be kind one to another; instead of allowing anger to excite desires of revenge, be merciful; and in place of that furious rage that would burst forth into clamour and blasphemy, forgive one another (Col. iii. 12; Luke vi. 36). The motive of this Christian forbearance and charity is the example of the Eternal Father, Who in order to forgive us sacrificed His own Son. How often forgiveness costs us little, whereas we must remember that to gain our pardon cost Jesus Christ His Life. We must then imitate Him Who spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.

CHAPTER V

CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE, CHIEFLY IN CHARITY

1, 2. Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children: and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness.

THE concluding words of the last chapter were an exhortation to us to forgive, even as God hath forgiven us in Christ; and now St. Paul proceeds to propose for our imitation the example of Christ, God Incarnate, Who is the true model of charity.

You should forgive one another as God has forgiven you in Christ, because thus you will be followers of God Himself, which is the grandest possible thing at which we can aim. Difficult it indeed is for man to imitate God; but though difficult, it is necessary, because human nature can never find perfection save in union with God.

As most dear children. The fact of being God's children makes it necessary to imitate Him as far as we can, because it is the duty of a son to imitate his father. He is our Father by creation (Deut.

xxxii. 6) and by loving adoption, for which reason the title most dear children is added. We are most dear to Him because He made us, because He has bought us with a great price, and because we have been chosen for union with Himself, and "to be partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter i. 4). To lessen the difficulty of imitating Him, God became Man in order to show us how to walk; and when exhorting us to follow Him He does not say learn of Me to raise the dead or to walk on the waters, but learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; take up your cross and follow Me.

Walk in love. Walk, that is, always increase and progress in love, for by love are we to imitate God; love is the good which should continually grow within us, and the debt we are constantly to pay to God (Rom. xiii. 8). "Above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection" (Col. iii. 14), and this in order to imitate the example of Christ, as Christ also hath loved us. Christ proved the reality and excellence of His charity by what He did by delivering Himself for us; for, as St. Gregory says, "The proof of love is not what we say, but what we are willing to do" (Gal. ii. 20; Isa. liii. 12). As an oblation and sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness.

This phrase refers to the sacrifices of the old law (see Lev. iii. and iv.), which were burnt for a sweet savour before the Lord, and were all fulfilled in that of Christ, on which alone their efficacy depended.

WORKS OF THE FLESH

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Oblation means any offering; sacrifice one in which there was shedding of blood. The savour of these old sacrifices was not pleasing to God in itself, but in as much as it signified the sweet-smelling oblation of the Body of Christ, the Son of God (Gen. xxvii. 27; Cant. i. 3). So ought we spiritually to sacrifice ourselves to God in union with Christ (Ps. 1. (li.) 19).

OLD WORKS OF THE FLESH TO BE PUT OFF

3, 4. But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints; or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose: but rather giving of thanks.

In the last chapter we saw St. Paul exhorting the Ephesians to put off the old man by avoiding spiritual sins; now he proceeds to speak of the carnal sins that must be abandoned by those who put on Christ. This exhortation to avoid all impurity has a peculiar force when we remember that the worship of the great temple at Ephesus was mingled with the worst abominations, which the heathens tried to justify, "by vain words," as pleasing to Diana.

The expression fornication and all uncleanness, includes every sin against the virtue of purity, whether violating the natural law or not; but the difficulty is to understand why St. Paul introduces covetousness, or avarice. St. Jerome, followed by many others, explains the word here translated covetousness to

mean not avarice, but insatiable lust. The context certainly seems to favour this interpretation, for if it be understood of the inordinate love of money, it is difficult to see why it is introduced between uncleanness and obscenity. Moreover, though it is evident why uncleanness should not be so much as named among Christians, no reason can be assigned why avarice should not be the subject of conversation. The vehement words, let not such things be named among you, show the horror that such sins should excite, and how carefully immodest conversation must be avoided, for "in vain," says St. Thomas, “is the contest against internal sins, unless a man hath first conquered external ones, namely, carnal sins, against which the war always endures"; and therefore St. Paul cries out, "let it not be named among you; for it becometh saints," that is Christians, "to abstain from deeds, from thoughts, and from words."

Obscenity St. Thomas considers to mean all manner of evil actions; by foolish talking he understands words provoking to evil and suggesting bad thoughts; and by scurrility, joking words intended to amuse others, but dangerous to morals (Ecclus. ix. 11). We are not to imagine that the Apostle condemns innocent and well-ordered merriment; he forbids only that which is to no purpose; for every deliberate word, as well as action, should be for some good end; and we shall have to explain to our Lord the motive of every word and action, that is, why we said or did it. "I say to you that every idle word