But what is _certain_ respecting the earliest ages of the Church is this; that in every Church regular instruction in the faith was given by persons in authority specially selected for this work, and that frequent intercourse between the Churches showed that the substance of the instruction given was in all cases the same, whether the form of words was identical or not. These facts, which do not by any means stand alone, are conclusive against the hypothesis, that between the Crucifixion and the middle of the second century, a complete revolution in the creed was effected; and that the traditional belief of Christians is not that which Jesus of Nazareth taught, but a perversion of it which owes its origin mainly to the overwhelming influence of His professed follower, but virtual supplanter, Saul of Tarsus. CHAPTER XXX. _THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE AS MILITARY SERVICE; AS AN ATHLETIC CONTEST; AS HUSBANDRY._ "Suffer hardships with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier. And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully. The husbandman that laboureth must be the first to partake of the fruits. Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things."--2 TIM. ii. 3-7. St. Paul represents the Christian life and the Christian ministry under a variety of figures. Sometimes as _husbandry_; as when he tells the Galatians that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap;" and that "in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Gal. vi. 7, 9); or when he reminds the Corinthians that "he that ploweth ought to plow in hope, and he that thresheth, to thresh in hope of partaking" (1 Cor. ix. 10). Sometimes as an _athletic contest_; as when he tells the Corinthians that "every man who striveth in the games is temperate in all things" (1 Cor ix. 25); or the Ephesians that "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. vi. 12). Sometimes, and most frequently, as _military service_; as when he charges the Thessalonians to "put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation" (1 Thess. v. 8); or when he writes to the Philippians of Epaphroditus as his "fellow-soldier" (Phil. ii. 25).