Therefore for the whole world and for our land there was needed another epoch, a far more difficult lesson,—­one so remote from what had been of old, that even now we only begin to understand it.  To the Ireland that had seen the valor of Cuculain, that had watched the wars of Fergus,—­to the Ireland that listened to the deeds of Find and the songs of Ossin,—­came the Evangel of Galilee, the darkest yet brightest message ever brought to the children of earth.  If we rightly read that Evangel, it brought the doom of the natural man, and his supersession by the man immortal; it brought the death of our personal perfecting and pride, and the rising from the dead of the common soul, whereby a man sees another self in his neighbor; sees all alike in the one Divine.

Of this one Divine, wherein we all live and live forever, pain is no less the minister than pleasure; nay, pain is more its minister, since pleasure has already given its message to the natural man.  Of that one Divine, sorrow and desolation are the messengers, alike with joy and gladness; even more than joy and gladness, for the natural man has tasted these.  Of that one Divine, black and mysterious death is the servant, not less than bright life; and life we had learned of old in the sunshine.

[Illustration:  In the Dargle, Co.  Wicklow]

There came, therefore, to Ireland, as to a land cherished for enduring purposes, first the gentler side, and then the sterner, of the Galilean message.  First, the epoch almost idyllic which followed after the mission of Patrick; the epoch of learning and teaching the simpler phrases of the Word.  Churches and schools rose everywhere, taking the place of fort and embattled camp.  Chants went up at morning and at evening, with the incense of prayer, and heaven seemed descended upon earth.  Our land, which had stood so high in the ranks of valor and romance, now rose not less eminent for piety and fervid zeal, sending forth messengers and ministers of the glad news to the heathen lands of northern and central Europe, and planting refuges of religion within their savage bounds.  Beauty came forth in stone and missal, answering to the beauty of life it was inspired by; and here, if anywhere upon earth through a score of centuries, was realized the ideal of that prayer for the kingdom, as in heaven, so on earth.  Here, again, we have most ample memorials scattered all abroad throughout the land; we can call up the whole epoch, and make it stand visible before us, visiting every shrine and sacred place of that saintly time, seeing, with inner eyes, the footsteps of those who followed that path, first traced out by the shores of Gennesaret.