iii PREFACE. __________ With this volume, we begin the Works of St. Chrysostom. It contains a sketch of his life and labors, the book on the priesthood, the letters to Theodore, the catechetical instructions, and a selection of ascetic treatises, special homilies, letters to Olympias and Innocent, and the twenty-one Homilies on the Statues. The translations are entirely new, or thoroughly revised, by the Rev. W. R. W. Stephens, whose services I was so fortunate as to secure. He has written the best biography of St. Chrysostom and is thoroughly at home in his writings. He has taken great pains, with the aid of two friends, the Rev. T. P. Brandram and Rev. R. Blackburn, and is responsible for the whole volume, with the exception of the Prolegomena, which I wrote myself, to corres- pond with the Prolegomena to the works of St. Augustin. The other volumes of St. Chrysostom in this series will be devoted to his exegetical Homilies on the greater part of the New Testament. Philip Schaff. New York, March, 1889. Preface. 2 Preface.