CHAPTER VI. 



THOSE WHO HELPED THE APOSTLES. 



THE FIRST DEACONS PRESBYTERS DISCIPLES — 



DEACONESSES — GROWTH IN THE FIRST CENTURY. 



Although it was made the especial work of the 

 Apostles to establish the Church, and although they 

 took the lead in carrying forward the good work, 

 we are not to think of them as laboring on alone 

 without help and sympathy. Very early after that 

 first Pentecost we learn of the ordination of the first 

 Deacons, whose immediate work was the care of 

 the poor, but whose zeal led to their preaching the 

 good news of salvation. The first martyr was a 

 Deacon. The account of St. Stephen's death, Acts 

 vii. St. Philip the Deacon baptized the treasurer of 

 Ethiopia, Acts viii . Doubtless the number of these 

 Deacons was greatly multiplied, and many were 

 promoted to the second rank, that of the Elders, or 

 Presbyters, and here and there, in different places, 

 some of the Presbyters were made Bishops, as was 

 the case with St. Timothy. (See Epistle to him.) 

 As soon as the Church was planted in a place, the 



