few errors, and discovered or established not
a few truths. For the rest, it has by its directness and
persistency stimulated investigation and thought on these
subjects to an extent which a less aggressive criticism
would have failed to secure. The immediate effect of the
attack has been to strew the vicinity of the fortress with
heaps of ruins. Some of these were best cleared away without
hesitation or regret; but in other cases the rebuilding is a
measure demanded by truth and prudence alike. I have been
reproached by my friends for allowing myself to be diverted
from the more congenial task of commenting on St. Paul's
Epistles; but the importance of the position seemed to me to
justify the expenditure of much time and labour in
"repairing a breach" not indeed in the "House of the Lord"
itself, but in the immediately outlying buildings.'

St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp (together with St. Clement of Rome) are
the links which connect the Apostolic age proper with the Fathers of the
second and third centuries; and this fact has made them and their scanty
literature the hope and despair, the pride and the scorn, of opposing
factions. In the whirl and confusion of discordant criticisms it is
everything to study and to build up by the help of one who has caught
the spirit of the master-lives he expounds. There breathes throughout
the volumes of the Bishop of Durham the spirit of St. Ignatius's
counsel--

'Speak to each man severally after the manner of God. Bear
the maladies of all, as a perfect athlete. Where there is
much toil, there is much gain. If thou lovest good scholars,
this is not thankworthy in thee. Rather bring the more
pestilent to submission by gentleness.... The season
requireth thee, as pilots require winds, or as a
storm-tossed mariner a haven, that it may attain unto God.
Be sober, as God's athlete. The prize is incorruption and
life eternal, concerning which thou also art
persuaded.'--(Ep. of St. Ignatius to St. Polycarp, I, 2.)

Ignatius of Antioch: Men of old loved to find in his name (or its
Syriace quivalent, Nurono, [Greek: youra = phyr], _fire_) a prescience
of the torch of divine love which blazed in him. The fancy may pass, if
etymologically unsound; for Ignatius, 'the Inflamed,' was a true child
of the fiery East. Contrast him and his letters with St. Clement of Rome
and