IGNATIUS, in writing to the Church at Antioch--of which he himself was pastor--says: "Salute the Deaconesses in Christ Jesus." Tertullian speaks particularly of a Deaconess who was of a very tender age.[2] Their office was so respected, that a bishop was deposed for having received into it a woman who had been excommunicated;[3] and it often fell to their lot to share the glories of martyrdom with the most holy confessors of the faith.[4] How long this order continued in the Christian Church is not absolutely certain. Up to the commencement of the fourth century it, however, preserved itself free from abuses, but became corrupted in the fifth and sixth, and ended by disappearing in the Latin Church in the eighth, when the Papacy became finally constituted. In the Greek Church this office continued several hundred years, and Deaconesses pursued their self-denying service in the Christian Churches of Constantinople to the close of the twelfth century.[5]--WM. A. PASSAVANT, _Institution of Deaconesses_. [Footnote 2: Tertull. vel. de virg.] [Footnote 3: Sozam, lib. iv. c. 14.] [Footnote 4: Plin. Ep. ad. Traj.] [Footnote 5: Suicer, Thesaur, tom. i. p. 896.] Literary Notices. LIBERIA; _or, Mr. Peyton's Experiments_. Edited by Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, author of "Woman's Record." etc. etc. The author has furnished us with a copy of this work, which at once addresses itself to the good sense and the good feelings of all persons who are sincerely interested in Christian practical efforts to ameliorate and to elevate the condition of the African race. We think it has been fully demonstrated in this volume that the only sure plan for the attainment of those desirable ends is that proposed, and, it may now be said, successfully carried out by the American Colonization Society. In order to establish this important truth, the author has been at great pains to present us with the real character and condition of the negro while in a state of slavery, and his improvidence and want of energy, as generally exhibited, when set free and furnished with land in the midst of a white population. The prejudices against which he has to contend in our large cities, their paralyzing effects, and the wretchedness to which he is often reduced in consequence, are also fully contrasted with the independent and prosperous condition of those who have been settled in Liberia, and who have raised themselves to a standard of Christianity, civilization, statesmanship, and orderly government, which might, indeed, be questioned, did not indisputable evidences of their astonishing and successful progress accompany all the statements of the author. This work, therefore, commends itself not only to the attention of those who are anxious to benefit an unhappy race, but also to the serious consideration of such of that race as have sufficient intelligence to comprehend their true interests, and sufficient energy to follow their dictates. * * * * *