postles instructed the whole body of believers to
select from their number seven men, to whom should be intrusted the
charitable work of the Church. These men were not deacons, in the sense
in which this term has come to be applied, nor are they thus termed
anywhere in the Acts of the Apostles. The office remained, but the
duties changed; after the breaking up of the Christian community in
Jerusalem by persecution, these "deacons" devoted themselves to the more
attractive work of preaching, and from this time the ministry of good
works fell naturally into the hands of the women.

Very early in the history of the Church there came into existence an
order of female deacons, or deaconesses. It is more particularly in the
Gentile congregations planted by Paul that we find this institution. In
his Epistle to the Romans, among many other matters of a personal
interest, we find the Apostle saying: "I commend unto you Phoebe our
sister, who is a deaconess of the church that is at Cenchreas;" and he
requests them to receive her worthily of the saints and to assist her in
whatsoever matter she may have in hand, for that she "hath been a
succorer of many, and of mine own self." It is extremely probable that
Phoebe was the bearer of this letter to the Romans. She may have been
travelling to the city on affairs of her own, or it may be that Paul is
referring to some commission from the Church which had been imparted to
her by word of mouth.

He also sends greeting to Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who, with Persis, were
probably deaconesses serving the church at Rome. Euodias and Syntyche,
who are mentioned in the Epistle to the Philippians, were, there is
every reason to believe, in this same order of the ministry. The Apostle
testifies to the earnest cooperation in his work for which he is
indebted to these two women; but from his exhortation that they "be of
the same mind," we may infer that there was some disagreement among
them. Absolute harmony was not always maintained, even among the saints
of the early Church. Saintliness has never yet been able entirely to
eradicate from human nature all that is unseemly; and it is more than
likely that if it were only possible for us to gain an intimate and
personal knowledge of the conditions which prevailed in the Apostolic
Church, we should not be greatly discouraged by a comparison of those
days with our own times. The glamour of extraordinary holiness which
succeeding centuries have thrown