is to grow rich from others' property, but who lack the power to exercise open violence, are accustomed to lie in wait along the roads; and if they see a place near them broken by deep ravines or shaded by the density of trees, they descend into it, and by such concealment they cut off the view of the travelers who approach from afar, and leap upon them suddenly, so that no one can see the snares of danger before falling into them: A so too, that enemy who has been hostile to us from the beginning, entering the shadows of worldly pleasures—which are apt to form hiding places for the robber and to provide an ambush in the path of this life—from there unexpectedly casts upon us the snares of destruction.
Therefore, if we desire to traverse safely this path of life that lies before us, and to present to Christ our soul and body alike free from the shame of wounds, and to receive the crowns for victory, we must always keep the eyes of the soul vigilant everywhere around us, and hold all pleasant things suspect, and pass them by immediately, applying our mind B to none of them. Do not do so even if gold appears cast about, ready to come into the hands of those who desire it (for it says: "If riches abound, set not your heart upon them" [Ps. LXII, 11]). Do not do so even if the earth puts forth every luxury and displays sumptuous tabernacles (for "our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Christ" [Phil. III, 20]). Do not do so even if dances, and revels, and drunkenness, and tables resounding with the music of flutes are set before us (for it says: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity" [Eccl. I, 2]). C Do not do so even if beautiful bodies are offered, in which wicked souls dwell (for it says: "Flee from the face of a woman as from the face of a serpent," says the Wise Man [Ecclus. XXI, 2]). Do not do so even if powers and tyrannies, and throngs of guards or flatterers, may be expected; nor if a high and splendid throne is promised, subjecting nations and cities to voluntary servitude ("For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withered, and the flower thereof fell away" [Isa. XL, 6, 7]).
For beneath all these things that are so pleasant, the common enemy lies in ambush, waiting to see if at some time, being enticed by the things we see, we might turn aside from the straight path and incline ourselves toward his lair. D And there is great fear that, running toward them incautiously, and thinking there is nothing harmful in experiencing that pleasure, we might swallow the hook of deceit hidden in the first taste; and then, dragged by this—partly willing, partly unwilling—we may be bound to these things, and, without knowing it, be drawn by pleasures to the terrible lodging of the robber, namely, to death.
A 2. Wherefore it is necessary and useful for all of us, brethren, to gird ourselves like travelers or runners, and everywhere to conceive of a lightness in our souls for the completing of this race, and without looking back to hasten toward the end of the road. And let no one suspect me of being a creator of new terms because I have now called human life a "road," since David the prophet also named life in this way: now saying here, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord" (Ps. CXVII, 1); and now crying out to his own Master, "Remove from me the way of iniquity, and with thy law have mercy on me" (Ps. CXVII, 29). And at another time, singing the praise of God’s swift help against those who were encroaching upon him, and adapting it joyfully to the lyre, he said: "And who is God except our God? It is God who girds me with strength and has made my way blameless" (Ps. XVII, 32, 33). He rightly considered that the sojourn of men everywhere on earth, whether it be excellent or base, should be so designated.
B For just as those who complete a sustained march, by moving their feet forward in a race—each striving with the other, and by the swift shifting of one foot, rendering that which was first upon the ground the second—easily arrive at the end of the road; so too those who have been brought into life by the Creator, stepping immediately at the very beginning into the fragments of time, and always leaving the prior one behind for the latter, reach the end of life. Does not this present life also seem to you a certain continuous and extended road, and a journey punctuated by various ages as if by stations? It provides the pains of the womb as the beginning of the journey for everyone, while it displays the tents of the graves as the end of the race, leading all toward them—some sooner, others later, some having traveled through all the intervals of time, C and others not having tarried even at the first stations of life.
Now, it is possible to turn aside from other roads that lead from city to city, and for one who does not wish to do so, not to travel them. But this road, even if we should wish to delay our race, seizes us violently and drags those who are upon it toward the limit appointed by the Master. And it is not possible, beloved, for one who has once passed out through the gate that leads to this life, and has entered upon this journey, not also to arrive at its end. For each of us, after emerging from the maternal bosom, is immediately bound to the flow of time and swept away, always leaving behind the day that one has lived, D and never being able to return to yesterday, even if one should wish it. Yet we rejoice as we progress further, and as we pass from one age to another, we are glad as if we were gaining something; and we deem it a blessed thing when one becomes a man from a boy, and an old man from a man. But the amount of life that has fled from us...
insofar as we have lived, is A lost to us, and we do not perceive that life is being spent, although we are always measuring it by what is passing by and flowing away; nor do we consider how uncertain it is how much time he who sent us forth upon this journey will desire to grant us for the race, and when he will open the gates of entry to each of the runners, and that we must be prepared day by day for the departure from here, and wait with fixed eyes for the nod of the Master. For, he says, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and you yourselves like men waiting for their master, when he will return from the wedding, so that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately." (Luc. XII, 35, 36).
3. Nor do we diligently consider what burdens are light for us for such a race, and such that they can be transferred with those who collect them, and make the life there joyful for us—being made the proper belongings of those who have acquired them; B and what ones are heavy and troublesome and nailed to the earth, and are not by nature such as to be made our own at all, nor permitted to follow their owners through that narrow gate. But we have left behind what ought to have been gathered; and what ought to have been despised, these we have gathered. And things which are able to be joined to us, and truly to become an ornament and truly suitable to both soul and body, these we do not even heed; but those which remain perpetually alien, branding us only with infamy, these we attempt to gather, laboring to no purpose, and undergoing a labor as if someone, deceiving himself, might wish to pour into a leaking cask. For this is indeed C known, I believe, even to all children: that nothing of the pleasant things in life, for which the majority are mad, is truly ours, or is even of a nature to be so; but they appear equally alien to all, both to those who seem to enjoy them and to those who do not even have access to them. For even if some people should gather infinite gold in life, it does not remain their own perpetually; but it either escapes those still living, shifting to more powerful people, or it abandons those who are already near death, nor does it wish to depart along with those who acquired it. But these men, indeed, being dragged by him who forcibly separates souls from this wretched flesh D for the unavoidable migration, frequently turn back toward their money and weep for the sweats they shed for its sake from their youth; while the wealth migrates into the hands of others, having smeared upon them only the labor of gathering it and the crime of avarice. Nor if someone were to acquire ten thousand acres of land, and magnificent houses, and herds of animals of every kind, and were to surround himself with all the power that exists among men, does he enjoy
possess, and magnificent houses, and herds of animals of every kind, and has been surrounded by every degree of human power, he enjoys these things perpetually; but having received the name for a brief time from them, he cedes his wealth to others, and a tiny bit of earth hides him. Indeed, often even before burial, and before he departs from here, he will see his own goods pass to others—and perhaps to his enemies. Are we unaware how many fields, how many houses, how many nations and cities, even while those who possessed them were still alive, have taken on the names of other masters after stripping off the previous ones? And how those who were once enslaved have ascended the throne of power, while those who were called lords and masters, if they remain with their subjects, think they have been dealt with well, and have submitted to their own servants—things having been suddenly changed, as if in the shifting of dice?
B 4. As to the things devised for us for food and drink, and all that wealth, in its insolence, has contrived beyond necessity for the service of an ungrateful belly that retains nothing, when could they ever become ours, even if they were poured in continuously? For those things which provide only a small pleasure to the taste in passing, we straightway resent as burdensome and superfluous, and we cast them out with haste, as if we would be in the greatest danger for our lives if they were to remain long in the bowels. Indeed, satiety has brought death to many, and has been the cause of their tasting nothing more. And finally, lascivious beds, and impure unions, and all the works of a rabid and insane soul—is not this obviously a clear detriment to nature, and an evident harm, and an alienation and diminution of those things that are truly one’s own, while the body is emaciated in these unions and despoiled of the very food that is most natural and accommodating for the preservation of its limbs? Therefore, as soon as the deed is done and the goad of the flesh has languished, everyone who has wallowed in such unchaste beds—when the mind, having failed to obtain that which it attempted, collects itself as if from drunkenness or some storm and gains the leisure to consider where it is—greatly repents of its incontinence. For it perceives that the body has become weaker, and sluggish and altogether feeble for performing necessary tasks. Therefore, since even the trainers of youth understood this, they established the law of continence in the palaestra, keeping the bodies of young men safe from pleasures, C and not allowing those contending to even look at elegant forms if they wished to adorn their heads with crowns; for incontinence brings mockery to the wrestling ground, not a crown.
5. These things, then, are as things altogether foreign and vain, and such as can be the property of no one; it is worth the effort to pass them by with closed eyes. But it is fitting to take great care D of those things which are truly our own.
A And what is truly ours? The soul, by which we live, which is a subtle and intelligent thing, and has no need of those things which burden it; and the body, which was given to it by the Creator as a vehicle for passing through this life. For this is man: a mind bound to a suitable and appropriate flesh. This is fashioned by the all-wise Artificer of all things within our mother's womb. This, at the time of birth, is brought forth into the light from those dark chambers. This was appointed to rule over things upon the earth. For this, the creation is spread out as a gymnasium for virtue. For this, a law is established: to imitate the Creator to the best of one's ability, and to sketch, as it were, the order found in the heavens upon the earth. This, when summoned from here, departs. This stands before the judgment seat of God who sent it. This is corrected; this receives the reward for the way it has lived here. And one will find that even the virtues become our own possessions when they are carefully woven together with our nature; they are unwilling to abandon us as we toil upon the earth, unless we willfully drive them away by force through the introduction of worse things; they run ahead of those who are hastening toward the region beyond and place their possessor among the angels B and shine forever under the eyes of the Creator. But wealth, and power, and notoriety, and luxury, and all such a crowd, which daily increases because of our own folly, did not come into life with us, nor will it depart with anyone, but that which was spoken long ago by the righteous man concerning every human being remains fixed and prevails: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return" (Job I, 11).
6. Therefore, he who consults his own best interests will be concerned for his soul as much as possible, and will endeavor by all means to keep it sincere and genuine; but as for the flesh, whether it be wasting away from hunger, or struggling with cold or heat, or being tormented by diseases, or suffering some violence from others, he will make little account, uttering the words of Paul in each of these difficulties, and saying: "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (II Cor. IV, 16). And when he sees himself in danger of losing his life, he will not appear timid, but will confidently say to himself: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (II Cor. V, 1). If, however, anyone wishes to show compassion even to the body, as if it were the only possession necessary to the soul, and as one that contributes to its living upon the earth, he will turn to providing for its needs only in a small way, just enough to sustain it and to keep it healthy through moderate care for the service of the soul, but without allowing it to grow wanton through excess. But if he sees it becoming inflamed with desires for more than is necessary, he will cry out to it, establishing the law of Paul: "Nothing..."
A have we brought into this world; it is manifest that neither can we carry anything out. But having food and clothing, we shall be content with these." For if one constantly sings this and cries it out to himself, it will make his soul always tractable and light for the heavenly journey, and all the more will it prove a helper to the tasks set before it. But if he allows it to play the wanton, and to be every day crammed full like some untamed beast, then at last, pulled downward by the violent weight of his own burden toward the earth, he will lie there, groaning to no avail (97). And when he is brought before the Master and is asked for the fruit of that earthly journey committed to him, and then finds himself unable to yield it, he will lament at length and will dwell in perpetual darkness, blaming the luxuries and the deception of those things by which the time of his salvation was stolen from him; but he will gain no profit whatsoever from his tears. For "in hell who shall confess to Thee?" says David.
7. Let us, then, flee as quickly as possible, lest we ourselves B voluntarily suffocate. But if one has already been long ago ensnared, or has unjustly hoarded up the dust of riches, and has bound his mind with the cares of these, or has attached to his nature the foulness of licentiousness which can scarcely be washed away, or has stuffed himself with other crimes: let him, while there is still time, before he comes to complete destruction, lay down the greater part of his burdens, and before the ship is submerged, let him make a jettison of the cargo which he has gathered unlawfully, and let him imitate the sea-farers. For they, if they happen to be carrying even something necessary upon the ship, yet if a seething tempest rises from the sea against them and threatens to overwhelm the ship, which is weighed down by its cargo, they, as quickly as they can, relieve it of the greater part of the weight and cast the merchandise indiscriminately into the sea, so that they may make the vessel ride higher than the waves and, if possible, C provide a way of avoiding danger for their souls and bodies alone. Yet it is far more fitting for us to resolve and to do these things than for them. For those men, whatever they cast away, they lose immediately and thereafter fall unwillingly into poverty; but we, the sooner we cast off this wicked burden, the more abundant and excellent riches shall we accumulate for our souls. For fornication, and such things, when cast away, perish and go to the point of being non-existent, being blotted out by tears; but holiness and justice thereafter move into their place, things light and unable to be overwhelmed by any waves. Indeed, money, when rightly cast away, does not perish for those who cast it out and throw it away; but, just as into some other, safer merchant ships, the D
A contents reach the ports and are guarded for those who have put them there, for whom they are an ornament and not a danger.
8. Let us therefore determine, beloved, to do something humane, and if we should wish at all to make the burden of riches our own gain, let us distribute it among many, who will carry it with great joy and will stow it away in the bosom of the Master, in those inviolable treasuries, where moth does not destroy, nor do thieves break through or steal. Let us give authority to be poured out by the One who wills it, by means of our wealth, toward those who are in need. Let us not pass by the Lazaruses still lying before our eyes even now, nor let us begrudge them the crumbs from our table, which are sufficient to satisfy them; nor, having envied that unmerciful rich man, let B us move on toward the same flame of Gehenna as he. For indeed we shall entreat Abraham much at that time, and we shall entreat much each of those who have lived well; but there will be no gain for us from our cry. For a brother does not redeem, will a man redeem? Each of those will say, crying out to us: "Do not seek humanity, which you yourself did not know toward others; nor wish to receive such great things when you spared these lesser ones. Enjoy these things which you gathered in your life. Weep now, since that time, seeing your brother weeping, you did not show mercy." They will say these things, to us, and justly. But I fear, lest they even strike us with more bitter words than these, since, as you know, C we even surpass that rich man in wickedness. For we do not pass by our brothers cast upon the ground because we are sparing our wealth; nor do we close our ears to the prayers of those in need because we are guarding our prosperity for our children or other relatives; but, transferring our expenditure to things detrimental, we make our munificence an incentive for wickedness to those who pursue it. For how many men or women surround the tables of certain people! Some delight the host with shameful words, others kindle the fire of incontinence with improper glances and gestures; others, through mutual taunts, wish to provoke laughter for the one who has invited them; others deceive him with false praises. And they do not only gain by being entertained so D splendidly in this way, but they also bring away their hands filled with precious gifts, and they learn from us that it is more profitable for their own sake to pursue such things and to do them, rather than to cultivate virtue. But if a poor man should come into our sight, one who can scarcely even speak for hunger, we turn away from the man;
person, we loathe him, we hasten away with speed, as if fearing that if we walk too slowly we might share in his very misfortune. And if he casts his eyes to the ground, feeling ashamed of his calamity, we call him a practitioner of hypocrisy; but if, severely goaded by hunger, he looks at us with frankness and confidence, we conversely call him impudent and violent. And if he happens to be covered with sound garments given to him by someone, we drive him away as an insatiable man, and we swear that he is faking poverty; but if he is covered in rotting rags, we drive him away again as one who smells bad, and even though he mixes the name of the Creator into his entreaties, and unceasingly adjures us not to fall into similar straits, he is unable to bend our merciless disposition. For these reasons I fear a fire more severe than that which burned the rich man of old. B If indeed time permitted, and there were sufficient strength, I would have set forth to you all that concerned him, as the Scripture indicated, and satisfied the duty of speaking; but now it is time to dismiss you, as you are weary. But you yourselves, if anything has been left out by us due to the weakness of mind and tongue at once, should impress it upon your own hearts and apply it like certain medicines to the wounds of your souls. For, "Give an opportunity to a wise man, and he will be still wiser," says the Scripture. "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work."
9. But since, as you perceive, our speech has reached the harbor, certain brethren call us back again to the path of counsel and exhortation, urging us not to pass over the miracles performed by the Lord yesterday, nor to keep silent about the trophy which the Savior erected against the madness of the devil; but rather to give you an occasion for leaping for joy while singing hymns. For again, as you know, the devil displayed his own madness against us, and arming himself with a flame of fire, he attacked the C precincts of the Church. But again, our common mother conquered, and turned the device back upon the enemy himself, and nothing came of it for him except that he publicized his hatred. Grace breathed against the onslaughts of the enemy, and the temple remained unharmed. The storm brought on by the enemy could not shake the rock upon which Christ built the sheepfold of His own flock. He has been stationed even now with us, He who once in Babylon extinguished the furnace of fire. How do you think the devil is groaning today, having failed to achieve the end of the attempt he had devised in his mind? For the enemy kindled a pyre in the neighborhood of the Church, that he might molest our prosperous successes. And now the flame, excited from every side by the violent blasts of that one, upon
A poured out over the materials subjected to it and consumed the neighboring air, forced to touch the sacred residence, and dragging us into a partnership in the calamity. But the Savior moved it upon the one who had kindled it, and commanded his madness to be turned back upon himself. And indeed the enemy had made ready the bow of his intrigue; but he was prohibited from loosening the arrow; or rather, he did loosen it, but it was turned back upon his own head. He himself enjoys those bitter tears which he prepared for us. But let us, B brothers, inflict a more grievous wound upon the adversary, let us increase his mourning. And how this can be done, I will tell you, but do you perform it. There are those who were snatched from the power of the fire by the Creator, and have no remainder of their livelihood left to them for the future, but have escaped the danger with only their soul and body. We, therefore, as many of us as have remained untasted by the experience of such hardships, let us offer our own resources as common to them. Let us embrace the brothers who have been scarcely saved, let us say to each one: "He was dead and is alive, he was lost and is found"; and let us clothe the related body. C Let us withstand the insults of the adversary with our own consolation, so that even when he has done harm, he may seem to have brought about no great detriment, and may not show anyone whom he has conquered by his fighting, but having destroyed the resources of the brothers, may find himself conquered by our generosity.
10. But you, brothers, who have escaped this peril, do not grieve greatly over the evils that have happened, nor be shaken in your mind, but shake off the mist of sorrow, and, thinking more generously, strengthen your souls, and turn what has happened into an occasion for crowns. For if you remain unshaken, and appear more approved by faith, like noble gold gleaming from the fire, you will be found more proven, and you will afflict the adversary with greater shame, D who by his intrigues has not been able to move even a tear from you. Call to your own remembrance the patience of Job. Say to yourselves what he said: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has come to pass." And let no one, from what has happened, be persuaded to think and say that no providence directs our affairs, nor let him accuse the administration and judgment of the Master; but let him look to that athlete, and make him his counselor of better thoughts. Let him ponder all the struggles in order, in which he was victorious, and by how many darts he was struck by the devil, yet received no mortal wound. He destroyed his domestic prosperity, and was determined to overwhelm him with successive messages of adversity. When
A one messenger had not yet finished reporting the first such calamity, another messenger arrived, bringing the sadness of even worse things; the evils were linked together, the disasters imitating the onset of waves, and before the previous tear could be staunched, occasion for another was brought forward. The righteous man, however, stood as some bulwark, receiving the attacks of the storm and changing the violence of the waves into foam, and sent forth a grateful voice to the Master: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it came to pass"; and he did not deem any of the things that were happening worthy of tears. But when someone arrived from among the messengers to say that a violent wind had shaken the house of enjoyment B while his sons and daughters were feasting inside, only then did he rend his garment, showing a sympathetic nature, and by those very actions declaring that he was a father who loved his children. Yet even then, setting a limit and measure to his grief, and adorning what had happened with those pious utterances, he said: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it came to pass," crying out, as it were, in this manner: "I was called a father for as long as He who made me a father willed. He has decided, in turn, to remove the crown of my offspring; I do not fight against Him taking away what is His own. Let that which seems good to the Master prevail; He is the creator of the lineage, and I am the instrument. What need is there, since I am a servant, to grieve in vain, and to complain of a judgment that I cannot undo?" With such words, as if with darts, the righteous man pierced the devil.
11. C When, however, the enemy saw him again as the victor, and that he could not be shaken by any of these afflictions, he applied the engine of temptation to his very flesh, and having struck the body with unspeakable wounds, he caused fountains of worms to burst forth from it, and having cast the man down from the royal throne, he set him on a dunghill. But he, even when pelted by such sufferings, remained unmoved; and while his body was being torn, he kept the treasure of piety inviolate in the hidden recess of his soul. Since, therefore, the enemy had nothing left to do, he remembered his ancient stratagem; and, drawing the mind of his wife into an impious and blasphemous counsel, he attempted through her to shake the athlete. And she, indeed, yielding to the long duration D of time, stood by the righteous man, prone upon the ground, striking her hands over what she saw, reproaching him with the fruits of his piety, recounting on one side the old abundance of his family estate, and on the other pointing out the present evils, and what kind of life he had obtained and from what height, and what reward he had received from the Master for his many sacrifices, and she always spoke words worthy indeed of the smallness of the womanly mind: but...
[words] able to disturb every man, and to overturn even a noble mind. “For I wander about,” she stated, “as a vagrant and a handmaid; I who was a queen serve, and I am compelled to look to the hands of my own servants; and I who formerly nourished many, I now deem it a blessing if I am nourished by others.” She added that it would be better and more useful if he would cut himself off from the land by using impious words, and by sharpening the sword of the Creator’s wrath, than by the endurance of evils to prolong the labor of trials for himself and for his wife. But he, more offended by these words than by any of the previous evils, and with his countenance filled with anger, turning to his wife as if toward an enemy, what does he say? “Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women?” “Lay aside,” he says, “O woman, that counsel. Until when do you insult the common life by the things you say? You have maligned my own walk of life, as if I had not prayed, and you have slandered my life by the things you have uttered. I consider that I have acted impiously by half now, since while marriage made us both one body, you have fallen into blasphemy. If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure the bad?” B Call to your memory the good things that have come to you. Balance the better things against the worse. The life of no human being is entirely blessed. To be prosperous at all times belongs to God alone. You, therefore, if you are pained by present circumstances, find consolation for yourself from what has passed. Now you weep, but you laughed before; now you are poor, but you were wealthy before. You drank the clear stream of life, and now as you drink the muddy, endure it with an equable mind. Not even the currents of rivers appear pure at all times. But our life, as you know, is a river, flowing continuously and filled with successive waves. For part of it has already flowed past, and part is still passing; and part has just emerged from the springs, and part is yet to come; and we are all hastening to the common sea of death. If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure the bad? Shall we compel the Judge to provide us with like things throughout our life? Shall we teach the Master how He ought to guide our life? C His own decrees are with Him. He governs our affairs according to His own judgment. For He is wise, and measures out to His servants what is useful.
12. Be content only with the things dispensed by His wisdom. Whatever He may give you, receive it with joy. Show in your afflictions that you were also worthy of the joy you formerly experienced. Saying these things, Job repelled even this assault of the devil, and brought upon him D perfect shame for his defeat. What then happened from this? The disease fled from him again, as one that had come in vain and had accomplished nothing further. The flesh grew young again into a second youth; life flourished once more with all good things, and the goods of the house were doubled.
A Wealth flowed in from every side, so that he might have that which he had lost, while the increase served as a just reward for his patience. But why did he receive double the horses, and mules, and camels, and sheep, and farms, and every other luxury of wealth, while the number of his children was merely equal to those who had died? Because the brute animals and all fleeting riches had perished completely, whereas his children, though dead, were still living in the better part of their being. B Being adorned again by the Creator with other sons and daughters, he had this possession doubled also. For some were present, offering joy to their parents in this life, while the others, who had gone before, were awaiting the one who had begotten them; all would then surround Job, when the Judge of human life gathers the universal Church; when the trumpet, signaling the arrival of the King, having sounded with great force over the tombs, demands back the deposit of bodies. Then, those who now seem to be dead will stand before the Creator of all more quickly than the living. For this reason, I think, while He meted out to him his other wealth doubled, He deemed it sufficient for him that his children be equal in number. Do you see how many and how great the goods were which the righteous Job stored up for himself through patience? And you, therefore, if any trouble has befallen you from the fire kindled yesterday by the snares of the demons, endure it with patience, and soothe the sadness arising from your suffering with better thoughts; and according to that which is written: "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you." To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
TO YOUNG MEN, How they may derive profit from pagan literature
C 1. Many things urge me, young men, to advise you on the matters which I judge to be best, and which I believe will be profitable to you if you choose them. For both the fact that I am at such an age, and my being already trained in many things, and furthermore, the fact that I have experienced enough and more of the changes that teach everything in both directions, have made me experienced in human affairs, D so that I am able to show those who are just beginning their life as if it were the safest road. Moreover, by natural kinship, I am positioned immediately after your parents in relation to you, so that I myself feel no less goodwill toward you than your fathers do; and I believe that you, unless I am mistaken in my estimation of your intent, do not miss your parents when you look to me.