372 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XI. having our lamps bright, we shall enter into the bridechamber. But if they are quenched, it will not be so. For this reason he says " your spirit." For if that remains pure, the other remains also. "And soul and body," he says. For neither the one nor the other then admits anything evil. Ver. 24. " Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it." Observe his humility. For, because he had prayed, Think not, he says, that this happens from my prayers, but from the purpose, with which He called you. For if He called you to salvation, and He is true, He will certainly save you, in that He wills it. Ver. 25. " Brethren, pray for us also." 1 Strange ! what humility is here ! But he in deed said this for the sake of humility, but we,2 not from humility, but for the sake of great benefit, and wishing to gain some great profit from you, say, " Pray for us also." For although you do not receive any great or wonderful bene fit from us, do it nevertheless for the sake of the honor and the title itself. Some one has had children, and even if they had not been bene fited by him, nevertheless, because he has been their father, he perhaps sets this before them, saying, " For one day I have not been called father by thee." 3 On this account we too say, " Pray for us also." I am not merely saying this, but really desiring your prayers. For if I have become responsible for this presidency over you all, and shall have to render an account, much more ought I to have the benefit of your prayers. On your account my responsibilities are greater, therefore the help also from you should be greater. Ver. 26. " Salute all the brethren with a holy kiss." Oh ! what fervor ! Oh ! what mad passion is here ! Because being absent he could not greet them with the kiss, he greets them through others, as when we say, Kiss him for me. So also do ye yourselves retain the fire of love. For it does not admit of distances, but even through long intervening ways it extends itself, and is everywhere present. Ver. 27. "I adjure you by the Lord that this Epistle be read unto all the holy4 brethren." And this command is rather from love, and not so much in the way of teaching ; that with them also, he means, I may be conversing. 1 [Some leading documents for N. T. give this " also." See margin Rev. Ver. J. A. B.] - [i.e. Chrys. himself. Below, with heightened earnestness, he says "I." By the "honor" and the "title" he means those per taining to himself. J. A. B.] 3 Downes would read, " for one day, however, I was called your father." There is most likely some unknown allusion in the words. 4 [Textus Rec. of N. T. has "holy"; Rev. Ver. properly omits it. J. A. B.] Ver. 28. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen." 5 And he does not merelycommand, but adjures them, and this from a fervent mind, that even though they should despise him, for the sake of the adjuration they may practice what is com manded. For men had a great dread of that appeal, but now that too is trampled under foot. And often when a slave is scourged, and adjures by God and His Christ, and says, " So may you die a Christian," yet no one gives heed, no one regards it ; but if he adjures him by his own son, immediately, though unwilling, and grinding his teeth, he gives up his anger. Again, another being dragged and led away through the middle of the market-place,6 in the presence both of Jews and Greeks, adjures him that leads him dway with the most fearful adjurations, and no one regards it. What will not the Greeks say, when one of the faithful adjures a faithful man and a Christian, and no regard is paid to it, but we even despise him. Will you allow me to tell you a certain story which I myself have heard? For I do not say it of myown invention, but having heard it from a person worthy of credit. There was a certain maid-servant united to a wicked man, a vile run-away slave ; she, when her husband having committed many faults was about to be sold by her mistress; (for the offenses were too great for pardon, and the woman was a widow, and was not able to punish him who was the plague of her house, and therefore resolved to sell him ; then considering that it was an unholy thing . to separate the husband from the wife, the mistress, although the girl was useful, to avoid separating her from him, made up her mind to sell her also with him ;) then the girl seeing herself in these straits, came to a venerable person who was in timate with her mistress, and who also told it to me, and clasping her knees, and with a thousand lamentations, besought her to entreat her mis tress in her behalf; and having wasted many words, at last she added this also, as thereby especially to persuade her, laying on her a most awful adjuration, and the adjuration was this, " So mayest thou see Christ at the Day of Judg ment, as thou neglectest not my petition." And having so said, she departed. And she who had been entreated, upon the intrusion of some worldly care, such as happens in families, forgot the matter. Then suddenly late in the afternoon, the most awful adjuration came into her mind, and she felt great compunction, and she went and with great earnestness asked, and obtained her request. And that very night she suddenly saw the heavens opened, and Christ Himself. 5 [Ver. 28 seems inserted out of place. What follows refers to "adjure," in ver. 27. J. A. B.] 6 i.e. for debt, to which he probably refers also in speaking against covetousness, Horn, x., near the end.