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The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians

Chapter 15

It is better for a man to be silent and be [a Christian], than to talk and not to be one. It is good to teach, if he who speaks also acts. There is then one Teacher, who spake and it was done; while even those things which He did in silence are worthy of the Father. He who possesses the word of Jesus, is truly able to hear even His very silence, that he may be perfect, and may both act as he speaks, and be recognised by his silence. There is nothing which is hid from God, but our very secrets are near to Him. Let us therefore do all things as those who have Him dwelling in us, that we may be His temples, and He may be in us as our God, which indeed He is, and will manifest Himself before our faces. Wherefore we justly love Him.

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Text. Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Roberts and Donaldson, 1885. Public domain by age. The Ignatian letters follow the shorter recension, the seven letters generally accepted as genuine. These texts carry no verse numbers in the original; chapter divisions are the editors'.