and charity, are needful to bear with the wickedness of the sinful, and the waywardness of the good. The shepherd must go in all things before the flock, or they cannot follow him. He must first have acquired what he is to teach them, and he will teach them less by what he says than by what he is. It is the living word that converts, sustains, and sanctifies the hearts of men. Summa dicere et ima facere is a provocation of God and man. The parable of the beam and the mote should be inscribed on the wall in every seminary, and in the conscience of every priest. S. Paul's words are terrible to the priest who is a priest by ordination, but not by sanctity, "Thou makest thy boast of God, and knowest His will, and approvest the more profitable things, being instructed by the law: art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light to them that are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. Thou, therefore, that teachest another, teachest not thyself: thou that preachest that man should not steal and (thou) stealest: thou, that sayest man should not commit adultery, (thou) committest adultery."[1] Physician, heal thyself. How, as S. Gregory says, can a priest heal others, "with an ulcer in his own face"?[2] A priest
- ↑ Rom. ii. 17-22.
- ↑ Reg. Past. P. i. c. ix.
