TWICE-BORN MEN

REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE

Compiled by HY. PICKERING

The Greatest of Latin Fathers

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO, the greatest of the Latin fathers. Born in 353, the son of a heathen father and a Christian mother, his course to early manhood was that of a “self-worshipper.”

He left Tagaste, his birthplace, seeking to employ his mind by attempts to find the answer to Pilate’s memorable question, “What is truth?” Alas! or rather, well for him, the search, made in his own strength, was fruitless. Wearied and disappointed, he realised his own impotence. Hearing of some who renounced what the world had to offer, he started up and exclaimed, “What ails us? What did you hear? The unlearned take the kingdom by force, while we, with our learning, wallow in flesh and blood.” He rushed into the garden, and tried by determined effort to break his chain. But the struggle only showed how firm were the fetters that bound him.

Exhausted and despairing, he burst into tears, crying, “How long, how long? To-morrow and to-morrow? Why not now? Why is there not this hour an end of my uncleanness?” Surely that strong cry for deliverance was heard in Heaven, for at the same instant the sweet voice of a child was heard from a neighbouring house, “Tolle, lege–toile, lege” (Take, read). The words seemed to Augustine’s seeking mind a direct answer to his prayer, and, returning at once to the house, he opened Paul’s Epistles, his eye falling immediately upon the 13th verse of the 13th chapter in the Romans: “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh.” The shackles were burst, he was “born again” and “free in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.” Like Paul, he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, nor did he hesitate to testify to the power of that grace by which he was what he was. The transition step from the ineffectual struggle so vividly depicted in the 7th chapter of the Romans, to the triumphant victory recorded in the 8th, was re-enacted in his own experience. Henceforth the groans of bondage were exchanged for the shouts of triumph. “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2. 20), became the secret of his strength.