Didache

On the Lord’s Day of the Lord come together,[*](The Sunday worship) break bread and hold Eucharist, after confessing your transgressions that your offering may be pure;

but let none who has a quarrel with his fellow join in your meeting until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice be not defiled.

For this is that which was spoken by the Lord, In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice, for I am a great king, saith the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the heathen.

Appoint therefore for yourselves bishops and[*](Bishops and Deacons) deacons worthy of the Lord, meek men, and not lovers of money, and truthful and approved, for they also minister to you the ministry of the prophets and teachers.

Therefore do not despise them, for they are your honourable men together with the prophets and teachers.

And reprove one another not in wrath but in[*](Mutual reproofs) peace as you find in the Gospel, and let none speak with any who has done a wrong to his neighbour, nor let him hear a word from you until he repents.

But your prayers and alms and all your acts perform as ye find in the Gospel of our Lord.

Watch over your life: let your lamps be[*](Warning that the end is at hand) not quenched and your loins be not ungirded, but be ready, for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh.

But be frequently gathered together seeking the things which are profitable for your souls, for the whole time of your faith shall not profit you except ye be found perfect at the last time;

for in the last days the false prophets and the corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall change to hate;

for as lawlessness increaseth they shall hate one another and persecute and betray, and then shall appear the deceiver of the world as a Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders and the earth shall be given over into his hands and he shall commit iniquities which have never been since the world began.

Then shall the creation of mankind come to the fiery trial and many shall be offended and be lost, but they who endure in their faith shall be saved by the curse itself.[*](The meaning is obscure; but there seem to be other traces in early literature of a doctrine that each curse also contained the elements of a counterbalancing power to salvation. There is a valuable and long note on the subject in Rendel Harris’s edition of the Didache.)