3GG FACTS AND INFERENCES, GFAVE AND GAY. 



the same heavenly guidance is vouchsafed to those who 

 seek it, and thus, though we ; 'take the wings of the 

 morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even 

 there shall Thy hand lead us, and Thy right hand shall hold 

 us." The greater disadvantage is, perhaps, that of the 

 sailors, with whom this erratic mode of life is so much 

 more frequent and prolonged, but they seem always well 

 disposed to take advantage of whatever opportunities 

 occur ; and we have endeavoured to occupy their leisure 

 hours on ship-board beneficially, by placing expositions 

 of the great Christian doctrines in their hands in various 

 forms. 



It was not without a mournful feeling that we found 

 ourselves again among these venerable ruins. It had been 

 our fortune to visit Iona many long years ago, with a 

 young enthusiastic German, who has since, " spurning the 

 unprofitable yoke of care," attained a name of note in the 

 literature of his country, and we now thought of bygone 

 times more than became the interest of the sacred scene 

 around us. It is probably one source of the confusion of 

 misty minds like our own, that the suggestive principle 

 should often be so strong within us as to cause the past 

 alone to be seen through the present, while the present is 

 only dimly caught during some distant future. At all 

 events, we now found ourselves insensibly reverting to- 

 wards early days, when the sun was blighter, and the 



