shortly after he broke with the world, and reaolved to devote himself exclusively to religion. After the usual course of catechetical instruction, he was bap- tized by bishop Meletius, of Antioch. His first im- pulse after his conversion was to embrace the monas- tic life, which, since St Anthony of Egypt, the patri- arch of monks, had set the example, and such men as Athanasius, Basil the Great, the two Gregories, Am- brose, Jerome, and Augustine had given it the sanc- tion of their great authority, carried away many of the noblest and most earnest youths of the Church, as a mode of life best adapted to secure personal holiness and salvation, and to benefit the world by presenting to it, in bold contrast to its perishing vanities, the beauty and power of heroic self-denial and tme happi- ness hi the unbroken communion with God. Anthu- sa, however, deflsated his design for a season. She took him by the hand, led him to her room, and by the bed where she had given him birth, she remonstrated with him in tears and tender entreaties not to forsake her. Like an obedient son, he yielded to her wishes ; and although he, after her death, spent some time in monastic retreat, and retained ascetic habits even on the patriarchal throne, yet the (greater part of his life was devoted to the active service of the Church in some of her most influential positions. H e comment the clerical career as reader in the church of Antioch under Meletius, and would soon have been promoted to a bishopric, but he evaded the election by a sort of pioos ruse, and thrust it upon his fHend Basilius (not of CsBsarea, but of Raphanea, in Syria), whom he con- sidered worthier, but who bitterly complained of the deception. Chrysoetom defended his conduct, and justified the theory of accommodation, or economy (ocicovo/u'a), as he called it, wherever if may be prac- tised f^om pure motives, and as a means to a good end; unwarrantably appealing to Paul, who became a Jew to the Jews, and a GentUe to the Grentiles. • Other fik thers (e. g. Jerome) had the same lax views on the duty of veracity, which find no support in the Bible, but were univeisally entertained among the heathen philosophers, especially the Greek sophists. Even Plato vindicates falsehood, and expressly recommends it to physicians as a help to the healing of the sick, and to rulers for the good of the people (De RepubL ill, p. 266). No wonder that even to this day strict ve- racity is so rare in the Oriental churches. This occur« rence was the occasion of Chrysostom*s fkmous trea- tise on the priesthood (flept IcptoavvirCt De Sacerdothj Ubri vi), which, notwithstanding the serious defect al- luded to, is one of the most usefhl works on the duties and responsibilities of the holy ministry, and has been often separately edited (by Erasmus, Cave, Bengel, etc.) and translated into modem languages (into Eng- lish by HoUier, 1740 ; Bunco, 1759 ; Mason, 1826 (Phila. 12mo) ; Marsh, 1844, and B. Harris Cowper, 1866).
After the death of his mother Chrysostom fled from the seductions and tumults of city life to the monastic solitude of the mountains near Antioch, and there spent six happy years in the study of the Bible, in sacred meditation and prayer, under the guidance of jthe learn- ed abbot Diodorus (afterwards bishop of Tarsus, f 394), and in communion with such like-minded young men as Theodore of Mopsuestia, the celebrated father of Anti- ochian (Nestorian) theology (f 429). Monasticism was to him a profitable school of experience and self-gov- ernment ; because he embraced this mode of life from tlie purest motives, and brought into it intellect and cultivation enough to make the seclusion available for moral and spiritual growth. He thus describes the life of his brethren on the mountain solitude near An- tioch : '* Before the rising of the sun they rise, hale and sober, sing as with one mouth hymns to the praise of God, then bow the knee in prayer under the direction of the abbot, read the Holy Scriptures, and go to their labors ; pray again at nine, twelve, and three o*clock ; after a good day's work, enjoy a simple meal of bread
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and salt, perhaps with oil, and sometimes with pulse ; sing a thanksgiving hymn, and lay themselves on their pallets of straw without care, grief, or murmur. When one dies they say, * He is perfected ;* and they all pray God for a like end, that they also may come to the eter- nal Sabbath-rest and to the vision of Christ.'*
In this period he composed his earliest writings in praise of monasticism and celibacy, and his two long letters to the fallen Theodore (subsequently bishop of Mopsuestia), who had regretted his monastic vow and resolved to marry. Chrysostom regarded this small affair, from the ascetic stand-point of his age, as almost equal to an apostasy from Christianity, and plied all his oratorical arts of sad sympathy, tender entreaty, bitter reproach, and terrible warning to reclaim his friend to what he thought the surest and safest way to heaven.
By excessive self-mortification Chiysoetom under- mined his health, and returned about 880 to Antioch. There he was ordained deacon by Meletius (who died in 881), and presbyter by Flavian in 886. By his elo- quence and his pure and earnest character he soon ac- quired great reputation and the love of the whole diurch. During the sixteen or seventeen years of his labors in Antioch he wrote the greater part of his Hom- ilies and Commentaries, his work on the Priesthood, a consolatory epistle to the despondent Stagirius, and an admonition to a young widow on the glory of widow- hood and the duty of continuing in it. He disapproved second marriage, not as sinful or illegal, but as incon- sistent with an ideal conception of mimriage and a high order of piety.