overned the churches of the
country around. After his return from Patmos he went about to all these
churches, that he might repair the hurt which they had suffered in the
persecution. In one of the towns which he visited, he noticed a young
man of very pleasing looks, and called him forward, and desired the
bishop of the place to take care of him. The bishop did so, and, after
having properly trained the youth, he baptised and confirmed him. But
when this had been done, the bishop thought that he need not watch over
him so carefully as before; and the young man fell into vicious company,
and went on from bad to worse, until at length he became the head of a
band of robbers, who kept the whole country in terror. When the Apostle
next visited the town, he asked after the charge which he had put into
the bishop's hands. The bishop, with shame and grief, answered that the
young man was dead, and, on being further questioned, he explained that
he meant _dead in sins_, and told all the story. St. John, after having
blamed him because he had not taken more care, asked where the robbers
were to be found, and set off on horseback for their haunt, where he was
seized by some of the band, and was carried before the captain. The
young man, on seeing him, knew him at once, and could not bear his look,
but ran away to hide himself. But the Apostle called him back, told him
that there was yet hope for him through Christ, and spoke in such a
moving way that the robber agreed to return to the town. There he was
once more received into the Church as a penitent; and he spent the rest
of his days in repentance for his sins, and in thankfulness for the
mercy which had been shown to him.

St. John, in his old age, was much troubled by false teachers, who had
begun to corrupt the Gospel. These persons are called _heretics_, and
their doctrines are called _heresy_, from a Greek word which means to
_choose_, because they _chose_ to follow their own fancies, instead of
receiving the Gospel as the Apostles and the Church taught it. Simon
the sorcerer, who is mentioned in the eighth chapter of the Acts, is
counted as the first heretic, and even in the time of the Apostles a
number of others arose, such as Hymenaeus, Philetus, and Alexander, who
are mentioned by St. Paul (1 _Tim._ i. 19, 20; 2 _Tim._ ii. 17, 18).
These earliest heretics were mostly of the kind called _Gnostics_,--a
word which means that they pretended to be more _knowing_ than ordin