 Homily 5. From the homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the epistles of St. Paul the Apostle to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Translated by Philip Schaeff. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Homily 5. Titus 2, 11-14. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching them that, in denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who give himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a particular people zealous of good works. Having demanded from servants so great virtue, for it is a great virtue to adorn the doctrine of our God and Savior in all things, and charge them to give no occasion of offense to their masters, even in common matters, he adds the just cause, why servants should be such. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared. Those who have God for their teacher may well be such as I have described, seeing their numberless sins have been forgiven to them, for you know that in addition to other considerations, this, in no common degree, awes and humbles the soul, that when it had innumerable sins to answer for, it received not punishments, but obtained pardon and infinite favors. For if one whose servant had committed many offenses, instead of scourging him with throngs, should grant him pardon for all those, but should require an account of his future conduct, had been him beware of falling into the same faults again, and should bestow high favors upon him, who do you think would not be overcome at hearing of such kindness? But do not think that grace stops at the pardon of former sins, it secures us against them in the future. For this also is of grace, since if he were never to punish those who still do amiss, this would not be so much grace as encouragement to evil and wickedness. For the grace of God, he says, has appeared, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God in our Savior Jesus Christ. See how together with the rewards he places the virtue, and this is of grace to deliver us from worldly things and to lead us to heaven. He speaks here of two appearance, for there are two, the first of grace, the second of retribution and justice, that denying ungodliness he says and worldly lusts. See here the foundation of all virtue, he has not said, avoiding but denying, denying implies the greatest distance, the greatest hatred and aversion, with as much resolution and zeal as they turn from idols, with so much let them turn from vice itself and worldly lusts. For these two are idols, that is, worldly lusts and covetedness. In this he names idolatry, whatever things are useful for the present life are worldly lusts, whatever things perish with the present life are worldly lusts. Let us then have nothing to do with these. Christ came, that we should deny ungodliness. Ungodliness relates to doctrines, worldly lusts to a wicked life. And we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world. Dost thou see what I always affirm, that it is not sobriety only to abstain from fortification, but that we must be free from other passions. So then he who loves wealth is not sober, for as the fornicator loves women, so the other loves money, and even more inordinately, for he is not impelled by so strong a passion. And he is certainly a more powerless charioteer who cannot manage a gentle horse than he who cannot restrain a wild and unruly one. What then says he? Is the love of wealth weaker than the love of women? This is manifest for many reasons. In the first place, lust springs from the necessity of nature, and what arises from this necessity must be difficult to restrain, since it is implanted in our nature. Second, because the ancients had no regard for wealth, but for women, they had great regard in respect of their chastity. And no one blamed him who cohabited with his wife according to the law, even to old age, but all blamed him who hoarded money. And many of the heathen philosophers despised money, but none of them were indifferent to women, so that this passion is more imperious than the other. But since we are addressing the church, let us not take our examples from the heathens, but from the scriptures. This, then, the Blessed Paul places almost in the rank of a command. Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But concerning women, he says, defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent, and come together again. And you see him often laying down rules for a lawful intercourse, and he permits the enjoyment of this desire and allows of a second marriage, and bestows much consideration upon the matter, and never punishes on account of it. But he everywhere condemns him that is fond of money. Concerning wealth also, Christ often commanded that we should avoid the corruption of it, but he says nothing about abstaining from a wife. For here, what he says concerning money, whosoever forsakeeth not all that he hath, but he nowhere says whosoever forsakeeth not his wife, for he knew how imperious that passion is. And the Blessed Paul says, marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but he has nowhere said that the care of riches is honorable but the reverse. Thus he says to Timothy, they that will be rich fall into temptation and to snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. He says not, they that will be covetous, but they that will be rich, and that you may learn from the common notions, the true state of this matter, it must be said before you generally. If a man were once for all deprived of money, you would no longer be tormented with the desire of it, for nothing so much causes the desire of wealth as the possession of it. But it is not so with respect to lust, but many who have been made eunuchs have not been freed from the flame that burned within them, for the desire resides in other organs, being seated inwardly in our nature. To what purpose then is this said? Because the covetous is more intemperate than the fortigator, and as much as the former gives way to the weaker passion. Indeed it proceeds less from passion than from baseness of mind, but lust is natural, so that if a man does not approach a woman, nature performs her part in operation. But there is nothing of this sort in the case of avarice, that we should live godly in this present world. And what is the hope? What is the reward of our labors? Looking for the blessed hope in the appearing, for nothing is more blessed and more desirable than that appearing. Words are not able to represent it, the blessings thereof surpass our understanding. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. Where are those who say that the Son is inferior to the Father? Our great God and Savior. He who saved us when we were enemies. What will He not do then when He has us approved? The great God. When He says great with respect to God, He says it not comparatively but absolutely, after whom no one is great since it is relative. For if it is relative, He is great by comparison, not great by nature, but now He is incomparably great. Verse 14, Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people. Peculiar, that is, selected from the rest and having nothing in common with them. Zealous of good works. Thus thou see that our part is necessary, not merely works, but zealous. We should, with all alacrity, with a becoming earnestness, go forward in virtue. For when we were weighed down with evils and incurably diseased, it was of His loving-kindness that we were delivered. But what follows after this is our part as well as His. Verse 15, These things speak in exhort and rebuke with all authority. These things speak in exhort. Do you see how He charges Timothy? Reprove, rebuke, exhort. But here, rebuke with all authority. For the manners of this people were more stubborn. Wherefore, He orders them to be rebuke with more roughly and with all authority. For there are some sins which ought to be prevented by command. We may with persuasion advise men to despise riches, to be meek in the like. But the adulterer, the fornicator, the defrauder ought to be brought to a better course by command. And those who are dictated to augury and divination in the like should be corrected with all authority. Observe how He would have Him insist on these things with independence and with entire freedom. Let no man despise thee. But, Chapter 3, Verse 1, Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers. What then? Evil and men do evil? May we not vile them? Nay, but be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man. Hear the exhortation. To speak evil of no man, our lips should be pure from reviling. For if our reproaches are true, it is not for us to utter them, but for the judge to inquire into the matter. For why, he says, dost thou judge thy brother? But if they are not true, how great the fire. Hear what the thief says to his fellow thief, for we are also in the same condemnation. We are running the same hazard. If thou revilest others, thou will soon fall into the same sins. Therefore the Blessed Paul admonishes us. Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. To be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. Unto the Greeks and Jews, to the wicked and the evil. But when he says, let him that standeth take heed lest he fall, he awakens their fears from the future. But here, on the contrary, he exhorts them from the consideration of the past, and the same in what follows. Verse 3, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish. Thus also he does in his epistle to the Galatians, where he says, even so we, when we were children, were in bondage unto the elements of the world. Therefore, he says, revile no one, for such also thou wasst thyself. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Therefore we ought to be thus to all, to be gently disposed, for he who was formerly in such a state and has been delivered from it ought not to reproach others, but to pray, to be thankful to him who is granted both to him and them deliverance from such evils. Let no one boast, for all have sinned. If then, doing well thyself, thou art inclined to revile others, consider thy formal life and the uncertainty of the future and restrain thy anger. For if thou hast lived virtuously from thy earliest youth, yet nevertheless thou mayest have many sins. And if thou hast not, as thou thinkest, consider that this is not the effect of thy virtue, but of the grace of God. For if he had not called thy forefathers, thou wouldst have been disobedient. See, hear how he mentions every sort of wickedness. How many things has not God dispensed by the prophets and all other means. Have we heard? For we, he says, were once deceived. Verse 4 But after the kindness and love of God our Savior toward men appeared. How? Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Strange, how were we drowned in wickedness so that we could not be purified but needed a new birth? For this is implied by regeneration. For as when a house is in a ruinous state, no one places props under it, nor makes any addition to the old building, but pulls it down to its foundations and rebuilds it anew. So in our case, God has not repaired us but made us anew. For this is the renewing of the Holy Ghost. He has made us new men. How? By his Spirit to show this further he adds. Verse 6 Which he has shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Thus we need the Spirit abundantly, that being justified by his grace, again by grace and not by debt, we may be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. At the same time, there is an incitement to humility and a hope for the future. For if when we were so abandoned as to require to be born again, to be saved by grace, to have no good in us, if then he saved us much more will he save us in the world to come. For nothing was worse than the brutality of mankind before the coming of Christ. They were all affected towards each other as if enemies and at war. Fathers slew their own sons and mothers were mad against their children. There was no order settled, no natural, no written law. Everything was subverted. There were adulteries continually and murders and things of possible worse than murders and thefts. Indeed, we are told by one of the heathen that this practice was esteemed a point of virtue. And naturally, since they worshipped a god of such character, their oracles frequently required them to put such and such men to death. Let me tell you one of the stories of that time. One androgynese, the son of Minos, coming to Athens, obtained a victory in wrestling for which he was punished and put to death. Apollo, therefore, remedying one evil by another, ordered twice seven youths to be executed on his account. What could be more savage than this tyrannical command? And it was executed too. A man undertook to atone the mad rage of the demon and slew these young men because the deceit of the oracle prevailed with them. And afterwards, when the young men resisted and stood up their defense, it was no longer done. If now it had been just, it ought not to have been prevented. But if unjust, as undoubtedly it was, it ought not to have been commanded at all. Then they worshipped boxers and wrestlers. They waged constant wars and perpetual succession, city by city, village by village, house by house. They were addicted to the love of boys and one of their wise men made a law that pederasty, as well as anointing for wrestling, should not be allowed to slaves, as if it were an honorable thing. And that they had houses for this purpose, in which it was openly practiced. And if all that was done among them was related, it would be seen that they openly outraged nature and there was none to restrain them. Then their dramas were replete with adultery, lewdness, and corruption of every sort. And in their indecent nocturnal assembly, women were admitted to the spectacle. There was seen an abomination of a virgin sitting in the theater during the night amidst a drunken multitude of young men, madly rebelling. The very festival was the darkness and the abominable deeds practiced by them. On this account he says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures. One man loved his stepmother, a woman her stepson, and in consequence hung herself. For as to their passion for boys, whom they called podicia, it is not fit to be named. And would you see a son married to his mother? This too happened among them. And what is horrible, though it was done in ignorance, the God whom they worshiped did not prevent it, but permitted this out of outrage to nature to be committed, and that though she was a person of distinction, and if those who if for nor the reason yet for the sake of their reputation with the multitude might have been expected to adhere to virtue, if they rushed thus headlong into vice, what is it likely was the conduct of the greater parts who lived in obscurity? What is more diversified than this pleasure? The wife of a certain one fell in love with another man, and with the help of her adulterer slew her husband upon his return. The greater parts of you probably know the story. The son of the murdered man killed the adulterer, and after him his mother. Then he himself became mad, and was haunted by furies. After this the mad man himself slew another man and took his wife. What can be worse than such calamities as these? But I mention these instances taken from the heathens with this few that I may convince the Gentiles what evils then prevailed in the world. But we may show the same from our own writings Ford has said they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. Again the sodomites were destroyed for no other cause than their unnatural appetites. Soon after the coming of Christ did not a king's daughter dance at the banquet in the presence of drunken men, and did she not ask, as the reward of her dancing, the murder in the head of a prophet, who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Hateful, he says, and hating one another, for it must necessarily happen when we let loose every pleasure on the soul, that there should be much hatred. For where love is with virtue, no man overreach another in any manner. Mark also what Paul says, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor feminates, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, shall inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you. Thus thou see how every species of wickedness prevailed. It was a state of gross darkness and the corruption of all that was right. For if those who had the advantage of prophecies and who saw so many evils inflicted upon their enemies and even upon themselves nevertheless did not restrain themselves, but committed numberless, foolish crimes, what would be the case with others? One of their lawgivers ordered that virgins should wrestle naked in the presence of men. Many blessings on you that ye cannot endure the mention of it, but their philosophers were not ashamed of the actual practice. Another, the chief of their philosophers, approves of their going out to war and of their being common, as if he were a pimp and a panderer to their lusts. Living in malice and envy. For if those who professed philosophy among them made such laws, what shall we say of those who were not philosophers? If such were the maxims of those who wore a long beard and assumed the grave cloak, what can be said of others? Woman was not made for this, O man, to be prostituted as common. O ye subvertors of all decency, who use men as if they were women, and lead out women to war as if they were men. This is the work of the devil to subvert and to confound all things, to overleap the boundaries that have been appointed from the beginning, and to remove those which God has set to nature. For God assigned to women the care of the house only, to man the conduct of public affairs. But you reduce the head to the feet and raise the feet to the head. You suffer women to bear arms and are not ashamed. But why do I mention these things? They introduce on the stage a woman that murders her own children, nor are they ashamed to stuff the years of men with abominable stories. Verse 4 But after that the kindness and love of God are savior towards man appeared. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy. He has saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. What means according to the hope? As we have hoped, so we shall enjoy eternal life, or because ye are even already heirs. This is a faithful saying. Because he had been speaking of things future and not of the present, therefore he adds that it is not worthy of credit. These things are true, he says, and this is manifest from what has gone before. For he who had delivered us from such a state of iniquity and from so many evils will assuredly impart to us the good things to come, if we abide in grace, for all proceeds from the same kind of concern. Let us then give thanks to God and not revile them, nor accuse them, but rather let us beseech them, pray for them, counsel and advise them, though they should insult and spurn us, for such is the nature of those who are diseased. But those who are concerned for the health of such persons do all things and bear all things, though it may not avail, that they may not have themselves to accuse of negligence. No ye not that often, when a physician despairs of a sick man, some relative standing by addresses him, bestow further attendance, leave nothing undone, that I may not have to accuse myself, that I may incur no blame, no self-reproach. Do you not see the great care that near kinsmen take of their relations? How much they do for them, both in treating the physicians to cure them and sitting perseveringly beside them? Let us at least imitate them, and yet there is no comparison between the objects of our concern. For if anyone had a son diseased in his body, he could not refuse to take a long journey to free him from his disease. But when the soul is in a bad state, no one concerns himself about it. But we all are indolent, all careless, all negligent, and overlook our wives, our children, and ourselves, when attacked by this dangerous disease. But when it is too late, we become sensible of it. Consider how disgraceful and absurd it is to say afterwards, we never looked for it, we never expected that this would be the event. And it is no less dangerous and disgraceful. For if in the present life it is the part of foolish men to make no provision for the future, much more must it be so with respect to the next life. When we hear many counseling us and informing us what is to be done and what is not to be done. Let us then hold fast that hope. Let us be careful of our salvation. Let us in all things call upon God that he may stretch forth his hand to us. How long will you be slothful? How long negligent? How long shall we be careless of ourselves and of our fellow servants? He has shed richly upon us the grace of his spirit. Let us therefore consider how great is the grace he has bestowed upon us. And let us show as great earnestness ourselves, or since this is not possible, some, although it be less, for if after this grace we are insensible, the heavier will be our punishments. For if I, he says, had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin. But God forbid that this should be said of us. In grant that we may all be thought worthy of the blessings promised to those who have loved him in Jesus Christ our Lord, et cetera. End of Homily 5. Homily 6. From the homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the epistles of St. Paul the Apostle to Timothy Titus and Philemon. Translated by Philip Shaff. This is LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Homily 6. Titus 3.8-11. These things I will that thou affirm constantly. The day which hath believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law. For they are unprofitable and vain. A man that is in an heretic after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he that is such is subverted and sineth being condemned of himself. Having spoken of the love of God to man of his ineffable regard for us of what we were and what he has done for us. He has added these things I will that thou affirm constantly. The day which hath believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. That is discourse of these things and from a consideration of them exhort to almsgiving for what has been said will not only apply to humility to the not being puffed up and not reviling others but to every other virtue. So also in arguing with the Corinthians he says you know that our Lord being rich became poor that we through his poverty might be rich. Having considered the care and exceeding love of God for man he then exhorts them to almsgiving and that not in a common and a slight manner but that they may be careful he says to maintain good works that is both to secure the injured not only by money but by patronage and protection and to defend the widows and orphans and to afford a refuge to all that are afflicted for this is to maintain good works for these things he says are good and profitable unto men but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and vain. What do these genealogies mean for in his epistle to Timothy he mentions fables and endless genealogies perhaps both here and there glancing at the Jews who priding themselves on having Abraham for their forefather neglected their own parts on this account he calls them both foolish and unprofitable for it is the part of folly to confide in things unprofitable contentions he means with heretics in which he would not have us labor to no purpose where there is nothing to be gained for they end in nothing for when a man is perverted and predetermined not to change his mind whatever may happen why should us that labor in vain sowing upon a rock when thou shouldest spend thy honorable toil upon thine own people in discoursing with them upon almsgiving and every other virtue does he elsewhere say if God peradventure will give them repentance but here a man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he that is such is subverted and sineth being condemned of himself in the former passage he speaks of the correction of those of whom he had hoped and who had simply made opposition he is known and manifest all why does thou contend in vain why does thou beat the air what means being condemned of himself because he cannot say that no one has told him no one admonished him since therefore after admonition he continues the same he is self condemned verse 12 when I shall send Artemis under thee be diligent to come unto me what sayest thou after having appointed him to preside over Crete does thou now again summon him to thyself it was not to withdraw him from that occupation but to discipline him the more for it for that he does not call him to attend upon him as if he took him everywhere with him as his follower appears from what he adds for I have determined there to winter now Nicolopoulos is a city of Thras verse 14 brings Zenus the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently that nothing be wanting unto them these were not of the number to whom churches had been entrusted but of the number of his companions but Apollos was the more vehement being an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures and this was a lawyer you say he ought not to have been supported by others but by a lawyer here is meant one verse in the law of the Jews and he seems to say supply there once abundantly that nothing may be lacking to them verse 14 and 15 and let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful all that are with me salute thee greet them that love us in the faith that is either those that love Paul himself or those men that are faithful grace be with you all amen how then dost thou command him to stop the mouths of gainsayers if he must pass them by when they are doing everything to their own destruction he means that he should not do it imprincibly for their advantage for being once perverted in their minds they would not profit by it but if they injured others it behooved him to withstand and contend with them and manfully await them but if thou art reduced to necessity seeing them destroying others be not silent but stop their mouths from regard to those whom they would destroy it is not indeed possible for a zealous man of upright life to abstain from contention but so do as I have said for the evils arise from idleness in a vain philosophy that one should be occupied about words only for it is a great injury to be uttering a superfluity of words one when ought to be teaching or praying or giving thanks for it is not right to be sparing of our money but not sparing of our words we ought rather to spare our words than our money to give ourselves up to all sorts of persons what means that they be careful to maintain good works that they wait not for those who are and want to come to them but that they seek out those who need their assistance thus the considerate man shows his concern and with great zeal will he perform this duty for in doing good actions it is not those who receive the kindness that are benefited so much as those who do it that make gain in profits for it gives them confidence towards God but in the other case there is no end of contention therefore he calls the heretic incorrigible for as to neglect those for whom there is a hope of conversion is on the part of slothfulness so to bestow pains upon those who are diseased past remedy is the extreme of folly and madness for we render them more bold and let ours he says learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful you observe that he is more anxious for them than for those who are to receive their kindness for they might probably have been brought on their way to many others but I am concerned he says for our own friends for what advantage would it be to them if others should dig up treasures and maintain their teachers this would be no benefit to them for they remained unfruitful could not Christ then who with five loaves fed five thousand men and with seven loaves fed four thousand could not he have supported himself for what reason then was he maintained by women for women it is said followed him and ministered under him it was to teach us from the first that he is concerned for those who do good could not Paul who supported others by his own hands have maintained himself without assistance from others but you see him receiving and requesting aid and hear the reason for it because I desire a gift he says but I desire a fruit that may abound to your account and at the beginning too when men sold all their possessions and laid them at the apostles feet the apostles see as thou were more concerned for them than for those who received their alms for if their concern had only been that the poor might by any means be relieved they would not have judged so severely of the sin of Inanias and Sapphira when they kept back their money nor would Paul have charged men to give not grudgingly nor of necessity what sayest thou Paul dost thou discourage giving to the poor? no he answers but I consider it not to their advantage only but the good of those who give dost thou see that when the prophets give that excellent counsel to Nebuchadnezzar he did not merely consider the poor for he does not content himself with saying gives the poor but what break off thy sins by alms deeds and nine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor part with thy wealth not that others may be fed but that thou may escape punishment and Christ again says go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor come and follow me dost thou see that the commandment was given that he might be induced to follow him for as riches are in impediment therefore he commands them to be given to the poor instructing the soul to be pitiful and merciful to despise wealth and to flee from covetness for he who has learned to give to him that needs will in time learn not to give from those who have to give this makes men like God yet virginity and fasting and lying on the ground are more difficult than this but nothing is so strong and powerful to extinguish the fire of our sins as on giving it is greater than all the other virtues it places the lovers of it by the side of the king himself and justly for the effect of virginity of fasting of lying on the ground is confined to those who practice them and no other is saved thereby but almsgiving extends to all and embraces the members of Christ in actions that extend their effects to many are far greater than those which are confined to no one for almsgiving is the mother of love of that love which is the characteristic of christianity which is greater than all miracles by which the disciples of Christ are manifested it is the medicine of our sins the cleansing of the filth of our souls the latter fixed to heaven it binds together the body of Christ would you learn how excellent a thing it is in the time of the apostles men selling their possessions brought them to them and they were distributed for it is said distribution was made unto every man according as he had need for tell me now setting aside the future and not now considering the kingdom that is to come let us see who in the present life are the gainers those who received or those who give the former murmured and quarreled with each other the latter had one soul they were of one heart and of one soul it is said the grace was upon them all and they lived in great simplicity dost thou see that they were gainers even by thus giving tell me now with whom would you wish to be numbered but those who give away their possessions and had nothing or those who received even the goods of others see the fruit of almsgiving the separations and hindrances were removed and immediately their souls were knit together they were all of one heart and of one soul so that even setting aside almsgiving the parting with riches is attended with gain as I have said that those who have not succeeded to an inheritance from their forefathers may not be cast down as if they had less than those who are wealthy for if they please they have more for they will more readily incline to almsgiving like the widow and they will have no occasion for enmity towards the neighbor and they will enjoy freedom in every respect such in one cannot be threatened with the confiscation of those goods and he is superior to all wrongs as those who fly unencumbered with clothes are not easily caught but they who are encumbered with many garments and a long train are soon overtaken so it is with the rich man and the poor the one though he be taken will easily make his escape whilst the other though he be not detained is encumbered by chords of his own by numberless cares, distresses passions, provocations all which overwhelm the soul and not these alone but many other things which riches draw after them it is much more difficult for a rich man to be moderate and to live frugally than for the poor more difficult for him to be free from passion then he you say will have the greater reward means what not if he overcomes greater difficulties but these difficulties were of his own seeking for we are not commanded to become rich but the reverse but he prepares for himself so many stumbling blocks and impediments others not only divest themselves of riches but macerate their bodies as travelers in the narrow way instead of doing this though he does more intensely and gets us more about the go therefore into the broad way for it is that which receives such as the but the narrow way is for those who are afflicted and straightened who bear along with them nothing but those burdens which they can carry through it as arms giving love for mankind, goodness and meekness these if thou bearest thou willst easily find entrance but if thou take us with the arrogance a soul inflamed with passions and that load of thorns wealth there is need of wide room for thee to pass nor will thou well be able to enter into the crowd without striking others and coming down upon them on thy way in this case a wide distance from others is required but he who carries gold and silver I mean the achievements of virtue does not cause his neighbors to flee from him but brings men nearer to him even to link themselves with him but if riches in themselves are thorns what must covetness be why does thou take that away with thee is it to make the flame greater by adding fuel to that fire is not the fire of hell sufficient consider how the three children overcame the furnace imagine that to be hell with tribulation they were plunged into it and fettered but within they found large room not so they that stood around without something of this kind even now will be experienced if we will manfully resist the trials that encompass us if we have hope in God we shall be in security and have ample room and those who bring us into these straight shall Paris men though they bind our hands and our feet the affliction will have power to set us loose for observe this miracle those whom men had bound the fire set free as if certain persons were delivered up to the servants of their friends and the servants from regard to the friendship of their master instead of injuring them should treat them with much respect so the fire as it knew that the three children were the friends of its Lord burst their fetters set them free and let them go and became to them as pavement and was trodden under their feet and justly since they had been cast into it for the glory of God let us as many of us are afflicted hold fast these examples but behold they were delivered from their affliction or not true they were delivered and justly since they did not enter into that furnace expecting deliverance but as if to die outright for hear what they say there is a God in heaven who will deliver us but if not be it known unto the O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou has set up even a fixed time saying if he does not show mercy till this time therefore it is that we are not delivered surely Abraham did not leave his home expecting again to receive his son but as prepared to sacrifice him and it was contrary to his expectation that he received him again safe and now when now fallest into tribulation be not in haste to be delivered pair thy mind for all endurance and speedily thou shall be delivered from thy affliction for God brings it upon thee for this end that he may chase in thee when therefore from the first we learn to bear it patiently and do not sink into despair he presently relieves us as having affected the whole matter I should like to tell you an instructive story which has much profit of it what then is it once when a persecution arose and a severe war was raging against the church two men were apprehended the one was ready to suffer anything whatever and the other was prepared to submit with firmness to be beheaded but with fear and trembling shrunk from other tortures observe then the dispensation towards these men when the judge was seated he ordered the one who was ready to endure anything to be beheaded and the other he caused to be hung up and tortured and that not once or twice but from city to city now why was this permitted that he might recover through torments that quality of mind which he had neglected that he might shake off all cowardice and no longer be afraid to endure anything Joseph too when he was urgent to escape from prison was left to remain there for here him saying indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews but do thou make mention of me to the king for this he was suffered to remain that he might learn not to place hope or confidence in men but to cast all upon God knowing these things therefore let us give thanks to God and let us do all things that are expedient for us that we may obtain the good things to come through Jesus Christ our Lord with whom to the Father and glory to the Holy Ghost now and ever world without end Amen End of Homily 6 End of the Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle to Timothy, Titus and Philemon Translated by Philip Shave