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PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



the New Testament was as yet unsettled. Strange 

 as it may seem in view of the assumed divine origin 

 of the Gospels and Epistles, human judgment took 

 upon itself to decide which of them were, and which 

 were not, an integral part of supernatural revelation. 

 The ultimate verdict, so far as the Western Church 

 was concerned, was delivered by the Council of 

 Carthage in the early part of the fifth century. There 

 arose a school of Apologists, founders of theology, 

 who, to quote Gibbon, " equipped the Christian re- 

 ligion for the conquest of the Roman world by 

 changing it into a philosophy, attested by Revela- 

 tion. They mingled together the metaphysics of 

 Platonism, the doctrine of the Logos, which came 

 from the Stoics, morality partly Platonic, partly 

 Stoic, methods of argument and interpretation learnt 

 from Philo, with the pregnant maxims of Jesus and 

 the religious language of the Christian congrega- 

 tions." Thus the road was opened for additions to 

 dogmatic theology, doctrines of the Trinity, of the 

 Virgin Birth, and whatever else could be inferentially 

 extracted from the Scriptures, and blended with for- 

 eign ideas. The growing complexity of creed called 

 for interpretation of it, and this obviously fell to the 

 overseers or bishops, chosen for their special gifts 

 of " the grace of the truth." These met, as occasion 

 required, to discuss subjects affecting the faith and 

 discipline of the several groups. Among such, pre- 

 cedence, as a matter of course, would be accorded to 

 the overseer of the most important Christian society 



