HOMILY IX.] HOMILIES ON THESSALONIANS. 365 and precipitous, and another led to death should be dragged through the midst of the market place, which shall we call happy? which shall we commiserate? Him, shall we not, who walks through the broad road? So also now, let us think happy, not those who are luxurious, but those who are not luxurious. These are hasten ing to heaven, those to hell. And perhaps indeed many of them will even laugh at the things that are said by us. But I most of all lament and bewail them on this ac count, that they do not even know what they ought to laugh at, and for what they ought especially to mourn, but they confound and dis turb and disorder everything. On this account I bewail them. What sayest thou, O man, when thou art to rise again, and to give an-account of thy actions, and to undergo the last sentence, dost thou pay no regard indeed to these, but give thought to gratifying thy belly, and being drunken? And dost thou laugh at these things? But I bewail thee, knowing the evils that await thee, the punishment that is about to overtake thee. And this I most especially bewail, that thou dost laugh ! Mourn with me, bewail with me thine own evils. Tell me, if one of thy friends perishes, dost thou not turn from those who laugh at his end, and think them enemies, but love those who weep and sympathize with thee? Then indeed if the dead body of thy wife were laid out, thou turnest from him that laughs : but when thy soul is done to death, dost thou turn from him that weeps, and laugh thy self? Seest thou how the devil has disposed us to be enemies and adversaries to ourselves ? For once let us be sober, let us open our eyes, let us watch, let us lay hold on eternal life, let us shake off this long sleep. There is a Judgment, there is a Punishment, there is a Resurrection, there is an Inquisition into what we have done ! The Lord cometh in the clouds. " Before Him," he says, " a fire will be kindled, and round about Him a mighty tempest." (Ps. 1. 3, Sept.) A river of fire rolls before him, the undying worm, unquenchable fire, outer darkness, gnashing of teeth. Although you should be angry with me ten thousand times for mentioning these things, I shall not cease from mentioning them. For if the prophets, though stoned, did not keep si lence, much more ought we to bear with enmi ties, and not to discourse to you with a view to please, that we may not, for having deceived you, be ourselves cut in sunder. There is pun ishment, deathless, unallayed, and no one to stand up for us. " Who will pity," he says, " the charmer that is bitten by a serpent? " (Ecclus. xii. 13.) When we pity not our own selves, tell me, who will pity us ? If you see a man piercing himself with a sword, will you be able to spare his life? By no means. Much more, when having it in our power to do well we do not do well, who will spare us? No one ! Let us pity ourselves. Whenwe pray to God, saying, " Lord, have mercy 1 upon me," let us say it to our selves, and have mercy upon ourselves. We are the arbiters 2 ofGod s having mercy upon us. This grace He has bestowed upon us. Ifwe do things worthy of mercy, worthy of His loving- kindness towards us, God will have mercy upon us. But if we have not mercy on ourselves, who will spare us? Have mercy on thy neighbor, and thou shalt find mercy ofGod Himself. How many every day come to thee, saying, " Have pity on me," and thou dost not turn towards them ; how many naked, how many maimed, and we do not bend toward them, but dismiss their sup plications. How then dost thou claim 3 to obtain mercy, when thou thyself dost nothing worthy ofmercy? Let us become compassionate, let us become pitiful, that so we may be well- pleasing to God, and obtain the good things promised to those that love Him, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, &c. 1 [It is the word above rendered " pity," but the other rendering is made familiar in this phrase by the Litany. " Have pity," just below, is still the same word. J. A. B.] 2 Gr. " We are lords," but the phrase is more familiar in Greek. 8 [The verb translated " claim " is based on the adjective mean ing " worthy." Chrys. is somewhat fond of the play upon words. J. A. B.]