positively necessary to our lives, rather than imperil our salvation. We must learn the secret of fleeing from every immediate occasion of sin: — that is, from all that has formerly brought us to shipwreck; whilst we must keep in fear of even the most distant, and be constantly on the watch. We must be violent in all that concerns this subject, going so far as to cut off our right hand or foot, or to pluck out our eyes. For — as far as it is possible — we should here even avoid having to fight with the temptation, as we are sure to be neither courageous nor firm with ourselves for long. ' If thy right eye... if thy right hand, scandalise thee ’ [1] — if those people who are so dear to you are a temptation to you to fall — separate yourself from them. Nay: — go further. Leave them if they will only cause you to 'scandalise' your fellow; for whatever you may do that brings about his sin, will be for you a fall such as would overtake that man who should 'have a mill-stone hanged about his neck, and be drowned in the depth of the sea.' [2]
The third point of instruction on this matter concerns the indissolubility of marriage. The teaching may induce us, however, to carry our thoughts higher than the mere permanence of
