CHAPTERS FROM THE EPISTLE OF POLYCARP TO THE PHILIPPIANS.

(Referred to in Note page 104.)

Chapter II. Wherefore, girding up your loins (Eph. vi. 14; I. Pet.:. i. 13) serve the Lord in fear and truth, as those who have forsaken the vain, empty talk and error of the multitude, and believed in Him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave Him glory (1. Pet. i. 21) and a throne at his right hand. To Him all things in heaven and on earth are subject (Phil. ii. 10; 1. Pet. iii. 22). Him every spirit serves. He comes as the judge of the living and the dead (Acts x. 42). His blood will God require of those who do not believe in him. Rut He who raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also (II. Cor. iv. 14) if we do his will, and walk in his commandments, and love what he loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil-speaking, false-witness; not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing (I. Pet. iii. 9) or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing, but being mindful of what he said in his teaching; judge not that ye be not judged (Matt. vii. 1); forgive and it shall be forgiven you (Matt. vi. 12, 14); be merciful that ye may obtain mercy (Luke vi. 3ft); with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again (Matt. vii. 2; Luke vi. 38); and once more, blessed are the poor, and those that are persecuted for righteousness1 sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of God (Luke vi. 20; Matt. v. 10).

Chaper IV. But the love of money is the root of all evils (I. Tim. vi. 10). Knowing, therefore, that as we brought nothing into the world, so we can carry nothing out (I. Tim. vi. 7), let us arm ourselves with the armor of righteousness (Eph. vi. 11), and let us teach first of all ourselves to walk in the commandments of the Lord. Next, your wives in the faith given to them, and in love and purity tenderly loving their own husbands in all truth, and loving all equally in all chastity, and to train up their children in the knowledge and fear of God. Teach the widows to be discreet as respects the faith of the Lord, praying continually (I. Thes. v. 17) for all, being far from all slandering, evil speaking, false-witnessing, love of money, and every kind of evil; knowing that they are the altars of God, that He clearly perceives all things, and that nothing is hid from Him, neither reasonings, nor reflections, nor any one of the secret things of the heart.

Chapter. VII. For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is anti-Christ (I. John iv. 3), and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning, watching unto prayer (I. Pet. iv. 7); and persevering in fasting, beseeching in our supplication the all-seeing God not to lead us into temptation (Matt. vi. 13) as the Lord said: "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. xxvi. 41; Mark xiv. 38).