Lastly, we possess 238 letters, all but one called forth by the incidents of his own banishment. These show the holy confessor in the whole beauty of his magnanimous life. They are instinct throughout with trust in the Divine Providence, like the last words which he uttered when he lay down to die.
Out of this vast mass of works, the largest left to us by any Greek Father, the Translator has ventured to make a small selection, which, together with the translation itself, is entirely her own; and for which her excuse is the desire to bring in the easiest form specimens of so great a writer, and of one greater yet in deed than in writing, greatest of all in his death, before some who know him rather by the reputation he has left in the Church than by his actual words.[3]
THOS. W. ALLIES.
11th July, 1888.
PART I.
THE KING’S HIGHWAY.
The Way, the Truth, and the Life.
(Homilies on St. Matthew,[4] lxxvi., vol. ii., p. 395.)
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Is not it with justice, then, that He turns away from us and chastises us, since in everything He is offering us Himself, and we are resisting Him? This is clear to all. ‘For,’ He says, ‘if you wish to adorn yourself you have My adornment, or to arm yourself you have My arms, or to dress yourself you have My clothing, or to eat you have My table, or to walk you have My road, or to inherit you have My inheritance, or to go into your own country you have that city of which I am the Builder and the Architect, or to build a house you have My tents. I do not demand of you a reward for the things which I give, but I owe interest to you besides for that reward if you are willing to make use of all that is Mine.’ What could equal this munificence? ‘I am father, I am brother, I am bridegroom, I am dwelling-place; I am food, I am clothing, I am root and foundation; I am all things whatsoever you desire: stand in need of no man. I will also be a slave, for I came to minister, not to be ministered to. I am a friend too; I am member and head, and brother, and sister, and mother; I am all things; only hold Me for your own. I am poor for you, and a wanderer for you; I was on the cross for you, and in the tomb for you; I intercede with the Father for you up above, and I came down to earth as a messenger to you from the Father. You are all things to Me—brother and co-heir, and friend and member.’ What more do you ask? Why do you turn away from Him, your Lover? Why do you labour for the world? Why do you pour water into a broken pitcher? For this is to toil for the life which now is. Why do you spin a web for burning? Why beat the air? Why run at random? Has not every art an object? This is clear to everyone. Show me, then, you also, the object of your labour in life. You have none.
Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. Let us go into a churchyard; show me now your father, show me your wife. Where is he who was clothed in gold? Where is he who rode in his chariot? Where is he who had an army at his command, he who had a treasury, and he who held a public office? Where is he who killed some and cast others into prison, who slew whom he pleased and acquitted whom he pleased? I see nothing except bones, and the moth and the cobweb; all those things were dust and fable, and dream and shadow, and idle talk and an epitaph—indeed, not even an epitaph, for we see an epitaph on a figure, but in this place not even a figure. And would that evils ended here! Now, that which pertains to honour and feasting and great name is like a shadow and idle talk, but that which they produce is by no means a shadow or idle talk. Their effects remain, and will abide with us there and be evident to all—rapacity and selfishness, fornication, adultery, and a thousand vices of the same kind. These are not in the image nor in the ashes, but both words and deeds are written above. With what eyes, then, shall we look upon Christ? For if a man would not venture to see his father if he were conscious in his own mind of sinning against him, how shall we in that hour confront Him Who is infinitely gentler than a father? How shall we bear Him? For we shall stand before the tribunal of Christ, and there will be a strict scrutiny of all things. But if anyone disbelieve in that future judgment, let him consider things as they are on earth—those in prisons, for instance, those in mines and on dung-hills, possessed men, madmen, those who are fighting with incurable disease, those who are pinched by persistent poverty, those who are mated with hunger, those who are given over to unhealable sorrow, those who are in captivity. Men, indeed, would not now suffer these things if He did not ordain that reward and punishment should await all those who have been guilty of the like transgressions. And if these men incur no penalty in this world, you must take this to yourself as a sign that there is to be something in the next after our departure hence. For He Who is the Lord of all would not chastise some and leave others, who had been guilty of the same or of worse things, unchastised, if He did not reserve a punishment for them in the next world.
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