In one respect Ignatius is peculiarly instructive for the study of the early Asian Churches, in which the

converts direct from Paganism must h ave been a numerous and important body. This peculiar position and

spirit of Pagan converts (coming direct from Paganism), as distinguished from Jews or those Pagans who

had come into the Church through the door of the Jewish synagogue, must engage our attention frequently

during the study of the Seven Letters; and Ignatius will prove the best introduction.

The Pagan converts had not the preliminary education in Jewish thoughts and religious ideas which a

previous acquaintance with the service of the synagogue had given those Gentiles who had been among

"the God-fearing" before they came over to Christianity. The direct passage from Paganism to Christianity

must have left a different mark on their nature. Doubtless, some or even many of them came from a state of

religious indifference or of vicious and degraded life. But others, and probably the majority of them, must

have previously had religious sensibility and religious aspirations. Now what became of those early

religious ideas during their later career as Christians? If they had previously entertained any religious

aspirations and thoughts, these must have sought expression, and occasionally met with stimulus and

found partial satisfaction in some forms of Pagan worship or speculation. Did these men, when they as

Christians looked back on their Pagan life, regard those moments of religious experience as being merely evil

and devilish; or did they see that such actions had been the groping and effort of nature towards God,

giving increased strength and vit ality to their longing after God, and that those moments had been really

steps in their progress, incomplete but not entirely wrong?

To this inevitable question Ignatius helps us to find an answer, applicable to some cases, though not, of

course, to all. That he had been a convert from Paganism is inferred with evident justification by Lightfoot

from his letter to the Romans. He was born into the Church out of due time, imperfect in nature, by an

irregular and violent birth, converted late, after a career which was to him a lasting cause of shame and

humiliation in his new life. That feeling might be considered as partly a cause of the profound humility which

he afterwards felt towards the long-established Ephesian Church. Hence he writes to the Romans: "I do not

give orders to you as Peter and Paul did: they were Apostles, I am a convict; they were free, but I am a slave

to this very hour." In the last expression we may see a reference, not to his having been literally a slave (as

many do), but to his havin g been formerly enslaved to the passions and desires of Paganism; from this

slavery he can hope to be set free completely only through death; death will give him liberty, and already

even in the journey to Rome and the preparation to meet death, "I am learning to put away every desire."

The remarkable passage in Eph. sect. 9 must arrest every reader's attention: "Ye are all companions in the

way, God-bearers, shrine-bearers, Christ-bearers, and bearers of your holy things, arrayed from head to foot

in the commandments of Jesus Christ; and I, too, taking part in the festival, am permitted by letter to bear

you company." The life of the Ephesian Christians is pictured after the analogy of a religious procession on

the occasion of a festival; life for them is one long religious festival and procession. Now at this time it is

impossible to suppose that public processions could have formed part of their worship. Imperial law and

custom, popular feeling, and the settled rule of conduct in the Church, all alike forbade such public and

provocative display of Christian worship. Moreover it is highly improbable that the Church had as yet come

to the stage when such ceremonial was admitted as part of the established ritual: the ceremonies of the

Church were still of a very simple and purely private character. It was only when the ceremonial could be

performed in public that it grew in magnificence and outward show.

Yet the passage sets before the readers in the most vivid way the picture of such a festal scene, with a t roop

of rejoicing devotees clad in the appropriate garments, bearing their religious symbols and holy things in

procession through the streets. That is exactly the scene which was presented to the eyes of all Ephesians

several times every year at the great festivals of the goddess; and Ignatius had often seen such processions

in his own city of Antioch. He cannot but have known what image his words would call up in the minds of