am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.”

How do you explain such a change as that which came over Augustine? Is it possible for every man? When a man gets such a vision, what next? How can one keep the vision daily clear before his mind?

Second Week, Seventh Day: Augustine's Lifelong Regret

And last of all, as to the child untimely born, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.-I Cor. 15:8-10.

God used Augustine's brilliant gifts to make of him one of the greatest religious leaders of Christendom. His life is an encouraging example of the man who has fallen, to show what God can make out of a wreck of a life. Yet as long as life lasted he bore with him the scars of his past sins, nor could he ever rid his mind of the unclean memories that haunted him. His “Confessions” are proof of that lamentable fact. But since he had sinned, he was willing to turn his sins even to the glory of God. But any one who proposes, as some fellows do, to taste of sin that he may learn how to fight it, is crazy. Sin is to be fought and conquered, not on the ground of the overt act, but on the ground of the inner temptation. We all know enough of temptation, if we will but analyze our own hearts, to succor those who are tempted, without covering ourselves with mud. The man who says he is trying out sin in order to help other people is fooling himself, and is liable to find himself like the fly that lit on the tangle-foot in order to see whether it was dangerous for other flies. The object of all our temptation is the making of character, and character comes not by yielding but by fighting.

Is sin in the overt act or in the heart? Is it necessary or wise to try sin in order to fight it? Did Christ try sin in order to help us? How did He conquer sin?

St. Augustine was one of the world's greatest scholars and

philosophers. Generations have looked to him for wisdom. To whom did he look?

In connection with this lesson it would be of value to read a little book by Dr. M. J. Exner, entitled, "The Rational Sex Life for Men."

STUDY III

St. Nicholas—Philanthropist

COMMENT FOR THE WEEK

St. Nicholas should certainly come near the head in any list of great personages, and yet you can not find him mentioned in most of the biographical dictionaries. But when

you and I were small he was, next to Father and Mother, Santa Claus, the greatest hero in the world. Later, some officious person told us that there was no Santa Claus, and it was one of the greatest disappointments of our lives. But in reality Santa Claus is as real as any man who ever lived. And does it not rather restore our confidence in humanity and in life in general to know that, after all, the Santa Claus of our childhood is true?

St. Nicholas was born at Patara in Lycia, the southwest corner of Asia Minor, about 260 years after Christ, the only son of wealthy parents. His father and mother were old and had been long childless. But, like the parents of the prophet Samuel, they had prayed for a son, and so he was much beloved when finally he came. As a boy he dedicated himself to Christ, his Master, and when he had finished his studies his uncle Nicholas, bishop of Patara, ordained him a deacon. About this time his parents died, leaving him a great estate, which the young Nicholas determined to use for the benefit of others.

In the city there was a wealthy scholar, who lost his money and whose wife died, leaving him three daughters. They were so poor that the father was about to sell his daughters as slaves rather than to see them die of starvation. Nicholas heard of this, and, taking a purse full of gold, he stole up to the house at night, and tossed it through an open window. This he did a second and a third time. The learned man was very happy and determined to watch at night and see who

brought the gifts. The third time, when the purse fell on the floor, he ran after the fleeing Nicholas and caught him, and kneeling down, thanked him with tears for saving his children from slavery.

Thereafter Nicholas continued to feed the hungry, to clothe the poor, to redeem debtors from slavery, and to give gifts to children, of whom he was very fond. Later, on a journey to Jerusalem to see the place where the Saviour lived, he was thought to have averted a storm and to have healed a sailor who fell from the mast. Hence he became patron saint of both children and sailors. On his return from Jerusalem he sought a place where he was not known, in which to do his good works. But he could not be hid, and soon after he went to the city of Myra the people took him by force and made him their bishop. As a bishop his door was always open, he was a father of the fatherless, a helper of the helpless, a friend of all. He is said to have been imprisoned for his courageous preaching and for refusing to worship the Roman Emperor Diocletian, but was released under Constantine.

Such was the power of his love that when he died all men believed that death had not lessened it, but rather released it for greater service. His fame spread to neighboring countries and so many stories of his kindness and service to others were told that it is hard for us now to know just which ones are true, but all are true to the real character of the man. Six hundred years after his death, when Vladimir of Russia came to Constantinople to be baptized he carried back with him to Russia the story of St. Nicholas. The Russians came so to revere the saint that they made him their patron. From them the Lapps, the Finns, and even the wild people of Siberia took up his story. And wherever the story was told it brought new ideas and fresh inspiration to human kindness.

The special day on which he is revered in Europe is December the sixth, and on that day for many centuries celebrations have been held in his honor, at which good children have received sweetmeats, gilded nuts, and presents from the hand of a man dressed like a bishop and with a long white beard. The Dutch received the story from the North, hence the accompaniment of snow and reindeer, and they in turn carried it to the new world, where the children of New Amsterdam revered the good St. Nicholas as Santa Claus. His festival was combined by Protestants with Christmas, and

spread from New York throughout America and thence back across the Atlantic. And how many good gifts have been given at all the Christmases and how many hearts made glad, in the name of the good St. Nicholas, none but his Master will ever know.

DAILY READINGS

Third Week, First Day: The Task

I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?-Rom. 7:21-24.

Man is an amphibious, a "double-lifed" animal. As the frog lives on land and in the water, so man lives in the body and in the spirit. The spirit struggles against the bodily appetites, and the body struggles against the spiritual aspirations. The two are in natural and continuous conflict. The self, "I," must judge between the two and must be master of both. The problem is, "How shall I secure harmony between these two warring elements?" We have seen in our second Study how Augustine and his crowd at school were carried away by the law of sin which was in their members, that is, by their natural hankering after excitement and vicious experiences. We may not all expect such a vision of God's love as Augustine had; but we can all find strength where he found it. This week we will seek to discover the secret of that inner harmony, without which no life can attain happiness and full fruition. St. Augustine and St. Nicholas both discovered it, by following Christ's directions.

Third Week, Second Day: The Awakening of the Affections

This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you. No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth