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HOW TO BE RID OF MATTER
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to the man in the street' and therefore was not attempted,
“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." Loke vi. 36.
The truly enlightened leaders amongst the early Christians refrained from eating animal flesh on the ground of mercy, and those that ate despised themselves for doing so.
“But the things which pollute it (the garment of baptism] in actions are these : murders, adulteries, hatreds,... And the things which pollute at once the soul and the body are these : to... taste things sacrificed, or blood, or a carcass which is strangled ..."(Clementine Homilies) A.N.C.L. vol. ui. p. 302.
“ Lastly, what pleasure is it to take delight in the slaughter of barmless creatures, and to have the ears ringing often with their piteous bellowings, to see rivers of blood, the life fleeing away with the blood ... the heart still bounding with the life left in it, and the trembling palpitating veins in the viscera. We half savage men, nay rather, ... we savages, whom unhappy necessity and bad habit bave trained to take these as food, are sometimes moved with pity for them; we ourselves accuse and condemn ourselves when the thing is seen and looked into thoroughly, because neglecting the law that 18 binding on men, we have broken through the bonds which naturally united us at the beginning ..."-(Amobius) A.N.C.L. vol. xix. p. 310.
That which is objectionable as a sacrifice to one's god and is condemned on the ground of mercy, cannot surely be tolerated from a worse, that is, a selfish motive. Whichever way one may look at it, the practice of eating the flesh of living beings is wholly to be condemned.
12. (Prayer and Fasting):
"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities : for we know not what we should pray for as we ought : but the 'Spirit itself
