The instruments raised up by Almighty God for the accomplishment of His purposes are of two kinds, equally gifted with faith and piety, but from natural temper and talent, education, or other circumstances, differing in the means by{5} which they promote their sacred cause. The first of these are men of acute and ready mind, with accurate knowledge of human nature, and large plans, and persuasive and attractive bearing, genial, sociable, and popular, endued with{10} prudence, patience, instinctive tact and decision in conducting matters, as well as boldness and zeal. Such in a measure we may imagine the single-minded, the intrepid, the much-enduring Hildebrand, who, at a time when society was{15} forming itself anew, was the Saviour, humanly speaking, of the City of God. Such, in an earlier age, was the majestic Ambrose; such the never-wearied Athanasius. These last-named luminaries of the Church came into public life early,{20} and thus learned how to cope with the various tempers, views, and measures of the men they encountered there. Athanasius was but twenty-seven when he went with Alexander to the Nicene Council, and the year after he was Bishop of Alexandria. Ambrose was consecrated soon after{5} the age of thirty. Again, there is an instrument in the hand of Providence, of less elaborate and splendid workmanship, less rich in its political endowments, so to call them, yet not less beautiful in its{10} texture, nor less precious in its material. Such is the retired and thoughtful student, who remains years and years in the solitude of a college or a monastery, chastening his soul in secret, raising it to high thought and single-minded purpose,{15} and when at length called into active life, conducting himself with firmness, guilelessness, zeal like a flaming fire, and all the sweetness of purity and integrity. Such an one is often unsuccessful in his own day; he is too artless to persuade, too{20} severe to please; unskilled in the weaknesses of human nature, unfurnished in the resources of ready wit, negligent of men's applause, unsuspicious, open-hearted, he does his work, and so leaves it; and it seems to die; but in the{25} generation after him it lives again, and on the long run it is difficult to say which of the two classes of men has served the cause of truth the more effectually. Such, perhaps, was Basil, who issued from the solitudes of Pontus to rule like a king,{30} and minister like the lowest in the kingdom; yet to meet little but disappointment, and to quit life prematurely in pain and sorrow. Such was his friend, the accomplished Gregory, however different in other respects from him, who left his father's roof for an heretical city, raised a church{5} there, and was driven back into retirement by his own people, as soon as his triumph over the false creed was secured. Such, perhaps, St. Peter Damiani in the middle age; such St. Anselm, such St. Edmund. No comparison is, of course,{10} attempted here between the religious excellence of the two descriptions of men; each of them serves God according to the peculiar gifts given to him. If we might continue our instances by way of comparison, we should say that St.{15} Paul reminds us of the former, and Jeremiah of the latter.... It often happens that men of very dissimilar talents and tastes are attracted together by their very dissimilitude. They live in intimacy for a{20} time, perhaps a long time, till their circumstances alter, or some sudden event comes, to try them. Then the peculiarities of their respective minds are brought out into action; and quarrels ensue, which end in coolness or separation. It would{25} not be right or true to say that this is exemplified in the instance of the two blessed Apostles, whose "sharp contention" is related in the Book of Acts; for they had been united in spirit once for all by a Divine gift; and yet their strife reminds{30} us of what takes place in life continually. And it so far resembled the everyday quarrels of friends, in that it arose from difference of temper and character in those favored servants of God. The zealous heart of the Apostle of the Gentiles endured not the presence of one who had swerved{5} in his course; the indulgent spirit of Barnabas felt that a first fault ought not to be a last trial. Such are the two main characters which are found in the Church,-high energy, and sweetness of temper; far from incompatible, of course, united{10} in Apostles, though in different relative proportions, yet only partially combined in ordinary Christians, and often altogether parted from each other. This contrast of character, leading, first, to{15} intimacy, then to differences, is interestingly displayed, though painfully, in one passage of the history of Basil and Gregory: Gregory the affectionate, the tender-hearted, the man of quick feelings, the accomplished, the eloquent{20} preacher,-and Basil, the man of firm resolve and hard deeds, the high-minded ruler of Christ's flock, the diligent laborer in the field of ecclesiastical politics. Thus they differed; yet not as if they had not much in common still; both had the{25} blessing and the discomfort of a sensitive mind; both were devoted to an ascetic life; both were men of classical tastes; both were special champions of the Catholic creed; both were skilled in argument, and successful in their use of it;{30} both were in highest place in the Church, the one Exarch of C?sarea, the other Patriarch of Constantinople. I will now attempt to sketch the history of their intimacy.

Basil and Gregory were both natives of Cappadocia, but here, again, under different{5} circumstances; Basil was born of a good family, and with Christian ancestors: Gregory was the son of the Bishop of Nazianzus, who had been brought up an idolater, or rather an Hypsistarian, a mongrel sort of religionist, part Jew, part Pagan.{10} He was brought over to Christianity by the efforts of his wife Nonna, and at Nazianzus admitted by baptism into the Church. In process of time he was made bishop of that city; but not having a very firm hold of the faith, he was betrayed in{15} 360 into signing the Ariminian creed, which caused him much trouble, and from which at length his son recovered him. C?sarea being at no unsurmountable distance from Nazianzus, the two friends had known each other in their own country;{20} but their intimacy began at Athens, whither they separately repaired for the purposes of education. This was about A.D. 350, when each of them was twenty-one years of age. Gregory came to the seat of learning shortly before Basil,{25} and thus was able to be his host and guide on his arrival; but fame had reported Basil's merits before he came, and he seems to have made his way, in a place of all others most difficult to a stranger, with a facility peculiar to himself. He soon found himself admired and respected by his fellow-students; but Gregory was his only friend, and shared with him the reputation of{5} talents and attainments. They remained at Athens four or five years; and, at the end of the time, made the acquaintance of Julian, since of evil name in history as the Apostate. Gregory thus describes in after life his early intimacy{10} with Basil: "Athens and letters followed on my stage; Others may tell how I encountered them;- How in the fear of God, and foremost found Of those who knew a more than mortal lore;-{15} And how, amid the venture and the rush Of maddened youth with youth in rivalry, My tranquil course ran like some fabled spring, Which bubbles fresh beneath the turbid brine; Not drawn away by those who lure to ill,{20} But drawing dear ones to the better part. There, too, I gained a further gift of God, Who made me friends with one of wisdom high, Without compeer in learning and in life. Ask ye his name?-in sooth, 'twas Basil, since{25} My life's great gain,-and then my fellow dear In home, and studious search, and knowledge earned. May I not boast how in our day we moved A truest pair, not without name in Greece; Had all things common, and one only soul{30} In lodgment of a double outward frame? Our special bond, the thought of God above, And the high longing after holy things. And each of us was bold to trust in each, Unto the emptying of our deepest hearts; And then we loved the more, for sympathy Pleaded in each, and knit the twain in one." The friends had been educated for rhetoricians, and their oratorical powers were such, that they{5} seemed to have every prize in prospect which a secular ambition could desire. Their names were known far and wide, their attainments acknowledged by enemies, and they themselves personally popular in their circle of acquaintance. It was{10} under these circumstances that they took the extraordinary resolution of quitting the world together,-extraordinary the world calls it, utterly perplexed to find that any conceivable objects can, by any sane person, be accounted{15} better than its own gifts and favors. They resolved to seek baptism of the Church, and to consecrate their gifts to the service of the Giver. With characters of mind very different-the one grave, the other lively; the one desponding,{20} the other sanguine; the one with deep feelings, the other with feelings acute and warm;-they agreed together in holding, that the things that are seen are not to be compared to the things that are not seen. They quitted the world, while it{25} entreated them to stay. What passed when they were about to leave Athens represents as in a figure the parting which they and the world took of each other. When the day of valediction arrived, their companions{30} and equals, nay, some of their tutors, came about them, and resisted their departure by entreaties, arguments, and even by violence. This occasion showed, also, their respective dispositions; for the firm Basil persevered, and went; the tender-hearted Gregory was softened, and stayed awhile{5} longer. Basil, indeed, in spite of the reputation which attended him, had, from the first, felt disappointment with the celebrated abode of philosophy and literature; and seems to have given up the world from a simple conviction of its emptiness.{10} "He," says Gregory, "according to the way of human nature, when, on suddenly falling in with what we hoped to be greater, we find it less than its fame, experienced some such feeling, began to be sad, grew impatient, and could not congratulate himself on his place of residence.{15} He sought an object which hope had drawn for him; and he called Athens 'hollow blessedness.'" Gregory himself, on the contrary, looked at things more cheerfully; as the succeeding sentences show.{20} "Thus Basil; but I removed the greater part of his sorrow, meeting it with reason, and smoothing it with reflections, and saying (what was most true) that character is not at once understood, nor except by long time and perfect intimacy; nor are studies estimated, by{25} those who are submitted to them, on a brief trial and by slight evidence. Thus I reassured him, and by continual trials of each other, I bound myself to him." -Orat. 43.

I began by directing the reader's attention to the labors of two great bishops, who restored the faith of Christianity where it had long been obscured. Now, I will put before him, by way of contrast, a scene of the overthrow of{5} religion,-the extinction of a candlestick,-effected, too, by champions of the same heretical creed which Basil and Gregory successfully resisted. It will be found in the history of the last days of the great Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in Africa.{10} The truth triumphed in the East by the power of preaching; it was extirpated in the South by the edge of the sword. Though it may not be given us to appropriate the prophecies of the Apocalypse to the real{15} events to which they belong, yet it is impossible to read its inspired pages, and then to turn to the dissolution of the Roman empire, without seeing a remarkable agreement, on the whole, between the calamities of that period and the{20} sacred prediction. There is a plain announcement in the inspired page, of "Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth"; an announcement of "hail and fire mingled with blood," the conflagration of "trees and green grass," the destruction of ships, the darkening of the sun, and the{5} poisoning of the rivers over a third of their course. There is a clear prophecy of revolutions on the face of the earth and in the structure of society. And, on the other hand, let us observe how fully such general foretokenings are borne out, among{10} other passages of history, in the Vandalic conquest of Africa. The coast of Africa, between the great desert and the Mediterranean, was one of the most fruitful and opulent portions of the Roman world.{15} The eastern extremity of it was more especially connected with the empire, containing in it Carthage, Hippo, and other towns, celebrated as being sees of the Christian Church, as well as places of civil importance. In the spring of the{20} year 428, the Vandals, Arians by creed, and barbarians by birth and disposition, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, and proceeded along this fertile district, bringing with them devastation and captivity on every side. They abandoned{25} themselves to the most savage cruelties and excesses. They pillaged, ravaged, burned, massacred all that came in their way, sparing not even the fruit trees, which might have afforded some poor food to the remnant of the population, who{30} had escaped from them into caves, the recesses of the mountains, or into vaults. Twice did this desolating pestilence sweep over the face of the country. The fury of the Vandals was especially exercised towards the memorials of religion. Churches,{5} cemeteries, monasteries, were objects of their fiercest hatred and most violent assaults. They broke into the places of worship, cut to pieces all internal decorations, and then set fire to them. They tortured bishops and clergy with the hope of{10} obtaining treasure. The names of some of the victims of their ferocity are preserved. Mansuetus, Bishop of Utica, was burnt alive; Papinianus, Bishop of Vite, was laid upon red-hot plates of iron. This was near upon the time when the{15} third General Council was assembling at Ephesus, which, from the insecure state of the roads, and the universal misery which reigned among them, the African bishops were prevented from attending. The Clergy, the religious brotherhoods, the{20} holy virgins, were scattered all over the country. The daily sacrifice was stopped, the sacraments could not be obtained, the festivals of the Church passed unnoticed. At length, only three cities remained unvisited by the general{25} desolation,-Carthage, Hippo, and Cirtha.