So also, when he was admonishing those of the Gentiles, in his Epistle to the Romans, not to be highminded against the Jews, he brought forward also the wild olive, and he seems to be saying one thing to these, another to those. [1500]
Let us not therefore fall away into cruelty, but let us listen to Paul, saying, "Be not weary in well doing;" let us listen to the Lord, who saith, "Give to every man that asketh of thee," [1501] and, "Be ye merciful as your Father." [1502] And though He hath spoken of many things, He hath nowhere used this expression, but with regard to our deeds of mercy only. For nothing so equals us with God, as doing good.
"But nothing is more shameless," saith one, "than a poor man." Why, I pray thee? Because he runs up, and cries out after thee? Wilt thou then let me point out, how we are more importunate than they, and very shameless? Remember, I say, now at the season of the fast, how often, when thy table was spread at eventide, and thou hadst called thy ministering servant; on his moving rather leisurely, [1503] thou hast overset everything, kicking, insulting, reviling, merely about a little delay; although fully assured, that if not immediately, yet a little after thou shalt enjoy thy victuals. Upon which thou dost not call thyself impudent, changed as thou art into a wild beast for nothing; but the poor man, alarmed and trembling about his greater interests (for not about delay, but about famine, is all his fear), him dost thou call audacious, and shameless, and impudent, and all the most opprobrious names? Nay, how is this anything but extreme impudence.
But these things we do not consider: therefore we account such men troublesome: since if we at all searched into our own doings, and compared them with theirs, we should not have thought them intolerable.
Be not then a severe judge. Why, if thou wert clear of all sins, not even then would the law of God permit thee to be strict in searching out other men's sins. And if the Pharisee perished on this account, what defense are we to find? If He suffer not such as have done well to be bitter in searching out other men's doings, much less them that have offended.
7. Let us not then be savage, nor cruel, not without natural feeling, not implacable, not worse than wild beasts. For I know many to have gone even so far in brutishness, as for a little trouble to slight famishing persons, and to say these words: "I have no servant now with me; we are far from home; there is no money-changer that I know." Oh cruelty! Didst thou promise the greater, and dost thou not fulfill the less? To save thy walking a little way, doth he perish with hunger? Oh insolence! Oh pride! Why, if it were ten furlongs to be walked, oughtest thou to be backward? Doth it not even come into thy mind that so thy reward is made greater? For whereas, when thou givest, thou receivest reward for the gift only: when thou thyself also goest, for this again is appointed thee a recompense.
Yea, the patriarch himself we admire for this, that in his own person he ran to the herd, and snatched up the calf, [1504] and that, when he had three hundred and eighteen servants born in his house. [1505] But now some are filled with so much pride, as to do these things by servants, and not to be ashamed. "But dost thou require me to do these things myself?" one may say. "How then shall I not seem to be vainglorious?" Nay, but as it is, thou art led by another kind of vainglory to do this, being ashamed to be seen talking with a poor man.
But I am in no respect strict about this; only give, whether by thyself or by another thou art minded to do so; and do not accuse, do not smite, do not revile. For medicines, not wounds, doth he need who comes unto thee; mercy, not a sword. For tell me, if any one who had been smitten with a stone, and had received a wound in his head, were to let go all others, and run unto thy knees, drenched in his blood; wouldest thou indeed smite him with another stone, and add unto him another wound? I, for my part, think not; but even as it was, thou wouldest endeavor to cure it. Why then doest thou the contrary with respect to the poor? Knowest thou not how much power a word hath, both to raise up, and to cast down? "For a word," it is said, "is better than a gift." [1506]
Dost thou not consider that thou art thrusting the sword into thyself, and art receiving a more grievous wound, when he, being reviled, silently withdraws, with groans and many tears? Since indeed of God he is sent unto thee. Consider then, in insulting him, upon whom thou art causing the insult to pass; when God indeed sends him unto thee, and commands thee to give, but thou, so far from giving, dost even insult him on his coming.
And if thou art not aware how exceedingly amiss this is, look at it as among men, and then thou wilt fully know the greatness of the sin. As thus: if a servant of thine had been commanded by thee to go to another servant, who had money of thine, to receive it, and were to come back not only with empty hands, but also with despiteful usage; what wouldest thou not do to him that had wrought the insult? What penalty wouldest thou not exact, as though, after this, it were thyself that had been ill used?
This reckoning do thou make in regard of God also; for truly it is He that sends the poor to us, and of His we give, if indeed we do give. But if, besides not giving, we also send them away insulted, consider how many bolts, how many thunders, that which we are doing deserves.
Duly considering then all these things, let us both bridle our tongue, and put away inhumanity, and let us stretch forth the hand to give alms, and not with money only, but with words also, let us relieve such as are in need; that we may both escape the punishment for reviling, and may inherit the kingdom which is for blessing and almsgiving, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might forever and ever. Amen.
[1462] [R.V, "came."]
[1463] [R.V. "came not."]
[1464] Luke ii. 14.
[1465] Gen. xi. 7, 8.
[1466] Acts xxiii. 6, 7.
[1467] 1 Kings xxi.
[1468] Matt. x. 35. [R.V., "I came," etc.]
[1469] Rom. xi. 8.
[1470] Exod. xxxii. 29; Numb. xxv. 7-11.
[1471] Matt. x. 36.
[1472] Micah vii. 5, 6.
[1473] Luke xii. 49.
[1474] eleiphe, "would anoint them for action."
[1475] Matt. x. 37, 38.
[1476] Deut. xxxiii. 9.
[1477] Eph. vi. 1. See there St. Chrysostom's explanation of the expression, "in the Lord."
[1478] Luke xiv. 26.
[1479] Matt. x. 38. Comp. Luke xiv. 27. [The word "beareth" (from Luke) is here substituted for "taketh."--R.]
[1480] Matt. x. 39.
[1481] Or "soul;" the same word standing in the Greek for both "soul" and "life;" which makes it impossible to give the full force of the passage in English.
[1482] Matt. x. 40.
[1483] Matt. x. 41.
[1484] anesin, opposed to klasin, "punishment," in the same way, Hom. XIII. 8, in the Benedictine edition, p. 176, c.; and elsewhere.
[1485] 2 Cor. viii. 14.
[1486] Matt. x. 43.
[1487] Matt. xxv. 45.
[1488] This was part of the festivities of the Saturnalia; "it began on the 13th of January, when the flute players used to run about the city with much license and wantonness in female apparel; as at this time, about the Epiphany season, pipers and singers are wont to come into the houses of the rich, to sing for largesses, with some in masks at their head. Vid. Liv. lib. ix. c. 30." Francisc. Modius de Ludis et Spect. Veterum, ii. 28, ap. Gronov. Thes. xi. 1055.
[1489] Here Mr. Field quotes from Bois as follows: "It is a description of certain jugglers, who used to carry about swallows trained to come and go when let loose, and settle on their heads, and take meat out of their mouths. So I conjecture," Mr. Field adds, "I have nothing to add to this. For those whom Athanæus" (from Theognis) "mentions, as gathering a dole for the swallow (p.360, B.) seem not to answer to what is here meant. They, by way of begging, used to chant a sort of song about the coming of the swallow. It was the custom of the Rhodians particularly."
[1490] Scaliger, Poet i. 10, says, "Some actors in low comedy were not masked, but smeared with soot;...and used to dance to music in honor of Bacchus, and bounding forward, to jeer at every one." ap. Hoffman, voc. Mimus.
[1491] 2 Thess. iii. 10, 13.
[1492] 2 Thess. iii. 14, 15.
[1493] [hupr t mtron diarregnei .]
[1494] Ecclus. iv. 8.
[1495] 2 Thess. iii. 10.
[1496] 2 Thess. iii. 13.
[1497] Exod. xxxii. 32 [LXX.].
[1498] Exod. xxxii. 10.
[1499] Numb. xi. 12 [LXX.].
[1500] Rom. xi. 17.
[1501] Luke vi. 30.
[1502] Luke vi. 36.
[1503] [The construction is difficult: hina scholaiteron bads. We must accept here a causal sense of hina.--R.]
[1504] Gen. xviii. 7.
[1505] Gen. xiv. 14. Comp. ep. of Barn. c. 9.
[1506] Ecclus. xviii. 16.