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VII.

ST. BONAVENTURA.

"O buonaventura!" (O happy event!) is said to have been the utterance of Francis of Assisi, when he found that his prayers for the recovery of a child from sickness had been answered.

The child was given the name of Bonaventura. He was born 1221 A. D., and died at Lyons 1274.

He lived an ascetic life, wrote several theological works, and exerted a great influence on the times. Dante places him, in his great poem, among the saints in Paradise, and Luther held his religious life in high esteem.

"Ah, sweet Jesus, pierce the marrow of my soul with the healthful shafts of thy love, that it may

truly burn, and melt, and languish, with the only desire of Thee; that it may desire to be dissolved, and to be with Thee: let it hunger alone for the bread of life: let it thirst after Thee, the spring and fountain of eternal light, the stream of true pleasure; let it always desire Thee, seek Thee, and find Thee, and sweetly rest in Thee."

VIII.

ST. AUGUSTINE.

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND DEVOTIONS.

That was a notable event in Christian history which took place on the 25th of April, 387 A. D., in the cathedral church of Milan. The early Christians, freed from the tyranny of long persecution, and rejoicing in the new triumphs of the Gospel, came flocking towards the church, under the soft purple sky of the Italian spring. A convert of wonderful gifts, influence and promise, was that day to enter the baptismal waters, led by the venerable Ambrose. That catechumen was St. Augustine, then thirty-two years of age.

His experience had been a remarkable one,

and it illustrates his own often quoted words: "Lord, thou hast formed us for Thyself, and we are disquieted until we come to Thee." His father was a Pagan in early life, and had been given to the licentious luxuries of his times, though he died in the bosom of the church. His mother was eminent for her character, intelligence and piety, and for thirty years had made her son the principal subject of her prayers. She supposed that the Lord at last had revealed to her in a dream that her prayers were heard, and that the young man would be converted.

His boyhood was corrupted by the immoralities of the semi-Pagan community, and the early age of seventeen cast him upon the great world of Carthage, into whose pleasures he entered with a self-consuming ardor, and where he became a dissolute young man. He fell a victim to sentimental passion; he spent his nights at the theatre; and the one ambition of his life seemed to be to become an orator, and to win popular applause.

But his conscience haunted him, and he could never forget his mother's counsels and prayers. From the study of oratory he turned to religious

philosophy, and became a disciple of Manes, who had proclaimed himself the Paraclete, or Comforter, promised by Christ.

He at last went to Milan, and was attracted to the cathedral church by the eloquence of Ambrose. He here resolved to break away from the Manichean delusion, and seek in experience a knowledge of Christ.

The long struggle which now began in his soul is vividly pictured in his "Confessions." One day, overwhelmed with penitence, and thirsting to know the truth, he retired to a garden with his friend Alypius. His grief became so strong that he laid down the Epistles he had been studying, and left his friend to pray alone. He flung himself down under a fig-tree, and gave free course to his tears, and prayed:

"How long, O Lord? wilt Thou be angry forever? O, remember not against us our former iniquities. To-morrow and to-morrow! Why not now? Why is there not this hour an end to my sin ?"

"Tolle lege—tolle lege!" The words stole

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