qual:
the unarmed bringer of good tidings confronting the king in the midst of
his warriors, and winning him to his better vision.

For sixty years the Messenger worked, sowing seed and gathering the
fruit of his labor; and at last his body was laid at rest close to his
first church at Saul. Thus one of the great men of the world
accomplished his task.

IX.

THE SAINTS AND SCHOLARS.

A.D. 493-750.

It would be hard to find in the whole history of early Christianity a
record of greater and more enduring success than the work of St.
Patrick. None of the Messengers of the New Way, as they were called
first by St. Luke, unless the phrase is St. Paul's, accomplished
single-handed so wonderful a work, conquering so large a territory, and
leaving such enduring monuments of his victory. Amongst the world's
masters, the son of Calpurn the Decurion deserves a place with
the greatest.

Not less noteworthy than the wide range of his work was the way in which
he gained success. He addressed himself always to the chiefs, the kings,
the men of personal weight and power. And his address was almost
invariably successful,--a thing that would have been impossible had he
not been himself a personality of singular force and fire, able to meet
the great ones of the land as an equal. His manner was that of an
ambassador, full of tact, knowledge of men and of the world. Nor can we
find in him--or, indeed, in the whole history of the churches founded by
him--anything of that bitter zeal and fanaticism which, nearly two
centuries nearer to apostolic times, marred the work of the Councils
under Constantius; the fierce animosity between Christian and Christian
which marked the Arian controversy. The Apostle of Ireland showed far
more urbanity, far more humane and liberal wisdom, far more gentleness,
humor and good feeling, in his treatment of the pre-Christian
institutions and ideals of Ireland than warring Christian sects have
generally been willing to show to each other.

It was doubtless due to this urbane wisdom that the history of the
conversion of Ireland is without one story of martyrdom. The change was
carried out in open-hearted frankness and good-will, the old order
giving place to the new as gently as spring changes to summer. The most
marvelous example of St. Patrick's wisdom, and at the same time the most
wonderful testimony to his personal force, is his action towards the
existing civil and religious law of the country,