miserable, ever sick with the heats of impatience, must of necessity sigh after, and invoke, and persistently plead for, that health of patience which I possess not."1 "To him," says Pressensé, "moderation was impossible: he went to extremes both in hatred and love, both in language and in thought; but every act and word was the result of deep conviction, and was animated by that which alone can give vitality to the efforts of any human. spirit, a sincere and earnest passion for truth. Even the excess of his vehemence gave him an element of power, for it commanded the service of a fiery eloquence. His whole character is summed up in the one word "passion," - passion made to subserve the holiest of causes, pure from all petty ambition, but constantly betraying itself into harshness and injustice toward others." 2

This fulness of the emotive element naturally conditioned the intellectual factor in Tertullian. We should not expect to find in him great philosophical breadth or thorough intellectual consistency. "Tertullian's mind," says Neander, "had acuteness, depth, and dialectic dexterity, but no logical clearness, repose, and arrangement; it was profound and fruitful, but not harmonious; the check of sober self-government was wanting. Tertullian, though an enemy of philosophical speculation, which seemed to him to be a falsifier of the truth, was not destitute of a speculative element; but it wanted the scientific form. Feeling and imagination prevailed above the purely intellectual. An inward life, filled with Christianity, outran the development of his understanding." 3

1 De Patientia, i. 2 Martyrs and Apologists, Book II., chap. iii. 8 Antignosticus, Intro.

In the style of Tertullian we see an image of the man. "It is strong, even to hardness; it is strained, incorrect, African, but irresistible. It is poured forth like lava from an inward furnace, kept ever at white heat; and the track of light it leaves is a track of fire too. The language of Tertullian is full of sharp antitheses, like those which characterize his thoughts. In every phrase one might seem to hear the sharp clash of swords that meet and cross, and the spark which dazzles us is struck from the ringing steel. Hence that incomparable eloquence, which, in spite of sophisms and exaggerated metaphors, rules us still." It is, perhaps, in his Apologeticus that Tertullian's power as a writer appears at highest advantage. This is not free from the faults commonly pertaining to his style. "Nevertheless," says Pressensé, "we do not hesitate to place among the very masterpieces of the human mind this incorrect harangue, so mightily is it moved with a great impulse.”

As regards the range of his thoughts and principles, Tertullian cannot be excused from the charge of a certain one-sidedness, as might be judged from the single fact of his affiliation with Montanism. He carried his supernaturalism and asceticism beyond the true mean. He crowded out, in a measure, the thought of sanctifying the world by the thought of renouncing or repudiating the world. Piety, shaped according to his model, would savor of extreme Puritanism. Still, much is to be found in his conception of Christianity that is worthy of imitation; and, as a matter of fact, Tertullian has been a powerful factor in the religious and theological world. Especially influential has been his emphasis

1 Pressensé.

upon the practical side of Christianity. "The special claim," says Neander, "of this Father upon our attention, arises from his being the first representative of that peculiar form of the Christian and theological spirit which has prevailed in the Western Church through all successive ages, that form in which the anthropological and soteriological element predomiIn Tertullian we find the first germ of that spirit which afterwards appeared with more refinement and purity in Augustine; as from Augustine the scholastic theology proceeded, and in him also the Reformation found its point of connection."

nates.

ORIGEN was born at Alexandria in the year 185. The character of his parents was such as to shed a sanctifying influence upon his early years. His father, Leonides, was a man of stanch and intelligent piety, and spared no pains to foster the holy flame in the heart of the thoughtful and gifted boy. Origen more than realized his best hopes; and we have the picture of the father taking such delight in the piety of the son, that betimes he would bend over his sleeping form and reverently kiss his uncovered breast, as being a sanctuary of the Spirit of God. The alert faculties of the youth were developed under the able tuition of such teachers as Pantænus and Clement. The period of youth was hardly passed before he became a teacher of others, and was compelled to shoulder the full responsibilities of manhood. In his eighteenth year, through the martyrdom of his father, whom he exhorted to confess Christ even unto death, and was anxious himself to do likewise,

he became chargeable

with his own support and that of his mother. He resorted to teaching, beginning with lessons in grammar, but passing speedily to the presidency of the catechetical school, a perilous honor at that time. But Origen delighted in the opportunities of his position, and manifested his fearless fidelity by encouraging to the last such of his disciples as were called to the ordeal of martyrdom. Meanwhile, he spared no pains to become a master of sacred learning. That his time for his chosen studies might be increased, he sacrificed food and sleep, and lived after a pattern of extreme abstinence. To add still more to his asceticism, the enthusiasm for a theory was joined with the practical demands of his position; and he thought it incumbent upon himself to become a eunuch for the kingdom of God, an error of which he did not fail to repent in after-years. Broad-minded and intellectually daring, he resorted to the study of heathen philosophy as a preparation for defending Christianity, and did not hesitate even to attend the lectures of the Neo-Platonist philosopher Ammonius Saccas. He became a zealous student of the Hebrew, and made use of his acquaintance with the language in his extensive series of commentaries, which he commenced at the solicitation of his friends. His "De Principiis," containing a system of theology, was also sent forth among his earlier publications. Already he had reached a foremost place among Christian scholars. But at the zenith of this prosperity, adversity was prepared. Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria, became animated by an implacable opposition to Origen. Jealousy of the overshadowing reputation of the great teacher may have been among the motives of the Alex

andrian bishop, but the immediate occasion of his persecuting policy was the irregular honors bestowed upon Origen by certain bishops of Palestine, — first, by inviting him, while yet a layman, to preach; and then ordaining him, without consultation with the Alexandrian see, to the office of presbyter. Demetrius seems to have regarded this as an unpardonable trespass against his episcopal dignity, and did not rest until he had deposed Origen from the priesthood, and excommunicated him from the church of Alexandria. The Roman church concurred in this sentence; but in Palestine and some other Eastern districts it was regarded with profound disapprobation. To avoid dissension in the Alexandrian church, Origen retired from the Egyptian metropolis. An asylum was readily afforded him in Palestine, and a large portion of his remaining years was spent in Cæsarea. Abundant employment was still found for voice and pen. Among other memorials of this period is his great apologetic work, "Contra Celsum," a reply to the attack of the heathen philosopher Celsus upon Christianity. "Written very rapidly, at the pressing instance of Ambrose, it has no regular method. Origen wished to re-write it, but time failed him. It remains, nevertheless, the masterpiece of ancient apology, for solidity of basis, vigor of argument, and breadth of eloquent exposition. The apologists of every age were to find in it an inexhaustible mine, as well as an incomparable model of that royal, moral method inagurated by St. Paul and St. John, which alone can answer its end, because it alone carries the conflict into the heart and conscience, to the very centre, that is, of the higher life in