ample, and gives His followers grace to profit by it, to glorify Him, and secure the end of their creation. When light passes through loathsome or infected places, it emerges as pure and uncontaminated as it entered; thus Christ and His apostolic followers, although they converse and treat with sinners, do not partake of their uncleanness. Hence, no one whose duty it is to reclaim sinners ought to fear the danger of corruption, if he act in obedience to God, and follow the example of Christ and His apostles.
"Christ says, that no one puts a light under a bushel. Thus He reprehends those who do not employ the talents which they have received in enlightening their neighbors, but hide their light, from pusillanimity or sloth. They ought to imitate the stars at their creation, of which Baruch speaks in the sublimest strains. 'They were called by the Almighty,' says the prophet, 'and they said, here we are, and with cheerfulness they have shined forth to Him, that made them' " (Bar. iii. 25).
And again in reference to the words: "You are the salt of the earth" (Matt v. 13), the same writer says:
"As salt preserves from corruption and putrefaction, so is it the part of all apostolical men to preserve souls from the corruption of sin, and to render the exercise of virtue palatable and agreeable to them. These men, then, ought to be pure and refined from all the dross and alloy of earthly passion by the influence of divine charity, in order
