Calm Sabbath Morn

Sabbath morning early, taking my Bible and a few tracts, visited Ross Island. Entered a cottage in a wild part of it, gave the son and daughter each a small book, when the mother in kindness asked me to walk in and see a child who was sick with the small-pox. I assured her I had no desire to become acquainted with the small-pox in this way. "The disease is in Killarney entirely." Leaving the door, I seated myself on a rustic seat by the side of the lake, and enjoyed a Sabbath hour, with the Word of God and the book of nature before me, opened to as bright a page as the volume could produce. For Killarney is not evanescent in her friendship, pleasant and cordial to-day, as is often said of the nation, and to-morrow unkind and forbidding. These lakes and this scenery never can tire; a spot where "Nature wears her sweetest smile."

But I must leave this temple of God, this open air adoration, and take my reader to a little church, to hear a short discourse, from "Enter in at the strait gate." The little company that attended was not the best comment on the success of gospel truth, though the worshippers appeared devout.

Ireland’s Welome to the Stranger is one of the best accounts of Irish social conditions, customs, quirks and habits that you could wish for. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, was an American widow who travelled extensively in Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine and meticulously observed the Irish peasantry at work and play, as well as noting their living conditions and diet. The book is also available from Kindle.