ally wonder that all this should come to an end? We do not
wonder; on the contrary, we thank God for it. It is time that the human
race had rest. The sighing of the prisoner, the prayer of the captive,
are heard at last. Yet the judgment has been tempered with mercy. Had
the pagan Rhadogast taken Rome, not a life would have been spared, no
stone left on another. The Christian Alaric, though a Goth, respects his
Christian brethren, and for their sakes you are saved. As to the gods,
those daemons in whom you trust, did they always save you from calamity?
How long did Hannibal insult them? Was it a goose or a god that saved
the Capitol from Brennus? Where were the gods in all the defeats, some
of them but recent, of the pagan emperors? It is well that the purple
Babylon has fallen, the harlot who was drunk with the blood of nations.

"In the place of this earthly city, this vaunted mistress, of the world,
whose fall closes a long career of superstition and sin, there shall
arise "the City of God." The purifying fire of the barbarian shall
remove her heathenish defilements, and make her fit for the kingdom of
Christ. Instead of a thousand years of that night of crime, to which in
your despair you look back, there is before her the day of the
millennium, predicted by the prophets of old. In her regenerated walls
there shall be no taint of sin, but righteousness and peace; no stain of
the vanities of the world, no conflicts of ambition, no sordid hunger
for gold, no lust after glory, no desire for domination, but holiness to
the Lord."

[Sidenote: St. Augustine's "City of God."]

Of those who in such sentiments defended the cause of the new religion
St. Augustine was the chief. In his great work, "the City of God," which
may be regarded as the ablest specimen of the early Christian
literature, he pursues this theme, if not in the language, at least in
the spirit here presented, and through a copious detail of many books.
On the later Christianity of the Western churches he has exerted more
influence than any other of the fathers. To him is due much of the
precision of our views on original sin, total depravity, grace,
predestination, election.

[Sidenote: Life and writings of St. Augustine.]

In his early years St. Augustine had led a frivolous and evil life,
plunging into all the dissipations of the gay city of Carthage. Through
the devious paths of Manichaeism, astrology, and scepticism, he at last
arrived at the truth