CHAPTER VIII.
SIMILITUDES AND EXAMPLES A MOST IMPORTANT PART
OF RIGHT INSTRUCTION.
ND if any one of you shall entirely avoid luxury, he will, by a frugal upbringing, train himself to the endurance of involuntary labours, by employing constantly voluntary afflictions as training exercises for persecutions; so that when he comes to compulsory labours, and fears, and griefs, he will not be unpractised in endurance.
Wherefore we have no country on earth, that we may despise earthly possessions. And frugality[1] is in the highest degree rich, being equal to unfailing expenditure, bestowed on what is requisite, and to the degree requisite. For τέλη has the meaning of expenses.
How a husband is to live with his wife, and respecting self-help, and housekeeping, and the employment of domestics; and further, with respect to the time of marriage, and what is suitable for wives, we have treated in the discourse concerning marriage. What pertains to discipline alone is reserved now for description, as we delineate the life of Christians. The most indeed has been already said, and laid down in the form of disciplinary rules. What still remains we shall subjoin; for examples are of no small moment in determining to salvation.
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- ↑ The word used by Clement here for frugality is εὐτέλεια, and he supposes the word to mean originally "spending well." A proper way of spending money is as good as unfailing riches, since it always has enough for all that is necessary.
