you desire us to have. I have been wanting to write constantly; but the fear of the Isaurians, having walled off every road, does not let me find means for those who would serve us in this. Whenever, then, we do obtain these, we are returning to you the salutation that is owed, encouraging you in the usual way: to be in no way disturbed or troubled by these constant and successive temptations. For if merchants and sailors cross such long seas for the sake of small amounts of cargo, and brave so many waves; and if soldiers despise even life itself for the sake of a fleeting and small wage, and often live fighting against hunger, and are worn down by long journeys, and dwell constantly in foreign lands, and many of them eventually suffer an untimely and violent death, having gained nothing from it, neither small nor great—when there is a heavenly prize proposed, and after death a recompense far greater and much more abundant, what forgiveness will they obtain who become soft and do not despise even life itself? A Considering all these things, then, and that the present is smoke, and a dream, and all human prosperity is no better than spring leaves, being born and withering all at once, become loftier than all such arrows. For it is possible, if you wish, to trample underfoot this worldly illusion as well. Only consider how, with great eagerness, you might be able to traverse the narrow road that leads up to Him.
To Castus, Valerius, Diophantus, and Cyriacus, Presbyters.
Whatever happens to gold often tested by fire, this also happens to souls that are from the outside being tested by temptations. For the nature of the flame makes that material much brighter and purer, communing with it for as much time as the law of the craft permits; and the furnace of successive temptations fashionably makes men who resemble gold in their mind, brighter and more precious than any gold, with much abundance. B For this reason, even though we sit at such a distance, we do not cease to congratulate you constantly. For you know, you know clearly, how great is the gain of such machinations, and how the prosperity of the present life is a mere name, empty of reality, while the future goods are established, immovable, permanent, and immortal. And this is not the only miracle of virtue—that such are the prizes provided to us—but that even before the prizes, its struggles themselves become prizes, and it comes bringing the rewards to the victors not only when the theater has been dissolved, but it also weaves bright crowns for the combatants in the very middle of the stadium. For this reason, Paul also does not rejoice and take delight only in the rewards of tribulations, but is also adorned by the tribulations themselves, speaking thus: “And not only so, but we also glory in our tribulations” (Rom. 5:3). Then, enumerating the chain of the rewards of tribulation, C he says that it produces endurance, the mother of good things, the waveless harbor, the life in stillness, stronger than rock, and more solid than adamant, more powerful than any weapon, and safer than walls. This, having been accomplished, makes its pupils proved and noble, and excessively unconquerable. For it allows them to be troubled or tripped up by none of the painful things that occur; but just as a rock, the more it is struck by many waves, is all the more cleansed, being moved not even a little, while it easily destroys the weight of the waters that crash against it—not by striking, but by being struck, it makes them disappear—so also the man who has become proved through endurance stands above every machination. And the wonder of it is that he becomes stronger, not by doing evil, but by suffering evil, easily dissolving those who do it. I have not written these things as if you needed to learn them from us; for I know your understanding, which you have demonstrated through your actions themselves; D for as to the things on which we now discourse through words, you have proclaimed them through what you have suffered. Therefore, I have not written these things as if you needed to learn them from us, but because you were silent for a long time—or rather, we were generally silent a long silence—I wanted the letter also to be long. And when writing to such noble athletes of endurance, what else was there to converse about but these things through which you have appeared so bright and well-proved? [alt-version omitted]