ORIGEN Origen, the greatest theologian of the Ante-Nicene period, was born of Christian parents at Alexandria, in the year 185 A.D. In 202 he lost his father, who died a martyr, and in the following year Origen was appointed teacher of the Catechetical School of which Clement had been the tutor. To fit himself for the duties of this position, he made most careful study of the current Neo-Platonic and the ancient philosophies, as well as the subjects usually taught in that seminary of theology. He became in this way the most learned man of his times, and by 218 his fame had become so great that the Empress Julia Mammæa summoned him to Antioch to explain to her the Christian religion. In 228 he was ordained priest while in Palestine, and for this breach of the canons the Bishop of Alexandria, for a long time jealous of his fame, deposed and excommunicated him. Origen thereupon removed to Cæsarea in 231, and opened a school which was wonderfully successful (see Gregory Thaumaturgus). Origen was imprisoned during the Decian persecution in 251, and died a martyr in Tyre in that year. Origen's homilies on the New Testament are the earliest of his works that have been preserved. He is not an eloquent speaker, as his interests are largely intellectual and he does not touch the emotions. He is scientific rather than practical or popular. But he is not without passages of rare and touching beauty, and shows everywhere a keen insight into the problems of life. Origen's writings are very numerous. They include the first systematic treatise on theology (De Principiis); commentaries on nearly the entire Bible in Hebrew, with the Septuagint and other translations; and a refutation of the attack of the heathen writer Celsus upon the Christian faith, which is the greatest apologetical work of antiquity. The best edition of Origen's works is that edited by De la Rue, Paris, 1733-1759, in 4 vols., folio, which has been reprinted by Migne. Another edition is by Lommatzsch, Berlin, 1831, in 25 vols. The best works on Origen are: Redepenning, Origenes, 2 vols., Bonn, 1841-1846, and Denis, Philosophie d' Origen, 1884. See also Pressense, Martyrs and Apologists, (translated by Harwood); Bigg, The Christian Platonists of Alexandria, 1886. Translations have been made of a number of important works of Origen in the Ante-Nicene Fathers of T. and T. Clark and the Christian Literature Company. THE PARABLE OF THE DRAG-NET Origen. The Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew was written between the years 246 and 248, immediately after Origen had removed to Cæsarea in Palestine. According to his habit, Origen preached constantly and covered whole books of the Bible in series of sermons. Of these, the commentary on the first Gospel is the earliest. It may indeed be said to be the first book extant that was delivered as a series of discourses. The following selection is from the tenth book of this work, and illustrates as well the weak as the strong points of Origen's style. The attempt to explain every detail of the text and the necessity of digressing from the main subject detract not a little from the unity of the work. This was a weakness, however, under which all the early homilies labored. " Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea."-Matt. xiii., 47. JST as in images and statues likenesses are not JUST to be accepted in every particular as likenesses of those things which they represent; but, for instance, an image painted with wax on a plane surface of wood preserves the likeness in contour and in color, but does not further preserve the mould of the features, giving only a representation of them; and on the other hand the sculptor's art attempts to preserve likeness in form, but not also in color; while if the image be made of wax it attempts to preserve both-I mean likeness VOL. 111.-3. in both color and form- but does not indeed preserve the likeness of what is beneath the surface so consider that in the Gospel similitudes the kingdom of heaven is not in every respect like the thing compared, but the comparison extends only to certain particulars demanded by the end in view. In this passage, accordingly, the kingdom of heaven is "like unto a net which was cast into the sea"; the evil and good are not treated of (as some fancy, who assert that by this expression are meant the different natures of those who have come into the net), for then the phrase, "gathered of every kind," would imply that there are included many different natures of the good and also of the evil. The Scriptures forbid such an interpretation, emphasizing the freedom of the will, censuring those who sin, commending those who do right; since otherwise censure could not apply to those who were bad by nature, nor praise to those that were good. For the reason that fishes are good or bad lies not in the nature of the fishes themselves, but is based on that which the Omnipotent Word said: "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life"; and again, "God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind." In that place, accordingly, "the waters brought |