Augustine, born in a remote part of Africa (in what is now Algeria) in 354, has had an immense influence on Christian thinking.
Reading the Bible played an important part in his conversion:
"A violent storm raged within me, bringing with it a flood of tears". In an agony of remorse, he flung himself under a fig tree, exclaiming, "How long, O Lord, how long? Remember not my former sins! Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow - why not now?"
In the middle of his prayer he heard the voice of a child ( whether a boy or girl he didn't know) singing again and again the words, "Tolle, lege; tolle, lege" - "Take, read; take, read." He began to wonder whether these were words used by children at play, but he thought not, and took them to mean that God was bidding him to open a book and read the first words which he found there. He rushed back to where he had left his friend sitting and picked up a manuscript of Paul's letter to the Romans. "I seized it, opened it, and read in silence the verse on which my eyes first fell - "Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature" (Romans 13: 13-14). I wished to read no more. There was no need. For instantly, as though the light of salvation had been poured into my heart, all the darkness of my doubts had fled away."