So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart,

when, lo! I heard from a neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know

not, chanting, and oft repeating, ˇ°Take up and read; Take up and read. ˇ°

Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently whether

children 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. For I had heard of Antony, that coming

in during the reading of the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was

being read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor,

and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me: and by such

oracle he was forthwith converted unto Thee. Eagerly then I returned to the

place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle

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, in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor

needed 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.

from Book VIII of St. Augustine's Confessions.