HOMILY VIII.] HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS. 221 among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ." Observ- est thou that he is instructing these not to mur mur? So that murmuring is left for unprincipled and graceless slaves. For tell me, what manner of son is that, who murmurs at the very time that he is employed in the affairs of his father, and is working for his own benefit? Consider, he says, that you are laboring for yourself, that it is for yourself that you are laying up ; it is for those to murmur, when others profit by their labors, others reap the fruit, while they bear the burden ; but he that is gathering for himself, why should he murmur? Because his wealth does not increase ? But it is not so. Why does he murmur who acts of free-will, and not by constraint? It is better to do nothing than to do it with murmuring, for even the very thing itself is spoilt. And do you not remark that in j our own families we are continually saying this ; " it were better for these things never to be done, than to have them done with murmur ing"? and we had often rather be deprived of the services some one owes us, than submit to the inconvenience of his murmuring. For mur muring is intolerable, most intolerable ; it bor ders upon blasphemy. Otherwise why had those men to pay a penalty so severe? It is a proof of ingratitude ; the murmurer is ungrateful to God, but whoso is ungrateful to God does there by become a blasphemer. Now there were at that time, if ever, uninterrupted troubles, and dangers without cessation : there was no pause, no remission : innumerable were the horrors, which pressed upon them from all quarters ; but now we have profound peace, a perfect calm. Wherefore then murmur ? Because thou art j poor ? Yet think of Job. Or because sickness is thy lot? What then if, with the conscious ness of as many excellencies and as high attain- , ments as that holy man, thou hadst been so afflicted? Again reflect on him, how that for! a long time he never ceased to breed worms, sitting upon a dunghill and scraping his sores ; | for the account says that " (after a long time had passed,) then said his wife unto him, How long wilt thou persist, saying, Yet a little while I bide in expectation ? Speak some word against the Lord, and die." 1 (Job ii. 9, LXX.) But your child is dead? What then if thou hadst lost all thy children, and that by an evil fate, as he did? For ye know, ye know well, that it is no slight alleviation to take our place beside the sick man, to close the mouth, to shut the eyes, to stroke the beard, to hear the last accents ; but that just man was vouchsafed none of these consolations, they all being overwhelmed 1 [The Sept. uses this vague euphemism in place of " curse God." The Oxford tr. omits the clause. J. A. B.] at once. And what do I say? Hadst thou, thine own self, been bidden to slay and offer up thine own son, and to see the body con sumed, like that blessed Patriarch, what then wouldst thou have felt whilst erecting the altar, laying on the wood, binding the child? But there are some who revile thee? What then would be thy feelings did thy friends, come to administer consolation to thee, speak like Job s? For, as it is, innumerable are our sins, and we deserve to be reproached ; but in that case he who was true, just, godly, who kept himself from every evil deed, heard the contrary of those laid to his charge by his friends. What then, tell me, if thou hadst heard thy wife ex claiming in accents of reproach ; " I am a vaga bond and a servant, wandering from place to place, and from house to house, waiting until the sun goes down, that I may rest from the woes that encompass me." (Job ii. 9, LXX.) Why dost thou speak so, O foolish woman ? for is thine husband to blame for these things? Nay, but the devil. " Speak a word against God," she says, " and die " ; and if thereupon the stricken man had cursed and died, how wouldest thou be the better? No disease you can name is worse than that of his, though you name ten thousand. It was so grievous, that he could no longer be in the house and under cover ; such, that all men gave him up. For if he had not been irrecoverably gone, he would never have taken his seat without the city, a more pitiable object than those afflicted with leprosy ; for these are both admitted into houses, and they do herd together ; but he passing the night in the open air, was naked upon a dung hill, and could not even bear a garment upon his body. How so? Perhaps there would only have been an addition to his pangs. For " I melt the clods of the earth," he says, "while I scrape off my sore." 2 (Job vii. 5, LXX.) His flesh bred sores and worms in him, and that continually. Seest thou how each one of us sickens at the hearing of these things? but if they are intolerable to hear, is the sight of them more tolerable? and if the sight of them is intolerable, how much more intolerable to undergo them? And yet that righteous man did undergo them, not for two or three days, but for a long while, and he did not sin, not even with his lips. What disease can you de scribe to me like this, so exquisitely painful? for was not this worse than blindness? " I look on my food," he says, "as a fetid mass." (Job vi. 7.) And not only this, but that which af fords cessation to others, night and sleep, brought no alleviation to him, nay, were worse than any torture. Hear his words : " Why dost thou scare me with dreams, and terrify me through 2 Eng. Vers. " My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust."