nd in Paris. And still the
old echo is breathing its holy prayer. By the priest, who toils in cold
and storm to the "station" on the mountain side, far from his humble
home. By the confessor, who spends hour after hour, in the heat of
summer and the cold of winter, absolving the penitent children of
Patrick. By the monk in his cloister. By noble and true-hearted men,
faithful through centuries of persecution. And loudly and nobly, though
it be but faint to human ears, is that echo uttered also by the aged
woman who lies down by the wayside to die in the famine years,[143]
because she prefers the bread of heaven to the bread of earth, and the
faith taught by Patrick to the tempter's gold. By the emigrant, who,
with broken heart bids a long farewell to the dear island home, to the
old father, to the grey-haired mother, because his adherence to his
faith tends not to further his temporal interest, and he must starve or
go beyond the sea for bread. Thus ever and ever that echo is gushing up
into the ear of God, and never will it cease until it shall have merged
into the eternal alleluia which the often-martyred and ever-faithful
children of the saint shall shout with him in rapturous voice before the
Eternal Throne.

[Illustration: ST. PATRICK'S BELL.]

[Illustration: CROMLECH, AT CASTLE MARY, CLOYNE.]

FOOTNOTES:

[125] _Authenticated_.--A copy of this ancient hymn, with a Latin and
English translation, may be found in Petrie's _Essay on Tara_, p. 57, in
Dr. Todd's _Life of St. Patrick_, and in Mr. Whitley Stokes'
_Goidilica_. We regret exceedingly that our limited space will not
permit us to give this and other most valuable and interesting
documents. There is a remarkable coincidence of thought and expression
between some portions of this hymn and the well-known prayer of St.
Ignatius of Loyola, _Corpus Christi, salve me_. Such coincidences are
remarkable and beautiful evidences of the oneness of faith, which
manifests itself so frequently in similarity of language as well as in
unity of belief. The Hymn of St. Patrick, written in the fifth century,
is as purely Catholic as the Prayer of St. Ignatius, written in the
sixteenth. St. Patrick places the virtue or power of the saints between
him and evil, and declares his hope of merit for his good work with the
same simple trust which all the saints have manifested from the earliest
ages. This hymn is written in the _Bearla Feine_, or most ancient
Gaedhilic dialect. Dr.