5. But we are not bound by any prescribed limit of
hospitality. For why do you think
that what is of this world is private
property when this world is common? Or why do you consider the
fruits of the earth are private, when the earth itself is common
property? “Behold,” He said, “the fowls of the
air, they sow not, neither do they reap.” S. Matt. vi. 26. For to those to whom nothing is
private property nothing is wanting, and God, the master of His own
word, knows how to keep His promise. Again, the birds do not
gather together, and yet they eat, for our heavenly Father feeds
them. But we turning aside the warnings of a general utterance to
our private advantage, God says: “Every tree which has in
it the fruit of a tree yielding seed shall be to you for meat, and to
every beast, and to every bird, and to everything that creepeth upon
the earth.” Gen. i. 29, 30. By
gathering together we come to want, and by gathering together we are
made empty. For we cannot hope for the promise, who keep not the
saying. It is also good for us to attend to the precept of
hospitality, to be ready to give to strangers, for we, too, are
strangers in the world.