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Then going to Miletus, and from thence sending to Ephesus, and
summoning to him the elders of the church of Ephesus, he charged them how
they ought to rule the church of God in his absence, and said: "I have not
coveted any man's silver and gold; you yourselves know how for such things
as were needful for me and them that are with me these hands have
ministered. I have showed you all things, how that so labouring you ought
to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he
said: It is more blessed to give than to receive." He left us a weighty
example in his manner of life, as he testifies that he not only wrought
what would supply his own bodily wants alone, but also what would be
sufficient for the needs of those who were with him: those, I mean, who,
being taken up with necessary duties, had no chance of procuring food for
themselves with their own hands. And as he tells the Thessalonians that he
had worked to give them an example that they might imitate him, so here too
he implies something of the same sort when he says: "I have showed you all
things, how that so labouring you ought to support the weak," viz., whether
in mind or body; i.e., that we should be diligent in supplying their needs,
not from the store of our abundance, or money laid by, or from another's
generosity and substance, but rather by securing the necessary sum by our
own labour and toil.
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