So was I speaking, and weeping, in the most bitter contrition of my
heart, when lo! I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of boy or
girl (I could not tell which), chanting and oft repeating, "Take up and
read; take up and read." Instantly my countenance altered, and I began
to think most intently whether any were wont in any kind of play to sing
such words, nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So,
checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no
other than a command from God, to open the book and read the first
chapter I should find. Eagerly then I returned to the place where
Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Epistles
when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section
on which my eyes first fell:--"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." No further would I read; nor heeded I, for instantly at
the end of this sentence, by a light, as it were, of serenity infused
into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.
_PAPYRUS_.