Africa was one of the first countries to receive Christianity.  Simon, a Cyrenian, from Africa, bore the cross of Jesus for him to Calvary.  There was more in that singular incident than we are apt to recognize, for the time soon came when Africa did indeed take up the Saviour’s cross.

     The African, in his gushing love, welcomed the new religion
     to his country and to his heart.  He was willing to share its
     persecutions, and endure shame for the cross of Christ.

Africa became the arena in which theological gladiators met in dubious strife.  It was the scene of some of the severest doctrinal controversies of the early Church.  Here men and women, devoted to an idea, stood immovable, indomitable as the pyramids, against the severest persecution.  Her sons swelled the noble army of martyrs and confessors.  The eloquence of their shed blood has been heard through the centuries, and pleads the cause of the benighted to-day.

It was Africa that gave the Christian Church Athanasius and Origen, Cyprian, Tertullian, and Augustine, her greatest writers and teachers.  Athanasius, the missionary of monachism to the West, was the indefatigable enemy of Arianism, the bold leader of the Catholic party at Alexandria, at the early age of thirty (30) elevated to its bishopric, one of the most important sees in the East.  Ever conscientious and bold, the whole Christian Church felt his influence, while emperors and kings feared his power.  His life was stormy, because he loved the truth and taught it in all boldness.  He hated his own life for the truth’s sake.  He counted all things but loss, that he might gain Christ.  He was often in perils by false brethren, was driven out into the solitary places of the earth,—­into the monasteries of the Thebaid; and yet he endured as seeing Him who is invisible, looking for the reward of the promise, knowing that He who promised is faithful.

Origen was an Alexandrian by birth and culture, an able preacher, a forcible writer, and a theologian of great learning.  His influence while living was great, and was felt long after his death.

In North Africa, Cyprian, the great writer of Church polity, a pastor and teacher of rare gifts, was the first bishop to lay down his life for the truth’s sake.  The shadows of fifteen centuries rest upon his name; but it is as fadeless to-day as when a weeping multitude followed him to his martyrdom, and exclaimed, “Let us die with our holy bishop.”

The weary centuries intervene, and yet the student of Church polity is fascinated and instructed by the brilliant teachings of Cyprian.  His bitterest enemies—­those who have most acrimoniously assailed him—­have at length recognized in him the qualities of a great writer and teacher; and his puissant name, sending its influence along the ages, attracts the admiration of the ecclesiastical scholars of every