Putting on Christ

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It is told of a Roman youth who, notwithstanding a mother’s unwearied prayers, had lived a life of self-seeking and sinful indulgence. Then one day, as he sat in the garden, in the cloudless beauty of an autumn day, a great struggle took place in his mind. Throwing himself on his knees he prayed earnestly to God, “O Lord, how long—how long—how long wilt thou be angry with me? Must it be forever, tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrows? Why should it not be today?” Suddenly in his agony he seemed to hear the voice as of a little child repeating, “Take up and read”; “Take up and read.” And taking up the Epistles of St. Paul which he had happened to be reading, and opening the book at random, his eye caught these words: “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, to fulfill the lusts thereof (Rom. 13:13, 14). The words came to him as a direct message from God, and in one instant strong resolve, he determined forever to break with his old life and in the might of Christ to enter on the new. Augustine put on Christ.

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