Let it not be imagined that, while as in duty bound, and from the necessity of our argument, we are obliged to speak in the most glowing terms of the virginal life, that we should thereupon seem to depreciate the matrimonial state! This would be an egregious mistake, because in the Catholic Church matrimony is highly dignified-it is one of the seven sacraments of the New law, and it confers upon the worthy recipients the necessary graces. Virginity is, no doubt, an exceptional state intended for comparatively few. Matrimony, on the other hand, is the ordinary condition for mankind, and it was raised to the dignity of a sacrament at the marriage of Cana, where Christ wrought his first miracle. The state of the religious is the fulfilling of the evangelical counsels-voluntary poverty-perpetual chastity -entire obedience. Under the Christian dispensation, there are counsels as well as commands. Commands are imperative," if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Counsels are merely hortative, and may or may not be accepted. "If thou wilt be perfect-go-sell-give."

This difference is most clearly drawn out in the conversation which our Lord held with the young man mentioned in the Gospel. He had come to Jesus and had made the inquiry-"Good Master, what good shall I do, that I may have life everlasting?" Our Lord immediately replies-" If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." The young man rejoins-" All these have I kept from my youth; what is yet wanting to me?" Jesus saith to him"If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me."

Here then are shadowed forth the three evangelical counsels—to denude oneself of temporal possessions-to lead a life of purity after the example of Christ and his disciples, and to be obedient to him, as he was to his Eternal Father. This recommendation of the Gospel counsels on the part of our Lord, proves not only their perfection, but their practicability. They conduce to perfection, and thus commanded they are within the range not only of possibility but of

practice. If then these counsels were recommended in the Apostolic time, it is most natural to suppose that they must have been practised. Practised, decidedly they were, as we may gather from the Acts of the Apostles. In that record of Apostolic acts, we read that when St. Paul and St. Luke came to Cæsarea—" Entering into the house of Philip the Evangelist, who was one of the seven, we abode with him. And he had four daughters, virgins, who did prophesy." Thus the virgin daughters of Philip were engaged in prophesying, and thus consecrated to the service of religion.

But let us add another Scriptural passage, which strengthens our position, and illustrates the perfection of the virginal life. In the second epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul employs a peculiar figure of speech, which would be devoid of meaning, if not founded upon a recognized fact. The spiritual nuptials of Christ, with every consecrated virgin, he compares to the union of the Church of Corinth with God. Thus does he write to the Corinthians-"I am jealous of you, with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband-a chaste virgin unto Christ."

Without detaining by referring to other passages of Holy Writ, permit a quotation from the great bishop and martyr St. Cyprian, who in the third century dedicated a treatise to the virgin spouses of Christ. Thus did he say " Now do we turn our discourse to the virgins, over whom our care is all the greater as their glory is more sublime . . . . no husband is over you, but your Lord and Head is Christ; your condition is the same as his."

Tertullian, speaking of virgins consecrated to Christ, says -in his book Ad Uxorem-" They prefer holiness to husbands; they choose their espousals with God; they love to be the Lord's handmaids, and to be only beautiful in his eyes, conversing with him night and day, and giving him their prayers for dowries."

Let this then suffice by way of a very humble apology, for the great and good Monks of the olden time, since our own time presses, and we must needs hurry on.

APPEAL OF THE MONKS OF IONA, AGAINST MEDIEVAL SUPERSTITION."

THE republication, then, during last month by the Duke of Argyll of his now much applauded work on Iona, induces us to analyze its contents and to scan its beauties and its blemishes. These, it is true, may be found in almost every production, since in every volume there may be much to admire, as well as to condemn. Such is undeniably the case in the present exquisitely written book. In it there is much worthy of commendation, but there is something which is decidedly objectionable, because it is so gratuitously offensive. The island of Iona, which has for his Grace traditional, and for us national and religious associations, would indeed seem to be the most harmless subject, and one which might be descanted upon in the most unexceptionable way. It might have been regarded as neutral ground, upon which persons of all creeds, or of no creed, could stand together in social fellowship, and breathe that air of "peace to men of good will," of which the atmosphere in former days was redolent, and which the good monks went forth from their cloister and their choir to diffuse through the mountains and glens of Caledonia, as well as through the plains and vales of Northern Anglia. Iona, indeed, seemed to be at least one holy spot in the British Isles, which should not be desecrated by the irreverent charge of "mediæval superstition!" Iona appeared the oasis in the surrounding spiritual wilderness, from which the thorny point of polemical warfare should have been studiously eliminated. Yet it has unfortunately happened that his Grace of Argyll has compromised his ducal dignity as well as his official position by condescending to language which is unwarrantable, and which is at variance with his usual good taste and judgment, when he speaks of "mediæval supersti

tion, and the corrupt monotony of medieval Romanism." It would however seem that the venerable memorials of past ages are not even as yet sufficiently appreciated by some persons of high social standing, as well as of education and refinement-nay, that they are misunderstood as well as misrepresented.

But in truth it cannot be matter of surprise, that they who are strangers to the old Faith of Christendom, should ever and anon misinterpret the Doctrines and the Traditions of the Ancient Church. Just as in former days the Doctrines of the Ancient Church provoked the sneers of the Roman senator, so in the present day the Traditions of the Ancient Church have elicited the derision of the British Peer.

In the first century of the Christian era, the Doctrines of the Church were denounced as an impia superstitio, and in the nineteenth century the Traditions of the Church are stigmatised as "mediæval superstition."

In the first century virginity was laughed to scorn by the lecherous pagans of Greece and Rome, the burden of whose song was "Carpe diem !"-" Obey the laws of nature!!"

In the nineteenth century the self-denying rules of St. Columba of Iona are reprobated, because, forsooth, “the laws of nature cannot with impunity be disobeyed;" while the life-long labours of his monks are wantonly decried, for having left to posterity "monuments of the dull and often the corrupt monotony of mediæval Romanism !"

By way of answering the first of these charges, the Christian religion tells us, that "the laws of nature must be disobeyed," because it is rebellious, and that they who belong to Christ have "crucified their flesh, with its vices and concupiscences." In reply to the second, we shall let the old stones answer-let the "monuments of mediæval Romanism tell their own tale-let them speak out trumpet-tongued!

Surely his Grace of Argyll ought to know, that the fascinations of Iona are by no manner of means attributable to the present ducal proprietor. They are by no means attributable to the climate, nor to the soil, nor to the rocks, nor to the neighbouring mountains; they are not attribut

able to modern architecture; they are not, therefore, attributable to any natural or artificial, but rather to a supernatural, nay, to a celestial agency! The priceless charms of Iona are to be ascribed to the incomparable genius of the Catholic religion, which his Grace of Argyll sets down as "mediæval superstition;" and the matchless treasures of Iona are to be ascribed to those devoted men, whose hearts throbbed with that heaven-born religion, and whose hands erected to God those beauteous structures which are, forsooth, "the monuments of the dull and often corrupt monotony of medieval Romanism!"

May we be permitted to ask, if it be not true-let us, for the sake of Christian politeness, lay aside the terms, "mediæval superstition, and mediæval Romanism," when we find, that at the present time many of the most devotional and intellectual spirits of the day are seeking for safety to their souls by entering the communion of the ancient Church!-is it not true, that it was the religion of the middle ages which alone has thrown the halo of glory around the isle of Iona, as well as the isle of Lindisfarne ? Is it not true, that it was the chivalrous religion of the socalled "dark ages" which has lent the enchantment of romance to the now ivy-covered abbeys of Pluscardine, Arbroath, Dunfermline, and Melrose-which summoned into. existence those magnificent cathedrals of Kirkwall, St. Andrews, Aberdeen, and Glasgow, not to speak of Salisbury, Winchester, York, and Westminster, of which Scotland and England are so justly proud, and which we, with all our boasted progress and pretentious civilization, are unwilling, if not unable, to rival?

Assuredly it is unstatesmanlike to pander to bigotry-it is unscholarlike to mingle polemics with letters-it is incongruous to combine archæology with controversy-it is alien to the man of travel to be bandying questionable names upon religionists, when those who do so, live themselves in glass houses, and should not therefore throw stones! Hence it is egregiously unwise to conjure up the phantom of "mediæval superstition," and thus to disturb from their slumbers the