154 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XXI. his arguments to him, advising him to attach her to himself by the power of love,) so, I say, here also, he refers the efficiency to him, by saying, " But bring them up in the chastening and ad monition of the Lord." Thou seest that where there are spiritual ties, the natural ties will follow. Do you wish your son to be obedient ? From the very first " Bring him up in the chastening and admonition of the Lord." Never deem it an unnecessary thing that he should be a diligent hearer of the divine Scriptures. For there the first thing he hears will be this, " Honor thy father and thy mother" ; so that this makes for thee. Never say, this is the business of monks. Am I making a monk of him? No. There is no need he should become a monk. 1 Why be so afraid of a thing so replete with so much advan tage? Make him a Christian. For it is of all things necessary for laymen 2 to be acquainted with the lessons derived from this source ; but especially for .children. For theirs is an age full of folly ; and to this folly are superadded the bad examples derived from the heathen tales, where they are made acquainted with those heroes so admired amongst them, slaves of their passions, and cowards with regard to death ; as, for ex ample, Achilles, when he relents, when he dies for his concubine, when another gets drunk, and many other things of the sort. He requires there fore the remedies against these things. How is it not absurd to send children out to trades, and to school, and to do all you can for these ob jects, and yet, not to " bring them up in the chastening and admonition of the Lord " ? And for this reason truly we are the first to reap the fruits, because we bring up our children to be insolent and profligate, disobedient, and mere vulgar fellows. Let us not then do this ; no, let us listen to this blessed Apostle s admoni tion. " Let us bring them up in the chasten ing and admonition of the Lord." Let us give them a pattern. Let us make them from the earliest age apply themselves to the reading of the Scriptures. Alas, that so constantly as I repeat this, I am looked upon as trifling ! Still, I shall not cease to do my duty. Why, tell me, do ye not imitate them of old? Ye women, espe cially, emulate those admirable women. Has a child been born to any one? Imitate Hannah s example (i Sam. i. 24) ; look at what she did. She brought him up at once to the temple. Who amongst you would not rather that his son should become a Samuel than that he should be king of the whole world ten thousand times over? "And how," you will say, "is it possible he should become such a one?" W T hy is it 1 Fathers were very suspicious in St. Chrysostom s day of the in fluence of Christianity tending to make their children monks. In consequence of this prejudice against the monastic life, he wrote his Adv. OJ>pugn. Man. Vit.- TOI; /COO>IKCHS. 3 oyoA/ma. not possible ? It is because thou dost not choose it thyself, nor committest him to the care of those who are able to make him such a one. " And who," it will be said, "is such a one as this?" God. Since she put him into the hands of God. For not even Eli himself was one of those in any great degree qualified to form him ; (how could he be, he who was not able to form even his own children?) No, it was the faith of the mother and her earnest zeal that wrought the whole. He was her first child, and her only one, and she knew not whether she should ever have others besides. Yet she did not say, " I will wait till the child is grown up, that he may have a taste of the things of this life, I will allow him to have his pastime in them a little in his childish years." No, all these thoughts the woman repudiated, she was absorbed in one object, how from the very beginning she might dedicate the spiritual image 3 to God. \Vell may we men be put to the blush at the wisdom of this woman. She offered him up to God, and there she left him. And therefore was her mar ried state more glorious, in that she had made spiritual objects her first care, in that she dedi cated the first-fruits to God. Therefore was her womb fruitful, and she obtained other children besides. 4 And therefore she saw him honorable even in the world. For if men when they are honored, render honor in return, will not God much more, He who does this, even without being honored ? How long are we to be mere lumps of flesh? How long are we to be stoop ing to the earth? Let everything be secondary with us to the provident care we should take of our children, and to our " bringing them up in the chastening and admonition of the Lord." If from the very first he is taught to be a lover of true wisdom, then wealth greater than all wealth has he acquired and a more imposing name. You will effect nothing so great by teaching him an art, and giving him that out ward learning by which he will gain riches, as if you teach him the art of despising riches. If you desire to make him rich, do this. For the rich man is not he who desires great riches, and is encircled with great riches ; but the man who has need of nothing.5 Discipline your son in this, teach him this. This is the greatest riches. Seek not how to give him reputation and high character in outward learning, but consider deeply how you shall teach him to despise the glory that belongs to this present life. By this means would he become more distinguished and more truly glorious. This it is possible for the 4 [On the authority of three MSS., Savile and other editors con curring, we have departed here from the text of Field, which reverses the order of this and the following sentence, and leaves the sense less clear, v. i Sam. ii. 21. G. A.J 6 [This reminds one of the saying of Socrates: To want nothing belongs to the gods, and to want as little as possible is to make the nearest approach to them. G. A.]