23. The same thing happens as every one may perceive with regard to sleep. For not a soft couch, nor a bedstead overlaid with silver, nor the quietness that exists throughout the house, nor anything else of this kind, are so generally wont to make sleep sweet and pleasant, as labour and fatigue, and the need of sleep, and drowsiness when one lies down. And to this particular the experience of facts, nay, before actual experience, the assertion of the Scriptures bears witness. For Solomon, who had passed his life in luxury, when he wished to make this matter evident, said, "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much?" [1115] Why does he add, "whether he eat little or much?" Both these things usually bring sleeplessness, viz. indigence, and excess of food; the one drying up the body, stiffening the eyelids and not suffering them to be closed; the other straitening and oppressing the breath, and inducing many pains. But at the same time so powerful a persuasive is labour, that though both these things should befall him, the servant is able to sleep. For since throughout the whole day, they are running about everywhere, ministering to their masters, being knocked about [1116] and hard pressed, and having but little time to take breath, they receive a sufficient recompense for their toils and labours in the pleasure of sleeping. And thus it hath happened through the goodness of God toward man, that these pleasures are not to be purchased with gold and silver, but with labour, with hard toil, with necessity, and every kind of discipline. Not so the rich. On the contrary, whilst lying on their beds, they are frequently without sleep through the whole night; and though they devise many schemes, they do not obtain such pleasure. But the poor man when released from his daily labours, having his limbs completely tired, falls almost before he can lie down into a slumber that is sound, and sweet, and genuine, enjoying this reward, which is not a small one, of his fair day's toils. Since therefore the poor man sleeps, and drinks, and eats with more pleasure than the rich man, what further value is left to riches, now deprived of the one advantage they seemed to have over poverty? For this reason also, from the beginning, God tied the man to labour, not for the purpose of punishing or chastising, but for amendment and education. When Adam lived an unlabourious life, he fell from Paradise, but when the Apostle laboured abundantly, and toiled hard, and said, "In labour and travail, working night and day," [1117] then he was taken up into Paradise, and ascended to the third heaven!
24. Let us not then despise labour; let us not despise work; for before the kingdom of Heaven, we receive the greatest recompense from thence, deriving pleasure from that circumstance; and not pleasure only, but what is greater than pleasure, the purest health. For in addition to their want of relish, many diseases also attack the rich; but the poor are freed from the hands of physicians; and if at times they do fall into a sickness, they recover themselves quickly, being far removed from all effeminacy, and having robust constitutions. Poverty, to those who bear it wisely, is a great possession, a treasure that cannot be taken away; the stoutest of staves; a way of gain [1118] that cannot be thwarted; a lodging that is safe from snares. The poor man, it may be objected, is oppressed. But then the rich man is still more subject to adverse designs. The poor man is looked down upon and insulted. But the rich man is the subject of envy. The poor man is not so easily assailed as the rich man, offering, as the latter does on every side, countless handles to the devil, and to his secret foes; and being the servant of all, on account of the great extent of his business. Standing in need of many things, he is compelled to flatter many persons, and to minister to them with much servility. But the poor man, if he knows how to be spiritually wise, is not assailable even by the devil himself. Job therefore, strong as he was before this, when he lost all, became still more powerful, and bore away an [1119] illustrious victory from the devil!
25. But besides this, the poor man cannot possibly be injured, if he knows how to be spiritually wise. Now what I said of pleasure, that it consisted not in a costly provision of meats, but in the disposition of those who eat, this also I say respecting an insult; that the insult is either created or destroyed, not by the intention of those who insult, but by the disposition of those who bear it. For example. Some one hath insulted thee with much language, fit or unfit to repeat. If thou shalt laugh at the insults, if thou take not the words to heart, if thou showest thyself superior to the blow, thou art not insulted. And just as if we possessed an adamantine body, we should not be hurt, were we even attacked on all sides by a thousand darts, for darts beget wounds not from the hand of him who hurls them, but from the bodies of those who receive them, so too in this case, insults are constituted real and dishonourable ones, not from the folly of those who offer them, but from the weakness of the insulted. For if we know how to be truly wise, we are incapable of being insulted, or of suffering any serious evils. Some one it may be hath offered thee an insult, but thou hast not felt it? thou hast not been pained. Then thou art not insulted, but hast given rather than received a blow! For when the insulting person perceives that his blow did not reach the soul of those who were reviled, he is himself the more severely fretted; and whilst those who are reproached remain silent, the insulting blow is turned backwards, and recoils of its own accord upon him who aimed it.
26. In all things then, beloved, let us be spiritually wise, and poverty will be able to do us no harm, but will benefit us exceedingly, and render us more illustrious and wealthy than the richest. For tell me who was poorer than Elias? Yet for this reason he surpassed all the wealthy, in that he was so poor, and this very poverty of his was his own choice from an opulence of mind. For since he accounted the wealth of all riches to be beneath his magnanimity, and not worthy of his spiritual wisdom, therefore he welcomed this kind of poverty; so that if he had considered present things as of much worth, he would not have possessed only a mantle. But so did he contemn the vanity of the life that now is, and regard all gold as clay cast into the street, [1120] that he possessed himself of nothing more than that covering. Therefore the king had need of the poor man, and he who had so much gold hung upon the words of him who had nothing more than a sheepskin. Thus was the sheepskin [1121] more splendid than the purple, and the cave of the just man than the halls of kings. Therefore also when he went up to heaven, he left nothing to his disciple save the sheepskin. "By the help of this," said he, "I have wrestled with the devil, and taking this, be thou armed against him!" For indigence is a powerful weapon, an unassailable retreat, an unshaken fortress! Elisha received the sheepskin as the greatest inheritance; for it was truly such; a more precious one than all gold. And thenceforth [1122] that Elias was a twofold person; an Elias above and an Elias below! I know ye account that just person blessed, and ye would each desire to be that person. What then if I show you that all among us, who are initiated, [1123] have received something far greater than he did? For Elias left a sheepskin to his disciple, but the Son of God ascending left to us His own flesh! Elias indeed, cast off his mantle, before he went up; but Christ left it behind for our sakes; and yet retained it when He ascended. Let us not then be cast down. Let us not lament, nor fear the difficulty of the times, for He who did not refuse to pour out His blood for all, and has suffered us to partake of His flesh and of His blood again, [1124] what will He refuse to do for our safety? Confident then in these hopes, let us beseech Him continually; let us be earnest in prayers and supplications; and let us with all strictness give our attention to every other virtue; that so we may escape the danger that now threatens, and obtain the good things to come; which God grant we may all be worthy of, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom, and with Whom be glory to the Father together with the Holy Ghost, forever and ever. Amen.
[1078] Job ii. 8, 12.
[1079] Job ii. 13.
[1080] E.V., as an oak whose leaf fadeth, Heb. hl'" which may be either tree.
[1081] Isa. i. 30.
[1082] Ben. pur's, "burning pile" (as of beams, &c.).
[1083] St. Chrysostom alludes more than once in these Homilies to the distinction referred to in Acts xi. 26, as one that all must still recognize.
[1084] Antioch suffered much from earthquakes before and after this period. It was almost demolished by this visitation, A.D. 340, and so again at several periods afterwards. More than 60,000 of its inhabitants perished from the same cause, A.D. 588.
[1085] ?plos kai os ?tuchen, i.e., without regard to the ordinary forms of justice used in apprehending the guilty or suspected.
[1086] Or executed, ?pechthe, see Hom. III. (6).
[1087] Or "more than rivalled," ?p?krupten.
[1088] Amos viii. 9.
[1089] tou ?strou.
[1090] E.V., that our eyes may.
[1091] Jer. ix. 17, 18.
[1092] ethos.
[1093] oud?na ek m?ses hupostr?psanta tes hodou. He evidently alludes to the first Homily--a long one--and which it appears from what he has just said, was preached seven days before this, Tr. Montfaucon counts the seven days from the sedition. The order of reading the Epistles as lessons perhaps cannot be ascertained. The Codex Ebneri (Bodl. Auct. B. 123), has marks, but of later date than the text, for reading on the several days of thirty-four weeks: the passage presently mentioned and that in Hom. I. fall on Thursday and Friday in the 27th, but this does not seem to the purpose.
[1094] See Hom. III. (i.) fin.
[1095] Of public applause in the Church, see Bingham's Christian Antiquities, vol. 4, p. 593 sqq., New Ed.
[1096] 1 Thess. v. 11.
[1097] On the ancient usages of the Church as to the reading of select portions of the Old and New Testament at stated seasons, see Bingham's Christian Antiquities, b. 14, c. 3.
[1098] 1 Tim. vi. 17.
[1099] 1 Cor. ii. 9.
[1100] Ps. xlix. 6.
[1101] Ps. xxxix. 6.
[1102] Hom. I.
[1103] Matt. xix. 16.
[1104] Or "invited," as some read, prosekal?sato. Ben. proekal?sato.
[1105] Matt. xix. 21.
[1106] He may allude to Luke xvi. 9, but in Hom. de Laz. 3, he cautions men against thinking that friends could save them if they did not themselves do good works.
[1107] despoteia, literally, the lordship.
[1108] prostasias. Comp. Hom. adv. Jud. vii. v. fin., where he speaks of the intercession of those whose souls we may have benefitted as even of more avail; also in the Homilies on 2 Cor. iv. 13, no. 3, v. fin., he refers to Luke xvi. 9, and soon after calls the poor pros?tai, in this sense. See Cat. Aur. on that passage.
[1109] 1 Tim. vi. 17.
[1110] Plato de Legg. x. (not xi.) uses paramuthion not, as Stephanus takes it, for "an expiation," but "a means of persuasion;" the word used here probably means relief.
[1111] parrhesian, as is said of Timothy, Hom. I. 5. Comp. James v. 16.
[1112] Prov. xxvii. 7.
[1113] Ps. lxxx. 16, lxxxi. 16, LXX.
[1114] ?nthosmian, Plutus, 807.
[1115] Eccl. v. 12.
[1116] koptomenoi. Used thus Dem. Ol. 2, as we say "knocked about," not as Ben., vapulantes.
[1117] 1 Thess. ii. 9.
[1118] ktesis.
[1119] Sav. a more.
[1120] Comp. Ps. xviii. 42.
[1121] melote, 2 Kings i. 2, LXX., lit. sheepskin, the Hebrew is trr' which does not fix the material, they may have judged by 2 Kings i. 8.
[1122] Sav. ek tote.
[1123] Or memustagogem?noi. The baptized: those who were admitted to the mystic privileges of the faithful; a term adopted from St. Paul's musterion, 1 Cor. iv. 1. It was also used in the ancient mysteries. See Bingham, b. i., c. iv., sec. 1, 2.
[1124] This passage was quoted in favor of Transubstantiation against Bp. Ridley in the disputation at Oxford, A.D. 1554. See Foxe, Acts and Mon., vol. vi. p. 468, New Ed. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the words of St. Chrysostom here, and in many other passages, if examined in their whole bearing, do not of necessity imply any change of the material substance of the holy elements.