chiefly these: St. Basil, in his Sermon to the Rich, thus speaks: " And thou, art thou not a robber, because what thou hast received to be given away, thou supposest to be thy own?" And a little farther he continues: " Wherefore, as much as thou art able to give, so much dost thou injure the poor." And St. Ambrose, in his 81st Sermon, says: "What injustice do I commit, if, whilst I do not steal the goods of others, I keep diligently what is my own? impudent word! Dost thou say thy own? What is this? It is no less a crime to steal than it is not to give to the poor out of thy abundance." St. Jerome thus writes in his Epistle to Hedibias: " If you possess more than is necessary for your subsistence, give it away, and thus you will be a creditor." St. John Chrysostom says in his 34th Homily to the people of Antioch: "Do you possess anything of your own? The interest of the poor is entrust ed to you, whether the estate is yours by your own just labours, or you have acquired it by inheritance." St. Augustine, in his Tract on the 147th Psalm: " Our superfluous wealth belongs to the poor; when it is not given to them, we possess what we have no right to retain. St. Leo thus speaks: " Temporal goods ore given to us by the liberality of God, and He will demand an account of them, for they were committed to us for disposal as well as possession." And St. Gregory, in the third part
