Original - The Coptic Orthodox Church

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seeking to be accepted 23 of God at his great judgment, like
a poor man casting an ardeb of his corn upon the threshing-
floor of a great and rich man. But this rich man is very
compassionate and shareth with the poor all his threshingfloors.
In this wise doth Christ ask small things, that He
may in return therefor give great. Whoso giveth his goods
according to the will of God, him shall God set in authority
in heaven over ten cities 24 ; instead of this one place 25 which
the rich of His world hath, he inheriteth what is God s n,
according to His will. A priest that hath great
riches in
this world and seeth that his brother hath need, shall take
that the love of
pity on him, that it may in truth appear
God is firmly established in him and that they all may know
that he is compassionate, and that not with the tongue only
but in deed and truth. And when he gathereth in his vine
*he shall bring in the first-fruits of his wine-press unto the Rf.
house of the Lord his God, ere he taste thereof, he and his
wife and his children and his house 2G . And when he ga
thereth in, he shall not gather in of all the vine, 2? to cast
it into the wine-press, but shall leave a few/ clusters hang
ing on the vine, on behalf of the poor and the strangers
and the wanderer that hath gone forth 2S and the orphan
and the widow that is akin unto him ; that they may gather
the grapes with their hands and that mercy be reckoned
unto thee with the Lord q. Because thou hast caused the
poor to take their fill with eyes and soul of the fruits of
thy vine, blessing shall come upon thee and thy children and
thy cattle. They
n M. inheriteth with God.
shall be born unto thee and shall increase
/ M. + of the. q R. that the Lord may set mercy to thy account.
23 Cf. Lu. XVI. 8, 9.
24 Ibi XIX. 17.
25 Mistaking pvSf for ma l
place . [W. E. C.]
26 Cf. Lev. XXIII. 14. 27Deut. XXIV. 21. 28 Translation