St. Chrysostom, who is described by the _Catholic Encyclopedia_ as the most prominent doctor of the Greek Church and the greatest preacher ever heard in a Christian pulpit, is a striking example of how in other ages a man who was both learned and devout was able to surmount the intellectual difficulties which to-day cause so much trouble for modernists and fundamentalists alike. Chrysostom was born at Antioch in the middle of the Fourth Century and grew up in a time when the intellectual [p052] foundations of Christianity were intensely disputed. The Catholic theology had not yet emerged victoriously, and Antioch was the theatre of fierce struggles between Pagans, Manichæans, Gnostics, Arians, Jews, and others. These struggles turned in considerable measure upon just such attempts to define and comprehend God as now confuse the teaching of the Protestant Church. Among the sectarians there were some who claimed that it was possible “to know God exactly” and it was against them that Chrysostom preached that “he insults God who seeks to apprehend His essential being.” For “the difference between the being of God and the being of man is of such a kind that no word can express it and no thought can appraise it.... He dwells, says St. Paul, in an unapproachable light.” Even the angels in heaven are stupefied by the glory and majesty of God: “Tell me,” he says, “wherefore do they cover their faces and hide them with their wings? Why but that they cannot endure the dazzling radiance and its rays that pour from the Throne?” Here in language so eloquent that the author became known as Chrysostom, “the golden-mouthed,” we have the doctrine that “a comprehended God is no God,” that “God is incomprehensible because He is blessed and blessed because He is incomprehensible.” But if we look more closely at what Chrysostom actually says, it is apparent that he has a much clearer idea of God than he knows. He conceives of God as the creator, the ruler, and the judge of the universe. When he says that God is incomprehensible he means that it is impossible for a human being to imagine what it would be like to be God. But [p053] that does not prevent Chrysostom from knowing what it is like to be the creature of the incomprehensible God. He is very definitely on his knees before the throne of a divine king whose radiance is so dazzling that he cannot look his Lord in the face.