whom the Father announces to mankind, by revelation to his holy prophets; that as through him we have come to be, so also in him all men might be redeemed from their sins, and by him all things might be ruled.  And this is the cause of the anointing which took place in him, and of the incarnate presence of the Word; which the Psalmist foreseeing, celebrates, first his Godhead and kingdom, which is the Father’s, in these tones, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom”; then announces his descent to us thus:  “Wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”

SAINT AUGUSTINE (354-430)

Saint Augustine who is always classed as one of the four great Latin fathers is generally conceded to be chief among them in natural strength of intellect.  Saint Jerome, who excelled him in knowledge of classical literature, is his inferior in intellectual acuteness; and certainly no other theologian of the earlier ages of the Church has done so much as has Saint Augustine to influence the thought of its strongest minds.

Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) was a Numidian by birth.  He had a Christian mother, whose devotion resulted in his conversion, as well as in that of his father, who seems to have been a man of liberal mind, aware of the value of literary education.  Augustine was well versed in the Latin classics.  The extent of his knowledge of Greek literature has been questioned, but it is conceded that he knew the language, at least well enough for purposes of comparative study of the Scripture text.

As a young man, his ideas of morality, as we know from his ‘Confessions,’ were not severe.  He was not extraordinarily licentious, but he had the introspective sensitiveness which seems to characterize great genius wherever it is found, and in his later life he looked with acute pain on the follies of his youth.

Becoming a Christian at the age of twenty-three, he was ordained a priest four years later, and in 395 became Bishop of Hippo.  Of his literary works, his book ‘The City of God’ is accounted his masterpiece, though it is not so generally read as his ‘Confessions.’  The sermon on the Lord’s Prayer here given as an illustration of his style in the pulpit, is from his ‘Homilies on the New Testament,’ as translated in Parker’s ‘Library of the Fathers.’

THE LORD’S PRAYER

The order established for your edification requires that ye learn first what to believe, and afterwards what to ask.  For so saith the Apostle, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  This testimony blessed Paul cited out of the Prophet; for by the Prophet were those times foretold, when all men should call upon God; “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  And he added, “How then shall they call on him