Page:Annalsoffaminein00nich.djvu/341

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FAMINE IN IRELAND
335

regium donums "to the moles and to the bats," and stand out in the whole panoply of the gospel; then indeed will they appear "terrible as an army with banners;" let their worldly respectability be laid aside for the "honor that comes from God;" let them do as Christ did, "condescend to men of low estate." Who can tell, if the professed church of Christ of all denominations should do her first work there, but that a loophole would be made, through which government might look beyond the dark cloud that has covered her reign over that island, and joyfully say, "Live, for I have found a ransom!" For though government now holds the church in her hands, could she do so if the church was moved by an Almighty power? God now suffers, but does he propel? Is not the machinery of the church there one of the "sought-out inventions," which never emanated from the uprightness of God? See to it, see to it, and then talk with success of the idolatries of popery.

The dark night had come, my trunk was packed, and the vessel was in readiness that was to bear me away. When I entered that pretty isle in June, 1844, all was green and sunny without, water, earth, and sky all united to say this is indeed a pleasant spot, but why I had come to it I knew not, and what was my work had not been told me; step by step the voice had been "onward," trust and obey—obey and trust. The ground had been traversed, and in tempest and darkness my way was made to the packet, on the Liffey, with one solitary Quaker, who was compelled to hurry