The Primitive Church

The virtues of the primitive Church cannot be counted. I will not talk about what kind of love existed between the brothers then, what a strange love was, what virtues! Pliny, the second chief of Bithynia, writes to Trajan that the Christians, gathering every day, take an oath not to do any evil deeds, but not to commit theft, fornication, murder, lies, slander and the like. . They were diligent in building temples, multiplying altars, decorating temples, arranging and expanding them, as evidenced by Acts: “And they stayed unanimously in the temple every day, and breaking bread from house to house, eating food with gladness and in the simplicity of the heart” ( Acts 2:46 ). Here is the best endeavor, here is a marvelous dispensation! Where are these Christians now? Where are the builders of the holy church? - St. Dimitri of Rostov