his principal opponents being the Donatists and Pelagians. His sermons,
powerful as they are, disappoint the modern reader by their fantastic
and allegorical interpretation of Scripture, but his "Confessions," in
which he details the history of his early life and conversion, present a
wonderful picture of personal experience. He is styled by Harnack "the
first modern man." He died at Hippo in 430.



AUGUSTINE
354-430

THE RECOVERY OF SIGHT BY THE BLIND

_Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David._--Matt. xx., 30.


I. Ye know, holy brethren, full well as we do, that our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ is the physician of our eternal health; and that to this
end we task the weakness of our natures, that our weakness might not
last forever. For He assumed a mortal body, wherein to kill death. And,
"though He was crucified through weakness," as the apostle saith, yet He
"liveth by the power of God." They are the words, too, of the same
apostle: "He dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him." These
things, I say, are well known to your faith. And there is also this
which follows from them, that we should know that all the miracles which
He did on the body avail to our instruction, that we may from them
perceive that which is not to pass away, nor to have any end. He
restored to the blind those eyes which death was sure some time to
close; He raised Lazarus to life who was to die again. And whatever He