is manifest from the chain of reminders and injunctions to the faithful which exists in the contemporary writings we possess of leading Christians, dating from the latter years of the first and all through the second and third centuries.
The words they heard, and the matters decided upon at these gatherings, more or less coloured and guided the life and conduct of Christians in the world. From the first the Sunday meeting seems to have been obligatory; but these meetings of the brethren were by no means confined to the general assembly on Sunday. So we read in the Didaché (the Teaching of the Apostles), a writing probably dating from the latter years of the first century: "Thou shalt seek out every day the company of the Saints, to be refreshed by their words."[1] "Let us," writes Clement, bishop of Rome (circa A.D. 95), "ourselves then being gathered together in concord with intentness of heart, cry unto Him as from one mouth earnestly, that we may be made partakers of His great and glorious promise."[2]
So S. Ignatius (circa A.D. 107-10) in his Epistle to the Ephesian Church[3] writes: "Do your diligence therefore to meet together more frequently for thanksgiving to God, and for His glory; for when ye meet together frequently the powers of Satan are cast down, and his mischief cometh to nought in the concord of your faith."
In his letter to Polycarp he says: "Let meetings be held more frequently."[4]
Barnabas (circa A.D. 120-30): "Keep not apart by yourselves, as if you were already justified; but meet together, and confer upon the common weal.[5]
Justin Martyr—in his first Apology, written in the middle of the second century—describes these meetings of the brethren with some detail.[6]
A very striking passage occurs in a writing of Theophilus, the sixth bishop of Antioch, addressed to his friend Autolycus. Its date is between A.D. 168 and A.D. 181. The power which
