LETTER V. AMBROSE TO SYAGRIUS. LETTER VI. AMBROSE TO SYAGRIUS. [To complete the character of S. Ambrose as shewn in his Letters, these will be printed at the end of the volume, but, on account of their subject, in the original Latin.] LETTER VII. 381 A.D. THE Justus to whom this letter and the following are addressed is in all probability S. Justus Bishop of Lyons, who is mentioned below as one of the Bishops who took part in the Council of Aquileia: that he was a Bishop is implied by S. Ambrose addressing him as ‘brother.’ The letter contains a mystical interpretation of the half-shekel of redemption, (Exodus xxx. 12. sqq.) and of the didrachma and stater of our Lord’s miracle of the piece of money in the fish’s mouth, and of the penny of the tribute money. The date given in the margin depends on the truth of the hypothesis that Justus is the Bishop of Lyons. Of him it is recorded that he did not return to his See after the Council of Aquileia, but became a monk in the deserts of Egypt. See Newman’s Fleury vol. 1, p. 25. AMBROSE TO JUSTUS, HEALTH. ♦1. YOUR question, my brother, as to the meaning of that shekel, half of which the Hebrew is commanded to offer for the redemption of the soul, is an excellent admonition to us to direct our intercourse by letter and our converse while at a distance to the interpretation of the heavenly oracles. For what can more unite us than to converse concerning the things of God? Sidenote: S. Luke xv. 8, 9. Sidenote: S. Matt. vi. 22. 2. Now the half of the shekel is a _piece of silver_, and the redemption of the soul is faith; faith therefore is that _piece of silver_ which the _woman_ in the Gospel, as we read, having _lost, diligently seeks for, lighting a candle and sweeping the house; and when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbours_, bidding them _rejoice with her for that she has found the piece of silver which she had lost_. For great is the loss of the soul, if a man lose his faith, or that grace which by means of faith he had obtained to himself. Do thou therefore _light thy candle. Thy light is thine eye_; that is, the inward eye of the mind. Do thou light this candle, which is fed by spiritual oil, and _gives light to thy whole house_. Seek that _piece of silver_, the redemption of thy soul, which he that loses is troubled, he that finds rejoices. Sidenote: Prov. xiii. 8. Sidenote: Exod. xxx. 12–15.