POLYCARP.
POLYCARP was a friend of Ignatius. He was bishop of the; church at Smyrna; then, as now, a flourishing commercial city. He was born about the year 70 A. D., and converted when yet a child. He lived a pious and consistent life; so that he was revered by the church, and respected by the heathen. He had sat at the feet of John, the beloved Apostle, and had also enjoyed the privilege of conversing with other disciples of Jesus, who had themselves seen the Lord. Everything he heard from them, he treasured in his memory; and, in later years, he would repeat it to others: “And all this,” says Irenaeus, who, when a boy, had, in his turn, sat at the feet of Polycarp, “All this in complete harmony with the scriptures.”
This remark by Irenaeus was called forth by the perverseness of one to whom he was writing. Even in the apostles’ days men had arisen speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves, and these increased more and more as time went on; so that some even denied that Jesus Christ had come in flesh, causing Polycarp to exclaim with grief, “O, God! to what times hast Thou spared me, that I must suffer such things?”
When he was about ninety years old he undertook a journey to Rome to confer with the Bishop, Anicetus, about some differences, amongst which was the proper time for celebrating Easter. From this you may perceive that the observance of days, reprehended by the epistle to the Galatians, had gained much ground. However, the two soon settled, their differences; and as to Easter, they agreed to continue each as he had been doing without breaking off communication with the other.
Whilst he was in Rome, the heretic Marcion, who taught that Christ had no real human nature, endeavored to get Polycarp to recognize him, accosting him with, “You know us!” “I do know you,” was the reply, “to be the firstborn of Satan “So, though they agreed to differ about Easter-keeping, no neutrality was allowed when the person of their Lord was touched, nor, indeed, when such truths as the resurrection of the body, and the judgment, were denied. For he brands with the same epithet—the first born of Satan— “him who falsifies the sayings of the Lord after his own pleasure, and affirms that there is no resurrection and no judgment.”
After his return from Rome he enjoyed six months of uninterrupted activity. Then, on the occasion of some festive games, there arose an outburst of popular feeling against Christians. Of the martyrdoms which followed (one of those “ten days” foretold in Rev. 2) we have an account in a letter inscribed, “From the Church that sojourns at Smyrna to the Church that sojourns at Philomelium.”
After telling about the fortitude of some of the sufferers, “Who, though torn with whips till the frame and structure of their bodies were laid open even to their veins and arteries, yet meekly endured,” the letter goes on to describe the arrest, trial, and execution of the principal victim, whose death brought the persecution to an end. He did not, like Ignatius, voluntarily give himself up, but waited until he was apprehended; and even sought safety by removing to a neighboring village, when the multitude at last turned their thoughts towards him. He was quite unmoved when he heard they were demanding his death, and resolved to remain in the city; but affected by the entreaties of the brethren, he withdrew to the village, a short distance away Here he passed the time in prayer, day and night. “Three days before he was seized, while praying, he saw, in a vision, his pillow being consumed with fire, and, turning to those present, he said, “I must be burnt alive.”
ML 08/02/1903