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Chapter VIII.—“Do Good Unto All?”

“Wherefore above all things be careful about chastity; for fornication has been marked out as a bitter thing in the estimation of God.  But there are many forms of fornication, as also Clement himself will explain to you.  The first is adultery, that a man should not enjoy his own wife alone, or a woman not enjoy her own husband alone.  If any one be chaste, he is able also to be philanthropic, on account of which he shall obtain eternal mercy.  For as adultery is a great evil, so philanthropy is the greatest good.  Wherefore love all your brethren with grave and compassionate eyes, performing to orphans the part of parents, to widows that of husbands, affording them sustenance with all kindliness, arranging marriages for those who are p. 220 in their prime, and for those who are without a profession, the means of necessary support through employment; giving work to the artificer, and alms to the incapable.