whom, we hope for their own sakes, find the steamboat's allotted hour a space not long enough to satisfy their curiosity, and too brief for doing those generous actions, and for speaking those kind words by which tourists may express their gratitude for newly allotted health and pleasure. Perhaps one of the pleasantest memories of Iona is the visit of Legh Richmond half a century ago. The Isle of Wight pastor possessed a keen eye for detecting opportunities of sowing the seed of the Kingdom, and among these bleak homes of the Atlantic-the Hebridean Isles-he left a good name which lived in the memory of certain inhabitants for at least thirty years. A descendant of the author of "The Dairyman's Daughter," who visited "Columba's happy Isle," in 1850, found a parish schoolmaster, verging on ninety, who dwelt on Richmond's visit to the western coast of Scotland as the sunniest passage of his life. The old scholar never wearied of expatiating on "the eminent divine, who loved to trace in the works of creation the wonders of grace."

As regards Richmond himself, he at once became apparently at home in the Hebrides, and set about doing his Master's work with the zest so characteristic of his whole life. The Highland scenery gratified his love of the beautiful, while his genial nature won the affection of the simple inhabitants of Mull and Iona. The islanders were then in a pitiable condition of religious destitution. The liberal arrangements made by the Established Church required that the pastor of Mull should pay four yearly visits to Iona; but that worthy did not look on his prescribed task of putting to sea, Columba-like, to carry forth the gospel, with any eye of admiration; and such was his capacity for despatching business a gift doubtless more profitable on the exchange than in the churchthat he has been known to "do" the four annual services in a single day. Yet notwithstanding this miserable neglect, these poor Hebrideans possessed warm hearts readily moved by the gospel. Legh Richmond preached to them through the medium of an interpreter and otherwise, meanwhile remarking of his experience, "A rock was my pulpit, and heaven my sounding-board. May the echo resound to their hearts."

Religion and knowledge were then making way in these solitudes; and the manner in which the Ionian schoolmaster endeavoured to break through the barriers of ignorance should encourage our readers to copy his example, as opportunity may occur. In the last century, even such as were taught English at all were often treated more like parrots than reasoning creatures, being trained to sound mere words without knowing their meaning. The old island tutor nobly resolved no longer to tolerate an undisputed reign of ignorance; and so taxing his adult constituents to the amount of funds sufficing for the expense of lamp oii-his own means being inadequate to provide common candles-he established a night-school, in a hut sufficiently narrow and uncomfortable, but above its neighbours on account of its luxuriously boarded floor. Here night after night he toiled, not only as the secular schoolmaster, but as the religious instructor of his benighted though willing learners. When Legh Richmond visited the island, fifty years ago, he had the eye of a real antiquarian to detect its salient objects of interest, but his Christian nature yearned over the people whom he saw sunk in spiritual and moral darkness. He commands our sympathy as amid

the tombs of kings and lords of the isles, he spends two hours in "solemn and peaceful meditation;" just as he does when, in the openair, he commends the gospel to the islanders. The high example of the old schoolmaster, just narrated, struck him forcibly, and indeed took such deep hold of many who beheld it, that even to-day it is bearing its good fruit. To encourage the worthy teacher, Richmond set about collecting funds for a new school-house-an example which, acting on the Duke of Argyll, prompted his Grace to provide the needed building at his own cost, leaving the £115 collected by the pastor to remain as a permanent endowment for replenishing the library.

Several things occurred during the pleasant sojourn of Legh Richmond which practically proved the warm-heartedness and religious susceptibility of these poor islanders. We call them poor in a literal sense; for, as is well-known, the inhabitants of western Scotland were, as they still are, extremely primitive in their habits, money, as a circulating medium, being not only scarce, but perhaps less needful than we may suppose. The chief place of assembling on Iona was the school-house, and there being invited to preach, Richmond did so in a style suited to the occasion. In one of his discourses he ventured on telling the assembly something about the Jews, of their woes springing from unbelief, and of their pressing gospel necessities. We can imagine the preacher impressing on his humble auditors, that it is pre-eminently God's work to break the stubbornness of Israel; but not on such account must we diminish our aid to, nor our solicitude for, the success of the good work of Jewish missions. The people were affected, and then a murmur went round the room calculated to surprise and perplex the speaker, "We will give; we will give." The idea of collecting missionary funds among the uncouth island huts had never entered Richmond's mind, and he tried hard to repress the generous enthusiasm so unintentionally kindled. It was all of no avail. The children desired to contribute their pence, and accordingly a cry arose, "The bairns will have it; the bairns will have it." An amount of two pounds and ninepence was subscribed, which "large sum for Iona" the pastor vainly sought to decline accepting. He was forced, however, to carry the money away, and devote it to the weal of benighted Israel. But deeply moved as were the Ionians by his too brief visit and earnest words, and loving presence among them, perhaps the impression produced by the events attending Richmond's departure, was as deep and as lasting as that produced by his work on the island. Nearly the entire populace accompanied him to the place of embarkation, and many shed tears. Then the boatman refused accepting any wages for rowing him across to Mull. "No, no, sir," cried the hard-handed Hebridean seamen; "love brought you here, and love shall find you a boat." The gratitude of those whom they benefit is one of the richest rewards of Christian workers.

About thirty years after the visit paid to the island by the pastor from the Isle of Wight, another member of his family, an American clergyman, set foot on Iona to find the little community in a much more satisfactory condition, religiously and socially, than they had enjoyed for centuries. There was a Free Church, a manse, and a hard-working minister, who had been the means of effecting many radical and needful

reforms. He was, moreover, a pastor after the true missionary model. He was the only island doctor, and the people's chief instructor in husbandry; and so effectual had been his veto put upon whisky-drinking, that none of that spirit, so pernicious when used in excess, could be purchased in his dominion; but the general aspect of affairs will be found well described in James Richmond's own words: "The minister was at once not only the spiritual and temporal teacher and almost physician to the bodies and souls of the people, but he was also obliged to be ecclesiastical architect. Some surprise will be expressed should I add, that I even had the pleasure-no longer ago than yesterday-of riding out with him and his interesting children, in his carriage; but the way was upon the rolling billows, in the sound of Iona; the destination was to visit a sick parishioner in Mull; the carriage was the open boat in which I had just before been exercising the primitive vocation of catching fish for our breakfast: the horses were two stout oars, and at the end of the road of waves lay a toilsome walk of seven miles for my friend, in the dark and dreary isle of Mull."

This is not an unpleasant picture; but to the success which has attended the effort of Free Church teachers to carry religion and its attendant code of moral rectitude into these far-away isles, we have other testimony. There is a good story told of a certain French gentleman, who, after satisfying a laudable antiquarian curiosity, among the relics of Iona, desired forthwith to be rowed to Staffa. But it was the Sabbath day, and on the Sabbath no boatman would loosen a barque from her moorings. The Frenchman waxed angry, though when passion proved ineffectual, he offered double or even treble the usual fare of seven shillings. Yet he could not prevail; for the money acted as no temptation to the men, to whom, under ordinary circumstances, it would have proved a considerable boon. The gentleman being exceedingly anxious to depart, at last prevailed on two boys to carry him to the desired haven, for a consideration of nine times the usual price. Though the lads started, it was to row against conscience, for the better part of their nature strove hard to rise in ascendancy. Nevertheless, as we have said, they started-the voice of conscience for the moment being suppressed. Then it happened that, when not many boat-lengths away, a godly relative was seen hastening to the shore, who vigorously employed voice and gesture to rebuke what he thought to be a desecration of the holy day. This was found too much for the poor boat-boys; and so, notwithstanding their passenger's exasperation, and the little fortune a compliance with his wishes would have insured them, they re-landed, and the Frenchman had to put up with Ionian accommodation until Monday morning. Not less particular have the natives proved on other occasions. They have even refused admitting a grand duke to their cathedral remains on the Sabbath day. May this deference to conscience meet with due reward; and may the island home of Iona, which long ages since was the capital of religion and civilization in the Hebridean seas, continue to hold fast the gospel so dear to its primitive apostle; and though its church may be poor, may the full promise-the last words copied by Columba's pen-compensate and console: "THEY THAT SEEK THE LORD SHALL NOT WANT ANY GOOD THING."

Nonconformist Worthies of Old Southwark.

BY G. HOLDEN PIKE.

N a recent publication on the Nonconformist Antiquities of SouthBaptist interest. The kind reception awarded to that work encourages the preparation of an additional sketch of sister denominations as they were in olden times. Probably no city in Europe retains so many refreshing memories as does our Metropolis, and no quarter of London is richer in sacred associations than is Southwark.

Well-informed explorers of London are not ignorant of the oftentimes full meaning of the street nomenclature; names, in many instances, having sprung from historical events or memorable places. Now hidden ditches, graveyards long since covered with homes for the living, and obsolete markets have left remembrances likely yet to linger for centuries. To this class of localities belongs Deadman's Place-a site bearing a name of sad significance, when in a certain time of pestilence it served as a huge graveyard for the falling inhabitants of the surrounding district. The vicinity seems to have been a meadow, spreading away from a pleasant farmhouse, a field which on the cessation of the plague remained a place of sepulture till its connection with the Nonconformists imparted to its history a new interest. At Deadman's Place flourished an important church, the pastors of which held respectable stations in the religious world of London.

This vicinity at an early date became a settlement of the Brownists, and subsequently of the Fifth Monarchists. After the Revolution, the Independents entered into possession, and worked successfully for a long period. First amongst the pastors is John Wowen-a man who joined the Dissenters in 1662, but not having held a parish he cannot properly be counted among the seceding two thousand. It is little we know of the lives of such men as these; a few leading facts beside their lifework having been deemed a sufficient memorial for many eminent divines. On some accounts Wowen must be classed among the unfortunate. He laboured hard in the cause of righteousness, and though, in the main, head and heart were right, some paltry failing always stepped in to deprive him of success. His shining abilities and sound doctrine at first attracted a fine assembly, which a fatal want of geniality as soon sufficed to disperse. Mistaking the cause of failure, and judging Southwark to be too narrow a sphere, he settled at Pewterers' Hall; but as human nature on one side of the Thames is similar to what it is on the other, want of success still attended Wowen's endeavours, and he died in the reign of George the Second, a good but unsuccessful man.

After serving the Pædobaptist body till advanced in life, Wowen joined the Baptist denomination. It may be inferred that the convert

"The Metropolitan Tabernacle; or, an Historical Account of the Society from its First Planting in the Puritan Era to the Present Time, with other Sketches Relating to the Rise, Growth, and Customs of Nonconformity in Southwark. With an Introduction by C. H. Spurgeon." London, 1870.

occupied a high position, for the case occasioned some noise about town. He was in means an independent gentleman of good social standing, and report went among coffee-house loungers and others that this venerable minister nearly lost his life by the shock of immersion. In those days, when even the best were bitterly sectarian, denominational converts were magnified into objects of extra interest; and as regarded this convert, one party said some hard things which others thought they refuted. Even the newspapers opened their columns to the discussion, and in the spirit of those days made sport of sacred things. Wowen subsequently removed to Bristol, where he lectured at Broadmead at five o'clock on Sunday afternoons. The above facts will suffice for this Southwark worthy, who during his continuance in the Borough was assisted by Philip King, a young man who enjoyed “a more than ordinary acquaintance with the mysteries of the Gospel."

John Killinghall, who succeeded Wowen at Deadman's Place in the momentous year 1702, had previously been popular at Beccles. What the Southwark streets and homes appeared like in times when the Whigs had successfully raised the war mania, and when the great King General was fast sinking into the grave, the page of history cannot truly picture. The old Borough inns-old then-were accounted comfortable hostelries by hop-merchants and others, who brought their gear to market up the Old Kent and Southern Roads. In the identical apartments which still interest the curious, farmers and buyers have discussed the contemporary events of the Revolution, and have become excited over the wars of Marlborough. The Southwark of the reign of Queen Anne sent many strong arms to be laid low in the War of the Spanish Succession—a war in which men fought and died to increase the burdens of posterity.

but

Though Killinghall at Beccles had been much applauded, his character became suddenly tarnished, and in a manner which history does not explain. As his transgression, whatever it may have been, entailed his separating from his flock, the fallen pastor engaged in business, and by a course of penitent uprightness, regained the good opinion of his people and re-entered the ministry. He settled in Southwark ; could not command a blessing equal to the success of former years, and at length his flock was scattered. Not many things of interest are attached to this pastor's life. He aided the Charity School at Horselydown, sided with the Subscribers at Salters' Hall, in 1719, and died in 1740. For a few years longer the Presbyterians retained possession of the old meeting; but finally the site was taken by Thrale's (now Barclay's) brewery.

Though not now a polite neighbourhood, the streets about Maid Lane have connected with them a cluster of eminent names. In Globe Alley-named after Shakespeare's Globe Theatre-the Presbyterians pitched their tent early in the seventeenth century. Their quaint wooden meeting-house had no ornaments to attract the eye, but with its three substantial galleries it was roomy and convenient. planter of the church-Thomas Wadsworth-was the ejected minister of Laurence Pountney, London. As it happened with many other solid divines, Wadsworth was followed from the Church of England by the best of his hearers, to the lasting gain of Nonconformity and the

The