61.

 And while he never suffered errors to creep in unnoticed, he likewise never failed to lash with biting tongue any looseness in morals, for he was always anxious "to present," unto Christ "the Church in all her glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27). How terribly he upbraids men who have degraded the dignity of the priesthood! With what vigor he inveighs against the pagan morals then infecting Rome! But he rightly felt that nothing could better avail to stem this flood of vice than the spectacle afforded by the real beauty of the Christian life; and that a love of what is really good is the best antidote to evil. Hence he urged that young people must be piously brought up, the married taught a holy integrity of life, pure souls have the beauty of virginity put before them, that the sweet austerity of an interior life should be extolled, and since the primal law of Christian religion was the combination of toil with charity, that if this could only be preserved human society would recover from its disturbed state. Of this charity he says very beautifully: "The believing soul is Christ's true temple. Adorn it, deck it out, offer your gifts to it, in it receive Christ. Of what profit to have your walls glittering with jewels while Christ dies of hunger in poverty?"[¹¹⁶]