But the Apostle called him back, told him that there was yet hope for him through Christ, and spoke in such a moving way that the robber agreed to return to the town. There he was once more received into the Church as a penitent; and he spent the rest of his days in repentance for his sins, and in thankfulness for the mercy which had been shown to him. St. John, in his old age, was much troubled by false teachers, who had begun to corrupt the Gospel. These persons are called _heretics_, and their doctrines are called _heresy_, from a Greek word which means to _choose_, because they _chose_ to follow their own fancies, instead of receiving the Gospel as the Apostles and the Church taught it. Simon the sorcerer, who is mentioned in the eighth chapter of the Acts, is counted as the first heretic, and even in the time of the Apostles a number of others arose, such as Hymenæus, Philetus, and Alexander, who are mentioned by St. Paul (1 _Tim._ i. 19, 20; 2 _Tim._ ii. 17, 18). These earliest heretics were mostly of the kind called _Gnostics_,--a word which means that they pretended to be more _knowing_ than ordinary Christians; and perhaps St. Paul may have meant them especially when he warned Timothy against "science" (or _knowledge_) "falsely so called" (1 _Tim._ vi. 20). Their doctrines were a strange mixture of Jewish and heathen notions with Christianity; and it is curious that some of the very strangest of their opinions have been brought up again from time to time by people who fancied that they had found out something new, while they had only fallen into old errors, which had been condemned by the Church hundreds of years before. St. John lived to about the age of a hundred. He was at last so weak that he could not walk into the church; so he was carried in, and used to say continually to his people, "Little children, love one another." Some of them, after a time, began to be tired of hearing this, and asked him why he repeated the words so often, and said nothing else to them. The Apostle answered, "Because it is the Lord's commandment, and if this be done it is enough." CHAPTER II. ST. IGNATIUS. A.D. 116. When our Lord ascended into Heaven, He left the government of His Church to the Apostles. We are told that during the forty days between His rising from the grave and His ascension, He gave commandments unto the Apostles, and spoke of the things pertaining (or _belonging_) to the kingdom of God (_Acts_ i. 2, 3). Thus they knew what they were to do when their Master should be no longer with them; and one of the first things which they did, even without waiting until His promise of sending the Holy Ghost should be fulfilled, was to choose St. Matthias into the place which had been left empty by the fall of the traitor Judas (_Acts_ i. 15-26).