rey. stract.

All we can give here is a condensed abFrom his youth he was haunted with the questions, which had entered his soul, he hardly knew how, "Will my existence terminate with death? What will be my fate then? Will it be as if I had never been born? When and how was the world created? What existed before it? Will it end, and if so, what will then take place?" Incessantly agitated by such questionings and doubts, he grew pale and emaciated, little aware, as he tells us, that he had a celestial friend guiding him to truth and peace. He tried. to rid himself of his anxiety, but found it impossible. He attended the schools of philosophy, but without satisfaction. He saw nothing but endless and ever-varying notions, "building up and tearing down of theories." He was driven to and fro, now hoping and then despairing, now believing, and anon doubting the immortality of the soul. His case grew worse. He then resolved to visit Egypt, the land of mysteries and apparitions, and hunt up a magician who might summon for him a spirit from the other world. The appearance of such a spirit would give him demonstrative evidence of the soul's immortality;

*The genuineness of the Recognitiones is called in question by scholars; but the case will serve for an illustration of what might take place, and of what, indeed, has actually taken place in other

cases.

and he should never again be permitted to doubt. But a philosophic friend advised him against this course, as unlawful and undesirable. In this state of mind, full of doubts, undecided, inquiring, agitated and distressed, he came in contact with the gospel of Christ, preached in demonstration of the Spirit. His doubts were dispelled, his mind was enlightened, his heart was renewed. He found God and immortality in Christ, and rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Very similar to this was the conversion of Justin Martyr, who though born in Flavia Neapolis, was educated in the religious belief of the Greeks, to which his parents belonged. He was fond of study, and especially attached to the Greek poets and philosophers. In the beginning of his dialogue with Trypho, the Jew, he describes his hopes and disappointments in the study of the Greek philosophy, and shows how he obtained certainty and truth only in the Christian religion. He first joined himself to a disciple of the Stoa, but soon left him with bitter disappointment, because his teacher could say little or nothing of that Deity, whose nature he so much longed to know. With a Peripatetic he had still less success, for he found under the cloak of the philosopher a sordid love of gain. This, however, did not abate his confidence in philosophy, and so he betook himself to a Pythagorean, who rang

changes upon the glories of music, geometry, and astronomy, as essential to all elevated spiritual attainments, and finally excluded Justin from his teachings, because he professed ignorance upon these subjects. Justin almost despaired of attaining the truth in this way, when he learned that a noted Platonist had opened a school in the place where he was sojourning, with whom he resolved to make one more attempt to attain the object of his wishes. Here he was not altogether disappointed, for the conversations of the philosopher furnished his mind with the richest materials of thought. He was much impressed with the symmetry and grandeur of the Platonic system, and especially with its ideal and spiritual tone. His philosophic knowledge increased daily, and he thought himself on the verge of consummating his Platonic attainments, by the direct intuition of the Deity.

In this state of mind, he was wandering, one day, in a lonely spot by the sea shore, where he was unexpectedly joined by a venerable man, of gentle and imposing aspect, supposed by some to have been a philosophically educated Jewish Christian, by others the Bishop Polycarp. This good man informed him, that he had come down to the beach to wait for some absent relatives, whose return he was anxiously expecting. Justin could not resist the temptation of communicating

his thoughts to the venerable man, informing him that he had repaired to that spot for philosophical speculation. "You are a lover, then, of discourse, (Phoyos,) but no lover of deeds, (Paleoyos,) nor by any means a lover of truth; for you do not try to be a practical man, but rather an ingenious disputant." To this Justin demurred, affirming that nothing could be more worthy of a man than to make it manifest that all things were governed by intelligence, and to detect the undivine and the erroneous in all other pursuits; that philosophy was the true source of wisdom, and ought to receive the homage of all.

The aged man inquired how philosophy led to happiness, and what was its proper definition. Being told that it was "the science of being, and the knowledge of the truth, happiness being the reward of this knowledge and wisdom," he showed that philosophy, when it depended upon its unaided resources, could never solve the problem. Because the knowledge of God, the highest object of all, and especially of Platonic speculation, could never be acquired by an empirical or formal method, or by discursive contemplation, like music, arithmetic, or astronomy. He proved that God himself must teach us, through some divine medium, to which philosophy could make no pretensions. Reason, indeed, might ascertain the truth of the divine existence, and of moral princi

ples; but could not behold the essence of God. Besides, according to a postulate of the Platonic philosophy itself, only the pure and righteous can attain to the actual vision of God; so that the reason or intellect plays but a subordinate part. "The pure in heart shall see God."

He then dwelt upon the errors of the Platonic philosophy, especially with reference to the doctrine of the metempsychosis and the immortality of the soul; since the former was absolutely useless, teaching that while wicked men passed into the bodies of brutes, they had no consciousness of their former aberrations, nor any sense of their present degradation. As to the immortality of the soul, he showed that it was founded by the Platonics, on the assumption of its absolute and eternal nature, and involved not simply its future but its past eternal existence. The soul, indeed, created in the image of God, is capable of immortality, and is thus susceptible of future reward or punishment. Hence it endures, in order to realize the idea of retribution, not only from its own nature, but through the will and power of him who gave it exist

ence.

Justin was profoundly impressed by the wisdom and eloquence of the venerable man. He began to lose confidence in his philosophical speculations. "What, then, shall we do?" was