would not have so well answered the various ends of the Old Law. The
advantages of public prayer are here strongly set forth; and in the
second the saint declaims against detraction, a vice which brings
neither profit nor pleasure, yet is most enormous even in those who only
listen to it. If he who scandalizes one brother is so grievously
punished, what will be the chastisement of him who scandalizes so many?
We are bound to cover, not to proclaim the faults of others; but it is
our duty to endeavor to reclaim and save sinners, according to the
precept of Christ. The very company of detracters ought to be shunned:
to correct, or at least set a mark upon such, he wishes, in order that
they may be known and avoided, they were publicly branded with the name
of flies, because, like these insects, they delight to dwell on filth
and corruption. In the homily On Perfect Charity, he draws a most
amiable portraiture of that virtue in society; and another, in striking
colors, of the day of judgment. It is uncertain by what accident the
imperfect work of St. Matthew was formerly taken by some for a
performance of St. Chrysostom. The mistake is notorious; for the author
declares himself an advocate for Arian ism, (Hom. 19, 22, 28, &c.,) and
for the re-baptization of heretics. (Hom. 13 and 15.) He seems to have
written about the beginning of the seventh century, and to have been a
Latin, (not a Greek,) for he follows closely the Latin text.

The commentary of St. Chrysostom on St. Matthew fills the seventh tome,
and consists of ninety homilies: the old Latin version, by dividing the
nineteenth into two, counts ninety-one. They were preached at Antioch,
probably in the year 390. This literal and most pious exposition of that
gospel contains the whole practical science of virtues and vices, and is
an inexhausted source of excellent morality, and a finished model of
preaching the word of God, and of expounding the oracles of eternal life
for the edification of souls. St. Thomas Aquinas was possessed only of a
bad Latin translation of this unparalleled work, yet said he would
rather be master of this single book than of the whole city of Paris.
The example of the saint shows that the most essential preparation for
the study of the holy scriptures consists in simplicity and purity of
heart, an eminent spirit of prayer, and habitual profound meditation on
the sacred oracles. Thus qualified, he, with admirable sagacity and
piety, penetrates