Chapter VII.—Frugality a Good Provision for the Christian.
Delicacies spent on pleasures become a dangerousshipwreck to men; for this voluptuous and ignoble life of the many is
alien to true love for the beautiful and to refinedpleasures. For man
is by nature an erect and majestic being, aspiring after the good as
becomes the creature of the One. But the life which crawls on its belly
is destitute of dignity, is scandalous, hateful, ridiculous. And to the
divinenature voluptuousness is a thing most alien; for this is for a
man to be like sparrows in feeding, and swine and goats in lechery. For
to regard pleasure as a good thing, is the sign of utter ignorance of
what is excellent. Love of wealth displaces a man from the right mode of
life, and induces him to cease from feeling shame at what is shameful;
if only, like a beast, he has power to eat all sorts of things, and to
drink in like manner, and to satiate in every way his lewd desires. And
so very rarely does he inherit the kingdom of God. For what end, then,
are such dainty dishes prepared, but to fill one belly? The filthiness
of gluttony is proved by the sewers into which our bellies discharge
the refuse of our food. For what end do they collect so many cupbearers,
when they might satisfy themselves with one cup? For what the chests of
clothes? and the gold ornaments for what? Those things are prepared
for clothes-stealers, and scoundrels, and for greedyeyes. “But
let alms and faith not fail thee,”1638
Such the Lord sent as best for him. We,
then, on our journey to the truth, must be unencumbered. “Carry
not,” said the Lord, “purse, nor scrip, nor shoes;”1640
that is,
possess not wealth, which is only treasured up in a purse; fill not your
own stores, as if laying up produce in a bag, but communicate to those
who have need. Do not trouble yourselves about horses and servants,
who, as bearing burdens when the rich are travelling, are allegorically
called shoes.
We must, then, cast away the multitude of vessels,
silver and gold drinking cups, and the crowd of domestics, receiving
as we have done from the Instructor the fair and grave attendants,
Self-help and Simplicity. And we must walk suitably to the Word; and if
there be a wife and children, the house is not a burden, having learned
to change its place along with the sound-minded traveller. The wife
who loves her husband must be furnished for travel similarly to her
husband. A fair provision for the journey to heaven is theirs who bear
frugality with chaste gravity. And as the foot is the measure of the
shoe, so also is the body of what each individual possesses. But that
which is superfluous, what they call ornaments and the furniture of the
rich, is a burden, not an ornament to the body. He who climbs to the
heavens by force, must carry with him the fair staff of beneficence,
and attain to the true rest by communicating to those who are in
distress. For the Scripture avouches, “that the true riches of
the soul are a man’s ransom,”1641
that is, if he is rich,
he will be saved by distributing it. For as gushing wells, when pumped
out, rise again to their former measure,1642
1642 [Kaye, p. 97.]
so giving away, being
the benignant spring of love, by communicating of its drink to the
thirsty, again increases and is replenished, just as the milk is wont
to flow into the breasts that are sucked or milked. For he who has the
almightyGod, the Word, is in want of nothing, and never is in straits
for what he needs. For the Word is a possession that wants nothing,
and is the cause of all abundance. If one say that he has often seen
the righteous man in need of food, this is rare, and happens only
where there is not another righteous man.1643
who is the true bread, the bread
of the heavens. The good man, then, can never be in difficulties so long
as he keeps intact his confession towards God. For it appertains to him
to ask and to receive whatever he requires from the Father of all; and
to enjoy what is his own, if he keep the Son. And this also appertains
to him, to feel no want.
