ary
Christians; and perhaps St. Paul may have meant them especially when he
warned Timothy against "science" (or _knowledge_) "falsely so called" (1
_Tim._ vi. 20). Their doctrines were a strange mixture of Jewish and
heathen notions with Christianity; and it is curious that some of the
very strangest of their opinions have been brought up again from time to
time by people who fancied that they had found out something new, while
they had only fallen into old errors, which had been condemned by the
Church hundreds of years before.

St. John lived to about the age of a hundred. He was at last so weak
that he could not walk into the church; so he was carried in, and used
to say continually to his people, "Little children, love one another."
Some of them, after a time, began to be tired of hearing this, and asked
him why he repeated the words so often, and said nothing else to them.
The Apostle answered, "Because it is the Lord's commandment, and if this
be done it is enough."

CHAPTER II.

ST. IGNATIUS.

A.D. 116.

When our Lord ascended into Heaven, He left the government of His Church
to the Apostles. We are told that during the forty days between His
rising from the grave and His ascension, He gave commandments unto the
Apostles, and spoke of the things pertaining (or _belonging_) to the
kingdom of God (_Acts_ i. 2, 3). Thus they knew what they were to do
when their Master should be no longer with them; and one of the first
things which they did, even without waiting until His promise of sending
the Holy Ghost should be fulfilled, was to choose St. Matthias into the
place which had been left empty by the fall of the traitor Judas (_Acts_
i. 15-26).

After this we find that they appointed other persons to help them in
their work. First, they appointed the _deacons_, to take care of the
poor and to assist in other services. Then they appointed _presbyters_
(or _elders_), to undertake the charge of congregations. Afterwards, we
find St. Paul sending Timothy to Ephesus, and Titus into the island of
Crete (now called _Candia_), with power to "ordain elders in every city"
(_Tit._ i. 5), and to govern all the churches within a large country.
Thus, then, three kinds (or _orders_) of ministers of the Church are
mentioned in the Acts and Epistles. The _deacons_ are lowest; the
_presbyters_, or _elders_, are next; and, above these, there is a higher
order, made up of the Apostles themselves, with such persons as Ti