Chapter IX.—Exhortations to the discharge of relative duties. Ye husbands, love your wives; and ye wives, your husbands. Ye children, reverence your 109 parents. Ye parents, “bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”731 Honour those [who continue] in virginity, as the priestesses of Christ; and the widows [that persevere] in gravity of behaviour, as the altar of God. Ye servants, wait upon your masters with [respectful] fear. Ye masters, issue orders to your servants with tenderness. Let no one among you be idle; for idleness is the mother of want. I do not enjoin these things as being a person of any consequence, although I am in bonds [for Christ]; but as a brother, I put you in mind of them. The Lord be with you! 731 Eph. vi. 4. Chapter IX.—Exhortations to the discharge of relative duties. 289 Chapter IX.—Exhortations to the discharge of relative duties.