Tertullian, the leader of the Montanists, fiery, impulsive, the strong preacher, the vigorous writer, the bold controversialist, organized a sect which survived him, though finally disorganized through the influence of Augustine, the master theologian of the early Church, indeed of the Church universal.

Other fathers built theological systems that flourished for a season; but the system that Augustine established survived him, has survived the intervening centuries, and lives to-day.

     Africa furnished the first dissenters from an established
     church,—­the Donatists.  They were the Separatists and
     Puritans of the early Church.

Their struggle was long, severe, but useless.  They were condemned, not convinced; discomfited, not subdued; and the patient, suffering, indomitable spirit they evinced shows what power there is in a little truth held in faith.

Christianity had reached its zenith in Africa.  It was her proudest hour.  Paganism had been met and conquered.  The Church had passed through a baptism of blood, and was now wholly consecrated to the cause of its Great Head.  Here Christianity flowered, here it brought forth rich fruit in the lives of its tenacious adherents.  Here the acorn had become the sturdy oak, under which the soldiers of the cross pitched their tents.  The African Church had triumphed gloriously.

     But, in the moment of signal victory, the Saracens poured
     into North Africa, and Mohammedanism was established upon
     the ruins of Christianity.

The religion of Christ was swept from its moorings, the saint was transformed into the child of the desert, and quiet settlements became bloody fields where brother shed brother’s blood.

Glorious and sublime as was the triumph of Christianity in North Africa, we must not forget that only a narrow belt of that vast country, on the Mediterranean, was reached by Christianity.  Its western and southern portions are yet almost wholly unknown.  Her vast deserts, her mighty rivers, and her dusky children are yet beyond the reach of civilization; and her forests have been the grave of many who would explore her interior.  To-day England stands by the new-made grave of the indomitable Livingstone,—­her courageous son, who, as a missionary and geographer spent his best days and laid down his life in the midst of Africa.

For nearly three centuries Africa has been robbed of her sable sons.  For nearly three centuries they have toiled in bondage, unrequited, in this youthful republic of the West.  They have grown from a small company to be an exceedingly great people,—­five millions in number.  No longer chattels, they are human beings, no longer bondmen, they are freemen, with almost every civil disability removed.

Their weary feet now press up the mount