Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 4.djvu/316

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312
THE INSTRUCTOR.
[Book iii.

opposite extreme, but to the medium between these, that which is harmonious and temperate, and free of either evil, luxury and parsimony. And now, as we have also previously remarked, attending to one's own wants is an exercise free of pride,—as, for example, putting on one's own shoes, washing one's own feet, and also rubbing one's self when anointed with oil. To render one who has rubbed you the same service in return, is an exercise of reciprocal justice; and to sleep beside a sick friend, help the infirm, and supply him who is in want, are proper exercises. "And Abraham," it is said, "served up for three, dinner under a tree, and waited on them as they ate."[1] The same with fishing, as in the case of Peter, if we have leisure from necessary instructions in the Word. But that is the better sport which the Lord assigned to the disciple, when He taught him to "catch men" as fishes in the water.


  1. Gen. xviii. 8.