our knees before the Master, and with tears implore Him to
EpIstLE To THE CoRINTHIANS
result that, owing to your folly, you heap blasphemy upon the name of the Lord and withal create a danger to yourselves.
48. Let us, then, quickly blot out this blemish and fall on our knees before the Master, and with tears implore Him to have mercy on us and be reconciled to us and restore us to the venerable and holy practice of brotherly love. 2 For this is the gate of observance of the law,'** which opens out into life, as the Scripture says: Open to me the gates of observance of the law: I will go in by them and praise the Lord. 3 This is the gate of the Lord: observers of the law will go in by it.
4 OF the many open gates, therefore, this gate of observance of the law is the gate of Christ: blessed are all those who enter by it and walk the straight path in holiness and observance of the law, performing without disturbance all their duties.*** 5 Let a man be a man of faith,** let him be able to utter knowledge, let him be skilled in the discernment of discourses, let him be pure in his conduct; 6 surely, he must think all the less of himself, the higher he apparently ranks, and seek the common good and not his personal advantage.
49. He who has love in Christ must observe the commandments of Christ.**° 2 The binding power of the love of God **7—who is able to set it forth? 3 The radiance of His beauty—who can voice it to satisfaction? 4 The sublimity to which love leads up is unutterable.
5 Love unites us with God; love covers a multitude of sins;*** love endures everything, is long-suffering to the last; there is nothing vulgar, nothing conceited, in love; love creates no schism; love does not quarrel; love preserves perfect harmony. In love all the elect of God reached perfection, apart from love nothing is pleasing to God. 6 In love the Master took us to Himself.
Because of the love which He felt for us, Jesus Christ Our