rks of Plato were extensively studied by the Church Fathers, one
of whom joyfully recognizes in the great teacher, the schoolmaster who,
in the fullness of time, was destined to educate the heathen for Christ,
as Moses did the Jews.[375:3]

The celebrated passage: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God,"[375:4] is a fragment of some Pagan
treatise on the Platonic philosophy, evidently written by
Irenaeus.[375:5] It is quoted by _Amelius_, a Pagan philosopher, as
strictly applicable to the Logos, or Mercury, the Word, apparently as an
honorable testimony borne to the Pagan deity by a barbarian--for such is
what he calls the writer of John i. 1. His words are:

"This plainly was the Word, by whom all things were made, he
being himself eternal, as Heraclitus also would say; and by
Jove, the same whom the _barbarian_ affirms to have been in
the place and dignity of a principal, and to be with God, and
to be God, by whom all things were made, and in whom
everything that was made has its life and being."[375:6]

The Christian Father, Justin Martyr, _apologizing_ for the Christian
religion, tells the Emperor Antoninus Pius, that the Pagans need not
taunt the Christians for worshiping the Logos, which "was with God, and
was God," as _they were also guilty of the same act_.

"If we (Christians) hold," says he, "some opinions near of kin
to the poets and philosophers, in great repute among you, why
are we thus unjustly hated?" "There's _Mercury_, Jove's
interpreter, in imitation of the Logos, in worship among you,"
and "as to the Son of God, called Jesus, should we allow him
to be nothing more than man, yet the title of the 'Son of God'
is very justifiable, upon the account of his wisdom,
considering _you_ have your _Mercury_, (also called the 'Son
of God') in worship under the title of the _Word_ and
Messenger of God."[375:7]

We see, then, that the title "Word" or "Logos," being applied to Jesus,
is another piece of Pagan amalgamation with Christianity. _It did not
receive its authorized Christian form until the middle of the second
century after Christ._[376:1]

The ancient Pagan _Romans_ worshiped a Trinity. An oracle is said to
have declared that there was, "first God, then the Word, and with them
the Spirit."[376:2]

Here we see distinctly enumerated, God, the Logos, and the Spirit or
Holy Ghost,