When one of her sisters repeated the words of the hymn, "Jesus, I will trust Thee," she sang the verse right through to her tune "Hermas."

The fathers of the Christian church, Tatian, Hermas, Theophilus, and Tertullian, believing that all the truth was contained in Christianity, utterly condemned the philosophy and religion of the Greeks and consequently the poetry which, according to Greek popular belief, was the inspired vehicle for its presentation.

Tatian, Hermas, Theophilus, and Tertullian savagely attacked profane poetry, and in defending it Basil, Athenagoras, Clement, and Origen were forced not unwillingly to rely more and more on the traditional moralistic theory of poetry which was so familiar to them.

Words of Shepherd of Hermas.

Says the Shepherd of Hermas: "Love the truth, and let nothing but truth proceed from your mouth, that the spirit which God has placed in your flesh may be found truthful before all men; and the Lord, who dwelleth in you, will be glorified, because the Lord is truthful in every word, and in him is no falsehood.

The first of these positions is that maintained by the Shepherd of Hermas, by Justin Martyr, by Basil the Great, and by Augustine; the second is practically that occupied by Gregory of Nyssa and Chrysostom, even though they do not explicitly define, or even seem to perceive, it as their position.

And while it was Christian Fathers, like the Shepherd of Hermas, and Justin Martyr, and Basil the Great, and Augustine, who insisted that no tolerance should be allowed to falsehood or deceit, it was also Christian Fathers, like Gregory of Nyssa, and Chrysostom, who having practiced deceit for what they deemed a good end, first attempted a special plea for such falsities as they had found convenient in their professional labors.

He is very eloquent upon the Shepherd of Hermas, Theagenes and Chariclea, and the Ethiopics of Heliodorus.

[Endnote 264:1] The Pastor of Hermas, a work of recent date, may be read but not published in the Church before the people, and cannot be included either in the number of the prophets or apostles.

A sufficiently clear indication seems to be given in the language used respecting the Pastor of Hermas.

The most probable construction seems to be that the unknown author meant that the Pastor of Hermas was composed within his own memory.

Neither, considering its almost esoteric character and the slow rate at which such a work would travel at first, should we be very much surprised if it was not in the hands of Barnabas (probably in Alexandria) and Hermas (at Rome).

In no case indeed could the silence of these two writers be of much moment, as in the Epistle of Barnabas the allusions to the New Testament literature are extremely few and slight, while in the Shepherd of Hermas there are no clear and certain references either to the Old Testament or the New Testament at all.

* A similar condition of things may be predicated of the Shepherd of Hermas, though with a more decided leaning to the negative side.

| | | Hermas.

APOSTOLIC FATHERS (The Five): Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Hermas, Igna'tius, and Polycarp.

"Of the writings of the apostolic fathers of the first century, but few have come down to us; yet we have in those of barnabas, clement of rome, hermas, ignatius, and polycarp, very certain evidence of the authenticity of the New Testament, and the New Testament is a voucher for the old."Id.

"Of the writings of the apostolic fathers of the first century, but few have come down to us; yet we have in those of Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, very certain evidence of the authenticity of the New Testament, and the New Testament is a voucher for the Old."Id.

SEE Bement, Newton S. BRIFFAULT, HERMA HOYT.

Herma Hoyt Briffault (Mrs. Robert Briffault) (W); 8Feb60; R251995. BRIFFAULT, MRS.

SEE Briffault, Herma Hoyt.

But for Barnabas and Hermas I felt a contempt so profound, that I could hardly believe them genuine.

APOSTOLIC FATHERS, Fathers of the Church who lived the same time as the Apostles: Clemens, Barnabas Polycarp, Ignatius, and Hermas.

HERMAS, one of the Apostolic Fathers of the Church; wrote a work in Greek called the "Shepherd of Hermas," extant in Latin, and treating of Christian duties.

HERMAS, one of the Apostolic Fathers of the Church; wrote a work in Greek called the "Shepherd of Hermas," extant in Latin, and treating of Christian duties.