LXIII. That a Christian Who Will Not Work Must Not Eat, as Peter and the Rest of the Apostles Were Fishermen, But Paul and Aquila Tentmakers, Jude the Son of James an Husbandman.

Let the young persons of the Church endeavour to minister diligently in all necessaries: mind your business with all becoming seriousness, that so you may always have sufficient to support yourselves and those that are needy, and not burden the Church of God. For we ourselves, besides our attention to the word of the Gospel, do not neglect our inferior employments. For some of us are fishermen, some tentmakers, some husbandmen, that so we may never be idle. So says Solomon somewhere: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways diligently, and become wiser than she. For she, having neither field, overseer, nor ruler, prepareth her food in the summer, and layeth up a great store in the harvest. Or else go to the bee, and learn how laborious she is, and her work how valuable it is, whose labours both kings and mean men make use of for their health. She is desirable and glorious, though she be weak in strength, yet by honouring wisdom she is improved, etc. How long wilt thou lie on thy bed, O sluggard? When wilt thou wake out of thy sleep? Thou sleepest awhile thou liest down awhile, thou slumberest awhile, thou foldest thy hands on thy breast to sleep awhile. Then poverty comes on thee like an evil traveller, and want as a swift racer. But if thou beest diligent, thy harvest shall come as a fountain, and want shall fly from thee as an evil runagate."¹ And again: "He that manageth his own land shall be filled with bread."² And elsewhere he says: "The slothful has folded his own hands together, and has eaten his own flesh."³ And afterwards: "The sluggard hides his hand; he will not be able to bring it to his mouth."⁴ And again: "By slothfulness of the hands a floor will be brought low."⁵ Labour therefore continually; for the blot of the slothful is not to be healed. But "if any one does not work, let not such a one eat"⁶ among you. For the Lord our God hates the slothful. For no one of those who are dedicated to God ought to be idle.

Elucidation.

(To purchase a slave, and save a soul, [271]p. 424.)

The calm and patient course of the Church in gradually obliterating slavery has been well defended by the pious Spanish Ultramontane writer Jacques Balmès.⁷ Of course, he imagines that "the Catholic Church," which wrought the change, was his own Tridentine Communion,⁸ Lecky's remarks on the gladiators and slavery as the product of famines and distress are worthy of note, and even he is forced to recognise the ameliorating influences of Christianity from the beginning.⁹ He says:--

"Christianity for the first time made charity a rudimentary virtue, giving it a foremost place in the moral type and in the exhortations of its teachers. Besides its general influence in stimulating the affections, it effected a complete revolution in this sphere, by representing the poor as the special representatives of the Christian founder, and thus making the love of Christ rather than the love of man the principle of charity. Even in the days of persecution, collections for the relief of the poor were made at the Sunday meetings. The agapae, or feasts of love, were intended mainly for the poor; and food that was saved by the fasts was devoted to their benefit. A vast organization of charity, presided over by the bishops, and actively directed by the deacons, soon ramified over Christendom, till the bond of charity became the bond of unity, and the most distant sections of the Christian Church corresponded by the interchange of mercy.¹⁰ Long before the era of Constantine it was observed that the charities of the Christians were so extensive--it may perhaps be said so excessive--that they drew very many impostors to the Church; and, when the victory of Christianity was achieved, the enthusiasm for charity displayed itself in the erection of numerous institutions that were altogether unknown to the pagan world."