the Christian student,
throw immense light on the state of the Church in his generation. His
best known production is his _Apology_, in which he pleads the cause of
the persecuted disciples with consummate talent, and urges upon the
state the equity and the wisdom of toleration. He expounds the doctrine
of the Trinity more lucidly than any preceding writer; he treats of
Prayer, of Repentance, and of Baptism; he takes up the controversy with
the Jews; [372:3] and he assails the Valentinians and other heretics.
But the way of salvation by faith seems to have been very indistinctly
apprehended by him, so that he cannot be safely trusted as a theologian.
He had evidently no clear conception of the place which works ought to
occupy according to the scheme of the gospel; and hence he sometimes
speaks as if pardon could be purchased by penance, by fasting, or by
martyrdom.

_Clement of Alexandria_ was contemporary with Tertullian. Like him, he
was a Gentile by birth; but we know nothing of the circumstances
connected with his conversion. In early times Alexandria was one of the
great marts of literature and science; its citizens were noted for their
intellectual culture; and, when a Church was formed there, learned men
began to pass over to the new religion in considerable numbers. It was,
in consequence, deemed expedient to establish an institute where
catechumens of this class, before admission to baptism, could be
instructed in the faith by some well qualified teacher. The plan of the
seminary seems to have been gradually enlarged; and it soon supplied
education to candidates for the ministry. Towards the close of the
second century, Pantaenus, a distinguished scholar, had the charge of
it; and Clement, who had been his pupil, became his successor as its
president. Some of the works of this writer have perished, and his only
extant productions are a discourse entitled "What rich man shall be
saved?" his Address to the Greeks or Gentiles, his Paedagogue, and his
Stromata. The hortatory Address is designed to win over the pagans from
idolatry; the Paedagogue directs to Jesus, or the Word, as the great
Teacher, and supplies converts with practical precepts for their
guidance; whilst in the Stromata, or Miscellanies, we have a description
of what he calls the Gnostic or perfect Christian. He here takes
occasion to attack those who, in his estimation, were improperly
designated Gnostics, such as Basilides, Valentine, Marcion, a