Moore, was a man of Christian earnestness. His church and residence were thirteen miles off, at Cong, but he readily gave her every assistance in his power. In the midst of many labours he contrived to go on a week-day once

a fortnight, to have divine service with the family, and to examine the little handful of children. He did more, for he set forward a subscription among his friends, for the purpose of building a small school-house, which, by the assistance of the proprietor, soon took such a form, that though it could not be said to be completed, was a gathering-place which might be called the school-house.

Matters were in this state when I first visited Castelkerke. I was warmly received. It needed but little intercourse to discover the Christian earnestness of the excellent lady. It was also easy to perceive that her husband was proud of this earnestness and of its results. I could not help feeling that I had been led providentially to Castelkerke by the drawing of one of those hairs which are all numbered; and I made up my mind that this would be a point from which future active aggressive work might be effectively carried on. I offered to adopt the work which had been thus begun, to undertake the finishing of the school-house, and to give them all the assistance I could, provided they understood that I should address myself plainly and openly to the Romanists, to instruct them in the truth of the gospel in contrast with the false

hoods of Rome; to this they heartily consented.

When I returned to England I related all this to Mr. Durant, and I expected that he would give the means for completing the Castelkerke school-house. I was somewhat surprised, and not a little disappointed, when he objected to give money for the purpose. We were not sufficiently advanced in our main object. It was not wise to expend our means on brick and mortar, etc., etc. Mr. Durant was most systematic as a man of business, clear-headed and cautious. This renders the course he took in the beginning of the matter the more remarkable, as more evidently directed by the finger of God. I found that he did not wish to contribute to the smaller details which I laid before him, while he kept his eye steadily on the grand point in view. It will be seen that at a subsequent period he became sensible of the importance of detail; but at this time I felt it wise not to press him on the subject.

Considerable difficulty was thus produced; but I was brought up from a child in the constant repetition of those lines, by which my father sought to mould my character