The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1868-02-26
For THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN.
L.
IONA.
The Culdee Church.

L.
IONA.
On the western coast of Scotland, near
the bold outings of the Ross of Null,
lies little island, only two and One-half
miles long, by one and One-half broad,
with but a few hundred acres of arabic
land, and nothing in its scenery or posi-
ton to arrest the attention of the travel
Ter. And yet of that bleak islet, DR..
johnson, who never spake any thing good
of Scotland that he could avoid, was con-
strained to write, "That man is little to
be envied, whose patriotism would not
gain force on the plains of Marathon,
or whose piety would not grow warmer
among the ruins of Iona :" (Boswel's
Johnson, c. 43, p. SS1)
There must have been something very
marvellous in the history of Scottish
island, which would compel the burly die
tator of English literature to place it, in
relation to religion, beside Marathon in
its relation to patriotism. We may be
very sure that only the undeniable truth
of history could have extorted such a
tribute from such man.
What then has woven such a spell
of interest around this stOrm-swept island
in the Atlantic? Johnson himself gives
it in the same passage when he says,
eve were now treading that illustriOus
island which was once the luminary of
the CaledOnian regions, whence savage
clans aud rowing barbarians derived the
benefits of knowledge and the blessings
of religion" Wordsworth also gives it
in his sonnets on this island, which he
calls the GLORY of the West
"Iona's Saints, forgetting not past days
Garlands shall wear of amaranthine bloom,
While heavens vast sea of voices chants their
praise.
"Homeward we turn. Isle of Columbas cell
Where Christian piety's soul cheering spark
(Kindled from heaven between the light and
dark,
OF time) shone ike the morning-star, fare
wellI''
(Sonnets, Tour in Scotland, xxx-xxxiii.)
Campbell in his beautiful poem of
Reullura gives it also as he writes,
'Star of the morn and eve,
Reullura shone Ike thee,
And well for her might Aodh grieve
The dark-attired Culdee
Peace to their shades the pure Culdees
Were Albyn's earliest priests of God,
Ere yet an island of her seas,
By foot of Saxon monk was trod,
Long ere her Churchmen by bigotry
Were barred from wedloek's holy tie.
Twas then that Aodh, famed afar
In Iona preached the Word with power
And Reullura, beauty's star,
Was the partner of his bower"
Poems, p, 258,)
Scott in his Lord of the Isles, Shaks-
peare in Macbeth, and other great writer's
have also referred in striking tersas e.
this Mecca of Scotland.
The main interest that attaches to this
island of course centres on the sainted
Columbia, and the school of the prophets
which he planted there. from which there
went forth such wondrous influences for
good during the darkest ages of the
Church's history. But it has other asso-
Citations even older than that, which in
vest it with a deep interest 1t seems to
have been one of the sacred seats of the
ancient religion of the Druids. who had,
we have reason to believe, a Druidic col
lege here, as they had at Anglesey, in
Wales. This form of Heathenism was
one of peculiar interest, for it was the
oldest and purest form in which the primi-
tive Paganism existed; taking its origin
far back on the plains of Shinar, and car
ried by the Celtic tribes in their westward
migration through the forests of Germa-
ny to the islands of Britain, where its
gigantic crOmlechs, mystic circles and
consecrated cairns still remain to testify
the rude and terrible strength of reli-
gion, which in spite of its dark cruelties
was the purest form of the old Pagan re-
Ggion found on earth, when Christ came
the aesb. Stonehenge and Iona are
thus strangely linked with the Tower of
Babel and the scattered tribes that were
sent forth from that place, whose clan
ship and Druidism are the perverted