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I AM indeed delighted, my children, with the duteous liberality of your
gifts; and your devout offering, the disposal of which is entrusted to me,
I gratefully accept, because you are offering your firstfruits and tithes
for the good and use of the needy, as a sacrifice to the Lord, of a sweet
smelling savour, in the belief that by the offering of them, the abundance
of your fruits and all your substance, from which you have taken away these
for the Lord, will be richly blessed, and that you yourselves will
according to the faith of His command be endowed even in this world with
manifold richness in all good things: "Honour the Lord from thy righteous
labours, and offer to Him of the fruits of thy righteousness; that thy
garners may be full of abundance of wheat, and thy vats may overflow with
wine." And as you are faithfully carrying out this service, you may
know that you have fulfilled the righteousness of the old law, under which
those who then lived if they transgressed it inevitably incurred guilt,
while if they fulfilled it they could not attain to a pitch of perfection.
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