2. Man's nature is changeable: he is easily deceived, and easily freed from deception, he quickly falls, and rises up even more quickly.

For his son, Solomon is his name, was caught in the same snare as his father, and in order to please his wives he departed from the God of his fathers. You see what an evil it is not to abstain from voluptuousness, but to pervert the natural advantage, and, being a husband, to become the slave of women. To this same Solomon, formerly righteous and wise, when he was in danger of losing the whole kingdom for sin, God, for the virtues of his father, left a sixth part of the state in possession. Thus, if you were to diligently study outward eloquence, and then began to neglect it, I would persuade you to return to these studies, reminding you of the judgment seats and the oratorical seat, of the crowns distributed there, and of the freedom of speech, but since we strive for heavenly things, and we have no talk of earthly things, I will remind you of another judgment seat and seat, terrible and terrible. "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:10). And then He will sit as a judge, Who now despises you. What shall we say then, tell me? How shall we justify ourselves if we continue to despise Him? What are we going to say? Shall we point out concerns about business? But He said beforehand, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26). Is it because we are deceived by others? But Adam was not justified by referring to his wife and saying: "The woman whom you gave me, she gave me of the tree, and she deceived me" (Gen. 3:12); as well as a serpent for a wife. Terrible, dear Theodore, this is a judgment seat, which does not need accusers, does not wait for witnesses; for "all things are naked and uncovered" before this Judge (Hebrews 4:13); and it will be necessary to give an account not only of deeds, but also of thoughts, for this Judge "judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). But perhaps you will point out the weakness of nature and the impossibility of bearing the yoke. But what kind of excuse is this, not to have the strength to take upon oneself the good yoke, not to be able to bear the light burden? Is it difficult and difficult to rest from one's labors? And this is what the Lord calls us to when He says: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). What is easier, tell me, how to be free from daily cares and affairs, fears and labors, to stand away from the waves of life and to dwell in a quiet harbor?

3. What in the world seems to you the most blessed and desirable? Of course, you will say, power, wealth, glory among people. But what is more pitiful than this, if compared with the freedom of Christians? The ruler is dependent on the fury of the people and the senseless whims of the crowd, as well as on the fear of the strongest rulers, and the care of his subordinates. Moreover, yesterday he is a ruler, and today he is a commoner, since real life is no different from the stage. As here one fulfills the role of a king, another a general, another a warrior, and at the onset of evening the king is not a king, and the ruler is not a ruler, and the general is not a general, so on that day, not according to person, but according to deeds, everyone will receive a worthy reward. But is the glory precious that vanishes like the flower of grass? The same is true of wealth, whose owners are called miserable. For "woe," says (the Lord), "to you who are rich" (Luke 6:24); and again: "woe to them that trust in their strength, and boast of the abundance of their riches" (Psalm 48:7). A Christian is never made a commoner, nor a rich man a poor man, nor a glorious man an ignominium: on the contrary, he is rich when he is poor, and high when he tries to be humble; and the power that he has - not over people, but over princes subject to the "ruler of darkness" (Ephesians 6:12), no one can take away from him. Marriage is a lawful matter, and I agree to it; For it is said: "Let the marriage of all be honorable, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers are judged by God" (Hebrews 13:4). But it is no longer possible for you to observe the law of marriage: for whoever is united with the heavenly Bridegroom, leaves Him and is united with his wife, commits adultery, even though you call it marriage a thousand times; or rather, it is worse than adultery, in so far as God is more excellent than men. Let no one deceive you with the words: God has not forbidden you to marry. I also know this: I did not forbid marriage, but forbade adultery, which you intended to do, which should not be, that is, you would ever marry. Why are you surprised if marriage is condemned as adultery, when God is rejected through it? Murder can be justified and philanthropy is condemned worse than murder, when the first was committed according to the will of God, and the second contrary to it. Namely, it was imputed to Phinehas that he pierced the prostitute wife together with the fornicator; and the holy Samuel of God, despite the fact that he wept, lamented and prayed all nights, could not deliver Saul from the condemnation that God pronounced on him because he had spared a foreign king against the will of God, who was to be killed. If love for mankind is condemned more than murder for disobeying God, then what wonder if marriage is condemned more than adultery for rejecting Christ? Therefore, as I said above, if you were a commoner, no one would accuse you of not belonging to the army, and now you are no longer your own master, having become the warrior of such a King. If the wife has no authority in her own body, but the husband, how much more can those who live in Christ have no authority in their own body. He who is despised now will judge Himself then; think about Him constantly, as well as about the river of fire. "The river of fire," says (the prophet), "went out and passed before Him" (Dan. 7:10); but whoever is given over to the fire by Him will not live to see the end of the execution. The lewd pleasures of this life are no different from shadows and dreams; for before the sinful deed is finished, pleasure disappears, and the punishment for it has no end. Sweetness is short-lived, but sorrow is eternal. What, tell me, is constant in this world? Is it wealth that often does not remain until the evening? Is it glory? But listen to what one righteous man says: "My days are faster than a messenger" (Job 9:25). As the runners, not having time to become, are already going on, so glory will not have time to come, as it is already flying away. There is nothing more precious than the soul: this is not unknown even to those who have reached the point of extreme madness. "Nothing is equal to the soul," said poetically one of the outsiders. I know that you have become much weaker to fight the evil one; I know that you are standing in the flames of pleasure; but if you say to the enemy, "We do not serve your pleasures, and we do not bow down to the root of all your evils," if you lift up your eyes to the mountain, then the Saviour will now overcome the flame and burn those who cast you into the fire, and in the midst of the furnace He will send you a cloud and dew, and "a rustling damp wind" (Dan. 3:50), so that the fire will not touch either your thoughts or your conscience; Only you do not burn yourself. Thus it often happened that fortified cities could not be destroyed by the arms and machines of foreign enemies, and the treachery of one or two of the citizens living in them easily betrayed them to their enemies. And now, if none of your inner thoughts betrays you, then even if the evil one has moved a thousand machines from without, he will move in vain.

4. By the grace of God, you have many great men who sympathize with you, stir you up, tremble for your soul: these are the holy Valerius of God, his brother Florentius, Porphyrius, wise in the wisdom of Christ, and many others. They lament daily and pray unceasingly, and they would have received what they pray for long ago, if you had wanted to free yourself even a little from the hands of the enemy. How strange it is that others have not yet despaired of your salvation, but are constantly praying for the return of their member; And you, having once fallen, do not want to get up, but lie down, just not calling out to the enemy: strike, strike, do not spare? "Do they not rise when they fall?" says the prophecy of God (Jeremiah 8:4). But you resist this and reproach it; for to the fallen to despair means nothing else than "he who has fallen shall not rise." No, I beseech thee, do not do thyself so much evil, do not plunge us into such sorrow. I do not speak of your present when you are not yet twenty years old; but if you had done much, even lived your whole life in Christ, and suffered such misfortune in extreme old age, it would not have been good to despair, but it would have been necessary to have in mind the thief who was justified on the cross, and also who began to work at the eleventh hour and received the wages of the whole day. But just as it is not good for those who have fallen at the end of life to despair, if they are prudent, so it is not safe to nourish themselves with hope and say: "Now for the time being I will enjoy the pleasures of life, and later, having labored a little longer, I will receive the reward for all the time." I remember that you yourself, when many advised you to go to museums, often said: "What if I end my life badly soon? Remember this thought, and be afraid of the thief: this is how Christ calls our departure from here, because it befalls without our knowledge.

Even if hardly anyone will look upon an earthly king, even after enduring many dangers and after the end of many wars, with boldness, then how can he see the heavenly King who has always lived and fought for another?

5. Do you want to depict household chores: about my wife, about my children, about my servants? It is bad to take a poor wife, and it is bad to take a rich one: the former harms the property, and the latter the power and freedom of the husband. It is sorrowful to have children, and even more sorrowful not to have: if the latter, then it was in vain to marry; and if the former, then you will be subjected to bitter captivity. If a child falls ill, the fear is not small; died prematurely - inconsolable crying; and at every age there are various cares, fears, and many labors for them. Is it necessary to speak of the malfunction of the servants? What kind of life is this, Theodore, to share so much with one soul, to serve so many, to live for so many, but never for oneself? We have nothing of the sort, my dear, and in this I call you to witness. Already in the short time in which you wanted to swim out of the waves (of the sea of life), you know what joy and gladness you enjoyed. No one is free except he who lives for Christ: he stands above all calamities, and if he does not want to do evil to himself, then another will never be able to do it to him. He is impregnable, not tormented by the loss of possessions; because he knows that "we have brought nothing into the world; it is evident that we can endure nothing" (1 Timothy 6:7); he is not caught by ambition or love of glory, because he knows that "our dwelling is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20); he who rebukes him does not cause him sorrow, and he who beats him does not irritate him. A Christian has one misfortune - to offend God, and the rest, such as the loss of property, the deprivation of the fatherland, the most extreme danger, he does not consider as a calamity; even the very thing that everyone fears, the passage from here to there, is more pleasant to him than life.

What could be safer and higher than to have only one concern - "how to please God" (1 Thess. 4:1)? Do you see, Theodore, the shipwrecks of those who sail on this sea? Therefore, I beseech you, flee from the abyss, flee from the waves, and take a high place from which it is impossible to be dragged away; there will be a resurrection, there will be judgment, the dreadful judgment seat awaits us after our departure from here: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:10). It is not in vain that they threaten hell, it is not in vain that so many blessings have been prepared. A shadow and even more insignificant than a shadow are everyday affairs, associated with many fears, with many dangers, with extreme slavery. Do not destroy both this and this age, when it is possible, if you wish, to spend both with benefit. And that those who live in Christ also benefit from this world, Paul affirms when he says, "I am sorry for you," and again, "I say this for your own benefit" (1 Corinthians 7:28, 35). Do you see that "he who cares for the things of the Lord" is even here higher than he who is married? It is impossible for one who has gone there to repent; No warrior can continue the struggle after leaving the lists and after the end of the spectacle. Think about this unceasingly, and break the sharp sword of the evil one, with which he kills many. And this sword is despair, which cuts off hope in the afflicted. This weapon of the enemy is strong, and he holds the captives only by binding them with these bonds, which, if we wish, we can soon break by the grace of God. I know that I have overstepped the measure of writing; but forgive me: I did not do this arbitrarily, but was compelled by love and sorrow, for which I forced myself to write this letter, while many withheld me. "Stop toiling in vain and sowing on the rock," many have told me. But I didn't listen to anyone.

But if the latter did not want (to be saved), then no one would blame those who tried to save them for their destruction. This is on our part; but we believe that what is due from you will follow by the grace of God, and we will again see you valiant in the flock of Christ. Oh, if only we, through the prayers of the holy things, would quickly receive you, dear head, in true health! If you have any attention to us, and if you have not completely banished us from your memory, deign to write to us; In this way you will greatly rejoice us.

TO THOSE WHO ARE AT WAR WITH THOSE

which attract to the monastic life.

Three words under this general title, of which the second has an inscription: to an unbelieving father, i.e., a pagan, and the third: to a believing father, i.e., a Christian, were written by St. John Chrysostom in the year 375 or 376, when he himself lived among hermits and when monastics were subjected to cruel persecution, and their well-wishers were subjected to various reproaches under the Arian emperor Valens.

FIRST WORD.

WHEN the descendants of the Jews, having returned from a long captivity, wanted to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, which had lain in ruins for many years (2 Ezra 4), then some rude and cruel people, not fearing God, to whom they were rebuilding the temple, were not moved by the calamity of these people, from which they had recently and with difficulty delivered, not fearing the punishment appointed by God for those who dare to undertake such deeds, at first they themselves tried to prevent them from building a temple; but since they had achieved nothing, they sent a letter to their king, in which they called that city (Jerusalem) rebellious, innovative, and scolding, and asked permission to stop the construction. Having received this permission from him, and attacking the Jews with a great number of cavalry, they interrupted the work for a time, were very proud of this victory, for which they should have wept, and thought that their evil design had succeeded (1 Ezra 4). But this was only a foreshadowing and the beginning of the calamities which were to befall them at once: for the work itself was prosperous, and had a brilliant end, and they, and through them all, knew that, as then Mithradates, so every one who dared to fight against men who were undertaking a good work, was not fighting against men, but, before them, against God Himself, whom they revere.

In the same way, these people were immediately beset by such calamities that overshadowed all other calamities in the greatness of their grief; for after the innumerable murders and massacres committed against them by the hands of the Jews, whom they then prevented (to build the temple), the blood of the slain soaked the ground to a considerable depth, and great dirt was formed from this blood; and from the bodies of horses and men, mingled together, and from their contiguous wounds, were born such a multitude of worms, that the earth was covered with a multitude of corpses, and the corpses themselves again with a multitude of worms. Seeing this field, anyone would have said that there were no corpses lying below, but many springs flowing, bringing this kind of animals from many sides: so from this rot a flood spread more than any flood! And this did not last ten or twenty days, but a long time. Such are the calamities here; and those who will befall them there are even more difficult than these. Then their newly revived bodies will endure unspeakable torments and sufferings, not for a thousand or ten thousand years, not even twice or three times against this, but for endless ages. Blessed Isaiah knows about both (punishments), as well as Ezekiel, the contemplator of wondrous visions, who, dividing among themselves, described the punishment of such people - one from here, and the other from there.