To Timothy, my true Child in the Faith: May God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Lord, bless you, and be merciful to you, and give you peace.

This, then, is the charge that I lay upon you, Timothy, my Child, in accordance with what was predicted of you--Fight the good fight in the spirit of those predictions,

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be offered for every one,

whose will is that every one should be saved, and attain to a full knowledge of the Truth.

My desire, then, is that it should be the custom everywhere for the men to lead the prayers, with hands reverently uplifted, avoiding heated controversy.

I also desire that women should adorn themselves with appropriate dress, worn quietly and modestly, and not with wreaths or gold ornaments for the hair, or pearls, or costly clothing,

A woman should listen silently to her teachers, and show them all deference.

The Presiding-Officer should be a man of blameless character; a faithful husband; living a temperate, discreet, and well-ordered life; hospitable, and a skillful teacher,

he should be a man who rules his own household well, and whose children are kept under control and are well-behaved.

The Presiding-Officer should not be a recent convert, that he may not be blinded by pride and fall under the same condemnation as the Devil.

He should also be well spoken of by outsiders, that he may not incur censure and so fall into the snares of the Devil.

So, too, Assistant-Officers should be serious and straightforward men, not given to taking much drink or to questionable money-making,

They should be tested first, and only appointed to their Office if no objection is raised against them.

It should be the same with the women. They should be serious, not gossips, sober, and trustworthy in all respects.

Assistant-Officers should be faithful husbands, and men who rule their children and their households well.

but in case I should be delayed, I want you to know what your conduct ought to be in the Household of God, which is the Church of the Living God--the pillar and stay of the Truth.

Those are the points on which you should dwell, that there may be no call for your censure.

A widow, when her name is added to the list, should not be less than sixty years old; she should have been a faithful wife,

and be well spoken of for her kind actions. She should have brought up children, have shown hospitality to strangers, have washed the feet of her fellow Christians, have relieved those who were in distress, and devoted herself to every kind of good action.

But you should exclude the younger widows from the list; for, when they grow restive under the yoke of the Christ, they want to marry,

Those Officers of the Church who fill their office well should be held deserving of especial consideration, particularly those whose work lies in preaching and teaching.

The words of Scripture are-- 'Thou shalt not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain.' and again-- 'The worker is worth his wages.'

All who are in the position of slaves should regard their masters as deserving of the greatest respect, so that the Name of God, and our Teaching, may not be maligned.

Those who have Christian masters should not think less of them because they are their Brothers, but on the contrary they should serve them all the better, because those who are to benefit by their good work are dear to them as their fellow Christians. Those are the things to insist upon in your teaching.