care for unity, than which nothing
is better. Sustain all men, even as the Lord sustaineth thee.
Suffer all men in love, as also thou doest. Give thyself to
unceasing prayer. Ask for more wisdom than thou hast. Keep watch,
and preserve a wakeful spirit.... Be thou wise as the serpent in
all things, and harmless always as the dove.... The time requireth
thee, as pilots require winds, or as a storm-tossed mariner a
haven, so that it may find God.... Be sober, as God's athlete....
Stand firm as an anvil under the stroke of the hammer. It becomes a
great athlete to endure blows and to conquer.... Show thyself more
zealous than thou art.... Let nothing be done without thy consent,
neither do thou anything without God's consent, as indeed thou
doest not [93:1].

The close of the letter is addressed mainly to the Smyrnaeans, enforcing
their reciprocal obligations towards their bishop.

This letter, if the additional matter in the Vossian Epistles may be
trusted, was written from Troas, when the martyr was on the point of
embarking for Neapolis [93:2]. The next stage of his journey would bring
him to Philippi, where he halted. Thence he proceeded by the great
Egnatian road across the continent to the Hadriatic, on his way to Rome.

Shortly after this, Polycarp himself addresses a letter to the
Philippians. He had been especially invited by his correspondents to
write to them, but he had also a reason of his own for doing so. During
this season of the year, when winter had closed the high seas for
navigation, all news from Rome must travel through Macedonia to Asia
Minor. At Smyrna they had not yet received tidings of the fate of
Ignatius; and he hoped to get early information from his correspondents,
who were some stages nearer to Rome where, as Polycarp assumed, his
friend had already suffered martyrdom [93:3].

This was the occasion of the letter, which for various reasons possesses
the highest interest as a document of early Christian literature, though
far from remarkable in itself.

Its most important feature is the profuseness of quotation from the
Apostolic writings. Of a Canon of the New Testament, strictly so called,
it is not probable that Polycarp knew anything [93:4]. This idea was
necessarily, as Dr Westcott has shown, the growth of time. But of the
writings which are included in our Canon he shows a wide knowledge and
an ample appreciation. In this r