flour, sirs, I said, which was prescribed to be presented on behalf of those purified from leprosy, was a type of the bread of the Eucharist; the celebration of which our Lord Jesus Christ prescribed, in remembrance of the suffering which He endured on behalf of those who are purified in soul from iniquity; in order that we may at the same time thank God for having created the world with all things therein for the sake of man; and for delivering us from the evil in which we were, and for utterly overthrowing principalities and powers by Him who suffered according to His will."

(Chap. XCIII.): "More than this, you suppose that He (Christ) was crucified as hostile to you and cursed by God; which supposition is the product of your most irrational mind."

(Chap. XCIV.): "He produced the mystery by which He declared that He would break the power of the serpent which occasioned the transgression of Adam, and would bring to them that believe on Him (who was forshadowed) by

this sign, i. e., Him who was to be crucified, salvation from the fangs of the serpent.

"Just as God commanded the sign to be made by the brazen serpent, and yet he is blameless; even so, though a curse lies in the law against persons who are crucified, yet no curse lies on the Christ of God, by whom all that have committed things worthy of a curse are saved."

He does not understand St. Paul to mean (Gal. III. 13.) that Christ was cursed of God; for he writes (Chap. XCVI.): "For the statement in the law, 'Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,' confirms our hope which depends on the crucified Christ; not because He who has been crucified is cursed by God, but because God foretold that which would be done by you, all and by those like to you, who do not know that this is He who existed before all; who is the eternal priest of God, and King, and Christ." In other words, Christ was accursed by the Jews, and not cursed by God as being a sin-bearer on the cross.

In another place he translates the prophecy of Isaiah from the Septuagint: "The discipline, (paideia-not chastisement) of our peace was upon Him."

Speaking of the temptation he writes (Chap. CXXV.): "Accordingly the name Israel signifies this: A man who overcomes power; for Isra is a man overcoming and El is power. And that Christ would act so when He became man, was foretold by the mystery of Jacob's wrestling with Him who appeared to him, in that He ministered to the will of the Father, yet nevertheless is God, in that He is the first begotten of all creatures. For when He became man, as I previously remarked, the devil came to Him, i. e., that power which is called the serpent and Satan-tempting Him and striving to effect His downfall, by asking Him to worship him. But He destroyed and overthrew the devil, having proved him to be wicked, in that he asked to be worshipped as God, contrary to the Scripture: who is an apostate from the will

of God. For He answers Satan: 'It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.' Then overcome and convicted, the devil departed at that time."

Again, an important passage is found in Chap. CXXXIV.: "Jacob served Laban for speckled and many-spotted sheep; and Christ served even to the slavery of the Cross, for the various and many-formed races of mankind, acquiring them by the blood and mystery of the Cross."

ST. IRENEUS (A.D. 120-202)—A valiant soldier of the faith. He was a pupil of Polycarp; and after becoming a presbyter he was sent to labor with a fellow-student, Pothinus, then Bishop of Lyons (Gaul). Afterward he was sent to Rome to condemn certain heresies, but found, on reaching the Imperial City, that the Bishop of Rome and an old friend have embraced respectively the Montanist and Valentinian

heresies. Saddened in heart, he returned to Lyons only to find that a martyr's death had claimed the holy Pothinus, and naturally he was called upon to succeed him (A.D. 177). Faithfully he labored to evangelize southern Gaul, and sent missionaries to what we France. He did more than this; for with his pen he effectively contended against the enemies of the faith, and in doing so expressed himself in plainer words than any of his predecessors.

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His teaching was almost universally accepted, for nearly a thousand years, as being next to inspired. A recent American editor declares that "his work 'Against Heresies' is one of the most precious remains of early Christian antiquity." It is devoted, on the one hand, to an account of those multiform Gnostic heresies which prevailed in the latter half of the second century; and, on the other hand, to an exposition and defense of the Christian faith. We quote (Book III., Chap. XVIII., 6): "He