COLLOQUY XXXIX.
Religious and Learned Men ought to Preach to the People by the Example of a Holy Life.
Being once asked by a Doctor of Theology of the Order of Friars Preachers how these words of the Prophet Ezechiel were to be understood : ‘If thou dost not warn the wicked man, that he may be converted from his wicked way and live, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand/ the Saint replied : ‘ If these words are to be understood in a general way, I believe them to mean that the servant of God ought so. to burn and shine by his life and conduct, that by the light of his example, and the tongue of his holy conversation, he may reprove all the wicked, and make known to them their iniquity. But if, on the contrary, he becomes a cause of scandal to the people or his neighbour, he will not escape the vengeance of God.’