PREFACE.

idolatry of those who were listening to the words of Addai. No more conclusive logic against the worship of images and created things is to be met with in the present day. The effect of his preaching was great. By the power of that discourse numbers were persuaded to forsake the idolatry which they had practised, and to embrace the worship of the invisible God. Addai, in his farewell discourse, charges those who were ordained to the ministry, the deacons and priests, to take heed to the duties of their office; for before the judgment-seat of Christ, they would be required to render an account. There are some parts of this address which remind the reader of passages to be met with in the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy. The duty of the minister is very impressively set forth, and as a whole, it is a model of a pastoral address. Throughout the two discourses, we find nothing but the utterances of pure and eternal truth; discourses worthy of the time in which Addai lived, and worthy of one ordained to the Christian ministry by Christ Himself.

The great antiquity of this document must invest it with deep interest from every point of view. It stands chronologically at the head of Syriac classics, and is certainly to be regarded as important both for theological and linguistic purposes. Impressed with this consideration, I have been induced to submit the Syriac text in