which had converted Antony the monk, “Go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven,” but on this:  “Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting, drunkenness, and wantonness, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”  That text decided him, and broke his fetters.  His conversion was accomplished.  He poured forth his soul in thanksgiving and praise.

He was now in the thirty-second year of his age, and resolved to renounce his profession,—­or, to use his language, “to withdraw from the marts of lip-labor and the selling of words,”—­and enter the service of the new master who had called him to prepare himself for a higher vocation.  He retired to a country house, near Milan, which belonged to his friend Veracundus, and he was accompanied in his retreat by his mother, his brother Navigius, his son Adeodatus, Alypius his confidant, Trigentius and Licentius his scholars, and his cousins Lastidianus and Rusticus.  I should like to describe those blissful and enchanting days, when without asceticism and without fanaticism, surrounded with admiring friends and relatives, he discoursed on the highest truths which can elevate the human mind.  Amid the rich olive-groves and dark waving chesnuts which skirted the loveliest of Italian lakes, in sight of both Alps and Apennines, did this great master of Christian philosophy prepare himself for his future labors, and forge the weapons with which he overthrew the high-priests who assailed the integrity of the Christian faith.  The hand of opulent friendship supplied his wants, as Paula ministered to Jerome in Bethlehem.  Often were discussions with his pupils and friends prolonged into the night and continued until the morning.  Plato and Saint Paul reappeared in the gardens of Como.  Thus three more glorious years were passed in study, in retirement, and in profitable discourse, without scandal and without vanity.  The proud philosopher was changed into a humble Christian, thirsting for a living union with God.  The Psalms of David, next to the Epistles of Saint Paul, were his favorite study,—­that pure and lofty poetry “which strips away the curtains of the skies, and approaches boldly but meekly into the presence of Him who dwells in boundless and inaccessible majesty.”  In the year 387, at the age of thirty-three, he received the rite of baptism from the great archbishop who was so instrumental in his conversion, and was admitted into the ranks of the visible Church, and prepared to return to Africa.  But before he could embark, his beloved mother died at Ostia, feeling, with Simeon, that she could now depart in peace, having seen the salvation of the Lord,—­but to the immoderate grief of Augustine who made no effort to dry his tears.  It was not till the following year that he sailed for Carthage, not long tarrying there, but retiring to Tagaste, to his paternal estate, where he spent