A in such conditions? In the Old Testament B this is forbidden with great precision, and the prophet uses heavy censure against those who live in luxury; although he has described a kind of luxury that is not very costly, nor truly delicate: "Those who eat lambs from the flocks and calves from the stalls; who drink strained wine, and anoint themselves with the finest C oils; who sleep on ivory beds and lounge on their couches" (Amos 6. 4, 6). If these things are worthy of accusation, when all things were carnal, and there was no account of heaven, when the Jewish institutions were a pedagogy, what shall we say to the present stupidity? If eating lambs and milk-fed calves as a sort of fluid and superfluous thing convicts the living, what might we say about those who search the nooks of the sea, and the remote ends of the earth, and gather up from everywhere hunters of every kind of bird and fish for themselves? If those who drink strained wine are under blame, what couldst thou say to those who arrange overseas journeys for the sake of wine, and move everything so that no kind of vine may escape them, as if they were about to give an account, or to be condemned for the uttermost, if they were not filled with every kind of wine? If it is worthy of blame to use an ivory bed, what pardon could those find who heap much silver upon them, or rather, who fashion not only beds, but already footstools, and cauldrons, and jars, and chamber pots out of silver alone? What small or great thing will they be able to say in those examinations?
I add to these things the hardest of all, that these things are collected even from the calamities of others. And yet the prophet did not set this down, but only censured the luxury. But when a cause graver than the luxury is present, who shall deliver those who do such things from the ultimate punishment? What Noah shall stand by? What Job? What Daniel? There is no one. But concerning these it is possible to say: "There will my anger burn like smoke" (Isa. 65. 5). For it is not, I beseech you, possible for one to be filled with the ultimate anger and wrath, and to be torn apart, when another does not enjoy even the necessary food, and you for no reason and in vain fashion silver for no purpose, not even for show? For neither will it be useful to you for this very thing, but it will be turned into the opposite. For you do this so that you may become conspicuous and illustrious, but the opposite happens. For you are not conspicuous and illustrious, but, because of your cruelty and greed and the ultimate evils, everyone accuses you. For how great is the envy, how great the malice, how great the disgust from all, how great the desire for change in everyone? I let pass the blasphemies against God which such riches produce; and yet this is more grievous than all; and that which precedes this, and whatever else thou mightest say, thou wilt find one thing worse than another. But not so with the balanced and moderate life, which the prophet does not mock, nor man blame, nor God accuse, nor fire punish; nor does anyone turn away from it, nor hate, nor envy it; but God accepts it, and angels share in it, and men praise it, and heaven receives it. These tables even received angels, with these Christ is present, not with those. Such were the tables of the prophets, such those of the apostles, such those of the just. But those of tyrants and of those who are wrongly wealthy on earth, having dancers, and the others who live for the ruin of life, both thieves and sorcerers and tomb-robbers—those are such. When thou providest such a table, an angel flies away, and God is provoked, and the prince of demons rejoices, and those who turn away and hate and pine away are not only the enemies, but also those who seem to have a kindly relation to the man, eating him away with envy more than enjoying the things present. But when one provides that other, the sober and balanced one, which has no inflammation, and is most sweet and pleasant to all friends, and to God, and to angels, and to men: then the Only-Begotten of God is present. For just as He flees from pride, and every haughty person, and turmoil, so He is a friend to the humble, and abides always, and fences and walls them in on every side. When Christ is present, one should search for nothing else. Knowing these things, then, beloved, let us flee those things, let us pursue these, that we may attain both the present and the future good things, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, honor, with the holy Spirit, now and always, and into the ages of the ages. Amen.
ADMONITION
Truly here it is not taught that prayers are to be sent up perpetually, but only assiduously and frequently. And what others, the doctors and masters of the Christian life, preach: wherefore no suspicion can arise from this. But another thing may be objected, because it is busy: it expressly ascribes the book of Ecclesiasticus, or that of Jesus son of Sirach, to Solomon, and I know not whether thou mightest find this elsewhere in Chrysostom. Moved by these reasons, we have placed these two orations among the