provincial cities.  The address which he delivered to the assembled elders certainly conveys the impression that they did not all belong to the metropolis, and its very first sentence suggests such an inference.  “When they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.” [259:1] The evangelist informs us that he had spent only two years and three months at Ephesus, [259:2] and yet he here tells his audience that “by the space of three years” he had not ceased to warn every one night and day with tears. [259:3] He says also “I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more,” [259:4]—­thereby intimating that his auditors were not resident in one locality.  We have also distinct evidence that when Paul formerly ministered at Ephesus, there were Christian societies throughout the province, for in his First Epistle to the Corinthians written from that city, [259:5] he sends his correspondents the salutations of “the Churches of Asia.” [259:6] These Churches must obviously have been united by the ties of Christian fellowship; and the apostle must have been in close communication with them when he was thus employed as the medium of conveyance for the expression of their evangelical attachment.

In other parts of the New Testament we may discern traces of consociation among the primitive Churches.  Thus, Paul, their founder, sends to “the Churches of Galatia” [259:7] a common letter in which he requires them to “serve one another,” [259:8] and to “bear one another’s burdens.” [259:9] Without some species of united action, the Galatians could not well have obeyed such admonitions.  Peter also, when writing to the disciples “scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” [259:10] represents them as an associated body.  “The elders,” says he, “which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder....feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof.” [260:1] This “flock of God,” which was evidently equivalent to the “Church of God,” [260:2] was spread over a large territory; and yet the apostle suggests that the elders were conjointly charged with its supervision.  Had the Churches scattered throughout so many provinces been a multitude of independent congregations, Peter would not have described them as one “flock” of which these rulers had the oversight.

But, though the elders of congregations in adjoining provinces could maintain ecclesiastical intercourse, and meet together at least occasionally or by delegates, it was otherwise with Churches in different countries.  Even these, however, cultivated the communion of saints; for there are evidences that they corresponded with each other by letters or deputations.  The attentive reader of the inspired epistles must have observed how the apostles contrived to keep open a door of