widow care for nothing else, but to pray for those who give, and for the whole Church. When she is asked for an explanation by any one, let her not give an answer in haste, unless it be about righteousness alone, and about the faith of God, and let her send those who wish to be instructed to the authorities. To those who ask them, let them return an answer only. [S. + It is not fitting for a widow to teach, nor for a layman either.] But about the destruction of idols, and about there being only one God, about punishment and about rest, and about the kingdom of the name of the Christ, and about His providence, it is not incumbent on the widow nor on the layman to talk ; for if they talk without the knowledge of doctrine, they bring blasphemy against the Word; for our Lord compared the word of His Gospel to a grain of mustard ; for mustard, if it be not, prepared with art, is bitter and sharp to those who use it. Therefore the Lord said in the Matt.vii.e Gospel to widows and to all the laity, "Do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them with their feet, and turn again and rend you " ; for when the heathen who are instructed, hear the Word of God that it is not spoken in an orderly manner as it ought to be, for edification to eternal life, especially because it is declared to them by a woman, about how our Lord became incarnate, and about the Passion of the Christ, they f. 50 b wiU mock and joke, instead of praising as is right the word of the doctrine, Ap. Con. and she will incur a great condemnation for the sin. Therefore it is not