3) To hide it in the heart, as a precious spiritual treasure, like the prophet David: "In my heart I have hidden Thy word, that I may not sin against Thee" (Psalm 118:11); to keep and learn day and night (Psalm 1:2), and so to nourish the soul as the body is nourished by bread, and even more. For just as the body weakens and disappears without food, so faith without the food of the word of God weakens, and then disappears. Or as a lamp without oil is extinguished, so faith and all piety without the word of God become impoverished and extinguished. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). Therefore, just as we pour oil into a lamp so that it does not go out, so it is fitting to kindle and kindle faith from the word of God, so that it does not fade away, and so we do not lose all the spiritual bliss that consists in faith.

4) To think and not to doubt at all that to all people, so to me and to you, vile, poor, wretched, accursed and sinful, the great, almighty, holy and terrible God says in His word: I am the Lord Thy God: repent, believe, humble, love, endure, be meek, and so on. And this is what God says, Whom it is terrible not to listen to as a righteous man; how to insult the good and gracious Father pitifully; how not to honor a benefactor shamelessly; As omnipresent and omniscient, it is impossible to deceive. On the contrary, He turns His gaze to him who trembles at His word and shows His special mercy upon those who fear Him (Isaiah 66:2; Ps. 102:11).

5) Not to look at others, what they do, whoever they may be, but to hold on to the word of God alone and to learn what it teaches. For day by day faith and with faith love diminish in people, and temptations multiply, which shake our hearts and want to extinguish the faith that has been conceived.

6) Since our mind is blind without God's enlightenment, our will is not evil without God's grace, and our desire and effort are not strong without God's help, therefore we must fervently pray to God that He Himself enlighten our minds, correct our will, and help our desire and effort; imitating the divinely wise Psalmist, who in Psalm 118 fervently prayed that God would enlighten him and guide him on the path of His commandments, help and lead him along the path of truth.

One should approach the Word of God with prayer, read or listen to it with prayer, and finish reading with prayer and thanksgiving. Therefore, in the church assembly, before the beginning of the reading of the word of God, that is, the Epistle and the Gospel, we pray and at the end of the reading we thank God for this great gift of His. Those who begin to read or listen to the word of God can pray with the Psalmist in the following way: Open my spiritual eyes, and I will see the wonders of Thy law, O Lord. I am a stranger on earth, hide not from me Thy commandments (Psalm 118:18-19). Or thus: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, open my mind to understand Thy holy word, as Thou didst open Thy apostle" (cf. Luke 24:45). Or pray as God's grace bestows on whom.

He who reads and hears the word of God must also pray and stir up prayer by reasoning about what is being read. For example, one who reads or hears the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12) should pray to Christ, the Author of true beatitudes, that the root of the beatitudes, the true and living faith, may be planted and strengthened in his heart, for from faith flow sweet fruits, that is, spiritual poverty, tenderness, meekness, thirst for righteousness, love with fruits, sincerity and simplicity, and so on.

To him who reads or hears the word of Christ: Not everyone who says to Me: "Lord! Lord!' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven (Matt. 7:21), – we must also remember that just as it is true and proper to call upon God, so we cannot do the will of God without God: "Without Me you can do nothing," says God Himself (John 15:5). Reflecting on this, we can add the following prayer to the reading of this word: "Lord, vouchsafe me, a sinner, to call upon Thee in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:23); Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God (Psalm 142:10), that by thus calling upon Thee, and following Thy holy will, I shall be saved according to Thy true promise: Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom. 10:13)."

Those who read or listen to the sermon about how Christ opened the eyes of the blind (Matt. 20:34) can add the following prayer: "O Son of God, Who enlightened the blind with the word as God, enlighten my spiritual eyes, that I may see Thee, the Eternal Light, and follow Thee in faith and love."

Those who read or hear the Apostle's word: "Christ died for all, so that those who live no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again" (2 Corinthians 5:15), can pray in the following way: "Jesus the Son of God, for all and for me, a sinner, who died, put to death my flesh's wisdom, help me to die sin and the world, that I may live for Thee, my Redeemer, who died for me and rose again."

In the same way, one can act in other things, and prayer by reasoning, reasoning by prayer, can be aroused and strengthened. Having finished reading or hearing the word of God, we must thank the merciful God for having deigned to light the lamp of His Word for the enlightenment of our minds for us, who are in darkness, and we should also pray that it may shine in our hearts like a daylight by the grace of the Holy Spirit, Who spoke through the prophets and apostles.

§ 14. Christians who live fearlessly and violate the law of God gather for themselves the wrath of God, according to the words of the Apostle: O man! Or do you despise the riches of God's goodness, meekness, and longsuffering, not understanding that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But, because of your stubbornness and impenitent heart, you store up for yourself wrath for the day of wrath and the revelation of righteous judgment from God (Romans 2:3-5). They gather, I say, more than the pagans, who do not know the true God and His holy law. For the Gentiles will be rebuked and condemned only by the natural, and the faulty and hardened Christians by the natural, and the written law will rebuke and condemn them on the day of Christ's judgment. He who rejects Me and does not receive My words has a judge for himself: the word that I have spoken, it will judge him at the last day, says Christ (John 12:48).

The words of Holy Scripture, as St. Basil the Great teaches, will appear at the judgment of Christ. For He said: "I will rebuke you, and I will present your sins before you" (Psalm 49:21). Then the hardened Christian will be presented with the commandments that he has heard and broken, denouncing him. The threats and promises of God, which were actually fulfilled, written in the Holy Scriptures, which he did not believe, will appear, and they will convict him. Then a conscience will arise in him, which will remind him of God's blessings and grace-filled circumstances, which he despises, such as: Christ's coming into the world for the sake of sinners, suffering, death, and so on; the word of God, so many times heard and despised by him, so many preaching exhortations that were for his salvation and left by him. And this remembrance, or rather remorse, will greatly torment him, especially because he will no longer have any hope of regaining what he has lost through negligence. As a result, he will begin to condemn himself, to reproach himself, but to no avail, to hate and curse himself, to abhor himself and to turn into nothing, but he will not be able to. To this terrible torment and anguish will be added the most grievous feeling of God's wrath and a flame that burns, but does not burn, and so on.

Those who despise the law of God will not escape this torment, consoling themselves in vain and softening their evil conscience. For the servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes, says Christ (Luke 12:47). That is why Christ declares woe to those who hear the word of God and do not repent. The inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon and Sodom will be more pleased on the day of judgment than the lawless Christians, if they do not repent (Matt. 11:21-24). God is not mocked. What a man sows, that he will also reap (Gal. 6:7). Therefore, without fail, those Christians who have apostatized from God through a lawless life, if they no longer want to experience the judgment of God on themselves by the pagans, must turn to Him with all their hearts and pray to His goodness with tears, so that they may again be accepted into His highest mercy and produce worthy fruits of repentance. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 3:10).

§ 15. A sign of God's wrath is if in a certain place the word of God is not preached, as God says through the prophet: Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord God, when I will send a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a thirst to hear the words of the Lord. And they will walk from sea to sea, and wander from north to east, seeking the word of the Lord, and they will not find it (Amos 8:11-12). For as bread is to our body, so is the word of God to our soul. As the body is nourished and strengthened by food, so the soul is nourished and strengthened in faith by the word of God. Consequently, just as hunger occurs to the body when the clouds do not sprinkle, and the parched earth does not bear fruit, so hunger happens to souls when the hearing of the word of God is deprived. For then faith, which is nourished and strengthened by the word of God, becomes impoverished and disappears, and unbelief and superstition appear in its place. From this it happens that people consider for sin that in which there is no sin; and, on the contrary, they do not consider as sin that in which there is a great sin: virtue is called vice, vice is called virtue. For this reason many consider it a sin to touch certain foods, which God has not forbidden; but they devour the houses of widows, orphans, and other defenseless people, which God has forbidden under the threat of temporal and eternal punishment. Hence also other lawless fruits, which the godless life shows, such as: perjury, covetousness, theft, flattery, deceit, deceit, irreconcilable malice, all uncleanness and all iniquity.