my Name, if it be not that thou mayest follow my steps? Woe to those who bear so glorious a name idly and unworthily; who are called, I say, and are not Christians; who with their mouth say that they know me, but deny me in their deeds. So little care do very many take to follow me, or conduct themselves like true Christians! Better indeed would it have been for such not to have known my faith, which is the way of truth, than, when it was known, to have held it in injustice. Alas! how sad it is for me to see my Name and my mark everywhere so profaned!
Besides, if every one who says that he abides in me ought himself also to walk even as I walk,[1] much more inexcusable are those who say that they abide for me, and who discharge an embassage for me, that is, are dispensers of the Mysteries of God, and my Ministers, if they do not follow me. But now, those who should have followed me the most closely are often my bitterest persecutors, and they who eat my bread greatly supplant me. How is it that my beloved work much wickedness in my house?[2] How is it that even among them, no less than among the children of this world, reign envying and contention, pride and ambition, avarice and gluttony, luxury and pride?
Are not those works of the flesh and of darkness? But I am the true Light, and he that follows me does not walk in darkness. What concord has Christ with Belial? light with darkness? and thinkest thou that they deserve to be enrolled under my Name, and to share my lot, or are rightly called children of light, who love darkness rather than light? If similarity of conduct is what indeed produces and preserves friendship, how can I call those my friends who, in their conduct, are so unlike myself? Can I acknowledge them for my disciples who hate my discipline, and cast my words behind them?[3] Shall they be my Ministers who say, “ Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? ” [4]
Man. Teach me to do thy will, for thou art come a teacher from God, [5] and teachest indeed the way of God in truth, as one that has power. Thou begannest to do and to teach; grant that we may follow thee, and frame our life according to the pattern of thy own. For those whom thy Father has chosen he has called, that they may be conformed to the image of his Son. Oh, that thou
