Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Commodianus/The Instructions of Commodianus/Chapter 60

LIX.&#8212;To the Matrons of the Church of the Living God.

Thou wishest, O Christian woman, that the matrons should be as the ladies of the world.&#160; Thou surroundest thyself with gold, or with the modest silken garment.&#160; Thou givest the terror of the law from thy ears to the wind.&#160; Thou affectest vanity with all the pomp of the devil.&#160; Thou art adorned at the looking-glass with thy curled hair turned back from thy brow.&#160; And moreover, with evil purposes, thou puttest on false medicaments, on thy pure eyes the stibium, with painted beauty, or thou dyest thy hair that it may be always black.&#160; God is the overlooker, who dives into each heart.&#160; But these things are not necessary for modest women.&#160; Pierce thy breast with chaste and modest feeling.&#160; The law of God bears witness that such laws fail from the heart which believes; to a wife approved of her husband, let it suffice that she is so, not by her dress, but by her good disposition.&#160; To put on clothes which the cold and the heat or too much sun demands, only that thou mayest be approved modest, and show forth the gifts of thy capacity among the people of God.&#160; Thou who wast formerly most illustrious, givest to thyself the guise of one who is contemptible.&#160; She who lay without life, was raised by the prayers of the widows.&#160; She deserved this, that she should be raised from death, not by her costly dress, but by her gifts.&#160; Do ye, O good matrons, flee from the adornment of vanity; such attire is fitting for women who haunt the brothels.&#160; Overcome the evil one, O modest women of Christ.&#160; Show forth all your wealth in giving.