Mrs. Eddy Mentioned Them March 12, 1960 Issue

St. Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) 354-430 A.D.

[Mentioned in Retrospection and Introspection, p. 63, and in the Message for 1901, p. 28]

Augustine , foremost of the Latin fathers of the Church, imprinted his thought on the Middle Ages, yet he was the source of most of the so-called heresies that eventuated in the Protestant Reformation. He lived shortly after Constantine had made Christianity the state religion in 323.

Augustine, a North African, was born in Tagaste of a heathen father and a Christian mother. The beautiful Christian relationship he enjoyed with his mother, Monica, is famous. He was educated to be a teacher. His reading of Cicero's “Hortensius” at the university roused in him a desire to leave his dissolute ways and to pursue truth. His struggle between good and evil caused him to adopt at this time the dualistic Manichean doctrine, which taught that God and the devil will be coexistent till the end of the world; then good will triumph and evil be chained.

Later Augustine came under the influence of Bishop Ambrose, whose preaching and character, as well as his knowledge of Greek philosophy, deeply impressed him. One day Augustine heard a child's voice say, “Take and read.” He obeyed and opened the Bible to Romans 13:13. His conversion was immediate, and the following year he was baptized. He returned to North Africa and ultimately became a priest and then bishop in Hippo.

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Signs of the Times
March 12, 1960
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