Confessions - Augustine - VI - Book 8

Required reading
Confessions by Augustine (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Book VIII.

My summary
Now we enter into Augustine's thirty-second year of age.

He meets Simplicanus the father of Ambrose.  Simplicanus hears of Augustine's searching for meaning in the Platonists and so relates to Augustine the testimony of Victorinus a famous pagan philosopher who became a Christian.  Augustine is on fire to imitate Victorinus but his carnal concupiscence continues to stop him.

Then one day another man, Pontitianus, comes to see Augustine and Alypius (Augustine's friend) and turns out to be a Christian.  Pontitianus then teaches them both about Christianity and leaves.  Augustine is seized with emotion and wrestles with God in a garden.  It is here that he hears children chanting, 'Take up and read' and returns to Alypius, reads Romans 13:13-14 and becomes a Christian.  Alypius also becomes a Christian and they both go and tell Augustine's mother - to her great delight.

What grabbed me
I never fail to enjoy hearing testimonies, and so enjoyed reading Augustine's: 'So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, “Take up and read; Take up and read." Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words: nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that coming in during the reading of the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was being read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me: and by such oracle he was forthwith converted unto Thee. Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.'

What a heartwarming conclusion to a hard and lengthy struggle.

Next week's reading
Read Book IX.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.