mind.”  The correctness of this judgment is manifest from the specimens which he gives of his writings; but it cannot invalidate the evidence we have from the above passages of the existence, in Papias’ day, of the gospels to which he refers.  As to the question whether these were our present canonical gospels of Matthew and Mark, it is sufficient to say that neither Eusebius nor any of the church fathers understood them differently.

9.  A very interesting relic of antiquity is the Epistle to Diognetus, of which the authorship is uncertain.  Its date cannot be later than the age of Justin Martyr, to whom it is ascribed by some.  It is, notwithstanding some erroneous views, a noble defence of Christianity, in which the author shows his acquaintance with the gospel of John by the use of terms and phrases peculiar to him.  Thus he calls Christ “the Word,” and “the only begotten Son,” whom God sent to men.  In the words, “not to take thought about raiment and food,” section 9, there is an apparent reference to Matt. 6:25, 31.

In addition to the above testimonies might be adduced some fragments of early Christian writers which have been preserved to us by those of a later day; but for brevity’s sake they are omitted.

10.  Following up the stream of testimony, we come now to that of the so-called apostolic fathers; that is, of men who were disciples of apostles, and wrote in the age next following them.  Holding, as they do, such a near relation to the apostles, and familiar with the oral traditions of the apostolic age, we cannot expect to find in them such frequent and formal references to the books of the New Testament as characterize the works of later writers.  They quote, for the most part, anonymously, interweaving with their own words those of the sacred writers.

One of the earliest among the apostolic fathers is Clement of Rome, who died about A.D. 100.  Of the numerous writings anciently ascribed to him, his First Epistle to the Corinthians is admitted, upon good evidence, to be genuine.  In this we find words which imply a knowledge of the first three gospels.  Citing evidently from memory, in a loose way, he says:  “For thus he”—­the Lord Jesus—­“spake, ’Be merciful, that ye may obtain mercy; forgive, that ye may be forgiven; as ye do, so shall it be done to you; as ye give, so shall it be given to you; as ye judge, so shall ye receive judgment; as ye are kind, so shall ye receive kindness; with what measure ye measure, with that it shall be measured to you.’” And again:  “For he said, ’Woe unto that man; it were better for him that he had not been born, than that he should offend one of my elect.’”

Ignatius was bishop of the church at Antioch, and suffered martyrdom A.D. 107, or according to some accounts, 116.  In his epistles, which are received as genuine, are manifest quotations from the gospel of Matthew, and some apparent though