43. Cf. Mt 22.13. 44. Jn 2.17, quoting Ps 68.10.
220 ST. AUGUSTINE uities of theirs, let them acknowledge that the Lord made a scourge of ropes and that he warns them to change, not to be traders. For if they do not change, in the end they will hear, "Bind their hands and feet and cast them forth into the darkness outside."
9. "And then the disciples remembered that it was written, 'The zeal for your house has eaten me up.'"^^ For by zeal for the house of God the Lord cast those men out of the temple. Brothers, let each and every Christian in the members of Christ be consumed with zeal for God's house. Who is consumed with zeal for God's house? He who strives that all things which he, perhaps, sees are wicked there be corrected, [who] desires that they be improved, [who] does not keep quiet. If he cannot improve it, he suffers, he moans. The grain is not shaken out elsewhere than on the threshing-floor; it puts up with the chaff that it may enter the storehouse when the chaff has been separated. You, if you are grain, do not be shaken out elsewhere than on the threshing-floor in front of the storehouse, that you may not be picked up by birds before you are gathered into the store-house. For the birds of the sky, the powers on high, are on the watch to snatch something from the threshing-floor, and they snatch only what has been shaken out from there. Therefore let zeal for God's house consume you; let zeal for God's house, in which house of God he is a member, consume each and every Christian. For your house is not preferable to the house where you have eternal salvation.
(2) You enter your house for temporal rest; you enter God's house for eternal rest. Therefore if you strive that nothing wicked happen in your house, in God's house where salvation and rest without end have been set forth, ought you, as far as you can, to suffer it if, perchance, you see anything wicked? For example, do you see a brother hurrying to the theater? Stop him, admonish him, show yourself saddened for him, if zeal for God's house consumes you. Do you see others hurrying and wanting to get drunk, and wanting this in holy places —
43. Cf. Mt 22.13. 44. Jn 2.17, quoting Ps 68.10.