51 
It is not then surprising that Ecgfrid, King of Northumbria, 
who reigned from 670 to 685, absorbed Carlisle and a large 
district round it into Northumbria; in fact he made Cardisle and 
the district round it English ground, though not part of the kingdom 
of England, and he handed it to S. Cuthbert,—for the English 
invaders had been converted from the religion of Woden and of 
Thor to Christianity.. How that was done: how the heathenism 
of Northumbria was attacked—/rst, from the south by Paulinus, 
the missionary of the Roman Church ; secondly, by Aidan and by 
Boisil, the missionaries of the Celtic Church ; how Wilfrid of York 
and Benedict Biscop on the one hand, and Colman on the other, 
struggled for the supremacy of their churches, and how the Roman 
Church at the Synod of Whitby won a victory, which enabled her 
to appoint Theodore of Tarsus Metropolitan of England, are 
matters of the deepest interest to us, but belong rather to North- 
umbrian history than to our subject to-night, and I must reluctantly 
forbear to meddle with a topic so alluring. 
S. Cuthbert at once visited Carlisle, and found that Ecgfrith 
had gone thence on an expedition against the Picts. A day or 
two after Cuthbert’s arrival, as some of the citizens were taking 
him round for the purpose of showing him the walls of the city, 
and a fountain or well, of marvellous workmanship, constructed by 
the Romans, he suddenly became disturbed in spirit, and leaning 
on his staff he bent down his face sadly to the ground, and again 
raising himself up, he lifted his eyes to heaven, and groaning 
deeply, he muttered “‘ Perhaps at this very moment the hazard of 
the battle is over.” When questioned by the bystanders, he 
would say no more than, “Do you not see how marvellously 
disturbed the air is! and who among mortals is sufficient to search 
out the judgment of God!” Next day, a Sunday, he preached, 
and the burden of his discourse was, “Watch and Pray, Watch 
and Pray,” which his hearers misapplied to the expected recurrence 
of a plague, which had recently ravaged the district. In a few 
days came a solitary fugitive, who announced that ‘‘the Picts had 
turned desperately to bay as the English army entered Fife, and 
